Seven for one

Australia won the toss at Perth in the last Test of the 1992-93 series, with the series level, and batted. At lunch they were 59 for two, David Boon 24 not out, and the pitch had done nothing yet that a captain would regret batting on.

By the middle of the afternoon they were 104 for nine.

Eighty-five for two

Ian Bishop had taken the first two wickets, Justin Langer and Steve Waugh, both caught behind by Junior Murray. Mark Waugh took the score to 85 and was caught behind off Curtly Ambrose for 9. That was the third wicket, and the first of seven that Ambrose took while the score moved from 85 to 104.

Boon was caught at slip by Richie Richardson for 44 at 90. Allan Border, the captain, was caught behind first ball at 90. Ian Healy was caught by Brian Lara for nought at 100. Merv Hughes was caught by Keith Arthurton for nought at 102. Damien Martyn was caught by Phil Simmons for 13 at 104. Jo Angel, on debut, was caught behind for nought at 104.

Seven wickets. Four of them were ducks, and three of the four faced four balls or fewer. Shane Warne then made 13 before he was run out, and Australia were all out for 119 in 47.2 overs.

Full scorecard: Australia v West Indies, 5th Test, Perth, 30 January–1 February 1993 →

What the card shows and what it cannot

Ambrose’s figures read 18 overs, nine maidens, 25 runs, seven wickets. Bishop took two for 17. Nobody else took a wicket.

What the card cannot show is that the seven wickets came in a single spell that cost Ambrose one run. Nineteen runs were scored while the seven fell, and eighteen of them were scored at the other end. The figure lives in every account of the day and in none of the columns, because a scorecard records an innings and not a spell.

The other thing it cannot show is the sequence. It gives the fall of wickets by score and not by over, so 85, 90, 90, 100, 102, 104, 104 is as close as the card gets to describing an hour.

The rest of the match

West Indies made 322. Simmons made 80 and Arthurton 77. Desmond Haynes was struck in the face hooking with the score on 34 and retired hurt on 21, came back at 195 for four and was out for 24. Hughes took four for 71.

Australia batted again 203 behind and made 178. Boon made 52. Bishop took six for 40 and Ambrose two for 54, and West Indies won by an innings and 25 runs at two minutes to one on the third day. The card gives the attendance for all three days: 15,830, 16,976 and 11,552.

Ambrose was named player of the match and player of the series, with 33 wickets in the five Tests. West Indies won the series 2-1, having come to Perth level.

What a spell is

A scorecard has a column for overs, maidens, runs and wickets, and an innings is the unit it measures them in. A spell is a bowler’s unit, not the scorer’s. Ambrose bowled 18 overs in the innings, and the seven for one is a part of them that the card folds into 18-9-25-7 without a mark.

That is why the number is remembered from the reports rather than read from the record. It is the most famous spell in the history of the Western Australian ground, and the document that exists to record what happened there has no line for it.

What the card holds

Seven wickets between 85 and 104. Four ducks. A first-innings total of 119 in a match the batting side had chosen to bat in. A result inside three days, and a series decided by it. The spell is inside those figures the way the last over is inside a bowling analysis: entirely present, and invisible.

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No. 7 in Collapse, a series of 16.

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