Inside Jason Gillespie’s double century against Bangladesh in 2006, Ada Gilchrist act, last Test for Australia, interview, video, highlights

It would not be an Australia v Bangladesh series without cricket fans casting their mind back to Jason Gillespie’s iconic double century.

As the current sides prepare for the first Test in Darwin, 20 years have passed since the nightwatchman batted and batted and batted some more to finish 201 not out after 425 balls and more than nine and a half hours at the crease.

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In a team boasting all-time greats Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchirst, it was somehow Gillespie who contributed the bulk of Australia’s total of 4/581 declared as they won by an innings and 80 runs in the second Test in Chattogram.

It is easily the highest ever Test score by a nightwatchman, comfortably surpassing South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher’s 125 against Zimbabwe in 1999.

It is a feat that gone down in Australian cricket legend.

He has told the story countless times in the last two decades, but Gillespie still cannot believe he pulled it off.

“These days when I tell the story I certainly add a little mayonnaise to it,” Gillespie told foxsports.com.au with a chuckle.

“All jokes aside, it was a long time ago now and 20 years later I still have to pinch myself.

“It’s pretty surreal. Probably the most unlikely cricket innings that there’s been.”

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Before that Bangladesh tour, Gillespie looked cooked.

He was only 31 years old but after a poor Ashes series in England in 2005, the one-time tearaway who had played 69 Test matches to that point was dumped from the Test side.

During the home summer of 2005/06, Nathan Bracken had been given a taste, but Australia’s selectors mainly preferred to partner Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill together as Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee took the new ball against the West Indies and South Africa.

Andrew Symonds pitched in with his medium pace after Shane Watson went down injured in the first Test of the summer.

On the following tour of South Africa, Stuart Clark debuted and Michael Kasprowicz, who also copped the axe after the Ashes defeat, was recalled in McGrath’s absence due to being with his late wife Jane during cancer treatment.

Come the tour of Bangladesh roughly a month later, Kasprowicz was sidelined and the door re-opened.

“I probably didn’t expect to get back into the Australian side after being left out following the Ashes,” Gillespie recalled.

“I had a half decent summer with South Australia, Australia had been to South Africa and there were a few players out, so I was called up.

“I think in part due to my experience in the subcontinent over the years.”

Gillespie had been a key cog in the Australian team that won in India in 2004.

He gave a reminder of his subcontinent prowess in the first Test in Dhaka.

Gillespie took a miserly 2/47 from 23 overs in the first innings as the hosts racked up 427 off the back of 138 from opener Shahriar Nafees.

He then contributed 26 in a 73-run partnership with Adam Gilchrist to help Australia stay in the game.

The tourists were 7/156 when Gillespie walked to the crease and Gilchrist’s 144 lifted Australia to a total of 269 – a 158-run first innings deficit.

Gillespie then snared 3/18 from 11 overs as Bangladesh were rolled for 148, setting the Australians 307 for victory.

Of course, Gillespie would be there when the winning runs were hit.

He finished unbeaten on 4 alongside skipper Ricky Ponting, who saved the day with 118 not out.

The pair’s relationship was tested a little more in the second Test though.

Gillespie took 3/11 from five overs as Bangladesh were knocked over for 197 on day one.

Ponting then tasked Gillespie with being Australia’s new No.3 to ensure they got through to the close of play with as minimal damage as possible.

That was achieved when Gillespie (5*) made it to stumps alongside opener Phil Jaques (38*).

The problem arose when Ponting joined him at the crease on the third day with day two only consisting of 22.4 overs due to rain.

“I love his story that he ran Ricky out and never played for Australia again,” Gilchrist told foxsports.com.au with a laugh.

Gillespie sent Ponting back when the captain called him through for a quick single and the damage was done.

Ponting was run out at the bowler’s end for 52 with Gillespie blaming his admiration of his block into the off side for the mix-up.

Gillespie recalls that the only safe place from his captain’s wrath was out in the middle.

“I think he was pretty disappointed with what he thought was a great opportunity to pile on a big score,” Gilchrist recalled of Ponting entering the dressing room.

“That was confirmed when Dizzy got 200. Ricky might have got a few had he stuck around.”

Michael Hussey was the one to fill his boots alongside Gillespie.

Hussey racked up 182 in a partnership of 320 with Gillespie, whose incredible knowledge of statistics allowed him to inform his batting partner of which Australian legends’ highest score he had surpassed as the innings went on and on.

As well as loving statistics, most cricketers are a superstitious bunch.

Gillespie said he did nothing different to normal the night before the Test or on the night of day one.

Nor was he wearing a lucky pair of jocks or socks.

But the man, whose previous highest Test score was 54 not out, had scored just two half-centuries in 70 previous Tests and whose previous highest score in any form of cricket was 90 in E grade in Adelaide as a teenager, had put a lot of time, effort and thought into his batting ahead of the series.

“I’d batted in the subcontinent and knew I was going to face a lot of slow bowling targeting the stumps,” Gillespie recalled.

“If there was something I struggled with, it was straight at the stumps. I’d sometimes fall over, get my feet tangled up and get hit on the pad a lot.

“I remember at the time making a really conscious effort to stay up right and not get my front foot across the stumps to remove that threat of lbw.

“I had to trust myself to hit the ball.

“I knew the Bangladesh spinners were going to target the stumps because there wasn’t much turn in the surface.

“If I could keep my front out of the way, and hit the ball, I had a good chance of staying out there.

“And it was the same against the fast bowlers. There wasn’t much seam move or swing. It was always going to be stump-to-stump.

“I just had to keep that big front pad out of the way.”

He did exactly that for 574 minutes.

Gillespie hit 26 fours and smacked two sixes on his way to his double century before Ponting pulled the pin on the innings with Australia boasting a 384-run lead on the fourth day.

When he walked off the ground to a standing devotion, Gillespie muttered to Michael Clarke (23*), “son, that’s how you score a Test double ton”.

While he also did not see what all the fuss was about from the batters in the dressing room who had come off sore after lengthy innings.

“I was stiff and sore in my left glute, my left butt cheek because I was lunging forward against the spinners so much,” Gillespie recalled.

“There was a bit of weather around that Test match, so we were on and off the ground a bit.

“I actually didn’t find it too bad. Compared to bowling, batting, aerobically, I found pretty easy. Bowling was always much more taxing aerobically.

“It was the concentrating.”

Gilchrist was one of the first to embrace Gillespie back in the dressing room.

Australia’s legendary wicketkeeper batter had missed out on a hit and watched most of unfold from the dressing room with his batting gear on.

Not that he was bitter about not getting the chance to face up in the middle.

“It was a phenomenal effort. A show of sheer determination and commitment to the cause,” Gilchrist told foxsports.com.au.

“And then that slowly turned into a period of sheer enjoyment and disbelief at what he was achieving from him and everyone around him.

“He was such a reliable ally down the bottom of the order.

“I batted with those guys a lot, batting at No.7, and it was probably not that surprising that Dizzy, if given the chance, would be able to bat for an extremely long time because he had an extremely sound defence.

“He was able to pick off runs as they presented themselves. It was great fun to watch.

“For one of the great team men, everyone enjoyed witnessing it a lot. He enjoyed it immensely, clearly.”

Once the victory was sealed on day five with Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill taking nine wickets between them, Gilchrist then handed Gillespie the ultimate honour.

With Justin Langer missing the tour after sustaining a severe concussion from a Makhaya Ntini bouncer in the final Test in South Africa, which was also the feisty opener’s 100th Test, he passed on the song masters reins to the vice-captain.

Gilchrist thought he was fitting to give the duties to Gillespie in Chattogram, for what turned out to be an unforgettable farewell to Test cricket.

Gillespie was ultimately in the team to take wickets, and Stuart Clark was picked ahead of him for the 2006/07 Ashes.

Clark went on to top the wicket charts with 26 English scalps as Australia farewelled Warne, McGrath and Langer with a 5-0 whitewash.

Gillespie was certainly not oblivious to his fate.

“That was huge. I’m forever grateful to have had that opportunity,” he recalled of leading the team song.

“I suppose I’ve never spoken to Gilly about it specifically, but I’ve always suspected deep down that he probably knew, as did I, that that was probably it for me as a Test cricketer.

“There was a number of months before the Ashes in Australia and as I was there as a replacement player, I was probably going to go back into the queue.

“I certainly had that in the back of my mind that it could be it.”

Gillespie is not bitter about being dropped from the Test team after being named man of the series.

Instead, the story that persists 20 years later and will for many more is the double ton.

Anyone who spends time with the man himself will hear it.

As Gilchrist said with a laugh, he talks about it “always, non-stop”.