Bob Willis

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Bob Willis : biography

30 May 1949 –

1978–79 Ashes

In the winter of 1978/79, Willis travelled to Australia for that season’s Ashes series, which England won 5:1 against an Australian team depleted by the rebel Packer tour. The tour commenced with four first-class fixtures against South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Willis then bowled 1,123 deliveries during the Test series, taking 20 wickets at 23.05. In the first Test on 1 December 1978, he took 4/44 and 3/69 in a seven-wicket England win. He then took 5/44 in the second match on 15 December, as England secured a 2:0 lead with a 166 run victory, and following an abandoned ODI match on Boxing Day failed to take a wicket as Australia won the third Test to bring the series to 2:1.

The fourth Test followed on 6 January, and England took a 93-run victory with two wickets to Willis, before a repeat of the first ODI was attempted and again abandoned after 7.2 overs. England then played three first-class matches before a second ODI on 24 January. Australia, batting first, were routed for 101 all out by Hendrick and Botham, Willis bowling a wicketless but economic spell of eight overs for 15 runs and four maidens. England reached the target with seven wickets to spare. In the fifth Test that followed, Willis picked up 3/41 in Australia’s second innings, however with the bat he made 24 from 20 balls, with three fours and a six. With this cameo knock, he both surpassed his previous best Test score, and passed 1,500 first-class runs.

In the sixth and final Test, England took a nine wicket victory to seal the series convincingly 5:1. Graham Yallop, the Australian captain, had opened the Australian bowling attack with an old ball and two spinners, Bruce Yardley and Jim Higgs, in an effort to disrupt the English openers. Willis took 1/48 and managed to hit 10 runs with the bat. Willis "struck early and decisive blows" through the tournament, although struggled for rhythm between the second and fifth Tests, whereupon he "suddenly regained his fire and rhythm." In all first-class fixtures of the tour, Willis had taken 34 wickets at 20.47, though this was the third highest average of the England bowlers. His tail-end batting had netted him 115 runs at 12.77.

1979 World Cup

In 1979, England hosted the Cricket World Cup. The host nation played a 13-man squad: captain Mike Brearley, Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Phil Edmonds, Graham Gooch, David Gower, Hendrick, Wayne Larkins, Geoff Miller, Chris Old, Derek Randall, Bob Taylor (cricketer) (wk) and Willis. England, who had no warm-up games, played their first match against Australia on 9 June at Lord’s, who the "breezed" past. Willis took one wicket for 20 runs from his 11 overs, surpassed by Boycott – who would be an unlikely bowling hero during the tournament – who took 2/15. Reduced to chasing 159, England proceeded slowly, with Brearley’s 44 coming from 147 balls, and they reached the target at 47.1 overs. Their next game, against Canada, saw the visiting team routed for 45 with Willis taking 4/11 and Man of the Match Old taking 4/8. Boycott and Gooch finished the game within 13.5 overs. England’s final Group A match on 16 June saw them defeat Pakistan by 14 runs. Willis hit three fours in his 24 from 37 balls to help England to 165/9, and his one wicket for 37 runs, along with Boycott’s 2/14, helped England keep Pakistan from the target.

England thus qualified for the semi-finals against New Zealand. Willis managed to chip one run from his two balls as England reached 221/8, and then took a single wicket to keep New Zealand to 212. During the match, however, Willis fell to injury. He had left the field before the end of the match with a recurrence of his knee injury and was ruled out of the final. With Pakistan defeated in the other semi-final England were left to face the West Indies in the final at Lord’s on 23 June. England, winning the toss and choosing to bowl first, conceded 286 runs from the 60-over innings thanks largely to Viv Richard’s 138*, which Botham recalls as one of his "greatest innings".Botham, p. 313. Though both Brearley and Boycott reached half-centuries, the hosts were dismissed by Joel Garner’s five-wicket haul, falling to 194 all out, and the West Indies secured the title. Though he missed the final, Willis took seven wickets across the whole competition at 15.57 runs each – placing him fifth in bowling average across all the teams, and his economy rate of 2.44 runs an over was the fourth best.