This day, 2001 witnessed one of the greatest days of Test cricket to end one of the great Test matches.

It was also one of the greatest 0-0 drawn Test series.

And that happened because of two captains who wanted to play positive cricket.

Here is what the captains had to say.
+
Waugh: "We're here to play cricket, to entertain and enjoy ourselves. You want to try and win a Test if you can. I don't see any point in playing out for a dull draw."
+
Fleming: "It was fantastic, great to play and I'm sure pretty good to watch. I'm convinced it's the way Test cricket has got to go, entertainment-wise."

When the fifth day's play began, the score read Australia 486/9 declared, New Zealand 186/5.
+
A draw was the only possible outcome if New Zealand made it to 287.

It was going to be steep.

While the Australian juggernaut had been halted at Kolkata and Chennai, there was little doubt that they were en route to evolve into one of the greatest Test sides of all time.
+
To add to that, this was The Gabba, where Australia have (as of 2020) not lost a Test match since 1988.

But New Zealand did not finch.

Cairns went after Gillespie and McGrath, reaching 50 in 55 balls.

But he and Astle fell in the space of 3 balls.
+
New Zealand were 243/7, still 44 away.

Parore and Nash (batting with a strained abdomen) took the score to 271. Then Parore fell off Lee.

Vettori was dropped by Warne at first slip off the first ball he faced.

He and Nash took the score to 287.

The follow on was saved.
+
Fleming declared immediately, 199 behind, just before lunch.

Would Waugh take up the challenge?

In hindsight, Fleming's move was as tactical as bold. Nash was already battling an injury.

No. 11 O'Connor had knee tendinitis.
+
But the declaration meant that New Zealand had only Cairns and Vettori as specialist bowlers.

It was Waugh's turn now to respond.

He sent Gilchrist to open with Hayden.

The message was clear.

Like the greatest sides in history, Waugh's Australians wanted to win.
+
McMillan took new ball with Cairns.

Australia lost the openers, but Ponting and Langer scored quickly.

Waugh declared at 84/2 after 14 overs.

New Zealand needed 284 in 57 overs.

Five an over against McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, and Warne.

But New Zealand responded.
+
After 5 overs New Zealand were 33/0, Richardson 25 in 21.

The first counterattack came from the most unexpected source.

McGrath, bowling first-change, got Bell leg-before first ball.

Richardson reached 50 in 54 balls.

After 17 overs New Zealand were 71/1.

213 in 40 overs.
+
They batted deep, with Parore at 8.

Then Warne got both Richardson and Sinclair. 90/3.

Time to shut shop?

No.

Astle began with two boundaries off Warne. Fleming joined in too, and runs kept coming.

They added 100 in 111 balls before Warne claimed Astle.
+
Fleming promoted Cairns above McMillan, but got run out himself.

McMillan had to come out.

By then the floodlights had been switched on. New Zealand needed 71 in 49.

Cairns lofted Warne for six, but McGrath pulled things back. 52 in 30.
+
McMillan now went after McGrath. The over went 6124.1. 38 in 24.

Cairns lofted Warne on the top tier of the grandstand. He followed with .221, which brought McMillan back on strike.

Another six. 21 in 18.

Cairns then ran a single off McGrath. 20 in 17.
+
Most fast bowlers would have gone for the kill, but this was McGrath.

He knew that Australia were the only side who could (possibly) lose from there. It was not the time for bravado.

He knew runs had to be cut down.

So he bowled well outside off. 20 in 12.
+
Waugh, too, decided to take a step back. He replaced Warne with Lee.

Cairns lofted the second ball towards long-on, where Waugh had parked his best fielder.

Ponting held on.

Unlike McGrath, Lee tried to attack for some reason. They got 5 more. 15 from 6.
+
But it was that man, McGrath.

You could not score 15 off him, especially when he wanted to bowl defensive in a Test match.

All New Zealand got were 5 singles. It was a draw.

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More from @ovshake42

8 Nov
There are so many things about the phenomenon that was Martin Crowe.

Consider, for example, what he did on and around this day, 1992, at Harare.

The schedule was crazy.

New Zealand and Zimbabwe were supposed to play two Tests and two ODIs between October 31 and November 12.
+
Basically 12 days of cricket out of 13. The only off-day would involve a Bulawayo-Harare travel.

How many cricketers from ICC full member sides would have agreed to this in 2020?

Things were normal in Bulawayo:
The ODI on October 31, the Test between November 1 and 5.
+
Harare was different:
The Test on November 7, then 9-12. The ODI on November 8. Like the Sunday League in England.

Crowe won the toss in the Test match, batted first, and scored 140 in three hours. Of these, 96 came between lunch and tea.
+
Read 5 tweets
8 Nov
November 7 (1917) will forever be associated with the Bolshevik Revolution.

Whether it was good or bad is something for domain experts to decide.

But there is little doubt that it marked the beginning of decline of cricket in Russia.

Here is something (not much) on that.
+
St Petersburg used to have a cricket club in at least 1865. By 1895 there were four.

Nicholas I (monarch from 1796 to 1855) definitely saw a cricket match at Chatham.

The British Royal Yacht Osborne haled at the St Petersburg dockyard in 1875.
+
The crew played a match against the British expatriates (after explaining this unusual activity to the police, who thought they were a "force of warriors").

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6 Nov
Born on this day, 1956, Graeme Wood was one of the bravest batsmen against genuine pace.

Christian Ryan wrote, "He was the man the selectors rang whenever the Windies were in town."

Wood scored 3,374 runs at 32.

But in 6 Tests on West Indian soil, that average soared to 47.
+
Tales of heroics are aplenty, but then – so are anecdotes of his terrible running between the wickets that earned him the nickname Kamikaze Kid.

An example of his running: Wood opened in all six Tests of the 1978-79 Ashes.
+
In every Test there was an innings where either Wood (in two Tests) or his opening partner (in the other four) was run out.

"It began to look as if the wicket could do with traffic lights," Ray Robinson later wrote.

The most famous of his run outs involved Kim Hughes.
+
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6 Nov
Kyle Christie made his international debut on this day, 2016, in an ODI for Hong Kong against Papua New Guinea.

His was the most 2010s debut possible.

But before narrating this, I must acknowledge @pramz for the interview and photograph (and for how good a colleague he was).
+
Had he been born twenty, or even ten, years earlier, Christie would probably have not played international cricket.

On July 25, 2016, Hong Kong Cricket put up an advertisement on their Facebook page, inviting all interested Hong Kong-borns living outside the country.
+
Christie was only three when he had left Hong Kong with his parents.

He had been doing a decent job as a seam bowler in club cricket in Perth. Now he responded.

They liked what they saw: "They got back in touch with me and invited me out for a trial."
+
Read 4 tweets
5 Nov
Eddie Paynter was born on this day, 1901.

Everyone knows his remarkable story during the Bodyline series.

It has few parallels in the history of international cricket.

But first, two numbers.
+ Image
His Test batting average of 59.23 is the sixth-best with a 1,500-run cut-off.

His Ashes batting average of 84.42 is the second-best with a 500-run cut-off.

Remember, this was the 1930s, when the Ashes was the contest to watch out for.

Yes, he could bat.
+
Paynter replaced "conscientious objector" Pataudi for the controversial Adelaide Test, where Woodfull and Oldfield were both hit.

He scored 77 and 1* and fielded brilliantly.

However, he injured his ankle when he crashed into the picket fence while trying to save a ball.
+
Read 18 tweets
2 Nov
On this day, 1931, Don Bradman did something at Blackheath that seems unthinkable even by his standards.

He slammed a hundred in 18 minutes, inside three overs.

True, these were eight-ball overs, but Bradman faced only 22 of these.
+
Blackheath had invited Bradman and Wendell Bill (colleague of Bradman's at NSW) to play for them against Lithgow.

A reasonably large crowd had gathered for the match, which was played on a malthoid pitch.

Bradman wrote: "I had never seen a pitch with a malthoid top.
+
"I'm still not sure if it was laid on a bitumen base or on concrete but it was perfectly flat and very smooth … The pitch proved ideal for batting in that the ball came off it at a gentle pace and with a particularly uniform and predictable bounce."
+
Read 8 tweets

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