“Whatever we do, we must not lose this Test!”
That was captain Clive Lloyd’s first statement in the team meeting in 1979/80, as we prepared for Test No. 2 against Australia, after we had a creditable draw in Test No. 1 at Brisbane.
The second Test was to be played at a “results” ground: Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
We did win that Test, but winning any second Test in any series is much harder, ball for ball, than winning the first.
By the second, every team’s players know much more of what is required. Darren Sammy and Ottis Gibson would have said similar things last Thursday evening, as they prepared for the second Test against Pakistan at Warner Park in St Kitts.
My first Test series was against Pakistan in 1977 and the second Test was truly memorable.
After just managing to draw the opening Test, we moved to Port-of-Spain. The Queen’s Park Oval is a great “results” ground.
“I expect that Pakistan will come very hard at us here, especially with their spinners!” cautioned Lloyd.
There were at least 30 000 people at the Queen’s Park Oval on Day 1 – way more than it now holds –as the cycle track was used for accommodation.
For me, this was a truly massive game, not bigger than my first Test, but, really, more personal.
Both Joel Garner and I had done a good enough job in the first Test to keep our places, getting 13 wickets between us in our first Test. For me, though, there was very much more involved here.
If anyone had experienced the crowds at Queen’s Park in the 1970s and 1980s, he or she would know that they were ruthless in their criticism.
In 1975, I had played for Paragon Sports Club and had done really well, with the club winning everything.
This did not sit too well with the Queen’s Park members, and word was that “dah Guyanee Kraff is a mark man!” Whoa! Talk about nervous!
Lloyd won the toss and elected to field first. I was dripping with anxiety before leaving the dressing room. Yet a strange calm came over me as I marked out my run. It is still a blur.
By the end of that first day, March 4, 1977, I had managed to cement my place, not only in the team for that full series, barring injury, but in the annals of West Indies cricket history!
After what can only be called two truly magical spells, I finished with eight wickets for 29 runs!
It should be noted that I had replaced the lightning-fast, highly successful Michael Holding in this team, due to his injury.
In his last Test, in England in 1976, at the Kennington Oval, London, he had had 14 wickets, including that magnificent eight for 92, on one of the best batting pitches, up to now, in the world.
Yet here I was, in only my second Test ever, with better figures.
Eight for 29 is still the best ever one-innings return for West Indies fast bowlers, and still second best overall, period. Jack Noriega’s nine for 95, against India in 1971, is the record.
I remember three distinctly separate situations in that first innings.
In my first spell to lunch the scoreboard showed me at three for 21 from eight overs – an excellent start. Then, in my second spell, after lunch I had five for eight from 5.5 overs! Whatever I wanted to do with the ball, happened!
My second memory was getting Asif Iqbal out first ball, caught behind by wicketkeeper Deryck Murray, with one of the two best deliveries I had ever bowled in my life.
According to Jerry Gomez, doing the radio commentary: “Colin Croft is bowling very, very fast leg breaks!”
That particular leg-cutter was pitched just outside leg-stump, on a full length.
Since my delivery angle was so wide anyway, it seemed that the ball, on hitting the ground, deviated across the batsman almost 30 degrees, towards the slips, just touching the edge of the bat.
The third memory was seeing Wasim Raja’s leg stump uprooted as he played way inside an off-cutter – my fifth wicket in the innings.
You would expect that if one bowler gets eight for 29, then the entire batting innings should not get to 100. Yet Pakistan did not surrender!
Wasim Raja flashed for 65, Majid Khan made a defiant 47, and Pakistan mustered 180.
When West Indies batted, we made 316, thanks to Roy Fredericks’ 120.
When Pakistan batted a second time, they made 340; Sadiq Mohammed making 81 and Wasim Raja 84.
Andy Roberts had four wickets and Garner had three. I bowled just as well, but only had one wicket. The deliveries kept missing the damned edges of the bats!
Set 205 to win, to go 1-0 up in the five-Test series, West Indies closed out the game on 206-4, winning by six wickets; Gordon Greenidge 70 and Fredericks 57.
I was joint Man Of The Match with Wasim Raja.
Second Tests are really special, and the current one at Warner Park offers West Indies a great possibility of winning their first Test series at home for two years.
I say go for it. Whatever happens, they must not lose this Test. Enjoy!
Colin Croft is a former West Indies fast bowler. He still comments on the game.
