Thrilling win to N.Z. with one ball remaining

Press, 24 January 1986, Page 30

Thrilling win to N.Z. with one ball remaining

A spine-tingling finish, with New Zealand achieving victory over India with one ball remaining in the match, put its Benson and Hedges one-day cricket series campaign back on course in Melbourne last evening.

The win, New Zealand’s second in six games, came when Richard Hadlee lofted the penultimate ball of Roger Binny’s sixth over to long on, with five wickets In hand. New Zealand now has five points, one more than India, and four less than Australia. Needing 239 to win, New Zealand required a shade over seven an over for much of the second half of Its 50 overs. Crucial innings by Martin and Jeff Crowe, John Reid, Jeremy Coney and, early on, John Wright and Bruce Edgar, steered New Zealand to a thrilling victory. For the first time in the series, all New Zealand’s top order batsmen got runs. Wright blazed 39 off 52 balls, his best effort of the series, while Edgar chipped in with a useful hand, the pair sharing a 49-run opening stand in only 13 overs. But it was Martin Crowe, batting with poise and assurance, who played the outstanding hand. Facing skilful, demanding spin bowling from Ravi Shastri, Crowe had to work hard for his runs but kept a cool head, until holing out in the forty-third over. His excellent 63 came off 93 balls, and included just one boundary. Reid, who had struggled for runs in the one-day internationals, played an important innings, which lasted 36 balls, before being brilliantly run out from mid-wicket by Binny.

Jeff Crowe and Coney added 50, taking nine runs off three consecutive overs and 11 from the forty-seventh. Crowe departed — 30 runs from 23 balls — with seven balls remaining and four runs needed, trying to heave Kapil Dev through the on side.

Binny’s last over, bowled with the crowd in a state of frantic excitement, had Coney stab a single to cover; the batsman scamper a leg bye; and Coney tickle another single to short fine leg from the first three balls. Binny smartly fielded the fourth ball, hit back to him, before Hadlee finished the job.

New Zealand will have cause to wonder just how India got 217 runs off its last 37 overs. The Indian total was based on three significant stanzas. Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohinder Amamath resurrected a difficult situation with an 82-run stand for the third wicket; Kapil Dev and Amarnath then lifted the run rate markedly in a partnership of 67 for the fourth wicket; and Chetan Sharma provided the final thrust by crashing 16 runs from the fiftieth over, bowled by Hadlee.

Amarnath and Dev played the decisive hands. From being scoreless for his first 16 balls, Amarnath brought up 50 off a further 61 balls and scored his 74 off 101 deliveries. After a slow start, he drove sweetly through the off-side, pushed the ball intelli-

gently into space and lofted Coney superbly over the long off boundary. He fell to a brilliant catch by John Bracewell, off his own bowling, clutching the ball wide to his right

Dev put enormous pressure on the New Zealand fielding, which, with notable exceptions such as Wright and Martin Crowe, became decidedly ragged as Dev turned ones into twos, and twos into threes. His innings lasted just 39 balls. Ewen Chatfield and Hadlee had turned in impressive opening spells, Chatfield toiling away on a nagging length and Hadlee producing movement in the air and off the pitch. Krisnammachari Srikkanth, uncomfortably tied down, charged Chatfield, changed his mind and popped a simple return catch. Shastri played the Clayton’s forward defensive stroke to Hadlee — his front foot pressed on the batting crease — and was caught dead in line with his wicket.

Vengsarkar and Amarnath lifted the run rate to three, before Vengsarkar, having thumped the previous ball through the covers, tried to swing John Bracewell over midwicket and missed.

Wright, with a hard, flat return from fine leg ran out Mohammed Azharuddin, but by then New Zealand had lost a large measure of its early control as neither spinner, Bracewell or particuarly Stephen Boock, was able

to keep the run rate in check. Coney surprised by bowling Martin Crowe for just five overs, which cost only 13 runs, while Boock was plundered for 51 in eight overs and Bracewell for 53 in 10. INDIA K. Srikkanth c and b Chatfield 9 R. Shastri lbw b Hadlee 6 M. Amamath c and b Bracewell 74 D. Vengsarkar b Bracewell 43 M. Azharuddin run out. 12 Kapil Dev c Bracewell b Chatfield 47 A. Malhotra c Wright b Chatfield 7 C. Shanna not out. . . . 20 R. Binny b Chatfield . . 11 K. More not out 1 Extras (b2, lb 3, w3) . 8 Total (for 8 wkts) 238 Fall: 15, 16, 98, 115, 182, 205, 205, 220. Bowling.—Hadlee 10, 1, 52, 1 (w2); Chatfield 10, 2, 28, 4; Coney 7,0, 36, 0; Bracewell 10, 0, 53, 2; Boock 8,0, 51, 0; M. Crowe 5,0, 13, 0 (wl). NEW ZEALAND J. Wright st More b Amamath 39 B. Edgar c Vengsarkar b Shastri 30 M. Crowe c Shastri b Kapil Dev 67 J. Reid run out 35 J. Crowe b Kapil Dev. . 30 J. Coney not out 27 R. Hadlee not out ... . 1 Extras (bl, lb 7, w2) . 10 Total (for 5 wkts) 239 Fall: 49, 112, 176, 185, 235. Bowling.— Kapil Dev 10, 1, 36, 2; R. Binny 5.5, 1, 31, 0 (wl); C. Sharma 10, 0, 57, 0 (wl); M. Amamath 5,0, 26, 1; R. Shastri 10, 0, 30, 1; S. Yadav 9,0, 51, 0.

Points table.— D L Pt P W Australia 6 4 1 1 9 N. Zealand 6 2 1 3 5 India 6 2 — 4 4