Starting the top-three in our countdown of 25 Ashes moments of the 21st century is an iconic scene that they actually have built a statue for — Steve Waugh’s hundred on the last ball of the day at the SCG.
With the Ashes secured via thrashings in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and Australia on the cusp of a whitewash after another convincing victory in Melbourne, all the focus coming into the Sydney Test of the 2002/03 series was on the future of the Australian skipper.
Waugh had endured a lean run with the bat, scoring just one Test century since the previous Ashes series in England in 2001. The writing was on the wall.
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That unbeaten hundred came against Pakistan in Sharjah less than a month before the Ashes began at the Gabba, but in front of adoring home crowds, Waugh struggled.
He averaged 27 across six Tests against New Zealand and South Africa the previous Australian summer, and with scores of 7, 12, 34, 53, 77 and 14 in the series before arriving at the SCG, it was widely believed that the fifth and final Test would be the champion’s swan song in the baggy green.
“The days leading up to the Sydney Test seemed centred solely on my impending retirement,” Waugh wrote in his autobiography.
“Though my teammates never asked me, they probably thought it would be the last time we played together.
“The truth is I hadn’t decided either way.”
Two half-centuries in his previous three innings was hardly dire, but impacted by a migraine, Waugh looked all at sea in the second innings in Melbourne, later admitting “I didn’t know what I was doing out there”.
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30/12/2002. Steve Waugh fends of a short ball from Andy Caddick. Australia v England. Boxing Day Test. MCG.Source: News Limited
The dreaded tap on the shoulder from selectors felt like it was coming.
They had already done so at the conclusion of the previous summer in ODI cricket, dumping the World Cup winning skipper from the side and handing the captaincy to Ricky Ponting.
Waugh’s twin brother Mark was then dropped from the Test side leading into the Ashes after scoring just four half centuries in 17 innings since the last tour of England.
“You start to even doubt yourself, even though you think you can do it,” Waugh told the ABC.
“Maybe you are past it, maybe you can’t do it again.
“To pull that out of the fire; it was a relief, but it was also special.”
Cricketer Steve Waugh at press conference announcing his sacking as Australian one day cricket captain 13 Feb 2002.Source: News Limited
Waugh walked to the crease to the rapturous applause befitting a farewell with his side behind in the game for the first time all summer.
Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting were all back in the sheds with hosts 3/56 on day two after England made 362 off the back of Mark Butcher’s 124.
“The picturesque SCG with the member’s in the background, and Steve Waugh walking out, iconic,” Josh Hazlewood told Fox Cricket as he watched the moment back.
Waugh set about a counter-attack, in somewhat of a throwback to the infancy of his career when he was more of a stroke-maker than the stubborn veteran he became, who famously refused to play shots like the hook shot, that might land him in trouble every so often.
Waugh would later say that he played with the freedom of youth as a result of knowing in the back of his mind it may have been his final Test match.
He put on a 90-run stand with Damien Martyn, who fell for 26, and continued to score freely even when Australia fell to 5/150 after Martin Love was dismissed for a duck.
Waugh found a valuable ally in Adam Gilchrist, who went on to top score for Australia with 133 from only 121 balls, and he kept finding the fence, smashing 18 fours for the afternoon.
As the shadows grew larger and the close of play began to near, that was when things got tense as it was a race against the clock for Waugh to get his century.
The stands remained packed as the crowd anxiously watched every ball, cheering their hearts out to get their hero to his milestone.
One person did leave early, however.
“Well I wasn’t there,” Mark Waugh said on Fox Cricket during the Australia v New Zealand New Year’s Test of 2020.
“No, I was at Harold Park trots actually.
“I left about 20 minutes before Steven got his hundred.
“He was going so slowly, I thought ‘come on, get on with it’, and then I left and he got the hundred. I did see it on TV though.”
Gilchrist added: “That’s day two stumps of a Test and not one person — save for his twin brother — left the venue (early) that day.”
Australia v England at the SCG. Day 2. Steve Waugh walks off after hitting his century off the last ball of the day. Picture. Phil HillyardSource: News Corp Australia
England captain Nasser Hussain was happy to play up the crowd.
When Gilchrist was on strike, he left the field back to give the blistering wicketkeeper batter a single.
While he left the field up for Waugh, hoping to entice a false shot as he charged towards his hundred.
On the third last ball of the day, Waugh struck spinner Richard Dawson through the off side, but not well enough for it to reach the rope.
He and Gilchrist scampered for three, leaving Waugh at the non-striker’s end on 98 with two balls left in the day.
Hussain was happy to play the game, however, he left sweepers on the boundary for Gilchrist and the left hander coolly knocked a single into the leg side to get his captain back on strike.
With Waugh back on strike, the drama of the occasion made the final over feel like it went for an eternity, but Hussain brought his fielders up, hoping Waugh may go for his trademark slog sweep and sky a catch.
“It was a pretty nice field to have for someone who needed two runs for a hundred. It’s something I won’t be doing,” Nathan Lyon told Fox Cricket with a chuckle.
Batsman Steve Waugh celebrates century scored during Fifth Test of Ashes Series Aust vs England at the SCG. PicBrett/CostelloSource: Supplied
Lyon, who was 15 at the time, remembers watching the moment at home with his grandmother.
He was one of countless Australians glued to their television screens.
Those at the ground were on the edge of their seats.
Perhaps the calmest person of them all, was the batter himself.
“The delivery was a quicker ball on a line outside off stump, apparently intended to catch me playing across the line as I swung a slog sweep over mid-wicket, but I saw it in a flash and just released the arms and locked in the wrists,” Waugh recalled.
“I didn’t really even bother to follow its path because it was fence-bound the instant the ball connected with the heart of the blade.”
Waugh triumphantly charged down the wicket, arms aloft in celebration as the SCG crowd showered their hero in cheers.
He was so swept up in the moment that he missed Gilchrist’s outstretched arm for a high five, but high fiving his vice-captain might not have looked as good on the statue at the SCG that commemorates both the moment and Waugh’s illustrious career.
The incredible finish to day two of the fifth Test – which England went on to win by 225 runs to claim a consolation victory – also gave birth to an iconic Ashes line.
“Do you write your own scripts?” England wicketkeeper Alec Stewart asked Waugh.
Steve Waugh walks off the field at the end of play on day 2 of the fifth and final test.Source: News Limited
Michael Vaughan was stood at silly point for the final ball of the day, and managed to avoid being in Waugh’s firing line.
“I’m pretty sure Gilly was there just knocking singles to try and get Steve Waugh on strike. It was an amazing atmosphere,” he told The Follow On.
“We were four-nil down in this series. We’ve got a half-decent number on the board and then Steve Waugh came out to bat. He had not been in great nick. He had not had a series like he had in previous Ashes series, but suddenly he started to play a few shots. The atmosphere was all there for him to get the three figures.
“We tried everything to try, and, I guess, delay that and try and take it into day three. But it was a special moment.
“I have no idea what I was doing at silly point. Richard Dawson bowled him a nice little ball outside left stump and I guess the rest is history.”
The scenes were out of a blockbuster movie, but if Waugh’s fate was left up to the script writers, he may have retired there and then.
He was dismissed without adding to his score of 102 the next morning, but having also passed 10,000 Test runs in that innings, the 168-Test veteran decided to play on for another year.
With 115 against the West Indies in Barbados and unbeaten centuries against Bangladesh in Darwin and Cairns, Waugh took his career tally to 32 – the third most ever by an Australian behind Ricky Ponting (41) and Steve Smith (36).
He called time on his career the following summer against India, scoring 80 in his final Test knock at the SCG.
“I didn’t know I was going to get a hundred in that innings in Sydney,” Waugh told cricket.com.au, when asked if he considered retiring immediately after his iconic hundred.
“And I think if I didn’t get a hundred I would have been going out in a different way … out the back door, maybe.”
Wood fit for first Test | 02:06
ASHES GREATEST 25 — COUNTDOWN SO FAR
3. Steve Waugh’s century on the last ball of the day, Sydney 2003
4. Alex Carey stumps Jonny Bairstow, Lord’s 2023
5. Scott Boland’s 6/7 on Test debut, Melbourne 2021/22
6. Michael Hussey winning runs, Amazing Adelaide 2006/07
7. Mitchell Starc bowls Rory Burns first ball of the Ashes, Brisbane 2021/22
8. Peter Siddle hat-trick on his birthday, Brisbane 2010/11
9. Steve Smith’s back-to-back tons after ball-tampering, Edgbaston 2019
10. Stuart Broad not walking, Trent Bridge 2013
11. Steve Harmison wide first ball of the Ashes, Brisbane 2006/07
12. Adam Gilchrist 48-ball hundred, Perth 2006/07
13. Stuart Broad’s 8/15, Trent Bridge 2015
14. Flintoff/Lee embrace, Edgbaston 2005
15. Ryan Harris gets Alastair Cook first ball, Perth 2013/14
16. Gary Pratt running out Ricky Ponting, Trent Bridge 2005
17. Steve Smith hit by Jofra Archer, Lord’s 2019
18. Ashton Agar 98 batting at 11 on debut, Trent Bridge 2013
20. Warne/McGrath/Langer retire, Sydney 2006/07
21. Monty Panesar/James Anderson 10th wicket partnership, Cardiff 2009
22. Mitchell Johnson bowls Stuart Broad, glares at Jimmy Anderson in 7-fa, 2013/14
23. Mitchell Starc’s unplayable ball to James Vince, Perth 2017/18
24. Steve Waugh century on the ground at The Oval, 2001
25. Nasser Hussain wins toss and bowls, Brisbane 2002/03