After all he's a wonder Waugh

CRICKET: Australian captain equals Bradman's centuries record with his last-ball boundary. This was a day when the individual transcended the match. Steve Waugh celebrated his world record-equalling 156th Test cap with a century which the entire state of New South Wales, if not most of Australia, had been anticipating - no, expecting - from this most single-minded of individuals. Typically, he did it by wrenching every drop of drama from a long, long day here. From Mike Selvey in Sydney

No more balls remained when Waugh thrashed the offspinner Richard Dawson to the extra-cover boundary to achieve the 100 he craved, both for his own devices and for his team too.

In Melbourne on Monday, after his migraine-induced second-innings blip, Waugh's cricketing demise had been predicted with confidence. Almost certainly, if the selectors do not wish to provoke a national outcry, this century has prolonged his career - unless, of course, he decides to cut it short on the highest of highs. One wouldn't bet on it.

From the moment he walked to the crease shortly before tea, to a tumultuous welcome from another 42,000 capacity crowd, to the day's climax, he produced an innings as exhilarating as it had been inevitable. It offered not a glimmer of a chance to an England attack which had thus far given Nasser Hussain's side the upper hand.

In reaching 102, his 29th Test hundred, Waugh equalled the number scored by Donald Bradman.

It is an emotive figure, and one of the many virtues of the Australian captain is his sense of history and its place in the order of things. He knows that to pass the Don would almost be sacrilegious, but to equal it entirely different.

After all, hadn't former captain Mark Taylor declared an Australian innings when he himself had equalled Bradman's highest score of 334, and received plaudits as a result?

"He's the greatest player of all time," said Waugh recently, "but if a 100 comes along I'm not going to turn it down." Quite right. Waugh's place in the pantheon of Australian cricket was already assured; now he is the stuff of legend.

The last over of the day was worth the admission price in itself. Waugh, on 95, had already pushed himself close to a run-out in the previous over and might have taken heed, settling for the next morning. Instead, encouraged by his partner Adam Gilchrist, he set out his stall.

With the shadows of the old pavilion stretching across the ground, three balls from Dawson were studiously blocked. Hussain fiddled with his field, trying to apply the pressure. Waugh doesn't understand such things.

To the fourth ball he marched down the pitch and attempted to drive through the covers, but he had mistimed slightly in his enthusiasm, the ball taking a thick outside edge and skewing along the ground towards the square boundary on the off side. They ran three.

Rarely can an apparently inconsequential single such as Gilchrist's from the penultimate ball have been greeted with such gusto. Now Hussain kept Waugh waiting, counselling Dawson, then moving his field, offering the batsman the leg-side hit over the top if he had the courage.

Waugh has this in spades: his last Test century (only six matches ago, although the clamour for his retirement might suggest it was years rather than months) was reached with three sixes.

But Dawson strayed on to off stump, allowing him sufficient width to lash his 18th four through extra cover and set off in celebration before marching briskly from the field. The innings had lasted 130 balls and a little short of three hours.

Will he go to the World Cup? Should he retire from Test cricket? The questions have been asked, answered, and then asked some more in a media obsessed by his future. Pull-outs and supplements have been produced by the dozen. One Sydney paper printed a "Don't Sack Steve" poster to stick in windows as if this were a general election. Waugh tries to shun it all to get on with his game but, like Alex Tudor and Brett Lee's bouncer, he has been unable to avoid it.

These past nine days, in Melbourne and now here, he has already received more ovations than Pavarotti has had pasta suppers. This always was going to be - and now forever will be - known as the Steve Waugh Test.

An hour earlier, at a quarter to six, he had attained the first of his personal goals, the noise that greeted another typical Waugh boundary - an offspinner punched firmly off the back foot through point - superseding anything thus far. It took him to 69, and 10,000 Test runs, a milestone reached hitherto only by Allan Border - the captain who, all those years ago, had handed him the battered and stained baggy green cap he still wears - and Sunil Gavaskar.

Until the unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 87 in 70 minutes between Waugh and Gilchrist pulled Australia back, leaving them with the impetus but still trailing at 237 for five, England had played their own compelling cricket to take a grasp on the game.

Alec Stewart, stung by criticism, had played with brilliance first thing to make 71, and John Crawley's diligence brought 35 before he was left high and dry by a very English collapse from 332 for five to 362 all out in 13 overs.

This is not as firm a pitch as it seems, however, offering the new ball plenty of help, and Andy Caddick made immediate inroads into the Australian batting.

Matthew Hayden was lbw to a swinging full toss, Ricky Ponting caught at the wicket as he tried to withdraw his bat from a rising delivery, and Justin Langer caught at long leg, mistiming a pull.

The stage was set, though, and the recovery from 56 for three began with Waugh and Damien Martyn constructing a 90-run stand, ended only when Martyn pulled Harmison precisely to midwicket.

Guardian Service