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Graham Roy Dilley (18 May 1959 – 5 October 2011)
Cricinfo.com was an English international , whose main role was as a fast bowler. He played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and Worcestershire County Cricket Clubs, and appeared in 41 Test cricket and 36 One Day International (ODIs) for the England cricket team.Dilley is perhaps best remembered for his tail-end batting with Ian Botham in England's second innings against Australia at Headingley in 1981, reaching his highest Test score of 56 in an eighth-wicket partnership of 117 runs.
He was married and divorced twice and had four children, including Chris Pennell, who has played rugby union for England and Worcester Warriors,Gallagher B (2007) Chris Pennell chooses oval ball, The Daily Telegraph, 20 December 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2021. whilst his youngest son, Jonathan, has played cricket for both Gloucestershire and Worcestershire Second XIs. Jonathan Dilley, CricketArchive. Retrieved 31 May 2021. Kent cricketer Graham Johnson was a brother-in-law.
In 1979, Dilley played 31 senior games for Kent, including taking four wickets for the cost of 41 runs (4/41) in a World Cup warm-up match against the New Zealanders. He finished with 49 first-class wickets at an bowling average of 23.48 runs per wicket.
A fortnight later, Dilley appeared in his first Test cricket, making him the youngest cricketer to play for England in 30 years. England captain Mike Brearley showed confidence in his young bowler and he again opened the bowling. He took two wickets on debut. Australia finished their innings on 244 all out. In England's reply Dilley scored an unbeaten 38 runs, the second-highest score of the innings as England were all out for 228. He batted for 206 minutes, facing 57 balls. The game featured a memorable item on the second-innings scorecard:
In 1980, Dilley was not selected until the third Test against West Indies, at Old Trafford. Rain intervened, as it was to do in the fourth and fifth Tests as well, and all were drawn, but Dilley's eleven wickets, in the three innings he was able to bowl in, made sure of his place to face the same opponents in the Caribbean that winter. He took ten wickets on the tour, enough to retain his place for the 1981 Ashes series.
Dilley began the 1981 Ashes series strongly, taking 12 wickets in the first two Tests, and was retained for the third Test at Headingley. This game is best remembered for England's sensational victory after Follow-on, and for the heroics of Ian Botham and Bob Willis, but Dilley played his part as well, albeit as a batsman. Coming to the crease in the second innings with England at 135/7, 92 runs in arrears, Dilley had no orders from his captain, Mike Brearley, when he joined Botham at the crease. Botham said, "Right then, let's have a bit of fun", and the two men put on 117 in just 80 minutes before Dilley (56 runs from 75 balls) was bowled by Terry Alderman. England eventually established a lead of 130, and Dilley then held a boundary catch to dismiss Rod Marsh in Australia's second innings, England going on to dismiss Australia for 111, winning by 18 runs.
Despite his part in the win at Headingley, Dilley did not play in the fourth Test, nor in the two that followed, being replaced variously by John Emburey, Paul Allott and Mike Hendrick. He did get picked for the subsequent 1981/2 India tour, having pulled out of Graham Gooch's rebel tour of South Africa, something he later regretted for financial reasons.Steen R (2011) The star who might have been, CricInfo, 7 October 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
Between 1986 and 1988, Dilley took 83 Test wickets at an bowling average of 26.43 runs per wicket. Generally regarded as England's foremost strike bowler, he developed significant pace and outswing from a long, wide run up, approaching the wicket at an angle of almost 45 degrees. Perhaps his most significant success came in 1986/87 when he took 5/68 in the first innings of the first Test at The GABBA to help his team to a victory that set them on their way to an the Ashes win. Later on that tour, Dilley helped England to further success in winning the Benson & Hedges Challenge and the World Series Cup, taking his best ODI cricket figures of 4/23 in a match against the West Indies (a performance which won him the man of the match award). He also won the man of the match award for another one-day international performance against the West Indies that winter in which he took 4/46.
In the drawn series against New Zealand the following winter Dilley produced his career-best Test match innings bowling figures, taking 6/38 including the first five wickets to fall at Lancaster Park. He was fined £250 in the same match for swearing at the umpire, comments which were clearly picked up by the stump microphone. He took a further five-wicket haul at Eden Park, and finished the series with 15 wickets at an average of 14.
Dilley recorded his best match figures in a Test match at Lord's in 1988, match figures of 9/128 (comprising 5/55 and 4/73) against the West Indies, although England lost the match. However, Dilley's international career was beginning to wind down by the end of that season, and his final Test was at Edgbaston in the 1989 Ashes series. He made certain that he would not be picked again by accompanying Mike Gatting on the rebel tour to South Africa that winter. Unusually he finished on the winning side only twice in his 41 Test matches (the Headingley test of 1981 and that at Brisbane in 1986), the 1980s being a lean time for English cricket.
He continued to play for his county and in the 1991 season came sixth in the first-class bowling averages in domestic cricket (among bowlers who had taken a minimum of twenty wickets), taking 37 wickets at 22.24, also helping Worcestershire to win the Benson and Hedges Cup.
However recurring injury problems led to his retirement at the end of the 1992 season.
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