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OTD in 1999: Adam Gilchrist announces his Test arrival with record chase vs Pakistan

Aakash Saini

Adam Gilchrist with Justin Langer [Source: @ICC/x]Adam Gilchrist with Justin Langer [Source: @ICC/x]

Few cricketers could bend a Test match through sheer audacity quite like legendary Australian wicketkeeper-batter Adam Gilchrist. A white-ball giant through-and-through, Gilchrist also boasted an extraordinary career for Australia in Test cricket, glittered with a remarkable series win in India as captain, some breathtaking centuries at breakneck pace and playing 96 matches without a break.

One of Gilchrist’s earliest testaments to that fearless approach arrived in just the second Test match of his career, when he decimated a star-studded Pakistani bowling line-up to pull off a record 369 chase for Australia in Hobart.

When Adam Gilchrist humbled Wasim Akram and co.

Chasing 369 for a win in the second Test of Australia’s three-match home Test series against Pakistan back in November 1999, the hosts crashed to 126-5 at one stage of the decisive innings. In turn, Adam Gilchrist, playing just the second Test of his career, struck an audacious 149* off just 163 while batting at number seven.

The legendary wicketkeeper-batter clattered 13 boundaries and a huge six at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart to tonk his maiden Test century. Going head-first against the likes of some legendary fast bowlers in the form of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar and world-class spinner Saqlain Mushtaq; Adam Gilchrist forged a match-defining 238-run partnership with fellow left-handed centurion Justin Langer (127) to storm Australia to a remarkable five-wicket victory.

The outcome marked the third highest successful chase in Test cricket at the time, as Australia went 2-0 up in the three-match series.

The innings also secured Gilchrist’s status as more than just a white-ball marvel, marking him as a Test match-winner in his own right. The cricketer went on to play 96 matches for Australia, all in succession up until he voluntarily decided to retire from the format in January 2008.

Apart from tonking one of Test cricket’s fastest centuries of all time, Adam Gilchrist also led the Australian team to a historic Test series win on Indian soil back in 2004.