Ewen Chatfield

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Ewen Chatfield

Personal information
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast
Career statistics
Tests ODIs
Matches 43 114
Runs scored 180 118
Batting average 8.57 10.72
100s/50s 0/0 0/0
Top score 21* 19*
Balls bowled 10360 6065
Wickets 123 140
Bowling average 32.17 25.84
5 wickets in innings 3 1
10 wickets in match 1 n/a
Best bowling 6/73 5/34
Catches/stumpings 7/- 19/-

Source: Cricinfo, 4 February 2006

Ewen John Chatfield (b. 3 July 1950 in Dannevirke) is a former cricketer who played 43 Tests and 114 One Day Internationals for New Zealand. A medium-pace bowler, his chief weapon was his unerring accuracy, giving him very economical bowling figures, although he occasionally would come in for punishment in the late stages of limited overs matches due to a lack of variation in his line and length.

Chatfield is possibly best remembered for nearly being killed on the cricket field, in a Test match against England in the 1974/5 season. England were at the end of a long and difficult tour in which they had been defeated in the The Ashes by Australia, chiefly by the Australian fast bowlers Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee. Chatfield, a genuine number 11 batsman, was holding up England with a stoic last wicket partnership with his future captain, Geoff Howarth. English fast bowler Peter Lever decided to test Chatfield with a bouncer. At the time helmets and other now common protective gear were not in use (which had caused much suffering of the English at the hands of Lillee and Thomson). The ball struck Chatfield flush on the temple, rendering him unconscious and not breathing. Watching English physiotherapist Bernard Thomas was the first to realise what had happened: Chatfield had swallowed his tongue. He flicked it back into place and managed to revive Chatfield with a heart massage. Lever was distraught and Chatfield later joked that when he was visited by Lever in hospital, 'he looked worse than I did'. A couple of years later helmets were introduced into cricket and Chatfield wore one thereafter. Another legacy of the incident was that Chatfield himself never bowled a bouncer in the rest of his career.

Chatfield became something of an ironic hero to home crowds with his batting, which usually consisted of an optimistic forward defensive stroke (delivered irrespective of the line or length of the ball) but not much else. He did, however, accompany Wellington team mate Jeremy Coney on a famous partnership to defeat Pakistan in a 1984/85 Test series. It was technically not a last wicket win, as Lance Cairns was still available to bat, but Cairns was severely concussed at the time and essentially incapable of batting, making Chatfield his side's last hope for a series win. Chatfield managed his highest Test score, an unbeaten 21. Such was Coney's faith in his partner that Chatfield ended up facing 84 deliveries during their stand as opposed to Coney's 48.

With the ball, Chatfield probably best distinguished himself with more than worthy efforts against the West Indies, the leading cricketing side of the day, on tour in 1984/85 and in the home series which New Zealand drew, against all predictions, in 1986/87. He was also a member of the New Zealand sides which achieved the country's first Test series wins against England and Australia at home and away, feats rarely achieved since (in fact New Zealand has never won another Test series in Australia).

Chatfield also played for Hutt Valley in the Hawke Cup.

References

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 15 December 2008, at 05:09.

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