January 8 – Greg Chappell's Déjà Vu moment at the SCG

Greg Chappell will fondly remember January 8th for producing a couple of his best bowling performances in two different formats that too at the same venue. Chappell, who took three 5-wicket hauls in his International career with his medium-pace, bagged two of them on the same date separated by eight years in Test and ODI formats respectively at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground.

January 8, 1973 – The Pakistan collapse:

In the 1973 Sydney Test against Pakistan, Greg’s elder brother Ian Chappell led Australia towards a 3-0 series whitewash. After electing to field first, Pakistan restricted the Aussies to 334 and stood on top in their first innings with help of Mushtaq Mohammad’s century. Mushtaq put on a 139-run stand for the 5th wicket along with Asif Iqbal, who scored 65. Greg broke the stand by dismissing Asif and Mushtaq to bring the home team back into the game.

Greg Chappell chipping in a couple of more wickets to register his first and only 5-fer in Test cricket with the figures of 18.6-5-61-5 to reduce Pakistan 360/10 from 270/4. Later, Australia were bowled out for 184 in their 2nd innings which couldn’t be possible without an 83-run stand for the 9th wicket to set a target of 159 in front of the visiting side. Pakistan crumbled to 106 in the chase as Max Waller took 6/15 in his 16 overs.

January 8, 1981 – The great Indian fall:

Coming into the 9th game of the World Series Cup, India and Australia won three games each and lost two. Australian captain Greg Chappell elected to field first which turned out to be a great decision as the Aussies picked up a couple of early wickets. Chappell introduced himself as the first change and soon struck by dismissing Roger Binny and the Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar. Chappell later removed Yashpal Sharma, Karsan Ghavri and Dilip Doshi as Indians were bowled out for just 63 from 50/4. Aussies chased down the total in 21 overs losing one wicket and Chappell unbeaten on 33.

This was India’s the then lowest ODI total which was surpassed only by the 54/10 against Sri Lanka in 2000. Greg Chappell recorded his best ODI figures of 9.5-5-15-5 bettering his 5/20 against England in 1977. While Chappell took his 2nd ODI 5-fer, both as a captain, no other player took even one while leading the team by then. In fact, no other Australian captain till date has picked up an ODI 5-fer even a 4-fer for the matter except Steve Waugh (4/40 against India in 1998).