Greg Chappell — Century on Test Debut, Perth 1970

The WACA had been part of the Sheffield Shield since 1947 but had never staged a Test. The 1970-71 series, with its expanded six-Test schedule, gave Perth its first international fixture, and the Australian Board's choice of venue for the second Test was both a recognition of the Western Australian Cricket Association's growing role and a gamble on a pitch that nobody yet had calibrated for the five-day game.

Chappell came into the side as the obvious successor to a fading middle order. His brother Ian was already established; Greg, technically more orthodox, had been earmarked for years.

Chappell, twenty-two and the younger of the two brothers in an Australian middle order being rebuilt around them, had played one season of county cricket with Somerset and a partial Sheffield Shield campaign before his selection. The WACA, hosting its first Test, was already showing the steep bounce that would become its trademark, and Snow had reduced Australia to 5/107 by lunch on the second day.

Chappell took forty minutes over his first run. After tea on the second day he hit 58 in an hour, reached his century in the final session, and was finally out for 108 from 218 balls. The partnership with Redpath, who made 171, took Australia to a position from which Lawry could declare and the match was drawn. Chappell would, four years later, complete an even rarer feat — twin hundreds either side of the order in the same Test, 247 not out and 133 against New Zealand at Wellington in March 1974.

“I had no idea what to expect. The bounce was something I had not seen at any Shield ground.”

Chappell played every Ashes Test of the series after Perth, scoring three further fifties. Within four years he was the most prolific top-order batsman in the world; by 1975 he had succeeded his brother as captain. His 1974 twin centuries at Wellington — 247 not out in the first innings and 133 in the second — remain among the most concentrated displays of batting form in Test cricket.

The WACA was confirmed as a Test venue and would, within five years, become the fastest pitch in Australia and the spiritual home of the Lillee-Thomson partnership.