Graeme Pollock's hundred at Trent Bridge in 1965 has to be one of the best ever...
South Africa were in all sorts of trouble...Richie Benaud said the pitch was like plastecine (nobody could play on that rubbish). Sir Donald Bradman then told Graeme Pollock that if he ever played like that again he must send him a telegram to come watch.
From cricinfo:
http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1960S/1965/RSA_IN_ENG/RSA_ENG_T2D1_05AUG1965_MR
Date-stamped : 09 Mar94 - 18:23
South Africa v England, Test 2
Played at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 5, 6, 7, 9 Aug 65
====> Day 1, 5 Aus 65
Pollock Touches the Heights
An innings was played here today by Graeme Pollock which in point
of style and power, of ease and beauty of execution, is fit to
rank with anything in the annals of the game. Pollock came in
when, after 50 anxious minutes, South Africa's score stood at 16
for 2. Between this point and lunch he batted easily and without
inhibition or restraint while two more wickets fell, and his
companions struggled in every sort of difficulty against some
very good swing bowling by Cartwright. When the afternoon began
the scoreboard showed 76 for 4, Pollock 34. An hour and 10
minutes later it said 178 for 6, and Pollock was walking back
with 125 to his name, and the crowd standing in salute to a
glorious piece of batting.
In cold fact this young man of 21 had made then 125 out of 162 in
2 hours and 20 minutes, and in the 70 minutes since lunch 91 out
of 102. In his whole innings were 21 fours, and the two of these
that came off the edge from Cartwright's bowling were the only
false strokes of any kind that I saw. The other 19 were either
hit with a full, easy swing of the bat, or glanced or cut to
every point of the compass. No one could find any way of
containing him because (like E. R. Dexter, G. Sobers, and
R. Kanhai, perhaps alone among modern players) he uses every
stroke. It may perhaps be said by anyone trying to evaluate
this innings that to have deserved the label of greatness it
would have needed to be confronted by bowling of a higher
quality than much that was seen. Well, when South Africa were at
their worst pass, at 43 for 4, with Bland just gone, he
made three strokes to the cover boundary inside a few minutes,
two off Cartwright and one off Titmus, and all three from
balls that would have looked a good length to anyone else, with
a precision of timing and consequent speed over the field
that had everyone gasping. With these strokes the moral balance
shifted dramatically, and South Africa must have begun to see
the vision of recovery so long as their young hero could stay.
It may be that after lunch as his assault reached its climax
the bowling began to look somewhat ragged. That was Pollock's
due reward.
Pollock has been spoken of in the same breath as Frank Woolley:
there is no one who holds Woolley in greater esteem than myself,
and I believe that he would have been proud, at his best, to have
played as well as Pollock did this afternoon. Indeed, in the
left-handedness, in the height and reach, and in the clean-cut
simplicity of his striking of the ball, the comparison with
Woolley is the obvious one that applies. And if any young
cricketer asks how the very best of the pre-war players batted he
could be safely told: "Just like Graeme Pollock did against
England at Trent Bridge."
All that followed Pollock was, inevitably, anti-climax, but van
der Merwe and Dumbrill both batted well enough against an attack
that was still shaken from the buffeting it had received. Indeed
it was only by a run-out that England broke the next stand,
Dumbrill and his captain getting in a rare muddle, and Smith
backing up quickly at the bowler's end, and finally hitting the
wicket from short range. The last four wickets, post-Pollock and
thanks to him, added 91 in a couple of hours to give South Africa
in the end a respectable score.
When England went in Peter Pollock bowled fast (though for some
strange reason into a strong cross wind) and the light was dull.
Boycott succumbed to the second ball, caught at second slip by
Lance who only held on to the ball by doubling up. In Pollock's
next over Barrington played on hard, whereupon Titmus was called
upon to last the remaining 20 minutes. He survived with Barber,
but with one brother underlining the recovery made by the other
it was, all in all, a wonderfully good day which ended with our
visitors undeniably on top.
(Thanks : "As I said at the Time", E.W.Swanton, Collins, 1983)
<END> Contributed by murari (venka@*me.utexas.edu)
SCORECARD:
2nd Test: England v South Africa at Nottingham, Aug 5-9, 1965 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
