he scored 121*. As was becoming increasingly common, it was played in first and fourth gear. He hung around for around 30 minutes for the last run for his fifty and twice as long in the nineties. Yet he hit six sixes, three of which came after he completed his hundred. The huge six off left arm fast bowler Bruce Reid – a cross batted heave that went over longon – was particularly memorable. Six sixes in an innings was an Indian record at the time. But he was outshone by Dilip Vengsarkar who scored 164* in the same innings. They added a record 298* for the sixth wicket. In early 1987, he presented a 15-minute coaching series which went by the name 'That's Cricket'. This was aired on the national channel Doordarshan on Sunday mornings. There were even rumours of an involvement with actress Amrita Singh. India lost the final Test at Bangalore to lose the 1986–87 series against Pakistan. Kapil Dev was widely criticised in the media for his captaincy. The selectors retained him as captain in the Reliance World Cup at the beginning of the 1987–88 season. Shastri failed with the bat in the Reliance Cup but formed a successful bowling partnership with Maninder Singh, another left arm spinner. India topped its group but went down to England in the semifinal. Kapil Dev received more criticisms for skying a catch to deep midwicket when a win was still a possibility. Captaincy issues 1987 About this time, Vengsarkar emerged as the strongest candidate to take over from Kapil. He had had a dream run with the bat, starting from the series in England in 1986. In 1987, the newly established Deloitte ratings (the forerunner of the current LG ratings) ranked him the best batsman in the world. The Indian selectors have conventionally leaned towards making the best player of the team the captain. So before the home series against West Indies, Kapil was sacked and Vengsarkar was made the Indian captain. Vengsarkar had his left arm fractured in the third Test and Shastri captained India for the only time in his Test career. On an underprepared turning track in Madras, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Debutant Narendra Hirwani took 16 for 136 as India won by 255 runs to draw the series 1–1. Apart from this, Shastri did little with bat or ball. West