A true colossus of the game, as is evident from his physical traits and his aggregates, Matthew Hayden was one of the most dominant opening (or otherwise) batsman of his times. Not perhaps since Viv Richards has a batsman just casually strolled down the wicket and smashed fast bowlers over their heads for sixes (that his imposing physique made it look all the more menacing also helped).
In what is hard to imagine in retrospect, Matthew Hayden had a rather hard initiation into Test cricket. After an unenterprising debut against South Africa in 1994 at Johannesburg (the same opposition he would play his last Test against, 15 years later) where he registered scores of 15 and 5, he was dropped until picked again almost 3 years later for the home series against the West Indies.
Although he scored a hundred (125) in the Adelaide Test match, his returns over the rest of that series and in the following series against South Africa (again) meant that he was dropped into wilderness again and with Mark Taylor and Michael Slater going strong at the top of the order, a return to the side seemed improbable, if not impossible. He also stated in an interview that although he was scoring heavily in shield cricket, Mark Taylor did not want him to take Slater's place in the side since they had an excellent opening combination going.
But, a testament to his heavy scoring at the first-class level and the eventual sobering down of Slater's form meant that Hayden was picked for Australia's tour of India in 2001, he amassed 549 runs in the 3 Test rubber, and for the next 8 years would make the opening slot his own. In the 90 Tests that he played since then, he scored a little more than 8000 runs at an average of more than 54 and held his own in a team that had other greats like Ponting and Gilchrist.
Career Summary and Peak
Hayden's career can be split into 4 parts, as has been summarised above. From his lame debut until the end of the South African tour in 1997 he played 13 Tests and averaged a shade above 24.
With his comeback into the side in 2001, started the most successful phase of his career. From the start of the 2001 tour of India until the completion of Sri Lanka's tour of Australia in mid-2004, Hayden scored 4523 runs in 42 Tests, scoring a century at an astonishing rate of one in every 3.8 innings. He was comfortably the world's best batsman during these three years, outscoring the next placed Brian Lara by more than 800 runs, had scored 6 more centuries than the next placed Ricky Ponting, and averaged only below Jacques Kallis (70.11).
From July 2004 onwards until the culmination of the Ashes, Hayden was just a pale shadow of his otherwise dominant self. In the 16 Tests he played during this phase, he scored only 837 runs at a humble average of 30.07, and for a man used to reeling off Test hundreds for fun, he didn't register a hundred for 30 innings!
After his failure in the first 4 Ashes Tests, Hayden's place in the side was in serious jeopardy with selectors explicitly stating that a failure in the 5th Test at the Oval would mean curtains to Hayden's career. Hayden responded with a gutsy 138 in the first innings, and although Australia did not win that game, Hayden lived on to see another day.
From then on till his last test, he played 32 Tests, scoring almost 3000 runs at an average of just under 50, scoring another 10 centuries.
A Giant on Australian Wickets
Australia's domination of world cricket rested primarily on their ability to bat their opposition out of the game, which became all the more ominous on fast and bouncy Australian wickets. From 27 Mar 2001 to 3 Jan 2009 (Hayden's most productive period), Australia scored more total and (per wicket) average runs (47.9), and scored them faster (3.80 runs per over) than any other team in world cricket.
At the forefront of this domination was Matthew Hayden, beating bowlers to a pulp before the likes of Ponting, Martyn and Gilchrist peeled off every shred of resistance they might have had to offer.
Matthew Hayden was one of Australia's most successful batsmen at home, he has scored more runs (5210) aside from Ricky Ponting, Allan Border & Steve Waugh and averages higher (57.88) than everybody else barring Bradman, S Smith, Michael Clarke Mike Hussey and David Warner.
That Australia boasted a win/loss ratio of 7.2 during this period (36 wins and 5 losses) is mainly due to Hayden's consistent performances at the top of the order.
The Home/Away Dichotomy
Let me state at the very outset for the title may suggest otherwise, Hayden was a fine overseas player. 9 overseas centuries at an average of 43 are good numbers in any era.
This analysis is not about making an overarching statement than it is about pointing out an interesting trend in the Southpaw's stellar career, and I will restrict his career span to start from the 2001 India tour.
Till July 2004, Hayden was menacing on overseas wickets. He followed up his successes of the India tour with good performances in UAE and Sri Lanka. Till the end of this phase, Hayden averaged more than 60 in overseas Tests.
But, as his averaged started to dip, his circumspectness on overseas wickets increased. From here on till the end of his career, Hayden averaged only 34 overseas with only 2 centuries which is surprising given the fact that he played spin bowling better than most batsmen in his team.
The Lone Ranger
A strike rate of more than 60 sums up Hayden's attacking game very well. But aggregates can be misleading, for the most important aspect of batsmanship in Tests is how to pace/shape-up an innings and strike rates are a snapshot of its culmination.
I would suggest the users watch his hundreds (available aplenty on youtube) and watch how Hayden constructed a century. Unless the pitch was an absolute belter, Hayden would get his head down and graft for the first fifty runs or so and accelerate only later in the innings. Its a shame that such granular data is not readily available on the web for it can provide deeper insights into a batsman's style and impact
An interesting little finding from Hayden's career is his ability to bat when others around him do not find the going easy. Amongst Australian batsman, he is one of only 2 players (along with Victor Trumper) who has scored two 150+ innings in a losing cause (203 vs India at Chennai (2001) & 177 vs West Indies at Antigua in (2003)).
While it seems like a pretty long list, but fancy this one fact: 28 out of the 93 scores of 150+ scored in a losing cause have come against Australia showing just how dominant they have been in the game's longest format.
P.S. Taking all countries into account, it is Brian Lara (8) who has the most 150+ innings in a losing cause.
Top of the Tree and (Nearly) the Mountain
Perhaps the most gratifying moment of Hayden's career came when he blasted 380 against a hapless Zimbabwean bowling attach at Perth in 2003 to briefly hold the record for the highest Test score (Lara overtook him 6 months later). In the two-Test rubber, Hayden plundered 501 runs at a strike rate of 89.3!. At the end of the rubber, the Zimbabwe players would surely not have wanted to see more of him soon.
But this is not the only time when Haydos (nearly) claimed the top spot in batting's pecking order. Almost a year prior to this momentous innings, Hayden reached 935 points in the ICC rankings table, which is the fourth highest rating points achieved by any Australian batsman after Bradman (961), Steve Smith (947) and Ricky Ponting (942).
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