The
1979 Series was a major disappointment thanks mainly
to the amount of Australian top cricketer's lost to
Kerry Packer's rival World Series cricket matches.
The players who had signed were not considered and
due to the volume of Australians who had signed with
him, they were the ones to suffer most. England lost
four of the first choice players and Australia had
to find a new team. The two captains for the series
were Mike Brearley and Graeme Yallop.
Australia
batting first at Brisbane were all out for 116 (at
one stage they were 6 for 26). Rodney Hogg in his
first Test for Australia took 6 for 74 but could not
prevent England from taking a first innings lead of
170. Kim Hughes and Yallop both scored centuries in
their second innings but needing only 170 runs to
win, England were guided to victory by Randall.
England
easily won the second Test at Perth, notable performances
were Hogg's 10 wickets in the match, 5 wickets in
both innings and David Gower scoring the only century
in the match. England won by 166 runs and took a 2-0
lead in the series. Tom Brookes one of the umpires
on duty during the Test match, retired from test cricket
on the final day's play after receiving heavy criticism.
Allan
Border made his debut at Melbourne and with Australia
winning the toss, they made the right decision to
bat on a patchy wicket. Graeme Wood scored a steady
and brave 100 and saw Australia score 258 and on the
difficult wicket proved to be a decisive knock. On
the second day, 14 wickets fell for only 122 runs.
England to win needed to score 283, but they only
managed to get 179 of the required runs. Hogg again
for the second match in a row took 5 wickets in each
innings and ended with match figures of 10 for 66.
The
temperatures were through the roof in Sydney for the
4th Test, so much so that during England's 152 (Botham
top scoring with 59), Australia's wicket keeper Maclean
retired with heat exhaustion. After Australia's response
England looked well and truly out of the match but
in the tremendous heat, Randall slowly scored 150
and England set Australia 203 to win. The pitch was
now heavily damaged and was taking spin, so much so
that Emburey and Miller's Off Spin tore through the
home side's innings. Scoring only 111, the home side
lost by 93 runs and now 3-1 down in the 6 match series.
England
were in deep trouble at Adelaide, at one point they
were 5 for 27 but thanks to Botham's 74 they reached
169. In reply Australia fared worse as Botham helped
skittle the Australian's out for 164, taking 4 wickets
for 42 runs. Darling was hit in the heart by Bob Willis
and was given the kiss of life from John Emburey and
Umpire O'Connell. He was stretchered off but resumed
later. Bob Taylor, England's wicket keeper made 97,
his highest Test score and set Australia 366 to win.
Managing only 160, they lost by 205 runs.
England
won the final Test at Sydney by 9 wickets, Yallop
scoring 121 out of Australia's first innings total
of 198. Hogg taking 41 wickets in the series at an
average of 12.85, set a new record for Ashes series. |
