13 Comments

Just a fantastic piece. A match I have relived for so long so many times. But yet got my pulse pounding with its narrative of events and vignettes already so burnt into my memory. Just wonderful, Gideon.

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Dean Jones’ 200 plus the 87 World Cup were the definitive moments of my cricket childhood cricket memories. I loved being a kid when Australian cricket emerged from the mid 80s doldrums into the late 80s and early 90s successes. AB was my hero with Deano not far behind.

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Congratulations on another one! I shall pick it up.

As a young Western Suburbs cricketer, I was subjected to some Bob Simpson fielding drills. They were very effective, and utterly brutal. He used to begin by asking the group, "Right, who's the fittest one here?" Fortunately, that was never me.

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really looking forward to this read Gideon (just emailed my local Adelaide bookshop and placed an order). Still remember that 77/78 series as a 10 year old - being fascinated by Bedi and Chandra

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What a tremendous piece of work. It must've been a remarkable match, and this made me reconsider my view of Matthews in light of his ten-wicket performance. I'd come to see his buffoonery as prototypical for Warner and others, but he was a substantial contributor.

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What a fantastic write up on such an unbelievable test. I was only just getting into cricket at the time, but the vision of Deano being sick on the ground, which made the 6pm news, made its mark with me at the time that this was an extraordinary effort. Border's comments only enhance the story.

Thanks for all the extra details that I missed at the time (and subsequently).

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Fantastic. Will order the book immediately.

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Great read. Memories. The Border quip to Jones became legendary and (another) standard of Aussie toughness.

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I bet they would have been cooler at a resort on the Bay of Biscay- but I think they might have gone to the Bay of Bengal!

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That’s a great read, thank you.

Will you also ship the book to the damper shores of the mother country (please)?

Ta

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I've often thought what test cricket needs is a tied test or two to boost the long-form game, but they are terribly hard to come by, as history has shown. The trouble is that despite the intrigue of something like a tied test (and even many draws are exciting) the anti-test cricket protagonist will say "five days of toil for no result". Or words to that effect. There'd be no pleasing those people.

It is terribly hard to believe though there's only ever been two ties. I guess Border and Thomson got close in 1982, a couple of runs short, it would have been a nice consolation prize (a tie) rather than losing by three.

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What a great read Gideon. I could almost feel the heat and humidity in my Melbourne kitchen.

Thank you

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Gavaskar "contributed usefully as India got the better of England in England for the first time." I guess that's a fairly accurate description of what Gavaskar did.... but in 1971.

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