Devon Malcolm on that 1994 Oval Test, those nine wickets and making South Africa 'history'
“In retrospect, it might have better for someone to tell Fanie to forget what he was planning and pitch it up,” says former South Africa pace bowler, Craig Matthews. Unfortunately for South Africa’s batting line-up, Fanie de Villiers had the whiff of revenge in his nostrils and Devon Malcolm was just about to cop it.
It was late August 1994, with the sun beating down on a rock hard Oval surface when de Villiers delivered that fateful delivery, a bouncer that hit Malcolm squarely on the Three Lions adorning his helmet. It was rumored to be revenge for the England man hitting Jonty Rhodes in South Africa’s first innings. Whatever the reason, the usually mild-mannered Malcolm was not a happy man.
“I’m pretty easy going,” he tells The Independent. “But even when Allan Donald, who’s a good mate of mine, came up and asked me if I was okay, I swore at him and told him where to get off.”
Malcolm insists he uttered the words ‘you guys are history’; Darren Gough, his partner at the other end, maintains that the threat, which remains one of the most well-known phrases in English cricket history, never left his mouth.
Whatever he said, the South Africans were left in no doubt that they had better muster all the protective armour they could before they stepped out to bat for an innings that would decide the direction of their first series in England since 1965.
A thrashing in the opening Test at Lord's – a match which became synonymous with the dirt in Mike Atherton’s pocket – had once again heaped the pressure on coach, Ray Illingworth, and the skipper. A drawn test at Headingley did little to alleviate that and meant that South Africa arrived at the Oval on the cusp of an historic triumph.
While England had once again stumbled their way through the summer, Malcolm, had spent most of his kicking his heels around the county circuit, bowling for his county, Derbyshire, and biding his time before the call, inevitably, came for the Oval Test.
“I had played one Test match against New Zealand at Trent Bridge earlier in the summer but was then left out,” he says.
“But when we lost that match against South Africa at Lords I was thinking to myself that I was going to get a recall because that’s what happened in the ‘90s – you were in one minute and out the next. I was in good form in the run-up to that match and was taking plenty of wickets in county cricket and I knew this was a match that England needed to win.
“The thing about the Oval pitch was that it was a very good track to bat on because the bounce was so consistent. Once you were in, you were going to make runs but I always did pretty well there because the harder you hit the pitch you more you got out of it.”
South Africa’s first innings effort of 332 was neither a match-winning effort or one that made a draw inevitable. And when England made 304 in reply it was game on.
“Myself and Darren Gough had made a few in the first innings and had really attacked the South African bowling,” says Phil de Fretais. “We wrestled the initiative back from them. I reckon we set Devon up perfectly for what was to follow!”
With Malcolm silently seething following his blow on the head – and with rumours flying around the South African dressing room that England’s spearhead was listening to the national anthem in his headphones before coming out to bowl – the endearingly inconsistent man from Derbyshire tore in like a man possessed.
And South Africa had no answers.
I think the South Africans knew they were in the s***.
Devon Malcolm
“The first ball went exactly where I wanted it to go and it was quick – seriously quick,” says Malcolm. “Mate, everything was just made for me. I’m a real mild-mannered person and even with a cricket ball in my hand I always just tried to make the cricket ball talk but this time I was fizzing. I think Allan Donald had conveyed to his team-mates how pissed off I was. I think the South Africans knew they were in the s***. I didn’t hesitate to deliver from ball one.”
The wickets fell like nine-pins. Gary and Peter Kirsten fell in no time, while Hansie Cronje was about a week late on a Malcolm thunderbolt that cleaned him up with embarrassing haste.
“If you look at the footage, a couple of balls before I got Kepler Wessels and Cronje out I came round the wicket and got a delivery right near their throats. It was sheer hostility. I worked everyone one of them over – they just couldn’t handle the pace, if I’m honest.”
He’s not wrong. South Africa’s usually obdurate batting line-up had no answer and, with the exception of Daryl Cullinan, folded meekly. Only Gough broke the Malcolm monopoly, as he recorded figures of 9-57, then the sixth best in the history of Test cricket.
“Bob Willis against Australia at Headingley in 1981 was the best bit of bowling I had witnessed in my life,” he says. “It was one of those spells where everything clicked for him and it was exactly the same for me. The South Africans were absolutely shell-shocked.
“At the end of their innings, Mike Atherton told me that as long as he lived he probably wouldn’t ever witness one person dominate a game to the extent that I had done.”
After posting 175, however, England still needed 204 to win the game. Such was the damage – both mental and physical – caused by Malcolm, however, that the result was never in doubt.
“There were a lot of quiet people in that dressing room,” says Matthews. “He had done a job on us.”
England duly knocked off the runs, scoring 205 for the loss of just two wickets, to square the series. Malcolm’s performance remains one of the most astonishing in English cricket history. What Joe Root wouldn’t give for a repeat on the same ground in the coming days.
