Consistent: Justin ‘Alfie’ Langer shared 14 Test century stands and averaged 51 with Matthew Hayden, including back-to-back double centuries in their first two Tests together on Australian soil in 2001. Stephen Laffer

A

‘They’ve laughed, they’ve cried, they’ve shared, building an unbreakable bond…’

ACCIDENTAL PAIRING

If it wasn’t for a brand new Mini Minor van with a stiff gearshift, Bill Lawry’s celebrated pairing with Bobby Simpson at the head of the Australian order would have been delayed at least 15 months.

Australia’s senior opening batsman Colin McDonald developed such a sore wrist from changing the gears of a new car during the 1961 tour, he could barely hold a bat. Reserve opener Bobby Simpson had played each of the first three Tests down the list and was promoted to the top of the order with McDonald unavailable for both the fourth and fifth Tests. McDonald had bought the car for his wife Lois and young daughter Karen who, with the assistance of Ashes stalwart Alec Bedser, were renting an apartment in Nightingale Lane, Clapham.

‘The wives weren’t allowed to be in the same hotel as the players back then,’ said McDonald. ‘Alec organised this apartment for us and, to help ferry Lois and Karen around, I bought this Mini Minor. I was lucky to get it as the demand for vehicles was far greater than the production, but it had this very stiff gear shift which I could only just move, so much so that I developed a repetitive strain in my left wrist, my top hand [which controls the bat]. By the end of the Leeds Test [the third of five, when McDonald made 54 and 1], I could hardly hold a bat and stood down from the last two Tests. I stayed on after the tour to work in the UK and never played another Test. I wish to goodness I’d never got that car! But it was the start of the Simpson-Lawry union and my injury also saw Brian Booth come into the side for the first time. He was to become a very fine player for Australia.’

The McDonald-Lawry stands in the first three Tests in 1961 had been worth just 27 per innings. Lawry and Simpson flourished from their first Test together at Old Trafford, sharing an important second innings stand of 113 before Richie Benaud famously went around the wicket and spun a revitalised Australia to the Ashes.

It was the first of nine century stands by the pair, including five against the old Enemy, their daredevil running between wickets an immediate characteristic.

‘It was something we always did. We both thought it safest at the other end!’ said Simpson. ‘We didn’t always call. Often it was just a nod. We’d drop the ball at our feet and off we’d go. It’s a lost art now.’

The pair weren’t roomies, or particularly great mates. At night on tour, they’d generally dine separately. Yet Simpson felt more comfortable batting with Lawry than anyone else.

‘It was always a great comfort to see Bill at the other end,’ said Simpson. ‘We knew each other’s games backwards and sometimes would look to take a particular end to help each other. I tended to play the spinners a little bit better than Bill. He was a great player of fast bowling and if one or the other was struggling just a little against a particular bowler, you’d take the end where you could best help your mate.’

Earlier in 1961, all in touring matches, Simpson had gone in first with Lawry five times for three century stands, including a double century partnership at Oxford. Few were as versatile in adapting from batting from No. 1 to No. 6. All but three of his first dozen Tests had been in the middle order. In his maiden series in South Africa, Simpson had gone in as low as No. 8 and in his first Ashes series the following Australian summer, he’d played only one of the five Tests and had not been selected for the India and Pakistan tour of 1959–60.

In his bid to resurrect his career, Simpson shifted from New South Wales to Western Australia to open the innings regularly. While the internationals were away on the sub-continent, Simpson amassed 902 Sheffield Shield runs at the remarkable average of 300.66. In eight days he made two career-reviving double centuries, both not out. Of particular satisfaction was his 236 against his mates from New South Wales. He and veteran Ken Meuleman added 301 for the fifth wicket, Meuleman continually advising Simpson to ‘cash in’.

‘He kept saying to me, “Don’t throw it away. Keep going. When you get 200, think about 300.” I didn’t need much convincing, though,’ said Simpson. ‘Only big scores were going to get me back into the Test side. I wasn’t going to set limits on what I made. I just wanted to bat and the more runs I made the better.’

During his monumental double against New South Wales, Simpson gloved a catch behind but survived the appeal. He was only in his 60s at the time. He always regarded it as the most timely reprieve of his career. Big runs against the power states, New South Wales and Victoria, always counted.

His first Tests opening the batting had been with McDonald at his side during the wonderful Calypso summer of 1960–61, his rapid-fire 92 in the deciding Test in Melbourne featured a rare thrashing of West Indian expressman Wes Hall, whose only five overs cost 40, including 18 off the first and nine off the second.

But it was alongside Lawry, the tall, angular, grafting Melburnian, where he was to make most impact.

So prolific had the unheralded Lawry been on arrival in the UK in 1961 that he’d scored three centuries and averaged 80 leading into the first Test, his double of 104 and 84 not out against the MCC at Lord’s an Ashes selection clincher. It wasn’t coincidental that his first two Ashes centuries, at Lord’s and Old Trafford, had seen the Australians win. By the end of his triumphant first tour, Lawry had been dubbed ‘William the Conqueror’.

Don Bradman and the Australian selection panel always favoured a left- and a right-hander at the head of the order and the Simpson-Lawry combine was a pivotal force in Australia’s top-order for five consecutive summers, home and away. Their judgment of the short single always seemed impeccable, ladies in the crowd often screaming as the pair stole ever-so-short singles, despite having just tapped the ball a yard or two in front of their feet.

‘We’d call, but not always, especially if we defended at our feet,’ said Lawry. ‘We always reckoned the safest place to be was at the non-striker’s end and we’d do everything possible to get there.’

Their highest stand – and certainly their bravest – came at Bridgetown in 1965 when they defied the fire of the two menacing West Indian expresses, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, to become the first Australians to bat through an entire day’s play on their way to a record stand of 382.

Griffith bowled five bouncers in six balls to Simpson and struck Lawry almost flush on the cheekbone with another short delivery, yards quicker than his ‘normal’ ball. From his first delivery in the opening Test in Kingston, the Australians had labelled Griffith as a ‘chucker’.

‘No man can project a ball at 90 miles per hour from almost a standing start without throwing it,’ said Simpson.

The series had been billed as an unofficial world championship and in Hall and Griffith, the West Indies had the fieriest pair since Bodyliners Harold Larwood and Bill Voce. The West Indies won two of the first three Tests, Simpson and Lawry failing to share in even one 40-run partnership in their first five innings of the series. It was the first time they’d ever failed three Tests in a row.

In Port-of-Spain, Griffith scored five direct hits on Australian batsmen. The attack was intense, Griffith’s in-slanting bouncer and change-up yorker almost impossible to combat. The Australian anger grew as local umpires refused to intervene against someone they felt was blatantly cheating.

With Australia needing to win both of the last Test matches to hold the Frank Worrell Trophy, the Kensington Oval wicket for the fourth Test was a runmaker’s paradise, white and flat, the chances remote of either side bowling the other out twice. But Hall and Griffith attacked furiously, Lawry shaken up by the ball from Griffith he wore on the jaw. Umpire Kippins had earlier given Griffith a ‘friendly’ warning for too many short deliveries, but after the onslaught of five bouncers in an over at Simpson, Kippins told Griffith that he would be banned from the crease for intimidatory bowling if he continued to pitch short. Griffith noticeably slowed and bowled a fuller length.

AUSTRALIA’S TOP TEN OPENING PAIRS
	Runs	Highest	Average	100s
Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer	5655	255	51	14
Bill Lawry and Bobby Simpson	3596	382	60	9
Mark Taylor and Michael Slater	3887	260	51	10
Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor	1980	329	45	4
David Boon and Geoff Marsh	1871	217	46	5
Simon Katich and Shane Watson	1523	182	54	3
Bill Lawry and Keith Stackpole	1302	95*	44	-
Colin McDonald and Jim Burke	1144	190	39	3
Matthew Hayden and Michael Slater	1045	156	43	3
Bill Brown and Jack Fingleton	1020	233	63	3
* unbeaten

Simpson and Lawry added 263 on the first day (Simpson 137, Lawry 102) and extended their stand to 382, the pair becoming the first Test openers to both score double centuries.

‘We wanted to keep the singles coming and make the most of anything loose,’ said Simpson. ‘Wes sent down a lot of short stuff and I was able to square cut and back cut him to keep the runs flowing. Bill kept the singles flowing and farmed the strike back to me as much as possible.’

The two Australians received only 10 six-ball overs in the first hour and 81 for the day, shades of Clive Lloyd’s tactics with his West Indian fast bowlers almost a generation on. The world record of 413 for the first wicket between Indians Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy was in their sights before Simpson, the first to 200, played onto Hall having batted almost a day and a half. The game was to be drawn in Australia’s favour, Simpson’s team winning the final Test in Trinidad. Fittingly, Simpson and Lawry were at the wicket when victory was completed. It was Australia’s only win of the ill-tempered tour.

BOBBY SIMPSON AND BILL LAWRY IN TESTS
Opponent	Tests	Innings	Not Out	Runs	Highest	Average	100s
England	13	22	1	1228	244	58	5
South Africa	9	18	0	873	118	48	1
West Indies	5	9	1	585	382	73	1
India	5	9	0	753	191	83	2
Pakistan	2	4	0	157	81	39	0
Total	34	62	2	3596	382	60	9

Back in Australia the Ashes were retained, a 244-run partnership between Simpson and Lawry in Adelaide the highlight of an innings’ victory.

They remained at the head of the order until 1967–68 when Simpson told chairman of selectors Don Bradman that he would not be touring England in 1968 and was immediately dropped!

‘Given my time again I wouldn’t have said a word to the Don,’ said Simpson, who’d started the Tests with scores of 55, 103 and 109 against the touring Indians.

In their last match together, in Melbourne at Christmastime in 1967, the pair added 191, passing India’s all out score of 173 themselves.

In Simpson’s absence, Lawry was to have five different partners in four years. ‘Redders [Ian Redpath] wasn’t a good judge of a run, Stacky [Keith Stackpole] didn’t like running much, but Bobby was such a good judge of angles,’ said Lawry. ‘Occasionally, though we’d get it wrong. Did Bobby tell you that he ran me out three times!’

ALFIE and HAYDOS

Apart than being left-handers, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, Australia’s most famous set of openers seemed to share little common ground. They’d come from opposite ends of Australia, one from the country, one from the city. Matthew Hayden was tall and intimidating, wide of smile, a late bloomer, advancing at even the quickest of bowlers and launching his shots imperiously wide of mid-on; Justin ‘Alfie’ Langer was shorter, sensitive, intense, determined, a nudger and a deflecter, an ally, reliable, committed and dependable.

Langer was at the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide in 1995 looking to revive his Test career when head coach Rod Marsh organised a weekend camp involving the most promising non-Academy batsmen from around Australia. Hayden was one of the invitees. After a blazing near 1000-run opening season of Shield cricket, Hayden had been part of Australia’s Ashes squad in 1993, only to lose form and favour. At a panel discussion one evening he was asked what it was like to be out of form. After a pause, Hayden said: ‘You go out to bat and you feel like you’ve got someone else’s dick in your hand… your bat just doesn’t feel right in your hands.’

If it hadn’t been such a serious forum, Langer would have been rolling around the aisles in hysterics. From that moment he knew that ‘Haydos’, the ‘Big Unit’, the ‘Nature Boy’, would be his mate.

They were to become the most-capped and most prolific set of openers in Australian Test history. Their wives also cemented the closest of friendships, which sees Kellie Hayden godmother to Langer’s youngest daughter Grace. Hayden says Langer is as dear to him as his own brother. They’ve laughed, they’ve cried, they’ve shared, building an unbreakable bond.

From the time they first opened in England in 2001, sharing the first of 14 century partnerships together, they provided a sure and consistent launching pad for the Australian top-order which hadn’t been present since the days of Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry.

Langer was a central part of Australia’s unprecedented 16 Test wins in a row. Hayden’s exploits included a new Test record of 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth, a colossal knock featuring thirty-eight 4s and eleven 6s.

They were cornerstones in Australia’s extraordinary run of success, broken only by the series loss in England in 2005.

Hayden was to score 24 of his 30 Test centuries with Langer beside him. Langer scored 17 of his 23 centuries with Hayden beside him.

CENTURY STANDS IN TESTS BY JUSTIN LANGER and MATTHEW HAYDEN
158	v England, The Oval, 2001  Langer 102 retired hurt, Hayden 68
224	v New Zealand, Brisbane, 2001–02  Langer 104, Hayden 136
223	v New Zealand, Hobart, 2001–02  Langer 123, Hayden 91
202	v South Africa, Melbourne, 2001–02  Langer 85, Hayden 138
219	v South Africa, Sydney, 2001–02 Langer 126, Hayden 105
102	v South Africa, Cape Town, 2001–02 Langer 58, Hayden 96
101	v England, Adelaide, 2002–03 Langer 48, Hayden 46
195	v England, Melbourne, 2002–03 Langer 250, Hayden 102
242	v West Indies, Antigua, 2002–03 Langer 111, Hayden 177
147	v India, Sydney, 2003–04 Langer 117, Hayden 67
255	v Sri Lanka, Cairns, 2004 Langer 162, Hayden 117
136	v India, Chennai, 2004–05 Langer 71, Hayden 58
137	v New Zealand, Adelaide, 2004–05 Langer 215, Hayden 70
185	v England, The Oval, 2005 Langer 105, Hayden 138

In five years they opened Australia’s batting 113 times. Four of their first 11 stands resulted in double-centuries, including back-to-back Tests against the South Africans in 2001–02. Their highest stand was 255 against Sri Lanka at Cazaly Stadium, Cairns, and their dearest, 79 in the opening Ashes Test of 2006–07 when the battle lines were being drawn and Steve Harmison’s ever-so-nervous first ball was taken at second slip.

The number of hugs, high-fives and back-slaps were never recorded, but they were plentiful. The only two international pairings who stepped out first more often together were the West Indians Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes (with 148 innings together) and the Sri Lankans Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya (118). Neither showed their sheer joy at each other’s accomplishments as often or as openly as Hayden and Langer.

Hayden and Langer averaged 51 together as openers. Previously when Langer was coming in at No. 3, their stands were under 40.

Langer liked to take strike and, especially later in his career, was known to crash an immediate drive or two through to the cover fence. In Hobart in 2001, on their way to a stand of 223, Hayden was just 1 when Langer was raising his bat to acknowledge the applause for his 50, a happy snap of the lop-sided scoreboard taking pride of place in the Langer games room in Perth. Hayden may have had the big shots, but Langer invariably kept pace. Looks can be deceiving. Statistician Charles Davis says Langer outpaced Hayden 53 to 47 for every 100 runs they scored.

Hayden’s sheer stature and attacking flair encouraged an inner confidence in Langer he’d never experienced with any other partner.

‘Batting with one of your best mates is an inspired feeling,’ Langer said. ‘I felt like I had one of the Greek or Roman warriors like Spartacus or Maximus beside me every time we strode onto a cricket ground. He was the size of a warrior, walked like a warrior and batted like a warrior.’

Hayden said he never ever felt quite the same opening the batting with others after Langer’s international retirement in 2007.

‘It had absolutely nothing to do with the calibre of his replacements Phil Jaques and Simon Katich, who are terrific blokes and fine players,’ he said. ‘But when you have a partnership that’s right, everything just flows. It’s like driving from Brisbane to Cairns at your own pace, just floating along. Having a new partner is like making the same trip with a police car on your tail. You’re instantly aware of every little detail. Should I be indicating? Am I going too fast? Alfie and I never tried to analyse our connection too much. It was what it was.’

MATTHEW HAYDEN’S OPENING TEST PARTNERS
	Innings	Runs	Average for partnership
Justin Langer	113	5655	51
Michael Slater	25	1045	43
Phil Jaques	11	784	71
Simon Katich	17	557	34
Michael Hussey	7	458	65
Mark Taylor	10	132	13
Adam Gilchrist	1	30	30

JUSTIN LANGER’S OPENING TEST PARTNERS
	Innings	Runs	Average for partnership
David Boon	2	40	20
Matthew Hayden	113	5655	51

MATTHEW HAYDEN and JUSTIN LANGER IN TESTS IN AUSTRALIA
	Innings	Runs	Average for partnership
Hobart	1	223	223
Brisbane	8	563	70
Sydney	16	810	57
Melbourne	9	519	57
Adelaide	11	621	56
Perth	10	196	19

AMBY and CUDDY

For a decade and more in the 1980s and early 1990s, the West Indies were undisputed champions of the cricket world thanks to Clive Lloyd, King Viv and an arsenal of imposing fast bowlers who continued to beat up and intimidate the best batsmen in the world, series after series. Some teams were beaten even before they started, such was the aura and sense of invincibility surrounding the all-stars from the Caribbean.

There were signs in Australia in 1992–93, however, that the Windies had become a little vulnerable – until the final decisive Test in Perth when the tall, imposing Antiguan Curtly Ambrose went into overdrive, ending the match before lunch on the third day, the earliest finish to a Test down under since 1931.

Twelve months later, England had hopes of recovering the Wisden Trophy until confronted by the combined hostility of Ambrose and the almost-as-tall Jamaican Courtney Walsh, who shared 18 wickets between them in runaway West Indian victories at Sabina Park and Bourda.

The English hit back and controlled the pivotal third Test at Queens Park, Port-of-Spain, until the final eventful hour on the penultimate night when they were blown away by a fast-bowling onslaught of rare venom and quality.

Eyeing a target of just 194, England’s captain Mike Atherton succumbed to Ambrose’s high-speed first ball, a wicked delivery which nipped back and trapped him in front. Mark Ramprakash was run out off his fifth and Robin Smith castled by his eighth as England went to stumps at 8–40 on its way to a humiliating 46 all out – surpassing by just one run its lowest Test score in 699 Tests. Even gritty Graham Thorpe, top scorer in the first innings with a Barrington-like 86, was to succumb in the final hour as Ambrose and Walsh tore into the visitors, Ambrose taking six for 24 from 10 high-octane overs and Walsh three for 16 from 9.1. Only one Englishman made double figures, opener Alec Stewart with 18.

‘They had 15 overs at us before the close,’ said Stewart, ‘and Ambrose and Walsh came out with guns blazing and really slipped themselves. When the bowlers have only seven or eight overs each before the close, they can bend their backs and for a batsman with close fielders breathing down his neck, all that adds to the pressure.’

Both West Indians kept the ball full and rarely allowed a loose ball, Atherton rating the onslaught as one of the best he’d ever seen.

‘Ambrose, in particular, was simply astonishing,’ he said. ‘He sensed there was a match to win and a wearing pitch to exploit.’

Having seen a nervy Ramprakash run himself out, Atherton retired to the showers and when he re-emerged, England was six down. Game over. England’s room was deathly silent that night.

‘We couldn’t believe it,’ said Stewart. ‘The game had been taken away from us in just over an hour. If we had been four down overnight, there might have been a chance for us, but not at 40 for eight.’

Cementing their standing in the Caribbean’s fast-bowling Hall of Fame, 30-year-old Ambrose claimed 11 wickets for the game and 31-year-old Walsh five.

Until those two memorable late March days in 1994, two West Indians had never before bowled unchanged through an innings.

The pair were to play 95 Tests together, the most by any pair of fast bowlers and second only behind the Australians Shane Warne and McGrath (with 104) and equal to the Sri Lankans Muthiah Muralidaran and Chaminda Vaas.

The West Indies has boasted faster new ball combinations: Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, and Holding and Malcolm Marshall. But none were as consistently intimidating, lethal or as enduring as ‘Amby’ and ‘Cuddy’. They opened the bowling together 86 times, the majority later in their careers when they defied advancing years to keep West Indian cricket competitive.

‘We knew what was best for each other,’ said Walsh, ‘and we knew what was best for the team.’

Committed, dedicated and passionate, few were prouder of their maroon West Indian cap than Walsh. He moved the new ball into the right-handers at high pace and sometimes followed with a second spell of searing short deliveries, zeroing in directly at the throats of opposing right-handers. Most of the time, though, he bowled within himself, fulfilling into-the-wind team roles, maintaining peak pressure. He revelled in responsibility and once sent down 26 overs unchanged in a home Test.

At 200 cm (6 ft 7 in) Ambrose was taller, more athletic and consistently faster, his change-up deliveries being near-express. Rarely would he allow batsmen the opportunity to move onto the front foot, his trampolining bounce an intimidating constant, even on flat wickets.

‘He projected the ball from such a great height,’ said Thorpe. ‘He didn’t like conceding runs and bowled just short of a good length. It made it almost impossible to drive him down the ground. Walsh was very different. He varied things a lot, bowled a fuller length and could swing the ball. He had a good bouncer and later also developed a hard-to-detect slower ball that made him an absolute nightmare to face.’

Walsh had originally been the silent partner behind the more glamorous ‘pacers’ Holding, Marshall, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, before opening regularly with Ambrose, their combination becoming as feared and potent as any in the game.

The pair didn’t share the new ball at all in the first 28 matches they played together, but once they were given centre stage, they provided a winning edge to the West Indian attack which enabled the team to stay at the top even into the mid-1990s after the retirements of Viv Richards and co.

Walsh was at his best when opening the bowling alongside Ambrose, who fretted when even a single was conceded. The pair built pressure at both ends, Walsh averaging 22.4 runs per wicket and 4.54 wickets per match in 52 games with Ambrose at the other end, against his career statistics of 24.4 and 3.93. Ambrose took slightly fewer wickets per match when he opened with Walsh than over his whole career (3.85 versus 4.13); his bowling average, however, was largely unchanged (21 versus 21.2).

No opening partnership consistently prospered against the high-speed duo. English pair Atherton and Stewart had their moments but still averaged less than 50.

In the Barbados Test of 1994, just a week after the humiliation of Trinidad, more than 6000 English fans were at Kensington Oval and started cheering when Atherton and Stewart advanced the score to 47, one more than the infamous all-out for 46 at Port-of-Spain! Stewart regards the twin centuries he made in that game against such high-class opposition as among the very best of a distinguished career.

A highpoint in their careers together came in Adelaide in 1992–93 when the West Indies won by a single run, the narrowest winning margin in Test history. Ambrose took 10 wickets and Walsh three, including the lucky last, Australia’s No. 11 Craig McDermott, caught off his helmet just as a famous upset beckoned. A week later Ambrose took seven for 1 as the Australians were humbled at the pacy WACA Ground.

Walsh’s remarkable Test involvements included 28 series without defeat. In the third and final Test at Chandigarh in 1994–95, with the Windies trailing 1–0, Walsh told his teammates pre-match how he had never played in a losing series and ‘would rather lose 2–0 than go home 1–0 losers’. He took five wickets for the game as the Windies triumphed by 243 runs. When his right to a place in the side was being questioned, he proudly wore a t-shirt around which said: ‘FORM IS TEMPORARY, CLASS IS PERMANENT’.

AMBROSE and WALSH IN INTERNATIONAL CRICKET
	Span	Test Matches	Wickets	Average	BB	5wI	10wM
Courtney Walsh	1984–2000	132	519	24.44	7–37	22	3
Curtly Ambrose	1987–2000	98	405	20.99	8–45	22	3
BB denotes Best Bowling, 5wI denotes 5 wickets in an innings, 10wM denotes 10 wickets in a match Walsh also took 227 wickets in 205 One-Day Internationals. Ambrose took 225 in 176 ODIs.

AND ‘AB’ DIDN’T SEE EVEN ONE BALL LIVE!

Never before in an Ashes Test in England had an opening pair batted through an entire day. And never before had a captain not seen even one ball of the massive partnership live.

In scoring 301 runs on the opening day of the 1989 Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, Mark Taylor and Geoff Marsh consigned England to playing ‘catch-up’ status, home captain David Gower even sending a message upstairs to the press box to see if anyone had any ideas!

Continuing the series of his career, Taylor made 141 not out and Marsh 125, the pair scoring 88 in the first session, 104 in the second and 109 in the last. They had their slices of luck, but to bat 102 overs takes remarkable focus and concentration and the Trent Bridge crowd were generous in their applause as the two unconquered Australians wearily walked off. Marsh later quipped that Australia’s No. 3 David Boon was probably just as tired as he was, having had his pads on all day!

The bowling was willing and resolute but lacking inspiration. Having withstood the early fire from expressman Devon Malcolm, Marsh used his feet with gusto to the finger spin of Eddie Hemmings and Nick Cook. Taylor, too, was in superb touch, continuing his remarkable summer. Records tumbled as the pair crushed the Englishmen. At 245, they passed Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry’s previous highest Ashes partnership of 244, and early on Day 2, they toppled Jack Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes’ monumental 323, the all-time highest first-wicket stand in Anglo-Australian cricket. It was a red letter day for Marsh, one of Australian cricket’s most team-oriented players.

Ironically, captain Allan Border didn’t see even one ball of the stand from his normal vantage spot on the viewing balcony. He’d watched the early action on television while finishing off some correspondence. Duties completed and with lunchtime approaching, he went to join the players, only to be told by Terry Alderman that the team was ‘none-for’ and he should stay where he was in case he broke the good luck spell. So for the rest of the day, bar the breaks, Border had to stay in the same seat, glued to the TV monitor!

‘Everyone was rapt for “Swampy” [Marsh],’ said Border. ‘The press had been on his back, talking about dropping him, and he knew he could have played a bit better. But of course there was never a thought of dropping him. The fact was that only once, at Lord’s, did we not get off to a reasonable start. Usually Swampy and “Tubby” [Taylor] got through the first dozen of 20 overs with the new ball.’

Flawless: South Australian Greg Blewett batted five sessions with Steve Waugh to amass a record 385 run stand against the South Africans in Johannesburg in 1996–97. Only two other Australian pairs had also gone undefeated for an entire day’s play at Test match level, Bill Lawry and Bobby Simpson in the West Indies in 1965 and Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor in England in 1989. David Munden/Sportsline

In the preceding two Tests at Edgbaston and Old Trafford they’d started with 88, 81, 135 and 62.

As was his habit, most of Marsh’s runs came through gully and point. He could easily have been adjudged lbw to Malcolm early on, but umpire Nigel Plews rejected the unanimous appeal.

‘He was plumb,’ said Malcolm, playing his first Test match. ‘I just couldn’t believe that decision. I watched the ball again on TV that night and it was still out. I agreed the ball was missing off stump and indeed leg stump – but not middle! The Aussies just batted us out of the game over the next two days. It was demoralising. They were so hard-nosed. When Terry Alderman took five wickets in our first innings, I was walking back to the pavilion and said to him: “Well bowled.” I was astonished when he snarled and swore at me!’

It wasn’t until the eighth hour of the innings and ball No. 744, shortly after noon on the second day, that Marsh finally succumbed, caught at slip trying to lift Cook out of the ground. His share of the 329-run stand was 138. At lunchtime Gower celebrated England’s only wicket with a glass of champagne.

Taylor was to carry on to 219 as the Australians reached 6–602 declared, before bowling England out twice in less than five sessions to cruise to their fourth Test win from five. Other than a half-chance into the slips at 3, his innings had been peerless, the tough-as Border later telling him that he had fluffed a rare opportunity at a triple-century!

Only two other Australian pairs had batted through an entire day’s play: Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry against the West Indies in Bridgetown in 1964–65; and Steve Waugh and Greg Blewett who went unbeaten all day against the South Africans at Johannesburg in 1996–97.

Marsh was to share some other tall opening stands, most notably with long-time West Australian partner Mike Veletta. Against the South Australians in Perth in 1989–90 they started with 431, Marsh’s share 355 not out and Veletta’s 150.

Taylor’s union with Michael Slater was to become one of the best of all time, the pair amassing 10 Test century stands in 78 innings together. Now they are co-commentators with Channel Nine.

AUSTRALIANS TO BAT THROUGH A DAY’S PLAY IN TESTS
Year	Players	Runs in day	Overs	Run-rate
1964–65  Bridgetown	Bobby Simpson (137) and Bill Lawry (102)	263	81	3.2
1989  Trent Bridge	Geoff Marsh (125) and Mark Taylor (141)	301	102	2.9
1996–97 Johannesburg	Greg Blewett (156) and Steve Waugh (137)	288	93	3.0
The first to do it:
1924–25 Melbourne	Jack Hobbs (154) and Herbert Sutcliffe (123)	283	83 (eight-ball overs)	3.3