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World Cup 1979: Mike Hendrick clinches a thriller against Pakistan

England ambled to 165 for 9 in 60 overs. Then Mike Hendrick took over.

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There was more to Mike Hendrick than it met the eye © Getty Images
There was more to Mike Hendrick than it met the eye © Getty Images

Mike Hendrick tore into the Pakistan top-order at Headingley on June 16, 1979. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the day when the trundler from unfashionable Derbyshire turned out to be an unlikely hero.

Nobody has described Mike Hendrick better than Marcus Berkmann in Rain Men: “Hendrick was as gloomy and exhausted as a bowler can get without passing out. His heir is Angus Fraser, who bowls frightening numbers of overs a year and yet, after a single ball of a Test match, looks tired, flushed, bored, furious and resigned, even if he has just bowled someone middle-stump. Hendrick had this approach off pat. Once he even grew a gloomy beard, presumably in a last ditch attempt to depress the batsman into nicking the ball. But the batsman never did nick the ball. So Hendrick trudged back and started again…”

That was Hendrick for you. It never seemed he could take a wicket; he often looked almost bored, often refusing to celebrate wickets. He was an outstanding swing bowler, thriving under overcast conditions but doing a perfectly competent job even otherwise.

The campaigns

England had started their World Cup campaign in style: there were five run outs as a depleted Australia were restricted to 159 for nine at Lord’s; the total was overhauled easily. Canada were skittled out for 45 — then the lowest World Cup score — as Bob Willis and Chris Old shared 8 wickets between them for 19. Once again there was an easy victory.

Pakistan did not do any less: Canada reached 85 for 2, but turned out to be pushovers as they managed only 139 for 9 at Headingley. A more crucial win came against Australia at Trent Bridge, with Majid Khan, Javed Miandad, and Asif Iqbal pushing Pakistan to 286 for 7 before Sikander Bakht and Majid bowled the Australians out for 197.

Both teams had already qualified for the semifinal, but the match still had a purpose: the winner of the contest at Headingley would manage to avoid West Indies. The conditions were overcast (“a breezy, cloudy morning,” wrote Wisden), which made Asif go in with five seamers — Imran Khan, Sikander, Mudassar Nazar, Majid, and himself.

Mike Brearley, on the other hand, picked four — Bob Willis, Ian Botham, Chris Old, and Hendrick — to go with the part-time military-medium of Graham Gooch and Geoffrey Boycott. Oh, and he also picked a spinner in Phil Edmonds.

Taylor and Willis save face

Asif started with Imran, and disaster struck with the second ball as Brearley nicked one to Wasim Bari. Sikander rose to the task, finding the edge of Derek Randall, reducing England to 4 for 2. The onus was on Boycott and Gooch — probably the most equipped batsmen in terms of technique — to see off the new ball.

They did in fact see off the new ball, and added 47 in 79 minutes. Asif shuffled his bowlers well, and eventually Majid brought Boycott’s resilience to an end. Gooch did not last long either. The dour combination gave way to the flamboyant pair of David Gower and Botham. A few runs were plundered, but none of them made it big. Majid switched to off-breaks to remove both men, and with Asif striking with two wickets in quick succession, England were reduced to 118 for 8.

This brought Bob Willis to the crease to join Bob Taylor. Neither was reputed for batting, but they held fort, adding crucial runs. They crossed 125, then 150, and it was not until 161 that Sikander ran through Willis’ defence. Hendrick managed to get off strike, and England finished on 165 for 9.

It was certainly a below-par score, despite the conditions. Though six English batsmen went past 15, only Gooch (33) managed to make it to the 30s. As for the five seamers, all of them bowled their quota of 12 overs, and everybody conceded between 24 and 37 runs.

That Hendrick spell

It was a tough ask. The lowest successfully defended score in a World Cup till then was 266 (albeit by England) Willis and Hendrick started things for England, but Majid and Sadiq Mohammad looked comfortable, adding 27 in 29 minutes. Pakistan seemed to be cruising to victory — when Hendrick struck.

Hendrick had been bowling beautifully with an impeccable line and length, swinging the ball both ways with abundance. He finally broke through, having Majid caught by Botham. Two balls later a ball swung in, trapping Mudassar leg-before. There was a struggle for Zaheer Abbas, but Hendrick hit timber meanwhile, dismissing the set Sadiq.

Brearley had meanwhile replaced Willis with Botham, who removed Zaheer and Miandad in quick succession. Soon afterwards Haroon Rasheed was caught in the slip by Brearley. Pakistan, having lost 6 wickets for 7, were on a hopeless 34 for 6; Hendrick, with some support from Botham and Willis, had left them in tatters.

Asif’s futile resistance

Both Pakistan openers were all-rounders, which meant that they had a long batting line-up with Wasim Raja at 7 and Imran at 8. Raja decided to counterattack, racing to a 25-ball 21 with 4 boundaries before Old hit his pads. The partnership had set the tone somewhat, and with Imran digging in, Asif saw a chance.

This was when Brearley rose to the task. He handled his four seamers efficiently, placing fielders in the right areas, cutting down the singles. Edmonds was taken away after three overs as Brearley turned to Boycott and Gooch. Eventually, just when the seamers approached the ends of their quotas, Asif edged one to Brearley off Willis. He had scored 51.

It was Bari’s turn now to frustrate the bowlers. The tension mounted as Imran and Bari took Pakistan close to victory, adding 30 in 37 minutes. Brearley had another masterstroke this time, bringing Boycott — the local hero — back. Almost immediately he had Bari caught behind.

Sensing blood, Brearley tightened the noose around Imran and Sikander. The former should probably have gone for a few big shots, for when Sikander eventually holed out to Hendrick off Boycott, Pakistan were left 14 short of England’s score. Imran was left stranded on an 82-ball 21. As for the Man of the Match, Brian Close did not have to think: it had to be Hendrick.

It was the lowest successfully defended score in a World Cup encounter, and has been bettered by only Zimbabwe at Albury in 1992 (they scored 134 before bowling out England for 125). New Zealand had defended a target of 154 in 1992, but Zimbabwe to chase it down in only 18 overs in a rain-curtailed match at Napier.

What followed?

– England and Pakistan managed to reach the semifinal, only to be mauled by West Indies in quick succession. Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes helped West Indies put up a formidable 293 for 6 in the semifinal at The Oval. Majid and Zaheer took the score to 176 for 1, but Colin Croft broke through, and with the lower middle-order caving in to Viv Richards, Pakistan lost by 43 runs.

– England, on the other hand, won a humdinger against New Zealand at Old Trafford to sneak through to the final at Lord’s. The match, of course, was decided by Richards’ epic 138 (which culminated in dismissing Hendrick to the Mound Stand off the last ball of the innings) and Collis King’s brutal 66-ball 86. Joel Garner claimed 5 for 38, and West Indies kept their undefeated run going with a 92-run victory.

– Hendrick finished with astonishing ODI figures of 35 wickets at 19.45 and an economy rate of 3.27. Both numbers are the best for English ODI bowlers with 25 or more wickets.

Brief scores:

England 165 for 9 in 60 overs (Graham Gooch 33; Majid Khan 3 for 27, Sikander Bakht 3 for 32) beat Pakistan 151 in 56 overs (Asif Iqbal 51; Mike Hendrick 4 for 15) by 14 runs.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

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