Lala Amarnath's 118 — India's First Test Century, Bombay, 1933

MCC's 1933-34 tour was the first English tour of India. India had played only one Test before, at Lord's in 1932. Amarnath, 22, was making his debut.

Amarnath came in at 21 for 2 on the second morning. He drove his first ball from Nichols, hooked the second for four, and proceeded with a fluency unusual on the matting-on-coir Bombay Gymkhana pitch. By tea he had 81; he reached three figures with a square cut off Clark, the first century by any Indian in Test cricket.

The scenes that followed were extraordinary. The crowd, perhaps 50,000 strong, showered the ground with garlands, hats and — by some accounts — gold bangles. Play was held up for almost twenty minutes. C.K. Nayudu, India's captain, batted on with him to 219 before Amarnath was caught for 118.

India eventually lost the Test by nine wickets, but the symbolism of Amarnath's hundred — barely eighteen months after India's debut at Lord's — was disproportionate to the scoreline.

“I have never seen a crowd like that for a single shot.”

Amarnath was hailed across India and presented with gifts and a purse on his return to Punjab. He played for India intermittently across two decades and later led the side that won India's first Test against Pakistan in 1952.