India outclassed at Edgbaston
By A C De Silva
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The double centurian – David Gower made 200 not out in
England’s first innings total of 633 for 5 wickets declared.
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Botham is batting here and he made 33 in the first innings. However, it
was in his bowling he took 5 for 70 in the Indian second
innings total of 253 all out. He also took 2 for 86 in the
first innings. |
Kapil Dev of India. He took 5 for 146 in England’s first
innings total of 633 for 5 wickets declared.
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CRICKET: India was outclassed at Edgbaston, although England for its
part, may not have satisfied their critics. The Englishmen completed a
Test victory by an innings and 83 runs in an exhibition both stylish and
efficient on July 17th in 1979.
Much of England’s style came from David Gower - the man of the match,
from whom runs gusted as if he was Roman fountain flipping through a
book.
What pleased Bedser – the manager and skipper Mike Brearley, his
captain, was Gower’s application once he had reached his century. This
was his first double in any cricket and the most substantial
contribution to England’s largest total at Edgbaston.
Boycott, of course, got blasted for being slow for scoring only 43 in
a day. True he and Brearley are not a matched pair, two Sticker or a
sufficiently contrasling pair – sticker and a dasher.
Friendy bowling by India
Boycott was accused of taking another century as he was picking the
pockets of blind children, so friendly was the Indian bowling. People
forget that it was Solkar with his left-arm gen-ties who stuck a
spanners in Boycotts Test overdrive a few years ago.
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Sunil Gavaskar made two tidy knocks – 61 in the first
innings out of a total of 297 and followed it up with 68 in
a total of 253, but yet he was on the losing side. |
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Geoff Boycott – a fine knock of 155 runs. |
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G.R. Visvanath – made two tidy knocks – 78 in India’s first
total of 297 and followed it up with 51 in total of 253. |
The prize innings was played by Gooch who hit the ball hard on a
perfect batting wicket. His six over long off against Venkatraghavan was
the stroke of a powerful player full of confidence. Bernard Thomas has
knocked a stone off his heavy frame and the agility thus released was
dramatically illustrated when former Graham Gooch dived to catch a
little pig of a slip catch in his left hand to remove Gaekwad in the
second innings. This was the high spot of England’s fielding,
superlative both in quality and direction. Brearley somewhat criticised
the Indian selection. He said that England never went abroad with fewer
than eight bowlers whereas India had only six. India use somewhat in a
spot as two of their bowlers - Bedi and Chandra was in the team as if
India was winning the toss – they didn’t.
The presence of Madan Lal, bowling as well as he did against England
in Madras would have made an appreciable difference to India’s hopes of
holding for a draw.
In the end these centered on Gavaskar and Visvanath. The rest seemed
to be supporting players only. Gavaskar got a nasty one in the second
innings. He played it correctly and the ball did enough to take the
edge.
A less good player would have missed it. As for the first innings
debacle, when Randall ran him out when there was no run in it.
Visvanath played some superb strokes. His square cutting from the
crouched position was a thing of beauty.
Visvanath who made 78 in the first innings, did well to get his
second half-century - 51 in the second innings.
SCORE BOARD
ENGLAND - 1ST INNINGS
J.M. Brearley c Reddy b Kapil Dev 24
G.F. Boycott lbw b Kapil Dev 155
D.W. Randall c Reddy b Kapil Dev 15
G.A. Gooch c Reddy b Kapil Dev 83
D.I. Gower not out 200
I.T. Botham b Kapil Dev 33
G Miller not out 63
Extras 60
Total (for 5 wkts dec) 633
Fall of wickets: 1-66, 2-90, 3-235, 4-426, 5-468.
Bowling: Kapil Dev 48-15-146-5
K. Ghavri 38-5-129-0
M. Amarnath 13.2-2-47-0
B.S. Chandrasekhar 29-1-113-0
S. Venkatraghavan 31-4-107-0
A.D. Gaekwad 3-0-12-0
S. Chauhan 3-0-19-0
INDIA - 1st Innings
S.M. Gavaskar run out 61
C.P.S Chauhan c Gooch b Botham 04
D.B. Vengsakar c Gooch b Edmonds 22
G.R. Visvanath C Botham b Edmonds 78
A.D. Gaekwad c Botham b Willis 25
M. Amarnath b Willis 31
Kapil Dev lbw b Botham 01
K. Ghavri c Brearley b Willis 06
Bharat Reddy b Hendrick 21
S. Venkatraghavan c Botham b Hendrick 28
B.S. Chandrasekhar not out 00
Extras 20
Total 297
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-59, 3-129, 4-205
5-209, 6-210, 7-229, 8-251, 9-294
Bowling: B. Willis 24-9-69-3
J. Hendrick 24.1-9-36-2
I.T. Botham 26-4-86-2
P. Edmonds 26-11-66-2
G. Boycott 5-1-8-0
G. Miller 11-3-18-0
INDIA - 2ND INNINGS
S.M. Gavaskar c Gooch b Hendrick 68
C.P.S. Chauhan c Randall b Willies 56
D.B. Vengsakar c Edmonds b Hendrick 7
G.R. Visvanath c Taylor b Botham 51
A.D. Gaekwad c Gooch b Botham 15
M. Amarnath lbw b Botham 10
Kapil Dev c Hendrick b Botham 21
K. Ghavri c Randall b Hendrick 04
Bharat Reddy lbw b Hendrick 00
S. Venkatraghavan 00
lbw b Botham 00
B.S. Chandrasekhar not out 00
Extras 21
Total 253
Fall of wickets: 1-124, 2-136, 3-136, 4-182
5-227, 6-240, 7-249, 8-250, 9-251
Bowling: B. Willis 14-2-45-1
J. Hendrick 20.4-8-45-4
I.T. Botham 29-8-70-5
P. Edmonds 17-6-37-0
G. Miller 9-2-27-0
G. Gooch 6-3-8-0 |
