Twelve leg-befores, and a kicked stump

New Zealand needed 104 to beat West Indies at Carisbrook in February 1980 and got them nine wickets down, in 50 overs, with 19 extras. The card’s notes give the match a record: twelve leg-before decisions, seven of them to Hadlee. Its coverage list gives it a headline: the bowler’s Holding, the stumps are flying.

The match to 104

West Indies chose to bat and made 140, Desmond Haynes 55, Hadlee five for 34. New Zealand replied with 249, Bruce Edgar 65, Hadlee 51, Colin Croft four for 64. West Indies’ second innings was 212, Haynes 105 from 323 balls in 435 minutes, Hadlee six for 68, and it ran into the fifth morning. New Zealand needed 104.

Full scorecard: New Zealand v West Indies, 1st Test, Dunedin, 8–13 February 1980 →

The days

The close-of-play lines: New Zealand 30 for no wicket, New Zealand 236 for nine, West Indies 18 for one, a rest day, West Indies 210 for nine, end of match. Haynes carried his bat through the first innings for 55 in 276 minutes and batted 435 in the second, and was last out both times. The card’s run rates for the four innings are 2.00, 2.59, 1.95 and 2.08.

One hundred and four for nine

Edgar caught for 6 at 15. John Wright bowled by Holding for 11 at 28. Geoff Howarth caught for 11 at 40. Jeremy Coney leg before for 2 at 44, John Parker caught behind for 5 at 44, Warren Lees leg before first ball at 44. Peter Webb, on debut, leg before for 5 at 54. Hadlee bowled by Joel Garner for 17 at 73. Lance Cairns caught behind for 19 at 100. Nine down, four needed.

Gary Troup and Stephen Boock got them. Troup finished 7 not out from 38 balls, Boock 2 not out from ten, and the winning run was a leg-bye, one of seven byes and five leg-byes in the innings. Garner four for 36, Holding three for 24, Croft two for 25.

The appeal

What the headline refers to is an appeal by Holding, turned down, after which he kicked the stumps out of the ground. The card cannot show a refused appeal.

What it shows is a match with a record number of leg-befores, seven of them given for the home side’s bowler, and a target of 104 that took 50 overs and nearly did not arrive. The decisions that were given are on the card. The one that was not is the one the match is named for.

The second Test of the series would produce a bowler shoulder-charging one of these umpires in his run-up, which the visitors later called an accident. The tour has been argued about since, for the umpiring and for the visitors’ reaction to it. On this card the umpires are Fred Goodall and John Hastie, and their names sit in the same place as on any other.

Hadlee’s match

Eleven wickets, five for 34 and six for 68, seven of them leg before. A 51 in the first innings. The card notes that he passed the New Zealand record for Test wickets during the game, reaching 117, and that he became the third New Zealander to take five wickets twice and make a fifty in the same Test. All of that is on the card, and none of it is what the card’s own headline is about.

What the card holds

A target of 104 made with nine wickets down and a leg-bye. Twelve leg-befores, a record, and a note that says so. Seven of them for one man, another record, noted. A 105 that took 435 minutes for the losing side. And a headline about a bowler and some stumps, which is the card’s only way of saying what the umpires did not give.

••••••

No. 8 in Not Out, a series of 8.

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