Published: Jan 21, 2016, 07:15 AM (IST)
Edited: Jan 21, 2016, 05:37 PM (IST)
June 28, 1984. He was the expressionless assassin with the ball, but sometimes Andy Roberts did lose his cool and could ‘overstep’ certain boundaries. Arunabha Sengupta recalls the day when the Antiguan fast bowler tried to maim Somerset batsmen.
Always fast, sometimes furious
“They were players of a different era. They were lethal with the ball, they could knock you over, but they would never stoop to sledging. For them, the ball did the talking. They never resorted to bad behaviour.”
Or so we hear from the rheumy eyed romantics who drool over the fearsome battery of West Indian pace bowlers of the 1970s and 1980s.
The reality was not quite that rosy.
From Kingston 1976 the saga of overdoing the short-pitched delivery, and quite frequently hurling those deadly balls of fire from round the wicket into the body, did not quite reflect the spirit of the game to the glorious extent that some old timers would have us believe.
Nor did Michael Holding’s acts of kicking the stumps in Dunedin or bowling beamers at Syed Kirmani at Madras. Nor did Colin Crofts boorish act of shoulder charging umpire Fred Goodall. Nor did Malcolm Marshall’s antics ofshouting at a defiant Ian Smith at Georgetown that he would kill the young wicketkeeper at Barbados, following it up by switching to stuff aimed at the body from round the wicket immediately on Smith’s arrival at the wicket at Bridgetown.
Examples are aplenty. Their modus operandi with the ball ensured West Indians fast bowlers could be bullies, and quite often they were. Besides, the over rate of 10 or 11 an hour did not quite make for splendid cricket viewing. It led David Frith to criticise their tactics quite bitterly in Wisden Cricket Monthly.
One of the less recounted of acts of ‘overstepping’ the limits can be found in the memoirs of the superb Kiwi batsman Martin Crowe. And the sequence of events does indicate, at least from a comment heard from gully that day, that such incidents were not really unknown.
The Roberts-Crowe showdown
The setting was County Ground, Taunton.
With the West Indian team touring England that summer, the Somerset team were without their three huge stars. Viv Richards, Joel Garner and Ian Botham were all busy playing more serious forms of cricket. And a 21-year-old Crowe had been recruited to stumble along in the mammoth shoes of King Richards.
Well, the supremely talented New Zealand youngster did not really stumble. As a matter of fact, he blazed through the summer scoring 1870 runs at 53.72 with 6 hundreds.
On this day, Somerset had taken on Leicestershire. At that stage in the competition, the visiting county were at the top of the table. And in their ranks was the terrifying Andy Roberts.
This great fast bowler had already played his final Test for West Indies, that very match in Madras in late 1983 in which Holding had hurled beamers at Kirmani. Roberts was still in prime form, but had fallen out with the Board. He knew that he would not play for the islands again. But he was still a fearsome prospect and quite willing to underline it.
Roberts had started the season well, with 4 for 23 against Essex, 5 for 53 against his old county Hampshire, and 5 for 104 against the strong Nottinghamshire outfit.
Even with David Gower on national duty, the Leicestershire team was a strong one with James Whitaker, Ian Butcher, skipper Peter Wiley, John Agnew and Nick Cook playing alongside Roberts. The wicket was fresh, greenish with plenty of pace and movement, and the visitors won the toss and batted.
The seasoned Somerset medium-pacer Colin Dredge moved the ball around and the total of 254 that Leicestershire reached looked less than impressive when Peter Roebuck and Julian Wyatt had put on 54 by the end of the first day.
The defining drama of the match commenced on Day Two. Agnew got rid of Roebuck, while Roberts concentrated on moving the ball away from the batsman at a quickish pace. He accounted for Wyatt, Nigel Popplewell and the elegant Brian Rose in quick succession, and Agnew snared Jeremy Lloyds to leave the hosts struggling at 97 for 5.
However, there was Crowe to deal with. With immense faith in his ability and the casual nonchalance of youth, the upcoming Kiwi batsman started to counterattack. He was in superb form, his last three matches having brought him 125 against Middlesex, 113 and 54 against Lancashire and 152 not out against Warwickshire. With a splendid idea about the whereabouts of his off-stump, Crowe kept leaving the away going deliveries and played the waiting game of making Roberts bowl straighter. Once the ball was delivered on the stumps, he kept working it away for runs.
With stand-in captain Vic Marks getting to some sort of a start, Crowe grew in confidence. Unable to get the outside edge of Crowe, Roberts started bowling faster and faster, aiming mostly at his body. In his autobiography, Crowe calls it ‘bodyline bowling’. He is not one to mince his words. By the time the players walked in for lunch, there were four big bruises on Crowe’s torso.
The young batsman emerged after the break with a lighter bat and started playing horizontal-batted strokes off the intimidatory deliveries.
After a few adventurous shots, Roberts now charged in and the ball made for Crowe’s throat. He swayed back. The next one was again thudded in fast and short, and Crowe ducked. The batsman second-guessed the bowler now. Realising the next one would be pitched up, Crowe planted his foot down the wicket and plonked the fast bowler hard and high over his head into the stands.
And immediately he heard the Leicestershire captain Willey remark from the gully. “Oh lad, you shouldn’t have done that.”
It was perhaps Willey’s comment that saved Crowe. The next two balls from Roberts were bowled from wide of the crease, after overstepping the line by a good distance, and were angled straight at the body.
Crowe, anticipating such tactics after the remark of the opposition skipper, retreated well outside the leg stump to watch the missiles shoot past his head. Twice the umpire called no ball. Twice the fielders gasped. And twice Crowe looked at Roberts to see the “meanest, angriest eyes I’d ever encountered on a cricket field.”
Overstepping deliberately, going wide of the crease, and bowling into the body … to inflict serious physical injury. Not quite the best advertisement for the spirit of cricket, was it?
The magic that followed
Roberts could not get Crowe. The fair-haired New Zealander finished with a superlative unbeaten 70. Later he recalled to Wisden as: “the gutsiest innings I played. I was up against a guy in form, and it was a fantastic experience in the sense that it frightened the death out of me. All of a sudden I would forget about technique, or just batting. It was total instinct, like fighting blow for blow. Looking back, it upset me that I lost control; at the same time, I had the technique and ability to get through it while I was taking blows and giving a few back.”
However, the West Indian great cleaned up the tail and finished with figures of 7 for 74, thus earning a 62-run lead for Leicestershire.
Left-arm medium-pacer Mark Davis dealt some heavy blows for the hosts, but Whitaker played well and by the end of the day Leicestershire led by 237 with half the side still to be dismissed.
The following morning, some hefty blows by Pat Clift and Agnew enabled a declaration with 9 wickets down just before lunch. With 341 to win in just over two sessions, Somerset started disastrously. They lost Wyatt and Popplewell to Agnew to go into lunch at a precarious 3 for 2.
After the interval Roebuck walked out with Crowe to resume the innings. As he strode in front of the youngster, the Cambridge University man turned and said, “Let’s show some bloody Somerset pride.” To that Crowe replied, “You bet.”
Soon the ball was travelling all over the place. And the faster Roberts charged in this time, the harder did Crowe hit him. It was a magical innings combining flair, temperament, skill and panache. At the other end, Roebuck was professional, rock-solid. And Crowe was taking the bowlers, Roberts included, to the cleaners.
The two had started with the intention of batting through the day. But, the disdain with which Crowe handled Roberts put them on track for an unlikely win. By the time the final session got underway, Somerset were fast turning into the favourites.
Only Agnew managed to keep a steady line. Cook was manhandled with class and finesse, Willey maturely milked for runs. By the time Roebuck fell to Cook for a superb 128, the two had put on 319. It was 322 for 3 and victory just a few hits away.
Crowe carried on, batting in an incredible blaze of brilliance. And finally, with two runs to go he tried to aim for glory and hit one back to Cook. He walked back for 190, one of the greatest innings ever witnessed in Championship cricket. It was left to Marks to come in and hit a brace and finish things off.
Somerset had cruised home by 6 wickets. The figures of Roberts read none for 70 from 14 overs.
Brief Scores:
Leicestershire 254 (Ian Butcher 44, Patrick Clift 49; Colin Dredge 4 for 48) and 278 for 9 decl. (James Whitaker 67, Timothy Boon 47, Michael Graham 53; Mark Davis 5 for 82) lost to Somerset192 (James Wyatt 47, Martin Crowe 70*; Andy Roberts 7 for 74) and 341 for 4 (Peter Roebuck 128, Martin Crowe 190) by 6 wickets.
(ArunabhaSengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history of cricket, with occasional statistical pieces and reflections on the modern game. He is also the author of four novels, the most recent being Sherlock Holmes and the Birth of The Ashes. He tweets here.)
