Crowes cap a champagne day

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 84

Crowes cap a champagne day

By

JOHN COFFEY

A Caribbean collapse and one of test cricket’s most valuable brotherly batting partnerships has New Zealand princely positioned against the West Indies in the third test at Lancaster Park.

After one day of actual play, New Zealand, at 117 for two wickets, is 17 runs ahead of the West Indian first innings total with eight wickets in hand.

Remarkable bowling performances by Richard Hadlee and Ewen Chatfield dismissed the West Indies for 100, that nation’s fifth most modest tally in its test history.

New Zealand showed similarly insecure batting tendencies for a time, but the Crowe brothers, Jeff and Martin, survived more than two hours through to stumps in a stand already worth 94 runs.

Hadlee was first to bring home to the West Indians the difficulties of being sent in to bat on a pitch favouring seam bowling when he speared back Desmond Haynes’ off-stump with the first ball of his second over. Little more than two and a half hours later Hadlee completed the tourists’ “Friday the Thirteenth” nightmare by beating and bowling Courtney Walsh.

That was Hadlee’s sixth success of the day. He extended to 29 his world record number of fivewicket (or more) hauls in test innings, and took another wholesome bite into lan Botham’s lead among the top wicket-takers of all time.

Hadlee now has 348 wickets, seven behind Dennis Lillee. Botham’s mark of 366 is within Hadlee’s reach over the next few weeks — after the present Rothmans series is completed he has three tests in Sri Lanka. But the craftsman was overshadowed yesterday by Chatfield, one of cricket’s true toilers, and it was pleasing Hadlee should recognise that by

pushing Chatfield ahead of him to receive the crowd’s standing ovation at innings end. At lunch the West Indians were staggering at 67 for seven and Chatfield

had the wickets of Gordon Greenidge, Larry Gomes, Viv Richards and Malcolm Marshall for a meagre 14 runs. The dismissal of Greenidge would rank among the most spectacular of

Chatfield’s 97 at test level. So enthusiastically did he cartwheel Greenidge’s middle stump that New Zealand’s wicket-keeper, lan Smith, was momentarily in grave danger of suffering a fate usually reserved for cinematic

vampires. Chatfield’s enthusiasm was in no way diminished when Gomes, after 37 scoreless minutes, was dropped by Martin Crowe at third slip. Chatfield kept the clamps on Gomes, who from consecutive deliveries edged the ball close to Jeremy Coney at second slip and then safely into the grasp of Jeff Crowe at first. A magnificently acrobatic display by Smith

assisted Chatfield to remove Richards. The West Indian captain had the mid-wicket boundary in mind, but managed only a touch towards fine leg. Smith’s anticipation and athleticism enabled him to place both gloves around the ball while div-

ing full length to his left. Although Hadlee destroyed the last remnants of resistance after the resumption, Chatfield had the distinction of bowling through the innings and conceding just 18 scoring shots from 18 overs. Some of the runs extracted from Chatfield were the product of rather rustic methods adopted by the last pair, Tony Gray and Courtney

Walsh, as they took the total from 75 — two fewer than the West Indian “low” against New Zealand, at Auckland in 195556 — through to three figures. Only Richie Richardson out-scored the two tailenders. Richardson capitalised on some waywardness in Hadlee’s opening spell, hitting six boundaries to leg. He then settled down to the task of being senior partner in a 38-run third-wicket gassociation with Gomes before Martin Crowe held a sharp chance from Hadlee.

Coney’s skills in the slips were again much in evidence. He might well have been dipping his net into a well-stocked West Coast whitebaiting river, so confidently did he draw in the catches offered by Gus Logie, Joel Garner and Jeff Dujon, all off Hadlee’s bowling. Though very much the third seamer, Martin Snedden served his purpose by giving Hadlee a useful rest in mid-morn-ing. Snedden allowed only 12 runs from the bat in his six overs.

The pattern of behind-the-wicket dismissals con-

tinued when Phil Horne, after gathering seven runs in Marshall’s opening over, and John Wright were both taken by Richards at first slip. But the gathering of the Crowe clan served to wrest the initiative from the bowlers.

Jeff Crowe survived another series of adventures outside the off-stump, and was dropped by the wicket-keeper, Dujon, when 16. He has proved himself an exceptional fighter in the last two tests, and he celebrated another courageous contribution by hooking a ball from Tony Gray for four just before stumps. The West Indians were disappointed Martin Crowe survived a confident leg before wicket appeal first ball. His quality soon showed through, and a cover drive off Gray was by far the finest stroke of the day.

When Richards decided to try himself, Martin Crowe pulled the first two deliveries to the embankment. But he, too, was lucky at 39 when a cut at Richards passed through Garner’s hands at slip for four more runs.