Graeme Pollock's lion-hearted carnage at Cape Town

Graeme Pollock

Smacked between the mountains and the southern point of the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Town is one of the most beautiful places to visit. It is the gateway to a variety of natural adventures and natural explorations – from mountain climbing and botanical gardens to white shark and whale watching – Cape Town offers you all to add an adventurous flavour to your life.

A trip to the Table Mountain is a must everyone. You are sure to be seduced by the fantastic beauty observed from the mountaintop.

At the foot of Table Mountain lies the Newlands cricket stadium. If you are a cricket fan and visiting Cape Town during the summer times, then you can’t even dare to ignore the cricket carnival that takes place in the Newlands cricket stadium. The buzz around the stadium, the impact of its massiveness and the view of the Table Mountains behind the stadium is certainly an experience of a lifetime.

Summer in Newlands is always sizzling. Summer in Newlands is festive from a cricketing perspective and has witnessed some of cricket’s most fascinating battles and epic performances over the years.

A great start for the Proteas

In the summer of 1967, Bobby Simpson’s Australia were touring South Africa. The Proteas notched up a massive win in the first Test at Johannesburg. Despite trailing by 126 runs, the South African batsmen replied in a dominating fashion in the second innings.

The top order fired through Eddie Barlow, Ali Bacher, Graeme Pollock and HR Lance while the lower-order dented the Aussies bowlers through DT Lindsay and PL van der Marwe. Lindsay scripted a polished 182 runs and the Australians were left to chase 495 runs to win the first Test. But Trevor Goddard’s six-wicket haul crushed the Australians and South Africa took a 1-0 lead.

The Australian comeback

The second Test match was at Cape Town. But at Cape Town the Australians reply had been handy. They stormed back strongly to level the series in style. It had been an easy win for the Aussies, but this Test match was significant due to one man’s lion-heartedness and majestic carnage and that man was cricket’s most gifted left-handed batsman, Graeme Pollock.

Batting first, Australia posted a massive 542 with hundreds from Bobby Simpson and Keith Stackpole. Edie Barlow for the first time picked up five wickets in a Test match. The South African reply was shaky. Australia’s pace demon, Graeme McKenzie rattled through the Proteas top order and they ended the second day reeling at 56 for 3. Graeme Pollock, who came out to bat with an injured leg, was not out on 28 – 24 runs of which came from scorching boundaries.

The one-legged masterclass

On the third day it was warm and sunny at Newlands. Beautiful sunshine and the deep blue sky over the Table Mountain gave an extreme intensity of colours, but that wonderful natural beauty remained unnoticed due to one man’s majestic batting display.

Graeme Pollock came out to bat at 11 am.

As the game proceeded, Pollock witnessed the fall of two wickets. HR Lances went back quickly to give the stage to Dennis Lindsay; the hero of the first Test. Lindsay’s dismissal was pretty unusual. He attempted a timid hook-shot off Renneberg’s bouncer – the ball rose sharply, struck the shoulder of the bat and rebounded fifteen yards Lindsay’s forehead to Renneberg’s outstretched hands as the bowler flung himself full length.

South Africa were 85 for 5 and in complete disarray!

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. The stage was set for cricket’s most elegant willow-wielder to exhibit his extraordinary talent. He conquered adversity by dishing out one of the most ruthless and riveting knocks ever to be scripted at Newlands.

Graeme Pollock had come out to bat in his normal number four slot, but was severely handicapped on the second day and relied on limited movements while scoring his 28. Pollock had strained a thigh muscle amidst a casualty list that included his brother Peter Pollock and Richard Dumbrill; South Africa had fielded three subs for most of the Australian innings.

Graeme Pollock took drastic measures and went on a rampage. A left-hander’s front-foot is the right leg and that being handicapped, Pollock shifted his balance on the back-foot and played his traditional cover drives relying on the back-foot throughout his masterpiece.

Each time the ball caressed the cover-fields, Pollock’s right toe was seen airborne as no balance being shifted there – it had been a sight to watch. It was a treat for the cricketing Gods.

In the next four hours, partnered by Peter Van der Merwe, the young maestro reached his fifth Test hundred in three and a quarter hours, after facing only 139 balls. But Pollock’s carnage was unstoppable. He continued to display astonishing courage and determination to give the South African total enough respectability.

There had been cut, pulls and drives of highest essence. The wickets kept falling at the other end, but the willow of Graeme Pollock didn’t bother to take any defensive approach but it continued to murder the Australian attack. When he finally nicked a wide one to HB Taber, Graeme Pollock had made an eye-catching 209 with thirty elegant and powerful boundaries. The innings built to crescendo with two Pollock brothers establishing a ninth wicket record of 85 in 67 minutes.

Though Pollock’s actual grace was missing due to an injury, but it was never short of a sheer pomp and sizzle. Those fluent drives through the covers and square of the wicket on the back-foot indicated the quality of Graeme Pollock’s batting abilities. Graeme Pollock’s adventurous knock was not enough to avoid the follow-on.

Pollock failed in the second innings, but solid batting efforts from DT Lindsay, HR Lance, DB Pithey and Peter Pollock helped South Africa to give the Australians 180 runs to chase in the fourth innings. The Aussies batsmen chased that down without enough hassles.

South Africa had lost the Test match, but that one-legged aggressive exhibition of high-profile batting by Graeme Pollock outshone Australia’s bounce back. Graeme Pollock’s innings is a part of cricket folklore.