50 years since Graeme Pollock's classic 125 -greatest innings ever by left-hander?

[Harsh Thakor]

Today on August 5th,1965,exactly 50 years ago Graeme Pollock exhibited one of test cricket's finest batting displays.Out of a paltry score of 160 of his teams total till he was batting Pollock carved out a precious 125 .On the worst of wickets in the most precarious situation Pollock displayed the qualities of a military commander leading a battalion to defy the enemy against all odds.He literally retrieved a sinking ship ressurecting his side from the grave.He carried the bat as though carrying a magician's wand.When batting Pollock looked like an architect,soldier and poet rolled into one.He exhibited some of the most glorious driving ,pulling and cutting allover the wicket with the authority of an emperor and the control of a motorist driving a racing car.Few better innings have ever been scored when the chips were down or on bad wickets and the best test innings of Greg Chappell,Sunil Gavaskar,Viv Richards or Sachin Tendulkar have not surpassed it.Was it the best ever test innings of any left handed batsmen?Was the best innings of Brian Lara or Gary Sobers better than this?Was it better than Stan Mcabe's 232 in 1938 on the same ground.Even if it was it was by a matter of inches.Today we must all pay tribute to this glorious innings of Pollock which was arguably amongst the best 5 test innings of all time.To me it was just edged by Lara's 153 n.o at Bridgetown v Australia in 1999.It will be embedded in the memory of cricket fans forever. In the 1966 edition of Wisden Norman Preston, certainly not one given to hyperbole, wrote “This was one of the finest Test displays of all timeâ€. With his judgement of length Pollock was able to adjust and strike to the boundary deliveries that were beyond the scope of those lesser gifted. Ted Dexter observed “he could hit the good-length ball, given only a modicum of room outside the off stump, actually harder than he could hit the half-volley. Now that takes some doingâ€. - Quoting Gareth Bland "In cold statistical terms, when Pollock arrived the score was 16-2. When he departed some 139 minutes later it was 178-6. Graeme Pollock had scored 125 of the 162 runs scored while he was at the crease. It is a staggering percentage; a fraction over 77% of the runs scored while he was out in the middle came from his bat alone. Classically, almost, the innings can be said to have come in two distinct acts: seventy minutes prior to lunch and the seventy minutes after. In Act I Pollock played himself in; measuring the bowling and conditions to reach 34 by lunch. Act II, however, laid the foundations for the Pollock legend and provided the young left-hander with the innings which he himself regards as his finest. Of the 102 runs made between the resumption of play and his dismissal, Pollock made 91 of them. He was particularly severe on Cartwright, the bowler who had been seen as a potential tormentor." Below is an article by Mike Arthurton I am reproducing in 'The Telegraph' By Michael Atherton 12:01AM BST 10 Aug 2003 In 1965 Graeme Pollock played what is considered to be the second-finest Test innings at Trent Bridge. The Australian, Stan McCabe, played the first, in 1938, but his 232 came in a run feast (there were 1,496 runs scored in the match) and the game was drawn. Pollock's savage 125 in the second Test was scored in a tight, low-scoring affair and it gave South Africa a 1-0 lead in a series they went on to win. Pollock does not hold the innings in the same regard as everyone else. "It was a long time ago and I think hindsight and the fact that we were in trouble has given the innings greater merit than it possibly deserves. The circumstances were everything in that we were 10 for two, 40 for four and 80 for six, but I never had any preconceptions as to how I was going to play. I played each ball strictly on its merits and if a string of bad balls happened to come along, I tried to take advantage." The build-up to the match was far less intense than the two days of preparation and media frenzy that the players endure today. "Naturally, we came straight from a county game and I remember feeling in good touch. Related Articles Vaughan aware of task that lies ahead 04 Aug 2003 We did have nets, but the surface wasn't very good and you had guys hurling them down off 20 yards so I didn't net for long. I had a thing about my eyesight: I did lots of short sharp catches to get my eyesight going." Two early wickets fell and Pollock recalls that he had to work hard up to lunch. Recently, the pitch at Trent Bridge has been a belter, but Pollock remembers a definite tinge of green for England's seamers to cause some early trouble. "It was obviously uncovered in those days, but, to be honest, after the first session it didn't do much." In the first hour after the break Pollock caused havoc, smashing 90 runs. His main strength, and greatest belief about the art of batting, was the ability to dominate the bowler. "In those days, every batsman was technically OK and could keep out the good balls. The ones that were rated were those who could punish the dross. "I always practised hitting bad balls: I worked on hitting full tosses in the nets and I knew when one came that I could whack it for four. I anticipated them so that they never came as a surprise. In any match I looked to hit a boundary every over." Pathe News pictures show Pollock with a narrow stance, bat on the ground and his head way over to the off-side, using a light bat. Later, he stood like a baseball hitter - stance wide, (heavy) bat off the ground and using minimal feet movement. The change was gradual and natural. "I'm a big believer that batting is instinctive. It just felt more natural to me and I felt balanced, and balance is the key to batting." As Pollock began to take the game away from England, did any of the fielders sledge him? "No, I never remember any England player getting vocal. I got plenty of sledging when I played against Australia but not England. But they weren't soft: England were always a professional outfit and to get runs or wickets against them you had to play well. They never gave you anything, whereas Australia always attacked." Pollock is now working as a batting consultant to the South Africa team and has seen the last two Tests. He believes there is no discernible difference in technique between now and then, "but I think the guys back then were harder to get out. I think of Boycott, Barrington, Cowdrey and Dexter and, boy, if the wicket didn't do anything you had no chance of getting them out. Hooking, with two men out - no way!" Eventually, Tom Cartwright ended Pollock's fun by finding the edge of his bat and the safe hands of Colin Cowdrey at slip. Amid criticism of the current England attack's inability to bowl line and length, Cartwright's name comes as a timely reminder of traditional English values. What does Pollock remember of England's bowling? "Well, I remember Bob Barber because he was pretty friendly! Cartwright bowled a lot of overs and was very typical of English bowlers at the time. We had played against Tom in 1964 in South Africa and he had not really done a lot. But, in England, they just seemed to put it on a length and you felt you had lined them up and all of a sudden something would just happen. I think the seam on the ball was bigger in those days." England's selectors must have been in a bigger muddle than they are now, because Pollock faced different quicks in each game of that series: Fred Rumsey and David Brown at Lord's; David Larter and John Snow at Trent Bridge and Brian Statham and Ken Higgs at the Oval. At least the selectors had some choice, I suppose. Coincidentally, this week I dropped in at David Brown's wonderful stud farm just outside Worcestershire. Brown was dropped after Lord's and recalled for the Oval as third seamer behind Statham and Higgs. "The day before the match we had a gentle net: Statham wandered over to the nets in his slippers carrying a cup of tea. Doug Insole, our manager, rather sarcastically said: 'Nice to see you, Brian.' 'Nice of you to have me, manager,' he replied and wandered back to the dressing rooms.' " As Pollock said, it all seems so long ago.