Forty-five years have passed since New Zealand and West Indies played the Test at Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana. The match was the fourth Test of the five-Test series played by the two countries. Considering the fact that the pitch was lifeless and neither of the captains made an effort to fight for the result made the game anything but unexciting. Even though there were a few centuries scored in the Test, the match is always remembered for being lifeless in the series that eventually ended in a 0-0 draw.
As it happened
The hosts batted first and their first innings prolonged till the first hour into the third day. They batted for 135 overs. First, the rain followed by a bottle-throwing incident on the first day when Lloyd was run out, cost West Indies some time, which is why their first innings lasted so long. On the opening day, although Lloyd got himself run out, a section of the spectators assumed that Llyod’s partner Charlie Davis was at fault. However, Llyod’s message on the radio for his fans avoided the situation to go out control.
After the hullabaloo around the runout incident, the crowd finally cheered up when they witnessed the debutant Alvin Kallicharran notched up a superb century. He batted for 254 minutes and scored the last 41 runs just an hour before Sobers declared. The other new inclusion, Geoff Greenidge also impressed with a composed half-century in his maiden Test innings.
The Caribbean’s declared at 365 for 7. In reply, the BlackCaps began with a bang as they ended Day three at 163 for 0. New Zealand’s opening batsman Glenn Turner, who had embarked the Test series with a terrific double century, chipped in with a second Test double. He scored 259 before being trapped leg before wicket against West Indian off-spinner Tony Howard. Meanwhile, his opening associate Terry Jarvis notched up 182 runs.
A duller Test
While the runs were coming, there was no excitement left in the game. It was the second time in the week, Turner had batted for 11+ hours. Both the openers displayed no urgency to pile up runs in order to challenge the hosts for a result. Even after the dismissal of Turner, when the New Zealand captain Bevan Congdon came out to bat, his body language gave out a message that they were playing for a draw. He took three and a half hours to reach his fifty.
The opening pair added 387 runs, which was a New Zealand record back then. Several records were made and broken during the match. However, the records failed to influence the result, so they ended up being anything but futile. The visitors batted for 268 overs, in two days and declared at 543 for three. Congdon and middle-order batsman Brian Hastings remained unbeaten on 61 and 18. On the final day, West Indies’ opening men, Greenidge and Fredericks posted 86 runs on the board, batting 40 overs before the match ended in a lifeless draw.
Prior to the fourth Test, all the three matches had no result. The boring approach by both the teams in the fourth Test only killed the little interest left in the series, resulting in near empty stands towards the final two days in Guyana.
