Bruce Yardley
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| Full name | Bruce Yardley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
5 September 1947 Midland, Western Australia |
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm fast-medium, Right-arm medium, Right-arm offbreak | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut | 28 January 1978 v India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 22 April 1983 v Sri Lanka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut | 12 April 1978 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 30 April 1983 v Sri Lanka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Western Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Cricinfo, 10 February 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bruce Yardley (born 5 September 1947, in Midland, Western Australia) is a former Australian cricketer who played in 33 Tests and seven ODIs from 1978 to 1983, taking 126 Test wickets.
Known to his teammates as 'Roo', Yardley was an off-spin bowler who, like many spinners, began life as a fast-medium pace seamer. In his late 20s Yardley switched to off-spin and had success at club and then state level. His technique was slightly unusual in that he bowled at near medium-pace, rolling the ball off his middle finger rather than the index finger like conventional off-spinners. A handy number-eight batsman who scored four test half-centuries his batting was often characterised by a "Yardley yahoo" over the top of slips which opposition teams sometimes attempted to counter using a fly slip. Yardley was also an exceptional fielder in the gully region taking 31 catches in his 33 tests including a number of spectacular efforts. He was also the recipient of some fine fielding being the bowler when John Dyson took his catch of the century to dismiss West Indian Sylvester Clarke.
In the early 1980s Yardley was Australia's first-choice spinner; during this period he took most of his 126 Test wickets, including a Test-best of 7/98 against the West Indies at Sydney in 1981/82. It was for this and other eye catching performances for which he was named the 1981/1982 Benson and Hedges International Cricketer of the Year, winning a new sports car.
However he had to purchase this car off his fellow players from that year. The car was put into the teams prize pool with other prizes which included cash which at the year was divided depending on how much you played.
Despite his fine all round cricket game he was rarely considered for One Day Internationals and in 1981 he was controversially left out of the Ashes squad which toured England (Stuart MacGill, Yardley and fellow West Australian Bruce Reid are the only three bowlers to take 100 wickets for Australia without playing a Test there). Yardley participated in Australia's first tour of Sri Lanka in 1983 and took seven wickets, including a five-wicket haul, in what proved to be his final Test.
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