Team spirit fetched India historic win: Chandra

Bangalore, Aug 14 (UNI) Former Indian leg spinner B S Chandrasekhar, who was part of the famous spin quartet of yesteryears, today attributed India's series win against England to ''total team work''.

Reacting to India's historic win after a gap of 21 years he told UNI, ''It was team spirit. Every one chipped in and contributed with determination that led to victory''. Stating that the team was playing well, he hoped Team India would display better skill in the next series against Australia.

Recalling Team India's victory against England in 1971 of which he was the architect, Chandrasekhar said ''It was really a fantastic win for the team. It was wonderful and it came when I was making a comeback. The win boosted me to carry on further''.

A nightmare to batsmen on his day, Chandrasekhar had made his debut in 1964 against England in Mumbai, and in a span of 15 years ending with his last Test match at Birmingham in 1979, had played in 58 Tests and captured 242 wickets with his carrier best being 8/79.

When India registered its series win against England in 1971, Chandrasekhar's bowling figures read 5/170 in first test, 2/76 in the second and 8/114 in the third Test. ''It was really a fantastic win against England in their home land.'' In the 1971 three test series against England, India won the series 1-0 with two matches drawn. After drawing the first and second Tests at Lords' and Manchester, India won the third at the Oval by four wickets when England were bundled out for 101, the lowest score ever by an English team at home against India.

UNI