Kim's game of his life
When West Indies went to Australia in 1981 they had not lost in 15 Tests. Australia had just lost against Pakistan, albeit a dead rubber, by an innings. On an MCG pitch so lively it was deadly West Indies had Holding, Garner, Roberts and Croft. Australia
Interviews by Nagraj Gollapudi
27-Oct-2006
When West Indies went to Australia in 1981 they had not lost in 15 Tests. Australia had just lost against Pakistan, albeit a dead rubber, by an innings. On an MCG pitch so lively it was deadly West Indies had Holding, Garner, Roberts and Croft. Australia had Kim Hughes
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Terry Alderman (Australian
bowler): It was a shocking wicket.
If you get a bouncer halfway down
the wicket, on a normal wicket you
duck under it but on that MCG
wicket you weren't sure whether it
was going to fl y over your head or
cannon into you. I ducked into a
Joel Garner bouncer and copped it
on the back of my head.
Andy Roberts (West Indies bowler):
It was not a very good pitch and it
stayed that way till the end.
Kim Hughes (Australian batsman):
It hadn't been a good wicket for a
number of years because it had
very dangerous bounce. It was
variable and, when you are facing
fast bowlers of that stature, it is
the worst surface to bat on because
you're not too sure if it's going to
be up or down. Add to that the
wetness on the first day and it was
quite a task.
When Hughes came in, Australia
were 8 for 3. Greg Chappell was out
first ball, his fourth successive duck
since the Test defeat by Pakistan.
Roberts: Kim batted very well and
played a lot of shots, unlike the
other batsmen. He played all of
them - he hooked, he cut, he
pulled and never gave up. He took
up the challenge and it paid off for
him. It was a great innings. You
don't find one batsman playing
that sort of innings on more than
one occasion. That was just his day.
The nature of the pitch demanded
an innings where he had to
counter-attack.
Hughes: I realised pretty quickly
that to hang around and defend
was going to be a waste of time
because the wicket was such that
sooner or later something was
going to happen. So I thought what
I could do was try to play as many
shots as possible. Hopefully that
way the bowlers would forget
about bowling at the stumps and
try and bowl a bit more at me.
Running down the wicket and
hitting Joel past cover, hooking
Roberts for a boundary, hitting a
few square-drives off Holding -
those were some of the special
shots that gave me a lot of
pleasure. Sometimes I got carried
away. For instance, after that hook
shot, I tried hooking another. The
ball just came in a couple of yards
quicker and Roberts gave me a
look that seemed to say, "Don't get
too clever." I was lucky not to get
hit in the head.
Alderman: He went after them. He
was ruthless and devastating and
at his fl amboyant best. We really
needed somebody to take on the
West Indies. That was the secret: if
you fought fire with fire against
them, they could crumble just like
any other bowling attack.
Gus Logie (West Indies 12th man):
Kim Hughes's innings was a
magnificent one. He was cutting,
driving and pulling against one of the best bowling attacks. It was a
lesson in courage and self-belief. I
was 21 and that was my first Test
series, though I didn't play; I was a
substitute in the match. It was a
very competitive series. It was the
first time I saw, up close and
personal, the likes of Dennis Lillee
and Jeff Thomson.
There were no restrictions on
bouncers, protective helmets were
in their infancy and West Indies'
attack consisted of nothing but
pace, brilliantly intimidating pace.
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Hughes: Bodyline was never four
quick bowlers all day, it was
Larwood from one end for a period
of time. The West Indies pace
quartet was relentless. You couldn't
even get into double figures
without respite. They bowled in
such a way as to create fear and the
best way to do that was to bowl at
the head. That was the greatest
fear: not losing your wicket but
getting hit in the head. That was
the greatest bowling attack that
has ever been. Michael Holding was
a Rolls-Royce - genuinely quick and
such a nice action. Then you had
big Joel, who was six-foot-nine, and
he had that lethal yorker. And then
there was Andy Roberts, who was as
close as I've seen to Dennis Lillee
with his mental attitude - a quality
bowler with a very well-disguised
bouncer, and he could vary his
pace, bowl cutters. To me, though,
Colin Croft was the hardest to face,
with his awkward action where he
would come from a wide angle and
make the ball come in or go away. I
found I could get to Joel a bit as his
medium pace was easy for me to
handle, so I could step out and hit
him at times.
Roberts: I didn't look at our
bowling as bodyline. Since the
wicket wasn't well prepared, a lot
of balls that bounced weren't
necessarily bouncers. And look at
the height of our bowlers - when
you've these tall bowlers coming at
you, the ball is obviously going to
bounce more. For them to say
there was a barrage of bouncers
was actually fear.
While Hughes fought fire with fire at
one end wickets tumbled at the
other. The next top score in
Australia's first innings was 21. At
155 for 9, Hughes was joined by
Alderman, who had a Test batting
average of six.
Alderman: When I went out, Kim
was on 70 or so and looking for his
hundred. So I told him, "I might
not be hanging around too long
with the way this wicket is and the
way they're bowling, so you better
get after them."
Hughes: When he walked in, I
wished Terry good luck. I almost
said to myself that he was gonna
need it, because he wasn't the
greatest batsman. But he gutsed it
out - got in behind them, missed
some, hit some and had his share of
luck. He didn't fl inch, even if he
took a few on the body. We were
150-odd when Terry came in and
we put on about 40. That lifted
everybody's confidence and we
finished on a good note. My fatherin-
law was very ill at the time and
he died within about a week of that
innings. I knew he was watching.
So the hundred was a special one.
Joel bowled one wide of the off
stump and I cut it to the point
boundary to get to the three-figure
mark. It was Boxing Day and the
crowds were emotionally involved -
a couple of hundred jumped the
fence to storm the ground.
Immediately after my hundred
Terry got out. Croft came running
towards me and I thought, "He's not
gonna hit me now, is he?" He said,
"Well played, maan, well played."
In all the years I played against
West Indies they never said a word.
On that day they appreciated how
difficult it was to bat against the
four of them and they respected my
courage. It was not only my best
innings but the greatest day of Test
cricket seen at the MCG. Most
importantly, we won the Test.
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Alderman: When you think of the
pressure that Kim was under,
batting with the tail, and with his
father-in-law in bad shape - taking
all those factors into account, it
was just one of those outstanding
individual efforts.
Hughes had made exactly 100 not
out off 200 balls out of 198 all out.
Could Australia's own speed
merchant Dennis Lillee make use of
the dodgy track?
Hughes: We had an hour or
thereabouts to go on that first day
after we were all out. Our bowlers
were all fired up with our fightback.
The crowd were really
involved and were chanting and
the occasion was ripe for Dennis to
do what only he could. Terry got
the breakthrough. Then Dennis
got Desmond Haynes caught and
the night-watchman Croft lbw. The
crowd went ballistic. Viv Richards
walked out but he got an inside
edge on to the stumps off the last
ball of the day. Fifty-thousand
hands went up in unison. That was
probably the only time they were
beaten in a match where the
conditions suited their bowlers.
Logie: When Richards walked in
late in the day, after Hughes's
heroic innings, there was this
reverberating chant of "Lillee,
Lillee, Lillee," and the next three
words were "Kill, kill, kill". Lillee
bowled his heart out and had us
against the ropes. We were
stranded at 10 for 4, from which
we never recovered.
West Indies actually secured a tiny
first-innings lead but it was a
personal triumph for Lillee who
became the leading Test wickettaker
of all time, passing Lance
Gibbs' total of 309. West Indies were
set 220 to win and fell 58 short, Lillee
completing a 10-wicket haul. During
the match the Melbourne club
announced the relaying of the
square over the next three years.
Roberts: We lost the Test match
mainly because of umpiring errors -
Allan Border got caught at short leg
[in the second innings] and it wasn't
given. He went on to make 60-odd
and that played a crucial part in
Australia taking the Test away.
Logie: One interesting thing was,
we had not brought the Frank
Worrell Trophy to Australia with
us, since we couldn't find it. We
were wondering what we would
hand over if we lost the series. But
after the fantastic Test in
Melbourne we managed to draw
the second and win in Adelaide to
draw the series.
Nagraj Gollapudi is Assistant Editor of Cricinfo Magazine