A Chinese Restaurant on a rainy Taunton evening, hardly the prelude to one of the more memorable innings that I have seen. Looking across the table at my dad, it was probably the last thing on his mind as he tucked into his Crispy Duck, never one for superstition ahead of a big innings.
This was one of those infuriating 1-Day Matches which stretched over into the reserve day due to the wonderful British climate, and Warwickshire would commence at 10am the following morning with the unlikely task of chasing 260 against the mighty Somerset – Richards, and more importantly tomorrow, Botham, Garner et al – in the NatWest Trophy Quarter Final of 1982.
This was a game that they were simply not supposed to win – Somerset had recently won the Benson and Hedges Cup, and Warwickshire were rock bottom of the County Championship, despite Kallicharran enjoying his best season since shoulder surgery in 1976. The left-handed batsman had spent the previous winter playing Currie Cup cricket in South Africa, for Transvaal, effectively ending his Test Career for the West Indies. He later said that this decision made County Cricket his ‘Test Cricket’, and there was never a better opportunity to prove his point than when up against his former West Indian colleagues. {jfusion_discuss 61}
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