The ball swung and seamed. The bounce and cut of Walsh. It was instrumental in England beating West Indies in a home Test for the first time in 22 years, from which they went on to avoid defeat in a series against that opposition for the first time in eight attempts. The ball gets older and often bowlers get frustrated because they think they should be bowling a side out. Finally, the great Malcolm Marshall, arguably the finest fast bowler of them all, beyond his prime now but still skiddingly fast, but now with the tricks of Paul Daniels and the variations of Elgar. Only two other England batsmen reached double figures as Gooch, their captain, marshalled them to a second innings 252. First came Curtly Ambrose, tall, rhythmical and unrelentingly accurate. Without him England were lost: they won by 115 runs. Without it, England would have sunk without trace. Ramprakash and Pringle lent him dedicated support. Even on a pitch like that, if you can stay there for a session, things don't see quite so bad. Circumstances, conditions, match situation, quality of opposition, courage, skill, influence on the match result? Next was Courtney Walsh, tall once more, wide of the crease and angling the ball in to the body, only for the occasional one to hold up like a leg-cutter.
Some wonderful innings have been played through violent counterattack, arms chanced against the odds, a form of batting Russian roulette. Only one other England batman, Robin Smith, reached a half-century in either innings; only two players, the debutant Mark Ramprakash and Derek Pringle, made double figures in both innings. He has always stressed that even in defence it is possible to have positive intent, never losing sight of the attacking possibility.
What makes a great innings? What makes a great innings?
With him for the new ball was Patrick Patterson, a shuffling run and muscular, inelegant action but uncompromisingly rapid: only once in his cricket life has Gooch ever feared for his personal safety and that came during a spell from Patterson one day on an uneven green Sabina Park flier. Photograph: David Munden/Popperfoto/Getty Imagesou can see the nets on the Nursery ground from the area at the back of the media centre at Lord's, and the other day I spent 10 minutes watching a young batsman being given a tutorial by the master. And the opponents: the remorseless, accurate Ambrose. James Taylor is a promising young man, learning the trade, and there was Graham Gooch alongside him, dropping balls so that he could drive. It was humid, gloomy, there were frequent interruptions for rain. This scores the highest marks on all of these. When you got hit in the ribs by Courtney, batsmen would say, the ball seemed to stick on the body longer than with other bowlers. The raw hatred of Patterson. Then there is the antithesis, the stonewall, in defiance, where occupation of the crease supersedes run scoring as an option: game savers.Gooch did not have a game to save, though, but one to win.
He was a giant of a batsman and 20 years ago on Thursday he completed a giant of an innings, an effort so monumental that it deserves to be ranked not just as the finest innings ever played by an England captain, or even the finest by an England batsman, but perhaps one of the truly great innings of all time. England had not won a home Test for 22 years against West Indies. Gooch is the old dog with nine tails now, England's batting coach, still involved, still wanting to play every delivery himself, still talking good pragmatic sense when we sometimes share a few beers on the Suffolk coast. 1) Graham Gooch, 154* v West Indies, Headingley 1991.
It was sweater weather and there was rain about, enough to cause breaks in play, disturbing concentration and consistently tickling up the pitch that, under a blanket of cloud that hung low, was at its most capricious: the light was never more than adequate.
On June 9, 1991 Graham Gooch carried his bat with 154 against the West Indies at Headingley. As good, and frightening, attack as has ever been assembled, and he battled and bested them for 452 minutes, not for a draw, but to set up a win. The expertise and slipperiness of Marshall.
Put all these ingredients into a melting pot and you might come up with Gooch's second-innings bat-carrying 154, in the first Test at Headingley on 8 and 9 June 1991. A masterpiece.We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism.We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.
Every loose delivery, the few that came his way, he dispatched. "What makes this innings so extra special, though, was the balance between defence and attack. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back one of the greatest Test innings of all time. Never in the wildest of dreams would the gift of a half-volley appear.
Runs obviously do, but, beyond that, circumstance, conditions, opposition, courage, technique and influence on the outcome of a match. The ball swung and seamed and the first-innings scores reflected the conditions, England making 196 to West Indies' 173. For seven and a half hours, in tricky conditions, he kept at bay one of the most formidable pace attacks that has taken the field. Circumstances, conditions, match situation, quality of opposition, courage, skill, influence on the match result?
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