ROBIN SMITH 101
150 balls, 207 minutes, 16 fours England v Australia, Fifth Test Trent Bridge, Nottingham August 12, 1989
THE MATCH
Australia 602-6dec (M Taylor 219, G Marsh 138) v England 255 (R Smith 101; T Alderman 5-69) & 167 f/o (M Hughes 3-46)
Australia won by an innings and 180 runs
This was the innings that I was happiest with from a technical perspective. We were 1-2 when I arrived at the crease and went on to lose heavily, so it isn’t a game I look back on fondly, but I just remember feeling as near to perfection as it was possible for me to get. There are reasons why you practise for hours on end, relentlessly perfecting the cut shot or the cover drive. Going back to when I was a 10-year-old, I used to get up at 5.15 am to practise, starting with a dawn run as the sun was coming up over the Indian Ocean. There are reasons why you put those hard yards in, and for me everything came together in that innings.