Something different: Chatara was metres away, bounding in, fifth ball of the over, and Dhawan was bending at the knees then abruptly snapping upright. Next, his feet went wandering, two shuffle-steps sideways. Chatara still hadn't arrived. The ball when it came inhabited the same roughly hazardous zone as the first two deliveries. Dhawan let it fly by. "Greatest spell of bowling of mine," Geoff Lawson is saying down the phone line, "Paddington End, a filthy, dusty SCG wicket, was my five straight maidens at Viv Richards who was going [35 not out] for his hundredth first-class hundred.
New South Wales versus West Indies. The ball was reversing a bit and I had about a 4-5 field because you almost set spin-bowling fields on that kind of SCG. Viv was on strike. First over: everything on the money, every ball coming in towards him, late, and you know what? He seemed to be thinking, 'Better not f*** it up. Better not play across the line.' Second over. Another maiden. I thought, 'I am not giving this bloke
anything' - no variety, no outswinging, no big offcutter or big offbreak. G Matthews was on at the other end. And the strike did not turn over. Whoever the other batsman [Gus Logie] was, he was getting twos or none. I bowled Viv 4.5 overs of the same ball - you know, 145k-an-hour reverse-inswing, each one hitting off stump exactly three quarters of the way up. We got to the last ball before stumps. And I thought, f*** it. He was wearing his cap, right? Bowled him a bouncer. Shitty SCG wicket. Old ball. I bowled him an absolute ripsnorter. Normally he'd never duck. He would have a hook. But he had been concentrating so hard on defence, and he was on the front foot, and… and it was
a f****** beauty. He went to sort of duck and half-hook it and his cap fell off, it landed next to off stump, and the umpire said "Stumps" and Viv bent over, very calmly, picked the cap up, put it back on his head, and as we were walking off the field he caught up with me halfway. They'd already named the first Test side. I wasn't in it. And Viv said, 'Lawso, I'll see you in the second Test, man.' Next day, G Matthews lobbed up a knee-high full toss and Viv smacked it over midwicket for his hundredth hundred."