Editing Curtly Ambrose (section)

===County cricketer and success against England===
Ambrose made his debut in the English [[County Championship]] for [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club]] in 1989—the club signed him for the 1988 season but as he was playing in the West Indies touring team, he was unavailable that year.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ambrose: A true great |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/in_depth/2000/england_v_west_indies/908962.stm| access-date=30 August 2012|date=4 September 2000 | publisher = BBC Sport}}</ref> He took a wicket with his first delivery for the club, but was not particularly successful in the first part of the season; he settled down later and took 28 first-class wickets at 28.39 for Northamptonshire in nine games.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Radd | first = Andrew | title = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack| year = 1990 | editor-last=Wright | editor-first=Graeme| publisher = John Wisden & Co| chapter = Northamptonshire in 1989| location = London| isbn = 0-947766-15-4| pages = 498–500}}</ref>

Early in 1990, [[England cricket team|England]] toured the West Indies and played four Tests—a fifth was abandoned owing to rain. The visiting team dominated the first part of the series but West Indies eventually won 2–1.<ref name=Eng90>Lee (1991), pp. 967–70.</ref> Ambrose was unfit for the first Test, which West Indies lost, and the first four ODIs, but returned to take four for 18 in an ODI organised to replace the rained-off second Test.<ref>Lee (1991), pp. 974–79.</ref> After a drawn third Test, West Indies won the fourth game. The home captain, [[Viv Richards]], set England 356 to win, but after losing early wickets, the English batsmen entered the last hour of the game with five wickets still to fall.<ref name=Lee/> Ambrose took the [[Cricket ball#Condition of a cricket ball|new ball]] and removed the last five batsmen for 18 runs in 46 deliveries,<ref>{{Cite news | last = Lee |first = Alan |title = Russell's fight is all in vain | newspaper = The Times  | location = London  | page = 46 | date = 11 April 1990}}</ref> four of them [[leg before wicket]]. He finished with figures of eight for 45, ten wickets in the match, and West Indies levelled the series with a 164-run win. Ambrose was man of the match.<ref name=Lee>Lee (1991), pp. 984–85.</ref> He took six wickets in the final match,<ref name=figures/> to finish the series with 20 wickets at 15.35, finishing top of the West Indies' averages. Ambrose, along with the other home bowlers, was described by Alan Lee in ''Wisden'' as an "awesome handful in the latter part of the series", and described his match-winning spell in the fourth Test as "unforgettable".<ref name=Eng90/> Ambrose's other appearances for West Indies in 1989–90 were all in ODIs, although he did not take more than two wickets in any innings except in the match against England.<ref name=ODI/><ref name=figures/> He also took 22 first-class wickets for the Leeward Islands,<ref>{{Cite book| last = Cozier | first = Tony |title = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack| year = 1991 | editor-last=Wright | editor-first=Graeme| publisher = John Wisden & Co| chapter = Cricket in the West Indies, 1989–90| location = London| isbn = 0-947766-16-2| page = 1,154}}</ref> and when he returned to England to play for Northamptonshire in 1990, took 58 first-class wickets to top the club's bowling averages.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Radd | first = Andrew | title = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack| year = 1991 | editor-last=Wright | editor-first=Graeme| publisher = John Wisden & Co| chapter = Northamptonshire in 1990| location = London| isbn = 0-947766-16-2| pages = 532–35}}</ref> In [[List A cricket|one-day cricket]] for the county, he took 13 wickets while [[Economy rate#Bowling statistics|conceding an average]] of just 2.53 runs per over.<ref name=ListA>{{Cite web| url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/1/1883/a_Bowling_by_Season.html| title = List A Bowling in Each Season by Curtly Ambrose | publisher = CricketArchive| access-date = 30 August 2012}}</ref>