3rd of January 2003, SCG, Fifth Test, Day 2

Sitting in the very back row of the Brewongle Stand.

Alec Stewart puts on a quickfire cameo in the morning session to take England to 350+.

Caddick takes some early wickets to have Australia struggling at 3 for 20-odd just before tea when...

Steve Waugh walks out to a roaring reception. Many in the crowd wonder if it will be his last test innings.

The home crowd is willing him on like they've never willed on any individual before.

He gets to 50, then he passess 10-thousand Test runs, then he has a century in sight. The crowd (including the Barmy Army) are either singing Steve Waugh's name to the tune of Auld Lang Syne or calling it out like they did for Lillee - "Steeeeevvveee Waaaaauuggghh, Steeeevvveee Waaaauuggghh"

Time is running out. Waugh takes a single off the third last ball. Gilchrist must get a single for Waugh to be a chance of a getting hundred that night. Gilly gets the single and the crowd goes wild. Nasser Hussain drags the last ball out forever. Dawson bowls outside off stump, Waugh flays away, and it goes for four! A century off the last ball of the day.

The crowd goes into a spontaneous orgasm that seems to last forever. Walking down Foveaux Street back to Central Station people are just going up to each other and saying two words "Steve Waugh" over and over again.

I only went to one day of the Test that year. It could have been Day 1, it could have been Day 3. It was the luckiest break of my spectating life that I was there on Day 2.

Cheers.

I know people who left early.

I remind them of it often.

Best day at the cricket ever. Among other things, it's probably the only time a SCG crowd wanted Gilly to get off strike.

Who would ever have imagined Richard Dawson being involved in one of cricket's most memorable moments...?

Every dog has their day . . .

If I recall, Australia lost that test due to Waugh's decision to bowl his bowlers into the ground in the previous test in Melbourne, no?

JGK wrote:I know people who left early.

I remind them of it often.

Best day at the cricket ever. Among other things, it's probably the only time a SCG crowd wanted Gilly to get off strike.

We had a spare ticket on the morning of the match because one of my mates pulled out. We found a replacement, but the poor guy had to leave at 5:30 because he'd already committed to some function with his wife.

I don't think he's ever got over it.

Hass wrote:We had a spare ticket on the morning of the match because one of my mates pulled out. We found a replacement, but the poor guy had to leave at 5:30 because he'd already committed to some function with his wife.

That would be grounds for divorce in some countries.

Yeah, I'd have divorced him for using the ticket himself instead of giving it to me . . .

"Who would ever have imagined Richard Dawson being involved in one of cricket's most memorable moments...?"

Hard to imagine a worse ball to bowl, to that field in that context, almost makes me wonder if 'Cpl Newkirk' put the ball there deliberately with one eye on his Warhol moment.

A bit like Mohsin Khan's throw from mid-on for four overthows to give GSC 7000 runs and Bradman's record, which Greg practically had to jump over to avoid scoring it in the shins half-way between the fieldsman and the stumps.

Captain Hussain supposedly did tell Dawson exactly what to bowl for that ball - quick and flat.

Perhaps he's an old romantic at heart...

Hass wrote:Sitting in the very back row of the Brewongle Stand.

Alec Stewart puts on a quickfire cameo in the morning session to take England to 350+.

Caddick takes some early wickets to have Australia struggling at 3 for 20-odd just before tea when...

Steve Waugh walks out to a roaring reception. Many in the crowd wonder if it will be his last test innings.

The home crowd is willing him on like they've never willed on any individual before.

He gets to 50, then he passess 10-thousand Test runs, then he has a century in sight. The crowd (including the Barmy Army) are either singing Steve Waugh's name to the tune of Auld Lang Syne or calling it out like they did for Lillee - "Steeeeevvveee Waaaaauuggghh, Steeeevvveee Waaaauuggghh"

Time is running out. Waugh takes a single off the third last ball. Gilchrist must get a single for Waugh to be a chance of a getting hundred that night. Gilly gets the single and the crowd goes wild. Nasser Hussain drags the last ball out forever. Dawson bowls outside off stump, Waugh flays away, and it goes for four! A century off the last ball of the day.

The crowd goes into a spontaneous orgasm that seems to last forever. Walking down Foveaux Street back to Central Station people are just going up to each other and saying two words "Steve Waugh" over and over again.

I only went to one day of the Test that year. It could have been Day 1, it could have been Day 3. It was the luckiest break of my spectating life that I was there on Day 2.

Cheers.

I was there in the second row from the fence in the Churchill concourse, reading that post gives me goose bumps all over again.

"veritas odium parit"

Er....'truly you are an odious prat'?

tac wrote:If I recall, Australia lost that test due to Waugh's decision to bowl his bowlers into the ground in the previous test in Melbourne, no?

True. It didn't help that MacGill bowled the most constant stream of poo since the cause of cholera was discovered, nor that he dropped one of the easiest caught and bowled chances of all time.

Some things really don't change, lardy.

Fred Nerk wrote:"veritas odium parit"

Er....'truly you are an odious prat'?

Close enough.

Bob in fine form.

Bob being Bob.....Hope? Hawke? Menzies? Simpson? Downe?

I'm only a year late to this thread...

I was there too, when Waugh hit that ton.

The reception he received from the crowd when he walked out to the middle, I'll never forget. It was just this massive, deafening wall of sound.
I don't believe in destiny, but if there were such a thing, it was working that day. There was such a sense of something extraordinary about to happen.

This massive Sydney crowd wanting him to shove it up the selector's indiscretions and hoping for a miraculous ton - I don't know how he managed that pressure, to play the innings he did. What a legend.

And when he hit that four, the place went ballistic.
It was without a doubt the most amazing day's play I've ever seen - maybe not the best, but definitely the most inspired.

Afterwards, I reckon half of Australia claimed to have been there to see it, hehe.

I went the next day and saw Waugh get out in the first over of the morning. He got a standing ovation on the way out, nicked one to slips, and then got another standing ovation as he walked straight back off again. Oh well.

Me and me two brothers were there for most of the match, day 3 was a sick day though

lardbucket wrote:

tac wrote:If I recall, Australia lost that test due to Waugh's decision to bowl his bowlers into the ground in the previous test in Melbourne, no?

True. It didn't help that MacGill bowled the most constant stream of poo since the cause of cholera was discovered, nor that he dropped one of the easiest caught and bowled chances of all time.

or that Koala snr forgot to go for the redinkus maximus when it counted

that was also the summer when just about every forummer bar Fred N came to the conclusion Ksnr had stayed too long...remember when he started to give himself some overs

IN, IN, IN, Yep, Me Too. I was there.
Some bits late in the day a bit hazy though,

Didn't they drive the other Waugh around the stadium in a convertable one lunchtime?
What were they hoping for, a JFK moment?

clearly I was not there

Some people missed most of the last morning of that test because the stupid ticket office arrangement generated huge queues. We just went straight to a tout and got in for the same price. They do have their uses.