LONDON, (Reuters) – West Indies and England have played three particularly memorable tests at Lord’s.
In 1950 West Indies recorded their first test victory in England against a powerful home side and in 1963 the teams fought out a thrilling draw with all four results possible at the start of the final over.
The 2000 test featured an extraordinary second day in which spectators witnessed at least one ball in all four innings.
1950
West Indies landed in England in late April with three batsmen lauded by the cricketing world and two tyro spinners barely known even in the Caribbean.
Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott, each born on the tiny island of Barbados, were magnificent batsmen in differing styles.
Worrell was all elegance, the compact Weekes drove and cut with savage certainty and the powerful Walcott hammered the ball with equal power off both front and back foot.
Sonny Ramadhin was a mystery bowler who, with shirt sleeves rolled down, spun the ball both ways with no obvious change in action. Alf Valentine, an orthodox left-armer, spun the ball ferociously.
All five contributed in full to West Indies’ 326-run victory in the second test. Ramadhin and Valentine took 18 of the 20 wickets to fall, Worrell scored a delightful 52 and Weekes an assured 63 in West Indies’ first innings while Walcott struck 168 not out in the second with 24 boundaries.
At the end of the match Marylebone Cricket Club members blinked in disbelief as Trinidad calypso singer Lord Kitchener led a joyous bunch of West Indies supporters in a celebration dance around the ground.
1963
Two men towered over a match which rivalled the famous 1960 tied test between West Indies and Australia for sustained excitement.
England captain Ted Dexter tamed the mighty West Indies’ fast bowlers Wesley Hall and Charlie Griffith with 70 from 75 balls, driving their fiercest deliveries with equal violence to the boundary.
The magnificently built Hall bowled 40 overs of high speed in England’s second innings. As in the Brisbane tied test, he bowled the dramatic final over in which England eventually required six runs to win off the last ball with the last pair at the crease. The non-striker was Colin Cowdrey who would have had to bat left-handed if required because Hall had broken his left arm. David Allen calmly fended off one of Hall’s fastest deliveries to earn the draw.
2000
West Indies’ first innings closed at 267 with the first ball of the second day. England, beaten by an innings in the first test due to the ageless menace and accuracy of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, succumbed abjectly yet again to the great fast bowling duo, this time for 134.
Andrew Caddick then reversed the course of the game with an unplayable spell of hostile fast bowling to bundle the visitors out for 54 in little more than two hours.
Patient innings from Michael Atherton (45) and Michael Vaughan (41) against the desperately unlucky Ambrose set England on their way to a two-wicket victory.
England went on to win their first series against West Indies since 1969. They subsequently retained the Wisden trophy until this year’s series in the Caribbean.
