26th June, 1995 was the day when the English fast bowler Dominic Cork announced himself in the world stage with his debut test. Cork a fast bowler and handy lower order batsman played 37 test matches for England in the second half of the 90’s and developed a dangerous new ball pair with Darren Gough.
Cork’s debut test started on 22nd June at Lord’s against West Indies. Mike Atherton, the English captain won the toss and decided to bat first. Cork walked out to bat with England’s score on 187/5. Against a bowling attack consisting of Walsh-Ambrose-Bishop, he did not have many problems. He batted close to two hours and was the 8th wicket to fall just before the end of day’s play. The score in his first test innings was 30. Next day England were all out for 283.
In response, West Indies posted 324 thanks to Keith Arthurton’s 75. For England Angus Fraser was the star with a five-wicket haul. Cork bowled 22 overs for 72 runs and the wicket of Ian Bishop, his first test wicket.
With a deficit of 41 runs, England batted strongly and except Mark Ramprakash, who bagged a pair, all the other top-order batsmen scored runs. Robin Smith scored 90 after his 61 in first innings and was the highest scorer in both innings. Even Cork and Gough contributed 23 and 20 respectively to take England to 336. All the 10-second innings wickets were shared by Walsh-Ambrose-Bishop.
England’s job was to defend 295 runs and at a stage it looked less likely as West Indies were 99/1 with Brian Lara on sublime form, scoring 54 of 61. That is when Gough provided the breakthrough as Lara was pouched by Alec Stewart. Cork then came to take three crucial wickets of Jimmy Adamas, Richie Richardson, and Arthurton with last two batsmen for a duck. He completed his five-wicket haul by getting the top scorer Sherwin Campbell caught behind for 93. Last two wickets of Ambrose and Walsh were also taken by him as Cork finished with a memorable 7 for 43. This is the best figure by any English bowler in Debut. Cork went on to play 37 tests for England, finishing with 131 wickets and quite a few memorable performances at the biggest of stages.
