(Cricket news) It was on February 2, 1973 that a 22 year old lad called Richard Hadlee made his debut for the New Zealand team against Pakistan at Wellington. The 6 foot 1 inch player made an impression with the bat and ball as he picked up 2 wickets in the first innings and scored 46 runs at number 7. Sir Richard Hadlee had spearheaded the team’s bowling attack for a decade and half. He was known for having a short run up and a perfect action which had no margin of error. The line and length was always a problem for the batters to handle as the ball swung away with great pace. Hadlee is still the highest wicket taker for New Zealand in Tests with 431 wickets in 150 innings.
The seamer was the first bowler to take 400 wickets or more in Test matches. He achieved the feat in 80 matches in 1990 which has been bettered only by Muttiah Muralitharan and Ravichandran Ashwin. Kapil Dev became the second bowler to cross the mark 2 years later and to this day no other player from New Zealand has touched the 400 wicket mark. Hadlee also has the most five wicket and 10 wicket hauls for a fast bowler in Tests.
He has taken 36 five wicket hauls and nine 10 wicket hauls in his 17 year long Test career. In the 50 over format, Hadlee played 115 matches while taking 158 wickets and scoring 1751 runs. The five day matches was where he shined the most for the team and his performances with the bat made him a complete cricketer. A strong tailender and certainly a fearless one the team could rely on.
The legend also started to make an impact with the bat later on in his career, he hit 2 centuries and 15 half centuries. Although he was a right arm bowler, with the bat he was a lefty and scored his first century against West Indies in 1980. Hadlee’s highest score of 151* came against Sri Lanka in 1987 at Colombo while batting at number 7. With over 4800 runs and 589 wickets in his career, Hadlee was one of the best all rounders around the world in the 80’s . The Blackcaps has still failed to replace a bowler like Hadlee even after 30 years since his retirement, the records and legacy stands like an iron pillar for cricketers.
Also read: Here's why the return of Kul-Cha is more complicated than it seems at this point
