Today's instalment in the memories of Test cricket series is a guest choice. I invited Bob Borsley to nominate an incident that particularly stands out for him and he kindly obliged. Bob writes:
I was 12 at the time, and it was the first home Ashes series that I had really followed. I had followed the series in Australia in 1958-59 when an England team which I thought was the best in the world was humiliated 4-0. It was a traumatic experience. Almost enough to put me off cricket and turn me into a soccer fan. But not quite. The 1961 series looked to be going the same way when Australia won the second Test comfortably. But England came back to win the third Test even more comfortably. The fourth Test at Old Trafford went well for England and on the last day they were set 256 to win. All was well at first. They reached 150 for the loss of just one wicket thanks to Ted Dexter, who in Wisden's words provided 'a glorious display of controlled hitting'. It looked as if England were heading for a 2-1 lead with one Test to play and every chance of winning back the Ashes. When Dexter was dismissed by Richie Benaud for 76, I was not worried. Just over 100 runs were needed with 8 wickets left, and the next man in was arguably England's best batsman, Peter May. Then Benaud bowled May round his legs for a duck. It was the beginning of the end. Australia won the Test by 54 runs and went on to win the series 2-1. I had to wait another 10 years for England to win back the Ashes. If you're an England cricket fan you learn to be patient!Here is how Peter May's dismissal is described in some of the books I have:
Suddenly the position changed completely. Benaud, bowling round the wicket and pitching into the rough of Trueman's footholds, brought such a collapse that in twenty minutes to tea England virtually lost the game. After getting Dexter caught at the wicket, Benaud bowled May round his legs... - Wisden 1962Perhaps you weren't following developments at Old Trafford on 1 August 1961 (if indeed you even existed then). I know I wasn't. I was 17 and my attention must have wandered. But I hope you'll now feel you're in a good position to say just how May was dismissed. What shot was he trying to play?The ball pitched so wide of the leg stump that May, quite rightly, went to sweep it. Unfortunately for him, while the ball was in flight he had moved just an inch or two towards his leg and middle stumps and the ball came behind his legs and bowled him. - Bill Bowes, Aussies and Ashes
But disaster for England was at hand. May played one ball from Benaud, and was then bowled round his legs for a duck. The England captain could hardly believe it, and the crowd, so recently alive with the expectation of victory, was stunned into silence. - Roy Lester, The Fight for the Ashes in 1961
Benaud's bowling plan paid off its biggest dividend. With his second ball to May he bowled the England captain round his legs for a 'duck'. May contributed much to his own downfall. He seldom plays the sweep shot, and when he tried it this time he failed to get his body between the pitch of the ball and the stumps, with the result that when he missed the ball his wicket was uncovered. - Ray Lindwall, The Challenging Tests
Now Benaud, still bowling round the wicket, turned his attentions to May. Benaud bowled one wide of the leg stump, and, with the field invitingly open on that side, May went for the sweep. He missed contact, did not have his legs in the right position as the second line of defence, and the ball spun sharply to take the leg stump. - R.A. Roberts, The Fight for the Ashes 1961
The great reception [for Dexter's innings] had barely died away when May began his long walk back. An ill-advised and half-hearted sweep shot saw him bowled round his legs by Benaud and England had gone from 150 for one to 150 for three. - Jim Laker, The Australian Tour of 1961
[Dexter] had come into a game still dominated in feeling and balance by the Australian last-wicket stand [of 98 - NG]. He left it lying like an emperor's gift in England's hands... Then Benaud bowled to May, still going round the wicket and bowling from the extreme edge of the crease. His second ball pitched well outside the leg-stump and May, not yet off the mark, and seeing - surely to his suprise - a wide ball proffered to him on the all but unguarded leg-side, played a stroke not normally in his game - the sweep. In his surprise he neglected to put his leg in line, his stroke was crooked and the leg-break bowled him round his legs... May stayed a moment as if incredulous and then walked away... - John Arlott, The Australian Challenge
[Benaud] had set in train a chain of dismissals such as Test cricket on a day well-favoured to batsmen can rarely have known. England now fell completely apart. May, at a moment when the game was running entirely England's way, swept and missed to be bowled around the legs. Benaud, from around the wicket, dropped into the rough and the ball turned vastly. So also had Australia's luck... - Charles Fortune, The Australians in England 1961
It was no good trying to keep him quiet... we had to get him out and quickly too. I reasoned that there was just a chance if I could land on those rough spots to him... that I could trap him... The first ball didn't land in the rough at all but on the leg stump and May played it back along the wicket. "Get it further out, you idiot," I told myself. The next ball did land in the rough and as May tried to sweep it, the ball dug into the turf and whipped back towards the leg stump. I saw all this from where I had run to the on-side of the wicket… there was that terrible fraction of a second as I waited for the ball to hit the leg stump... and then an unrestrained yell of joy. May was out... - Richie Benaud, A Tale of Two Tests
[For links to the other posts in this series, see here.]