Famous Cricketers No 79 - Richard Hadlee

SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Test matches 3 6 1 80 39 16.00 - - - Shell Series 6 12 3 206 77 22.88 - 1 2 Other match 1 2 0 60 56 30.00 - 1 - Season 10 20 4 346 77 21.62 - 2 2 Career 67 94 16 1698 87 21.76 - 7 26 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Test matches 121.3 26 371 15 6-26 24.73 1 1 Shell Series 118.6 26 383 22 5-28 17.40 1 - Other match 26 4 106 5 5-50 21.20 1 - Season (8b) 266.1 56 860 42 6-26 20.47 3 1 Career (6b) 482.1 90 } 6411 245 7-23 26.16 8 2 (8b) 1287.5 175 1978 - Nottinghamshire and New Zealand in England Before joining the New Zealanders for their tour of England, Hadlee played his first matches for Nottinghamshire and impressed greatly, winning his county cap in only his fourth first-class game for the county. With players of the calibre of Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice in the side, Nottinghamshire prospered in the first month of the season and recorded impressive wins in successive Championship matches against Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Warwickshire. Against Derbyshire Hadlee had a great game as he displayed his all-round talents. On the first day he scored 101 not out, his maiden first-class century, and, facing 143 deliveries, he hit three sixes and thirteen fours in a stay of two and a half hours. Rice made 85 and these two dominated the Nottinghamshire batting. When Derbyshire (129) were then dismissed cheaply and forced to follow on, it was Hadlee (5-25) and Rice (3-36) that did the damage. In the next match at Worksop Hadlee proved too much for the Yorkshire batsmen with figures of 6 for 39, which included six of the first eight batsmen, and was chiefly responsible for their demise. However, John Hampshire (124) led a spirited fightback when Yorkshire batted again but Hadlee (5-102) was not to be denied and returned match figures of 11 for 141. The Hadlee-Rice partnership was once more in action when they destroyed Warwickshire (56 and 81) at Trent Bridge, the visitors losing by an innings and 169 runs by mid-afternoon on the second day. Between them they took fourteen wickets in the match, Hadlee 8 for 55; Rice 6 for 45. After bowling only two overs in the New Zealanders’ opening first-class match against Derrick Robins’ XI, back trouble forced Hadlee out of the side until the fixture with Middlesex at Lord’s. In this game, played on a poor pitch, Hadlee (4-37) was quick to make his mark in the Middlesex first innings. After defeating Middlesex by an innings the New Zealanders inflicted a similar fate on Warwickshire. This time Hadlee was the chief destroyer with 11 for 116 in the match, taking 7 for 77 in the second innings as the county lost seven wickets for just 24 runs in only 40 minutes on the last morning. New Zealand were well beaten in all three Tests but Hadlee caused the England batsmen plenty of problems with his hostility and pace. At Trent Bridge, in the New Zealander’s second over, Geoff Howarth put down an easy catch at third slip when Boycott had made only two and the batsman also survived two confident lbw appeals before going on to bat for nearly seven hours. At Lord’s Hadlee (5-84) did much to give New Zealand a first innings lead of 50. At one time England were well placed at 242 for 4 but just after lunch Hadlee with the new ball in “another magnificent burst” ( Wisden ), took three quick wickets as the home side were dismissed for 289. Despite problems with his back early in the tour and in the First Test, when he played carrying this injury, Hadlee topped both the bowling aggregates and averages (excluding Howarth’s three cheap wickets in 3-day games) in Tests and on the tour as a whole. His batting, however, failed; his only innings of note being a score of 40 when he put on 93 for the seventh wicket in 76 minutes with ‘Jock’ Edwards (57) in the tourists’ seven-wicket victory over Worcestershire. 23