One hundred and twenty-three of 184

Australia’s second innings at Sydney in January 1999 was 184 all out. Slater, opening, made 123 of them from 189 balls in 271 minutes, with eleven fours and three sixes, and was eighth out at 180. The card’s day-three notes give the arithmetic: 66.85 per cent of the total, the second-highest share by a batter in a Test innings, behind Bannerman’s 67.35 in 1876-77.

The first two days

Australia chose to bat and were bowled out for 322 on the first day, in front of 42,124, which the card notes as a sellout and the biggest Sydney Test crowd since 1976. Mark Waugh made 121 and Steve Waugh 96, his ninth Test score in the nineties, a record. Darren Gough took a hat-trick, Healy, MacGill and Miller, the 23rd in Tests. England replied with 220, Stuart MacGill five for 57.

Full scorecard: Australia v England, 5th Test, Sydney, 2–5 January 1999 →

The third day, by session

Australia were 13 for no wicket overnight, Slater 11. At lunch they were 74 for four, Slater 47 not out, the other three wickets having produced 27 runs between them.

At tea they were 178 for seven, Slater 122 not out. He was caught behind off Headley at 180 with the score 25 runs higher than it had been at his hundred, and the innings closed four runs later. The card notes that England’s target was 287 in roughly 210 overs.

The ledger of 184

Slater 123. Mark Taylor 2. Justin Langer 1. Mark Waugh 24. Darren Lehmann 0. Ian Healy 5. Steve Waugh 8. Shane Warne 8. MacGill 6. Colin Miller 3 not out. Glenn McGrath 0. Extras 4. The other ten batters made 57 between them, and none reached 25.

Dean Headley took four for 40 and Peter Such five for 81, the last of them McGrath, caught by Alec Stewart two balls after Slater had gone. The card’s tea line on the third day reads Australia 178 for seven, Slater 122, MacGill 5.

The other 98

England needed 287 and made 188. Nasser Hussain 53, Stewart 42, and MacGill seven for 50, twelve for 107 in the match and the player of the match.

Australia won by 98 runs on the fourth afternoon and the series 3-1, and Steve Waugh was player of the series for 498 runs. The card has the target and the margin, and the two together say that the innings of 184 was the difference, and that 123 of the 184 was one man.

What a share is

A percentage is not a figure a scorecard usually carries. This one does, because the scorers noticed. Sixty-six point eight five per cent means that if Slater had made nothing, Australia’s innings would have been 61, and England’s target 164. The number that stands above it, Bannerman’s, was made in the first Test ever played, and the card names it. A hundred and twenty-two years of Test cricket separate the two entries on that list.

What else the card counts

Taylor’s catch of Ramprakash on the fourth day, his 157th, passing Allan Border’s record for a fielder. McGrath’s 200th wicket, Mark Waugh’s 100th catch, both on the second day. A five-ball over. Four attendances, adding to 142,282. The umpires were Darrell Hair and Steve Dunne, and it is Test number 1439.

What the card holds

A 123 in an innings of 184, with the share worked out to two decimal places. Ten team-mates who made 57. A hat-trick on the first day and a twelve-for across the match. And a comparison to 1877, written by the scorer, that puts one afternoon at Sydney beside the first afternoon of the game’s recorded history.

••••••

No. 17 in Unrepeatable, a series of 22.

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