England's openers at Headingley.

[luckyeddie]

Eddie

I don't know why you mentioned Vettori. I hadn't as I was concentrating on English spinners. It may or may not have been preplanned that Giles bowled the way he did; I just feel he bowls like that too much and is therefore can legitimately be considered a defensive bowler. The great spinners never do that as they have more confidence in their ability, as do/did their captains.

I too am an old hand having been a cricket nut now fore 48 years. I still remember getting listening to cricket commentary on the radio in 1956 in the days when the BBC covered county games. Oh joy! Specially when Keith Miller was got out for a duck!!!

Cheers

I don't really know why I mentioned Vettori either - I suppose he was the first name to come to hand seeing as we are playing New Zealand. As far as English spinners are concerned, have we had one worth talking about since Derek Underwood? I know a few have flattered to decieve, many more have deceived to flatter.

More to the point, at last, I can hand over the mantle of being CricketWeb's oldest git (and by some way, it seems) to someone else, and I thank you for that.

The nearest I got to cricket in 1956 was being dragged along to watch my father play for the regiment - I got hit on the head too. Come to think of it, that explains everything.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I don't really know why I mentioned Vettori either - I suppose he was the first name to come to hand seeing as we are playing New Zealand. As far as English spinners are concerned, have we had one worth talking about since Derek Underwood? I know a few have flattered to decieve, many more have deceived to flatter.

More to the point, at last, I can hand over the mantle of being CricketWeb's oldest git (and by some way, it seems) to someone else, and I thank you for that.

The nearest I got to cricket in 1956 was being dragged along to watch my father play for the regiment - I got hit on the head too. Come to think of it, that explains everything.

What we need to find out is what made Underwood so good for just a finger spinner? Did he flight the ball or rely on big turn (unusual for a finger spinner) ? I'd really be interested to know about him and Laker too

 

[Neil Pickup]

Underwood was changes of pace, wasn't it? Veterans?

 

[badgerhair]

Are you calling Richard Dawson a good bowler?

Yes, actually, I am calling Richard Dawson a good bowler.

He may not be good enough to give much trouble to Test-class batsmen (although he does boast Tendulkar among his Test scalps), but you don't make the Test side of any of the major countries without being good, at least relative to the other players in domestic first-class cricket.

People like Dawson and Udal are too good for county tailenders, whatever mincemeat Laxman or Lara would make of them in a Test match.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[luckyeddie]

What we need to find out is what made Underwood so good for just a finger spinner? Did he flight the ball or rely on big turn (unusual for a finger spinner) ? I'd really be interested to know about him and Laker too

Underwood was perfectly capable of tossing the ball up, but a couple of his more famous performances were on drying pitches when he extracted prodigious turn and bounce at close to medium pace. For a couple of years, he allowed these successes to influence how he bowled generally, much to his detriment

His biggest assets were fabulous control and unerring accuracy.

Laker really was before my time.

 

[badgerhair]

What we need to find out is what made Underwood so good for just a finger spinner? Did he flight the ball or rely on big turn (unusual for a finger spinner) ? I'd really be interested to know about him and Laker too

Underwood was not your conventional finger spinner. He bowled at slow-medium pace, about 65mph, and being a left-armer, the effect was similar to Chandrasekhar, another slow-medium bowler, who was a right-arm wrist spinner and turned it the same way. His extra pace meant that batsmen didn't have as much time to play the ball off the pitch as they did with the 52mph merchants, which therefore gave him more opportunity to deceive them with flight because that's all they had to go on.

Deadly was especially effective on drying wickets - he played at the end of the era when you could still get stickies because of covering (or not, as the case may be). On those, he could make it spit and turn like the proverbial cobra, and Australian batsmen in particular used to get the screaming ab-dabs.

He had a high action, but an awkward gait because of his flat feet which splayed - the opposite of pigeon-toed.

He was also an inveterate smoker. I think Botham is a pretty obnoxious git, but when Underwood reached the dressing room after surviving as nightwatchman almost until lunch at Sydney in 1979-80, making 43, it was Beefy who fought his way through the crowd of players irritating Underwood no end with their effusive congratulations to give Deadly the fag he so desperately craved, so there was some good in him after all.

Cheers,

Mike