Name:

Underwood, Derek L

Nickname:

Deadly

Date of Birth:

08 Jun 1945

Gender:

Men

Place of Birth:

Bromley, Kent

Date Died:

14 Apr 2024

Career:

Test: 1966 - 1982
ODI: 1973 - 1982
First Class: 1963 - 1987

Teams:

Kent (Regional)
England (Country)

Underwood and fans defy rain to square series (1968)

Deadly was unplayable on any wet track

Born : 8 June 1945 at Bromley, Kent, England

Derek Underwood was a left-arm spinner who bowled with such persistent accuracy that he acquired the nick-name 'Deadly'. He bowled at almost medium pace and used his arm ball to great effect.

He made an immediate impact in first-class cricket when took 100 wickets in his debut season of 1963, the year he turned 18 and became one of the youngest bowlers to take 1000 first-class wickets.

He won a Test for England against Australia at The Oval in 1968 taking 7-50 and finishing the game with just minutes to spare. This enabled England to square the 1967 Ashes series 1-1, a major turning point in English cricket. Underwood later called it “the outstanding memory of my cricket career”, and Wisden named him as one of its Cricketers of the Year.

He took a while to adapt to Asian pitches, but he took 29 Test wickets at an average of 17.55 on the 1976/77 tour of India.

Underwood was a stubborn lower-order batsman who was often used as night-watchman. He finally made his only first-class century, very late in his career, in his 591^st match aged 39 in 1984

Underwood received a ban for touring South Africa as a rebel. He rehabilitated himself and was president first of Kent in 2006 and then of MCC in 2008.

He died on 15 April 2024.  

Source: CricketCrowd Staff Reporter.