Throughout his international career, New Zealand's paceman Ewen Chatfield was known as the player who lived because he was given the kiss of life on a cricket pitch. That happened on February 25, 1975, when English fast bowler Peter Lever, whose team needed just one wicket to win the Auckland Test, bowled a short delivery that knocked Chatfield out. His heart stopped for a few seconds, he swallowed his tongue and there was no doctor at the ground. England's physiotherapist Bernard Thomas came out and administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, following which the Test debutant regained consciousness in hospital an hour later.

An inconsolable Lever had every reason to believe that his ball had taken Chatfield's life. Chatfield, who endured a hairline fracture on his skull, lived and returned to the New Zealand side to emerge as one of his country's most valuable performers. In his post-international career, Chatfield came to be known as the former fast bowler who drove a taxi for a living in Wellington. He still does. He was in the news again recently for hanging up his cricket boots at 68.