17th October 1998 is the day with one of the most romantic stories of cricket. Australian cricket team visited Pakistan to play Test matches and ODIs. They already had a 1-0 lead in the Test series when the two teams met at Peshawar to play the second Test. It was one of those dead pitches and easiest conditions for batting.
Mark Taylor, the Australia captain was slowly recovering from a bad patch. Around 18 months back he was in the middle of a huge career slump and went 20 innings without even a fifty. They were calls for his removal from a part of media and ex-players. But Taylor fought it out manfully. By June 1997 he scored his first Test century in two years with a wonderful knock against England at Birmingham. He had a good time for next one year when he scored hundreds against New Zealand, South Africa and India.
In Pakistan, his contribution in the first Test was a paltry three in the innings win. However, at Peshawar, he started carefully and soon got set. Michael Slater went early but Taylor and Justin Langer batted for the rest of day one and took Australia to 224/1 by the end of day one. Taylor got another hundred and Langer was on 97.
Taylor kept batting on day two. On the other end, Langer completed his hundred and was out for 116. Then support came from Mark Waugh (42) and Ricky Ponting (76*). Taylor kept batting for the whole day and picked up the pace considerably. He reached his second Test double hundred and then crossed his previous highest Test score. Pretty quickly he moved from 200 to 300 and then finished the day on 334 unbeaten. The team total was 599/4.
Once he returned to the dressing room he realized that 334 by him was the highest test score for any Australian batsman, scored by no one but Don Bradman. Taylor felt extremely proud about being at the same level as Bradman, an Australian icon. He discussed with his teammates who all requested him to bat on and go for Brian Lara’s record of 375 next day. However, Taylor already made up his mind. Already two days of the Test match were gone and he wanted to give his bowlers as many overs as possible to all out Pakistan twice. He declared on 17th Oct, on the third day of the Test match and was praised by the global fans and experts for his call. A statement from Don Bradman, 90 at that time made the decision more worthy.
Pakistan went on to bat long enough to draw the Test match but Mark Taylor’s selfless declaration became the part of cricket folklore for ages to come.
