Famous Cricketers No 83 - Ian Botham

132. ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA, Melbourne, February 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (Australia won by eight wickets) c R.W.Marsh b D.K.Lillee 8 306 39.5 15 105 3 K.J.Hughes c D.L.Underwood 477 2 G.Dymock b A.A.Mallett lbw not out 119 273 12 5 18 1 R.B.McCosker lbw 103-2 133. ENGLAND v INDIA, Bombay, February 15, 17, 18, 19 (England won by ten wickets) lbw b K.D.Ghavri 114 296 22.5 7 58 6 S.M.Gavaskar c R.W.Taylor 242 S.M.Patil c R.W.Taylor Yashpal Sharma lbw Kapil Dev c R.W.Taylor N.S.Yadav c R.W.Taylor D.R.Doshi c R.W.Taylor did not bat - 98-0 26 7 48 7 S.M.Gavaskar c R.W.Taylor 149 R.M.Binny lbw G.R.Viswanath c R.W.Taylor S.M.Patil lbw Yashpal Sharma lbw S.M.H.Kirmani c G.A.Gooch N.S.Yadav c R.W.Taylor SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Tests matches v Australia 3 6 1 187 119* 37.40 1 - 3 Test match v India 1 1 0 114 114 114.00 1 - - Other matches 2 3 0 30 21 10.00 - - 2 Tour 6 10 1 331 119* 36.77 2 - 5 Career 133 203 21 5143 167* 28.25 10 20 122 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Strike RunR Tests matches v Aus 173.1 62 371 19 6/78 19.52 2 1 54.68 35.70 Test match v India 48.5 14 106 13 7/48 8.15 2 1 22.53 36.17 Other matches 20 5 55 2 2/43 27.50 - - 60.00 45.83 Tour (6 ball) 242 81 532 34 7/48 15.64 4 2 42.70 36.63 Career (6 ball) 3410 788 } 11335 505 8/34 22.44 34 6 47.64 47.11 (8 ball) 449.7 85 1980 Botham was appointed captain of England in 1980. He could have been given easier opponents to start with, the tourists being West Indies. Although England, helped to some extent by the weather, managed to hold them to a one-nil series defeat, it has to be said that Botham had a poor series by his standards scoring only 169 runs at 18.77 with one fifty, and taking just 13 wickets at 29.61. He also captained England in the Centenary Test at Lord’s against Australia where he failed again, making a duck in his only innings and taking one wicket for 132 runs in the match. For the moment, in Test cricket, the magic touch had deserted him and people were bound to ask if the captaincy was to blame. There was nothing wrong with his batting when he played for Somerset. Fourteen innings brought him 875 runs at an average of 62.50. Against Gloucestershire at Taunton he made the highest score of his career, 228 in 184 minutes with ten 6’s and twenty-seven 4’s. His fourth wicket stand of 310 with Peter Denning was a Somerset record for that wicket. He hit 126 in 109 minutes against Warwickshire with 100 of the runs coming in boundary hits. With the ball he was not so successful, his eighteen Championship wickets costing 40.88. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 134. MCC v Essex, Lord’s, April 23, 24, 25 (Match drawn) * c N.Smith b J.K.Lever 18 209-8d 26 10 51 1 K.R.Pont c G.Miller 257-7d b J.K.Lever 34 244-9d 2 0 9 0 102-5 1 22