Um.. Hayden's debut was against Donald... and he scored 15 and 5. He then faced a full strength WI attack at Mebourne and posted 5 and 0. Curtly Ambrose then missed out with a groin strain on an Adelaide pitch so awful for seamers that Bevan was bowling by lunch on the first day and Hayden did his flat track bully bit:
Quote:
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A fired-up, zealous Ambrose incites the West Indies to break down doors; when he is jaded or absent their challenge dribbles away into the gutter [...] Matthew Hayden was rarely obliged to play much of the detritus sent down in the first hour, which partly explains why he was stuck on his overnight score for the best part of it. During that time he also smashed one of a spate of no balls from Ian Bishop straight into point's hands, and, shortly afterwards would have been caught at slip off Courtney Walsh if only Junior Murray had not suddenly decided to fly across and tip it round the post [...] Hayden, powered by determination rather than rare talent, reached a maiden Test century - in six hours - with a square cut to the fence. The son of a peanut farmer, he is not yet the full packet but his shell is mighty tough.
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For the next match "Courtney Walsh and Ambrose had barely one good leg between them" but in the first innings Ambrose managed "a cutter in his opening over" which "Hayden, with legs like pillars, edged to slip". The second innings saw Ambrose hobble off after only four overs, "obliging Walsh to plough a furrow from one end, or rather aim at one" - Hayden "hinted at permanence".
He did then head to SA to face Donald and Pollock again.. but racked up 64 runs in 5 innings at an astonishing... 12.8!
I can't be bothered to go through his whole career on a match by match basis... but in 2000/01 (7 years after his debut) he faced the WI again and averaged... 29.5. In the 2001 Ashes he musterd an average of 33.42. In between? He found a nice flat track in Chennai, an Indian attack led by Zaheer Khan (42 dot balls to Hayden out of 51 delivered), a 20 year old, novice Harbhajan (carted for 81 off 108 balls), and that world-beating trio of NM Kulkarni, SV Bahutule and SR Tendulkar... who served up 155 balls off which he plundered exactly 100 runs.
Oh no... I can't think WHY that looks like the profile of a flat track bully....