0-113… then Warnie’s text: What occurred to forgotten Aussie at centre of craziest ODI in historical past
Inglis hits ton as Aussies beat Zimbabwe | 01:26
Dane Heverin from Fox SportsSeptember twenty fourth, 2026 7:00 am
Having been blasted everywhere in the Wanderers by Herschelle Gibbs and co. on his approach to an unwanted slice of historical past, only a text from an <a href="https://cricket.worldwide/yastika-bhatias-112-in-vain-as-australia-a-women-chase-339-to-beat-india-a-by-two-wickets/” title=”Yastika Bhatia's 112 in Useless as Australia A Ladies Chase 339 to Beat India A by Two Wickets”>Australian cricket legend might carry Mick Lewis’ spirits.
With South Africa having motored down Australia’s world document whole of 4/434 with one wicket and one ball to spare in front of a euphoric Johannesburg crowd, Lewis dared to examine his cellphone once again in the safety of a shell-shocked guests dressing room.
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Arguably the best ODI match ever performed wrapped up in the early hours of the morning Australian time, which means that the Victorian quick’s cellphone was but to blow up with texts and calls from again residence.
In what turned out to be his final outing in Australian gold, Lewis conceded 113 runs, without a wicket, from his ten overs.
It was the document on the time for the worst figures in ODI historical past and Lewis knew he could be a person in demand.
But one in every of Lewis’ state teammates concocted the perfect escape plan from the spotlight that was about to shine on him.
“I remember ‘Warnie’ texted me. He was on the resort because he was over there for the Take a look at match,” Lewis recalled to foxsports.com.au.
“He texted me ‘how are you feeling?’. I stated I’d had better days. So, he replied, ‘if you get again to the resort, come as much as my room and let’s have a beer’.”
So, that’s exactly what Lewis, and the King of Spin did.
They sat again in Warne’s Johannesburg resort room, knocked again a couple of cold ones and chewed the fats to take Lewis’ mind off the day that was.
Warne was only four days away from enjoying the primary Take a look at of the 2006 sequence – which Australia would win 3-0 after profitable 2-0 on residence soil a few months earlier – in Cape City.
While Lewis could be flying residence to Melbourne in a couple of days’ time.
It was a scenario Warne knew all too properly.
Three years earlier the leg spinning icon had left South Africa shattered after a positive test for a banned substance dominated out of the 2003 World Cup as he was suspended for a yr.
There wouldn’t be the same stage of scrutiny of Lewis, but he knew the questions had been coming with reporters ready outside worldwide arrivals at Sydney Airport.
“I acquired off the plane, and the bloke requested me and I stated ‘look, I just had a bad day on the office. Everyone has them and we transfer on. That’s life’,” Lewis recalled to foxsports.com.au.
With a Take a look at sequence to crack on with, the spotlight on Lewis vanished quickly.
The late bloomer from nation Victoria, who debuted for his state at age 25 having only moved to Melbourne to play premier cricket a couple of years earlier, was 31 years old on the time but did not have a number of cricket left him in.
Having performed seven ODIs and two T20Is, Lewis by no means performed for Australia again and lost his Cricket Australia contract shortly after Johannesburg.
An injury plagued residence summer time followed, and Lewis’ Victorian career got here to an end in 2007.
Aside from a short comeback in the Huge Bash with Western Australia – when the T20 competitors was state-based reasonably than city-based – Lewis light into relative obscurity.
After his enjoying days, he became Victoria’s bowling coach and is at present an assistant with English county aspect Yorkshire.
Lewis’ off broadway status meant that his involvement on the earth document sport was largely confined the annals of cricket historical past.
“I by no means really thought in regards to the sport until folks started asking me questions 5, ten years later,” he stated.
“It was a tremendous sport. I feel the famous quote was Jacques Kallis walked off and stated, ‘they’re 20 brief’. I feel he proved to be proper in the end.
“At the time, it was chaos all over the place. It was a terrific sport to be a part of.”
South Africa’s world document now not stands.
In fact, it only lasted a little less than four months.
But no less than, it lasted longer than a little less than four hours like Australia’s did.
After profitable the toss and electing to bat, Australian captain Ricky Ponting set out to recreate his heroics from the World Cup final on the same ground three years earlier.
Having put India to the sword with a match-winning unbeaten 140, Ponting brought up a new private best in ODIs with a breathtaking knock of 164 off 105 balls.
He blasted 9 sixes and smacked 13 fours as Michael Hussey (81 off 51), Simon Katich (79 off 90) and Adam Gilchrist (55 off 44) chipped in with half-centuries.
The Australian innings felt like it was being performed in overdrive because the tourists smashed the previous world document rating by 36 runs.
In doing so, Ponting’s males became the primary aspect to surpass 400 in an ODI.
You could possibly not blame them for thinking they had been residence and hosed midway by means of the sequence finale.
“It was a five-game sequence, and we lost the primary two, but then we gained in Durban and Port Elizabeth, so we had been fairly assured,” Lewis recalled.
“But then we knew with what we had been doing and the conditions on the Bullring that it was a pretty good wicket. We thought if we might take early wickets we might put them beneath pressure.
“Perhaps we had been barely overconfident because maybe we thought we’d just go out there, they’re going to have to return hard at us, we’ll get some early wickets and it’ll be okay.
“They got here hard all proper they usually stored coming more durable and more durable.”
As Lewis mentioned earlier, a dialog that occurred in the South African dressing room after the primary innings became the stuff of legend.
Previous teammates of Jacques Kallis say that the champion all-rounder was typically a fairly reserved character, but his quip in regards to the Australians being “20 brief” lit a fire beneath Graeme Smith’s males.
The South African skipper acquired his aspect off to a flyer with a fast innings of 90 off 55 deliveries.
But Smith’s exploits had been overshadowed by No.3 Herschelle Gibbs’ mind-blowing knock.
The dashing right-hander smashed 175 off 111, including 21 fours and seven sixes.
It got here out later that Gibbs awakened a bit of dusty that morning after an evening in the resort bar.
He had scored two half-centuries in his final 12 ODI innings and performed with freedom to devastating impact.
“The factor with that ground is, because of the excessive altitude, as quickly as you hit it, it’s just retains going,” Lewis stated.
“I feel he was on his final legs in that aspect, so he went out there and he had nothing to lose. He performed with no fear, and I feel if he didn’t get runs that sport he was going to be dropped.
“It’s a harmful person once they’ve acquired no fear to return out and play like that.”
Gibbs’ destruction might have been limited, nevertheless.
“There have been a couple of half chances there. Nathan Bracken dropped Herschelle Gibbs off me when he was on 103,” Lewis recalled.
“He takes that and it could be a whole different ball sport.”
Gibbs also might have piled on much more pain.
He fell to Andrew Symonds with 18.1 overs remaining in the innings.
No man had scored an ODI double hundred at that point in time, Gibbs had a rating of 250+.
South Africa nonetheless wanted 136 runs to win when Gibbs departed.
Wicketkeeper Mark Boucher (50* off 43) and all-rounder Johan van der Wath (35 off 18) performed key fingers to get their aspect over the road.
Lewis, who had spent time in England with Durham and Glamorgan, had harnessed a repute as a nice bowler in both county cricket and for Victoria.
He bowled three of the final seven overs of South Africa’s innings, conceding 42 runs from these 18 balls.
Van der Wath launched him excessive into the stands on a number of occasions, and Lewis believed it exposed a difficulty that may come to chunk Australia multiple occasions in the coming years.
“I feel that’s where Australia was a bit of bit behind with T20 because we didn’t embrace it early like other nations,” Lewis stated.
“Within the UK, they’d been enjoying it for a couple of years, and I feel a number of South Africans, as overseas professionals, had performed a number of T20.
“Whereas I feel it took Australia some time to embrace the T20 sport and we just thought it was a little bit of enjoyable, mickey mouse.
“Obviously, you fast ahead 20 years and it’s fairly a profitable business.”
Brett Lee bowled the ultimate over but was unable to salvage Australia when South Africa wanted seven runs to win, or six to tie from the final six balls.
Lee regarded like he may do the unthinkable when Andrew Corridor was caught by Michael Clarke at mid on.
Corridor had hit the previous supply for four, and South Africa had been left needing two to win from three balls with No.11 Makhaya Ntini arriving on the crease.
Ntini managed to run his first ball down to third man for a single to stage the scores earlier than Boucher despatched the fifth ball of the ultimate over, over mid on’s head for four to clinch the most unlikely of victories.
There have been scenes of jubilation in Johannesburg and the locals enjoyed letting the Australians know that that they had someway been on the losing end of one cricket’s most unbelievable matches.
“I remember walking by means of the tunnel as you go as much as the changing rooms,” Lewis recalled.
“They’ve that Perspex glass excessive of it. They had been banging on it so loud; you couldn’t hear your spikes on the concrete.”
Twenty years on from that day that ended with a couple of resort room drinks with Warne, Lewis places his unwanted document into perspective.
It is now not his document.
Adam Zampa matched when the South Africans smashed him to all elements of Centurion in 2023.
Each Zampa and Lewis then had Glenn Maxwell to thank for giving the document to the Netherland’s Bas de Leede a bit of more than a month later.
Maxwell smashed a 40-ball ton – the fastest in World Cup historical past – and took 28 off de Leede’s final over to succeed in his century and give the Dutchman the unwanted document.
He conceded 115 runs from his ten overs, but he did no less than grab two wickets.
Zimbabwe v Australia third ODI Highlights | 15:37
At the Wanderers, Bracken was the only other Australian to bowl their full allotment of ten overs – the left-armer took a very respectable 5/67.
Lee despatched down 7.5 overs, whereas Stuart Clark, who made his Take a look at debut four days later, only bowled six overs.
A small caveat for Lewis was that he did not have the worst economic system fee that day.
“In case you have a look at the context of the game, Jacques Kallis bowled six overs that sport and none for 70,” he stated.
“Brett Lee didn’t bowl his full quota.
“That was my job in the aspect. At the time, fairly disappointing but you move on fairly quickly.”
Even when the document is now not his, it’s one thing that will at all times keep on with Lewis.
Not that being an answer to a query at cricket club tri
“Someone’s acquired to have it,” Lewis stated.
Supply: www.foxsports.com.au
