Sometimes it’s hard to explain why you are a fan of a certain cricketer. Tendulkar, well of course. Lara, oh wow! Astle – but why? There was a time when I went to every corner of Delhi in search of an Astle poster. Brian Lara, I could find. Mark Waugh, I could find. Richie Richardson, I could find. But not Nathan John Astle. Damn, there was even one of Harbhajan Singh (this was around 1998).
It’s a weird fandom. He doesn’t play for India. He’s no legend. He’s not a bowler that I could model myself on, and I had already started copying Dravid in my batting. So, no slot there. And for God’s sake, he used to play predominantly in a time zone which screwed up my sleep cycle. Not that waking up to watch him bat was always a rewarding experience. For all the inexplicability of it, if you had cut your teeth on this maverick innings as I did, it’s not that inexplicable.
Trailing by 227 in the first innings and at 28 for 2 in the second innings, against Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop, he didn’t have much of a choice but to counterattack. But boy, did he grab his chance! It was flashy, magical and maddening in equal measure. Almost having a license to counterattack is one thing, but to walk down the wicket against Ambrose and Bishop, and smash them over the head is the stuff rockstars are made of. He had finished with 125 from 150 balls and followed that up with another brilliant hundred in the next match. The following period was patchy. He was never really consistent after that. But I was spoilt.
He is quite a frustrating cricketer to follow. You set the alarm and wake up at 4.30 AM to watch him bat, and he’ll play an expansive drive to a wide half-volley and get out caught in the slip cordon for next to nothing. But the thought of missing an Astle special was too gruesome to give up on this ritual. It came a few times in between. There was a solid 156* against the all-conquering Australia, which nearly won the series for NZ. But nothing quite like the way it did against England at Christchurch in 2002.
This was special. Very very special – the kind of innings that some of us, standing with a bat in front of the mirror, would have dreamt of playing.
On the back of a double hundred from Thorpe, Hussain set New Zealand a target of 550 to get in the fourth innings. Astle walked it at 119 for 3. Not exactly the ‘license to go all-out attack’ situation. It didn’t matter. This was Astle’s day. Totally.
He stood tall and cut anything pitched short, covered the swing beautifully and played expansive drives for anything pitched up, even played a flick drive – a la Azhar – straight back past the bowler, lofted Giles out of the ground with those exquisite full swing of the arms, played his trademark bat-jamming-the-pad flicks for deliveries drifting towards the leg stump. While he was putting on a show at one end, the wickets started tumbling at the other end.
New Zealand looked dead and buried at 301 for 8. That’s when Astle decided to let it rip. Let it rip – well, he did a little more than that. The next one hour was quite simply the most maddening passage of batting I have seen, outside of Sehwag, in test cricket. He was launching all the English bowlers out of the park almost with contempt, literally dancing down for every non-short delivery. It was like a celebration, a six hitting competition. Caddick who had taken a 6 for by that time, was taken to the cleaners, and Hoggard wasn’t any better. This was cricket in its most raw form. A counterattacking batsman on top of his game against bowlers of pedigree, marshaled by a good captain, with no field restrictions. They pushed the field back, Astle was still finding the gaps. When he couldn’t find gaps, he took it out of the equation and simply launched them out of the ground. They bowled short, he hooked them past square leg. They pitched it up, David Lloyd screamed “new balls please” in the commentary box.
The first four overs with the second new ball cost 61 runs – quite amazingly, that included a wicket maiden. Hoggard was pulverized for 41 runs in two overs, and Caddick was smashed for 38 runs in just seven balls spread across two overs – with one of the sixes landing on the roof over extra-cover. Yes, you read it right, a six over extra-cover landed on the roof of a stand. In between, Ian Butler got out and in came Chris Cairns at no.11 (because of an injury). With Cairns for company, Astle blasted 118 runs in 55 minutes of 69 balls to go onto become fastest scorer of double century in tests. At one stage, David Lloyd was worried if England would have a team to field for the next test at Wellington fearing if most of the England fielders would end up with stiff neck after watching balls fly past them at such regularity.
During the course of the last wicket partnership, if you had a look at Hussain’s reactions, you wouldn’t have believed that this is a captain defending 550 in the fourth innings, with the opponents on the mat at 333 for 9. Hussain had serious fears of the match slipping away. Another hour and it was gone! If an innings can instill the fear of a loss in the opponent when chasing 550 and still more than 150 runs adrift with only one wicket in hand, it ought to be rated among the very best.
Watch that innings here – Part 1 and Part 2 ( Courtesy: robelinda2)