Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Derek Underwood (1966-1982)

 derek-underwood

Born 8 June 1945 at Bromley, Kent, England

Derek Underwood was a left-arm spinner who bowled with such persistent accuracy that he acquired the nick-name ‘Deadly’. He bowled at almost medium pace and use his arm ball to great effect. He made an immediate impact in first-class cricket when took 100 wickets in his debut season of 1963, the year he turned 18 and became one of the youngest bowlers to take 1 000 first-class wickets.

He won a Test for England against Australia at The Oval in 1968 taking 7-50 and finishing the game with just minutes to spare. He took a while to adapt to Asian pitches, but he took 29 Test wickets at an average of 17.55 on the 1976/77 tour of India. He was a stubborn lower-order batsman who was often used as night-watchman who made his only first-class century in his 591st match.

  M Runs HS Avg 100 Ct Wkts Avg BB 5I
Tests 86 937 45* 11.56 0 44 297 25.83 8-51 17
ODIs 26 53  17 5.88 0 6  32  28.54  4-31 0 

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