Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

88 tapping the wicket down. Suddenly he’d thrown all three down. Everyone’s gone up and the square-leg umpire has given me out.’ With a deep sense of injustice, Mike remembers trailing towards the pavilion. Peter Parfitt – ‘he’s never short of a word,’ says Mike – took up his cause. He now confirms the details of the incident, and explains that he immediately spoke to the South African captain. ‘I said, “Trevor, that cannot be out. The ball was dead. If John Waite had thrown the stumps down, clearly he would have been out. But he didn’t, he threw the ball to van der Merwe to return it to the bowler so therefore the ball is dead and he cannot be given out.” Trevor Goddard said, “Well, I didn’t see what happened.” I said, “I’m telling you what happened and there is no way he can be given out.” Trevor walked over to the square-leg umpire and said, “What happened?” And he said, “Well, it was thrown to Peter van der Merwe and I was under the impression it was thrown to him to throw the stumps down because he was out of his crease.” I said, “That cannot be true. It was thrown to van der Merwe to throw it back to the bowler.” By this time Mike was by the pavilion gate and Trevor called him back.’ Delighted to have been reprieved, Mike passed the umpire on his way back and still remembers his words: ‘I’m ever so sorry, Mike, I didn’t see!’ A Parfitt century and 42 from Mike took England to within six of the South Africa score. Mike had been hoping to press on more purposefully to take control of the match when he was superbly caught by Graeme Pollock running back at extra cover. With few contributions from the remaining batsmen, he was grateful that England had come so close. South Africa still batted with more caution than befitted a side one down in the series but reached 171 for one. Goddard, 89 overnight, moved on to his only Test hundred the next day, but it was not until the tourists saw Graeme Pollock unfurl his finest strokes for the first time that he felt able to declare. The target, 314 at 78 an hour, was never a serious prospect to tempt a side in England’s position, but they had Boycott to thank for keeping their unbeaten record intact as stumps were reached with six wickets down. The initiative, once firmly with England, had now changed hands. Moreover, after a ten-wicket win against Griqualand West, MCC had their closest call of the tour when Mike and Cartwright batted through the last three hours to stave off defeat by an Invitation Eleven at Cape Town. A Boycott century apart, the tourists had suffered two top-order collapses and Cartwright had made a face- saving 53 not out in the first innings. With the Fifth Test looming, Triumphant in South Africa