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One great innings has made sure Derek Randall will always be an
important part of Test history. His 174 in the Centenary Test at
Melbourne, dragging England from humiliation to within sight of an
improbable victory, is one of the game's great moments. Randall, hit on
the head by a bouncer from Dennis Lillee, just doffed his cap to the
bowler and settled back in, hooking and driving his way through 21 fours
in an innings that lasted 446 minutes. He played innings which brought
more favourable results to England, like his two 70s at Brisbane in
1978-79 and 150 at Sydney in the same series.
On top of that was his
mercurial fielding. No batsman ever knew when he was safe. Aussie Rick
McCosker was just backing up normally in 1977 when suddenly ball and
Randall scattered his stumps before he could react. Selectors could add
25 runs to Randall's scores to take account of the runs he saved and
England have rarely been better in ODIs when they had Randall and David
Gower fielding on either side of the wicket. It was in the ODIs of 1976
that the cheeky chappy first came to public notice. He made 88 against
West Indies at Lord's, and that got him a place on Tony Greig's tour of
India that winter. He was left out of the team for Gower and Clive
Radley in 1978 but returned for the Ashes tour when his batting was a
major part of England's success.
After 1980 he was rarely given a secure
Test place, but still made 126 against India at Lords in 1982 and 105
against Pakistan at Edgbaston, with 164 and 104 on a 1983-4 tour of New
Zealand. In the 1979 World Cup he made 42 not out against New Zealand in
the semi-final and 15 in the final, and also produced some important
run outs. (Bob Harragan)
Between 1972 and 1993 Derek played 488 first class matches. He scored 28,456 runs
at an average of 38.14 which included 52 centuries. He caught 361 batsmen.
He also took 13 wickets as a bowler (ave. 31.76). All for Nottinghamshire.
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