Published: May 04, 2015, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Jun 14, 2016, 01:52 PM (IST)
June 14, 1984. Debutant Andy Lloyd was battling it out against the West Indian fast bowlers when he was struck a sickening blow on the face by a vicious Malcolm Marshall delivery. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at a delivery that ended a Test career.
Andy Lloyd was an opener in the old-fashioned mould. He had established himself as a mainstay for Warwickshire. He started in the middle-order, but gradually made his way to the top to open with David Smith when Dennis Amiss preferred to bat down the order in his later days.
Lloyd had an excellent 1983, scoring 1,673 runs at 45.21 with five hundreds. He topped the Warwickshire runs chart in the County Championship with 1,659, bettering the aggregates of Alvin Kallicharran (1,637), Amiss (1,571), and Smith (1,133). He also finished fifth overall.
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Since the infamous “grovel” series of 1976, the West Indians — especially the fast bowlers — had tormented England home and away. They won 3-0 in England in 1976, 1-0 in England in 1980, and 2-0 at home in 1980-81; in other words, they had played 14 Tests, winning 6 and drawing 8 but losing none.
Dhawan started 1984 on a high, scoring 60 and 102 not out (for MCC against Essex), and 110 (against Northamptonshire) in consecutive innings. His chances improved after a match-winning 70 against Yorkshire in a Benson & Hedges Cup match. The selectors drafted him into the Texaco Trophy team.
55-over adventures
On his debut at Old Trafford Lloyd had the opportunity to witness one of the greatest innings in the history of ODIs. West Indies were 166 for 9 before Viv Richards blazed his way to 189 not out — then the highest ODI score; West Indies reached 272 for 9 before skittling out England for 168. Lloyd scored 15.
England fought back, bowling out West Indies for 179 at Trent Bridge. Lloyd and Graeme Fowler put up 75 for the opening stand. Lloyd top-scored with 49, but there was a commotion down the order; in the end England scraped through by three wickets.
Fowler and Lloyd added 60 at Lord’s. Lloyd eventually scored 37, but from 128 for 3 England were bowled out for 196 and lost by 8 wickets. Lloyd finished with the series with 101 runs at 33.67. He was the only English batsman to score a hundred runs, and was an obvious choice for the opener’s slot — that too at his home ground, Edgbaston.
Marshall Arts
Lloyd opened with Fowler. Malcolm Marshall bowled with usual ferocity, but Joel Garner was the one who looked more dangerous. Having cut down his pace in the past year or two, Garner found his original pace back — keeping his accuracy intact.
It was a lethal combination: Fowler edged one to Jeff Dujon off Garner for a nine-ball duck; Derek Randall was clean bowled by Garner for a three-ball duck; the score read 5 for 2 when David Gower joined Lloyd.
Lloyd hung on grimly. Wisden wrote that he “a sounder technique and greater resolution than some of his new team-mates were to do”. He reached 10 from 16 balls. In half an hour he and Gower had taken the team score to 20. It was the seventh over. Marshall steamed in. Four slips. One gully. One short-leg.
Lloyd was wearing a helmet, but a 1984 helmet was a rather feeble, insubstantial protection against Marshall’s pace. The great man pitched short, and Lloyd ducked; unfortunately, he made the cardinal sin of taking his eyes off the ball.
He later told BBC: “He bowled me a short pitched ball which I expected would fly over my left shoulder, but it kept low, swung back, and I turned in to it and was struck on the right temple.”
Simon Barnes, in A Book of Heroes: Or a Sporting Half-Century, had a different view: “Fear had undone him. He misread the length of a ball from Marshall and, fearing a head-high bouncer, ducked. Alas, he ducked into the ball instead of under it. The ball was not all that short. It was Lloyd’s wariness that caused his injury.”
“Dear me, I don’t like the look of it at all”: for once Richie Benaud gave in to emotions on air. “That did look very nasty.” To his credit, Lloyd recovered, stood on his feet, and walked back to the pavilion, amidst an enormous applause. Andre Nel gets married and dismisses Brian Lara twice the following day
The injury turned out to be more serious than it seemed. He suffered from concussions and double visions, and had to spend ten days in the hospital. The blow took away 35% vision of his right eye. Let alone the Test, Lloyd did not play again in 1984. He never played another Test, which meant he holds the record of being the batsman to have always opened in Tests and never been dismissed.
Calypso Kings mop up
England were soon reduced to 103 for 6 (technically 7) before Ian Botham opened up, scoring a rollicking 60. Unfortunately, Garner was too hot for the Englishmen to handle; he claimed 4 for 53 as England folded for 191.
Bob Willis hit back, reducing the tourists to 35 for 2. Larry Gomes (143) and Richards (117) then added 206. Clive Lloyd joined in the fun with an 89-ball 71. West Indies were 455 for 8 when Michael Holding joined Eldine Baptiste.
What followed was outrageous hitting of the highest order: Holding muscled his way to an 80-ball 69, adding 150 with Baptiste for the ninth wicket in less than two hours. Baptiste remained unbeaten on 87 as West Indies finished with 606. The lead was a humongous 415.
Paul Downton opened in Lloyd’s absence, and to his credit he did an outstanding job with wickets falling all around him. He was seventh out for a 187-ball 56, keeping out the four-pronged pace attack. Willis threw his bat around before becoming Garner’s fifth wicket. Garner finished with match figures of 9 for 108, and England lost by an innings and 180 runs.
What followed?
– Lloyd clawed back into existence with hard practice. He toured Zimbabwe that winter, and scored 68 and 32 on County Championship comeback against Essex. The next match saw him amass 160 against Glamorgan, followed by 137 not out in a Benson & Hedges match against Lancashire.
– Lloyd continued to play for Warwickshire till 1992, leading them for the last five seasons. He finished with 17,201 First-Class runs at 34.26 with 29 hundreds.
– Though Lloyd did not resume, the series witnessed at least three acts of valour: Gordon Greenidge’s 214 not out on one leg at Lord’s; Marshall batting, and later taking 7 for 53, with a broken hand at Headingley; and Paul Terry batting with a broken hand at Old Trafford.
– The West Indian domination continued: they won 5-0 in 1984 (in England), 5-0 in 1985-86 (at home), and 4-0 in 1988 (in England). Their run extended to 20 wins, 9 draws, and no defeats from 29 Tests. West Indies did not lose a series to England between 1969 and 2000.
Brief scores:
England 191 (Ian Botham 64; Joel Garner 4 for 53) and 235 (Paul Downton 56, Derek Pringle 46*; Joel Garner 5 for 55) lost to West Indies 606 (Larry Gomes 143, Viv Richards 117, Clive Lloyd 71, Eldine Baptiste 87*, Michael Holding 69*; Derek Pringle 5 for 108) by an innings and 180 runs.
Man of the Match: Larry Gomes.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
