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Genius of Gilly shines bright

Source: The Daily Telegraph - December 18, 2006

The French have a phrase for it. C'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas la guerre.

It is magnificent but it is not war, Pierre Bostuquet remarked while watching the charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.

In a sense that was how it felt watching Adam Gilchrist blast an already psychologically battered and physically weary England cricket team into total submission with his amazing 57-ball century at the WACA on Saturday. The game was already poised on the tipping point at which a contest becomes a massacre when Gilchrist took block mid-afternoon with four other Australian batsmen – Matthew Hayden 92, Ricky Ponting 75, Michael Hussey 103 and Michael Clarke, well on his way to 135 not out – having dominated the outclassed tourists.

The Ashes were safely locked up by then – Gilchrist simply threw away the key.

Having spent most of a scorching day toiling in temperatures that apparently topped 50 degrees out in the sun, Freddie Flintoff and his exhausted troops simply submitted to the carnage.

It was strange to see all but one fieldsman scattered to the far-flung reaches of the WACA and still powerless to stop the brutal left-hander reaching and clearing the boundary at will.

Perhaps they should not be criticised too harshly for that because when Gilchrist is in this freakish zone he takes the game outside its normal parameters in a manner nobody else in contemporary cricket can match, and very few have ever been able to.

He is virtually impossible to bowl to.

This, of course, was the old Gilchrist at work, not the one whose form has been clearly in decline for more than a year to the point where you had to start wondering if his status as one of several thirty-somethings in the side was becoming a matter for selectorial examination.

In one way this innings probably didn't change that greatly – it was constructed in unpressurised circumstances, and he still has two first innings ducks to his name and admitted himself that his first shot in this hand, an edge into the gully, could have easily been a third.

But not to quibble. He has reminded all and sundry of why he is an all-time great of the game whose career should and now almost certainly will be allowed to find its own natural finish line.

It was a pity that he did not quite beat Viv Richards' 55-ball record for the fastest Test century – such moments in history do not happen along every day – although the great West Indian only recently saw Pakistan's Mohammed Yousuf overtake his benchmark for the most runs in a calendar year.

The 22,006 spectators who witnessed this one – the Barmy Army no exception because they were in the firing line for much of it – were agog with excitement and anticipation as the milestone approached.

As soon as it was over many of them left the ground, content in the knowledge that they will almost certainly never witness the like again.

But if they do, it might well be at the same place – the WACA continues to build an enviable reputation for producing memorable cricket moments.

To name a few in no particular order, it has seen Greg Chappell's maiden century, Terry Alderman break his shoulder tackling an invading spectator, Doug Walters hitting a six off the last ball to complete a century in an session, Curtly Ambrose taking 8-1 to destroy Australia by lunch on the third day and Matthew Hayden's then world record score of 380.

Gilchrist's smash-and-grab raid will now take its place high up on that list.

- RON REED