Sydney finale real credit to Gough and co - D Lloyd (9 January 1999)

9 January 1999

Sydney finale real credit to Gough and co - D Lloyd

By David Lloyd

OUR Ashes tour, in the end, ended in disappointment but, once again, what a wonderful cricket match the fifth Test turned out to be at the Sydney Cricket Ground. You get asked many, many times over a career: "Which is your favourite ground?" Well, the SCG had everything. Top venue, great atmosphere and great traditions.

The whole staging of the event, from the game itself to the "have-a-go" kids' cricket at lunch-time, the 400 metre races at the tea interval, the giant screen replays and even the announcer with the players' statistics, was memorable.

I must confess that I do get irritated sometimes at cricket matches when useless information is churned out over the public address system - you know the scene: "There is a car parked in Sultan Street with its lights on," and "Could Fred Spoons ring his office" etc etc. Who cares?

All these were surpassed, though, at Lord's in 1997 during the Ashes Test when the crowd were asked to "applaud both sides equally". I would have loved to hear the reaction to that one at Melbourne, Sydney or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

I digress. I ended my last column hoping that we might win the toss in Sydney. Once again Alec Stewart called heads, and for the fifth time in the series it was a tail. Alec borrowed the coin from the match referee John Reid and practised on his own. Sod's Law. The next five were heads.

The damage in dismissing Australia in their first innings was done by our pacemen. Dean Headley, with his terrific fast bowler's engine, has visibly grown in confidence and looks at home on this stage. More importantly he has gained respect from the opposition.

Alex Tudor came here as 17th man, so to speak. The experience would be good for him, as would be working one to one with Bob Cottam and maybe he would get a game or two along the way. What a bonus he has been for us.

He has made a big impression on everyone as a man. His all-round cricket has improved enormously and I have never seen a prouder couple than his mum and dad as they took their place in the stands.

Now to Gough. What can you say about 'Our Darren'? Australia has taken him to its heart. Character, showman yes, but serious performer too. His caption on television when he comes on to bowl is "fast medium" with Glenn McGrath showing fast. I really do not have to wind him up too much before play. All I need to say is: "C'mon, big lad, give us some more fast-mediums."

The big screen tells us that he is second fastest of all the modern quicks that have played at the SCG in recent times with the Yellow Pages speed gun in operation.

Headley is up there, too, surpassing Allan Donald, McGrath, Shaun Pollock, Wasim Akram and co. The fastest, by the way, is Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar, clocking in at 92.5mph.

The first wicket of Gough's hat-trick was an absolute snorter, which just brushed Ian Healy's glove as he reared back. Stuart McGill came and went to a perfect yorker. Enter Colin Miller and the "big lad" was champing at the bit, neck flexing, sweat pouring, feet dancing as he raced in.

It was only going to be one type of ball. A straight fast - the fastest he could bowl - yorker. Bullseye! The ground erupted and the whole stadium shook. One of the great moments.

Once again we had a deficit of 100 on the first innings. Our only chance was to dismiss Australia cheaply to leave us with a realistic target on the last innings.

Our bowlers responded brilliantly, with Gough and Headley giving a terrific lead. Michael Slater had been a thorn to us previously, and this time, when he was on 35, Headley's direct hit brought the third umpire into play.

After a number of re-runs it became apparent that Slater was out of his ground. He took his gloves off, said: "I'm out," and began to walk off. The green light came on and the rest is history. What do you do in a situation like this? Nothing, and get on with the game.

A great talking point, thousands more replays, column inches filled in newspapers, but what can actually be done is nothing. We still kept at it, and only Slater, with his 123, and Mark Waugh scored double figures.

Yes, we lost, but we played our part. The scenes at the end of the game were very special with both teams embracing each other and taking the applause from an emotional crowd. Both teams end up in the victors' dressing room, and we stayed there for hours. Again, special moments for any player to treasure. Memories that live with you.

I say we stayed for hours. You need that time to relive all the shots, the wickets, the flash points and the fun that is had over a Test series. It is moments like this when I wish that some members of the media were present. They never will be, but it really is what Test cricket is all about.

Inevitably, there will be lots written about where we went wrong and whose fault it is. For my part, we have done our best, played our part and have been found wanting.

If we had caught our catches early on, got better starts at the top of the innings, been on the right side of one or two critical decisions, and won a toss or two, especially at Adelaide and Sydney, it might have been a different story.

That's life - that's cricket. On to the one-dayers now and rarin' to go.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)