FANTASY TEST SERIES : SECOND TEST (PERTH)

 PREWAR TEST WORLD XI :

1. Jack Hobbs (England)
2. Herbert Sutcliffe (England)
3. Don Bradman (Australia --- Captain) **
4. George Headley (West Indies --- Vice-captain) *
5. Wally Hammond (England)
6. Stan McCabe (Australia)
7. Leslie Ames (England --- Wicket-keeper) ///
8. Jack Gregory (Australia)
9. Sydney Barnes (England)
10. Harold Larwood (England)
11. Ted McDonald (Australia)

POSTWAR TEST WORLD XI :
1. Virender Sehwag (India)
2. Sunil Gavaskar (India)
3. Vivian Richards (West Indies --- Captain) **
4. Sachin Tendulkar (India)
5. Graeme Pollock (South Africa)
6. Garry Sobers (West Indies ---Vice-captain) *
7. Adam Gilchrist (Australia ---Wicket-keeper) ///
8. Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)
9. Fred Trueman (England)
10. Dennis Lillee (Australia)
11. Jeff Thomson (Australia)

The second test match is about to begin and knowing the Perth wicket to be the fastest track on earth both teams have made some changes. The Prewar XI have dropped their two spinners in O'Reilly and Grimmett and have included only one extra fast bowler in Ted McDonald while the mercurial Stan McCabe has filled in the other place. This has obviously given greater depth to their pace attack and to the batting as well, especially because McCabe is an excellent player of pace.

The Postwar XI have left out Warne and Murali and Thomson and Trueman have been inducted to sharpen the pace attack. Also, Wasim Akram has been rested to accommodate an extra batsman in the formidable South African southpaw, Graeme Pollock with the obvious purpose of giving depth to the batting in a match expected to be dominated by sheer pace. The Postwar XI has the obvious advantage of having Sobers who can bowl both pace and spin as and when the occasion demands whichever.

SECOND TEST MATCH :
Day 1 :
Richards won the toss this time and sent in the Prewar XI to bat on what was a green-top wicket. Soon the Prewar openers were in the pavilion as Thomson sent both of them initially scurrying for cover under a barrage of bouncers before having them caught in the slip cordon. Hobbs and Sutcliffe gone, it was Bradman and Headley who attempted to steady the innings but Lillee had Headley caught by the keeper and Hammond fell to a Trueman yorker which caught him plumb lbw. The score read 43/4 when McCabe joined Bradman but the Don fell soon, caught by Gilchrist of Marshall for 18 and the Prewar XI reeled at 56/5. Ames fell next to Lillee for a duck and Gregory followed suit, caught by the keeper of the bowling of Lillee for 7. The score stood at 71/6 when Sydney Barnes joined McCabe. Now McCabe gave a great exhibition of uninhibited stroke-play to take the team total past the hundred mark before Barnes, Larwood and McDonald all fell in quick succession and the Prewar XI were bowled out for a paltry 118. McCabe remained undefeated on 67.

The Prewar XI was destroyed by the fearsome pace battery of the Postwar XI with Lillee inflicting the maximum damage and returning figures of 5/31. But it was his opening bowling partner Thomson who had actually set in the slide in the Prewar batting line-up when he removed both the openers in Hobbs and Sutcliffe in successive overs for next to nothing which exposed the middle-order rather early to the green-top wicket when the ball was new and hard and the wicket at its liveliest. The Prewar XI never recovered quite from this initial damage.

Prewar XI : 1st Innings
Hobbs c Sobers b Thomson ... 0
Sutcliffe c I.V.A. Richards b Thomson ...1
Bradman c Gilchrist b Marshall ... 18
Headley c Gilchrist b Lillee ... 8
Hammond lbw b Trueman ... 2
McCabe not out ... 67
Ames c Gilchrist b Lillee ... 0
Gregory c Gilchrist b Lillee ... 7
Barnes c Gilchrist b Lillee ... 5
Larwood c Gavaskar b Lillee ... 0
McDonald b Thomson ... 0
Extras : 14
Total : 122
Overs : 41.4
Fall of wickets : 1/0 (Hobbs), 2/5 (Sutcliffe), 3/32 (Headley), 4/43 (Hammond), 5/56 (Bradman), 6/71(Ames), 7/71 (Gregory), 8/113 (Barnes), 9/118 (Larwood), 10/122 (McDonald)

Bowling analysis :
Thomson 9.4-0-39-3
Lillee 12-2-31-5
Marshall 8-3-17-1
Trueman 12-4-21-1

Sehwag and Gavaskar opened in style but Sehwag was sent back to the pavilion in no time as he edged one of Larwood to Ames in the very first over to register a duck. The Postwar skipper Viv Richards walked to the wicket in his imperious style and dished out three delectable boundaries of a Larwood over before being caught at long leg by McDonald when a miscued hook off a bouncer from the English quickie could not clear the ropes. Tendulkar joined Gavaskar but was clean bowled off the very first delivery from Larwood and the Postwar XI reeled at 15/3. The stage was now set for the South African southpaw, Graeme Pollock to set the stands blazing as he took his position at the wicket and majestically proceeded to destroy the Prewar pace attack.

Gregory, McDonald and Larwood were treated disdainfully as Pollock cut loose on that green-top surface of the WACA and scored ever at an accelerated rate to reach his century of just 122 balls while Gavaskar stood at the other end rock-solid at 59 not out when the South African raised his bat to acknowledge the standing ovation of the crowd. Soon both Pollock and Gavaskar fell off successive overs to Barnes and at stumps the Postwar XI had their total reading on the giant scoreboard at 202/5 with Pollock's contribution 103 and Gavaskar's 67.

Day 2 :
Sobers took first strike this day but edged one from Larwood to Ames of the very first ball and the very next over Barnes had Gilchrist trapped leg before when an off-cutter of his beat the mercurial left-hander. Then in a dazzling display of sheer speed Larwood cleaned up the tail as Marshall, Lillee and Thomson fell to the Nottinghamshire fast bowler in three successive overs to finish off the Postwar XI at 211 which meant that they were ahead by 89 runs which may be a match-winning first innings lead given the conditions and the fearsome pace attack which the Postwar team has at its disposal.

Postwar XI : 1st Innings
Sehwag c Ames b Larwood ... 0
Gavaskar c Hammond b Barnes ... 67
I.V.A.Richards c McDonald b Larwood ... 12
Tendulkar b Larwood ... 0
R.G.Pollock c Ames b Barnes ...103
Sobers c Ames b Larwood ... 4
Gilchrist c lbw b Barnes ... 0
Marshall b Larwood ... 3
Trueman not out 4
Lillee b Larwood ... 1
Thomson b Larwood ... 0
Extras : 17
Total : 211
Overs : 56.3
Fall of wickets : 1/0 (Sehwag), 2/15 (I.V.A.Richards), 3/15 (Tendulkar), 4/196 (R.G.Pollock), 5/198 (Gavaskar), 6/202 (Sobers), 7/202 (Gilchrist), 8/209 (Marshall), 9/211 (Lillee), 10/211 (Thomson)

Bowling analysis :
Larwood 15.3-3-48-7
McDonald 10-0-42-0
Gregory 9-1-35-0
Barnes 19-6-50-3
Hammond 2-0-11-0
McCabe 1-0-8-0

Hobbs and Sutcliffe went out to bat a second time with the arrears of 89 runs looming large in their face. They put up a dour defence to the Postwar quickies and raised the 50 run partnership before Sutcliffe was sent back to the pavilion by a Trueman snorter that reared awkwardly and the Englishman had snicked it to first slip where Viv Richards gleefully caught it. Sutcliffe was dismissed for 26. Bradman joined Hobbs but the latter soon departed without any addition to his score of 19, caught by keeper of the bowling of Lillee. Headley and Bradman played sedately and carried the total past the 100 mark and both looked set for big scores. But Headley was cleaned bowled by Thomson for 21 and Hammond joined his skipper. The score stood at 113/3. The Prewar XI were only 24 runs ahead with three of their front-line batsmen already out. At tea the score stood at 145/3 with Bradman on 56. The post-tea session saw Bradman at his vintage best as he carved out a chanceless century. Hammond at the other end kept company and reached his half-century as well before Bradman was dismissed for 103, caught at long-leg hooking Lillee. Hammond fell soon for 59 when in taking a cheeky single he was run out by Richards who from point in a direct hit broke the stumps. Thereafter, McCabe and Ames took the Prewar XI score past the 250 mark before Ames was out to a delightful in-dipper from Marshall, caught by keeper Gilchrist for his seventh catch of the match. At stumps the score stood at 253/6.

Day 3 :
Gregory and McCabe added a valuable 140 for the seventh wicket and with the tail soon folding up, the Prewar XI finally totalled 413 with McCabe to finally fall just twelve short of a century, Gregory having earlier fallen for 74. This meant that the Postwar XI had to now score a challenging 308 runs in the fourth innings of this exceptionally exciting match to go 2-0 up in this five Test Match series.

Prewar XI : 2nd Innnings
Hobbs c Gichrist b Lillee ... 19
Sutcliffe c I.V.A. Richards b Trueman ... 26
Bradman c Marshall b Lillee ... 103
Headley b Thomson ... 21
Hammond run out (I.V.A. Richards) ... 59
McCabe c Tendulkar b Trueman ... 88
Ames c Gilchrist b Marshall ... 2
Gregory b Trueman ... 74
Barnes c Gilchrist b Sobers ... 2
Larwood c Gavaskar b Sobers ... 3
McDonald not out ... 0
Extras : 16
Total : 413
Overs : 126.5
Fall of wickets : 1/50 (Sutcliffe), 2/57 (Hobbs), 3/113 (Headley), 4/243 (Bradman), 5/246 (Hammond), 6/253 (Ames), 7/393 (Gregory), 8/401 (Barnes), 9/413 (Larwood), 10/413 (McCabe)

Bowling analysis :
Thomson 17-0-79-1
Lillee 26-2-83-2
Marshall 24-3-62-1
Trueman 25.5-4-77-3
Sobers 29-1-67-2
Sehwag 1-0-7-0
I.V.A. Richards 2-1-9-0
Tendulkar 2-0-13-0

Thirty eight overs were left for the third day when the Postwar XI openers Sehwag and Gavaskar took strike chasing a challenging 308 runs for victory in the fourth innings of this Test Match with the wicket playing admirably well still. Over the past two days the wicket had eased up a little and the bounce was quite even. However, the Prewar pacemen were up to the task as they sent back Sehwag for no score to send the Postwar XI reeling at nought for one. Larwood, the hero of the first innings, had the mercurial Indian caught at deep square leg in his very first over with a lethal bouncer which rose awkwardly from short of a good length. Sehwag hooked, could not get the elevation right and was caught near the boundary ropes by a lunging Gregory who, thus, pulled off a magnificent catch.

Written by Sugata Bose