Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

121 Amiss propelling England to a comprehensive victory by seven wickets. For the umpteenth time in the ground’s history, batting proved to be difficult on an overcast morning after the Kiwis had opted to bat first. With the new ball pairing of John Snow and Geoff Arnold finding conditions very much in their favour, the New Zealanders slumped to 15-4. Glenn Turner and Vic Pollard mounted a recovery mission, adding 55 in 21 overs during a partnership which was staid in modern terms but, at the time, did much to stabilise the tourists innings with Pollard completing a defiant fifty besides remining at the crease until the 44 th over. Richard Hadlee used the long handle to good effect as the Kiwis ended on 158 after 52.5 overs, but their efforts were put into context as Geoff Boycott and Amiss added 96 for the first wicket and revelled in the easier batting conditions. Amiss was the aggressor as he raced to his century inside 39 overs, but was fortunate when on 37 to be dropped at extra cover by the normally dependent Pollard. Despite being dismissed with his side were in sight of their target, Amiss’ volley of well-timed drives were enough to win the Warwickshire batsman the Man of the Match Award. As JBG Thomas highlighted in his match report for the Western Mail , there were others who had played a hand in England’s comprehensive win, but Amiss’ innings had been the stand-out performance, especially as his flurry of boundaries had put Geoff Boycott in the shade: “Hostile and devastating pace bowling by Snow and Arnold had set the tone before a brilliant century from Dennis Amiss who displayed scintillating form to guide England safely and attractively to victory, even outshining an extremely subdued Geoff Boycott who never got going.” 3 Cyril Walters, as the first Welshman to captain England in Test cricket, presented Amiss with his Man of the Match Award and said “we are all grateful to the authorities for bringing the England side to Wales for the first time. I hope they will do it frequently in the future!” 4 But it was to be a further ten years before Swansea staged its next international cricket, in the year when the 1983 World Cup was staged in the UK with a number of county grounds, not on the normal international schedule staging the 60-overs a side contests. The opening batch of group games on 9 June saw Pakistan meet Sri Lanka at Swansea as together with Taunton, Leicester, Bristol, Worcester, Southampton, Derby, Tunbridge Wells and Chelmsford, group games in the competition were staged at a number of non-Test match venues. As in the previous international game, the unique micro-climate of the Swansea ground played a role with Pakistan put into bat after early morning rain. Sri Lanka opened with Vincent John, a burly medium-fast bowler, but not fast enough to cause Mohsin Khan and Zaheer Abbas to swap their green- starred Pakistan caps for helmets. After John hit Mohsin’s middle stump with a yorker, Javed Miandad, contracted at the time to Glamorgan, came to the middle with his arrival International cricket comes to Swansea