Top 20 in 2020: The best Test batting, No.1

Re-live the countdown in full: 20-18 | 17-15 | 14-12 | 11-9 | 8-6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

There have been more than 250 scores of 100 of more in Tests in Australia so far this century, so narrowing it down to just 20 has been no easy task.

In judging the best performances, the cricket.com.au team considered the quality of the bowling attack, the difficulty of the conditions, strike rate, the length of the innings, the percentage of the team's total and the situation of the game.

A player's previous record and relative experience plus the impact their performance had on a match and a series also weighted heavily.

Before you get stuck into this countdown, you can re-live some other memorable batting performances by looking back on our 20 in 2020 Best Test Moments countdown from earlier this year.

1) Faf du Plessis, 78 & 110no

South Africa v Australia, Adelaide, 2012

Image Id: 5FBA1A2F2CB644F1B481BE3B9ED70589

By Martin Smith

Peter Siddle is crouched down on his haunches, hands clasped around his head, sucking in every possible breath.

For more than 120 overs in energy-sapping Adelaide heat, Siddle has led an undermanned Australian bowling attack in the way he always does; diligently, stoically, and whole-heartedly.

And for more than 120 overs, an unknown Test star in the making has stood in Australia's way.

The sight of Siddle bent over and gasping for air remains the enduring image of the 2012 Adelaide Test between Australia and South Africa, a match that would tilt the balance of world cricket and launch a Test career that, just two years earlier, appeared destined to never happen.

Image Id: 45B9600AF3774EDEA75B050C0C8B782D Image Caption: Siddle bowled his heart out on the final day // Getty

"Credit to Peter Siddle … that battle for me was like I was in a fight in a high school bar or something and this guy was trying to get me," Faf du Plessis recalls to cricket.com.au.

"But I could see that his tank was lower than mine, and that gave me more strength. I was winning the battle.

"Every time I could see him going down on his knees, I was like, 'Well done for going this deep into your tank, but it means I'm there. I'm breaking the back of the bowlers here'."

***

In his own words, Francois du Plessis "took the dirt road" to Test cricket.

A star at school level at the esteemed Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, better known as Affies, a teenaged du Plessis outperformed most of his teammates on the cricket field, including a young man named AB de Villiers.

He went on to captain South Africa's Under-19 side and by the age of 21 was offered a multi-year professional contract by UK county side Nottinghamshire – worth 10 times what he was earning at home – with the caveat that he had to turn his back on his homeland and qualify to play for England.

He considered it, but his desire to play for his country was simply too strong. He turned it down and instead returned to the lowly-paid grind of South African domestic cricket, where he languished for the next five years.

As his close friend de Villiers made an instant impact on the international stage as a 20-year-old, du Plessis stagnated and spent his early twenties in the cricketing wilderness.

By early 2011, aged 26, he had improved enough in white-ball cricket to earn his first senior international call-up and a spot at that year's 50-over World Cup, but his first-class career – and his Test dream – was going nowhere.

With just four first-class centuries to his name in seven years, he was demoted down the order to No.7 at domestic level and told he was a leg-spinning allrounder who should use his white-ball batting skills to work with the tail and clatter some late-innings runs.

At his lowest ebb, he even considered giving up on red-ball cricket altogether.

Image Id: 2AEB009298FB4233AA53550D5ED6C564 Image Caption: Du Plessis struggled early in his first-class career // Getty

But having made an immediate impression for the Proteas in the coloured clothing, a move back up the order in first-class cricket in the 2011-12 season and some improved performances suddenly resulted in him being viewed as a Test batsman in waiting.

Picked in the touring party for South Africa's 2012 Test campaign in England, his selection as the sole reserve batsman for the tour of Australia later that year brought the prospect of a Test debut sharply into focus.

And as he sat in the Gabba rooms after day one of the first match of that series, watching his teammates stretch their legs on the outfield, playing Test cricket was suddenly pushed front of mind in the most unfortunate of circumstances.

"I remember watching JP (Duminy) running and he just collapsed," du Plessis recalls.

"I went and checked on him and we knew it was bad. We all knew straight away that he'd snapped his Achilles and it was a serious injury.

"I'm really good friends with him so at that stage, I was genuinely concerned for my mate. But about five seconds later, my stomach dropped.

"I thought, 'Oh shit, that means it's me next'."

****

Before he'd even faced a ball in Test cricket, du Plessis told himself that his debut could not get any worse.

It wasn't just because South Africa's bowlers had been pummelled for the better part of four sessions, or because they were in the middle of a potentially game-changing batting collapse, that the debutant was a jangle of nerves when he walked onto the Adelaide Oval on November 24, 2012.

Image Id: BEB8C8B6BBF3400FB009503818B12B80 Image Caption: South Africa and du Plessis had a poor start to the Test match // Getty

At the fall of South Africa's fourth wicket on the third morning of the second Test, as he started to make his way down the stairs of the Members' Stand and onto the ground, the reception from the home crowd left him in no doubt that he was in enemy territory.

As he began to jog through the wall of noise, his heel clipped the edge of a stair and his foot lifted out of his shoe. With his laces tied firmly in a double knot and his efforts to force his foot back inside proving futile, time suddenly stood still.

"I was like, 'Ohhhhhhh shit, surely this is not happening'," he says.

"I had to kneel down to try and get it back in with my finger, but you can't use your glove because your finger is too fat. So I had to take my glove off and put my finger in there. And in that time, it was just a free for all for everyone sitting there, welcoming me to Australia.

"I've had those nightmares where you can't get your pads on; Where's my gloves, where's my bat, am I going to get timed out? As you're going through it, you're thinking 'hurry up, hurry up, hurry up' but you've probably got a lot more time than you think you do. But I had a little jog to the pitch just to make sure I got there in time.

"I remember walking onto the field as I got my boot back on, and I thought; 'OK, that's the worst thing that could have happened … you've had the worst debut already, it can't get any worse from here so just go out and give it a go'.

"I remember hoping that none of the Australian players saw it (because) you don't want to give an Australian cricketer any more ammunition to abuse you. The magazine is already full.

"Luckily, they didn't see it and first ball Peter Siddle bowled to me, I clipped it through (the field) to get off the mark. That moment of scoring your first runs, it felt like a hundred in domestic cricket because you don't want to get a pair on debut."

Du Plessis would add another 76 runs to his tally before he was the last man out in South Africa's total of 388. Having waited so long for a taste of Test cricket, the debutant was already hooked.

"That innings, to get the runs, it was the confidence that I belonged," he says.

"All those doubts and fears that I was a better white-ball cricketer than a red-ball cricketer, that I didn't belong in the Test arena, to get a score in your first innings for me was like, 'Right, I'm ready, I want to play Test cricket for the rest of my life'.

"It's the best version of the game and just playing one innings, I loved everything about Test cricket."

It was just as well du Plessis was ready for the fight because by late on the fourth day of the Test, his country needed him.

Set an improbable 430 to win in a little more than four sessions, South Africa were in full-on survival mode at 4-45 when du Plessis walked to the middle, this time with both shoes firmly in place.

It was there that he was greeted by de Villiers, his long-time friend and ally who had flown past him to reach Test cricket eight years earlier, and who was regarded as one of the best players in the world.

But having taken very different career paths in their twenties, for the next 68 overs spanning three sessions and two days, the pair was in perfect sync.

Image Id: 61CD6B7138BA438A91704B1ABDEC0F9C Image Caption: De Villiers and du Plessis steered SA towards safety // Getty

With victory out of the equation, they simply looked to survive, blocking and leaving everything that came their way. They blocked and left and blocked and left until it felt like they could block and leave no more, scoring at only marginally better than a run an over as the Australians grew more and more frustrated at the lack of a breakthrough.

Despite his inexperience, du Plessis was drawing on a resilience most people didn't know he had, a psychological "superpower" that he would tap into again four years later at the same venue amidst the biggest scandal of his career.

"Probably the only other time when I was so motivated was the pink-ball Test in Australia after the 'Mintgate' thing," he says of his century in Adelaide in 2016, after he had been publicly vilified and labelled a cheat over charges of ball-tampering.

"There was a strength mentally that I still try and tap into every time I play. But I suppose when you have a superpower like that, it's only meant for small occasions. You can't tap into it all the time.

"(I was thinking) 'You will have to kill me if you want to get me out. I'm prepared to die for my wicket'."

And he did it all with de Villiers by his side.

Image Id: BA6E7E72BE76481AA734C59601F5D9E1 Image Caption: Du Plessis batted for almost four sessions // Getty

"It was special for me because I'd looked up to AB for a long time," he says.

"In school cricket, I was probably better than him in terms of performance … so people had this expectation that I was going to be the guy that went down AB's route, and I didn't.

"AB, like a star, he just went Michael Jordan style, he just went quickly. I took the long road, the less scenic route, the dirt road. That was my story.

"There was a point in my career where I thought I had to get out of this bubble of 'Me and AB' … and just put all my energy into supporting a mate, wanting him to do well as best as I could, and whatever happens to my journey, happens to my journey.

"And I had peace with that … I was happy to be in his shadow.

"I started learning a lot about myself … (and) I had that confidence that I wasn't trying to impress anyone and trying to be someone else."

All of which made the partnership, produced in the most intense environment imaginable, all the more meaningful.

Image Id: FD8BBCE919B3490F8B48805CDA8D3FFC Image Caption: Du Plessis and de Villiers took different paths to Test cricket // Getty

"I said to him, 'You have no idea how special this is. I've been waiting for this my whole life, not just to play for South Africa but to bat with you, against Australia'," du Plessis remembers.

"I would wake up at two in the morning watching him and South Africa play against Australia. I remember Shane Warne bowling to AB and thinking, 'How amazing is this, this is everything'.

"So that moment, for me, was special."

De Villiers would be dismissed in the middle session of the final day for a defiant 33 from 220 deliveries, but his role in a momentous South African rescue act was far from over.

As du Plessis walked off the ground at the tea break, six runs short of a century and with the Australians still five wickets from victory, he was absolutely spent. The draining Adelaide heat combined with the longest innings of his career had resulted in debilitating cramps, which left him begging for rehydration and any other help he could get to simply survive the final session.

Of all du Plessis' memories from that unforgettable day, what de Villiers told him next is one of the most vivid.

"He said, 'I know you're tired, it's hot out there … but you don't know how much this means to people back home'," he recalls.

Image Id: 73F0B0CFC6C046808BABF16FEB77F1EA Image Caption: Du Plessis celebrates his first Test hundred // Getty

"And that got my switch back on. Suddenly, that was me lying at two o'clock (in the morning) in my house watching South Africa playing Australia in some iconic series.

"So I was like, 'Right – I'm ready to go. Let's get back out there'."

It was just what du Plessis needed to survive the next 31 overs and outlast Siddle in their final-round battle that would define the match and the series.

With more than an hour still to bat, he reached his first Test hundred – just his ninth in first-class cricket – from the 310th ball he faced, his muted celebration befitting of a job not yet completed.

And he would stay there till the last, South Africa finishing eight wickets down to draw the match and ensure the series remained all square heading to the decider in Perth just four days later.

Where, with an exhausted Siddle unable to play, an emboldened Proteas stormed to a crushing victory that secured both the series and the world No.1 Test ranking.

For du Plessis, who would go on to captain his country to another series win in Australia four years later, nothing he's achieved in cricket has surpassed how he felt when he walked off the Adelaide turf that evening.

Image Id: 44205E721734450E9B7F0E4E54711B12 Image Caption: A triumphant du Plessis walks off the Adelaide turf // Getty

"You honestly can't put it into words," he says. "It's like taking a picture and trying to describe what this amazing holiday was like, but it looks ordinary in a picture.

"And we didn't even win the game, it was a draw. But after that, the team had so much confidence and you get confidence through individual performances in teams. You think, 'What has just happened there has inspired us to do something amazing in the next Test'.

"I was going through so many emotions. This is what I'd waited my whole life for.

"I'd played for South Africa before but that moment, still today, it's the best moment of my career."

Top 20 in 2020: Best Test batting in Australia since 2000

20) Ricky Pontingv South Africa, Sydney, 2006

19) Virender Sehwagv Australia, Melbourne, 2003

18) David Warnerv New Zealand, Hobart, 2011

17) Virat Kohliv Australia, Adelaide, 2014

16) Alastair Cookv Australia, Brisbane, 2010

15) VVS Laxmanv Australia, Sydney, 2000

14) Steve Smithv England, Perth, 2017

13) Hashim Amlav Australia, Perth, 2012

12) Cheteshwar Pujarav Australia, Adelaide, 2018

11) AB de Villiersv Australia, Perth, 2008

10) Kevin Pietersenv Australia, Adelaide, 2010

9) Michael Clarkev South Africa, Adelaide, 2012

8) Steve Smithv England, Brisbane, 2017

7) Kumar Sangakkara v Australia, Hobart, 2007

6) Sachin Tendulkar v Australia, Sydney, 2004

5) Brian Larav Australia, Adelaide, 2005

4) JP Duminyv Australia, Melbourne, 2008

3) Rahul Dravidv Australia, Adelaide, 2003

2) Ricky Pontingv India, Melbourne, 2003

1) Faf du Plessisv Australia, Adelaide 2012