Former captain Vijay Hazare, who led India to its first ever Test win, died at Vadodara on Saturday following a prolonged illness.

Hazare, 89, was suffering from intestinal cancer and breathed his last this afternoon at a private clinic where he was kept on life support system for the past couple of days, his son Ranjeet said.

The legendary batsman's wife, daughter and friend were present when the end came on Saturday.

Considered as one of India's finest batsmen ever, Hazare played at the highest level for six years -- between 1946 to 52 -- during which he represented the country in 30 Tests scoring 2192 runs at an impressive average of 47.65 runs.

He scored seven centuries -- two of them coming in the same match against Australia at Adelaide in 1947-48, and two more in his first two matches as captain, against England in 1951.

An effective right-arm medium pacer, Hazare captured 20 wickets at 61 run apiece.

Born on March 11, 1915 in Sangli, Maharashtra, Hazare played for Maharashtra, Central India and Baroda in the domestic circuit.

He had a fabulous first class career record averaging 58.38. He amassed 18,740 runs in 238 matches that included 60 centuries.

The highlight of Hazare's first class career was the two triple centuries he scored, 316 not out and 309 -- the latter being more memorable since it came out of the side's total score of 387.

His wicket-taking abilities got him a whopping 595 wickets in first class matches at an average of 24.61. The man, who was immensely talented with the bat, however only had moderate success as captain of the Indian team.

In 14 matches he captained, India won just one Test -- against England -- while losing five. The remaining eight matches ended in draws.

In the 1930s and 40s two Vijays -- Hazare and Merchant -- captured the imagination of cricket lovers with their talent and the competition between the two to outdo one another in the Pentangular and Ranji Trophy matches is still talked about in awe.

Hazare, like Merchant, was a technician par excellence and the forerunner to Rahul Dravid in his technical perfection of playing each ball on merit.

Hazare was chairman of the Indian Cricket Committee in 1960 when Nari Contractor was the captain of the Indian team.

The Cricket Club of India had recently honoured him a lifetime achievement award comprising Rs 25,000.