Aussies admit:
he funniest thing is when people talk about what happened or where they were and they don’t actually realise you were right there.’’
Bruce Edgar was right there – he made an unbeaten 102 and was at the other end when Trevor Chappell, under instructions from older brother and Australian captain Greg, bowled underarm at the MCG on February 1, 1981.
Thirty-eight years on, Prime TV will screen a documentary on Sunday 3 February at 8:30pm on the incident that will never be forgotten – or allowed to let go – by Kiwi sports fans.
‘‘It might be a guy at Customs or an Aussie . . . they’ll ask you what you recall of it and I’ll say ‘I recall every ball of it.’ Then the Aussies usually hang their heads down and say that was a terrible thing we did,’’ Edgar said.
It was the third game in the best-of-five Benson and Hedges series one-day finals. The threeteam competition which also featured India began with New Zealand scoring a shock win over the hosts in Sydney in the opening match on November 23, 1980.
New Zealand repeated that in the opening final in Sydney when Richard Hadlee took 5-26 and Brian McKechnie – in the squad as an injury replacement – 3-23 in a 78-run win.
Game two had been played the previous day at the same Melbourne venue, with New Zealand 126 all out batting first in 46.4 overs. Greg Chappell made sure his side levelled the series with 58 not out in a seven-wicket triumph.
‘‘Very low, no pace and bounce,’’ Edgar said of the wicket.
‘‘Probably why Trevor Chappell bowled the last over. I know Greg got criticised by various commentators [over his bowling organisation] but in hindsight he was probably the best guy to bowl it.’’
THE CATCH THAT WASN’T Had it not been for the sensational climax yet to come, there still would have been a massive controversial talking point that was overshadowed by the underarm.
When on 58 as Australia built an imposing total batting first, Greg Chappell lofted Lance Cairns into the vast mid-wicket outfield, Martin Snedden sprinted in a dived forward to grab a spectacular catch centimetres off the grass.
‘‘WHAT A CATCH!’’ exclaimed commentator Richie Benaud, in what was to become a famous catchphrase. ‘‘That is one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in my life.’’
But it’s not a catch until it’s given out, and umpires Peter Cronin and Don Weser didn’t do so while Chappell wasn’t budging.
New Zealand skipper Geoff Howarth confronted Cronin, who was nearest to the catch at the bowler’s end, who remarkably told him he didn’t see the catch being completed as he was making sure Chappell didn’t leave his bat short of the crease when attempting two runs.
‘‘It was actually so obvious to me, even from the other side of the ground. I could see he’d taken it quite cleanly,’’ Edgar said.
Soon after, Mark Burgess ‘playfully’ threatened Cronin with the mallet he was using for some pitch repairs, producing a staggering moment of commentary from former England paceman Frank ‘Typhoon’ Tyson: ‘‘Well, the Maoris [sic] would have been proud of Burgess there.’’
Chappell got to 90 from 122 balls before he bizarrely departed to a near-replica catch; this time by Edgar off Snedden’s bowling.
Chappell walked this time – ‘‘he had a few more runs under his belt,’’ Edgar reckoned.
The left-handed opener anchored New Zealand’s chase for a taxing 235 for victory – probably the 2019 equivalent of needing 360 on a good deck – with his unbeaten ton, facing 141 balls