From the archives of the Hindustan Times: October 22

Nanavati held not guilty by jury (1959)

Bombay- Commander K. M. Nanavati was today (October 21) held not guilty of murdering Prem Ahuja by a majority vote of the jury.

But the Sessions Judge, Mr R. B. Mehta, disagreed with the verdict and announced that he was referring the case to the Bombay High Court “in the interests of justice.”

The nine-member jury gave a verdict of not guilty by eight to one on both the charges of murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The judge termed the verdict “totally perverse.”

Pending the disposal of the reference by the High Court, Cmdr. Nanavati will continue in Naval custody.

There was wild cheering and clapping when the jury emerged after a 135-minute session and declared its verdict.

The judge ordered that the court room be cleared of the public immediately. He said their behaviour was “most disgraceful and nauseating.”

A large crowd had also collected outside the court when it was known that the jury had retired at 4-40 p.m. after a seven-hour summing up by the judge.

Juniors play the game the Indian way, win world cup (2001)

New Delhi- It was the triumph of the Asian way of playing hockey. That’s how the Indian Juniors’ 6-1 victory over Argentina in the hockey World Cup final in Australia was described by former Olympians Ashok Kumar and Zafar Iqbal.

Ashok, who played a key role in India’s World Cup victory in Kuala Lumpur in 1975, said: “The boys showed the traditional game does not always weaken defence. The 5-3-2 system is the way we play and the way we can beat the others.”

Zafar agreed. “The Asian style has paid dividends in the past and I see no reason why it should not in the future.”

The style of play has sparked a debate in Indian hockey ever since India slipped on Astroturf at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The proponents of “total hockey” have called for incorporating strategies of football and basketball, which have successfully been used by the Germans and the Dutch.

Bowled and beautiful (2008)

Mohali- In an indirect way, Mahendra Singh Dhoni being named Man of the Match was a tribute to the collective effort of his bowlers. Ideally the award should have gone to a bowler because taking wickets was tougher than scoring runs here.

But it was even tougher to pick one from the four who did the job. They all chipped in to emerge Men of the Match in India’s biggest ever Test win in terms of runs.

Just how good they were can be gauged by the contrasting manners in which batsmen of the two sides fared. While India rarely looked in trouble, the Australians always had their backs to the wall. The visitors could make nothing more than a desperate and unsuccessful attempt to break free.

Amit Mishra scalped seven to top the list of wicket-takers, but the quick bowlers especially Zaheer Khan formed the backbone of the attack. Glimpses of the kind of trouble he can cause bowling in tandem with Ishant Sharma were seen in the first Test and in the second, they led the mission to dismantle a strong batting line-up. Aggressive and crafty, this combination rarely let batsmen relax.

Having lost his way after a promising start due to lack of fitness and loss of form, Zaheer has come back stronger than ever before. He hardly bowled a loose ball, gave the batsmen no room to play shots and kept asking questions from a probing length with clever variations.

Zaheer had to wait for 32 overs for his second wicket of the match after cleaning up Matthew Hayden with his third ball in the first innings.