HT This Day: March 18, 1977 -- England’s heroic bid fails as Australia record 45-run win in Centenary Test
England’s brave bid to win the match faltered after tea when they lost five wickets for 41 runs to be all out for 417
Melbourne: Australia won the Centenary Test against England here today by 45 runs after the game swung back and forth on a gripping last day.
The winning margin and result was exactly the same as in the first Test between the two countries in 1877.
England’s brave bid to win the match faltered after tea when they lost five wickets for 41 runs to be all out for 417.
The Test ended when England wicket-keeper Alan Knott was trapped leg-before by fast bowler Dennis Lillee in the second of the last 15 overs of the match.
The Australian players rushed up and chaired Lillee from the field for his magnificent bowling throughout the match.
Lillee, who announced today that he was retiring from Test cricket for at least a season because of a recurrence of a back injury, took 5 for 139 off 34.4 over to add to the 6 for 26 that he took in the first innings.
However, England batsman Derek Randall won the “man of the match” award for his magnificent 174 which so nearly won the game for England.
{{/usCountry}}However, England batsman Derek Randall won the “man of the match” award for his magnificent 174 which so nearly won the game for England.
{{/usCountry}}Randall was out 10 minutes before tea when England looked to be heading for a historic victory.
England started today at 191 for two needing a total of 463 runs to win and it was not until after tea that Australia finally got back into the match.
Randell who was not out 87 overnight, and Dennis Amiss batted throughout the morning session seeing off the second new ball and laying the basis for a victory charge by England in the last two sessions.
The pair was parted ten minutes after lunch. When Amiss was out for 64 after a valuable 188-run third-wicket partnership.
Keith Fletcher joined Randall but he lasted only about half an hour before Lillee disposed him of to make England 290 for 4.
Then Randall, who had dominated the six Australian bowlers used in efforts to dismiss him, found the ideal partner in Tony Greig. They hit the Australian bowling to all parts of the field and an England win seemed certain as the score moved along at better than the rate required.
However, ten minutes after Queen Elizabeth arrived at the Melbourne ground to watch the Test, disaster struck when Randall was caught at short-leg off leg-spinner Kerry O’Keeffe.
With the departure of Randall, England were 346 for 5 and still seemed to have a chance. However. In the last session, the wickets tumbled as Lillee bowled at his fastest to clean up the England innings.
Knott was the only batsman to offer any resistance in this final session as he saw Old out for two, Lever out for four, and Underwood out for 7.
However, the England wicketkeeper’s lone bid was not enough and he was out for 42.
It was a brave fight by England whose, total of 417 is the highest score by an. England side in the fourth innings of a Test against Australia.
