After the cloudburst had left most of The Oval under water, the mopping-up operation was a miracle of communal purpose.
Hundreds of spectators, armed with blankets and even their own clothes, answered England captain Colin Cowdrey’s appeal over the crackling public address tannoy to help transform the outfield from an Amazonian swamp to a pasture passable with care. When play resumed at 4.45pm, an incredible feat in itself, England had 75 minutes to take the last five Australian wickets and level the Ashes series 1-1.
There was only one man for the job - ‘Deadly’ Derek Underwood, and with four wickets in 27 balls, in the nick of time, he rose to the challenge memorably. With more sawdust on the pitch than a joiner’s mill, and more close catchers picketing the bat than flies circling a cowpat, Underwood was simply unplayable.
Only six minutes of the Test remained when John Inverarity, offering no stroke, was pinned leg-before by the Kent left-arm spinner and Deadly’s 7-50 clinched the unlikeliest of England wins by 226 runs.
Derek Underwood, who has died at the age of 78, remains England’s most successful spin bowler 42 years after the last of his 86 Test caps.
His 297 wickets at 25.83 each may never be surpassed in the northern hemisphere. But his unique skill set made him the most-feared opponent on rain-affected pitches anywhere in the world. It was said that England carried Underwood around like an umbrella because he was indispensable when it rained, but in truth he was relentlessly economical in all weathers. Quicker and flatter than other slow left-armers, he was a serial England matchwinner, taking 10 wickets in a Test no fewer than six times.
Only Sydney Barnes - who played his last Test 110 years ago - has achieved the feat more often among English bowlers.
For reference, James Anderson’s record 700 wickets have included 10-in-a-match three times, while Lord Botham did it on four occasions. And Underwood’s 297 Test victims puts him 42 ahead of nearest England spinner Graeme Swann (255) - and streets ahead of legends Jim Laker (193) and Tony Lock (174).
The International Cricket Council's official rankings, applied retrospectively, now place Underwood as the world's No.1 Test bowler for almost four years between 1969-1973. That’s how good he was. He was part of a box-office Kent team including wicketkeeping magician Alan Knott, with the pair playing 443 games for the county together.
Mark Nicholas, the broadcaster and former Hampshire captain, recalled taking guard in a rain-affected match where Underwood spun the first ball past him chest-high and Knott, standing up to the stumps, took it two-handed above his right shoulder. “It struck me that I was just the piggy-in-the-middle of a collaboration in genius,” said Nicholas.
Only Wilfred Rhodes and George Lohmann reached 1,000 first-class wickets sooner than Underwood at the age of 25. Fourteen years later, after two decades cultivating his reputation as a nightwatchman of no fixed longevity, he even added a century against Sussex at Hastings to his achievements.
But Derek Underwood’s 2,465 first-class wickets at 20.28 each, and at barely two runs per over, sets him apart as English cricket’s finest spinner.
And nobody was ever deadlier than ‘Deadly’ on a sticky dog. Just ask those legions of spectators who drained the Oval swamp in 1968.