- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
At 2:17pm yesterday at the SCG, Bob Hawke filled television screens sculling a beer to thunderous applause.
Most thought the 87-year-old former Prime Minister was saluting Steve Smith’s decision to declare, but the Australian skipper and coach Darren Lehmann were far too busy joining in the applause.
Nothing new in that, there’s a long history of Bob Hawke’s love of the amber liquid.
In his early days at Oxford Uni, as a Rhodes Scholar, he set a yard-of-beer drinking record of just 11 seconds. Anyone who has tried to match that feat would, in the majority, have covered themselves in froth, or nearly drowned.
The three most popular Prime Ministers since World War II have been, in chronological order, Sir Robert Menzies, Bob Hawke and John Howard.
They shared a deep, genuine love of cricket.
Sir Robert inaugurated the annual Prime Ministers XI at Manuka, against touring teams, in 1951. When he departed The Lodge in 1965, the fixture went with him.
It took Hawke to revive it, from 1984 and 1993, and John Howard made it meaningful again until 2006.
The likes of Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull kept the concept going under duress, as their love of cricket would collectively fit on a match-head.
But while Hawke was the star attraction, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and debutant Hilton Cartwright demanded a slice of the recognition.
The 20-year-old Renshaw stamped himself among the elite opening batsmen with high scores at the SCG.
Topping the list is Sid Barnes’ 234 against England in 1947, then Indian Ravi Shastri’s 204 in Shane Warne’s debut.
Herbert Sutcliffe was next, with 194 for England in 1932, followed by Alastair Cook’s 189 for England in 2011, Bob Barber’s 185 for England in 1966, and David Boon’s 184* against England in 1988.
Matt Renshaw’s 184 against Pakistan is right there.
Handcomb’s second century in four Tests was deserving of a carried bat. But Smith, instead of declaring at 5-500, kept Pakistan in the field with Handscomb, Matt Wade and Mitchell Starc losing their wickets.
Handscomb’s 110 hit wicket took his tally to 350 runs at 87.50. He, like Renshaw, will be heading to India next month.
So will Cartwright, who cracked his first delivery to the boundary with a superbly timed cover drive and went on to make 37.
He looked completely at ease with the bat, while his medium pacers were brisk, even if they were scattered.
Pakistan resume this morning on Pink Day in memory of Jane McGrath at 2-126, when they were 2-6. Unusually sloppy Australian fielding – with one of the best, David Warner, bombing two run outs and dropping a leg slip catch – let the tourists off the hook.
Despite the fielding lapses, this Test should only go four days without Australia having to bat again.