The Perfect Ten

This week back in 1956, the English off-spinner Jim Laker  produced a magical exhibition of flight, turn and bounce to record the greatest bowling figures of all-time. 



Like old-school, duty bound cricketers of his era, Laker served with the army in the Middle East before coming back to join Surrey after the Second World War. He led the county's averages in his first season then toured the Caribbean, taking seven for 103 on his Test debut. Don Bradman's 1948 'Invincibles' soon slapped him down, swatting him for nine sixes before lunch at Lord's. When Australia chased down 404 in the Leeds Test that summer (topic of our next section), he went wicketless.

Laker could not become a Test regular till 1952. The next year, he and Lock dismembered Australia at The Oval, retrieving the Ashes after two decades. He had already given warning of what John Arlott called his “ruthless destroying vein”. In a trial match against a side of young England hopefuls in 1950 (which included Peter May, David Sheppard and eight others who would go on to play Test cricket) Laker In 14 overs of off-spin conceded two singles and took eight wickets. The side of England’s best young hopes were all out for 27. Laker’s figures read: 14-12-2-8.

And he had shown that vein again against the Australians in the summer of 1956 itself. On 16 May Surrey had taken on the tourists at The Oval. Laker was handed the ball at 12.20pm on the first day and bowled unbroken until the end of the tourists’ innings, little more than half an hour before the end of play. By that time his figures read 46-18-88-10. 

Even so, no one was expecting history to repeat itself in a proper Test. The evening before that game, Laker wandered out to take a look at the Old Trafford pitch and bumped into Don Bradman, no longer part of the Australian side but doing some media work during the series. “Flat and slow,” said Bradman. “With plenty of runs on it.”

Sure enough, England piled on 459 in the first innings. Aussies were also looking to dig in before McDonald became the first to go, bowled Laker, caught Lock. But,  perhaps, the key wicket was the next, that of Neil Harvey. “That Shane Warne delivery that bowled Mike Gatting, well, that wasn’t in the same class,” said Harvey, the left-hander who was clean bowled for a duck by one that pitched on leg and hit the top of off. From round the wicket. “I never faced a better ball than that.”

Brian Scovell, in his biography of Laker, puts forward the theory that with tea coming so soon after that delivery, panic spread like wildfire in the Australian dressing room. Laker said years later that: “I am not being boastful when I said that ball won the series.”



After the break wickets came in a deluge, with Lock taking that of Burke and Laker the other seven. Australia were utterly flummoxed and collapsed from 48 without loss to 84 all out. Laker’s figures read 16.4-4-37-9. England enforced the follow on.

The collapse was not quite as precipitous as that in the first innings, with Australia this time slumping from 114 for two to 205 all out, but Laker’s bowling remained magical. “There were people trying to get down the track to him, people trying to play him off the back foot, people trying to smother the spin,” said Benaud. “We had thought long and hard about it and we were trying everything we knew.”

The leg trap snapped shut time and time again, with Alan Oakman and Lock gobbling up five catches between them. Finally, in Laker’s 52nd over, came the 10th, with Maddocks trapped in front. He finished with barely-believable second-innings figures of 51.2-23-53-10 and those epic, history-making match figures of 19 for 90. By the end of the Test summer, he had 46 wickets (an Ashes record) at 9.60 apiece. Here was payback, soberly relished.

It says much for the times that Laker could stop off for a pint in Lichfield after the match and drink undisturbed. When he arrived home, his Austrian wife, having received dozens of congratulatory telephone calls, was baffled. 'Jim,' she asked, 'did you do something good today?'


Don’s Last Hurrah



This week in 1948, Sir Donald Bradman's "Invincibles" chased what should have been an insurmountable total to snatch victory in the fourth Test. Australia needed 404 to win on a turning pitch on the fifth day and Bradman, who put on 301 with the opener Arthur Morris (who scored 182) hit an unbeaten 173, survived two dropped catches and a missed stumping in four and a quarter hours. 

The world record target was achieved with 16 minutes to spare. With four runs to win, Harvey hit the winning boundary. Don’s  Test batting average at this point read 101.39. He would bat exactly once more at the highest level. Had Bradman hit it, he would have finished with 7,000 Test runs – and a batting average of a hundred.
 

In Other News

Here are some other snippets of best cricketion action from this week in history:



Titanic Tussle at Trent Bridge: In 1998, White Lightning Allan Donald squared up against the indomitable Michael Atherton for Cricket’s equivalent of “Irresistible force meets immovable object”. Set 247 to win, England withstood a fearsome barrage from Donald - a bombardment intensified when Atherton stood his ground after gloving behind on 27. 
Weathering one of the most brutal fast bowling spells, Atherton would go on to make 98 not out, adding 152 for the second wicket with Nasser Hussain, who was dropped on 23 before contributing 58 to England's eight-wicket victory - a win that put them on track for a 2-1 series win.

Legendary Lankans: This week in 2006, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara stitched 624 runs together against a hapless South African side, the highest partnership in Test history. They broke the record set by their seniors Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama, in that Test match against India which brings back repressed memories!

Fearless Leaders at the Fore: Two future leaders made their mark on world cricket this week. In 1997, a 22-year-old Ricky Ponting hit the first of his 41 Test hundreds, on his Ashes debut, coming in at 50/4 - savour the crunch in those strokes!

Graeme Smith, another 22-year-old leader,  famous for taking his team out of crunch situations, struck 259 against England at Lord’s - the highest score by an overseas player! 

The highest ever still remains that 333 by Graham Gooch against India, hit this week back in 1990. He followed that up with a 123 in the second innings to notch the highest runs in a single Test match! If, as an Indian, you ever take the Lord’s tour, the tour guide will invariably rub this trivia in your face.



Bombay Duck on Lord’s Honor Board: This is one trivia Ajit Agarkar never misses rubbing on his Mumbai team-mate - Sachin Tendulkar. Agarkar, who went on a world-record run of ducks in the 1999 Australia tour - 6 in a row - and had an average of 7.81, scored a century at the Home of Cricket this week in 2002. He did what Sachin, and even Lara could not achieve!

India’s tours to England are horror stories in their own right, with the tours in 2011 and 2014 bringing back repressed memories. This week in 2011, Dhoni made a magnanimous move to recall Ian Bell back after he was run out wandering in the middle of the pitch, assuming the ball had gone for four. In a bizarre coincidence, our recreational cricket match at SportsWave featured the exact same incident just three hours earlier (the probability of that happening still boggles my mind!)

Kohli salvaged some personal pride in 2018, with his resolute mindset. He scored his first Test century on English soil, in overcast seaming conditions at Edgbaston. 

Bowling Masterclasses: In 2017, a Moeen Ali hat-trick saw England to victory over South Africa in The Oval's 100th Test match. In doing so, he became the first man since 1958 to end a Test with a hat-trick.

In 1996, Waqar Younis was at his toe-crushing best at Lord's with match figures of 8-154 as Pakistan beat England by 164 runs. A regular reader of this newsletter brought to our attention that Waqar, in December 1995, was the last bowler to reach 200 wickets for Pakistan! Seems unbelievable, and frankly quite sad, that a nation known for its fearless fast bowlers has not produced one with longevity for such a long time.

• 2011 - Ah, Neymar. What a talent, eh? He burst onto the scene at Santos (incidentally the club Pele played for) before Barcelona snapped up him (and got themselves into a real financial and legal turmoil). He scored perhaps the most memorable goal of his career (so far) for Santos this week 9 years ago, a sensational solo run right through the Flamengo defence before dinking the ball coolly over the onrushing keeper. This strike won the Puskas Goal of the Year award for 2011 - no surprises there!
• 2009 - A really sad week for anyone involved in football - the great Sir Bobby Robson passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was a true legend of the game and especially adored on Tyneside where he guided Newcastle to new heights during his reign as manager. You should check out this documentary if you did not follow his career. A true gentleman of the game.
• 2006 - Juventus were stripped of their 2004/05 and 2005/06 Serie A titles on their way to being relegated down to Serie B after they were found guilty of numerous instances of bribing officials. The scandal, known as Calciopoli, rocked Italian football and saw perhaps it’s most famous club dragged in the mud. Juventus bounced back up to Serie A the following season but it took them a while to regain their position at the top of the Italian pyramid. They have not let go of that place since, winning 9 Scudettos in a row.
• 1996 - Nigeria beating World Cup champions Brazil would make headlines anywhere in the world, but when the stakes were as high as the Olympics, you knew it would leave an indelible mark in Nigeria football history. The Super Eagles mounted a sensational comeback from 3-1 down to win 4-3 in one of the most iconic Olympic football games of all time.
• 1911 - Who doesn’t love a good old underdog story? Mohun Bagan created history by becoming the first all-Indian team to win the IFA Shield after defeating East Yorkshire Regiment 2-1 in the final. A watershed moment in Indian football it did not prove to be, but it’s a nice memory for us anyway!

Moscow 1980 - Playing the Cards Right



Contrary to Cold War stereotypes that painted Soviets as unyielding automatons, it was Moscow that brought new levels of artistry to the opening ceremony.

Particularly notable were multiple uses of the card stunt, whereby members of the audience held up colored plaques in order to make larger designs (a trick later reproduced by organizers of the 1984 Los Angeles Games).

Passe by modern standards, the intricate images created by the Russian audience went off to wide critical acclaim at the time.

At the closing ceremonies, organizers would famously re-call the card stunt to depict Moscow's Olympic mascot, Mischa, crying.

Barcelona 1992 - Igniting the Flame



This was Olympic drama at its finest.

In the hushed darkness of Barcelona's Estadi Olimpic, Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo touched the end of his arrow to the Olympic torch and took aim at the Olympic cauldron.

After a suspenseful moment's wait, Rebollo fired the flaming missile and landed it in the torch's metallic basin. Or maybe he didn't.

Rebollo was in fact instructed to aim past the torch, giving the appearance of a perfect shot whilst a well-placed official lit the flame via remote control.

Smokescreens or not, it was a magnificent spectacle and a much-needed return to grace after the futuristic overkill of Los Angeles in 1984.
 

Atlanta 1996 - Victory over Adversity



Brutalized by critics for its perceived over-commercialization, Atlanta bucked its go-to stereotype—at least temporarily—with one of the most achingly human moments in opening ceremony history.

The man responsible was Muhammad Ali—36 years after he became an Olympic gold medalist in Rome and more than a decade into his fight against Parkinson's disease—appearing unannounced to light the Olympic flame.

Shaking, struggling and yet eminently graceful, Ali sent the crowd into delirium.
NBC commentator Bob Costas verbalized the soaring emotions with an all-time great sport soliloquy.

Once the most dynamic figure in sports—a gregarious man now trapped inside that mask created by Parkinson's Syndrome. So in one sense a poignant figure, but look at it—still a great, great presence, still exuding nobility and stature. And the response he evokes is part affection, part excitement, but especially respect. What a moment.

Sydney 2000 - A Young Girl’s Daydream



Framed by the narrative of a young girl's daydream, there was a magical quality to Sydney's 2000 spectacle.

And although the direct Olympic symbolism seemed secondary at times, it was hard not to fall for the bio-luminescent depictions of Australia's sea life or the colorful majesty of its aboriginal presenters.

While in another time it might have felt garish, the cornucopia of color, light and dance seemed fitting for the dawn of the 21st century.

According to the BBC, then-International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch would later call it the most beautiful opening ceremony he had ever seen.

Beijing 2008 - A Unbeatable Spectacle



Perhaps in 30 years it will seem as outdated and unremarkable as Moscow's card stunt, but for the moment, Beijing is the clear opening ceremony standard bearer in terms of sheer awe induced.
I mean, where to start?

There's the insane fireworks display, the heart-pounding might of 2,008 glowing drummers and, of course, the cherry on top: former Olympian Li Ning climbing the stadium walls on his way to light the Olympic flame.

It took 14,000 people and cost roughly $300 million, but the result was captivating. In this age of digital effects, it was the rare live performance that truly amazed.