World Cup video-one of the greatest innings vs 2 of the best fastmen ever!
As a boy I woke my “Uncle” Alvin Kallicharran in the mornings before he played Test cricket, and we went running around the Bourda Cricket Ground, after which I bowled to him in the nets. In 1972 he made 100* on his Test debut. But it was his innings of 78 in the inaugural ICC World Cup in 1975 when he took on the fearsome speed of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee that made an impact beyond the World Cup.
In ten balls….4,4,4,4,4,1,4,6,0,4 – 35 runs
The following is some of what Martin Willamson of ESPNcricinfo wrote:
“West Indies v Australia at The Oval was the most anticipated match of the group stages, pitting the Australian pace attack which had destroyed England the previous winter against some of the game’s great strokemakers.
Lillee, steaming in from the Vauxhall End, was fired up. Kallicharran, only 5’4″, bareheaded and with his shirt unbuttoned halfway down, decided to meet fire with fire….when Lillee, glowering and hostile, came back for his second spell. Anything short was savagely hooked, and the faster and shorter Lillee bowled, the further the ball travelled.”
The only protection batsmen had in those days was a cup and BTW, speed was measured at the batsman’s end, not out of the bowler’s hand as it is now (it’s much faster out of the bowler’s hand).
