OTD| Richard Hadlee returned brilliant figures of 15/123 against Australia in 1985

On this day Richard Hadlee capped off his best bowling figures in Test cricket against Australia in Brisbane. Hadlee played a huge role in leading New Zealand to a memorable win over Australia by an innings and 41 runs. 

First innings

Australia batted first in the test match and Richard Hadlee troubled the Aussie batters right from the first ball. He dismissed the opener Andrew Hilditch for a duck to put Australia on the backfoot right from the start. Kepler Wessels and David Boon stitched a partnership of 70 runs but Hadlee sent Boon back into the pavilion to break this partnership. Immediately after this wicket, he got the better of the Australian captain Allan Border very early in his innings. Hadlee then went on to dismiss Greg Ritchie to reduce Australia to 4/82. 

Later he caught Kepler Wessels right in front of the stumps who was batting well at 70. Hadlee did not take much time to wrap up the Australian lower order and restricted them to 179. He ended up with 9 wickets in the first innings. 

Second Innings

New Zealand scored 553/7d in the first innings and took a massive lead in the test match. The Australians were behind in this match by a margin and Richard Hadlee added to their misery in the second innings. Hadlee continued his wicket-taking spree from the first innings to prevent Australia from coming back into the contest. 

The Aussies showed some fight but were eventually bowled out for 333 runs. Hadlee picked up 6 wickets in the second innings to cripple the Australian batting order. In the second innings, he dismissed Greg Matthews who was batting at 115 runs, among others. He dismissed the lower order in quick succession to end the match as early as possible. Craig McDermott, Dave Gilbert, and Bob Holland lost their wickets to Hadlee. In the end, he had 15 wickets to his name which remained his career-best figures. 

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