England thought of preparing a flat deck at the Oval during the fifth Test in 1976 to neutralize Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Vanburn Holder, and Wayner Daniel.
The Englishmen were battered and bruised in the previous Test matches and the only way to save the Blackwash was to frustrate the West Indian pace attack with a flat deck.
But Windies Cricket, under Clive Lloyd, had decided to make England suffer for their controversial remark before the tour that would create a psychological impact for almost two decades.
On a flat deck, Sir Vivian Richards had batted England out of the match, and when the West Indian pacers came out to bowl it was time to experience the nightmare of the Whispering Death - Michael Holding.
On a dead track, Lloyd’s decision to go in with four pace bowlers was questioned by a lot of experts, who still were trying to get a grip on the 4-men pace attack.
On Day 4 - Holding demonstrated that with the ball traveling with the speed of a rocket through the air, the condition of the deck hardly mattered - Holding's eight first innings wickets were either bowled or leg before.
When Holding knocked out Tony Greig, a horde of jubilant West Indian fans ran into the ground in a frenzy of celebration.
“Before he came in they were bowling at a nice pace of about 85 mph, but when Tony came to the wicket it went up to about 90 and three bouncers and over. I’ve never been as pleased to see an England captain bowled," said Dennis Amiss.
“I was 22 years old and just ran in and bowled. I didn’t even think about the conditions — you don’t at that age. I tried to bowl as accurately as possible because there was no way I could bowl a bouncer. I was getting good inswing and I kept the ball full. It was my best Test as far as figures are concerned, but I bowled better than that in different circumstances. At The Oval it was simple: bowl fast and bowl full,” Holding said.
Leading by 252, Lloyd decided not to enforce the follow-on thinking that Holding needed a rest, and Daniel was injured.
Roy Fredericks and Gordon Greenidge, yet again, started murdering the English bowlers mercilessly, adding 182 in just 32 overs - the innings was declared.
That was the famed period of play when Tony Greig approached the biggest West Indian section of the crowd, got on his knees, and with a gesture famously captured on camera, tendered an apology for his pre-series statement.
On Day 5 - England experienced a nightmare in a broad daylight!
Holding was faster than Day 4 - as if a modern-day spaceship was traveling fast into the galaxies in search of new adventures. Even the speed of light would fail to hold a candle to the merciless and fearsome pace of Holding on the final day.
Within the first few minutes on the final day, he had induced snicks from the openers and had knocked over the stumps of John Balderstone.
Once Peter Wiley had succumbed to Holder, captain Greig came in to bat for the last time in the series. And Holding knocked him out again - a fast yorker that sent the stump out of the ground!
Alan Knott battled hard to reach his second fifty of the match before Holding sent his middle stump on a protracted cartwheel.
The final nail in the coffin was drilled when the hapless Bob Willis, carrying a bat more to preserve tradition than score runs, was trapped plumb. Holding finished with 6 for 57, following his first innings haul of 8 for 92 — 14 wickets in the match, 9 of them bowled and 3 leg-before.
“I don’t remember them bowling any bouncers because of the pitch. Holding just bowled fast from the Vauxhall End and he bowled straight. It proved his rank as one of the greatest bowlers in Test cricket. It is hard to overestimate how well he bowled. It was fast. It was straight. It was accurate. It was awesome,” said Mike Selvey.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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