Greg Chappell scored 108 on Test debut at the WACA in December 1970, in the first Test ever played at the Perth ground, becoming the sixth Australian to make a hundred in his first Test innings. Coming in at 5/107 against John Snow and Peter Lever, he added 219 with Ian Redpath for the sixth wicket and converted what had been an under-pressure innings into a position of safety on a debut day later judged the foundation of his Test career.
The WACA had been part of the Sheffield Shield since 1947 but had never staged a Test. The 1970-71 series, with its expanded six-Test schedule, gave Perth its first international fixture, and the Australian Board's choice of venue for the second Test was both a recognition of the Western Australian Cricket Association's growing role and a gamble on a pitch that nobody yet had calibrated for the five-day game.
Chappell came into the side as the obvious successor to a fading middle order. His brother Ian was already established; Greg, technically more orthodox, had been earmarked for years.
Chappell, twenty-two and the younger of the two brothers in an Australian middle order being rebuilt around them, had played one season of county cricket with Somerset and a partial Sheffield Shield campaign before his selection. The WACA, hosting its first Test, was already showing the steep bounce that would become its trademark, and Snow had reduced Australia to 5/107 by lunch on the second day.
Chappell took forty minutes over his first run. After tea on the second day he hit 58 in an hour, reached his century in the final session, and was finally out for 108 from 218 balls. The partnership with Redpath, who made 171, took Australia to a position from which Lawry could declare and the match was drawn. Chappell would, four years later, complete an even rarer feat — twin hundreds either side of the order in the same Test, 247 not out and 133 against New Zealand at Wellington in March 1974.
Australia 5/107 against Snow on day one
Chappell takes forty minutes over his first run
Tea-time onwards: 58 in an hour
Reaches century in final session of day two
Partnership with Redpath worth 219 for the sixth wicket
Chappell out 108; sixth Australian centurion on debut
11 December 1970
Day one — Australia 5/107 at lunch; Snow takes early wickets
12 December 1970
Day two — Chappell takes 40 minutes over his first run; reaches 50 by tea; 100 in final session
13 December 1970
Chappell out 108; Redpath continues to 171
16 December 1970
Match drawn
“I had no idea what to expect. The bounce was something I had not seen at any Shield ground.”
Chappell played every Ashes Test of the series after Perth, scoring three further fifties. Within four years he was the most prolific top-order batsman in the world; by 1975 he had succeeded his brother as captain. His 1974 twin centuries at Wellington — 247 not out in the first innings and 133 in the second — remain among the most concentrated displays of batting form in Test cricket.
The WACA was confirmed as a Test venue and would, within five years, become the fastest pitch in Australia and the spiritual home of the Lillee-Thomson partnership.
Match drawn. Chappell's 108 on debut, with Redpath's 171, established the partnership that saved Australia's first innings and validated the selectors' decision to include him at twenty-two.
Chappell's debut hundred is remembered both for itself and as the start of the Chappell-era middle order — Ian, Greg, Doug Walters, Ross Edwards, Rod Marsh — that would dominate Test cricket from 1972 to 1977 and again in the early 1980s. The WACA's identification with bounce and pace is partly a function of the 1974-75 Lillee-Thomson series; but it began with this debut, on a pitch that the visiting English captain afterwards described as one of the most awkward he had played on outside the Caribbean.
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.