Leeds 1991.
It was perishing cold out there.
The dark clouds scudded across towards the Pennines.
The deck at Leeds was damp. The red cherry jagged around. The bounce was not even. The atmosphere transformed the deck into a minefield where survival was the order of the day.
The giant from Antigua - Curtly Ambrose ran like a raging bull. It was a terrifying sight for the English batsmen who were cut like ribbons as the memories of Barbados a year back revisited.
Mixing hostility and accuracy , Ambrose made full use of his height and kept the ball jagging around the top of the offstump.
At the other end - the sharpness of Malcolm Marshall, tenacity of Courtney Walsh and the deceptive pace of Patrick Patterson gave fear, unleashed by Ambrose, a new dimension.
The red cherry was no more like a fresh red apple in that damp atmosphere - but every delivery took the red off the cherry and transformed it into a cannonball.
The West Indies pacers were on top - they were in no mood to breach the 22-year-old unbeaten record on English soil.
The West Indies captain won the toss in the first Test and invited England to bat on an overcast condition.
Led by Marshall, the Caribbean pacers bowled out England for 198 - their seventh failure in nine innings to reach 200 mark in Leeds.
In reply, West Indies succumbed astonishingly.
Derek Pringle and Philip Defreitas emphasized line and length and compensated for the wayward Devon Malcolm, while Mark Ramprakash brought out the Derek Randall inside him.
He dived acrobatically to his right in the covers to catch Phil Simmons, and then swooped to throw down the stumps at the bowler's end as Hooper attempted an apparently reasonable single.
Graeme Hick held two catches at second slip, and the third debutante Watkin, could also celebrate, as he claimed Desmond Haynes's wicket with his fourteenth ball in Test cricket.
Again, the West Indies batsmen were wayward.
Richards's poor judgment in turning down a straightforward third run left Richie Richardson stranded. Nor could he hold together the bottom half of the innings, being caught steering the fifth ball of the third day to slip.
England managed a surprising lead but many times in the past - they had let the opportunities miss.
While the Caribbean pacers set jitters in the English batting lineup in the second innings, one man was not defied by the odds - rather - decided to display the courage of the highest order which will give him immortality.
The determination of Clint Eastwood was evident on the face, the famous moustache, the broad shoulders, high back-lift, the clenched jaws never lost their synchronization during his iconic knock.
He drove to the offside against Patterson and set off for a mission. Then, a delivery from Ambrose was flicked to square leg for a boundary.
In the meantime, Ambrose was on a hat-trick twice, with Allan Lamb and Robin Smith departing first ball, and he picked up the first six wickets.
England were reeling at 124 for 6!
Ramprakash, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 78 with Gooch - that was promising but ended.
When rain brought an early finish, England had a lead of only 168 with four wickets in hand.
In between, with the score on 137 for 6, the umpires offered light to the batsmen, but Gooch refused to accept it. He decided to bat and it was an indication that Gooch was not in the mood to save face against the fury of West Indies fast bowlers.
The support Gooch needed was to come from Pringle, who stood firm while 98 runs were added for the seventh wicket.
On Day 4 - the weather turned worse for the batsmen, but Gooch was unfazed.
Immediately after being tested by a snoter from Ambrose, Gooch leg-glaced to bring up 150 for England. A back foot cover drive just forced Richards to think differently as Gooch was gaining his authoritativty with every passing delivery.
Marshall was brought on - the response was a back foot punch through extra cover.
Walsh pitched one short at pace as Gooch pulled to bring up a gallant hundred.
Gooch cut and pull with so much confidence against pace that the uneven bounce could hardly be noticed. The initial trigger movement off the back foot had done a world of good for Gooch on that minefield.
Richards took the new ball and it started moving around - well - for Gooch, it only raced to the boundary like a tracer bullet.
It was all about timing rather than brut force - handling the movement off the deck and off the air with soft hands and astute feet movement amalgamated with a solid defence, is always the key to success and Gooch exhibited such on that tough day.
Gooch drove Marshall to extra-cover to reach 150 off 325 deliveries with 18 fours.
In the end England were all out for 252 with Gooch carrying bat through with 154 off 331 deliveries - he scored 61.11% of the team runs. Meanwhile, none of the batsmen had crossed more than 6 runs except Ramprakash and Pringle.
Gooch was the second England batsman to carry his bat at West Indies after Len Hutton at The Oval in 1950, and the first Englishman since Geoff Boycott at Perth in 1979-80 to do so.
England won and took a 1-0 lead riding on that bold knock by their captain.
It was an epic - a display of balance between attack and defence.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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