Hadlee

Press, 9 November 1983, Page 54

Hadlee

Richard Hadlee remains at the top of New Zealand’s cricket tree. Although he turned 32 during the tour of England this year, the lean and hungry Hadlee’s powers showed no sign of diminishing. He is far and away the best strike bowler in the country, and is playing an increasingly important part in his teams’ affairs with his powerful left-hand batting.

At the start of last summer he played two games for Canterbury. Bowling in three innings, he took 13 wickets for 136 runs and made 112 runs in four innings. In two tests with Sri Lanka he had 10 wickets at 14.1. He bowled extremely well in the Prudential World Cup matches against England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. His 14 wickets cost only 12.9 runs each, and his cost an over was a very creditable 2.76 runs.

In eight first-class matches on the England tour which came after the World Cup, Hadlee passed 50 five times in 11 innings, scoring 477 runs at an average of 53. In the four tests, he made 301 runs at 50.16. Although he failed to take

a wicket when New Zealand beat England in the Leeds test — notwithstanding some superbly skilful bowling— Hadlee had 21 wickets in the other three tests, at a cost of 26.6 each. In all first-class matches, he had 36 wickets at 23.7.

Hadlee was selected as the “man of the series” for the tests with England.

The New Zealand Cricket Council’s Windsor Cup, for the outstanding bowling of the season, went to Hadlee for the seventh consecutive time. No bowler before him had won it more than three times. His test aggregate of 200 wickets is 84 ahead of the second bowler on the list, Richard Collinge.