Читать книгу Cricket: A Modern Anthology - Jonathan Agnew, Jonathan Agnew - Страница 27

By the final Saturday of the series, with the temperature topping out at 82 degrees, the great British drought was biting so badly that the Queen had ordered her gardeners to stop watering the grounds at all Royal households. Industry bosses called on the public to use less water, leaving more for factories. Martin Trowbridge of the Chemical Industries Association said, ‘Jobs are at stake. Is it better to have a well-watered flower bed or a pay packet?’

Such concerns were far from the minds of a cheerful crowd, some of whom took time to settle into their seats behind the bowler’s arm. Once they had, Daniel sent the first ball of the day down the leg side for four byes. The first four off the bat was all-run after Amiss clipped Daniel through mid-on. Woolmer again started carefully, but in Holding’s second over he shuffled across his crease and was beaten by speed, giving Dickie Bird an easy lbw decision.

Amiss drove well and played confidently off his legs, recalling that ‘they were bowling at leg stump and feeding me’. One square cut looked a little edgy and Holding, generating fearsome pace through the air and off the most docile of wickets, had him groping outside off stump. But then Amiss whipped the ball past leg slip to move to 52.

David Steele remembers, ‘I had been in about a quarter of an hour when I went down to Dennis and he said, “How am I doing?” I said, “What do you mean, how are you doing? You have got 70 on the board. How am I doing?” He said, “Oh, you are all right.” He had no confidence in himself. He was a man of theory, a man of doubt, but a wonderful player. He was a lovely timer of the ball and when he got in he kept going. He got big scores. With that big step to the off side, he just flicked everything.’

Amiss and Steele offered an interesting contrast in styles. In comparison to Amiss’s back-foot shuffle, Steele continued to commit to the front foot, leaving him vulnerable when Holding moved the ball away. Steele punished a couple of loose deliveries off the experimental spin of Roy Fredericks and England, having made good progress throughout the morning, took lunch at 137 for 1.

Confident in his new technique, Amiss, 80 at lunch, felt clear-headed. Instead of the lethargic thoughts he’d harboured at Lord’s, here he occupied the time during Holding’s extended approach to the wicket by reinforcing his action plan. ‘You talk to yourself. You say, “Keep your head still, watch the ball, watch the ball, watch the hand.” You are just devising in your mind what you are going to play. Is it swinging, is it bouncing? Once you have got used to the bounce and pace of the wicket it helps you to mentally prepare for any shot. If you have fast bowlers coming at you from both ends you have not got much time to switch off. You are always under pressure and you have no time to get away from it. You do go through periods when facing fast bowlers can get on top of you, but the better batsmen come through it. I felt mentally strong and my technique was working.’

Steele began the afternoon by helping a climbing ball from Holding over backward point, repeating the shot next ball. It moved him to 44, but Holding, having switched to the Vauxhall End, pinned him lbw with a ball that broke back. New batsman Chris Balderstone was soon treading Steele’s path back to the pavilion. Holding twice struck him on the pads and induced a rash shot outside the off stump, before putting him out of his misery with a yorker that brushed the inside edge before dismantling the stumps.

Amiss was undeterred, twice dispatching Roberts through mid-wicket with a circular flourish of the bat. On 96, and after 209 minutes’ batting, he stood one stroke from a century that would complete his courageous return from the precipice of his Test career. He stabbed at a Holding half-volley and the ball shot past the bowler for four. It was one of England’s feel-good moments in a summer that had offered precious few. Recognising the journey Amiss had undertaken since they had seen him in distress at Lord’s three months earlier, the West Indies players joined the crowd in applause. A few fans bounded out to offer personal congratulation, one of them handing Amiss a ten-pound note, which was given to umpire Bird for safe-keeping. ‘It was a good feeling,’ says Amiss. ‘I have always thought that the 262 at Sabina Park was the better innings, but there was more pressure on me at The Oval. My international career and my ability against fast bowling were at stake.’

Amiss was never one to consider that the job had been done once he had three figures against his name. Of the eleven Test centuries he would make in his career, eight ended in scores of more than 150. On such a good wicket he was determined to continue batting. ‘An old coach of mine used to say to me, “Den, if you get a hundred, get another – because it makes up for all the noughts and ones. That is the way my confidence was. If I got a hundred I often got 150-plus. Also, I tell these lads now at Warwickshire, that if you get a hundred then you can really learn all about your technique and batting. You are seeing the ball early and that is when you learn shots you never thought you had.’

Settling in again, Amiss escaped when he was caught by Murray off a Daniel no-ball. Then Peter Willey slashed hard and was dropped at first slip, Daniel again the unlucky bowler. Amiss responded by caressing Holder twice past backward square leg and driving square to take the score beyond 200. Richards and Fredericks, bowling in tandem either side of tea, served up enough bad balls to allow Amiss to move relentlessly past 150. Willey, never showing the fluency he had exhibited in the fourth Test, had contributed 33 to a 128-run stand when he got an inside edge to King and saw the ball fly off his pad to Fredericks at gully. Clearly not believing that contact had been made by his bat, Willey departed in despond.

Greig was greeted by an ovation to rival that of Amiss’s century, much of it directed ironically by the West Indies fans. To add to the drama, the new ball became available almost immediately and Roberts and Holding rejoined the attack. Greig hurled himself into cover-driven fours off both bowlers and Amiss had to jerk away from a rearing Roberts delivery before waiting on a back-foot drive to raise the 300.

‘They had been bowling at about 85 miles an hour, with one bouncer an over,’ Amiss explains. ‘That was fine and we were picking up ones and twos. But as soon as Greig came to the wicket he was all, “Come on, let’s get this fired up. We are going to smash these buggers out of sight.” I was saying, “Look, it’s nice out here, don’t upset them.” Now, because it was Greig batting, suddenly it was 95 miles an hour and three bouncers an over.’

Amiss’s concerns were quickly resolved. The Oval erupted as Holding pitched on a full length and Greig, playing slightly across the line as he fell towards the off side, was bowled middle and leg. ‘It was the first time I have ever been pleased to see the England captain get his leg stump knocked out of the ground,’ laughs Amiss.

There was no containing the elation of the West Indies fans, who raced to the square from their places around the boundary. One fan even offered Greig a copy of ‘Who’s Grovelling Now’, a record that had recently been released by reggae artist Ezeike. ‘Everyone had a copy,’ recalls Trevor Nelson. ‘I remember learning all the words from my dad.’ Neither police nor ground-staff were able to clear the field of spectators who seemed reluctant to leave even after Greig was long gone. Alley and Bird took the players to the pavilion in response to what commentator Richie Benaud was calling ‘one of the lousiest crowd performances I have ever seen’. He suggested that the authorities should ‘should stick those fellows in jail and fine them’. After a nine-minute delay, the last few balls of the day were completed, with night-watchman Underwood at the crease and Amiss on 176 not out from a score of 304 for 5.

As far as anyone could remember, the pitch invasion represented the first time a Test match in England had been halted by the crowd. There had been 80 policemen on duty and Surrey secretary Warren Sillitoe estimated it would take 200 to ring the entire boundary effectively. The priority, he said, was to protect sensitive areas, such as the square and the entrance to the pavilion. Meanwhile, groundsman Harry Brind said that he had been concerned about such disturbances and had taken the precaution of using an old set of stumps. The Daily Mail’s Alex Bannister suggested, ‘The West Indians must be made to understand that if they want to watch, they must abide by English codes of cricket behaviour.’ A warning was issued that anyone encroaching on the playing surface would be removed from the ground.

By the time the fourth day began on yet another glorious morning, the first 100 standpipes had now appeared in Devon, where many households were without their regular water supply. The new Drought Act was to be enforced in the area, making it illegal to wash cars and fill paddling pools. The worst drought in 250 years was causing increasing numbers of forest fires and forcing Dorset firemen to have holidays cancelled. While the summer sun had at first been thought to offer an advantage to the players from the Caribbean, Clive Lloyd suggests, ‘It led to a string of slow, ideal batting pitches which really were no good for our fast bowlers.’

On this slow Oval wicket, the draw still appeared the mostly likely result, especially when Amiss picked up where he had left off on Saturday. Bowling round the wicket, Holding and Roberts were both clipped uppishly behind square for four. Amiss leaned into Roberts’s slower ball, before Holding, abandoning his early-morning tactic, was driven airily through the covers, taking Amiss to 199. Two balls later, Holding over-pitched and Amiss flicked over Greenidge at square leg to complete the second double-century of his Test career. The first had been a match-saving effort in the West Indies and if Amiss could find someone to stick around with him, maybe he could give a repeat performance.

Underwood’s stay at the wicket had already ended, losing his off stump in Holding’s third over of the day, giving the bowler his second five-wicket haul of the series. Knott was the ideal character for a rearguard action, turning Roberts over the fast outfield for four and causing Daniel, who had been warming up to replace Holding, to pull up with a hamstring injury as he gave chase. The partnership England needed, however, failed to materialise when Amiss finally fell victim to his new strategy. His right foot was frozen a long stride outside off stump as Holding’s delivery brushed lightly against the pad on its way to the stumps. With 203 to his name, including 28 fours, Amiss could feel that his method had paid its way.

‘It was a great innings by Dennis, a one-off,’ says Mike Selvey. ‘He had worked towards that ever since he’d got hit and I know how hard he had worked. He had a reputation of not liking quick bowling, but it was just that he didn’t play the bouncer that well. He wasn’t a scared batsman. His technique involved standing right over onto off stump but he was absolutely monumental through the leg side anyway. He would clip the ball away for hour upon hour.’

According to Derek Underwood, ‘I can’t recall a greater comeback innings throughout my career. If anyone gave a V-sign to the selectors, Dennis did it on that occasion.’

Amiss would tour once more with England, but within a year – with Australia again the visitors – he would be out of Test cricket. This innings, however, had ensured a much kinder epitaph for his career. ‘It helped me to go out of the game on a better note,’ he admits. ‘It was nice to have done it.’

Knott was in one of his creative moods, timing drives either side of the wicket against Holder and King, whose strengthening of his leg-side field simply persuaded Knott to go the other way. Geoff Miller’s first Test boundary had been nudged through the slips and when he aimed an expansive back-foot drive against Holder he lost his stumps – just as Dickie Bird’s cry of ‘no-ball’ was reaching his end of the wicket. A neat drive off Holder helped Miller settle before Knott turned the final ball of the morning off his toes to reach 45 out of 401 for 7.

The gathering afternoon clouds looked like symbols of England’s fate when Knott was rapped on the pads by Roberts and Miller was beaten by Roberts and Holding. Both batsmen survived. Knott hit Roberts through mid-wicket and then pushed a single to complete his fifty. The next ball Knott faced, from Holding, was short of a length and, getting in position to force through the off side, he edged into his stumps off the inside of an angled bat.

Selvey found the ring of close fielders reinforced by an extra gully, short leg and silly point, but he saved them a job by chopping his first ball against the stumps in the identical manner to Knott. It gave Holding his eighth wicket, none of them having required any assistance from a fielder. His father, Ralph, watching his son in England for the first time, claimed, ‘He always bowled straight, even when he was at school.’

Holding’s hopes of capping his remarkable performance with a hat-trick disappeared with a sloppy delivery down the leg side. Miller, left with the task of getting England closer to the follow-on target, drove Roberts off the back foot and was quickly into position for another boundary. But then he mistimed a pull to Bernard Julien, the substitute fielder, at mid-on to end a promising début innings of 36, leaving England 435 all out.

With a lead of 252, Lloyd – his bowlers depleted by Daniel’s injury and with almost 130 overs in their legs – decided not to enforce the follow-on. The West Indies openers, their gameplan to slog as many runs as quickly as possible, came out to bat with 55 minutes remaining before tea. The West Indies fans greeted them excitedly and were rewarded by seeing Greenidge, having been brushed on either the glove or arm by a Bob Willis lifter, hit three fours in the first over. The first was an effortless hook; then Greenidge thrashed a cover drive and, with extravagant back-lift, hoisted Willis over mid-wicket. Two more short balls disappeared to the boundary in Willis’s next over. To see the supposed saviour of England’s fast bowling being dealt with so callously so soon after Holding’s brilliance brought the home side’s predicament even more sharply into focus. The subsequent comment of former Australian batsman David Hookes that ‘Bob was a fucking off-spinner compared to Michael’ could easily have had its roots at The Oval.

Roy Fredericks showed Selvey the perils of bowling even slightly short before Greenidge lifted Greig over extra cover to give the West Indies 66 runs off 13 overs at tea. Fredericks’s steady accumulation was less brutal than that of his partner but resulted in him reaching his half-century first when he drove Selvey for two fours in an over. Greenidge cut and swept Underwood as the boundaries came in a cluster and the score reached 150 in two minutes short of two hours. Greenidge took one long stride to meet Willis with a towering drive into the pavilion for six, the start of his sequence of 22 runs off 11 balls. Shortly before six o’clock, at the end of the 32nd over and with both batsmen in the mid-80s, Lloyd waved his men back to the pavilion. A score of 182 for 0 had produced a lead of 434.

The two-hour passage of play had underlined once again the difference in talent and effectiveness of the two teams. Greig, meanwhile, understood what it meant for him personally in the light of his comments at the start of the summer. Never one to hide from his critics or deflect the glare of attention, he gave the cheering West Indian fans what they wanted. As the England players left the arena, he walked towards the open stands on the Harleyford Road side of the ground and dropped to the grass. Smiling in the direction of the crowd, he crawled on hands and knees, an attempt to make his peace with the West Indians. Over the delighted din, Tony Cozier told BBC Radio listeners, ‘For three or four paces he has, in his own words, grovelled.’

Greig would explain, ‘It was just a bit of fun. I was walking on my knees. I realise I made a mistake in using that word at the start of the series and they haven’t let me forget it.’

Clyde Walcott described Greig’s antics as ‘a delightful way to end a happy and rewarding series’, although the action wasn’t quite finished. Lloyd’s declaration left England with 20 minutes at the crease before stumps. Curiously, Lawrence Rowe remembers the West Indian bowlers having urged Lloyd not to end the West Indies’ innings. He recalled Lloyd being urged, ‘Don’t declare, Skip, because we can’t get these people out on this wicket.’ According to Rowe, Lloyd argued, ‘If we bat out the day, we are just going to kill the cricket. We have to declare.’

It seems an unlikely scenario. The wicket might have been flat and the evening sun warm, but England’s batsmen knew that, against Holding and Roberts, a lead of 435 with one day and a few minutes left was far beyond their abilities. This was not an era when 400 runs in a day’s Test cricket was considered achievable, especially when teams could slow the over rate with impunity. It is hard, therefore, to believe that there was reluctance on the West Indies’ part to get at them – although the five overs bowled before the close do lend more credence to Rowe’s memory.

Holding fired the first ball of the innings down the leg side for four byes and continued to bowl waywardly. Woolmer steered Roberts behind square with a late drive, flicked a full toss off his toes and worked a short delivery to fine leg for three successive boundaries. Amiss executed a firm off-drive and, after suffering a painful blow on the left arm, glanced the last ball of the day to fine leg. Any chance Roberts had of an interception was wrecked by the young fans who ran towards the square. ‘That’s ridiculous,’ spat Benaud. England had scored 43 without loss. Even if no one dared to hope for the impossible, English optimism at least extended to thoughts of a draw.

The final day was prefaced by something of a diplomatic foul-up following the conclusion of Monday’s action. Only an apologetic Alan Knott and Derek Underwood of the England players turned up at the Surrey Tavern for a reception to present the Wisden Trophy to the West Indies team in recognition of their victory in the series. Wisden editor Norman Preston told reporters that he had given the England squad’s letter of invitation to Alec Bedser four days earlier, but was told that the letter had been left in the committee room at The Oval and was discovered only a short time before the event.

England’s batsmen could have done without anything else occurring to stir up the West Indies bowlers when, maybe, they might have been content to coast through the final day of the series on a feather-bed pitch. Even Holding initially seemed a little lethargic, but he still got the ball to lift enough for Amiss, hanging out his bat, to edge to Greenidge. The first wicket was down for 49.

Woolmer had played a big innings on this ground to save the Test against Australia a year earlier and one of the most disappointing aspects of the summer was the fact that he had not built on the promise he had shown in that game and in his first innings of this series. A well-timed drive through mid-wicket took his score to 30 and the prospect of a full day’s batting lay ahead. But, for the second time in the match, indecisive foot movement was his undoing as he nudged at Holding and presented a thin edge to Murray.

Balderstone’s second ball from Holding, working up towards full speed, was a leg-stump yorker, striking him on the foot. Then an ugly stab outside off stump was lucky not to produce an edge. Balderstone endured 25 minutes of scoreless purgatory before Holding’s yorker flattened his off stump. A miserable pair for Balderstone, of whom Selvey says, ‘He was just out of his depth against that lot.’

Steele had taken almost half an hour before poking Holding round the corner for a boundary and had edged the Jamaican just short of the slips. With the third wicket down at 64, he wore a more determined look than ever, surviving an lbw appeal against Holder before marching into a productive off-drive. Willey, though, could not survive Holder’s second over when he cut hard and edged a low catch to Greenidge.

For the final time in the series, here came Greig. He milked the moment, halting a few paces onto the grass and standing to attention while he enjoyed the catcalls of the West Indian followers. He pushed a single off his third ball, enabling him to keep the strike. In raced Holding and, almost too fast for the eye to see, removed the leg stump with yet another yorker. It was an even more resounding exclamation mark to the series than Richards’s batting earlier in the game. Greig’s feet had not even had the chance to move before his stumps were demolished, the fifth time he had been clean bowled by such a delivery in the series; the fourth in his last five innings. But more than the facts and figures, the dismissal would endure as one of the iconic images of the series. Holding leapt skywards, teammates whirled around, hugging him, pausing only to wave away the fans who once again were rushing the field. Greig, his form at Headingley seemingly a long way in the past, made his weary way off the field.

Knott joined Steele at 78 for 5 and the pair lasted an hour and a half before lunch, adding 50 to the total. Knott was as dogged and defiant as he’d been in his previous two innings, stubborn defence mixed with impish attack and a bit of luck. The bowling of Richards, Fredericks, King and Lloyd offered a restful aperitif before the meal break, which was taken with Knott on 28 and Steele, who had not scored for half an hour, 31. But it was back to reality when Holding returned in the afternoon, the ball twice smacking into Knott’s pads. Steele failed to get fully behind the ball and King made a valiant, but unsuccessful, effort to take a low catch at slip. The score had moved to 148 when Holder, achieving a little away swing and extracting bounce, was rewarded by the sight of Steele edging to Murray for 42. It was an inconclusive end to the series for Steele, whose two scores in the 40s represented a partial return to form but would not be enough to ensure him of a place on England’s winter tour. Holder had his 15th wicket in four Tests, a solid performance by a man whose steadfast bowling was often overshadowed by his more eye-catching colleagues.

Miller took 32 minutes to score the first run of a knock that would build on the promise of the first innings, but then settled in against the spin of Richards and Fredericks. Knott squeezed runs to all parts of the field and completed a fifty by turning Holder to long leg for three. With 50 minutes plus 20 overs left, a flicker of hope for survival began to play in the minds of the England followers – only for part-time spinner Richards to bowl Miller with a quicker ball that beat his back-foot shot and flicked the pads. With only three tail-enders to bat, the game was up.

Holding came back to administer the last rites. His fourth ball moved a little off the seam and took out Knott’s off stump; 196 for 8. With that wicket, Holding, who had not even warmed up enough to remove his sleeveless sweater, had become the first West Indian to take 13 wickets in a Test match. Roberts, meanwhile, was still waiting for his first. At last he got it when Lloyd took a brilliant diving catch just off the ground in the gully to remove Underwood. Roberts danced in relief.

Holding raced in from the Vauxhall End one final time. A fast yorker beat Willis’s defensive effort and hit him on the foot; an easy lbw decision. At 4.20 pm, the series was over. Holding’s return in the second innings was 6 for 57, giving him an astonishing 14 for 149 in the match. The figures are impressive enough, but even more so for having been achieved on such an unhelpful wicket.

Holding’s recollection of his performance is ‘just running in and bowling fast’, crediting the naivety of youth for his success. ‘It was such a flat pitch that if I had been more experienced I would have said, “This is not working. It is not worth all this hard work and strain on my body.” When you are young and excited you just run in fast and do what you do.’

Willis notes, ‘Having bowled on the pitch, I know that there was nothing there to help the pace bowlers. But Michael managed to make it seem perfect for speed.’

It was this match that confirmed Holding’s arrival in the very top bracket of fast bowlers, where he had only Roberts, Lillee and Thomson for company. It had been a spectacularly brief journey, gathering momentum after a promising, if stuttering, start in Australia, where his figures had not quite matched his potential. ‘If I had been English that would have been it for me,’ he said, recognising the West Indies’ selectors’ faith in him – although it seems unlikely that even England’s management could have resisted such a phenomenon, however unproven, at a time when any moderate fast bowler with one good leg stood a chance of selection.