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

There are moments in cricket, as in all sport, that are so memorable you can recall exactly where you were and who you were with when they happened.

Be they back-to-the-wall hundreds or feats of individual brilliance, they are the moments you've re-watched countless times in the years since and still get chills every time.

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As part of our 20 in 2020 countdown series, we're looking back at the 20 most memorable moments from Test matches played on Australian soil in the past 20 years.

They might not be the best innings ever played, or the perfect bowling performance, but rather moments that are quite simply unforgettable.

We conclude today with number 1 in our Top 20 countdown of the best Test moments and later this month, we will take a closer look at the best Test batting performances.

1) Steve Waugh's perfect day

Sydney Cricket Ground, 2003

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By Andrew Ramsey

According to the creed that governed Steve Waugh's fiercely competitive and brutally pragmatic approach to professional cricket, nobody should expect "fairytales in sport".

But rarely has there been a more fabled or mythologised episode in the game's Test match arena than the one played out on a languid afternoon in early 2003, against the bacchanalian backdrop of Sydney's ongoing new year party, as Waugh rewrote the final chapter of an already remarkable career.

Over the course of a session and a bit on that festive Friday, Waugh drew upon the goodwill of his supporters and silenced a growing chorus of criticism to craft an innings that distilled the very essence of his 15-year Test tenure and delivered an enduring punctuation point to the era that bears his name.

That it came against Australia's arch-rivals in an (albeit dead-rubber) Ashes Test only adds to the legend, as does the theatrical build-up and the scarcely plausible final act that led England's flinty wicketkeeper Alec Stewart to ask Waugh "do you write your own scripts?".

Even if he did, it would have taken some imagination to conceive such a fanciful plot line.

The story had effectively begun a year earlier when Waugh was sacked as captain of Australia's one-day outfit and replaced by Ricky Ponting, who was clearly being groomed to take over the Test leadership.

Aged 36 and having averaged just 27 (with no centuries) across six Tests of the 2001-02 Australia summer, Waugh understood then he was entering the autumn of his on-field cricket life.

He also admits that being pressured and cornered triggers his famously combative nature, and as the Test century drought dragged on for a further 10 months and his average during that time slipped to 23, calls for his removal grew more strident among media and some cricket circles.

Even the performance of his team between their 2001 Ashes triumph in the UK and England's return visit down under 18 months later – eight wins and a solitary defeat from 12 matches – only seemed to stoke the disquiet.

Image Id: CFA52904F8B544E992DACBA2E0929274 Image Caption: The SCG crowd got right behind their man // Getty

A key point of difference between England and Australia's Test cricket philosophy had long been the former selected their best captain followed by a team for him to lead, whereas the latter proudly picked their best 11 players and identified a skipper from that group.

To retain Waugh as some sort of non-playing leader, some argued, was to betray the very Baggy Green Cap ethos he so dearly held.

That narrative gained further currency when Australia obliterated Nasser Hussain's England to retain the Ashes after barely 11 days of cricket across three Tests in late 2002, with Waugh contributing scores of 7, 12, 34 and 53 while heir-apparent Ponting averaged 87 from his four innings at number three.

When Waugh did find a score of substance – 77 from 117 balls faced on Boxing Day at the MCG – it was effectively cancelled out by his bizarre second-innings knock throughout which he suffered a debilitating migraine and conceded "I didn't know what I was doing out there" during his half-hour knock.

So with the Ashes decided and the limelight trained directly upon the captain rather than the contest, Waugh entered the series' fifth Test at his beloved home ground in full knowledge it would prove either a sweet success or a swansong.

"The days leading up the Sydney Test seemed centred solely on my impending retirement," Waugh wrote in his autobiography 'Out of My Comfort Zone' in a chapter entitled 'The Perfect Day'.

"Though my teammates never asked me, they probably thought it would be the last time we played together.

"The truth is I hadn't decided either way."

England batted after Hussain won the toss and were bowled out for 362 – by an attack minus headliners Glenn McGrath (side strain) and Shane Warne (dislocated shoulder) – midway through day two.

Image Id: 5A6DB8EBB29945348854F66227F230EB Image Caption: Waugh drives during his memorable century // Getty

And it was shortly before tea that afternoon when Waugh was required in the middle, with Australia's total a precarious 3-56.

Across the preceding four Tests, his team had averaged just under 300 for their first three wickets in first innings, but in keeping with the game's theme Waugh was called on to reprise the role upon which his reputation was built – calm clarity under siege, then fearless counter-punching as the tide turned.

As he sat on the SCG dressing room's outdoor viewing terrace, awaiting his turn to bat, Waugh ruminated on the flood of well-wishes directed his way in the lead-up and during the Test match.

That included a fan who shouted; "I've driven 12 hours straight from Broken Hill to see you bat … good luck!" as the veteran stormed past spectators and burst through the players' gate.

Hussain immediately threw the ball to his fastest bowler Steve Harmison, who had worked over the Australia skipper in his aberrant innings at the MCG days earlier, but from the moment Waugh clipped a full delivery off his pads to the backward square leg boundary, he sensed something special.

"I was beginning to believe that this day was meant to be," he wrote.

"I'd entered the coveted zone and felt like the scenes had been written with only one condition attached to them: concentration."

The final act has been replayed myriad times, both through social media nostalgia feeds and Waugh's memory.

With the day's final over to be bowled by England's off-spinner Richard Dawson – in what would prove the last of his seven Test appearances, and the one for which he'll remain forever associated – Waugh needed five runs to complete his first Test ton in Australia in two years.

His batting partner at the time, Adam Gilchrist, had allowed the last delivery of the previous over to pass unimpeded to rapturous applause at what was seen a sporting gesture to hand Waugh his shot at fame.

Although, it was later revealed Gilchrist believed that to be the ultimate ball of the day's play and that Waugh would need to return next morning to complete his triumph.

Image Id: 6CDA030EFB434D639ECFD80662A1EC3E Image Caption: Waugh goes on the attack // Getty

Drama built as Waugh failed to find a run from Dawson's first three deliveries before running three from a square drive, which meant Gilchrist needed to score a single from the penultimate ball to set up the climax, as shadows stretched and nerves frayed.

At day's end, Gilchrist claimed he had never before felt such a burden of expectation, but his task was made easier by Hussain's decision to keep a number of fielders back, seemingly daring Waugh to risk his wicket in a bid for immortality.

After telling himself repeatedly not to pre-empt his stroke at Dawson's last offering, Waugh won yet his most memorable battle over his rival skipper.

"The delivery was a quicker ball on a line outside off stump, apparently intended to catch me playing across the line as I swung a slog sweep over mid-wicket, but I saw it in a flash and just released the arms and locked in the wrists," Waugh recalled.

"I didn't really even bother to follow its path because it was fence-bound the instant the ball connected with the heart of the blade."

Image Id: E64081A4A1BE4822B05B306EB8041AA6 Image Caption: An iconic image // Getty

Waugh didn't add to his overnight score of 102, and was dismissed in the first over he faced next morning.

Gilchrist went on to complete a typically spectacular 133 laced with 18 boundaries before England opener Michael Vaughan piled on 183 in the second innings, as his team surged to a 225-run win to stave off an Ashes whitewash – that would come on their following tour to Australia.

But all of those incidentals are overshadowed by Waugh's hundred, which helped extend his Test career by a further 12 months and soften his belief that sport cannot conjure fairytale finishes.

"I didn’t know I was going to get a hundred in that last innings in Sydney," Waugh told cricket.com.au, when asked if he considered embellishing the story by retiring immediately after his most famous innings.

"And I think if I didn’t get a hundred I would have been going out in a different way … out the back door, maybe."

Top 20 in 2020: Best Test moments countdown (so far)

20) Legends bid farewell

19) Warner dines out before lunch

18) Smith's brave last stand

17) Hussey and McGrath's final stand

16) McGrath predicts his milestone moment

15) Perfect delivery cooks England skipper

14) McGrath's miracle catch

13) Perry celebrates 200 ... twice

12) The Harmison ball

11) Warne falls heartbreakingly short

10) A trio of Test triples

9) A fitting tribute to a fallen friend

8) McGrath & Gillespie's batting masterclass

7) Collapses and controversy in SCG nail-biter

6) Amazing Adelaide

5) Peter Siddle's birthday hat-trick

4) Shane Warne's 700th wicket

3) Gilchrist launches at the WACA

2) Johnson's Adelaide annihilation

1) Steve Waugh's perfect day