Bookended at Sydney
In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket, Roger Seymour looks at one of the most phenomenal feats in the annals of Test cricket, the West Indies’ record of 27 consecutive Test matches without defeat.
The loss
On the 1979 – 80 Tour of Australia, the West Indies won the three-match Test series 2-0, their first ever series victory in six attempts Down Under, and regained the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy for the first time since their initial lien, following the 2–1 win in the 1965 Test series in the Caribbean. Two years later, the team returned for another shared Test tour, and the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup, a Triangular One Day International Tournament with Pakistan and Australia.
After waiting 15 years to get their hands on the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy it seemed to be slipping right out of the West Indies’ grasp as soon as they had gotten hold of it. In the First Test at Melbourne, 26th – 30th December, 1981, the traditional annual Australian Boxing Day Test match, the West Indies lost a low scoring game. (In Search of West Indies Cricket, A Boxing Day century for the ages, SN, 2nd September, 2018). Scores: Australia: 198; K Hughes 100*, M Holding 5 for 45, & 222; A Border, 66, B Laird, 64, M Holding, 6 for 62. West Indies: 201; L Gomes, 55, D Lillee 7 for 83, & 161. Australia won by 56 runs.
The defeat terminated a 15-Test unbeaten streak for the West Indies dating back to February 1980, the drawn Second Test, in Christchurch, New Zealand. In the span of 22 months, in four series on as many continents, they had won four Tests and drawn 11.
Opening bookend
The start and culmination of streaks of this nature can never be predicted, as they tend to evolve into a life of their own making, with a string of close calls, twists and unexpected turns, and narrow escapes. The statistician’s record of the commencement of the streak is the drawn
Second Test at Sydney, a West Indian graveyard, if ever there was one. Despite having the upper hand for most of the match, the West Indies’ quest to level the series was defied by John Dyson. Drafted into the side to bat first wicket down, to take the pressure off the embattled Australian Captain Greg Chappell, Dyson opened in the second innings. He held the West Indies pace attack at bay for six and a quarter hours, remaining undefeated on 127, as the match was abandoned due to bad light, with Australia, chasing 373, on 200 for four. It was the first occasion that a Test match between Australia and the West Indies at Sydney finished a draw. On six previous tours (there was no Test at Sydney in 1979/80), the visitors had lost six times and won twice. It was an omen of things to come.
Hair raising chases and few narrow escapes
In the Third Test at Adelaide, the West Indies pulled a rabbit out of a hat. At the start of the fifth (final) day, 3rd February, the Australians were on cruise control, as the momentum pendulum, which had swung back and forth throughout the match, now appeared firmly in their corner. At the start of play, Australia were 341 for four, 190 runs ahead, with the game headed for an inevitable draw. The overnight batsmen, Kim Hughes, 72*, and Rod Marsh, 22*, survived for 25 minutes before Marsh drove straight to Desmond Haynes at short extra cover. Twenty minutes later, Faoud Bacchus, fielding three metres from the bat, at forward short leg, displayed lightning reflexes as he plucked a powerful cover drive off of Hughes’ bat to end his innings. In the short span of 50 minutes, the hosts lost six wickets for 24 runs, as Joel Garner grabbed four wickets for five runs off 20 deliveries.
Chasing 236 in two sessions and 15 minutes, the West Indies diligently applied themselves to the task. By the tea interval, the target was 115, with one hour and 20 overs remaining and seven wickets in hand, due in the main to a 100 partnership between Gordon Greenidge, 52, and Viv Richards, 50. An undefeated innings of 77 from Captain Clive Lloyd saw the visitors home, by five wickets with 17 balls to spare. The Sir Frank Worrell
Trophy was duly retained.
The West Indies didn’t play another Test match until a year later, 23rd – 28th February, 1983, at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica. It was the first of 11 Tests between them and India for the calendar year – five in the Caribbean, and six in India – and it produced another nail biter. The well-versed West Indians, requiring 172 runs in half an hour plus 20 overs, surpassed the target with six wickets down and four balls to spare. (In Search of West Indies Cricket, Magic at Sabina Park, SN, 2nd April, 2023). The West Indies won the five-match series 2-0, and apart from Mohinder Amarnauth, (598 runs at an average of 66.44), the Indian batting lineup never threatened to dominate the West Indian fast bowlers. Alas, the unseasonal wet weather was also a major factor in the final results.
The West Indies then visited India for a six-Test series, following their shock defeat in the Prudential World Cup Final, a watershed moment in the history of Indian cricket. The West Indies avenged the World Cup defeat with an emphatic 3-0 thumping of India. Their fast bowlers, led by Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding, and ably supported by Winston Davis, Wayne Daniel and Andy Roberts, were constant thorns in the sides of the Indian batsmen. Only Sunil Gavaskar (505 runs at 50.50) and Dilip Vengsarkar (425 runs at 53.12) were able to withstand their barrage on a consistent basis. In six innings, Mohinder Amarnauth, the plunderer in the Caribbean, was reduced to five ducks and a single run.
The West Indies emphasised their superiority from the First Test, winning by an innings with a day to spare. Even in the Third Test, a low-scoring affair on India’s newest Test ground with “one of the poorest pitches on which I have played Test cricket” according to Lloyd, and questionable umpiring decisions, the West Indies maintained the upper hand to win by 138 runs. The series clincher, an innings victory with a day to spare in the Fifth Test at Calcutta, demonstrated the strength of the