Bob Blair in tandem with Bert Sutcliffe. Read the guff, from an article by Lynn McConnell on Cricinfo. Part of NZ cricket folklore.
If there was one moment in his career more memorable than several outstanding contenders, it had to be Boxing Day at Johannesburg in 1953 when the New Zealanders were coming to terms with the tragedy of New Zealand's worst rail disaster at home when 151 people died on Christmas Eve when the overnight North Island express train ploughed into a river after a bridge had been washed out.
Original news of the disaster was worsened when one of the team's bowlers, Bob Blair, learned his fiancee had perished in the tragedy.
New Zealand were playing the second Test against South Africa and Neil Adcock woke up in a mean mood. New Zealand were put through a fast bowling mill and Sutcliffe was hit on the head and taken to hospital.
Forty years after the event when interviewed, the memory of what happened next still brought a pause from Sutcliffe, a wipe of the eye and a lump in the throat.
Sutcliffe went back out to bat swathed in bandages and with Blair not attending the ground, everyone started to leave the field when the ninth wicket fell.
Sutcliffe recalled the moment: "It was quite an unreal situation. We all started to leave the field at what we thought was the end of the innings and there was Bob coming out of the tunnel to bat. He didn't need to do it - we had saved the follow-on - but when he left the hotel to come to the ground he didn't know that. You don't expect a guy to appear like that.
"The whole atmosphere was unbelievable and you could sense the crowd asking themselves: 'How would we feel if that happened to us?' There was a stunned silence.
"Bob was all right till he looked at the other guys, who were crying. I said to him: 'For goodness' sake, what are you doing here? Throw the bat at the ball and get out.' He played at the first couple of balls and didn't know where they were. Then he hit a six and the crowd went wild. When we came back at the end of the innings they were jumping up and down cheering."
Typically, Sutcliffe down-played his own role in proceedings. He hit 80, in a superb attacking innings and shared the world record for most runs in an over, 25, which was only beaten by another New Zealander Craig McMillan three weeks ago when he scored 26.
Apparently there was a fair bit of blood - Sutcliffe's - on the pitch to greet Blair when he went out.