Worth a ton: Top Aussie Test knocks under 100, Part 1

It has forever been a peculiarity of cricket, a sport so infatuated by numbers, that the difference between 99 and 100 is so much more than just a single run.

Batting greatness is often measured in hundreds made as much as runs scored, which can mean the value of some decisive batting performances over the years has been diminished simply because they have fallen short of the magical three figures.

This week, cricket.com.au will look back on Australia's 15 most important sub-100 innings in men's Test matches of the past 40 years, acknowledging the gritty half-centuries and backs-to-the wall innings that won Test matches, saved series and defined careers but don't appear in that all-important hundreds column.

The criteria

When ranking these performances, extra weight was given to those knocks that have taken on a greater significance beyond solely the substance of the innings itself; runs that paved the way for a breakthrough series win, led to a rare Test victory abroad or secured a face-saving draw.

It means performances like Ashton Agar's 98 on Test debut in 2013, while an instant Ashes classic, was not included as it came in a match and series that Australia lost, and Agar himself was dropped just two Tests later.

We've set the qualification time period at the past four decades, since 1982, and considered only sub-100 scores by Australians in men's Test matches.

15) Adam Gilchrist

Third Test v England, Nottingham, 2001

Batter's score: 54

Team score at start of innings: 5-94

Team score at end of innings: 190 all out

Percentage of team total: 28.4

Next highest score: 33

Match result: Australia won by 7 wickets

Series outcome: Australia won 4-1 (five matches)

By Martin Smith

During Australia's unprecedented period of Ashes dominance between 1989 and 2003, when they lost just three live rubbers in eight series, it was rare for England to start a day's play in the ascendancy.

One such occasion came on a sunny Friday morning in early August 2001, when an expectant home crowd packed into Trent Bridge hoping to see an England side bruised by two heavy defeats but buoyed after a dominant opening day of the third Test continue their momentum.

Barely 24 hours later, that brief sense of optimism was but a memory as Australia stormed to another thumping win and a seventh consecutive Ashes triumph.

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In a match rightly remembered for the bowling exploits of Messrs Warne and McGrath, Adam Gilchrist's contribution with the bat on that second morning, brief as it was, proved to be one of the turning points of the Test.

After McGrath had led another demolition of England's top order on the first day, taking 5-49 in a total of 185, the home side's seamers responded to reduce Australia to 7-105 at stumps, a deficit of 80 with just Gilchrist and the bowlers to come.

The fall of Australia's eighth wicket early on day two when still trailing by 63 should have preceded England taking a deserved first-innings lead. But a trademark blitzkrieg from Gilchrist, who clubbed 10 boundaries in just 59 balls, edged Australia in front as they finished with 190 on the board and momentum on their side.

Image Id: 6555EB5A13F74D9FB638CD1C102F154F Image Caption: Gilchrist brought up his fifty from just 47 balls // Getty

Having posted 152 on Ashes debut at Edgbaston and then a quickfire 90 in the second Test at Lord's, Gilchrist ignored the parlous position his side was in to quickly peel off one of just three fifties of a low-scoring match.

His innings of 54 was not without some luck – he twice inside edged to the boundary at fine leg – but the ninth-wicket stand of 66 runs in just 15 overs (the highest partnership of the match) with Jason Gillespie completely deflated an already fragile England side.

When the hosts again muscled their way into a strong position at 2-115 in their second innings, this time it was Warne who got the game back on Australia's terms.

Image Id: 7F02803C55B94D068732AD4669F50050 Image Caption: Gilchrist slammed 10 boundaries to wrestle back the momentum // Getty

Australia's spin king finished with 6-33 as the hosts lost 8-47 to be all out for 162, leaving Australia with 158 to win, a target they achieved at 4pm on the third afternoon to seal the urn.

Gilchrist would finish his first Ashes campaign with an average of 68 and, just as tellingly, a strike rate of more than 90 runs per 100 balls.

His brisk 54 at Trent Bridge wasn't his biggest contribution of the series, but if he had allowed England to take a handy lead on that second morning, it could well have sent the Test match and the series down a different path.

14) Usman Khawaja

Third Test v Pakistan, Lahore, 2022

Batter's score: 91

Team score at start of innings: 0-0

Team score at end of innings: 4-187

Percentage of team total: 23.3

Next highest score: 79

Match result: Australia won by 115 runs

Series outcome: Australia won 1-0 (three matches)

By Adam Burnett

It was fitting that Usman Khawaja had the series of his life when Australia finally ventured to the country of his birth almost 24 years on from their previous visit.

Having been recalled to the Test side in the summer's home Ashes series that preceded this tour, the 35-year-old produced a remarkable sequence of scores (97, 160, 44no, 91 and 104no) to help Australia to a landmark 1-0 victory in Pakistan, where they had tasted series success just once in the past 60 years.

But as the series shifted to the final Test in Lahore, the two sides were still locked at nil-all and it was Pakistan who seized the early advantage when they struck twice in the opening three overs of the match to leave the Aussies 2-8.

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After the disappointment of the second Test in Karachi, when the Australians couldn't find 10 Pakistan wickets in a fourth innings that lasted 171.4 overs, the exhausted tourists could well have fallen in a heap.

Khawaja, however, remained unruffled by the early chaos and loomed again as the thorn in Pakistan's side. Across the next five-and-a-half hours, on a pitch that was offering the bowlers more assistance than through the previous two Tests and while battling both illness and the Lahore heat, the left-hander stood tall, driving imperiously and employing his full variety of sweeps to great effect.

For much of that time, he had his former NSW teammate Steve Smith alongside him, the pair putting together a vital 138-run stand for the third wicket to extricate Australia from the mire.

When Smith fell for 59, Khawaja willed himself to push on, and it wasn't until the final hour of the day that he was dismissed, his edge from Sajid Khan splendidly caught by Babar Azam at slip as he fell nine runs short of three figures.

Image Id: 3170184734C5475BB660B8360B0338F2 Image Caption: Khawaja and Smith rescued Australia after a rocky start // Getty

"I was really feeling it today, I was really struggling from the start," Khawaja said.

"The heat, I was a little bit sick, too. Got some medication off (the) doc in between the breaks, I wasn't feeling well at all.

"It was more of a mind game for me; on some level I was really struggling to be out there. I was just telling myself, 'Keep going, go as long as you can, keeping pushing through'.

"To push through for five hours, when I felt absolutely horrible through the day, I take more out of that than anything.

"I could easily have gone harder, played a big shot, got out for 20 or 30. I felt horrible today, so it was actually a win getting 90 … I'm actually really happy with it."

And while Khawaja's was the star turn, he wasn't Robinson Crusoe through Australia's all-important first innings, with half-centuries from Cameron Green (79) and Alex Carey (67) also worthy of special mentions in the context of this list.

A total of 391 looked all the more imposing when Pakistan were bowled out for 268, and when Khawaja again played the lead role with a brilliant 104no in Australia's second innings to set up a declaration, it was over to the bowlers to complete the job on the final day, which they duly managed to do, with Nathan Lyon claiming 5-83 in a famous win.

It was Australia's first series win in Asia in more than a decade, and their first in Pakistan in a generation. And if not for Khawaja holding firm after that mini collapse on the opening morning, it could have been so different.

13) Steve Smith

Second Test v England, Lord's, 2019

Batter's score: 92

Team score at start of innings: 2-60

Team score at end of innings: 8-234

Percentage of team total: 36.8

Next highest score: 36

Match result: Match drawn

Series outcome: Series drawn 2-2 (five matches)

By Martin Smith

At the end of arguably the most thrilling duel in Ashes cricket this century, Steven Smith was battered and bruised by Jofra Archer as Australia held on for a draw to maintain their 1-0 series lead.

But, as Smith was quick to point out, Archer could not land the most telling blow of all – taking the Australian's wicket – as the right-hander went on to produce one of the most dominant Ashes campaigns of all time.

Smith arrived at Lord's in August 2019 fresh off twin hundreds in the first Test at Edgbaston, his first match back from a year-long ban, and with memories of his double hundred at the Home of Cricket four years earlier still in his mind.

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But the main difference from the first Test was the presence of debutant Archer, England's ace in the pack who had already steered his adopted county to an emotional World Cup win earlier in the summer.

Responding to England's first innings of 258, Australia wobbled to 4-80 by stumps on day three before a steadying 60-run stand between Smith and the main who replaced him as Test skipper, Tim Paine, on the fourth morning brought the Australians back into the game.

Smith was imperious throughout, punching Stuart Broad through the off side, driving Ben Stokes down the ground and launching Jack Leach over wide mid-on to bring up another half-century.

But having breezed to 70, the match changed when Archer was given a new spell from the Pavilion End and unsettled 30-year-old for the first time in the series.

Bowling in excess of 150km/h as grey clouds hovered above, Archer struck Smith on the forearm before landing a frightening blow high on his neck, leaving the cricket world holding its collective breath as the Australian star, for one terrifying moment, lay motionless on the turf.

Having thankfully got to his feet, Smith's absence from the crease for medical assessment handed England the upper hand.

But in a comeback that was part Lazarus, part Monty Python's black knight, Smith returned at the fall of the next wicket to warm applause and – despite his heroics – some boos from sections of the Lord's crowd.

He then launched two stunning boundaries off Chris Woakes – one a swipe over mid-wicket, the other a sumptuous back foot drive through cover – before he misjudged an in-swinger and was trapped in front for 92, just short of another deserved century.

But Smith's influence either side of Archer's vicious spell ensured Australia's first-innings deficit would be just eight runs, and the hosts ultimately ran out of time to force a result on the final day.

While it was Smith's concussion replacement, Marnus Labuschagne, who was the batting hero of that last day, it was far from Smith's final act of a memorable series.

He would finish the campaign with 774 runs from just four Tests and, tellingly, his wicket intact against the brilliant Archer.

Return on Tuesday as we bring you Part 2 of 'Worth a ton: Top Aussie Test knocks under 100'