| Raymond Illingworth always knew what he wanted. When he was appointed
England captain he looked for tough northerners to fight his battles for
him, although he was shrewd enough to know his greatest asset was a
vicar's son and poet from Sussex called John Snow. Indeed, the heroic
rearguards between Illingworth and Snow became a trademark of
Illingworth's period of captaincy, when England's middle order batting
was brittle. Illy had a long apprenticeship, first being chosen as
England's off-spinner against New Zealand in 1958. His tenure in the
Test team was always under threat, with David Allen, John Mortimore and
Fred Titmus pressing to take over. It was 1967 before he got his first
decent return (6-29) at Lord's against India. He became a regular under
the captaincy of Brian Close and was kept on through the Ashes series of
1968, when he took 6-87 at Headingley. The captaincy came in 1969 when
Illingworth had just quit Yorkshire for Leicestershire. With Colin
Cowdrey injured, he was installed as caretaker-captain and he never
looked back. At last his batting flourished in Test matches. He scored
113 against the West Indies and in the 1970 series against the Rest of
the World he made 63 and 94 at Lord's, 97 at Trent Bridge, 43 runs and 6
wickets at Edgbaston, 58 and 54 with 3-41 at Headingley and 52 at the
Oval. Even though he was not the Establishment choice he had to lead
England to Australia in 1970-71 and brought the Ashes home for the first
time in 16 years. He retained the Ashes in 1972. (Bob Harragan) |
TEST RECORD AGAINST PAKISTAN.
|
Date |
Test |
Venue |
1st Inns |
2nd Inns |
Batting |
Ct |
Result |
|
16/08/62 |
5 |
The Oval |
13-5-27-0 |
21-9-54-1 |
2* & dnb |
0 |
Won |
|
27/07/67 |
1 |
Lord's |
31-14-48-2 |
15-11-10-1 |
4 & 9 |
0 |
Draw |
| * |
03/06/71 |
1 |
Birmingham |
26-5-72-3 |
dnb |
1 & 1 |
0 |
Draw |
| * |
17/06/71 |
2 |
Lord's |
7-6-1-0 |
dnb |
dnb & dnb |
0 |
Draw |
| * |
08/07/71 |
3 |
Leeds |
28-14-31-0 |
26-11-58-3 |
20 & 45 |
0 |
Won |
Summary of above matches
| M |
Runs |
HS |
Ave |
100s |
50s |
W |
BB |
Ave |
5w |
Ct |
| 5 |
82 |
45 |
13.67 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
3-58 |
30.10 |
0 |
0 |
Summary of all matches
| M |
Runs |
HS |
Ave |
100s |
50s |
W |
BB |
Ave |
5w |
Ct |
| 61 |
1836 |
113 |
23.24 |
2 |
5 |
122 |
6-29 |
31.20 |
3 |
39 |