Rewind to Melbourne 1979: Sarfraz takes 7/1

Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G", one of the greatest fast bowling moment ever.

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63235.html

Bottle top MOM?

PlanetPakistan wrote:Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G",

Apart from the other more famous ones

Lever, don't be jealous of Sarfraz Nawaz (or his mustache), he was too good for the Aussies that day

p.s speaking of bottle tops, this match was perhaps the FIRST game where the world saw the art of REVERSE swing(the greatest art ever invented in cricket)

p.p.s why was the cricketing world so stupid? it took them until the late 90s to UNDERSTAND the art of reverse swing when the Pakistani bowlers had been using it for about 15-20 years. Similarly with doosra a lot of people think(especially the ones in AUS) that its impossible to "BOWL" the doosra.

JKLever wrote:Bottle top MOM?

You're one to talk Lever, you Vaseline bandit.

Gary 111 wrote:

JKLever wrote:Bottle top MOM?

You're one to talk Lever, you Vaseline bandit.

Essex geezers never cheat!

G.Wood wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G",

Apart from the other more famous ones

Of which there are probably close to 80, including:

The first Test
The Centenary Test
The last of 60-61 (record crowd)
75-76 (Gibbs breaks Truerman's record)
80-81 v Ind (Gavaskar's dummy spit, Lillee's 250th)
81-82 (Lillee breaks Gibbs' record)
82-83 (Border/Thommo)
84-85 (Viv 200, Billy debut)
87-88 (Whitney holds out Hadlee)
90-91 (Reid 12- including almost Sarfraz-esque last spell 2nd inns)
92-93 ('Maybe this Warne really can bowl!)
94-95 (Warne hat trick)
95-96 (Murali chucks!)
06-07 (Warne's 700th)

Feel free to add some of the many I've omitted

"Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G" between a third Australian XI and opposition shagged out from playing two schedules" might be a tad more accurate.,

It was so outlandish I had to check to make sure it wasn't Henry who made the statement

The crowds were horrendous - we'd been watching the Ashes AND WSC all summer, and most had had cricket up to the neck by that stage and couldn't wait for the footy to start.

It was the Labor Day holiday, and on the Sunday afternoon Carltom played a whoever-the-sponsor-was Cup game against whoever Mal Brown was coaching, in Geraldton or some place like that, and it pulled a bigger crowd than was at the 'Test match' - a fact the VFL was not reticent in makling known..

Browny would have been coaching South Fremantle in 1979 ...and they would have had a fairly decent team too

Maurice Rioli (Norm smith medallist)
Stephen Michael (in the best 5 wozzie players of all time )
Brad Hardie (Brownlow Medallist and shithouse gambler)
Benny Vigona
Noel Carter (Richmond Premiership player)
Mark Jackson (possibly )
Paul Vasoli

That'd be right - and the locals won the match and two weeks later came to Melb to play South Melbourne in the next riound, and it might have been after that game that Mal grabbed the reporter's mike and ripped the wire out - which wasn't a bad feat of strength it itself. He was in an elevated state of off-piss about something even by his standards.

Carlton recovered from the embarrassment and went on to win the flag that year. .

South's lost a derby grand final in 79 to East Freo

Brian Peake (played for Geelong...father of Brett)
Tony Buhagiar (played for essendon ...ex Freo Board member ...pub owner...father in law of Brett Peake)
Kevin Taylor (took some big marks (rover) especially in SOO games)

being there better known players

but won the 1980 flag against Claremont who had

Graham Moss (Brownlow Medallist)
Jim and Phil Krackouer (North melbourne , mainly )
Steve Malaxos (Hawthorn , West Coast)
Warren Ralph (Carlton)
Noel Morton (father of the three Morton's running around at Richmond , Hawthorn and melbourne)
Brett Farmer (son of Polly)
Wayne Blackwell (Carlton)

Claremont also still had Ken Hunter as I recall, arguably the best of the lot - don't remember seeing him at Carlton before 81. When those Claremont blokes were going up the ranks one of their team-mates would have been Kim Hughes (Kenny really rated Hughes as a full-forward - believe it if you can)..

(Can't see how Budgie could be much use in the pub caper - he'd need a milk crate to reach the top shelf or see over the bar.)

Whoops ...slight error

South beat Swan Districts in 1980 and lost to Claremont in 1981

Fred Nerk wrote:

G.Wood wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G",

Apart from the other more famous ones

Of which there are probably close to 80, including:

The first Test
The Centenary Test
The last of 60-61 (record crowd)
75-76 (Gibbs breaks Truerman's record)
80-81 v Ind (Gavaskar's dummy spit, Lillee's 250th)
81-82 (Lillee breaks Gibbs' record)
82-83 (Border/Thommo)
84-85 (Viv 200, Billy debut)
87-88 (Whitney holds out Hadlee)
90-91 (Reid 12- including almost Sarfraz-esque last spell 2nd inns)
92-93 ('Maybe this Warne really can bowl!)
94-95 (Warne hat trick)
95-96 (Murali chucks!)
06-07 (Warne's 700th)

Feel free to add some of the many I've omitted

"Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G" between a third Australian XI and opposition shagged out from playing two schedules" might be a tad more accurate.,

Beat me to it. Also add:

1907/8 - England 10th wicket partnership put on 40 to win by 1 wicket (I'm not sure if that was the "we'll get 'em in singles" match)
1928/9 - Bradman's first test ton as England squeak home by 3 wickets followed a couple of weeks later by Bradman's second ton and Aust stave off a whitewash against probably the best ever England side.
1932/3 - the Bodyline Test that Australia actually won.
1936/7 - 80,000 people watch Bradman reverse the batting order after rain
1951/2 - Johnston and Ring but on 38 to beat the Windies by 1 wicket

i don't remember any of these matches

not surprised

JGK wrote:

Fred Nerk wrote:

G.Wood wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G",

Apart from the other more famous ones

Of which there are probably close to 80, including:

The first Test
The Centenary Test
The last of 60-61 (record crowd)
75-76 (Gibbs breaks Truerman's record)
80-81 v Ind (Gavaskar's dummy spit, Lillee's 250th)
81-82 (Lillee breaks Gibbs' record)
82-83 (Border/Thommo)
84-85 (Viv 200, Billy debut)
87-88 (Whitney holds out Hadlee)
90-91 (Reid 12- including almost Sarfraz-esque last spell 2nd inns)
92-93 ('Maybe this Warne really can bowl!)
94-95 (Warne hat trick)
95-96 (Murali chucks!)
06-07 (Warne's 700th)

Feel free to add some of the many I've omitted

"Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G" between a third Australian XI and opposition shagged out from playing two schedules" might be a tad more accurate.,

Beat me to it. Also add:

1907/8 - England 10th wicket partnership put on 40 to win by 1 wicket (I'm not sure if that was the "we'll get 'em in singles" match)
1928/9 - Bradman's first test ton as England squeak home by 3 wickets followed a couple of weeks later by Bradman's second ton and Aust stave off a whitewash against probably the best ever England side.
1932/3 - the Bodyline Test that Australia actually won.
1936/7 - 80,000 people watch Bradman reverse the batting order after rain
1951/2 - Johnston and Ring but on 38 to beat the Windies by 1 wicket

The "we'll get 'em in wuns, Wilfred" match was at The Oval in 1902 when Hirst and Rhodes only required 15 to win after Gilbert Jessop had struck 102 batting at 7. The last-wicket partnership for the New Year Test of 1908 at the MCG was actually 39 and involved the great Sydney Barnes, batting 9 and making easily his highest Test score of 38* and Arthur Fielder, the Kent fast bowler (listed as A.Fielder but very much a batsman in this match), who made 18*. Fielder was no mug when it came to last wicket partnerships as the following year he helped Frank Woolley put on 235 for Kent against Worcester at Stourbridge which was the world record until beaten by Kippax & Hooker's 307 for New South Wales against Victoria (also at the MCG) two decades later. It still remains the record for the English County Championship.

England were 73 adrift at the fall of the 8th wicket and looked well beaten and it was the batting not only of Barnes and Fielder but also the No.10, the Derbyshire wicketkeeper Joe Humphries, playing in his first Test, who made 16, which gave England an improbable win. Had Gerry Hazlitt's throw been slightly more accurate when Barnes and Fielder tookthe final run the MCG would have preceded the 'Gabba by over half a century in hosting the first Tied Test. The match also marked the debut of Sir Jack Hobbs in Tests.

Other memorable matches so far not mentioned might be the 1912 Test where England beat Australia by an innings and 225 runs (then the second largest margin of victory in Test cricket and still the largest margin at the MCG) with Hobbs and Rhodes putting on 323 in an opening partnership, then a Test record and still the record for two England openers v. Oz. Also, the 1925 match (the 4th of the series and the second of the summer to be played at the MCG) where England won by an innings and 29 with Maurice Tate taking 5-70 in the last innings ultimately preventing a whitewash (Oz won all the other 4 Tests) and bringing to end a 13-year 16-Test run by Australia without defeat.

More up-to-date matches might include England's 3-run victory in 1982 in which an Australian victory as, if not more, improbable than the England one in 1908 in which Border and Thomson added 70 for the last wicket was only thwarted by Geoff Miller's retrieval of Chris Tavare's spilled catch off Ian Botham. Lastly the 1998 Test win by England by 12 runs, Alec Stewart's side sole victory in the series, deserves a mention with Dean Headley having his finest hour by taking 6-60 in the fourth innings.

Apologies, 1982 has already been mentioned.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G", one of the greatest fast bowling moment ever.

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63235.html

Was that the series where an Aussie picked the ball up, tossed it back to Sarfraz, and Sarfraz appealed for Handled the Ball and the ump gave it out? Yallop called that "The worst example of bad sportsmanship I have ever seen."

PlanetPakistan wrote:
p.s speaking of bottle tops, this match was perhaps the FIRST game where the world saw the art of REVERSE swing(the greatest art ever invented in cricket)

p.p.s why was the cricketing world so stupid? it took them until the late 90s to UNDERSTAND the art of reverse swing when the Pakistani bowlers had been using it for about 15-20 years.

To be fair, the cricketing world thought it was cheating, because several Pakistan bowlers were caught gouging the ball.

I remember Aaqib Javed caught in close-up ripping the cover with his thumb and Ritchie saying "Cor, steady on!"

Rob I wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:
p.s speaking of bottle tops, this match was perhaps the FIRST game where the world saw the art of REVERSE swing(the greatest art ever invented in cricket)

p.p.s why was the cricketing world so stupid? it took them until the late 90s to UNDERSTAND the art of reverse swing when the Pakistani bowlers had been using it for about 15-20 years.

To be fair, the cricketing world thought it was cheating, because several Pakistan bowlers were caught gouging the ball.

I remember Aaqib Javed caught in close-up ripping the cover with his thumb and Ritchie saying "Cor, steady on!"

thats the thing...it took them 20 years to figure out that it wasn't cheating...
even after the 1992 series in ENG there were match referee, tons of cameras etc and they still didn't quite figure out what was happening.

Rob I wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:Possibly the most famous test match ever played at the "G", one of the greatest fast bowling moment ever.

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63235.html

Was that the series where an Aussie picked the ball up, tossed it back to Sarfraz, and Sarfraz appealed for Handled the Ball and the ump gave it out? Yallop called that "The worst example of bad sportsmanship I have ever seen."

That was in Perth

The batsman was Hilditch

and it was in "retaliation" for the mankadding of the Pakistani tailender Sikander Bakht who was continually backing up a long way and scampering twos in an annoying partnership with Asif iqbal

PlanetPakistan wrote:

Rob I wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:
p.s speaking of bottle tops, this match was perhaps the FIRST game where the world saw the art of REVERSE swing(the greatest art ever invented in cricket)

p.p.s why was the cricketing world so stupid? it took them until the late 90s to UNDERSTAND the art of reverse swing when the Pakistani bowlers had been using it for about 15-20 years.

To be fair, the cricketing world thought it was cheating, because several Pakistan bowlers were caught gouging the ball.

I remember Aaqib Javed caught in close-up ripping the cover with his thumb and Ritchie saying "Cor, steady on!"

thats the thing...it took them 20 years to figure out that it wasn't cheating...
even after the 1992 series in ENG there were match referee, tons of cameras etc and they still didn't quite figure out what was happening.

It WAS cheating . . . reverse swing per se is a great tool, but changing the state of the ball with bottle caps etc to encourage it is cheating, plain and simple . . .

tac wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:

Rob I wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:
p.s speaking of bottle tops, this match was perhaps the FIRST game where the world saw the art of REVERSE swing(the greatest art ever invented in cricket)

p.p.s why was the cricketing world so stupid? it took them until the late 90s to UNDERSTAND the art of reverse swing when the Pakistani bowlers had been using it for about 15-20 years.

To be fair, the cricketing world thought it was cheating, because several Pakistan bowlers were caught gouging the ball.

I remember Aaqib Javed caught in close-up ripping the cover with his thumb and Ritchie saying "Cor, steady on!"

thats the thing...it took them 20 years to figure out that it wasn't cheating...
even after the 1992 series in ENG there were match referee, tons of cameras etc and they still didn't quite figure out what was happening.

It WAS cheating . . . reverse swing per se is a great tool, but changing the state of the ball with bottle caps etc to encourage it is cheating, plain and simple . . .

its kind of hard to use bottle tops in the presence of match refs and cameras, only record of a bottle top used in an international match was when Chris Pringle(NZ) bowled out PAK for 102 in Faisalabad(it was still not good enough)

Other case of bottle top was when Imran used it in a county game.