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(Part 45.) Turner turns up again.
With only six days to go to the 50th anniversary of the West Indies victory over Australia in the 1975 World Cup final, and having put the focus on the Caribbean side’s surprisingly easy defeat of the ‘Aussies’ on the last day of group action in the previous edition of this series, we now summarise the other three matches on that day, 14 June.
(via Wisden.)
We start with the lone truly competitive fixture between New Zealand and India from Group A in Manchester.
With a place in the semi-finals at stake, a tense encounter unfolded at Old Trafford with the ‘Kiwis’ again reliant on their ever-dependable captain and opening batsman Glenn Turner to guide them to a four-wicket victory with seven balls to spare.
Scores: India 230 all out off 60 overs (Syed Abid Ali 70, Anshuman Gaekwad 37, Srinivas Venkataraghavan 26 not out; Brian McKechnie 3-49, Dayle Hadlee 2-32, Richard Hadlee 2-48, Hedley Howarth 2-48);
New Zealand 233 for 6 off 58.5 overs (Glenn Turner 114 not out, Brian Hastings 34, Ken Wadsworth 22; Syed Abid Ali 2-35, Bishen Bedi 1-28, Mohinder Amarnath 1-40, Madan Lal 1-62).
Result: New Zealand won by four wickets.
Toss: India.
Turner’s second century of the tournament—he was the first man to score multiple hundreds in a World Cup—was critical to New Zealand advancing to a showdown with tournament favourites, the West Indies, four days later at The Oval in London.
His measured, composed 114 not out from the top of the innings ensured that a potentially tricky target of 231 was overhauled and victory achieved, despite a determined all-round performance by Abid Ali.
Ali, best remembered by Trinidad and Tobago cricket fans for bowling Roy Fredericks with the first ball of a Test match at Queen’s Park Oval in 1971, played an important hand for India with a topscore of 70, which lifted his side to 230 all out.
He stroked five fours and hoisted a six in an innings, which spanned 98 deliveries.
Coming to the crease with his side in trouble at 94 for five when Eknath Solkar became the first wicket of spinner Hedley Howarth, Ali saw Howarth remove Brijesh Patel shortly after.
But he found a determined partner in Madan Lal as the pair added 55 for the seventh wicket, until Lal became the second wicket of Brian McKechnie via a caught-and-bowled chance.
Dayle Hadlee then swiftly disposed of Mohinder Amarnath, surprisingly demoted to number nine in the batting order. However, Ali found another resolute partner in Srinivas Venkataraghavan, as the captain did his best to justify the decision to bat first on winning the toss.
Venkataraghavan helped to add 60 for the ninth wicket until Ali fell to McKechnie, the seamer finishing with the best figures of three for 49.
(via Sportzcraazy.)
In reply, Turner played the quintessential captain’s innings with his second unbeaten century of the competition, which took his team into the last four and lifted his batting tally in this inaugural competition to 297—also his batting average going into the duel with Clive Lloyd’s side.
His innings occupied 177 deliveries during which he stroked 13 fours and repelled the threat of an Indian team desperate to banish the memory of their shameful display against hosts England on the opening day, a week earlier at Lord’s.
Inspired by his contribution with the bat, Ali kept his team in the match with the wickets of John Parker and Richard Hadlee. Earlier, Bishen Bedi was first to strike when he had Turner’s opening partner John Morrison caught behind while Geoff Howarth was run out for just nine.
(via Sportzcraazy.)
Turner then found support from Brian Hastings and Ken Wadsworth in consecutive half-century partnerships. Amarnath accounted for Hastings while Lal—who would become part of Indian cricketing folklore with the match-turning wicket of Vivian Richards in the 1983 World Cup final—kept things tight by trapping wicketkeeper-batsman Wadsworth lbw at 185 for five.
However, Richard Hadlee stayed with Turner for another 39 runs until he fell to Ali, leaving elder brother Dayle to partner Turner to the target in the 59th over.
In the other Group A match, England completed a 100 percent win record as expected in demolishing East Africa by 196 runs.
Photo: Getty Images.
Scores: England 290 for five off 60 overs (Dennis Amiss 88, Barry Wood 77, Frank Hayes 52; Zulfiqar Ali 3-63, Mehmood Quraishy 2-55);
East Africa 94 all out off 52.3 overs (Ramesh Sethi 30, Mehmood Quraishy 19; John Snow 4-11, Peter Lever 3-32, Tony Greig 2-18, Chris Old 1-2).
Result: England won by 196 runs.
Toss: East Africa.
(via Historic Cricket Pictures.)
Playing on his home ground in Birmingham, Dennis Amiss followed up his commanding 137 on the opening day against India with 88 against the inexperienced minnows.
His opening stand of 158 with Barry Wood (77) laid the platform for a massive total. But despite a half-century from Frank Hayes as well, at number three in the order, England’s innings lost momentum at the end.
This was down to the work of Zulfiqar Ali and Mehmood Quraishy, who combined for the five wickets to fall in the innings.
Photo: Hulton Archive.
Despite that effort, the target of 291 was always well beyond the range of the East Africans, especially after John Snow demolished the top of the order, taking the first four wickets to leave the underdogs tottering at 21 for four.
Although the innings dragged out to the 53rd over, the match was long finished as a contest. And England’s eyes were already turning to a semi-final clash with Ashes rivals Australia four days later at Headingley by the time the formalities at Edgbaston were completed.
Across in Group B, Pakistan managed to lift themselves from the crushing disappointment of a one-wicket loss to the West Indies, a result which ended their chances of advancing to the semi-finals, to close out their tournament with an overwhelming 192-run victory over Sri Lanka in Nottingham.
Scores: Pakistan 330 for six off 60 overs (Zaheer Abbas 97, Majid Khan 84, Sadiq Mohammad 74; Bandula Warnapura 3-42, Tony Opatha 2-67, Somachandra de Silva 1-61);
Sri Lanka 138 all out off 50.1 overs (Anura Tennekoon 30, Somachandra de Silva 26, Ranjit Fernando 21; Imran Khan 3-15, Sadiq Mohammad 2-20, Javed Miandad 2-22).
Result: Pakistan won by 192 runs.
Toss: Sri Lanka.
Abbas signed off on a disappointing 1975 World Cup with 97 in a huge win over Sri Lanka.
(via Cricket Conclusive.)
It could not have been easy for the Pakistanis to muster much enthusiasm for the match given their effective elimination three days earlier in Birmingham when they looked to have the match against the West Indies won, before a 64-run last-wicket partnership between Deryck Murray and Andy Roberts produced the first really thrilling finish in the young history of One-Day International cricket.
However, the match at Trent Bridge was the chance to go out with a win and at least give their loyal supporters something to smile about.
They did not disappoint as Zaheer Abbas’ 97 built on an impressive opening stand of 159 between Majid Khan (84) and Sadiq Mohammad (74) and left the Sri Lankans with another massive challenge.
Battered and bruised by Jeff Thomson in their previous match, Anura Tennekoon’s team could not muster the same fighting spirit against Pakistan.
Instead, they limped along to the 51st over until all-rounder Imran Khan, who missed the critical encounter with the West Indies because of exams at Cambridge, formalised the result with his third wicket of the innings.
Next: Playing for peanuts.
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Fazeer Mohammed is a journalist/broadcaster with almost 40 years’ experience across a range of media.
His interest in cricket, and particularly its history, started at home via his father’s small collection of autobiographies and magazines, offering perspectives and context which have informed his commentary and analysis on contemporary issues in the game.
