One run, and a decision

West Indies won the fourth Test at Adelaide in January 1993 by one run. The card carries a note saying it was the narrowest victory ever in Test cricket, and a last line in Australia’s second innings that reads Craig McDermott, caught Murray bowled Walsh, 18, from 57 balls in 88 minutes. The series stood at one all with a Test to play.

The match to 144 for nine

West Indies chose to bat and made 252 on the first day, Brian Lara 52, Junior Murray 49 not out, Merv Hughes five for 64. Australia were 2 for one at the close and 100 for three at the end of a second day that lost 220 minutes to rain. They made 213 on the third, Curtly Ambrose six for 74, with Boon retiring hurt on 2 with a bruised elbow and coming back to finish 39 not out.

West Indies were then bowled out for 146 the same day, Richie Richardson 72, May taking five for 9 in 6.5 overs of off-spin. McDermott took three, and bowled twelve no-balls doing it. The target was 186, with a full day to get them.

Full scorecard: Australia v West Indies, 4th Test, Adelaide, 23–26 January 1993 →

David Boon was leg before for 0. Mark Taylor caught behind for 7 at 16. Justin Langer, on debut, made 54 from 146 balls. Around him: Mark Waugh 26, Steve Waugh 4, Allan Border 1, Ian Healy 0, Hughes 1, Shane Warne 9 from 60 balls. When Langer was caught behind off Ian Bishop at 144, Australia were nine down with 42 to get.

The last wicket

May made 42 not out from 99 balls with four fours. McDermott made 18 from 57. The stand was worth 40 and lasted the best part of an hour and a half, and it brought the target to within two runs. Then the card’s last dismissal: caught Murray bowled Walsh.

Ambrose, who was player of the match for ten wickets, took four for 46 in the innings. Walsh took three for 44, the last of them the one that ended it. The margin on the card is 1 run, and the total is 184. Langer, in his first Test, had made 20 and 54, and the 54 was the top score of the innings by a distance.

The decision

McDermott was given out caught behind attempting to play a short ball from Walsh. Whether the ball touched his glove or his bat, or only the grille of his helmet, was argued the same afternoon and has been since. The card cannot say. A caught-behind decision looks the same on a scorecard whether the umpire was right or wrong, and this one reads as an ordinary dismissal in the ordinary place.

The umpire was Darrell Hair, standing with Leonard King, and the match referee was Donald Carr. None of them appears in the card’s notes. What the notes carry instead is the crowd, 57,573, the rain, 45 minutes lost on the first day and 220 on the second, and Boon’s retirement with a bruised elbow in the first innings.

What the decision decided

One run the other way and the card’s result line reads Australia won by 1 wicket, and the series line reads Australia led 2-1 with one to play. Instead the series was level, and the fifth Test at Perth would settle it. The whole of that difference sits on one delivery and one umpire’s view of it, recorded without comment.

What the card holds

A five-for in 6.5 overs. A 54 on debut. A last-wicket stand of 40 from 144 for nine. A caught-behind that the card can only write down as a caught-behind. And a note that says narrowest ever, under a result that one decision produced.

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No. 7 in Not Out, a series of 8.

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