He strode out to the middle of that warm summer day - his distinctive arrogant swagger was marginally stifled, the jaws moving a little more frantically to chew the gum which completes the persona.
It was the first of the 3 ODIs before the 5-match Test series in 1984 between England and West Indies in England.
Prudential was replaced by a new sponsor - the giant American Oil Company Texaco will be remembered by the cricket fans of the 80s and 90s for a long time.
Viv Richards witnessed the hoardings of Texaco displayed along the periphery of the Old Trafford Cricket Stadium - the venue for the first ODI - where the raucous English supporters were still celebrating the fall of Gordon Greenidge.
Before that - Desmond Haynes was run out next to nothing and at 11 for 2, astonishingly, West Indies felt the heat of the opposition bowlers.
But one man - Viv Richards - displayed nothing.
No tension. No panic. No fear.
Absolutely nothing.
There was only the grim visage and the hard glint in his eyes to suggest that he was ready to slice the attack
The King was standing on a wrecked ship - but his natural instinct to attack hardly faded.
Back in the 80s, wise men used to say, if you don't get Richards out earlier, you'll have to pay a heavy price.
At 43, Bob Willis clung on to a sharp return catch from Richie Richardson, and then trapped the King into an indiscretion, a misjudgment of pace leading to a spooned dive, which, just eluded the fielder's desperate lunge by a whisker.
What a costly mistake it would prove!
West Indies kept on losing wickets - Larry Gomes for 4, Clive Lloyd for 8 and Jeff Dujon for 0 - all to the offspin of Jeff Miller.
England prepared a slow and low deck to neutralize the pace battery of the Caribbean and trap their batsmen with spin. When Malcolm Marshall was dismissed the West Indies was tattering at 102 for 7.
But Richards did not stop playing shots.
His murderous stroke-play witnessed the ball vanish - at the other end, wickets became cheaper - Baptiste hung on to add 59 but he and Joel Garner marched to the dressing room with West Indies losing their way at 166 for 9.
14 overs were remaining when Michael Holding joined Richards.
Holding was a mere spectator to the onslaught that followed - a rare scene on the cricket field back in those days, when batsmen, still, took caution over aggression because the wickets suited to the bowlers, the bats were not heavy and the boundaries were not smaller like today.
Richards completed his hundred with a punched on-drive off Ian Botham - off 112 deliveries with 12 boundaries.
Richards played Botham to the onside with a flick of the wrist as the ball raced to the square leg boundary.
Neil Foster noticed Richards' attacking intent towards onside - set more fielders on that region and pitched outside the leg - but the King moved towards the square leg to hoist him over long off - staggering!
Derek Pringle over-pitched and Richards planted a foot down the wicket, whipped his wrists and launched it over the wide mid-on in an incredible on-driven six.
Then, Pringle was hoisted over long off into the crowd.
150 for Richards!
Willis returned to bowl and decided to pitch along the offstump - Richards got his left leg out of the way, leaning on the back foot and hoisted it over extra-cover.
Richards swung one to the mid-wicket boundary to register the hundred-run partnership for the last wicket.
As Botham ran into bowl the last ball - Richards moved outside the leg eyeing the gaps on the off-side but Botham pitched it outside the leg, and was hit straight back over the head for a boundary.
106 runs had come in the last 14 overs, where Holding contributed to just 13.
189 off 170 deliveries with 21 boundaries and 5 sixes.
The last 58 balls had produced 86 runs with 9 fours and 5 sixes.
England never recovered from the blow by Richards and the summer of 1984 became a nightmare for the English.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
No comments:
Post a Comment