On January 5, 1993, a 23-year-old Brian Lara made his maiden Test hundred at the SCG — and turned it into 277 off 372 balls before being run out. The innings, his fifth Test, announced the arrival of the most exciting batter of the 1990s.
Lara had played four Tests since debuting in 1990 — promising but no hundred. The Sydney Test came after Australia had won the second Test in Melbourne and the West Indies were under pressure with the series on the line.
Australia 503/9 declared on a typically flat Sydney pitch. West Indies 31/2 when Lara walked in at No. 4. He played his first ball back to the bowler.
Australia batted first and made 503/9 declared (Steve Waugh 100, Boon 76, Border 74). Lara walked in at No. 4 with West Indies 31 for 2. He drove Craig McDermott on the up, late-cut Shane Warne with the edge of the bat and pulled Merv Hughes off the front foot. The maiden hundred came at the end of day three. He was 121 not out at stumps. On day four he ran riot — 156 added on the day, including 38 fours by the end. Captain Richie Richardson and Lara added 293 for the third wicket. Lara was run out for 277 attempting a third run with Carl Hooper. The lasting memory is of Lara dismissing each session with a smile, picking gaps that other West Indians of the era had not seen. Match drawn; West Indies took the series 2-1.
Walks in at 31/2 against McDermott, Hughes, Warne
Reaches fifty in 80 balls
Hundred at the end of day three — 121 not out at stumps
Day four: 156 more in a single day
Lara-Richardson 293 for the third wicket
Run out for 277 attempting a third with Hooper
January 2, 1993 — Day 1
Australia 503/9d (Waugh 100).
January 4-5, 1993
Lara compiles 277 across two days; partnership of 293 with Richardson.
Day 5
Match drawn.
“I had never seen a young player play with such freedom against quality bowling. He took us apart.”
“I was in the zone. The pitch was good and I just kept playing my shots.”
The West Indies declared their first innings at 606 in reply. The match was drawn but Australia won the series 2-1. Lara would name his daughter Sydney after the city. He went on to make 375 against England in Antigua just over a year later, breaking Sobers' world record.
The breakthrough innings of Brian Lara's Test career and the moment world cricket realised the Trinidadian left-hander would be the defining batter of his generation.
The Sydney 277 remains the third-highest individual Test score against Australia. Steve Waugh later described Lara's innings as 'the moment we knew the next great batter had arrived'. Lara's career — 11,953 Test runs, 400* in 2004, two Test world records — descended from the SCG.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.