Dattu Phadkar

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Dattu Phadkar India (IND)

Batting style	Right-hand bat (RHB)
Bowling type	Right-arm fast medium, Right arm off-break
	Tests	First-class
Matches	31	133
Runs scored	1,229	5,377
Batting average	32.24	36.08
100s/50s	2/8	8/29
Top score	123	217
Balls bowled	5,994	26,221
Wickets	62	465
Bowling average	36.85	22.09
5 wickets in innings	3	31
10 wickets in match	0	3
Best bowling	7/259	7/26
Catches/stumpings	21	92
Test debut: 12 December 1947 Last Test: 31 December 1958 Source: [1]

Dattatraya Gajanan 'Dattu' Phadkar pronunciation (help·info) (born 12 December 1925, Kolhapur, Maharashtra - died 17 March 1985, Chennai) was a fine all-rounder who represented India in Test cricket.

Phadkar was an attacking middle order batsman, a medium pace bowler who could swing the ball both ways and extract life from the wicket, and usually fielded in the slips. He was one of the cricketing heart-throbs of his day.

Phadkar was educated in Bombay in the Robert Money High School and took the B.A degree from Elphinstone College. He represented Bombay University between 1941/42 and 1946/47. At the age of 10, he scored 156 in an inter-school match. On his collegiate debut, he hit 274 which was then a record. He underwent training at Alf Gover's cricket school.

Picked for the Indian tour of Australia in 1947/48, Phadkar shone more with the bat. On his debut on a difficult wicket at Sydney he hit 51 while batting at eight and took 3 for 14. Promoted to No.6, he scored 123 at Adelaide and added a record 188 for the sixth wicket with Vijay Hazare. Phadkar went on to top the batting averages and scored at least a fifty in every match that he played.

Next year against West Indies at Madras, Phadkar took 7 for 159 which remained his career best bowling. But his efforts at bowling bouncers in this match lead to the West Indian bowlers reacting in kind and the defeat of India. In the exciting last Test where India needed 361 and ended up six runs short, Phadkar hit 37*.

His other major success came when he hit 115 against England in 1951/2. When India lost disastrously in England in 1952, he was one of the few players to come out with some credit. At Leeds after India lost the first four wickets before scoring a run, Phadkar and Hazare added 105 for the sixth wicket.

Phadkar played in 13 unofficial Tests. He played all the ten Tests against the touring commonwealth teams in 1949/50 and 1950/51. In the former series where India used four captains, Phadkar led the team in the final Test.

He made his first class debut at the age of 17 and went on to captain Bombay in 1950/51. Against Maharashtra in 1948/49 - a match in which 2376 runs were scored - he hit 131 & 160, and took 3/142 and 3/168. [2] His highest first class score was 217 scored against Maharashtra in 1950/51 out of a Bombay total of 725 for 8.[3] He played in Lancashire Leagure for Rochdale and Nelson.

He was a national selector in the 1970s. MCC made him a life member in 1968. He worked for Tata & Sons in Bombay and the Railways. After retirement he ran a kindergarten school with his wife in Calcutta. His death was due to a brain illness.