CricInfo Interactive Player of the Month

February 1998: Angus Fraser

Highlights of Fraser's February:

8-53 and 3-57, Second Test v West Indies, February 5-9. Best ever bowling by an Englishman versus the West Indies.

5-40 and 4-40, Third Test v West Indies, February 13-17.

Related Items:

Colin Croft on Angus Fraser

Angus Fraser player profile on CricInfo.

Related Player of the Month pages:

Who missed out? The good, the bad and the ugly of February.

The selection process for Players of the Month

Previous Players of the Month

Not for the first time in his career, our Player of the Month for February has made a dramatic comeback to the England team following a lengthy period of injury and variable form. Denied the chance to bowl on a Sabina Park pitch that looked as if it would be, um, very helpful for the seam bowlers, he devastated the West Indian batting in the first innings of the Second Test at Port of Spain with figures of 8/53, the best innings bowling by any Englishman in 69 years of England - West Indies competition. (And beating his own record from four years earlier!) Added to this was 3/57 in the second innings, not enough to stop a thrilling West Indian victory, and, incredibly, not enough to take the Man of the Match award.

In the next Test at Port-of-Spain the following week his efforts received greater reward. In the first innings 5/40 in a West Indian total of 159 all out, followed by 4/40 in a second innings of 210 all out as England won another thriller by three wickets. This time he was rewarded with the Man-of-the-Match title. Twenty wickets for 190 at 9.50 in the two matches - four of those scalps belonged to The Batsman-Occasionally-Known-As-Prince: Brian Lara.

Having just passed 140 wickets in a Test career which began eight years ago, it would be reasonable to assume that he would have 300 or more if he had remained fit throughout that time. At his best he is no doubt one of English cricket's finest assets today. the googler's Player of the Month for February 1998 is Middlesex and England's Angus Robert Charles Fraser.

Photograph of Angus Fraser copyright 1998 TWI/WICB. Not to be reproduced without permission.


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Date-stamped : 06 Mar1998 - 02:21