Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar 
pronunciation (help·info) (born 6 April 1956) is a former Indian cricketer and a cricket administrator. He was known as one of the foremost exponents of the drive. He was also known by the nickname 'Colonel'. Along with Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, he was a key player in the Indian batting line up in the late 70s and early 80s. He went on to play till 1992. He represented Bombay in the Ranji Trophy.
 Vengsarkar in 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
6 April 1956 Rajapur, Bombay State, India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 139) | 24 January 1976 v New Zealand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 5 February 1992 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut (cap 19) | 21 February 1976 v New Zealand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 14 November 1991 v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1975–1992 | Bombay | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1985 | Staffordshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Source: Cricinfo, 7 February 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
At this pinnacle of his career, Vengsarkar was rated as the best batsmen in the Coopers and Lybrand rating (a predecessor of the PWC ratings) and he held the number one slot for 21 months in a row till March 2, 1989.
Contents
Career
Vengsarkar made his international cricket debut against New Zealand at Auckland in 1975–76 as an opening batsmen. India won this Test convincingly, but he did not have much success. Later on he usually batted in the No.3 or No.4 position.
He played a memorable inning in 1979 against Asif Iqbal's Pakistan team in the 2nd Test at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi. Requiring 390 to win on the final day, he led India's chase getting the team very close to a victory. India ended up with 364 for 6, just 26 runs short of what would have been a remarkable win. With Yashpal Sharma, Kapil Dev and Roger Binny back to the pavilion after the Tea break, Vengsarkar saw himself running out of partners and decided to play the last few overs for a draw. He remained unbeaten on 146.
During the 1978–79 Test Series in India against the West Indies, he was involved in a partnership of over 300 runs with Sunil Gavaskar at Calcutta, with both batsman scoring centuries.
He was a member of the 1983 World Champion's team. He had a productive run of scores between 1985 and 1987, where he scored centuries against Pakistan, Australia, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka, many of them in successive games.
While the West Indies pacemen dominated the cricket world, Dilip Vengsarkar was one of the few batsmen who was successful against them, and scored 6 centuries against the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Andy Roberts.
He is currently team mentor and coach for Telugu Warrior team in CCL(Celebrity Cricket League) Season 5
Unique distinction
He also scored a century at Lord's in 1986 and thereby attaining the distinction of scoring three consecutive Test match centuries at Lord's. For his effort to help India win the Test series in England (a rare feat in itself) he was awarded the Man of the Series award.He has scored 3 Test centuries at Lord's, which is most by any visiting batsman at the venue in Tests.
