Random Cricket Photos Post 56


#RandomCricketPhotosThatMakeMeHappy

Cricket literature is replete with stories of Australian crowds being boorish and giving a hard time to opposition players. But what is also true is that the Australian crowds aren't the kindest to their own either. This banner, right here, raised in the aftermath of the Trevor Chappell's infamous underam incident of 1981, tells a story.

For those who don't know, In a 1981 match against New Zealand at the MCG, Australian skipper Greg Chappell ordered his younger brother Trevor to roll the ball along the pitch (Hence the Lawn Bowls jibe, a game where the ball is rolled along the ground) when New Zealand required 6 off the final delivery to tie the match. The incident, seen as an act against the spirit of the game, left New Zealand media fuming and Australians embarrassed. This is not the way they wanted to see their team win, after all. To let captain Chappell know what they thought of his actions, the crowd came out with this banner in Sydney, the venue for the next match.

Interestingly, it was a World Series Cricket match in 1978 that had led things to this.

Playing against Australia, West Indies needed 5 from 2 deliveries and had Joel Garner and Wayne Daniel on the crease. Daniel connected cleanly to send a Mick Malone delivery over square leg for six. And that's how West Indies snatched a win from the jaws of defeat.

The highest scorer for Australia in that match was Greg Chappell, who recalled after the angry reactions for his underarm instructions that Daniel's six from that match was going through his mind and after "playing our guts out, I wasn't going to see us beaten on the last ball." Hence, the underarm.

Curiously, 11 years later against Pakistan, when 17 required off 5 turned to 7 off 1, Mark Taylor didn't instruct Steve Waugh to bowl underarm and Asif Mujtaba deposited it over mid-wicket to draw the match for Pakistan that not many saw coming when the over began.

Did Taylor think of underarm then? Who knows!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quiz on India-Australia Tests

Image
1 .     When Australia toured India in 1969, Calcutta went up in arms protesting a player’s inclusion in the Australian squad who they wrongly believed had served in the Vietnam War and killed Viet Cong members. Which cricketer? 2.     In the 2000’s, Jagmohan Dalmiya was seeking the role of the BCCI’s patron in chief and to install Ranbir Mahendra as President. On the other hand, Sharad Pawar had forged a cricket alliance with IS Bindra and was looking forward to become the BCCI supremo.  It was in this background that Pawar’s loyalists declined a certain request by someone considered close to Dalmiya for a match that he eventually didn’t play but would go on to change his career. Which match and what was the request? 3.   Greg Mathews picked up 10 wickets in the 1986 Madras Test to ensure a tie. What crazy thing did he during India’s second innings as a psychological ploy, that Ricky Ponting also did during his 1999 Barbados century? 4...
Read more

Random Cricket Photos Post 128

Image
# RandomCricketPhotosThatMakeMeHappy Seems like a fairly harmless photograph, right? Well, some English fans did get 'harmed' as a result of this moment in the photograph. This is a photograph from the West Indies vs England Test at Lord's in 1966. It shows a cricketer who has just completed his ton in the second innings being lifted by an over enthusiastic fan who has found his way to the middle, as fans so often used to back in the day. The batsman was none other than the gr eat Sir Gary Sobers whose 274 run partnership with his cousin David Holford had rescued West Indies from a precarious 96-5 in the match. In England's second innings and the fourth innings of the match, several English fan inspired by the West Indies fan decided to fete their hero of the innings the same way. The only problem this time around was that the man who scored a century for England - Colin Milburn - weighed 112 kilograms. So, once he completed his ton, out came several ...
Read more

The story of the only time I played cricket in 2020

 As much as I love cricket, I have to admit I suck at playing it. I always have. This bit of information is important for the story that I am about to tell. A story of a friend. A story of a friendship. This short story began a long time ago in my life. I was probably twelve years old when I began playing cricket with the kids from my colony. After years of dominating my drawing room cricket where the opposition primarily consisted of the wall and the furniture, I found the going more than just tough initially despite finding a group of kids who were extremely supportive and never nasty. However, when you are young, being shy and introverted with terrible skills means that you’re often ‘hidden’ in a team sport i.e you are batting lower down the order and are the last bowler whose services the captain will ask for. You neither are good enough to participate more actively nor are you vocal enough to ask the more established players to give you a go. For much of my growing up years, t...
Read more