Famous Cricketers No 100 - Richie Benaud

1959/60 – Australia in Pakistan and India Back to Pakistan, but this time Australia were prepared for the challenge. Benaud won the first toss and opted to send Pakistan in, so the Australians could further observe how the unfamiliar surface would play. This shrewd ploy, coupled with their preparation on matting at home, was crucial as a spirited Australian team came away with a 2-0 series win. Benaud was again Australia’s leading wicket-taker, his 18 scalps costing just 21.11 apiece. During the second Test at Karachi, Dwight Eisenhower became the first US president to watch a Test match. One wonders what he made of the day’s play – he had the misfortune to come on the fourth day, which saw just 104 runs scored, the second slowest day in over eighty years of Test cricket. At the conclusion of the series, Pakistani officials asked Benaud what more they could do to bring their facilities up to Test standard. He suggested getting rid of the matting wickets, which they duly did. The Australians then moved to India, where Davidson and Benaud each took 29 wickets to top the bowling tables and ensure a 2-1 series win. In a familiar story for Australian teams touring India, the tourists struggled to adjust to the very different conditions and culture. Sickness was also a major problem with Gordon Rorke contracting hepatitis and opening bat Gavin Stevens becoming so ill that some feared for his life. Stevens survived but was never the same again and did not make it back to first-class level. Many other Australians suffered dysentry and nausea. Despite this, Benaud kept morale high and the Australians won the first Test by an innings after Richie took figures of 3 for 0 off 3.4 overs. In the second Test, Jasu Patel dominated proceedings to square the ledger but Australia won the last Test convincingly with Benaud picking up 8 wickets for the match. The team relied heavily on Benaud throughout, as evidenced by the length of his spells : five times he bowled forty overs or more in an innings. Indeed Benaud shouldered a massive workload during this period and his 55 Test wickets for the calendar year of 1959 equalled a record set by Arthur Mailey in 1921. An interesting end to this season was a non-first-class match played between a New South Wales XI, led by Benaud, and Fiji, which was played at the SCG in February 1960. Benaud might have overseen some of the great cricket upsets of his era, but in this match he was definitely on the wrong end of a boilover. The Fijians made 163 and then dismissed the home team, who included Keith Miller, Jim Burke, Norman O’Neill, Neil Harvey, Alan Davidson and rugby league ‘great’, Reg Gasnier, for 137. Some of the visitors played barefoot and shared a drink of kava (a traditional herbal drink) with their opponents during breaks. When I asked Benaud about this match, he recalled: Their opener, Walter Apted, made 70 in exuberant style and then they produced some accurate bowling and simply magnificent fielding…The catch which dismissed Miller in the outfield was one of the greatest I have seen, long-off raced across to take the catch by leaping over the head of long-on racing in the opposite direction. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 167. AUSTRALIA v PAKISTAN, Dacca, November 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 (Australia won by eight wickets) * (6) lbw b Nasim-ul-Ghani 16 225 38 10 69 4 W.Mathias c and b 200 1 Wazir Mohammad c I.Meckiff Israr Ali st A.T.W.Grout Fazal Mahmood b did not bat - 112-2 39.3 26 42 4 Hanif Mohammad b 134 Wazir Mohammad lbw Israr Ali b Nasim-ul-Ghani c C.C.McDonald 168. AUSTRALIA v PAKISTAN, Lahore, November 21, 22, 23, 25, 26 (Australia won by seven wickets) * (7) b Haseeb Ahsan 29 391-9d 16 6 36 2 Shujauddin b 146 Israr Ali lbw not out 21 123-3 54.4 22 92 2 Nasim-ul-Ghani b 366 Haseeb Ahsan c A.T.W.Grout 169. AUSTRALIA v PAKISTAN, Karachi, December 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 (Match drawn) * (9) c Imtiaz Ahmed b Munir Malik 18 257 49.5 17 93 5 Shujauddin c N.C.O’Neill 287 D.A.Sharpe c P.J.P.Burge Ijaz Butt c A.T.W.Grout Fazal Mahmood c R.N.Harvey Munir Malik st A.T.W.Grout 46