Duo set sail on a high wind in Wellington

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 40

Duo set sail on a high wind in Wellington

From

JOHN COFFEY

in Wellington

John Wright and Martin Crowe laid claim to being New Zealand’s finest sporting crew in winds above 30 knots with their magnificent partnership in the first cricket test against the West Indies at the Basin Reserve yesterday.

After coming together with New Zealand’s second innings teetering at 20 for two, still 97 runs in the red, Wright and Crowe combated the West Indian bowlers and galeforce gusts to accumulate 241 runs for the third wicket.

When bad light stopped play 51 minutes before the scheduled end of the fourth day the home side had the far more handsome scoreline of 272 for three. Crowe had been dismissed for 119, tiredly chipping a comfortable catch to 1 mid-on from the bowling of Vivian Richards.

Wright, whose innings started just after 3 p.m. on Sunday and who has been off the field for little more than two hours in the entire match, is to resume this morning on 102.

There is unlikely to be any relaxing of Wright’s admirable concentration. New Zealand is not yet certain of saving the test, and Wright and Dipak Patel will probably face the second new bail when the game recommences.

It was the sixth test century for both Wright and Crowe, bringing them level with Geoff Howarth, John F. Reid and John R. Reid, just one behind this country’s joint recordholders, Bevan Congdon and Glenn Turner.

That target is still ahead of them, but the captains of Canterbury and Central Districts kept the statisticians busy during the 381 minutes they batted in tandem.

Only a short time was needed yesterday morning to complete the task of overhauling New Zealand’s previous best thirdwicket stand against the West Indies, a modest 75 by Brian Hastings and Congdon at Christchurch 18 years ago. Much later in the day Wright and Crowe displaced Hastings and Congdon as the participants of the second most prolific New Zealand partnership at the Basin Reserve, 229 against Australia in 197374.

In fact, yesterday’s mammoth effort has only twice been bettered by New Zealand test batsmen .— 387 by Turner and Terry Jarvis in Georgetown on the 1971-72 West Idnian tour, and 276 by Stewart Dempster and John Mills against England at Wellingon in 192930.

Crowe also established a number of records on his own account. He extended his number of runs this season to 1470, his seventh first-class century of the summer exceeds by one the standard set by a West Indian, Everton Weekes, in 1955-56, and he became the first New

Zealander to score centuries in five consecutive series.

There were two curiosities to Crowe’s feat. He reached three figures in exactly the same number of balls (242) as he required for his maiden hundred against England at Wellington three years ago; it was also the first century taken from the West Indian attack since Crowe’s elder brother, Jeff, made 112 at Jamaica in May, 1985. Only one name change will be needed when the New Zealand third-wicket test record is amended. Martin Crowe previously shared it with John F. Reid at 224 against Australia at Brisbane last summer.

Such has been Wright’s steely resolve that New Zealand should not lose this opening encounter of the Rothmans series, and it would be grossly unfair to describe his innings as being that of a pauper compared to Crowe’s princely progress. But there is no argument that Wright’s century was far from the tidiest of all time.

Wright was dropped at 44 and 53 by the wicketkeeper, Jeff Dujon, from the bowling of Courtney Walsh and Joel Garner. Both times Wright was attempting to cut, a stroke that he never, mastered

yesterday. A near calamity, with Wright the central figure, punctuated the beginning of all three periods of play. In the very first over the wind prevented Crowe from hearing Wright call for a single and New Zealand cricket had cause to be grateful that Michael Holding threw to the wrong end. Wright’s second “life” was from the first ball he played after lunch. But he topped those efforts when the final session began. Wright hit to mid-wicket, centimetres above the fingertips of Gordon Greenidge. Turning for a third run, Wright slipped, dropped his bat, and eventually completed that lap with a desperate dive into the crease, shedding some of his protective equipment in the process.

It was to Wright’s credit that his commitment never wavered amidst such happenings, and the fairly frequent lifting of the bails by the gusting northerly wind. Wright is an exceptional competitor and went to three figures

in 407 minutes from 325 balls. He has struck 11 fours.

Crowe had been one cover-drive boundary behind his vice-captain in achieving his half-century, before surging ahead. A powerful pull shot off Malcolm Marshall posted Crowe’s thirteenth four and his century in 312 minutes.

The second 50 runs were rattled on by Crowe in only 88 of those minutes. He was delighted that Holding should try out his hook shot, and aided by an over-rate which went as high as 18 per hour while Viv Richards bowled 33 consecutive upwind overs of offspin mixed with slowmedium seamers.

Wellington’s wind also hampered the West Indian plans, and was probably responsible for Richards not seeking a replacement for a ball that has aged 114 overs. One wondered what

nous crime Walsh had committed against his team-mates when he was required to deliver the first 13 overs towards the north. Richards finally

took pity and bowled himself.

Surprisingly, Garner was not utilised until after lunch, and should have had Wright’s wicket immediately. But even Gamer, like Marshall and Holding before him, could not wring much response from a totally unsympathetic pitch.