5 greatest comebacks in international cricket

4. One strike, and they all fall down (New Zealand v/s England, Wellington, February 1978)

Richard Hadlee appeals against Graham Gooch

48 years and an equal number of Test matches later, the Kiwis finally had something to cheer about when they squared off against England in yet another game in the longest format in February 1978; little did the British know how it would unfold.

At tea on the fourth day, New Zealand looked set for defeat. The legendary Bob Willis had masterminded a collapse of nine Kiwi wickets for just 41 runs, and England needed to score a modest 137 to go 1-0 up in the series.

But the two Richards – Hadlee and Collinge – had a different plan. They ripped apart the English line-up with a fast and furious display of pace bowling in the final session.

Collinge, the beefy left-arm fast bowler, hooked the “big fish”, England skipper Geoff Boycott, with a yorker that cannoned off the batsman’s pads and ricocheted onto his stumps. Fellow opener Brian Rose was bruised and unable to bat further, while the rest of the batting collapsed like a pack of cards to be 53/8 at stumps despite lusty hitting from all-rounder Ian Botham.

After a forty-minute delay the next morning, Hadlee took the last two wickets to finish with yet another ten-wicket haul, overshadowing the efforts of Willis and Chris Old in a game which saw gale-force winds buffeting the ground. New Zealand thus secured their first win in 48 years of playing the British.