Allan Border remembers Dean Jones' Tied Test epic

'It was such a mammoth innings'

September 22, 2006

Dean Jones' life-threatening, career-changing 210 was the greatest individual performance of the second Tied Test, which occurred in almost suffocating heat at Madras in 1986. On the 20th anniversary of the result, Cricinfo runs a Peter English interview with Allan Border where he remembered the Jones innings, his own hundred and the tragedy of a lack of television coverage for a wonderful contest.

Allan Border scored 106 in the match that made Dean Jones a hero © Getty Images

"Before the match I'd asked Deano to take on the No. 3 role, which had been a problem for us for a while, and he jumped at the chance. He repaid the faith with one of the great hundreds in debilitating, hot and humid conditions. It was the defining moment of his career.

It sounds a bit strange now, but we didn't now a lot about dehydration back then. We knew we needed to drink but we drank lots of soft drinks. The longer Deano batted the more dehydrated he got, and then he couldn't keep any fluids down and started throwing up. I batted with him till he was dismissed. It was such a mammoth innings.

When I got out, probably more because of exhaustion than anything else [Border scored 106 and combined for a fourth-wicket stand of 178 with Jones], I felt like a shot duck - and I'd only batted for half the time that Deano had. It was extraordinary that he ended up in hospital at the end of it, everyone was pretty worried. Even though he made more runs in the second innings [24] it took him a long while to get over it.

The match was one of the greatest - the second tied Test - but it didn't get full coverage because of the limited television capabilities of the time. And that's a real tragedy. It doesn't get any better than a tied Test and that match really sowed the seeds for what has become a great rivalry. Deano's innings was one of the highlights. For me it hasn't lost any of its impact."

This interview first appeared in Inside Edge's 2004 issue of The 50 Greatest Innings by Australians. Jones' 210 was voted fourth behind Don Bradman's 254, Stan McCabe's 232 and Bradman's 334.

Peter English is the Australasian editor of Cricinfo

© Cricinfo

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