Death, taxes and a hundred at the Adelaide Oval

Greg Blewett, the former Australia batsman, is here. An Adelaide local, he had a sensational start to Test cricket (including a century on debut) before gradually fading away. Interestingly the only two venues when he remembers the crowd noise clouding his thoughts are MCG and Eden Gardens.

"It was in 1998 and I remember walking in at No.3 and being bowled by a first-ball yorker from Javagal Srinath. The best part about that was he had come to Adelaide the year before that and trained with us. And he had said to me, 'you have too big a back-lift. If I were bowling to you I would slip in the yorker straight away. And a few months later he did just that. Talk about being warned."

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We're discussing tail-end batsmen and Kerry O'Keefe, the former Australian legspinner, tells a wonderful story of how he batted so well in the nets but couldn't replicate that out in the match. "I used to middle everything there and couldn't do much out in the middle. Once in a tour match in New Zealand, Greg Chappell suggested that I think of the innings as a net session. So my team-mates made a cap with a net hanging from it and sent me in. It was like Lawrence of Arabia or something, walking into bat in chilly New Zealand."

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All the New South Wales players wore black arm-bands on the second day. The reason? For the passing away of the ex-NSW physio's grand-mother.

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Talking about death, Martin Crowe had a famous dictum for this ground. Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and a hundred at the Adelaide Oval. Sachin Tendulkar might not have agreed for so long but must be nodding eagerly after this.