Garner and his English prey

Fast bowlers look up to him for inspiration and batsmen never looked into his eyes- had you said this, any one would have believed, after all he was 6 feet and 8 inches above the ground like a betel nut tree add to that the late afternoon gloom and the shade would almost engulf you into its realm.

Jokes apart, Garner garnered respect and educed fear for his impeccable line and length, combined with ruthless pace, deadly bouncers and toe-crushing yorkers. And England got them all in the final of 1979.

The stage was set by Vivian Richards’ 138 and Collis King’s swashbuckling 86 off 75 balls. Courtesy, those masterly knocks, West-Indies piled up a rather respectable 286/9, after early hiccups. The Poms sauntered when the need of the hour was to run with open laces. A sluggish 129-run opening stand between Geoffrey Boycott and Mike Brearley took them to 183, at the loss of two wickets, by the end of 47 overs.

"We were grateful to England for their tactics," Garner recalls. "By the time they [the openers] were gone it would have taken a superhuman effort to retrieve the situation." 

The asking rate was soaring up and it was not yet the Yusuf Pathan days. The scorecard asking, 103 runs off 13 overs could have made many gentlemen in white pajamas sweat. But England still had eight wickets in hand and the list included Randall, Gooch, Gower, Botham, etc.

In the 48^th over, wily ‘Super cat’ passed the ball over to the ‘Big bird’ and the rest, it is said, was England’s epileptic fit. 

Garner lived up to the expectations of Captain Lloyd and the next eight English wickets were back in pavilion with only 11 runs between them. 

Graham Gooch was done with a trademark yorker and three balls later it was Gower’s defense to be broken. After Colin Croft wiped clear of Ian Botham; the tail enders- Wayne Larkins, Chris Old and Bob Taylor were mere formalities for the lanky fast bowler. The impact of Garner’s 3^rd spell was such that in 11 balls he collected 5 wickets giving away only 4 runs.

Many people still feel Garner missed out by a whisker when it came to the ‘man-of- the match’ which eventually went to Vivian Richards.