February 20, 1957. Johannesburg.
England were 147 for 2, just another 85 needed to win. Doug Insole and Colin Cowdrey had already added 82 in quick time.
This was when Goddard provided the crucial breakthrough, and remarkably it was Tayfield who held the catch of Insole. Thus, in the end, he had a hand in every dismissal, and in this one he had two.
Tayfield now placed close in-fielders in his trademark curious fashion, two short mid-ons with shoulders more or less touching each other, and sometimes appending them with two short covers as well. With four men waiting for the uppish push or drive, pressure mounted on the batsmen. With his phenomenal accuracy, Tayfield could afford this field — with hardly any opportunity for the batsman to manoeuvre the ball into the wide gaps. Additionally, a large gap was maintained in the extra cover region, temptingly left open as the balls were floated up to the batsman, encouraging a mistimed drive. Not a big turner of the ball, Tayfield almost brushed the stumps as he bowled, with subtle variations of angle, the ball mostly drifting away and breaking back, and sometimes going straight through.
The ploy worked to perfection. Peter May, the scourge of a spinner as great as Sonny Ramadhin, hit one into the band of fielders close in front of the wicket — which Arthur Mailey dubbed “The Gate”. Denis Compton followed in the same way, the two great names managing a single between them. At 156 for five, it was anyone’s game.
Johnny Wardle came in and played some fine attacking strokes. At the other end, Cowdrey was fighting on, excellent of technique and impeccable in temperament. At Tea, the game was still wide open with 46 runs required and four wickets in hand.
Tayfield had bowled without a break from the morning, but that did not bother him. The balls continued to pitch in the exact spots where he willed them to. At 186, Wardle tried a stroke too many and snicked to John Waite behind the stumps. Running out of partners, Cowdrey now opened up and struck a well-timed six. And then, after 200 minutes of resistance, he tried to drive Tayfield, misjudged the length and lobbed a catch back to the bowler.
The end arrived when Peter Loader aimed for glory, and skied one to long on. Arthur Tayfield, substituting for Ken Funston, took the catch off the bowling of his brother. England ended at 214, giving the South Africans the Test by 17 runs.
Tayfield, who had bowled unchanged from the beginning of the day, had sent down 35 overs in four hours and 40 minutes. His final figures were 37-11-113-9.
It was ranked the best ever bowling spell by Wisden.
Text: Arunabha Sengupta
Illustration: Maha