All said and done!

Travis Headrsquos century that demolished England in Perth last week will sit comfortably in the front row of epic Ashes hundreds by Australians If the century that led to Australiarsquos eightwicket win in the seriesopener was an unbelievable effort the backstory of it is nothing short of fascinating as well Regular opener Usman Khawajarsquos back spasm opened up a vacancy at the top and Head by all accounts volunteered to fill in According to teammate Nathan Lyon Head said before walking out to bat with newbie Jake Weatherald ldquoIt canrsquot be that hardhellipmight as well go get rsquoemrdquo Get them he did and Head wrote himself into Ashes gloryCertain things spoken in the dressing room before undertaking a particular task or facing a tricky situation can go down in cricket folklore to become as famous as the resultLike Steve Smithrsquos team on the second day of the recent Perth Test Ian Chappellrsquos Australians could well have ended up losing the 197273 Trinidad Test against the West Indies At the luncheon interval on the final day of the third Test Rohan Kanhairsquos side needed just 66 runs for victory with five wickets in hand Skipper Chappell spent some part of the break lying on a bench with his cap over his face When it was time to resume battle he told his bowlers to stick to their line and length ldquono matter whatrdquo And as he walked through the door he remarked ldquoIt will be a good one to win Max Walker that tireless fast bowler struck in the first ball of the new session by having a wellset Alvin Kallicharran caught by wicketkeeper Rodney Marsh and the rest of the batting collapsed in the space of 21 runs The West Indies were stunned on a ground where they were hoping to open their series account through peerless spinner Lance GibbsIn years to come West Indiesrsquos most heartbreaking loss was the 1983 World Cup final to India at Lordrsquos Then too they were favourites and the opposition captain mdash Kapil Dev mdash didnrsquot have much to say to his team as they walked out to defend 183 Sandeep Patil in his 2024 book Beyond Boundaries said that the captain merely uttered ldquoShero chalo one more effortrdquo India went on to beat the West Indies and change cricket foreverIf beating twotime champions West Indies was a massive task so was South Africarsquos when they had to chase down 435 to win the final game of the 200506 ODI series against Australia at the Wanderers in JohannesburgThen South Africa captain Graeme Smith revealed to cricketcom later that allrounder Jacques Kallis lightened up the gloomy midinnings dressing room atmosphere by saying ldquoBowlers wersquove done a great job and Australia are 15 runs shortrdquo Kallis 070 in six overs and 20 off 21 balls was not the only one grinning a few hours later when South Africa went past the target in the 50th over for a onewicket winFortytwo seasons earlier South Africa were in Australia for a fivematch series that ended 11 in 196364 In November 1963 the visiting team faced a South Australia side that had West Indies great Garry Sobers as their overseas player When his turn came to bat Sobers requested his captain Les Favell to let him wear his maroon West Indies cap according to Ian Chappell in a podcast with David Evans Favell was a stickler when it came to wearing the South Australia cap but granted Sobers the permission Chappell wondered why Sobers wanted to use the West Indies cap and in 1991 while on commentary duty in the West Indies he asked Sobers at Barbados about the reason The great West Indian said that it was high time then that South Africans had a good long look at what a West Indies cap looked like Chappell emphasised to me on Tuesday that Sobers was not being prejudiced while he said that I almost forgot to tell you that Sobers scored a grand 155 and South Australia won by eight wicketsSobers was not one to keep talking about his success but he could talk about what he could do in retaliation During the 197172 Rest of the World versus Australia series he copped quite a few bouncers from Australian pace ace Dennis Lillee Sobers came over the Australian dressing room one evening to tell their captain Chappell that Lillee should know that he could bowl quick and send down bouncers too And sure enough in the Melbourne lsquoTestrsquo of that series Sobers bowled Lillee a bouncer which made him in Sobersrsquos view ldquopinkrdquo He later got him out mdash caught by Bishan Singh Bedi for a duckDressing room utterances can be reassuring too Jatin Paranjape former international and national selector told me on Tuesday how crestfallen he was at the end of Day Three in Mumbairsquos 19992000 Ranji Trophy semifinal against Tamil Nadu Getting out for 15 at onedrop as Mumbai went about responding to TNrsquos first innings score of 485 hadnrsquot helped the teamrsquos cause ldquoI was sitting with my head in my hands at Wankhede Stadium Suddenly Sachin Tendulkar tapped me on my shoulder and said to me in Marathi that we will win this gamerdquo Mumbai were 4708 with Tendulkar 213 and Abey Kuruvilla 0 the unbeaten batsmen Tendulkar went on to smash an unbeaten 233 as Mumbai scored 490 even as his last two batting partners had ducks against their names Mumbai were not happy with the vital lead They ended up beating TN by eight wicketsMeanwhile Head will be delighted that he didnrsquot get ahead of himself with his preinnings utterance at Perthmiddayrsquos Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper