England: 137 to win, 64 all out
Forty years ago today, New Zealand began the test match in which they would beat England for the first time. Mark Geenty reports on one of Kiwi cricket’s finest moments.
If Geoff Boycott was cricket’s immovable object, Richard Collinge was the irresistible force. They collided on a sunny Tuesday afternoon at Wellington’s Basin Reserve, 40 years ago, and the man they called Rock crashed through Boycott’s defence to send New Zealand hurtling towards their first test win over England.
If there was a leading contender for a New Zealand’s ‘ball of the 20th century’, this was it.
From his home in Caringbah, Sydney, strolling distance from the Cronulla Sharks’ home ground, Collinge’s memories remain fond and vivid. He recalls catching up with Boycott at the Basin in 2008, when England’s beaten captain called in on the 1978 New Zealand team’s second reunion.
‘‘He just said he’s sick of hearing about ‘that ball’, and in some respects so am I,’’ Collinge said with a laugh.
‘‘It got us under way. Geoff had batted seven or eight hours in the first innings. If he stuck around he would have just ground it out. To get him early on was a bonus and it just opened the floodgates.’’
England required just 137 to win the three-test series opener, without their regular captain Mike Brearley who’d suffered a broken arm in Pakistan.
Stand-in skipper Boycott spent 442 minutes compiling 77 in his first dig. In the chase he faced just six deliveries before the giant leftarmer fired a full one at leg stump and, in a puff of dust, shattered Boycott’s castle.
Collinge reduced England to 18-3, then Richard Hadlee hurt opener Brian Rose and scythed through the middle order to collect 6-26 on a variable pitch. Jubilant men in towelling hats, shorts and nothing else began invading the oval and beer cans clanked to the ‘Hadlee’ chant as the great fast bowler reached a fearsome top speed and punched the air with every scalp.
‘‘We spoke about it before we got on the field and said ‘let’s get stuck into them’. The only thing is, he [Hadlee] had the wind and it was my ground and I was bowling into the wind which was a bit grim, wasn’t it?,’’ Collinge said.
‘‘After I chipped out the first three, the plan was that I’d keep it tight at one end and he’d let rip from the other. That worked OK.’’
Hadlee snared 10 for the match and took the final scalp, Bob Willis caught at gully by Geoff Howarth on a chilly, grey fifth morning. England all out, 64. A big crowd, granted free entry, roared and Hadlee led the scramble for souvenir stumps, marking New Zealand’s first win over the old enemy in 48 years and 48 tests of rivalry.
In a television interview with the late Richie Benaud in the 1980s, Hadlee recalled the mood turned quickly. The New Zealanders thought they’d blown it, skittled for 123 in their second innings with a fired-up Willis taking 5-32.
‘‘As we walked down the steps on to the field the crowd were booing us, jeering us, they said ‘you’ve wasted an opportunity’. They didn’t give us a lot of support. Richard Collinge and myself bowled flat out in that last twohour session,’’ Hadlee said then.
On February 10, 1978, Boycott called correctly when Mark Burgess tossed the coin, and sent New Zealand in on a green pitch with a howling northerly at Willis’ back. John Wright was on test debut, as was Stephen Boock.
First ball of the test, Wright nicked it to wicketkeeper Bob Taylor. Umpire Bob Monteith heard nothing in the gale and Wright didn’t walk, leaving Willis apoplectic.
Wright batted a tick under six hours for the topscore of 55, as New Zealand posted 228.
‘‘We accepted it [the decision] – well, I accepted it anyway,’’ said Wright’s friend and Derbyshire team-mate Geoff Miller, later an England selector.
‘‘If you take the whole match into consideration, that was the winning innings, really.’’
England had a handy pace attack but were thin on batting in Brearley’s absence. Miller, an allrounder, went in at three and presented spinner Boock with his first test wicket, bowled for 24. ‘‘It was a shocking shot, trying to work it through the leg side.’’
England trailed by 13 on the first innings and it was game on heading into the rest day. More so when they dismissed New Zealand on a ‘‘strange’’ pitch that was starting to misbehave.
Said Miller: ‘‘When we bowled them out, we thought if we play anything like it we should win this game. We didn’t play well and lost by a substantial amount.’’
The bubbly flowed in the New Zealand dressing room but Collinge and others had to depart abruptly.
‘‘When it looked like it was going to finish early on the fifth day, our [NZ Cricket Council] secretary at the time, Bob Knowles, decided to book us out of the St George and book us home on late afternoon flights. We didn’t get a chance to have an evening together. I was well on my way when I got off the plane in Tauranga,’’ Collinge said.
‘‘We had a reunion in 1998 and one in 2008, so we made up for what we missed out on.’’
And a third reunion looms, at Hagley Oval in Christchurch next month for the second test against England. NZC has invited Collinge and team-mates to attend on the Saturday and tell some more stories. Collinge spoke to his friend Robert ‘Jumbo’ Anderson on the phone last week and is eager to resume the celebrations.
Who knows, Boycott may be there again in his role as BBC comments man, and Collinge’s ‘ball of the century’ might get one more airing. Like it, or not.