West Indies outplayed Australia in the first half of the Brisbane Test and took a lead of 173. Australia were bowled out for 268 in the first innings. In reply, Viv Richards, having established his authority with 50 in just 70 minutes, went cruising on to 140 before he was dismissed. Rowe and Garner scored half centuries to help West Indies post 431 in the first innings taking a massive lead of 173. Australia were clearly on the back foot.
Australia resisted much better in the second innings; Laird had a fine game on debut (92 and 75) scoring half centuries in both innings. Australia found themselves 55/2 with the fall of Allan Border but Laird and Greg Chappell formed a good partnership to extend the score to 179 before Laird fell. Australia at this stage were leading by six runs with three wickets down.
Then came the heroic effort as Greg Chappell was joined by Kim Hughes and only one wicket was lost during Greg Chappell’s six-hour 124. Kim Hughes emulated Chappell scoring an unbeaten 130 runs of 244 balls. They were made to work really hard to survive as West Indies pacers kept coming at them.
Australia scored 448/6 in the second innings batting for 166 overs before declaring at the fag end of the match. An honourable draw was achieved and this was one of the most gritty matches and one of the most talked about partnership in the history of Australian cricket as the Australians forced to duck and weave bouncers and they had to survive to take out a draw.
However West Indies won this Test series 2-0 but the one match that was drawn was thanks largely to a heroic effort from Greg Chappell and Kim Hughes.
