No cricketer was extra devastating on rain-affected pitches than Derek Underwood, who has died aged 78. “Lethal”, as he was identified each to buddy and foe, took extra Check wickets – 297 – than another English spin bowler, and stands sixth on the all-time checklist of England wicket takers.
Taking part in for a lot of his profession when pitches have been left uncovered exterior play, he turned knowledgeable at exploiting “sticky canine” surfaces. For Kent and England he took 5 wickets or extra in an innings 153 instances, 17 of them in Check matches.
His most well-known massive hauls got here in opposition to Australia in 1968 on the Oval, the place a match-winning seven wickets for 50 runs allowed England to attract the sequence with six minutes to spare within the ultimate Check, and in 1972 at Headingley, the place he had six victims to safe the Ashes on a pitch ridden with fungus.
It will be fallacious, nonetheless, to recommend that Underwood was reliant on suspect pitches for wickets. He did a lot of his most damaging work on very presentable surfaces, and was extraordinarily laborious to play on any kind of observe. When uncovered pitches have been totally phased out in 1981, his effectiveness didn’t noticeably diminish.
An unorthodox gradual left-arm bowler, Underwood had a protracted, flat-footed run-up and delivered the ball just about at medium tempo from extensive of the crease, relying a lot lower than the typical spinner on flight and guile and extra on delicate variations of tempo. He might definitely flip the ball, however his actual power lay in his supremely tight line and size, which piled strain on batsmen till they cracked.
A lean, nice man of a quiet, nervous disposition who lived for cricket and saved an in depth document of all his performances, he begrudged each run that was scored off him, sustaining that bowling was “a low mentality occupation: plug away, line and size, till there’s a mistake”. Of English left-arm spinners there have been solely two who exceeded him in expertise – Wilfred Rhodes and Hedley Verity.
Born in Bromley, then in Kent, Derek was the son of Evelyn (nee Wells) and Leslie Underwood, and attended Beckenham and Penge grammar college. He performed for Farnborough after which Beckenham earlier than signing for Kent in 1961. He made his debut two years later in opposition to Yorkshire at Hull as a 17-year-old, bagging Ray Illingworth as his first sufferer and taking 100 wickets in his first marketing campaign, the youngest participant to take action in a debut season.
He exceeded 100 wickets for a second time in 1964, when he had his greatest figures of 9 for 28, in opposition to Sussex at Hastings on a dry, dusty wicket, and once more in 1966, when he topped the nationwide averages with 157 wickets at 13.80 apiece and was known as up for 2 residence Exams in opposition to the West Indies on the age of 21. From 1968 he turned a core member of the England aspect, establishing his lethal popularity that yr through the fifth and ultimate Ashes Check in opposition to Australia on the Oval.
With England 1-0 down within the sequence, Australia have been 85 for 5 on the final day when a thunderstorm drenched the bottom. Nonetheless, a determined mop-up operation by the gang allowed play to restart with 75 minutes remaining, and within the concluding half-hour Underwood took the final 4 wickets for simply six runs in 27 deliveries, securing his ultimate scalp with solely six minutes left and ending up with 7 for 50.
It was probably the most dramatic finishes in Check historical past and though the win was not sufficient to stop Australia from retaining the Ashes, it squared the sequence 1-1 and was an incredible face-saver for England. Underwood later known as it “the excellent reminiscence of my cricket profession”, and Wisden named him as certainly one of its Cricketers of the 12 months.
He took his one hundredth Check wicket and 1,000th first-class wicket in 1971, aged solely 25, and in 1972 had one other memorable day in the “‘Fusarium Check” at Leeds, the place a fungus of that identify received into the pitch, creating bother for the batsmen. Having taken 4 wickets in Australia’s first innings, Underwood ran by way of their second with 6 for 45 to provide England a 2-1 sequence lead that allowed them to retain the Ashes. Two years later, on a extra benign pitch at Lord’s in opposition to Pakistan, he took his greatest Check figures of 13 for 71, consisting of 5 for 20 within the first innings and eight for 51 within the second.
In 1977, on the age of 32, Underwood turned certainly one of a handful of English gamers to enroll to Kerry Packer’s unauthorised World Sequence Cricket circus in Australia, and because of this he was dropped from the Check aspect. When the WSC storm blew over two years later, he was chosen for the 1979-80 sequence in Australia, taking part in 12 Exams after his recall and being appointed MBE for providers to cricket in 1981.
In March the next yr, nonetheless, he lastly burned his worldwide bridges by participating in a insurgent tour of apartheid South Africa, after which he was banned by England for 3 years and jettisoned for good.
He continued till 1987 at Kent, with whom he had been a significant power in a wonderful interval from 1967 to 1978, successful three County Championships, three John Participant League titles, three Benson & Hedges Cups and two Gillette Cups.
He appeared in 86 Exams, taking his 297 wickets at a mean of 25.83, and may need had one other 50 victims however for his involvement with WSC and the insurgent tour. In all first-class cricket he amassed 2,465 wickets – placing him 14th within the all-time checklist – at 20.28.
A slightly comical right-handed batsman on the tail finish, he had an ungainly shovel shot as his inventory in commerce and was insecure in opposition to bouncers. But for a few years he was England’s plucky nightwatchman, efficient in that position even when he not often appeared snug on the crease. In 1984, within the twilight of his profession, he posted an unlikely 111 for Kent in opposition to Sussex, probably the most surprising century of the season.
After his taking part in days he labored together with his brother, Keith, for an organization that offered synthetic cricket pitches, and was president first of Kent in 2006 after which of MCC in 2008.
In 1973 he married Daybreak Sullivan, they usually had two daughters, Heather and Fiona.
