of stumps. The Daily Mail’s Alex Bannister suggested, ‘The West Indians must be made to understand that if they want to watch, they must abide by English codes of cricket behaviour.’ A warning was issued that anyone encroaching on the playing surface would be removed from the ground.
By the time the fourth day began on yet another glorious morning, the first 100 standpipes had now appeared in Devon, where many households were without their regular water supply. The new Drought Act was to be enforced in the area, making it illegal to wash cars and fill paddling pools. The worst drought in 250 years was causing increasing numbers of forest fires and forcing Dorset firemen to have holidays cancelled. While the summer sun had at first been thought to offer an advantage to the players from the Caribbean, Clive Lloyd suggests, ‘It led to a string of slow, ideal batting pitches which really were no good for our fast bowlers.’
On this slow Oval wicket, the draw still appeared the mostly likely result, especially when Amiss picked up where he had left off on Saturday. Bowling round the wicket, Holding and Roberts were both clipped uppishly behind square for four. Amiss leaned into Roberts’s slower ball, before Holding, abandoning his early-morning tactic, was driven airily through the covers, taking Amiss to 199. Two balls later, Holding over-pitched and Amiss flicked over Greenidge at square leg to complete the second double-century of his Test career. The first had been a match-saving effort in the West Indies and if Amiss could find someone to stick around with him, maybe he could give a repeat performance.
Underwood’s stay at the wicket had already ended, losing his off stump in Holding’s third over of the day, giving the bowler his second five-wicket haul of the series. Knott was the ideal character for a rearguard action, turning Roberts over the fast outfield for four and causing Daniel, who had been warming up to replace Holding, to pull up with a hamstring injury as he gave chase. The partnership England needed, however, failed to materialise when Amiss finally fell victim to his new strategy. His right foot was frozen a long stride outside off stump as Holding’s delivery brushed lightly against the pad on its way to the stumps. With 203 to his name, including 28 fours, Amiss could feel that his method had paid its way.
‘It was a great innings by Dennis, a one-off,’ says Mike Selvey. ‘He had worked towards that ever since he’d got hit and I know how hard he had worked. He had a reputation of not liking quick bowling, but it was just that he didn’t play the bouncer that well. He wasn’t a scared batsman. His technique involved standing right over onto off stump but he was absolutely monumental through the leg side anyway. He would clip the ball away for hour upon hour.’
According to Derek Underwood, ‘I can’t recall a greater comeback innings throughout my career. If anyone gave a V-sign to the selectors, Dennis did it on that occasion.’
Amiss would tour once more with England, but within a year – with Australia again the visitors – he would be out of Test cricket. This innings, however, had ensured a much kinder epitaph for his career. ‘It helped me to go out of the game on a better note,’ he admits. ‘It was nice to have done it.’
Knott was in one of his creative moods, timing drives either side of the wicket against Holder and King, whose strengthening of his leg-side field simply persuaded Knott to go the other way. Geoff Miller’s first Test boundary had been nudged through the slips and when he aimed an expansive back-foot drive against Holder he lost his stumps – just as Dickie Bird’s cry of ‘no-ball’ was reaching his end of the wicket. A neat drive off Holder helped Miller settle before Knott turned the final ball of the morning off his toes to reach 45 out of 401 for 7.
The gathering afternoon clouds looked like symbols of England’s fate when Knott was rapped on the pads by Roberts and Miller was beaten by Roberts and Holding. Both batsmen survived. Knott hit Roberts through mid-wicket and then pushed a single to complete his fifty. The next ball Knott faced, from Holding, was short of a length and, getting in position to force through the off side, he edged into his stumps off the inside of an angled bat.
Selvey found the ring of close fielders reinforced by an extra gully, short leg and silly point, but he saved them a job by chopping his first ball against the stumps in the identical manner to Knott. It gave Holding his eighth wicket, none of them having required any assistance from a fielder. His father, Ralph, watching his son in England for the first time, claimed, ‘He always bowled straight, even when he was at school.’
Holding’s hopes of capping his remarkable performance with a hat-trick disappeared with a sloppy delivery down the leg side. Miller, left with the task of getting England closer to the follow-on target, drove Roberts off the back foot and was quickly into position for another boundary. But then he mistimed a pull to Bernard Julien, the substitute fielder, at mid-on to end a promising début innings of 36, leaving England 435 all out.
With a lead of 252, Lloyd – his bowlers depleted by Daniel’s injury and with almost 130 overs in their legs – decided not to enforce the follow-on. The West Indies openers, their gameplan to slog as many runs as quickly as possible, came out to bat with 55 minutes remaining before tea. The West Indies fans greeted them excitedly and were rewarded by seeing Greenidge, having been brushed on either the glove or arm by a Bob Willis lifter, hit three fours in the first over. The first was an effortless hook; then Greenidge thrashed a cover drive and, with extravagant back-lift, hoisted Willis over mid-wicket. Two more short balls disappeared to the boundary in Willis’s next over. To see the supposed saviour of England’s fast bowling being dealt with so callously so soon after Holding’s brilliance brought the home side’s predicament even more sharply into focus. The subsequent comment of former Australian batsman David Hookes that ‘Bob was a fucking off-spinner compared to Michael’ could easily have had its roots at The Oval.
Roy Fredericks showed Selvey the perils of bowling even slightly short before Greenidge lifted Greig over extra cover to give the West Indies 66 runs off 13 overs at tea. Fredericks’s steady accumulation was less brutal than that of his partner but resulted in him reaching his half-century first when he drove Selvey for two fours in an over. Greenidge cut and swept Underwood as the boundaries came in a cluster and the score reached 150 in two minutes short of two hours. Greenidge took one long stride to meet Willis with a towering drive into the pavilion for six, the start of his sequence of 22 runs off 11 balls. Shortly before six o’clock, at the end of the 32nd over and with both batsmen in the mid-80s, Lloyd waved his men back to the pavilion. A score of 182 for 0 had produced a lead of 434.
The two-hour passage of play had underlined once again the difference in talent and effectiveness of the two teams. Greig, meanwhile, understood what it meant for him personally in the light of his comments at the start of the summer. Never one to hide from his critics or deflect the glare of attention, he gave the cheering West Indian fans what they wanted. As the England players left the arena, he walked towards the open stands on the Harleyford Road side of the ground and dropped to the grass. Smiling in the direction of the crowd, he crawled on hands and knees, an attempt to make his peace with the West Indians. Over the delighted din, Tony Cozier told BBC Radio listeners, ‘For three or four paces he has, in his own words, grovelled.’
Greig would explain, ‘It was just a bit of fun. I was walking on my knees. I realise I made a mistake in using that word at the start of the series and they haven’t let me forget it.’
Clyde Walcott described Greig’s antics as ‘a delightful way to end a happy and rewarding series’, although the action wasn’t quite finished. Lloyd’s declaration left England with 20 minutes at the crease before stumps. Curiously, Lawrence Rowe remembers the West Indian bowlers having urged Lloyd not to end the West Indies’ innings. He recalled Lloyd being urged, ‘Don’t declare, Skip, because we can’t get these people out on this wicket.’ According to Rowe, Lloyd argued, ‘If we bat out the day, we are just going to kill the cricket. We have to declare.’
It seems an unlikely scenario. The wicket might have been flat and the evening sun
