'He was a monster': When Hayden destroyed the Shield

Matthew Hayden was a week shy of his 22nd birthday when he strode to the middle of the Gabba for his first hit of the 1993-94 Sheffield Shield summer.

The kid from Kingaroy's reputation preceded him. In less than two years since his first-class debut, he had already piled on eight centuries and was approaching 5,000 runs at an average of 63.38.

Through the winter, Hayden had toured with Australia's successful Ashes squad, though the left-handed opener was overlooked for a Test debut when selectors opted instead for another young batting sensation in Blues blaster Michael Slater.

Yet the Queenslander had serious designs on wearing the Baggy Green. And to do so, he was about to take his form to a whole new level.

"He was that hungry to play for Australia," recalls Trevor Barsby, his opening partner with Queensland at the time.

"That's all he wanted to do, and he wasn't gonna let anything or anyone get in his road."

Game One, Oct 21-24 | 125 & 1 v SA, Brisbane

"This is bringing back nightmares for me," laughs former Redbacks paceman Brad Wigney. "I was his personal bowling machine there for a while."

Right-armer Wigney had made his Shield debut in January 1993 and run headfirst into a Hayden brick wall. In a drawn match at Adelaide Oval, the then 21-year-old had batted for more than nine hours in making 161no and 35no.

And after South Australia racked up 522 in the first innings at the Gabba, Hayden led the hosts' response with 125 out of 352.

"My role was to put it up there to try and swing it, and if I slightly missed, he was just onto it," Wigney recalls. "And he didn't allow the bowler to go at him – he went at you.

"He was an imposing guy. He'd try and get on top of you as quick as he could, but he would work his way into an innings; he wasn't totally aggressive towards you but gee, if there was a loose ball, he was just so quickly onto it.

"I wasn't quick enough to bowl short, so if I did, he'd just put me away."

The performance was Hayden's ninth first-class hundred and took his runs tally against South Australia that year past 300 for one dismissal, though that soon became two when Queensland were asked to follow on by SA skipper Jamie Siddons, and the opener was removed for just one.

"I definitely remember it – I broke the cycle," Wigney laughs. "I was bowling from the Cricketers' Club End, and Darren Webber took the catch at third slip.

"I remember him catching it, and there was just laughter – any time you saw the back of Matthew Hayden for anything under 100, you were happy."

For South Australia, it wouldn't happen again that season.

Game Two, Oct 29-Nov 1 | 23 & 96no v WA, Perth

Queensland hopped on a plane for Perth a couple of days after their draw against the Redbacks and met a Western Australian side boasting its own young batting talents in Damien Martyn and Justin Langer, both of whom had made their Test debuts the previous summer. 

Against the impressive pace attack of Craig McDermott, Carl Rackemann and Michael Kasprowicz, Langer (65) and Martyn (59) put on 120 for the third wicket before WA lost 7-52 to be all out for 211.

For the second time in as many innings, Hayden (23) was outdone by Barsby (82), who had overcome nagging pre-season doubts about his form thanks in part to some accidental wisdom from his young partner.

"He said to me, 'Jeez I wish I had the freedom to play like you do', and I said, 'What do you mean?' Barsby recalls.

"He said, 'Well you just go out there and whack the ball'. And he just simplified it for me.

"He had some of the character traits that I was lacking; self-confidence, nothing was impossible, he didn't worry about what other people thought.

"He was just so disciplined in what he did, and so fixated on where he wanted to go."

The pair struck up a strong connection and through the 1993-94 summer they averaged 79 as an opening partnership, with four century stands.

"We worked together in a similar way to how Matthew did with Justin Langer (for Australia) later on," Barsby says. "He cared about how you were going, and he worked with you.

"There'd be games where I'd get off to a flyer and he'd just sit back and go, 'Right, I'm not hitting them that well, this has allowed me to get into the game', and then vice versa.

"Where previously with other openers you didn't necessarily have that honesty to say what you were actually thinking, he brought that out in me, and hopefully I brought that out in him. We just had that trust to say, 'Right, no matter how tough it gets, we're going to have each other's back'.

"I remember hearing many years later that opposition sides used to get very annoyed with the way Matthew and I would carry on at the end of an over (laughs).

"We'd be having a laugh and a giggle and saying, 'Oh, what about those tailor, they're biting at Fraser (Island)'. And that was our way of just releasing the pressure – you'd have a bit of a chat, clear your head and get ready for the next over."

After Queensland took a first-innings lead of 219, Langer led a WA fightback with 96, leaving the visitors needing 155 from 56 overs on the final day.

Hayden dominated a comfortable chase with 96no from just 122 balls, the opener only denied a second hundred in as many matches by a single boundary but helping Queensland to a nine-wicket win – their first at the WACA Ground since 1975.

Game Three, Nov 4-7 | 9 & 173no v NSW, Brisbane

In a star-studded affair at the Gabba, Hayden's remarkable lone hand in a losing cause stole the show and, as Allan Border remembers it, took him one step closer to finally receiving the Baggy Green he craved.

Queensland were sent in by Mark Taylor and bowled out for 257 on day one, and after the Blues tail wagged to push them to 382, the hosts slipped to 4-89 at stumps on day three.

Standing tall amid a fiery contest was Hayden, unbeaten on 54.

"The rest of us were struggling," Border recalls, "and he just belted them everywhere."

"He tore us to pieces," adds former Blues allrounder Brad McNamara. "We had a strong pace attack – (Glenn) McGrath, (Wayne) Holdsworth and Phil Alley – and I remember them testing him out with the short stuff, but he just went after us, in much the same way he did later to a lot of Test attacks."

With Martin Love (29) and Ian Healy (21) playing second fiddle at one end in partnerships of 94 and 75 for the fifth and sixth wickets respectively, Hayden took the attack to New South Wales, valiantly trying to put his side in a position where a draw could be the only realistic result.

"We would've won easily but for Matt's knock, which was just unbelievable," McNamara says. "Usually with most players, you can find a way to keep them quiet, but the truly great players like Hayden, there was no keeping him quiet when he was in that sort of mood.

"Because he was such a big bugger, he could drive balls that were short of a length, so you'd just bring your length back a bit and he'd pull you over square leg for six. Your margin for error was so small."

Across 330 balls and six-and-a-half hours, Hayden carried his bat for 173no – his then highest first-class score – out of Queensland's 281, which left NSW needing 157 runs to win. They got there thanks to Mark Waugh's run-a-ball 85, though for Hayden, the stunning solo act wasn't in vain.

"After that innings," Border says, "I think it was Stephen (Waugh) who just insisted that, 'We've got to get this bloke in (to the Test team)'."

Game Four, Nov 25-28 | 165 & 116 v SA, Adelaide

With Slater making 99 and Mark Taylor 142no in the first Test of the home summer, Hayden knew the only way to keep the pressure on the incumbent pair was by piling on more runs.

Adelaide Oval, where he averaged 177.5 from four first-class innings, seemed the perfect place to do exactly that, and when Queensland opted to bat first, he quickly made merry alongside the equally aggressive Barsby (79).

The pair added 183 for the first wicket though the Bulls floundered after that, losing 9-120 to be all out for 330 at stumps on day one. The prolific Hayden was ninth man out, scoring 165 from 255 balls to make it three hundreds from his past three innings for Queensland (four days earlier he had scored 110 in a one-day match against Tasmania).

In the second innings, after SA knocked up 420, Hayden and Barsby (129) were at it again, this time putting on 243 for the first wicket to tally a combined 426 in first-wicket runs for the match.

"Hayden and 'Tank' (Barsby), we just couldn't get them out," says Wigney, before zeroing in on Hayden. "If the ball wasn't swinging, I was just cannon fodder for him.

"A lot of my role in those days was to bowl economically for our spinners at the other end – (Tim) May and (Peter) McIntyre – to be a bit more aggressive, but it was such a nice batting deck for anyone who was good square of the wicket, and Hayden was so good down the ground as well, it was like he just bullied you.

"We had a couple of quick guys – (Shane) George and (Damion) Reeves were both quick – and he handled them no problem."

Remembers leg-spinner McIntyre: "There was always the banter about (Queensland) preparing green strips every time in Brisbane, and we'd say, 'You'll get to Adelaide and it'll be turning square, and it'll be your turn then', but that probably back-fired with 'Haydos'. He was dominant, and he was seriously aggressive."

The twin tons took Hayden's record against South Australia to Bradmanesque levels: in the 1993 calendar year alone, he had come up against them three times and posted 603 runs at 150.75, with four hundreds.

His Shield runs tally for the season meanwhile had topped 700 runs, and it wasn't yet December.

Game Five, Dec 31-Jan 3 | 26 & 121no v Tas, Brisbane

With hundreds in his past four innings across two formats and a first-class average now exceeding 65, Hayden's claims for a Test berth began drawing unprecedented support from his home state. The Sunday Mail newspaper in Brisbane even kickstarted its very own 'Give Matt a bat' campaign, asking readers to tell them in 50 words or less why they thought Hayden should earn a Test call-up, with the promise the messages would be passed on to the selection panel.

The letters were reportedly not well received in the halls of Cricket Australia but Hayden did find himself picked in the ODI side for games against New Zealand in Adelaide and Melbourne, in which he posted 50no and 5.

The 22-year-old then missed Queensland's match against the touring South Africans owing to a virus but took his place on New Year's Eve for the Shield clash with Tasmania, despite still feeling the effects. After making 26 in the first innings, he missed a day in the field but came in at No.6 second time around, with Queensland teetering at 4-116 – a lead of 171.

From the outset he counter-punched Tasmania's attack and quickly wrested the advantage back Queensland's way.

"What I found with 'Unit' (Hayden) was, he was the first guy who really started coming at you – he really tried to bully the bowlers," recalls former Tassie quick Chris Matthews.

"You could bowl a good length ball to him and he would walk at you and thump it through covers.

"And he was such a good puller off the front foot. You'd try and bowl quick at him, but the pace didn't really matter to him – he would just take it on the rise and hit you in front of or behind square.

"He was probably the first one who you just didn't know where to bowl to."

Battling fatigue from his illness, Hayden nonetheless teamed up with 19-year-old Love (138) for a match-saving 218-run stand in just three hours.

His unbeaten 121 came from 139 balls and made it five hundreds in as many Shield matches for the summer. Matthews and co, having run out of ideas as to how to approach the young batting tyro, were relieved when Queensland captain Stuart Law declared.

"He was such a big, strong guy but he always had beautiful balance – for a big guy he looked quite light on his feet," he says. "The idea then was not to bowl particularly short at him, because he was such a powerful cutter and puller.

"He'd get on the front foot and pull you through midwicket, and there weren't many guys who would do that then. Ricky Ponting was just starting his career around then, and he was an extremely good puller of the ball, but I don't think he had that standover power that Hayden had."

From the other end, Love, who had just posted his maiden first-class hundred, watched on in awe.

"He just dominated," he recalls. "Big guy, big presence, and he hit the ball really hard – that was the one thing that stood out.

"He was on a bit of a mission that season to prove himself (after) they'd picked Slater ahead of him in the Ashes. And when you wind up 'Haydos' about something, he doesn't let go.

"He wanted to dominate, whether it was grade cricket or Test cricket, and he had his own motivations from a personal point of view – he wanted to get into that Australian side, and he did that by dominating in the Shield, which was great for us."

Game Six, Jan 13-16 | 126 & 155 v Vic, Brisbane

Merv Hughes had been an Ashes roommate of Hayden's and knew very well what he was up against as the seasoned quick made his first-class return at the Gabba following knee surgery.

The young Queenslander already had two Shield hundreds against the Vics on home soil from as many matches and was odds-on to add to that tally given his remarkable run of form. And with a Test tour of South Africa looming, he was highly motivated.

"He could've easily been picked to play in the (1993) Ashes – I think a lot of people were expecting him to play in that first Test at Manchester," Hughes recalls. "There were a few eyebrows raised when 'Slats' (Slater) played but you could understand the logic of a right- and left-handed opening combination.

"Although the form Haydos was in, he probably could've batted right-handed and still made runs."

In their recent encounters with Queensland, Hughes and fellow pace veteran Tony Dodemaide had been taken aback by Hayden's boldness.

"Most young guys would come into the game and be pretty happy to sit in the background, pay their dues and learn," says Dodemaide. "And as a fast-medium sort of bowler, you were probably used to a little bit of respect from the batsman.

"But here was this man mountain who was batting outside his crease to whoever the bowling was, and not only that, he was walking toward you down the pitch.

"There was this confidence in his game, and the physical presence, and pretty quickly you're thinking: Oh shit, this guy's a bit different – he might be something special."

After Victoria won the toss and opted to field on a greenish pitch, Hayden and Barsby (44) rattled up their fourth century stand of the season in under 90 minutes, and when Love added an even 50 in quick time, Queensland had surged to 2-193 midway through the day.

Half an hour before tea, Hayden had reached his sixth Shield hundred of the summer – though it could have been much different.

"We had a pretty decent attack, and we always thought we'd have one early chance with him," Hughes recalls. "We said, 'We've got one chance with Haydos – he'll nick one early and he normally nicks them to second slip'.

"Darrin Ramshaw was our captain, he put himself to second slip, Haydos nicked one to him early (off Hughes), it got dropped, and he went on to make 126."

In between innings, Hughes decided to have some fun at his Ashes roomie's expense.

"We all know Merv's reputation for being a pest," laughs Barsby. "He got hold of Matty's bat and drew ducks all down the back of it. I think that was his way of trying to unsettle him."

Adds Hughes: "He'd gotten a hundred in the first innings and I thought: Well he can't do much more than that. The second dig, he smacked us everywhere and got 155."

Hayden's second-innings performance was a masterclass in working through the gears, in concert with the requirements of the match. With Queensland taking a 75-run lead into the back half of the match, he had been watchful – though still full of intent – in the early stages as the hosts' advantage slowly grew.

"I still reckon he had the most positive leave in cricket," Hughes says. "He'd step onto that front foot, get the bat above his head, and just look at you like, 'Mate, what are you bowling out there for?'

"But he was just a monster. Built like that and an opening batsman? He should've bowled fast."

By stumps on day three Queensland were 2-223 from 60 overs, their lead 298, and Hayden, on 81no, had reached another milestone, becoming just the fifth from his state to post 1,000 runs in a Shield campaign, and triggering a lucrative clause in his contract in the process.

"Queensland Cricket was trying everything to win the Shield," recounts Barsby. "That year our chief executive, Barry Richards, brought in cash incentives for every run scored, and once you got to one thousand runs – which I don't think Barry thought anyone would achieve – it became $25 a run.

"So every time he hit a four he'd be going, 'Cha-ching!' (laughs). And the next day, he certainly filled his boots."

The following morning as the hosts pushed towards a declaration, Hayden upped the ante dramatically, moving to yet another hundred and then adding his next 55 runs from 31 balls.

"Merv came out and threw everything at him, and Matty had all the answers," said Law at the time. "He's phenomenal, he really is."

Queensland stormed to a 194-run win and Hayden became the first player in Shield history to score six hundreds in seven innings. His season runs tally of 1,136 from six matches (average 126.22) earned him a spot on the tour of South Africa when the squad was announced later that month.

As for Hughes, Hayden had already sought payback for the bat prank.

"Straight after the game," grins the Victorian, "he grabbed my boots and wrote 'GBS' on them, which stood for 'Gun barrel straight'."