Kapil Dev bashing still haunts Eddie Hemmings

The man who Kapil Dev hit for four consecutive sixes in the Lord's Test of 1990 to avoid the follow-on does not want to be remembered for that 'feat' alone.


When MiD DAY met him during the Trent Bridge Test, he displayed a sense of humour and disguised it with some angst thrown in. "You are remembered as the bowler, who...," we said before being stopped by Eddie Hemmings. "...dismissed Kapil Dev for seven in the second innings of that Test match."


England's Hemmings (right) after dismissing Azharuddin during the 1987
World Cup in India. PIC/Getty Images

And when one reminded him of his four-wicket burst which helped England throw favourites India out of the World Cup in 1987, he said, "thank you."

Hemmings claimed the wickets of Mohammed Azharuddin, Kapil, Ravi Shastri and Chetan Sharma to play a lead role in England's 35-run win in the semi-final at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium."

But the Lord's Test of 1990 is what Indians will remember Hemmings most for.

"I turned to captain Graham Gooch after Kapil hit me for the first six and asked him for the follow-on score.

Goochie said, a couple of more sixes and India will save it. And the next ball I bowled, I was hit for another six," Hemmings recalled. Interestingly, the off-spinner felt that England would not have won at Lord's by 247 runs if India would have followed on. "If we had made them bat again, I don't think we would have won the Test. We (bowlers) were tired," Hemmings said.

In response to England's 653, India managed 454 withu00a0 Shastri and Azharuddin helping themselves to centuries.

Hemmings clean bowled skipper Azharuddin for 121 and rates that dismissal highly. "That is the best ball I probably bowled in Test cricket. It drifted a bit and had good pace on it before going through," he said.

Hemmings (62) remembered failing to hold on to a caught and bowled chance offered by Sachin Tendulkar, who went on to make a match-saving hundred, the first of his 99 international centuries, in the next Test at Manchester.

"I should have caught it while diving to my right. He had not scored too many runs by then and he never gave me another chance," said Hemmings.

The Nottinghamshire man revealed he deserved more than his 16 Tests and 33 ODIs. "I started my international career late (age 33) but I was a county pro very early on. There were some good spinners around in the 1970s and I did not get my chances.

"There was Derek Underwood while Phil Edmonds and John Emburey kept me out for a long time. The rebel tour of South Africa in 1982 allowed me a chance," he said.

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