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West Indies were upset in more ways than one. The world’s best team arrived in New Zealand from Australia with more than $140,000 in prize money. “We got carried away thinking we were God’s children,” admitted Michael Holding in Fire in Babylon. “We’ll walk this.” The absence of Viv Richards, who had returned home with hip and back problems, should not have been felt too keenly.
The Kiwis had won only three Tests in the whole of the 1970s but they did have Richard Hadlee, and the great seamer took five wickets in a West Indies first innings of 140. The home side then built a first-innings lead of 109 despite taking a “physical hammering”, according to Wisden.