Derek Underwood - Deadly

Derek Leslie Underwood MBE, (born Bromley, Kent, June 8, 1945) known as Deadly, is a former English spin bowler who played for England.

Not a classical spinner, Underwood bowled at around medium pace and was often unplayable on seaming English wickets, particularly "sticky wickets", earning his nickname "Deadly" and accounting for the saying that England would "carry Underwood like an umbrella, in case of rain". His inswinging "arm ball" was particularly noted for dismissing batsmen leg before wicket.

Underwood finished his career just 3 wickets short of 300 in Test cricket, at an excellent average of 25.83. He famously took the last 4 Australian wickets in 27 balls in the final half an hour at the end of the 5th Test in 1968, after a heavy thunderstorm on the fifth day had all but ended the match, to square an Ashes series that Australia were winning 1–0.

On 16 July 2009, Derek was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame along with others including Neil Harvey, David Gower and Allan Border Underwood played county cricket for Kent, making his first-class debut against Yorkshire aged 17 in 1963. He became the youngest player to take 100 County Championship wickets in a debut season. He went on to take 100 wickets in a season a further nine times. His batting was less accomplished, averaging barely over ten runs per innings in 676 matches. He scored his first and only first-class century (111) at the age of 39, in his 591st first-class match.

He was awarded the MBE in 1981. In 1997, he became Patron of the Primary Club, and in 2008 it was announced that he would serve as President of MCC for the following year. In a Wisden article in 2004 he was selected by a highly respected panel as a member of England's greatest post-war XI.

In his words - Bowling is a low mentality profession: plug away, line and length, until there's a mistake', and

sooner or later every batsmen would make a mistake.