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.
Just the 92 runs behind with three wickets left in the second innings. Yet no job is too big for Beefy. The great man needed some support, and he found it in the unlikely shapes of Graham Dilley and Chris Old. All of a sudden the nature of the match shifted.
"Now, what a triumph for him it would be if he could still be batting at 6 o'clock this evening," Christopher Martin-Jenkins said during the BBC coverage as Botham made his way to the crease at 2.12pm. A triumph it was.
After a couple of crunching shots from Dilley, Botham cut another delivery to the boundary. Four runs gifted to Beefy via overthrows brought a smile to the face and all of a sudden it looked like we had found two English batsmen happy to be in the middle.
Dilley continued his onslaught after tea and the atmosphere was changing. English fans, with little to cheer for a nearly four days, applauded as the 200 came up. Beefy grinned from ear to ear as he reached his second fifty of the match. Some meaty slogs from Botham brought more celebrations as the small victory of making Australia bat again was earned.
Another Beefy slash over the slips. A maiden Test fifty for Dilley. More overthrows from the Australians as they slowly began to unravel. Of course the fun had to end, with Alderman bowling Dilley for a Test best 56. The 117-run partnership in 80 minutes was pure joy.
Still Beefy came. Moving down the wicket to Alderman he smashed a straight six down the ground that must have been heard in Bradford. "Don't bother looking for that, let alone chasing it," Richie Benaud said on television. "It's gone straight into the confectionery stall and out again."
Soon Botham moved to his hundred, appropriately with a four, as Old (29) helped him put on 67 for the ninth wicket. Beefy took 17 shots to go from 39 to 102, and as Brearley on the players' balcony implored him to carry on, he showed no signs of slowing.
An unbroken last wicket stand of 32 - Willis contributing a single - stretched England's lead to 124, Botham ending the day on a remarkable 144. Smashing 26 fours and a six, it may not have been an innings of beauty, but to England and us supporters it was priceless. We can only hope tomorrow that Beefy and Willis can scrape together a useful 20-30 runs.
To some, this Beefy show has demonstrated that he should never have been made captain. Six wickets, a fifty and an unbeaten century in his first Test back in the ranks adds fuel to this particular fire. That can be an argument for another day, though. For now I'm just happy to have the real Beefy back.
Can we win from here? There is always a chance. Before Beefy and Dilley went on the attack, the pitch was still providing opportunities for Australia's bowlers. But can England's misfiring seamers get as much out of the wicket as the Aussies? They hardly looked penetrative in the first innings.
Every chance needs to be taken too. Taking ten wickets is hard enough, without extra lives donated on the way. So stretch the lead, hope Beefy can take eight wickets, and stop dropping catches. An easy recipe for success. I just wish I had put a pound on those 500/1 odds offered on England earlier on in this amazing Test.
What the papers said...
Paul Fitzpatrick, Guardian: "Although his innings cannot disguise the deep-seated problems that afflict English cricket, it was possible yesterday to forget for a while the problems and enjoy one of the finest, sustained pieces of aggression I have seen."
What they said...
Kim Hughes: "That must go down as one of the greatest innings in cricket. He had some luck but deserved it. He is a player who wins games and he is the only one England have got."
Ian Botham: "When Graham Dilley and I came together, we just decided to have a go and took it from there. But it might be interesting if we can get another 50 or 60 tomorrow."
No comments:
Post a Comment