Cricket: A Modern Anthology. Jonathan Agnew

the journey Amiss had undertaken since they had seen him in distress at Lord’s three months earlier, the West Indies players joined the crowd in applause. A few fans bounded out to offer personal congratulation, one of them handing Amiss a ten-pound note, which was given to umpire Bird for safe-keeping. ‘It was a good feeling,’ says Amiss. ‘I have always thought that the 262 at Sabina Park was the better innings, but there was more pressure on me at The Oval. My international career and my ability against fast bowling were at stake.’

      Amiss was never one to consider that the job had been done once he had three figures against his name. Of the eleven Test centuries he would make in his career, eight ended in scores of more than 150. On such a good wicket he was determined to continue batting. ‘An old coach of mine used to say to me, “Den, if you get a hundred, get another – because it makes up for all the noughts and ones. That is the way my confidence was. If I got a hundred I often got 150-plus. Also, I tell these lads now at Warwickshire, that if you get a hundred then you can really learn all about your technique and batting. You are seeing the ball early and that is when you learn shots you never thought you had.’

      Settling in again, Amiss escaped when he was caught by Murray off a Daniel no-ball. Then Peter Willey slashed hard and was dropped at first slip, Daniel again the unlucky bowler. Amiss responded by caressing Holder twice past backward square leg and driving square to take the score beyond 200. Richards and Fredericks, bowling in tandem either side of tea, served up enough bad balls to allow Amiss to move relentlessly past 150. Willey, never showing the fluency he had exhibited in the fourth Test, had contributed 33 to a 128-run stand when he got an inside edge to King and saw the ball fly off his pad to Fredericks at gully. Clearly not believing that contact had been made by his bat, Willey departed in despond.

      Greig was greeted by an ovation to rival that of Amiss’s century, much of it directed ironically by the West Indies fans. To add to the drama, the new ball became available almost immediately and Roberts and Holding rejoined the attack. Greig hurled himself into cover-driven fours off both bowlers and Amiss had to jerk away from a rearing Roberts delivery before waiting on a back-foot drive to raise the 300.

      ‘They had been bowling at about 85 miles an hour, with one bouncer an over,’ Amiss explains. ‘That was fine and we were picking up ones and twos. But as soon as Greig came to the wicket he was all, “Come on, let’s get this fired up. We are going to smash these buggers out of sight.” I was saying, “Look, it’s nice out here, don’t upset them.” Now, because it was Greig batting, suddenly it was 95 miles an hour and three bouncers an over.’

      Amiss’s concerns were quickly resolved. The Oval erupted as Holding pitched on a full length and Greig, playing slightly across the line as he fell towards the off side, was bowled middle and leg. ‘It was the first time I have ever been pleased to see the England captain get his leg stump knocked out of the ground,’ laughs Amiss.

      There was no containing the elation of the West Indies fans, who raced to the square from their places around the boundary. One fan even offered Greig a copy of ‘Who’s Grovelling Now’, a record that had recently been released by reggae artist Ezeike. ‘Everyone had a copy,’ recalls Trevor Nelson. ‘I remember learning all the words from my dad.’ Neither police nor ground-staff were able to clear the field of spectators who seemed reluctant to leave even after Greig was long gone. Alley and Bird took the players to the pavilion in response to what commentator Richie Benaud was calling ‘one of the lousiest crowd performances I have ever seen’. He suggested that the authorities should ‘should stick those fellows in jail and fine them’. After a nine-minute delay, the last few balls of the day were completed, with night-watchman Underwood at the crease and Amiss on 176 not out from a score of 304 for 5.

      As far as anyone could remember, the pitch invasion represented the first time a Test match in England had been halted by the crowd. There had been 80 policemen on duty and Surrey secretary Warren Sillitoe estimated it would take 200 to ring the entire boundary effectively. The priority, he said, was to protect sensitive areas, such as the square and the entrance to the pavilion. Meanwhile, groundsman Harry Brind said that he had been concerned about such disturbances and had taken the precaution of using an old set of stumps. The Daily Mail’s Alex Bannister suggested, ‘The West Indians must be made to understand that if they want to watch, they must abide by English codes of cricket behaviour.’ A warning was issued that anyone encroaching on the playing surface would be removed from the ground.

      By the time the fourth day began on yet another glorious morning, the first 100 standpipes had now appeared in Devon, where many households were without their regular water supply. The new Drought Act was to be enforced in the area, making it illegal to wash cars and fill paddling pools. The worst drought in 250 years was causing increasing numbers of forest fires and forcing Dorset firemen to have holidays cancelled. While the summer sun had at first been thought to offer an advantage to the players from the Caribbean, Clive Lloyd suggests, ‘It led to a string of slow, ideal batting pitches which really were no good for our fast bowlers.’

      On this slow Oval wicket, the draw still appeared the mostly likely result, especially when Amiss picked up where he had left off on Saturday. Bowling round the wicket, Holding and Roberts were both clipped uppishly behind square for four. Amiss leaned into Roberts’s slower ball, before Holding, abandoning his early-morning tactic, was driven airily through the covers, taking Amiss to 199. Two balls later, Holding over-pitched and Amiss flicked over Greenidge at square leg to complete the second double-century of his Test career. The first had been a match-saving effort in the West Indies and if Amiss could find someone to stick around with him, maybe he could give a repeat performance.

      Underwood’s stay at the wicket had already ended, losing his off stump in Holding’s third over of the day, giving the bowler his second five-wicket haul of the series. Knott was the ideal character for a rearguard action, turning Roberts over the fast outfield for four and causing Daniel, who had been warming up to replace Holding, to pull up with a hamstring injury as he gave chase. The partnership England needed, however, failed to materialise when Amiss finally fell victim to his new strategy. His right foot was frozen a long stride outside off stump as Holding’s delivery brushed lightly against the pad on its way to the stumps. With 203 to his name, including 28 fours, Amiss could feel that his method had paid its way.

      ‘It was a great innings by Dennis, a one-off,’ says Mike Selvey. ‘He had worked towards that ever since he’d got hit and I know how hard he had worked. He had a reputation of not liking quick bowling, but it was just that he didn’t play the bouncer that well. He wasn’t a scared batsman. His technique involved standing right over onto off stump but he was absolutely monumental through the leg side anyway. He would clip the ball away for hour upon hour.’

      According to Derek Underwood, ‘I can’t recall a greater comeback innings throughout my career. If anyone gave a V-sign to the selectors, Dennis did it on that occasion.’

      Amiss would tour once more with England, but within a year – with Australia again the visitors – he would be out of Test cricket. This innings, however, had ensured a much kinder epitaph for his career. ‘It helped me to go out of the game on a better note,’ he admits. ‘It was nice to have done it.’

      Knott was in one of his creative moods, timing drives either side of the wicket against Holder and King, whose strengthening of his leg-side field simply persuaded Knott to go the other way. Geoff Miller’s first Test boundary had been nudged through the slips and when he aimed an expansive back-foot drive against Holder he lost his stumps – just as Dickie Bird’s cry of ‘no-ball’ was reaching his end of the wicket. A neat drive off Holder helped Miller settle before Knott turned the final ball of the morning off his toes to reach 45 out of 401 for 7.

      The gathering afternoon clouds looked like symbols of England’s fate when Knott was rapped on the pads by Roberts and Miller was beaten by Roberts and Holding. Both batsmen survived. Knott hit Roberts through mid-wicket and then pushed a single to complete his fifty. The next ball Knott faced, from Holding, was short of a length and, getting in position to force through the off side, he edged into his stumps off the inside of an angled bat.

      Selvey found the ring of close fielders reinforced by an extra gully, short