While my friends in the Northern hemisphere complain about the short grey days and the long cold nights, we in the South are either enjoying long summer days, or complaining about soaring temperatures. Many of us are also enjoying the summer holidays. For us, Christmas signals the beginning of the big break before work resumes around February. That includes the media and the TV stations. It’s the time of yet another re-run of shows like The Big Bang Theory, Thirty Minute Dinners with Jamie, or Nigella’s cooking show. Ho hum.
But Wait. There’s cricket. You can’t beat a few days on the couch watching an international test match, or a one-dayer, on TV. The boxing day test is a highlight of the sporting calendar. I recall one year, Pete and I both caught a flu while on holiday, so we holed up in a motel room and watched the boxing day test from bed.
While a lot of people think cricket is slow – and it can be – I think test cricket is an absorbing game of strategy and tactics. Played over five days, six hours a day, in any weather except rain, it can be physically and mentally draining. The one-day form (50 overs a side) is more exciting, but less challenging for the players, and the 20 overs a side version (T20) is called the Big Bash League for a reason.
I watched a one -day game yesterday, between England and Australia. Oz batted first and only managed 261 runs, which is pretty ordinary. Seemed the Poms were going to have our lot for dinner. As our batsmen and the fielding team trailed off for the lunch break, I remembered a famous one-day match played many years ago between Western Australia and Queensland.
It was in the 1976-77 season. My then-partner and I had been visiting family. They also enjoyed the cricket so we listened to the match on the radio. Because it was played in Perth, Perth viewers couldn’t watch the match on TV. (The idea was to get crowds to the ground, but at over 30,000 there already, it was pretty much at capacity.) WA was all out for 77 in 23 overs. (Back in those days an innings was 40 overs, with 8 balls per over. Today it’s 50 overs with 6 balls per over) Our team was going to be creamed. So my partner and I went home.
He turned the radio back on after the lunch break. I confess I wouldn’t have bothered. I’m not a masochist, and the Queensland team was undoubtedly going to win. After all, their line up included Greg Chappell, who became Australian captain, and Vivian Richards, who became West Indies captain. Both of them are amongst the top ranked batters in the history of the game.
But nobody had figured on D.K. Lillee, one of the greatest fast bowlers the game has ever produced, and then at the top of his considerable powers. In the rooms during lunch WA’s team captain, Rod Marsh (one of Australia’s legendary wicket keepers), tried to gee up the side – “There’s a big crowd here. Let’s not let them down. Let’s make them fight for it.” To which Lillee responded, “Make ’em fight for it be buggered. We’re going to beat these bastards.”
Dennis reckoned WA could win. He blasted Viv Richards with four bouncers in the first over. In those days batters didn’t wear helmets and those balls are whizzing through at 130km (about 80mph+). Then he bowled him with a good length ball. One down. David Ogilvie hit a couple of fours before he, too was given his marching orders. But now the Qld score was 2 for 23, and they only had to get 78. Should be a doddle. Next batter was Greg Chappell, who had made a century on debut on the WACA ground not so long ago.
Remember I said cricket is about tactics? Rod Marsh (wicket keeper, standing behind the batter) signaled to Dennis Lillee to bowl a bouncer down leg side, expecting that Chappell would try to hook the ball. Rod was moving into the expected trajectory of the ball before it was bowled. Chappell tried to glide it down to the boundary and watched it land safely in Rod’s gloves. Dennis had 3 wickets for 11 runs, and the rest of the WA players knew they were in with a chance.
The rest, as they say, is cricketing history. Queensland was bowled out for 62. It was only fitting that Our Dennis took the final wicket of the day.
The late seventies and eighties was a great time for watching cricket. Reading through a list of the men who played that match was almost a who’s who of Australian cricket, not to mention the great Viv Richards who was spearhead of the all-conquering West Indies team for many years. Such a shame the Windies is now a spent force, although individuals do make their mark (and a lot more money) playing in the Big Bash and India’s T20 league.
But that was then. The match I was watching that jogged my memory ended up predictably with England easily defeating Australia. But we still won the Ashes in the test cricket series!
Here’s a little video about the Miracle Match which will give you some idea of what it was like. It’s just over 7 minutes long. Ah, the memories.
There’s a book based around that match, with biographies of all the players. Here’s the link on Australian Amazon.
Did somebody mention tennis? Summer, Australian open? Oh, that. Two people grunting at each other as a ball whizzes from one side of the court to the other. For me tennis is right up there with formula one, just below grass-growing as a spectator sport.
But to each their own.
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