Test Match Special - England vs West Indies Classics: Lord's 2000

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

Jonathan Agnew is joined by Fazeer Mohammed and Andy Zaltzman to discuss a remarkable Test match between England and West India at Lord's in 2000.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a weighting depth of 900 millimeters and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at landrover.ca. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Marshall in, he bowls, Foster goes forward, and he's out, caught there by Harper at third step. Here is Waltz on the way now, and Gouche pulls down towards backward split-leg, that's going to do his 100.

Hooper has hit on the pad, there's an appeal towards Upharmouth. He's giving him out to W. Cork has taken a hatchet. There's a big ABW appeals for him, he's out, LBW. West End he's all out for 54. Hello, this is Jonathan Agnew with you for the final episode of our series looking back at some classic test matches played between England and West Indies. And if you've missed the BBC 2 programmes that go alongside this series in Issa Gower and do have a watch on the IPlayer and some wonderful old footage and memories too.

Well, so far we've motored through the 80s and 90s. We're going from West Indies' dominance in 1984 to a slight resurgence from England come 1995. and today we're going to conclude things in 2000 at Lords with a real classic from a series that marked the end for a couple of true West Indian greats. Ambrose is now lifting his arms high to the crowd. Walsh, of course, has not announced his retirement and he's just waving one arm to the crowd.

The two titans of West Indian fast bowling over the last decade or so are waving to all the people. parts of the Oval and getting a standing ovation. Well, this is a remarkable test for so many reasons to start with. It was the hundredth played at Lords. It also had the extraordinary occurrence of having a part of all four innings played on one day. And though England eventually won, it was far from straightforward.

They were described as pathetic England in one newspaper after their first innings slump. Well, to go through the action, I'm again joined by the Test Match special scorer and hezoltzman and also West Indies commentator Fausia Mahibald, who joined us live from his house in Trinidad. Love you to have you both with us. Now, the first test of this series and saw the West Indies win by an innings and 93 runs. Oh, and he's bowled, and that's it.

125 all out. Giddings, bowled by Adams. That finishes the test match. The West Indies completing a most convincing victory. They've won by an innings and 93 runs. What a way to start this summer series. Love to hear Donna Simmons on there as well. The first woman commentator on Test Match special.

So let's go through the teams first of all. And then again just puts us in context, isn't it? So Sharon Campbell, opening with Griffith, Wavell Heinz at three. Lara, of course, is there. Chanderpull, Jimmy Adams. Ridley Jacobs is by now keeping wickets. And then the fast bowling attack

tend to always look there with the West Indians, don't you? Ambrose, Rose, Rion King, who is a rare breed, I suggest, Fasier, because a Guyanese fast bowler. Not too many of those, I don't think. Courtney Walsh bringing up the rear and for England. Atherton, Ramprakash, opening the batting, Vaughan, Hick, Stewart, Captain and Keeping Wicked, Nick Knight, White, Cork, Caddick, Gough. And it's a debut for our old friend, the Hogster, Matthew Hoggard. So, Rion King, Quite rare, isn't it, a Guyanese fast bowler fans? One name comes to mind immediately. Colin Croft, of course, from Guyana, as well, a member of that fearsome quartet, Holim Roberts, Garner, Croft, but they haven't been too many others. Charlie Stairs from the 1950s would have been someone who came out of that South American country as well. And afterwards, you had Colin Stewart, who infamously was banned from bowling at the very start of a test match in Sri Lanka in 2000. and won for a couple of inadvertent beamers

at the early stages of that test match. It was unfortunate for it. But you're right. Rayon King coming out of Guyana, big man, powerful man. And you talk about the decline of Western East Fast Bowling at around that time. And many people look back on those

numbers and you see certain comparisons, even with the great fastballers and you wonder why, a Rayon King, a Franklin Rose, a Nixon McLean, a Mervyn, a Mervyn Dylan, Pedro Collins, and quite a few others didn't really kick on in the way that the great fast bowlers from 20 years earlier managed to do.

It's a good question because, I mean, Andy Roberts was around, I mean, coaching, I'm not sure if he was coaching this series or not, but I mean, you know, they did have plenty of expert advice knocking about. Well, I think Andy was pretty much fed up by that time because in the previous test match that we had highlighted, he was the coach of that team. He had actually taken over from Roan Kanai, another West Indies legend, the batsman who were in the tour of New Zealand in early 95 complained about the attitude

and the behaviour of a lot of the senior Western East fast bowlers and rather than deal with the discipline issue they got rid of Kanhai, brought in Andy who immediately in that 1995 tour of England complained as well about the attitude and the way the players were going about their training and so on and he was gotten rid of after the World Cup of 1996. Yeah.

Well, there we are. I mentioned that real overwhelming result in that first test and desultzman. Was that a bit of a surprise, you think? I'm not sure these were two teams that were not particularly strong at the time. England, the previous summer, had lost at home to New Zealand in a fairly disastrous series after going 1-0 up. They've then gone to South Africa and been well-beaten. They'd lost five of their previous six series,

plus the one-off test against Sri Lanka at the Oval in 1998, when Murillithere and took 16 wickets. West Indies had lost their last four away series since that two-all draw in 1995 that we talked about last time and they'd lost their last 10 consecutive away tests including a 5-0 whitewash in South Africa so particularly batting since that 95 series of the nine test teams England have the third worst team batting stats

and West Indies the second worst only Zimbabwe below them so these were two teams that particularly with the bat had been struggling for quite a long time and churning through players England had used 30 players in 22 tests since they'd last played the West Indies in a series in the Caribbean in 1998. West Indies had got through 33 and 16. So these were teams that were struggling and unstable. Yeah, well, good point, thank you.

So that first game, England would bowled out for 179 and 125. NASA, Sane, the captain, had an injured thumb. That explains why Alex Stewart was deputizing in this particular game. He won the toss, and they chose to field first. And I wonder if that was because they were worried about another last. low score. But the fact is, West Indies will bowl out for 267, with four wickets for Goff and for cork. Then goes Cork now, and he's caught. Caught at the short leg. A very neat catch by Mark Ramprakash, and Ambrose departs, is dragging his bat now as the West Indies lose their

seventh wicket. And here comes Goff, in to Chanderpool, bows. And he bowled him. It's bowled him. I think that came off the inside edge. He played it really firm-footed from the crease, and that was the in England really wanted. Interesting Dominic Cork there Andy because it was a different Dominic Cork to the one we were talking about in the previous of these programmes where he got his hat trick at Old Trafford. He just started his career

pitching the ball up and swinging it. He rather lost that swing and he came back as a much more sort of aggressive hit the middle of the pitch sort of bowler. Yes he'd not played a test match for 18 months or so before this game and his form off that spectacular early start

that we talked about last time. He reached 50 wickets in just his 11th test. His form had really dipped through a mixture of injuries and just the fluctuations of form. But he came back and had a fine summer this summer. But yeah, he was probably a rather different bowler than he had been in that 95 series. So 267 put in, I suppose. I suppose both sides would have thought that wasn't too awful, Fazia. Yeah, not too bad.

And I think the Westerners would have hoped that they would have been able to carry on from the edge of some victory. was certainly a relief and as Andy mentioned those 10 consecutive defeats in Pakistan South Africa then New Zealand

and losing pretty badly in those 10 test matches and then to start this series with that rousing victory and even with 267 not really a formidable total I think they felt that with the momentum from that first test match

they would have been able to really front up at loads and especially Agass because this was really a celebratory occasion for where because the 2000 test match, the soundtrack to it was Lord Beginner's famous Calypso. Cricket, lovely cricket, as the Lord where I saw it. Cricket, lovely cricket.

At Lord where I saw it. Cricket lovely cricket. So I won't go on anymore because I've done enough of that already. But because it was 50 years after that famous test match victory, first for the Westernies in England at Lords in 1915. in 1950 with Ramadin and Valentine. It was 100 years from the West Indies team's first ever tour to England before they had gotten testatus. And of course it was 25 years from the World Cup final victory of 1975.

So we were surrounded by a lot of West Indies greats at that time and it was felt that after the victory at Edgeburton, now coming to Lords 1-0 up, that even all out for 267, the Westerners' bowlers would have done the job. Well, they did too to start with, didn't they? because the real pressure on England's batting, Andy, you can imagine it, can't you? Was that the reason I wonder that Alex Stewart put West Indies in? It couldn't risk England being blown away in their first innings again.

Well, their batting had been disastrous, two low scores in the first test. They've been bowled out for 147 against Zimbabwe in the second innings of the second test of that series. In nine of their last 14 test innings at home, they've been bowled out for under 200. So, yeah, these were really tough times for England as a lot. batting line up. Well, they're at it again because you scratch your head sometimes. Mark Rambrakesh opening? Yeah, well, he did and before you knew it, England were nine for three. In comes Ambrose now, Bowls, and Ranprakash has edged it and he's caught. Rampercash has gone for Nort and Ambrose breaks through with the last ball of his first over.

It's a terrible start for England. Bolsh goes in again now, balls outside. The off-stamp and Allerton's out. Caught by Lara at first slip, and that was a horrid. It really was. A firm-footed nibble outside the off-stump. Oh, what a shocking start for England. They're one for two in the second over. Ambrose in again, Bell's Grimm. Oh, he bowled him. He played forward. He bowled him. And that is born out bowled by Ambrose before. I don't know what happened there. I mean, he just, what happened to that one? I think it's like the first delivery, that last delivery we had. I think he came forward. So there we go, nine, nine for three. I just

mentioned by a bit of surprise at Ramps opening. Andy, how often did he open in test cricket then? It was the fourth and final test that Ramprakash was played as an opener. He'd been called in as an opener at the start of the summer, played the two tests against Zimbabwe, got a 50 in the second test at Nottingham, and then the first test against West Indies at Edgebaston. But it was a sign of the instability of England's batting line.

They'd churned through a number of different openers as they tried to find a partner for Athen and Mark Butchers form had fallen away. Stuart had dropped down the order as a hitkeeper and captain for a while. So it was, England were really struggling to find an opening batsman that was rectified when Marcus

Truscothic came in for the following test match. Yeah, I mean, fine player, Ramberkash, but you do wonder sometimes what decisions were to have him opening the batting, but anyway England, therefore, they were nine for three, they slipped to 50 for five. One of the evening papers

described England as pathetic. King is it edged and night is out Caught at second slip A short rising ball At night followed A healthy edge And taken by Campbell And what a disastrous morning

This is for England And now 50 for five It was a lively ball You can always tell by the crowd When the home crowd When the home team is on the rack So there's hoots and sort of noise of derision But that's kind of how it felt at the time

because England, Fasier, I mean, their batting was so fragile. It just looked as if the rug would be pulled away from them again. Well, we were having a joyous time in the media centre because doing the little snippets of commentary alongside Test Mats special, sending back some interviews for the Caribbean Media Corporation and so on, interviewing Alan Ray, the opening batsman from the 1950s. Mikey Holding was around, of course, Vivian Richards, who you just heard as part of TMS.

We were having a rollicking time, enjoying ourselves and saying, Happy days are here again. But again, it just goes to show how much it mattered to the West Indies to be getting the better of England. And see them capitulate so quickly. You just felt that at the time, having been 1-0-0 already and one so emphatically, there was only one way for this test match to go. It seemed that way.

England all out for 134. And now Ambrose turns down at the pavilion end. Once again, the sun breaking through. With great huge strides, he comes gangling in again, Goals to Goff. It's edged and he's caught at first slip. Brian Lara takes a straightforward catch and England have been dismissed for 134 with Hoggard on 12-not-out.

A terrific effort by the West Indies with Ambrose taking his fourth wicket. Walsh also has four and they've got themselves in a very, very strong position in this match. The two great fast bowlers doing it again for the West Indies and giving him a lead of 133 going into the second innings. be honest you don't often win matches from there do you well you don't aggers in fact against

the west indies you never do before or or indeed since this is the only test match that the west indies have lost after being over a hundred ahead in first innings without then declaring in the second inning so there are a couple of defeats that one way sober's declared in 1968 where they had been further ahead but to overturn a lead of a hundred or more against the west indies was pretty much unheard of fazia again confident i mean you're not going to lose this, are you? No, you shouldn't and I'll just advise Andy, don't ever bring up that declaration

in Port Spring to Sigafil Sobers because even at his advance he really gets worked up by that because he can't stand the fact that people always remind him of those couple of declarations. But yeah, I'm sure he would have been at Lowe's in 2000 or watching on, enjoying

what was going on and the Western he certainly seemed at that point to be well on course to make it 2-0. Well, there was, though, this incredible spell from Andy Caddick. West Indies bowled out for 54, including a spell of four wickets falling for just two runs. That's shorter and he cuts it hard into the ground. He goes over the top. Oh my good, a bigger pardon. He didn't. It was a top edge. I'm sorry I missed read that, but it's a very fine catch at third man. Credit goes short again and that's caught a short leg.

I think off the gloves. Heinz stands and waits for Umpire Hampshire to confirm. That's Hotei Ossum, and he's given out, car behind. Edge to the keep up. Griffith has gone for one, and the West Indies now 10 for three. He's out caught in the gully, Lara. Lifting delivery from Caddick, Lara spot at it. Chanderpull gets it off the Tipad. He's looking at him out.

He's giving him out. Chandapal, indicates Typad, umpire, Venkat's finger goes up. Ramprakash takes the catch. Lord's is alive with a sound. of jubilant Englishman. West Indies are 24 for five. Jacob drives. He's out. Caught by Atherton at first slip. He drove in a very wide one, got the edge. Adams can't talk to him on the pad at the B.O. Rivers. He's out. He's giving him out. Adams has gone. LV.W. well caught. Ambrose is going to bring. And he's caught there. I think yes. He is.

Ambrose couldn't keep it down. He was a lifting ball. He fended it away. The round per catch has taken his third catch. And the West End is off 39 for eight. Would you believe it? I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is absolutely incredible. This has got to be one of the most exciting day's play I've ever seen. Three sips and a gully go down for a row and it's out. Cotton Bowl by Dominic Court, got the lead in edge. Brilliant bowling by Cork. He's picked up the ninth wicket. King on seven, waits on Cork. And there's a big LBW appeal for Indies out. LBW. West Indies all out, 454. Rion King, LBW to Dominic Cork for seven, won't, left, not out on three. and England have bowled the West Indies out for 54 in their second innings.

This is day two of the second test match. We have one innings to go. And it's only the second day and it's not finished. Absolutely incredible day. Caddick 5 for 16, Goff took 2 for 17. But there's quite a stark contrast, Andy, isn't there, between Caddick's overall career first innings, wicket-taking. And second innings?

Yeah, over the course of his test career, he paid 62, test took 234 wickets for England. He averaged 37 in the first innings and 20 in the second innings. So, yeah, it's a curiosity for Caddick. But at this point in his career, he was a highly effective and consistent bowler for England. I mean, it's an incredible difference, though, isn't it? I mean, for a fast bowler to average 20 in the second innings as opposed to 37 in the first. I mean, a spinner, you might imagine, having a gap like that, but a quick bowler like Andy Caddick, who you needed the new ball,

who hit the pitch, got the bounce, nipped it away. I mean, he's a brilliant bowler. Maybe he was a spinner trapped in a fast bowler's body, you know. It's not the best you can do. Some stats defy explanation, I guess. Well, that's one of them, because actually Caddick fuzz it his best. I mean, he was a terrific bowler, wouldn't he? Indeed he was, and there was even better to come for him and for England,

and worse to come for the Western days. A couple of tests matters later, as we'll recall, with Headingley, which finished inside two days and Ancadik running riot yet again. But it might have something to do with mentality and approach to the game. And indeed, a lot of people seem to get on the back of Andy Caddick very easily. And even for us in the Western days, it just seemed to be almost a love-hate relationship with Andy Caddick and English cricket in general.

And he just never seemed to be someone who fit in to. the archetypal rule of an English seema or fastball or whatever, that might have something to do with it. Well, Fasio, you mentioned how chirp are you all down in the media centre at Lords. I wonder what you're thinking of that, 54 all out. And it all started with Allard Ray again, saying, well, how do you get caught a third man as an opening batsman unless you're 175 not out? And he kept banging on about that and why, yes, it was a real capitulation and take nothing away

from the England fast bowlers and so on but he talked about so much that was wrong with the opening positions and it was really an indicator of much worse that was to come because a year earlier the Western East had been shot out for 51 by

Australia at Queen Spark Oval in Trinidad and then again as we talk about Chewin Campbell and Adrian Griffith they had put on 286 opening the batting on day one against New Zealand in Hamilton just a few months earlier, only for the Western needs to be shot out for 97 in the second innings

and lose comfortably by the fourth afternoon. And then there was the 61 at Headingley, which came a couple of weeks after this Lord's test match. And then a certain Steve Harmison had something to say, 47 all-out at Sabina Park in Jamaica. So it was starting to group together these really pitiful batting efforts. The Lord's 54-all-out was the third of five sub-100 all-out. scores that the West Indies had in a 17 test sequence in 99 and 2,000, and to put that

in context, they'd add only one sub-100 all-out score in their previous 250 test matches going back to 1963. So their batting was in a state of considerable collapse. The 54 all-out was their third lowest at the time, now fourth on the list after that 47 all-out in Jamaica in 2004 that Fazir mentioned. England had not bowled the West Indies out for under 150 since It's 1969. So to bowl them out for 54 at this point was truly extraordinary. It was just the most exhausting day.

I just remember sitting there at the end of that evening. When just reflecting on where we were, just two days gone. England's set 188 to win. I suppose they're probably favourites. But again, it's just that question of confidence and how fragile the batting of both sides is in this series.

So the third day starts. And England cruised to 95 for 1. They're chasing 188 before Michael Vaughn falls. But surely it's all still in hand for England. This time he's gone. His Graham Hick. The catch taken by Brian Lara at first slip. Courtney Walsh finding the edge of Graham Hicks bat.

Caught by Lara at first slip off the bowling of Waltz for 15. And the breakthrough that the West Indies wanted, England 1-1-9 for 3. As this is Atherton, he's struck in front. And umpire, Van Catt says yes, he's out. LBW! The big wicket for the West Indies. Atherton, LBW for 45, and England now 120 for 4. Here comes Ambrose again, Ian Bowes to Stuart.

Oh, and that one hits out. He's LBW. That one couldn't get up very far. It kept a bit low, and he hit him absolutely in front of middle stump. And Umpower Venkatragman merely had to confirm it. So that is disaster with capital D. Here comes Walsh now to White He's in, now he bows

White can't home That one's gone over everything He's out, caught behind He's given out by Vex Dragby laid forward White arm has gone for a duck And Walsh has got his sixth Wicket

140 for six So still 48 to win You can just imagine what it must have been like Well in both dressing rooms really But I suspect particularly England's Because again Harking back to the lack of confidence And so on

in their batting And then 160 for eight, still 28 needed. It looked then like it was the West Indies game. In comes Ambrose, and he bowls. Now, and Caddick said he's out, leg before Wicked. It looked absolutely plumb. And Ambrose celebrates in that way that we've seen so often. And now it's the high fives all round.

And that is a crucial blow, dealt by Kirkley Ambrose. It is first overback. With Caddick hit well in front. And again, the ball seemed just to scuffle through a little bit low on this occasion. At that point, you felt that the Western days, with things going there way, maybe one or two keeping a bit low, as Richard just heard in a bit of that commentary, it would have gone the West Indies way. But there was always that concern about Dominic Cork.

I mean, I don't know what it is with other countries, but he just seemed to get under the skin of Westerners very easy, with all of the histrionics and all of the celebrations and so on. And the fact that he was so successful, that was the irritating thing about it. He was successful five years earlier, that fame was. debut at Lords, then the hat-trick in the test match at Old Trafford, which we highlighted earlier, and then to come back from being so ordinary, why did you bring Dominic Cock back now to win a test match for England? Yeah. He was ferociously competitive, abrasive, really got up the

nose, I think, of all the opposition, not just the West Indians, be fair, as here. But he was a damn good cricketer, though, actually, wasn't he? I mean, he was a proper all-rounder, actually. Well, he almost was, I think, and his batting had not really developed from those early innings, particularly about 50 at Old Traffat that we talked about last time, and he'd been

averaging 15 or so over his previous sort of 15 or 20 test matches. Darren Goff had also had a few really good innings for England in the first year of his test career, but he'd been averaging seven over his previous 30 tests. So, yeah, they both had a bit

of talent with the bat, but it was not necessarily the partnership you wanted to get you over the line in a test match. Well, it was nail-biting. Two wickets in hand. 28 still needed, but England eventually got there with Cork hitting the winning runs through the covers. Now, Cork waits for a moment. He's seen some moving in the field, I think.

And now he settles down once again. Courtney Walsh wipes the right hand on his trousers and now sets off and bowls to Cork. And there he goes. He's forced it away through the offside. It's going for four. And England have won one of the most. dramatic test match as you'll ever see.

They've won it by two wickets, and Dominic Cork finishes on 33, not out, he's stared England home when it all seemed lost. And that really was as good a test match as you could ever wish to see, regardless of the result. I'll just say something here, Jonathan. That little gesture has seen from Dominic Cork. I don't know what it is.

I'd really like to see that again, and I'll really like to give my verdict what I think of it. So Cork seeing England home and that very strange gesture that he was making to a part of the ground for once it wasn't at the media centre it was actually well to our left but I've never really worked out quite what he was doing

there. Any theories, anybody? Well, it might be because it's Lords because it's London, because you would have had a sizeable West Indian contingent there. You never know they might have been having a right go at him and maybe the three fingers would have had something to do with the fact

that he'd won a test match at Lodes in 95 on debut with seven wickets in the second innings, that hat-trick in the Old Traffat test match also in 95. And now for the third time, he's been a match winner for England, just to shut up the West Indian's there, I don't know. Possible? Any thought? I mean, these three-finger gestures at Lords

are a thing of habit, aren't there? NASA's was up the back at the media centre. I can't think who out. But this one from court was a front-word three fingers. Very strange. Yes, and maybe he was ordering a round of three. That could have been it. It's possible.

But yeah, you had a great match, four for 39 and three for 13 with the ball and that crucial 33 not out in that nail-biting, nail-biting end. Yeah, well, it was an absolutely incredible test match. And of course, in the fourth game at Heading, West Indies of a ball out,

as you mentioned, was 61 in their second inning. I wonder if this was a bit of a role then, Fazir, do you think that confidence really had ebbed away? Yeah, yeah, it had. And I think what really worried a lot of people when this match was over, and the West Indies had gone to the dressing room

and you talked to those who had gone into to console some of the players and so on former players and they said well you know they were all on either on their phones or looking for somewhere to go something to do and so on rather than to analyse what had gone wrong

Kurt Le Ambrose had already said before the start of the series it was going to be his last series and every time you speak to him about it afterwards he said well look everything that went on on that tour convinced him that he had made the right decision to go because it was all going downhill,

not so much as far as talent, but as far as attitude and approach to the game. And even though Courtney Walsh begged him to go on the subsequent tour of Australia, he stuck to his decision not to play any more test cricket or any more international cricket after that. And as we saw, the two-day loss at heading near,

and so much else. It was really a precipitous decline for the West Indies from that point on. And as we look ahead to this series that's going to happen here, Fazia, is it the most confident do you think that West Indies might be coming into a series? Because I'm reflecting, obviously, on West Indies beating England last year in the Caribbean and thoroughly deserving it, too. I mean, they just look to transformed side, really. If we go back to 2000 and then forward to now, is that sort of a real turnaround happened again, do you think?

It seems a totally different world from what happened in 2000 to what we're experiencing, not just because of the uniqueness of this COVID-19 situation, but because there's a feeling that this global pandemic might be a great leveler for this series. We recall the West Indies with a tremendous turnaround from 2017, losing at Edgewist and inside three days and then that famous victory at Headingley, only to lose again at Lord.

So I think you've got in the nucleus of this West Indies squad, led by Jason Holder, players who would have been part of the West Indies set up for two or three years. Shea Hope is still there. Craig Bathwood is still there, although he's struggling for runs. But I get a sense from the Western News that they feel not just that the cricketing world and the eyes will be on them because it's an historic occasion, but they've got an excellent opportunity to end this abysmal run that they've had in England for some time. I mean, you have to go back to 1988 the last time the Western News won a test series

in England, and that was even in the time of Viv Richards and Company. So there's a lot of ground to make up, but there's optimism, whether that will be grounded more in hope than in actual reality. I suppose we'll have to wait and see when the first ball is bold. We shall see. Andy, last thoughts from you. That's four matches we've covered, but any particular highlight for you? I'm going to put one slightly out of it, but I did enjoy. I love it into this particular series. Kurtly Ambrose and Cornwallch walking off together at the Oval. That was pretty special. I mean, two mountainous men and who really carried West Indies bowling on their shoulders for so long

but bowing out together it was a lovely moment there And that was the last day of the series And this huge crowd turned up at the Oval To watch this So the series really captured the public In a way that Test cricket hadn't For a little while

And Walsh Well both of them in that series was superb Ambrose 17 wickets average 18 Courtney Walsh 34 wickets at an average of 12.8 One of the finest series by by any bowler in the history of tests and it was definitely a bowler summer batsmen both teams collectively average

22 runs per wickets the lowest scoring series in England in the last 60 years so it's a bowler series as always full of drama and never more so than that game at lords and Courtney Walsh actually became the first bowler to take 10 wickets in a match at lords and end up on the losing side

full of days off I seem to recall as well that series but there we go. That's another matter. Thanks to you two very much indeed, Fasier and Andy. Thanks for joining us. We've a lot of fun recalling those classic matches between these two wonderful sides. There's many more we could have chosen, but hopefully we've painted a picture

of an iconic time for both countries' test teams. So don't forget to look out on BBC 2 and on the I-Player for the TV programmes looking back on these games as well with Isha Goa and all being well. We'll see you on July the 8th at the Jius Bowl as England start their belated summer of 2020 against the West Indies.

Alan Shear and Ian Ryder in my kitchen. What's going on here? The all-new Match of the Day Top Ten podcast, answering a huge football question every week. This has not been easy, hasn't it? Like the Top Ten Premier League strikers. Personally, I think it's really hard to have Shearer anywhere near the top ten. The Match of the Day Top Ten podcast.

It's only available on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.