Adam Gilchrist today became the first player to hit 100 sixes in Test matches before Australia declared at a commanding 5-542 late on the second day of the second Test against Sri Lanka.
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Gilly appeals for his 100th Test six ball
Jayawardene defends Murali’s modest haul
The tourists reached no wicket for 30 from 12 overs before stumps were called because of bad light with 20 overs remaining.
Left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson created one chance for the Australians in the field but Ricky Ponting was unable to grab a difficult overhead catch at second slip from Michael Vandort’s blade when the left-hander was on nought.
Vandort was 12 not out at stumps with Marvan Atapattu on 18.
Gilchrist was unbeaten on 67 from 77 balls with seven fours and three sixes when Ponting’s declaration came.
The hard-hitting West Australian blitzed the touring side’s injury-depleted pace attack in an 86-minute partnership of 95 runs with Andrew Symonds (50 not out).
After clipping paceman Lasith Malinga for six over mid-wicket, Gilchrist went for broke in spinner Muttiah Muralitharan’s 46th over, sweeping two consecutive deliveries over the mid-wicket fence.
The second of those two sixes went over the scoreboard and out of the ground to wild applause from the 5,381 patrons as Gilchrist reached his “ton” of sixes.
Australia lost only two wickets today. Mike Hussey fell for 132 after bringing up his seventh century in 18 Tests.
Michael Clarke followed eight overs later for 71.
Australia resumed this morning on 3-329 with Hussey on 101 and Clarke on eight after opener Phil Jaques scored a punishing 150 yesterday.
Hussey and Clarke added 63 runs in an 18-over morning session which was shortened by rain.
Dilhara Fernando (2-134) struck in the third over after lunch, trapping Hussey lbw at 4-410 after a 125-run partnership with Clarke.
Hussey hit 18 fours and one six and batted for 18 minutes shy of five hours, lifting his average to 84.63.
Only Don Bradman, who averaged 99.94 in his 52 matches, boasted a better record for players with a minimum 20 innings.
Clarke was 29 runs short of his sixth Test century when an attempted leg glance was caught low down by wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene as Lasith Malinga claimed his first wicket in his 30th over.
Muralitharan took 1-140 to lift his career tally to 703, five behind Shane Warne’s world record of 708 wickets.
The touring side struggled today after Farveez Maharoof (0-82) didn’t take the field today because of a foot injury.
Australia lead the two-match series 1-0.
Factbox on Australian Test cricketer Adam Gilchrist
ADAM GILCHRIST
Born: Bellingen, NSW
Age: 36
Home state: Western Australia
Bats: left-handed
Also: wicketkeeper
Nicknames: Church, Gilly
Debut: November 1999 v West Indies, Brisbane
Tests: 92
Runs: 5420
Average: 49.27
Highest score: 204 not out
Hundreds: 17
Sixes hit: 100 (Test world record)
Dismissals: 387 (third behind South African Mark Boucher’s 403 and Australia’s Ian Healy’s 395)
Catches: 350
Stumpings: 37
*Also a three-time World Cup winner in one-day cricket, one of only three players to do so alongside Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath.
** Also named this week by the Australian Cricketers’ Association as Australia’s greatest-ever one-day international player after a poll of Australian players.
Factbox on most sixes in Test cricket
(Sixes, Name, Country, Matches).
100 Adam Gilchrist (Australia) 92
88 Brian Lara (West Indies) 131
87 Chris Cairns (New Zealand) 62
84 Viv Richards (West Indies) 121
79 Matt Hayden (Australia) 91
Nixon Gill
Guest
I agree Spiro, I was art Eden Park for a Super 12 game a few years ago & realised exactly why the quickest double hundred occurred there. Spinner wise, the same issue could be said for England, Penesar is the only offie I can remember that gives it some flight, A.Giles was only good for a nana-nap between lunch and tea he was that boring.
Spiro Zavos
Expert
This is true about NZ and West Indian grounds. Eden Park, for instance, is a joke of a cricket ground with the hit square being the slightest of taps. Chris Cairns did hit some big sixers in Australia and the UK and he wasn't just a small ground hitter. Incidentally it is the smallness of the grounds, I reckon, that prohibits the development of leg-spinners in NZ and the West Indies. The spinners from these countries tend to be finger-spinnners, less generous with their flight and length than most leggies, and therefore less vulnerable to being deposited over the fence.
Nixon Gill
Guest
Note: That Gilly & Hayden have hit their sixes on much larger grounds than the ones found in the Carribean and in NZ where Mr Cairns went nuts hitting them over fences on grounds the size of an U15 ground......
Spiro Zavos
Expert
Everton Weekes, one of the three Ws of West Indies cricket in the 1950s, and one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game was once asked how he rated Bert Sutcliffe, NZ's superb left-hand opening batsman. 'He's a good player,' Weekes remarked, 'but he hit sixes.' Weekes, Frank Worrall and Clyde Walcott rarely lofted the ball, yet they were fast scorers. Sir Donald Bradman hit only one six, I think, in test cricket. He always used to argue that there were nine ways to go in cricket and if you didn't hit the ball in the air you eliminated the most frequent way of being dismissed. This anti-sixer attitude was prevalent really up to the time of Viv Richards, who was, I believe, the first out-and-out batsman to make a speciality of hitting sixes. The Factbox tells the story. Richards, Brian Lara and Matthew Hayden have been prolific hitters of sixers. There are several factors to explain this. First, the bats are much heavier and better shaped than in the past. Second, the advent of ODI cricket has seen the art of hitting spread to top order batsmen. 20/20 Cricket will advance this even further. Third, the the boundary ropes have been brought in quite severely making hitting sixers easier and less hazardous than in the days of Everton Weekes.