Hadlee’s day of magic

Press, 27 February 1980, Page 44

Hadlee’s day of magic

Richard Hadlee’s vein of cricket gold shows no sign of petering out. He had another magic day at Lancaster Park yesterday, when he scored his maiden test century and became the first New Zealand player to have 100 wickets and 1000 runs in test matches. When he started his innings, he needed 88 to reach 1000, In an adventurous, sometimes eccentric display, he reached his 50 in 64 minutes, from only 51 deliveries. When he had made 87, he had equalled his best test score, then he square cut Andy Foberts for four to reach 1000 test runs. A hook for six off Roberts made him 98, a mishit took him to 99 and he went to his century in the grand manner cutting Alvin Kallicharran for four. He had been in 109 minutes and faced 88 balls, having hit 11 fours and two sixes.

The first six, off Collis King, was a tremendous shot, a quite indolent-look-ing hook which put the ball on to the roof of the No. 2 stand and beyond it. Hadlee had given King a very hard time, having taken 32 from the 18 balls King bowled to him. He also helped himself to 24 from 18 deliveries by Roberts.

On the way to this success, Hadlee and Jeremy Coney had the satisfaction of setting a New Zealand seventh-wicket record of 99 in matches against the West Indies. Hadlee’s only other first-class century was foi* Nottinghamshire in 1978. At Dunedin, his 11 wickets took his tally to 118, two more than the previous record-holder, Richard Collinge.