Into the 90s: England v Pakistan (1996 - 1st Test)

England v Pakistan, Lord's, July 1996; a Test match that contained the classic ingredients of an England performance in the 1990s. Glimmers of hope before the realism kicked in; key moments that were not seized; a debutant that would join the one-cap wonder camp; Graeme Hick failing; Graham Thorpe reaching 50 but not making a century; leg spin torment; and of course the standard batting collapses.

Following the England Test team in the 90s was often a frustrating experience. The first Test of the 1996 series against Pakistan was a perfect example. Having defeated India 1-0 in the first part of the summer, it was obvious that Pakistan would provide a much sterner examination. But England were hardly helped when their preparations were thrown into chaos.

1984: The bravery of Paul Terry

It was an image that would dominate the back pages. When Chris Woakes walked down the steps leading to the boundary edge at the Oval, the crowd stood to applaud this noble deed. With his left arm in a sling and inside his jumper, Woakes arrived at the crease with England requiring 17 runs to win the final Test against India.

With Woakes suffering a suspected shoulder dislocation, it was evident that Gus Atkinson (or extras) would have to get England over the line. Alas, England fell agonisingly short, the sheer will and skill of Mohammed Siraj enabling India to deservedly draw the series. Come the conclusion, a lot of the press coverage inevitably praised Woakes for his bravery.

Woakes' appearance jogged the memories of many an England supporter of a certain age. The circumstances may have been very different from the tail end of England's innings at the Oval, but in July 1984 another English batsmen arrived on the scene sporting the Woakes look. Paul Terry could probably relate to Woakes' pain.

1985: The greatest sporting year

I've been putting this off for years. But the recent Live Aid nostalgia has pushed me over the edge. We've all had the debate in the pub about the greatest sporting year - no, just me then? - so I'm here to argue the case for 1985. After forty years, it is time to tell 1985 that I'm crazy for you.

There are of course many factors involved in your chosen favourite sporting year. Allegiance matters. Therefore, Manchester United winning a treble, Europe collapsing in the Ryder Cup, and Australia winning two World Cups means I don't want to party like it's 1999. Yet pushing all this irrational stuff to one side, there can be no doubting the credentials of 1985.

1986: England v India Second Test

A year is a long time in English cricket. Take the end of the 20th century as a prime example of the fluctuating fortunes of the national team. In the summer of 1998, England celebrated a rare five-Test series victory over South Africa. A year later, new skipper Nasser Hussain was being booed on the balcony at the Oval after losing to New Zealand.

That series defeat against the Kiwis saw England sink to the bottom of the unofficial world standings. Fast forward a year and Hussain was being soaked in champagne at the same ground as England won the Wisden Trophy against the West Indies for the first time since 1969. You never quite knew what to expect from the English cricket team from one summer to the next.

1984: Viv Richards' 189

"I think that's the greatest ODI innings," Australian skipper Pat Cummins said, regarding Glenn Maxwell's stunning unbeaten 201 against Afghanistan in the 2023 World Cup. "It's the best I've ever seen, probably the greatest ODI innings ever." Former New Zealand wicketkeeper and commentator Ian Smith seemed to agree. "I've never seen anything like it."

Sport naturally sets itself up for debates about the greatest or worst, be it competitor, match, series, tournament, goal, try, shot, insert as appropriate. As soon as anything happens in the sporting arena, you can be fairly confident that within minutes or hours pundits and social media experts will be discussing the merits of what we have just seen.

Cricket World Cup quiz

1981 Fifth Ashes Test: Tavball

Forget Bazball. In August 1981, England needed a dash of Tavball to clinch the Ashes.

As glorious and euphoric as they were, there could be no disputing that England's wins over Australia at Headingley and Edgbaston had papered over some widening cracks. Batting frailties had been constantly exposed in the face of some excellent bowling from Dennis Lillee, Terry Alderman and Geoff Lawson. The Botham/Dilley "let's give it some humpty" approach had been a rare bright spot in a gloomy series.

Nothing emphasised England's struggles more than the number three position in their batting line-up. Bob Woolmer, Mike Brearley and David Gower had all been tried at first drop during the Ashes, with consistent results. Sadly for England, the returns were consistently poor. Just 77 runs from eight innings at an average of 9.625 highlighted that a different approach was needed. Prior to the Old Trafford Test, England turned to Tavaré.

Headingley 1981: Day Five review

A review of day five of the third Ashes Test of the 1981 series at Headingley, written from the perspective of an English cricket fan at the time.

Preview
Day one
Day two
Day three
Day four

Wednesday July 22

Australia 401/9d (Dyson 102, Hughes 89, Botham 6/95)
England 174 (Botham 50, Lillee 4/49)
England f/o 356 (Botham 149*, Dilley 56, Alderman 6/135)
Australia 111 (Dyson 34, Willis 8/43)

ENGLAND WIN BY 18 RUNS

Wow! Simply wow. Forget everything I said about this team. Delete those posts I wrote when in the depths of despair. Of course I never doubted Robert George Dylan Willis. England won the third Ashes Test at Headingley to level the Ashes series. What a way for Peter Willey to win his first Test in his 19th appearance. What a boost for the country. Never in doubt. 

We only needed five more runs in the morning to set Australia an insurmountable target of 130. And although Beefy took the first wicket - obviously, naturally, inevitably - when Australia neared lunch on 56/1 it looked like normal service was about to be resumed.

Headingley 1981: Day Four review

A review of day four of the third Ashes Test of the 1981 series at Headingley, written from the perspective of an English cricket fan at the time.

Tuesday July 21

Australia 401/9d (Dyson 102, Hughes 89, Botham 6/95)
England 174 (Botham 50, Lillee 4/49)
England f/o 351/9 (Botham 145*, Dilley 56, Alderman 5/131)

I'll be honest; I was expecting this blog to be my last covering this Test match. But I reckoned without taking the Beefy factor into the mix. It may be delaying the inevitable, but you never know. What is certain though is that a bit of pride has been restored to English cricket.

None of this looked possible early on. With Brearley, Gower, and LBW Gatting back in the pavilion, England were 41/4 and making 100 looked a distant dream. Boycott (46) and Willey (33) battled hard, but when Bob Taylor departed we had slumped to 135/7.

Headingley 1981: Day Three review

A review of day three of the third Ashes Test of the 1981 series at Headingley, written from the perspective of an English cricket fan at the time.

Sunday July 19

Australia 401/9d (Dyson 102, Hughes 89, Botham 6/95)
England 174 (Botham 50, Lillee 4/49)
England f/o 6/1 (Lillee 1/4)

Pathetic. Pitiful. Spineless. Feeble. Woeful. Deplorable. Lamentable. Wretched. Contemptible. Despicable. Mournful. Harrowing. Mortifying. These are some of the polite words I found in my thesaurus to describe that England batting display yesterday.

You can probably handle losing to Australia if the team showed a tiny bit of fight. Yet what we witnessed yesterday was a staggering display of ineptitude in both technique and heart. Only Ian Botham came out of the episode with any credit on a day of despair.

Headingley 1981: Day Two review

A review of day two of the third Ashes Test of the 1981 series at Headingley, written from the perspective of an English cricket fan at the time.

Saturday July 18

Australia 401/9d (Dyson 102, Hughes 89, Botham 6/95)
England 7/0

Pain pain go away. Despite heroics from Ian Botham, the next few days feel like they could drag on and on. Australia declared their innings just over 400 and look well set to put the Ashes to bed. The scary thing is that without Beefy it would have been a lot worse.

At one point Kim Hughes' men had reached 332/4. Naturally England shot themselves in the foot along the way, Graham Gooch dropping Australia's skipper when he was on 66. At this point you wondered if the Hughes-Yallop partnership would ever end. Botham decided to take matters into his own hands.

Headingley 1981: Day One review

A review of day one of the third Ashes Test of the 1981 series at Headingley, written from the perspective of an English cricket fan at the time.

Friday July 17

Australia 203/3 (Dyson 102)

Oh well. I'm not sure I care that much about the Ashes anyway. Australia, aided once again by some inconsistent bowling and yet more charitable fielding, have strengthened their hold on this series. Quite where England go from here I don't know.

The decision to leave out spinner Emburey is looking questionable. The seam attack appeared toothless on what looks a tricky surface to bat on, and when they did create chances then the butterfingers boys returned. Seeing Peter Willey turn a few deliveries on day one must have raised the eyebrows of Emburey too.

Headingley 1981: Preview

A preview of the Ashes Test at Headingley in 1981, written from the perspective of an English cricket fan at the time.

Day one
Day two
Day three
Day four
Day five 

Thursday July 16

Say what you want about English cricket, but it is never dull. After losing at Trent Bridge, England arrived at Lord's 1-0 down in the series. They left HQ with a draw and without a captain. Understandably, Ian Terrence Botham decided enough was enough.

As Botham said on the Lord's balcony, the match-by-match captaincy tenure was not helping him or the team. Undoubtedly the key player in our XI, his loss of form has been hugely damaging. Botham the captain needed Botham the player to perform. That never seemed likely.

1981: Second Ashes Test

The end was near, the final curtain closing on Ian Botham's spell as England captain. As the second Ashes Test at Lord's approached it was becoming clear that the clock was ticking. Appointed skipper on a match-by-match basis, the situation for Botham and England was far from stable. 

"By appointing Botham from Test to Test the England selectors are giving the inescapable impression that they would dearly love to get rid of Botham but cannot find a satisfactory method of completing the dreadful deed," Paul Fitzpatrick wrote in the Guardian. Even for English cricket, the whole environment seemed a joke.

Defending Chris Tavaré

It's easy to mock. It really is. Take a glance back at a lot of things from the past and the natural reaction is to pour scorn. The Sinclair C5, SodaStream, three channels on British TV, no overnight television, and the national anthem played at closedown. Pound notes. Pah, what a bunch of losers those dinosaurs were in the 80s.

Admittedly some of these things earned derision at the time. But it really is not fair to look back at all our yesterdays through a lens that is obscured by what we live through today. Which is a roundabout way of me attempting to defend an English cricketer of the past that, shall we say, maybe might not have fitted in too well with this brave new world of Bazball that we see today.

England's unwanted Test record

England's recent win at Lord's against New Zealand was just their second in 18 matches. In the 1980s we weren't so fortunate.

All seemed rosy in the England cricket garden in December 1986. As Gladstone Small settled himself to claim the catch that retained the Ashes at the MCG, the "can't bat, can't bowl, can't bowl" outfit had silenced the doubters. The celebrations were long and hard that night in Melbourne, and in hindsight that was just as well. Because England would not win another Test match for 20 months.

1983: England v New Zealand Second Test

If at first you don't succeed. For 52 years various cricketers from New Zealand had tried and failed to win a Test match in England, and as the 1983 series between the two countries commenced it looked a case of same old same old. With England winning the first match of the series at the Oval, the chances of Geoff Howarth's tourists ending the drought looked slim.

Played 28, lost 17, drawn 11. This was New Zealand's unenviable record in England as the two teams prepared for the second Test at Headingley. The bookies certainly did not expect an immediate change in fortunes, with England priced at 4/6 with the visitors the outsiders at 6/1. Come the end of day three, these odds would be significantly different.

1985/86: Richard Hadlee takes 9/52 against Australia

There must have been a tinge of regret for left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel as New Zealand lost the recent Test match and series in Mumbai. He achieved a remarkable feat in becoming only the third man to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings. But unlike Jim Laker and Anil Kumble before him, Patel ended up on the losing side.

Just 28.1 overs after his glory, the 33-year-old must have been left with mixed emotions as he prepared to turn his arm over once more. Dismissed for just 62, there was no way back for New Zealand. Patel may have added another four wickets to his match tally. Yet he didn't even claim the man of the match award.

Patel's match figures of 14/225 are the second-best return for a New Zealand bowler in Test match cricket. Those with a passing interest in the sport will not be surprised to discover the man who stands above him on that list. The fact that these figures were achieved in an historic victory for New Zealand made the accomplishment that much sweeter.

1986: Botham's glorious comeback

"Blimey, Beef. Who writes your scripts?" The question asked by Graham Gooch on Thursday August 21 to Ian Botham was a valid one. After all, it was barely believable that a man making his comeback to Test match cricket after a ban would take a wicket with his first ball. But Ian Botham was no ordinary man.

1986 had been a turbulent year in the life of Botham. As the tabloid press circulated around him in the Caribbean attempting to uncover details of his activities away from cricket, on the field things were hardly going smoothly. Hammered 5-0 against the mighty West Indies, the tour ended with Botham suffering at the hands of his great mate Viv Richards, as England's all-rounder tried in vain to equal Dennis Lillee's record for most Test wickets taken.

1986: England v New Zealand Second Test

England had battled to draw in the first Test of the 1986 series against New Zealand. But there was little respite as the team prepared to face up to Richard Hadlee at his second home of Trent Bridge.

As England and New Zealand prepared for the second Test of the 1986 series, two all-rounders were very much in the spotlight. Ian Botham, beginning his comeback after his cannabis related ban, was never far from the thoughts of England fans enduring a terrible 1986. New Zealand supporters had no such worries.