Blast from the past - Waugh twins end the reign of Calypso kings (4th Test, Aus vs WI, 1995)

West Indian fast bowlers make their presence felt

Just like they did it zillion times before, the Windies bowlers came out firing on all cylinders. In particular, Ambrose and Walsh gave a torrid time to the Australian top-order. It was a rather turgid performance by the Australian top-order batsmen, and they struggled to seize the initiative.

At 73 for 3, when Steve joined his twin brother Mark in the middle, Aussies were certainly in a spot of bother. To make it more intriguing, the Windies bowlers decided to send down a barrage of bouncers at the Waugh twins. In 90/91 and 92/93, the mettlesome Steve Waugh had found the short stuff too hot to handle. But the Windies think-tank had an outdated approach towards dealing with Steve Waugh. With time, he had put that pull shot in the back-burner. Instead of playing an aggressive shot, he had learnt the art of leaving the short ball.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mark Waugh was known as a gambler. He had the tendency to play too many risky shots. During his younger days, he could play gorgeous swivel pulls, and even play jaw-dropping ramp strokes. But at the same time, he used to also get out to short pitch bowling. A case in point being in the 92/93 series on a trampoline wicket at WACA, where Junior virtually gifted his wicket away on a platter, while attempting a risky upper-cut against the fiery Bishop.

Mark Waugh breaks free

Just before the lunch session though, Mark Waugh decided it was time for him play with his typical gambling instincts, as he played a few rasping cut shots on the rise. At that time, it seemed like a slight shift of momentum in favour of Australia. Here was one batsman who was prepared to take the Windies quicks head-on.

After the lunch break, what transpired was a glorious exhibition of stunning improvisation, interfused with silken smooth orthodox strokes by Mark Waugh. Watching the match with weary eyes, well past mid-night, I had to rub my eyes several times in disbelief, as it was exhilarating stuff on display. I vividly remember, in his typical languid style, Mark Waugh nonchalantly playing a lissome flick by taking it from off-stump to send the ball scurrying to the boundary with precise metre of timing and placement. I can only pity the bowler who bowled that delivery – Winston Benjamin.

Mark Waugh went one step further, when he repeatedly took the mickey out of, the marauding Walsh especially with those ramp shots. Walsh perhaps got annoyed with it, and bowled a quick bouncer which followed Mark Waugh all the way. The gambler that Mark Waugh was, he still had the chutzpah to play the ramp shot, and it sailed past the slip fielders for yet another boundary. His detractors may say that he got lucky, as he almost took his eyes off the ball to play that short delivery from Walsh. But I reckon Mark Waugh just had preternatural hand-eye co-ordination. On that day with beguiling imagination, he enchanted the cricket loving public, and reduced Richardson’s well thought-out field placings to a lottery. He raced to 82 after facing a mere 111 deliveries. After making a spine-tingling 126, Mark Waugh finally got out.

Steve Waugh’s warrior-like tenacity comes to the fore

If Mark Waugh’s batting was a glorious artwork of a master painter painting cuts, flicks and pulls, then the hard-nosed Steve Waugh played with sheer guts and downright dogged determination. It is difficult to vividly remember Steve Waugh’s knock, as it lacked the flair and the panache of his twin brother. But that never bothered him, as his only aim that day was to brick-by-brick construct a large edifice.

Steve Waugh played with such determination that it seemed like he could wait all day long for the Windies to bowl short and wide. As soon as the Windies pacers got it marginally wrong, Steve would pounce on it with rapier-like cut shots. Even after Mark Waugh lost his wicket, Steve continued to ruthlessly dismantle Windies pacers. He even shepherded his young partner, Blewett, from the Windies quicks. He made a well-deserved double-hundred. What made this partnership between Waugh twins a sight to behold was the fact that both of them played with contrasting styles.

Australian pacers and Shane Warne took advantage of the mammoth score on the board, as they cleaned up West Indies for a paltry total second time around too. The entire Australian team must have celebrated long and hard that night, as it was an emphatic and a historic victory. The champagne would have certainly flowed liberally in the dressing room. The abiding image of Mark Taylor holding the Frank Worrell trophy would be etched in one’s memory forever.

The critics may like to point out that the spearhead of West Indies’ pace attack, Ambrose, suffered from a few niggling injuries in that match. But one can’t take the credit away from Waugh twins, as that 231-run partnership was just magnificent to watch. It was a significant moment in the history of test cricket as well. It ended the reign of Calypso Kings, as the undisputed champions of Test cricket.