Almanac Cricket: The Top 10 Boxing Day Tests – Part 2

 

To mark the earlier mentioned 50^th anniversary of the birth of the MCG Boxing Day Test, here is Part 2 – the Top 5 counting down to Number 1 – of this Footy Almanac Debutant’s great Boxing Day Tests.

 

 

5. AUSTRALIA V ENGLAND, 24-29 DECEMBER, 1994 – WARNE’S HAT-TRICK

 

Cricket Australia thought so much of Zimbabwe’s addition to the Tri-Nations World Series Cup competition for the 1994-95 Ashes summer, they pitchforked Australia A in to the series as the only occasion four teams played in the white ball international summer.

 

It was also the only time that Australia A played in the competition.

 

To meet this revised four team schedule – including the Sydney Test that followed to start on New Year’s Day itself – the Boxing Day Test commenced on Christmas Eve.  This is the last time to date this MCG fixture has started on a day other than Boxing Day.

 

Australia struggled to a laborious 7/220 on Day 1 – and needed Steve Waugh’s unbeaten 94 – supported by 16 from Number 11 Damien Fleming – to get to 279 when play resumed on Boxing Day after a Rest Day for Christmas.  Mark Waugh made 71 for the hosts.

 

Warne – now injury-free and at the height of his powers following stunning the cricket world over the previous two years – continued his dominance over the English from his 11 wicket Man Of The Match haul in the First Test with 6/64 as the Poms could only reply with 212.  Only (the late) Graham Thorpe showed any resistance for his 51.

 

With David Boon (131) leading the way with his 20^th Test Century, Australia made the most of their 67 run First Innings lead to allow recently installed skipper Mark Taylor to declare on the 4^th afternoon at 7/320 – giving England 4 sessions to score 388 and level the series.

 

Fleming made the early break throughs, before a fit and firing Craig McDermott made a mess of the top order to have England 4/79 by stumps, and 5/81 with the 2^nd ball of the last day when former skipper Mike Gatting fell to the Queensland quick.

 

Keeper Steve Rhodes soon followed to give McDermott 4 wickets and have England ready for the kill at 6/88.  With the tail now exposed, this set the stage for Warne to write more history.

 

The moment then came with Warne’s (lucky?) 13^th over of the innings.

 

After having Phil De Freitas in trouble, Warne trapped the English Number 8 lbw for a duck, before having Darren Gough caught behind next ball.

 

If Warne – or anyone of that era – could have hand picked any batsman to bowl a hat trick ball to, it would have been (with all due respects of course) Devon Malcolm.  A man who retired with a Test Batting Average of 6.05.

 

Warne’s hat trick ball had Malcolm reach forward in defence.  The ball burst away from bat handle and glove in the air towards forward short leg.   Bat-pad specialist Boon – one of five  fielders around the bat – went full stretch to his right to take an all time great catch in the extended right hand inches off the ground.

 

As the late great Tony Greig summed up in commentary at the time so succinctly…”That’s a hat trick to Shane Warne.  A great moment in his career.  What a catch by David Boon!!”

 

Phil Tufnell fell to McDermott in the next over to finish off the Match.  England all out 92.  Australia 2-0 up in the series before going on to retain the Ashes by a 3-1 margin.

 

To consider how significant Warne’s hat trick has become – taken from the southern end that carries the great grandstand that bears his name – one only has to consider history.

 

Of the five hat tricks taken in MCG Cricket Tests to date, Warne’s is the only one taken in the Boxing Day Test – and the only one completed by any Test Match bowler at the ‘G’ in the last 120 years (Hugh Trumble’s hat trick against England in March 1904 the last before Warne with none since).

 

Warne’s hat trick is also the last by an Australian spinner in Tests to this day – with Glenn McGrath (2000 in Perth against the Windies) and Peter Siddle (2010 in Brisbane against England) the only Australian bowlers to complete the feat since that MCG December morning.

 

 

4. AUSTRALIA V NEW ZEALAND, 26-30 DECEMBER, 1987 – WHITNEY SEES OFF HADLEE

 

Australian Cricket had a lean time of it to put it mildly through the middle of the 1980s.

 

The retirements of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh together at the end of the 1983/84 summer, the upheaval of the tearful resignation of Kim Hughes from the Test Captaincy, and the dent in playing stocks made by the two ‘Rebel’ Tours that Hughes led to apartheid South Africa all took a heavy toll.

 

Throw in poundings by the West Indies phalanx of pacemen, home and away dismantlings by Sir Richard Hadlee and back to back Ashes losses home and away – and you can see where Australian Cricket was at.

 

It is a period that those who lived through it still try to forget – and it is a toll that still scares administrators to this day given that the current Test Team will all probably leave the game almost together in a short period over the next couple of years.

 

But under the hard nosed leadership of the initially reluctant skipper Allan Border and of task master coach Bobby Simpson, green shoots started to come through by the time the Kiwis came to Australia to defend the Trans Tasman Trophy at the end of 1987.

 

Border’s team surprised the cricket world (and maybe even themselves) in winning Australia’s first Cricket World Cup Title on the Indian Sub-Continent a few weeks before the New Zealand series started.

 

And there was the character building Tied Test in Madras with India a year before that World Cup.

 

But the bottom line was that heading into that 1987 campaign, Australia had not won a Test Series for nearly four long years (since January 1984) against anyone.  Anywhere.  Can you imagine Australia not winning a Test Series for four years these days??

 

Border’s men got off to the best possible start by winning the 1^st Test in Brisbane to take a 1-0 series lead – thanks to 143 from David Boon in a new found resolve to stare down their 1985/86 nemesis Hadlee.

 

It was an advantage maintained by a high scoring draw on a road in Adelaide – highlighted by big hundreds from Andrew Jones (150) and Martin Crowe (137), and 205 from Border himself which saw him pass Greg Chappell as Australia’s highest Test run scorer at the time.

 

The Boxing Day Test of 1987 then had so much riding on it – given that New Zealand under Jeff Crowe could still retain the trophy with a win.

 

The tension that sat over the match showed in the events of the five days that followed.

 

Nearly 52,000 paying customers on Boxing Day saw NZ post a solid 5/242 which featured 99 from John Wright – the closest any Kiwi would come to an MCG Test Century until Tom Blundell broke through with the first Melbourne Test Ton by a New Zealander 32 years later.

 

It also had its controversial moment when Aussie keeper Greg Dyer was shown claiming a catch from Andrew Jones off Craig McDermott when replays showed the ball hit the ground – and which was given out by umpire Tony Crafter after checking with fellow umpire Dick French at square leg.

 

It was a catch that certainly would have been overturned under today’s DRS system if it was in use back then.

 

NZ went on to 317 in their first innings – McDermott finishing with 5/97, supported by returning left arm quick Mike Whitney with 4/92.

 

Hadlee then came back to torment the hosts again – working through the top order to have Australia 5/121 before home side’s tail wagged. Peter Sleep made 90 and Tony Dodemaide scored 50 on debut to push up to a total of 357 – a precious 40 run lead.  Hadlee was magnificent, taking 5/109 off 44 overs.

 

On his home ground in his debut Test, Dodemaide then took a career best 6/58 as NZ were bowled out for 286 in their 2^nd dig on the third ball of the final day.  This gave Australia just on the full day – and as it turned out 92 overs – to score 247 to win that precious first series in 4 years.

 

The match ebbed and flowed on that last day.  First Australia got off to a solid enough 45 run opening stand before Kiwi support paceman Danny Morrison and veteran seamer Ewen Chatfield got NZ breakthroughs.

 

As the afternoon wore on, Border & WA batsman Mike Veletta got the hosts to within a close enough sight of the finish line.

 

But up stepped Hadlee again.  Answering the final call of skipper Crowe at 5:17pm with Australia at 5/199, New Zealand’s great allrounder lifted as champions do.

 

In an unchanged final spell from the old Southern Stand end, Hadlee capitalised on spinner John Bracewell removing Veletta – by getting rid of Sleep, Dyer and Dodemaide in quick succession to not only have Australia on the brink of another home Test loss at 9/227 with 29 balls remaining in the Test Match.

 

Dodemaide’s wicket saw Hadlee equal Ian Botham’s then world record of 373 Test Scalps.  It was also the 8^th time the great Kiwi had taken 10 wickets in a Test Match – breaking the then World Record.

 

Enter Australian Number 11 Mike Whitney to McDermott to see out those last 29 balls.

 

The dash for victory was eventually abandoned by the last Aussie pair in favour of survival – which included a massively close lbw appeal by Morrison against McDermott that was turned down by umpire French in those closing overs.

 

Eventually, it came down to Whitney having to see off six deliveries from Hadlee in the last over of the Test Match to save the game and secure the Series win – with Hadlee needing to take the last wicket to win the match, retain the trophy, and break the World Record.

 

By good luck or good management – having flashed at one, let two others go and somehow getting in behind two more – Whitney defended the last ball from Hadlee at 6:49pm to save the match and win that first series for Australia in four years.

 

The celebrations on and off the field – led by Whitney’s clenched fist of triumph as he shook Hadlee’s hand after that last over – told their own story.  As Hadlee reportedly said to the NSW paceman when they shook hands after the heat of battle, “you did a great thing for Australian cricket today, Whit”.

 

Hadlee’s 5/67 gave him 10/176 for the match and an unprecedented second Man of the Series award (following on from 1985/86) to go with his second Boxing Day Test Man of the Match prize (after 1980/81).

 

West Indian pace bowling great Sir Curtly Ambrose is the only other visiting player to have won two Man of the Series awards for Test Cricket in Australia.  Hadlee would eventually break the World Record a few weeks later in India.

 

Hadlee stands alone at the time of writing as the only visiting player to win two Boxing Day Test Man of the Match Awards.

 

I say at the time of writing – Jasprit Bumrah could very well join Hadlee in this year’s Boxing Day showdown if things go right for him and India. Bumrah announced himself to the cricketing world with his Man of the Match award in the historic Indian triumph of 2018.

 

New Zealand have not won a Trans Tasman Test Cricket Trophy in a series of 2 or more Tests since that December 1987 evening at the ‘G’.

 

As for Dyer, he would go on to play only two more Tests for his country – against England in the Bicentennial Test and Sri Lanka in Perth later that summer – before being quietly replaced by Tim Zoehrer as penance for that ‘catch’.  He did give grand service to the game as an Administrator with the Australian Cricketers’ Association after his retirement.

 

 

3. AUSTRALIA V ENGLAND, 26-30 DECEMBER, 1982 – SO NEAR, YET SO FAR FOR AUSTRALIA

 

Five years earlier from the 1987 nailbiter, the Boxing Day MCG Test of 1982 – the 4^th of that summer’s Ashes series – also had punters on the edge of their seats inside and outside the stadium on the final day.

 

The England squad came to Australia for that 1982/83 summer holding the Ashes that Sir Ian Botham singlehandedly won in the remarkable northern summer of 1981.

 

However, there were key personnel changes on both sides that ensured that the ‘82/83 series would not quite match the drama of that 1981 campaign – except for this Boxing Day classic.

 

The first ‘Rebel’ tour of South Africa by an English XI the previous summer included the likes of Graham Gooch, John Emburey, Wayne Larkins and Les Taylor who all played Test Cricket after they served their Rebel Tour penances.

 

Australia had Greg Chappell come back as skipper in what would turn out to be his last series as Captain to try and right the wrongs of ’81 – even though he was not there.  He chose not to go as was his want at the tail end of his career.

 

Dennis Lillee and Terry Alderman both missed the last four Tests due to injury after playing in the opening encounter in Perth – Alderman badly ‘popping’ his shoulder tackling an English supporter who invaded the pitch to ‘celebrate’ England passing the 400 mark.

 

This allowed the likes of Rodney Hogg, David Hookes, Norman Cowans, Chris Tavare and Eddie Hemmings to play various parts in the series when they may not have been selected.

 

Australia emerged the better from these enforced changes.  After the high scoring draw in Perth, Chappell’s side won the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests that followed.

 

A young South African who came to Australia to play World Series Cricket for Kerry Packer – Kepler Wessels – made 162 on debut in Brisbane.  This allowed the returning Jeff Thomson to take 5/73 to go with Geoff Lawson’s 11 wicket match haul and set up the home side’s 7 wicket win.

 

Greg Chappell’s last Test Century against England (115) – which was his only Test ton in the city of his birth – laid the base for Australia to score 438 after being sent in by Willis in Adelaide.

 

England then followed on after being rolled for 216, and despite David Gower’s second innings century (114) another 5/66 from Lawson saw Australia go 2-0 up in easily chasing down the 83 run victory target.

 

So the Boxing Day Test saw England desperate to win to keep their hold of the Ashes alive.  This desperation certainly contributed to the tight relatively low scoring scrap that came to such a remarkable end on the final morning.

 

Still in its infancy on the cricket and sporting calendar, 63,900 punters turned up on the Boxing Day Sunday to ensure that December 26 Tests at the MCG were ‘here to stay’.

 

England lost their last 7 wickets for 67 in a late batting collapse to be bowled out for 284 right on stumps thanks to 4 wickets each from Hogg (4/69) and Bruce Yardley (4/89) as Lawson went wicketless for the first time in the series.

 

The Poms fought back with the ball as the match pattern was established on Day 2.  The home side lost their last 5 wickets for 26 runs to be bowled out for 287 for a lead of just 3 runs.  This would prove to be a significant margin in this Test.  Willis (3/38) and off spinner Geoff Miller (3/44) took the bowling honours.

 

After being reduced to 5/129 midway through Day 3, the English tail wagged via critical lower order runs from Derek Pringle (42) and veteran keeper Bob Taylor (37) to be bowled out for 294 on stumps.  Lawson (4/66), Hogg (3/64) and Thomson (3/74) shared the wickets.

 

This gave Australia at 4^th innings target of 292 in a possible two days to win the Test, Series and Ashes.  The stage was set – given the pattern of the match – for a tight run chase.

 

No-one expected the roller coaster that followed.

 

After being reduced to 3/71, Kim Hughes and David Hookes responded with a 100 run partnership for the 4^th wicket.  Their departures triggered another batting collapse with rookie paceman Cowans running through the Aussie middle and lower order.

 

Indeed, when Cowans claimed his 6^th wicket (on his way to a career Test best of 6/77) by trapping Hogg lbw late on the 4^th evening to reduce Australia to 9/218 – still 74 runs short of victory – it appeared that England were keeping their Ashes defence alive.

 

Jeff Thomson then joined a then out of form Allan Border to get to stumps at least.  This unlikely pairing managed to post half the 74 needed by stumps that evening.  This left them to score the other half (37 runs) on the final day.

 

Officials threw the MCG gates open for free entry on that final morning thinking play wouldn’t last too long before the last wicket fell.  Border – whose place in the side was under question going into the Test – and ‘Thommo’ had other ideas.

 

With Border farming the strike and Thomson holding up his end, the runs required number went from the 37 needed at the start of the morning to 30.  Then 20.  Then 10 as the crowd grew to an estimated 20,000 (no official crowd was ever given thanks to the free entry).

 

The memory of substitute fielder Ian Gould (the tourist’s actual spare keeper before going on to be one of the game’s leading umpires in later years) and Allan Lamb colliding mid pitch in trying to attack the same ball underlied the panic that had set in to the English effort.

 

A rushed couple of runs to fine leg from Border reduced the requirement down to one hit – 4 runs.  In desperation, English skipper Willis turned to Botham to bowl after not calling on him all morning.

 

Having not been the force in this series he was at home 18 months earlier, the great English all rounder found his magic – inducing Thomson on 21 to edge the first ball he bowled for the day.

 

In almost iconic footage, the nick burst through Chris Tavare’s hands at 2^nd slip – only for 1^st slip Miller to come around behind him, snaffle the catch and continue running in triumph to the MCG dressing rooms.

 

England won by 3 runs to keep their Ashes defence alive.  Border was left 62 not out – but by all reports saved his Test career.  Cowans won the Man of the Match award and never reached the same heights as a Test bowler again.

 

Thomson’s last career 5 wicket haul against the Poms (5/50) and a Hughes 2^nd Innings Century ensured that the last Test the following week in Sydney was drawn – regaining the Ashes for Australia with a 2-1 Series win.

 

A series always remembered by that Boxing Day Test finish.

 

 

2. AUSTRALIA V ENGLAND, 26-28 DECEMBER, 2006 – WARNE’S LAST HURRAH

 

After losing the Ashes for the first time in eighteen years in the classic 2005 Series in England, Ricky Ponting and his Australian team mates were always going to be hyper motivated to set the record straight going into the next series eighteen months later.

 

And so it turned out.  From the time Steve Harmison gave English replacement skipper Andrew Flintoff slips catching practice without using a bat with the first ball of the series in Brisbane, Australia were on the front foot.

 

Ponting’s 196 in that First Test set up Australia’s 277 run win, before the ‘Adelaide Miracle’ – set up by some Shane Warne last day wizardry in his 4/49 – turned a probable high scoring draw (where both sides scored over 500 each batting first) into a remarkable 6 wicket Australian victory.

 

Australia won the series and regained the Ashes in the 3^rd Test in Perth on the back of centuries to Mike Hussey(103), Michael Clarke (135 not out) and the remarkable hitting fest that many say was Adam Gilchrist’s greatest Test innings (102 from 59 balls faced).

 

With the Ashes regained, Warne’s announcement after the Perth Test of his international retirement at the end of the Series made the final 2 Tests his valedictory lap of honour.  Starting with Boxing Day at home at the MCG.

 

To add to the fairytale, Warne had taken the last two wickets to seal the Perth win – taking him to 699 Test Scalps.  The then World Record holder needed just one more victim to be the first player to reach the mind boggling figure of 700 Test Wickets.

 

Despite it being a ‘dead rubber’, the punters that loved Warne through thick and thin in his career responded.  To the point that 89,155 of them turned up on Boxing Day, 2006 to bid him farewell.  If it wasn’t a rainy start to the day, the then MCG record of 90,800 to a single day’s play would have certainly been broken.

 

Flintoff won the toss and elected to bat to give the huge crowd their chance to watch history.  Brett Lee and Stuart Clark shared the first three wickets before Warne was introduced into the attack mid afternoon.

 

The moment came when Warne lured English opener Andrew Strauss into a drive – and bowling him for 50.  Test Wicket number 700.  Warne took off in a mini victory lap, pursued by team mates.  The big crowd – even the Barmy Army contingent – were on their feet.

 

The wicket triggered an English batting collapse from 3/101 to all out 159.  Warne finished with 5/39 – the 37^th and last time he took 5 wickets in an innings in Tests.

 

Australia were in deep trouble the next day when reduced to 5/84, but a match turning partnership between great mates Matthew Hayden (153) and Andrew Symonds (156) lifted Australia to 419 – a match winning lead of 260.  Warne himself chipped in with 40 down the order.

 

The tourists collapsed a 2^nd time to be bowled out for 161 just before the scheduled stumps time on the third evening to Australia an innings win and a 4-0 series lead.

 

Warne was memorably chaired off football style from the MCG at the end of the match – fittingly by Hayden and Symonds of course.  He was announced – almost by design – as the Man of the Match for the last time in Tests.  It was his second Boxing Day Man of the Match award.  The ultimate last hurrah.

 

Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer followed Warne with international retirement announcements to make the last Test in Sydney the next week an emotional occasion that propelled Ponting’s men to a 5-0 series whitewash.

 

 

1. AUSTRALIA V WEST INDIES, 26-30 DECEMBER, 1981 – AN ALL TIME CLASSIC AND THIS FOOTY ALMANAC DEBUTANT’S GREATEST BOXING DAY TEST

 

Boxing Day 1981 at the MCG was the start of a series between Australia and the West Indies that had both teams almost passing each other in their respective trajectories of their status in World Cricket.

 

Australia were still reeling from the trauma of losing the Ashes Series in England a few months earlier – and showed by an innings loss to Pakistan a fortnight before the Boxing Day Test that the wounds were still fresh.  Even though Australia had won that series 2-1.

 

The Trevor Chappell/Greg Chappell underarm One Day Final against the Kiwis at the same MCG ten months earlier, and the Dennis Lillee/Javed Miandad kicking incident in Perth during that Pakistan series were still fresh in the memories of all cricket fans – and no doubt the inner sanctum of the game – as well.

 

Lillee himself was going into the Boxing Day Test on a downer.

 

After serving a suspension from one dayers for the Javed incident, Lillee went into that Pakistan Test needing 5 wickets to break the then World Test wicket taking record held by West Indian spinner Lance Gibbs.

 

Cricket Australia – and then TV Partners Channel 9 – even went to the trouble of flying Gibbs out to Melbourne from his home in the United States for the match.  The ceremonial congratulations on camera were set.

 

Lillee – for one of the few times in his great career – failed to deliver.  He finished with 0/104 as Pakistan racked up 500 on a slow pitch on their way to their innings win.

 

Skipper Greg Chappell also had his problems.  He was going through of his ‘summer of ducks’ – six straight international scores of naught across all formats – going into that Test.

 

Chappell – probably as a distraction from his loss of form – was also vocal to the point of almost paranoia about the deterioration of the MCG wicket square into the low bouncing and inconsistent block that led to the whole square dug up and re-laid at the end of the 1982 winter season for the following summer.

 

On the other hand, the West Indies under Clive Lloyd not only held the Frank Worrell Trophy after their first ever series win in Australia two years earlier – but were just about at their peak as the best International Cricket Team on the planet.

 

The Windies had not lost a Test Series to anyone for close to two years (15 Tests without defeat going back to February 1980), and were the current One Day International World Cup Champions having won the first two Cricket World Cup Finals.

 

They had the world’s best opening pair in Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge – although Greenidge did not tour in 81/82 due to injury.  They had arguably the world’s best batsman at the time in all time great Vivian Richards.

 

And then they had their fast bowlers.  For modern day millennials to comprehend – just think of Jasprit Bumrah.  Now think of four Jasprit Bumrahs.  In the same attack.  No chance of ‘seeing off’ a bowler.  No dropping off the intensity when a bowler needed a spell.

 

And a young Malcolm Marshall on the bench leading another four or five waiting to come in for their chance to knock some heads off.  It was the stuff that put the fear of God – in the style of the four Horseman of the Apocalypse – into any opposing bating lineup of their era.

 

Gibbs had gone back to the States by the time the MCG Boxing Day Test of 1981 rolled around.  Lillee would have to break the World Record ‘on his own’ against the background of misgivings surrounding him and the Australian Team against the then World Champs.

 

Chappell won the toss and decided to bat on a pitch he didn’t trust – thinking any runs to be scored would be done up front.  He was proved wrong.

 

Michael Holding and Andy Roberts got the early break throughs – including Chappell first ball for his seventh straight international duck – to have the Aussies on their knees early.

 

In stepped Kim Hughes to complete arguably his finest day as an Australian Test Cricketer.

 

Hughes came to the wicket at 3/8 inside the first half hour of play.

 

On an unpredictable wicket against the most fearsome pace attack ever unleashed on Australian soil – Roberts, Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft.

 

Hughes responded by a mix of strong defence, brilliant counter attacking shots and dollops of luck as the wicket settled to as good as it would be for batting for the next five days.  He also took more than his share of blows to the body during his knock.

 

He got some support from youngster Dirk Wellham and Rod Marsh, but eventually found himself with just Terry Alderman at Number 11 for support at 9/155.

 

Clever farming of strike saw Hughes eventually reach 96 before his eleventh boundary – a blazing square cut off Garner brought up what many believe to be his best ever Test Ton.

 

The great Richie Benaud summed it up brilliantly as he often did behind the microphone: “A great hundred, that.  You’ll see a lot of hundreds in Test Cricket.  But you won’t see too many gutsier ones than that.”

 

Alderman was dismissed in the next over after Hughes got his ton to have Australia bowled out for 198.  Hughes an even 100 not out.

 

There was enough time for Lillee to fire up in the few overs before the close that Boxing Day.  After Alderman dismissed replacement opener Faoud Bacchus, Lillee went to work from the old southern stand end.

 

First, he had Haynes was caught at slip, then he trapped nightwatchman Croft lbw to have the Windies three down.  Viv Richards then strode to the crease to try and help captain Lloyd see it out to stumps.

 

After being pegged back in the final over of the session, one of the most iconic Boxing Day moments followed with the last ball of the day.  Lillee sent down the wider delivery.  Richards went for the drive.  Inside edge on to stumps.  39,982 fans roar.

 

West Indies 4/10 at the close as Lillee keeps running at the end of his follow through – and off the ground in triumph.  He was now only two wickets from breaking Gibbs’ World record.

 

Lloyd, Jeff Dujon and Larry Gomes countered on Day 2 to get the Windies back on level terms – but not before Lillee had his great career moment.

 

After having Dujon caught on the boundary by Hughes hooking to equal Gibbs’ 309 Test Wickets mark, he found the edge of Gomes’ bat flashing at an attempted cover drive at 2:55pm.

 

Greg Chappell took the catch to dismiss Gomes for 55.  Lillee finally got the World Record with his 310^th Test victim, and his fifth for the innings.

 

Amidst the release of pent up emotion of the previous few weeks and even months that followed, it was the only time that ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was played over the P.A. system at a Test in Australia to honour a player.

 

Lillee himself got caught up in it all that he went to the wrong position to field for the next over – going to third man instead of Fine Leg.

 

Lillee finished with his best ever official Test Figures of 7/83 (his 8/29 in 1971 at the WACA against the World XI does not count in his Test Records) as the Windies managed to get a three run lead after being bowled out for 201.

 

After getting to 3/184 in a seemingly sound position – including Chappell breaking his run of ducks to the cheers of the Day 4 crowd before making just 6 – the low bounce of the worsening pitch saw Australia collapse in their 2^nd innings to be bowled out for 222.

 

This gave the West Indies a victory target of 220.  Holding completed a superb match with the ball with his 6/62 to go with his 5/45 in the first innings.

 

Holding’s 11/107 for the match was becoming a losing cause after Bacchus and Richards were out for ducks to have the Windies 2/4, before Gomes and Dujon again tried to start a rearguard action.

 

Bruce Yardley – in the middle of his best ever summer as an international cricketer – then took four key wickets to set the Windies on the road to defeat in his 4/38.

 

Dujon was the last of Yardley’s 4 wickets for 43 – and the last of the Windies resistance.

 

Lillee then chimed in with the last three wickets of the match – all lbw – to complete a 10 wicket match haul.  The last of them being Holding just a few minutes into the final morning to wrap up a 58 run win as the visitors were bowled out for 161.

 

Australia took a 1-0 series lead – but that was as close as Australia would get to winning the Frank Worrell Trophy for the next 11 years.  Following a draw in Sydney, the West Indies managed to keep the Trophy with a thrilling last day winning run chase in Adelaide in the 3rd test to square the series.

 

A decade of batterings from a production line of West Indian fast bowlers ensured that The Frank Worrell Trophy was entrenched in Caribbean hands for next thirteen plus years until Mark Taylor’s men won it back for Australia in 1995.

 

As earlier mentioned, it took Australia eleven long years before winning a live Test match again from the West Indies – in the corresponding Boxing Day Test of 1992.

 

One could say it was Lillee’s last great hurrah as a Test Bowler – he was serviceable in New Zealand at the end of the summer, only played one Test of the Ashes series the next season, and retired from International cricket the following season in 1983/84.

 

The late Tony Greig summed up the match best when making the official presentation: “I don’t think there’s any doubt who the player of this match was, because in my opinion, he set it all up and made it what it was…Kim Hughes”.

 

Sadly, Hughes is not remembered for Man of the Match innings like this – but for resigning the Australian Captaincy in tears after the under the weight of on and off field pressure just on three years later.

 

Oh, and by the way – the 1981 Boxing Day Test was also the last Test hurrah for the old Jack Fingleton Scoreboard after over 60 years of sitting on top of the old Ponsford Stand at the ‘G’.  It has sat at Canberra’s Manuka Oval in recent decades.

 

The first of the many Electronic Scoreboards that have been used at the MCG commenced service in 1982.

 

 

After much deliberation, this Footy Almanac Debutant settled on the Boxing Day Test of 1981 between Australia and the West Indies as the greatest Boxing Day Test of them all to date.

 

It was a match that had nearly everything a great Test match should have – a battle between bat and ball, great moments of individual brilliance, great team showings, and lashings of drama.

 

Hopefully, the 50^th anniversary Boxing Day Test this time around between Australia and India produces something similar.  If it does, cricket fans will be grateful.

 

 

More from Tony Dosen can be read Here

 

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