Rusi Modi
Template:Infobox Historic Cricketer
Rustomji Sheriyar 'Rusi' Modi (born November 11, 1924, Bombay - died May 17, 1996, Bombay) was an elegant Indian batsman.
Six feet tall and very thin, he was quick on his feet and his cover drive was a stroke of exquisite timing and flawless beauty [1]. He was a better player of spin then pace.
Modi started his first class career with a century on debut at the age of 17 in a Bombay Pentangular match. In Ranji Trophy between 1943/44 and 1944/45, he scored five hundreds in successive innings for Bombay, seven in successive matches. The sequence read 168 v Maharashtra, 128 v Western India both in 1943/44, 160 v Sind, 210 v Western India, 245* & 31 v Baroda, 113 v Northern India and 98 & 151 v Holkar all in 1944/45. His aggregate of 1008 in only five Ranji matches in 1944/45 was a record which stood for over forty years. He made 1375 runs in all first class matches. Modi was only 20 at the time.
Apart from the two double hundreds in Ranji, Modi scored a 215 for Parsees in the 1944/45 season. The next he hit 203 against Australian Services XI, the first double hundred for India in representative matches. Modi considered the finest of all his innings.
Modi toured Ceylon in 1945 and England in 1946. In the latter, he scored 1196 runs in all first class matches. He hit 57* on his Test debut at Lord's which included a stand of 43 for the last wicket. Though selected to tour Australia in 1947/48, he withdrew for reasons of health. He captained the Bombay University in 1946/47.
When West Indies made their tour of India in 1948/49, Modi scored 560 in five Tests with a hundred and five fifties. The 112 in Bombay was the first Test hundred in the Brabourne Stadium. With Vijay Hazare he was involved in four century stands, the most crucial of which was the 139 when India chased 361 in the final Test [2].
Thereafter his career was affected by his professional commitments. He played for Bombay till 1957/58 and captained the side against Maharashtra in one match in 1952/53. In ten unofficial Tests, he made 565 runs at an average of 35.31.
Modi was good at table tennis and represented Maharashtra in inter-state matches. He took part in intercollegiate tennis and badminton tournaments. Modi wrote several books starting with Cricket Forever in 1964.
He served as the ADC to the Bombay Governor Raja Maharaja Singh and later became a highly placed executive in the Associated Cement Company. He died of a cardiac arrest while in the Cricket Club of India pavilion in the Brabourne Stadium.
References
- ^ Obituary in Indian Cricket 1996
- Wisden obituary