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The shot: Can one moment define a career?

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Roar Guru
5th January, 2022
37

It’s January 2003 and the entire cricketing nation is focused on the outcome of a single delivery at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The members have left the bars and the coffee stands. They crowd around the windows and cram into the stairwells, facing the playing arena. Tens of thousands at the ground strain forward in their plastic seats.

Around the country, families gather, in tense silence, around their television sets. The nightly news can wait.

Northwest of Cobar, a farmer listens intently to the Grandstand coverage on his transistor radio as his tractor turns and heads north, ploughing the sun-baked Earth.

A couple at Avoca Beach have left the surf and sit on the sand, still dripping wet, with their radio turned up to top volume. A small group gathers around them.

Finally, Richard Dawson prances to the crease and, with a twirl of his arms, sends the parabolic ball towards the waiting batsman.

Everybody holds their breath. Every spectator at the ground. Every cricket lover watching their TV. The leather-faced farmer northwest of Cobar. The young couple on Avoca Beach. And their new mates.

Whether a distinguished career continues, or ends now, remains in the tantalising balance.

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But Steven Waugh – in a moment approaching mythic destiny – takes a step forward before shifting his weight onto his back foot. With his eyes focused fiercely on the twirling seam, Waugh smacks the ball crisply through the offside field to the boundary

A nation erupts in celebration as Waugh raises his arms in triumph.

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The moment is iconic. It’s a moment deeply cherished by many Australian cricket fans. So cherished that I had friends berate me for excluding if from my list of top ten SCG Test moments. I feared I might get cancelled.

But it makes me wonder whether one shot can define a career.

What if Waugh had blocked that last ball of the day back to Dawson and walked from the field, self-satisfied on 98 overnight? How would he, then, be defined?

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What if Waugh threw away his shot? What if he attempted a rash slog sweep only to see his stumps scattered in all directions? Would that have heralded the end of his career? Would we remember that dismissal with the same wistful nostalgia as Bradman being bowled four short of a 100 career average?

What if Michael Bevan muffed that winning straight drive against the Windies from the final ball of that one-dayer in 1996?

Conversely, what if Damien Martyn had hammered that cover drive to the boundary – rather than get caught – against the South Africans in January 1994 with just a handful of runs to win?

Can one shot define a career?

I reckon it can.

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