Lloyd triumphant to the end

Press, 16 August 1984, Page 36

Lloyd triumphant to the end

NZPA-Reuter London Clive Lloyd’s last tour of England turned into a glittering triumph as his West Indian cricketers carried all before them and ensured he would be remembered as one of his country’s greatest captains. Lloyd, who has led the West Indies a world record 69 times in his 105 tests, achieved the crowning glory when his all-conquering team completed a 5-0 series whitewash against England at The Oval.

The 39-year-old West Indian captain is bowing out of the international scene after the 1984-85 tour of Australia, but will leave his successor a team of worldclass players who have reached a peak by their consistently dedicated and professional approach. Lloyd’s men underlined their status as the most powerful of the seven testplaying countries by emphatically beating England in all five tests. It tos only

in the last match that they had to bat for two complete innings. West Indies have now won eight successive tests — they took the final three of their recent rubber against Australia in the Caribbean — and have won seven and drawn one of their last eight test series under Lloyd’s leadership. • Lloyd, who became captain 10 years ago but has crowded his major feats into the last five, has welded a group of talented individuals into a cohesive and effective force in much the same way as the late Sir Frank Worrell did with the West Indies sides of the early 19605. Lloyd is very much a father figure to the present players, who have immense respect and admiration for the tall Guyana left-hander. Moreover, he has continued to play outstanding innings at critical moments and his aggregate of 7159 runs is the fifth highest in test history. The West Indies have

risen to power essentially on the depth and quality of their fast bowling, and Lloyd again successfully used the formula of relentless pace to overwhelm England. The giant Joel Garner, rejuvenated by his fourmonth break from cricket at the end of last year, and Malcolm Marshall, the quickest of West Indies’ present fast bowlers, were England’s chief tormenters.

Garner was the leading wicket-taker on either side with 29 victims in the series and Marshall, who missed the fourth test because of injury, ended with 24. Michael Holding reserved his best for the last test in which his seven-wicket match haul lifted his total to 15.

Although pacemen were the key figures in the West Indies’ attack, the offspinner, Roger Harper, interrupted their dominance with his six for 57 to clinch the fourth win.

liK addition to their formidable attack and a

galaxy of accomplished batsmen, in which Gordon Greenidge shone out with double centuries in the second and fourth tests, Lloyd’s team had the ability to rise to the occasion. The moments of crisis were rare but each time it found the players to haul it out of trouble and foil England’s fleeting hopes of upsetting the odds. David Gower’s team lacked enough world-class performers to challenge West Indian supremacy, and suffered England’s first 5-0 whitewash for 63 years and the first at home.

England used a total of 21 players, among whom Gower had an unhappy series with 171 runs in 10 innings. Allan Lamb’s three hundreds in consecutive tests provided one of the few bright spots, while lan Botham was clearly weary from eight years of continuous top-level cricket and could not consistently produce the heroics that England needed to overturn the form book •%

Scoreboard of the last innings of the fifth test at The Oval:—

WEST INDIES First innings 190 Second innings 346 ENGLAND First innings 162 Second innings G. Fowler c Richards b Marshall 7 B. C. Broad c Greenidge b Holding 39 C. J. Tavare c Richards b Garner 49 D. I. Gower lbw b Holding. 7 A. J. Lamb c Haynes b Holding 1 L T. Botham c Marshall b Garner 54 P. R. Downton lbw b Garner 10 R. M. Ellison c Holding b Garner 13 P. J. W. Allott c Lloyd b Holding . 4 J. P. Agnew not out. .. . 21 P. I. Pocock c and b Holding 0 Extras (lb2, wl, nbl3). . 16

Total 202 Fall: 15, 75, 88, 90, 135, 181, 186, 200, 200.

Bowling.— Marshall, 22, 5, 71, 1; Garner, 18.4, 3, 51, 4;

Holding, 13, 2, 43, 5; Baptiste, 3, 11, 0; Harper, 8,5, 10, 0.