Crowe all but succeeds in saving second test for N.Z.

Press, 4 March 1987, Page 76

Crowe all but succeeds in saving second test for N.Z.

From

JOHN COFFEY

in Auckland

New Zealand was only a convenient cloud cover away from saving the situation at Eden Park yesterday, but anything other than the eventual decisive win to the West Indies would have been a false indication of fortunes in the second cricket test.

The' tourists went oneup in the Rothmans-spon-sored series when Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes quickly accumulated the 13 runs needed for their 10-wicket victory.

When the West Indies second innings began six of the mandatory last 20 overs remained, but Greenidge and Haynes required just nine deliveries.

The simple task left to the West Indies disguised the drama which preceded their mini-innings. Martin Crowe had further revised some of New Zealand’s finest batting records in scoring a century which had taken his team from the point of disaster almost to a position of comfort.

Having trailed by 261 runs, and resumed at 64 for two, New Zealand lost three wickets in the first session yesterday to be risking lunchtime indigestion at 134 for five. But Crowe and John Bracewell were to take the total through to 233 and the match close to the tea break in a potentially test-saving sixthwicket partnership. For more than three-quarters of an hour after the resumption Richard Hadlee and Crowe carried on in a manner which must have had the West Indies cursing the loss of more than eight hours play because of bad weather on previous days. They might have also been ruefully reflecting on some uncharacteristically clumsy catching. On Monday afternoon Jeff Crowe was missed before he had scored, and was to keep the bowlers at bay for over two hours; Martin Crowe had escapes at 32 and 89; and Hadlee was allowed a life at 11.

The game, however, took another sharp turn when Martin Crowe was seventh out at 4.17 p.m. New Zealand was still 11 runs in deficit when Gus Logie agilely dived forward from short leg to get his fingers under a difficult chance made to look simple.

Those who remained, Hadlee, lan Smith, Stephen Boock and Ewen Chatfield, had all served New Zealand nobly in the most difficult of past circumstances. But it needed

more than courage to present a straight bat to the new ball given only a short time earlier to the fearsome threesome of Malcolm Marshall, Tony Gray and Courtney Walsh. Walsh relished the opportunity to be seen as a match-winner alongside his far more experienced and renowned fast bowling partner, Marshall. With his first ball, Walsh found the edge of Hadlee’s bat and the second slip, Richie Richardson — who had dropped both Crowe brothers — provided the lie to the old adage that things happen in threes.

In Marshall’s next over Smith edged a boundary to ensure New Zealand did not suffer its first loss by more than an innings since the Trent Bridge test of 1978. It was then that the weather threatened to rob the West Indians of a victory now well in their sights. The clouds gathered, the light meters were consulted, and play ceased for nine minutes. The available overs were trimmed by three to 14, and Walsh and Marshall were kept at bay for an over each by Smith and Boock. But when Smith edged a ball from Walsh low and to Viv Richards’ left at first slip the West Indian captain did not repeat the fumble which reprieved Crowe earlier in the afternoon. So Boock and Chatfield were left as a very thin last line of defence. Inevitably, the ball triumphed, Jeff Dujon, the West Indian wicketkeeper, had Boock as his sixth catching victim of the match, and Walsh was celebrating his first fivewicket return in 11 tests. As dominant as the tourists had been for all but the opening hour or two, it was an undeserved outcome for Crowe and Bracewell, who had battled and then breezed along in a stand worth 107 runs in 133 minutes, the second 50 in a sizzling 37 minutes.

They had come together after Jeff Crowe had fallen to a brilliant slips catch by Gray, Dipak Patel was leg before wicket without offering a stroke by Marshall, and Jeremy Coney had been taken by Dujon on the leg side.

Crowe kept ticking off milestones before capping his century with an ondriven six on to the terraces. At 20 he reached 1500 runs this summer; when 61 he became the eleventh New Zealander to accumulate 2000 test runs; his hundred (in 319 minutes from 230 balls) was his eighth this season and equalled the national test record held by Glenn Turner and Bevan Congdon.

At 24 years of age, Crowe is obviously far from finished with those figures. His timing, and selection and production of stroke, has placed him in another dimension from his team-mates.

But Bracewell proved to be an ideal foil with his competitive spirit, his resolve not to bow the knee. He joined with Crowe in adroitly placing the ball for singles, but hit lustily at anything short.

Crowe’s second chance had been from the offspin of Clyde Butts, and Richards surprisingly delayed his request for the new ball until the ninetyfifth over.

Leaving Marshall and Butts with the old ball for 33 deliveries after tea had the effect of restraining Crowe and Hadlee. In the final context, it was to be only a delay of execution. WEST INDIES First innings 418/9 dec. Second innings C. G. Greenidge not out. . 10 D. L. Haynes not out. .. . 3 Total (for 0 wkt) 13 Bowling: R. J. Hadlee 1,0, 9, 0; E. J. Chatfield 0.3, 0,4, 0. NEW ZEALAND First innings 157 Second innings K. R. Rutherford c Richardson b Marshall. . . 5 J. G. Wright c Logie b Walsh 7 J. J. Crowe c Gray b Walsh 21 M. D. Crowe c Logie b Gray 104 D. N. Patel lbw b Marshall. 5 J. V. Coney c Dujon b Gray 17 J. G. Bracewell lbw b Gomes 43 R‘. J. Hadlee c Richardson b Walsh 14 I. D. S. Smith c Richards b Walsh 10 S. L. Boock c Dujon b Walsh 4 E. J. Chatfield not out. . . 0 Extras (b 7 lbB, nb2B) ... 43 Total 273 Fall: 10, 14, 83, 91, 126, 233, 250, 260, 269, 273. Bowling: M. D. Marshall 33, 7, 71, 2 (nb8); C. A. Walsh 30.2, 6, 73, 5 (nb8); C. G. Butts 26, 6, 61, 0; A. H. Gray 18, 4, 44,2 (nbl2); H. A. Gomes 4,1, 9, 1.

Umpires: F. R. Goodall and G. C. Morris.