The world has always seen the Australian cricket team as a mighty fortress and undoubtedly so, as a bastion of excellence. Superlative in talent, super competitive, a team that seldom cuts any corners and almost always inspires and entertains, Australia are to the world of cricket what the term Armageddon is to the context of the spiritual battle between the good and evil.
They are the beautiful beasts that one can only awe at whilst still being in the ring against them. And yet, there are situations where even the mighty are overcome during the course of a whirlwind battle.
The same has happened to Australia in the pinnacle of world cricketing events, such as the ICC finals. And three distinctly talented batters, talisman of the day, have shown how the giant can be dismantled in a contest where the winner takes it all.
Presenting 3 critically important batters with a century each against Australia in a major ICC final.
Aiden Markram
There's a sense of poise, quietness and even aloofness about the right-handed batter that strikes the mind when seeing him in combat mode. And most recently, at Lord's, Aiden Markram cut the picture of a monk with a cricket bat in hand amid the scene of an intense battle.
Markram, arguably speaking, represents the finest batting talent in the present South African test line up and his patience and timing are great strengths, not just for him, but for his entire unit.
Having said that, the gritty right-hander made history for himself and most importantly, for his nation, by stroking an emotional, gravity defining 136 that shone brightly in the Proteas' mega win in the ICC World Test Championship final 2023-25 cycle.
He has already hit 8 test centuries in his career and is yet to play 50 contests in red ball cricket. But that his recent ton came amid immense pressure and against a bowling quartet comprising names like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Lyon augured well for his nation.
Sir Clive Lloyd
When we think of the phrase inspirational captain, then of late, more often than not, the phrase only comes to attach itself with the great legend of the game, MS Dhoni.
But a question we must ask ourselves and probably don't is if he is the only captain out there who, with much due respect and we love him a lot, is inspirational?
In this social media age that often functions on overly expressed love, probably truth is that we tend to isolate the others whilst only feeling for a cricketer or two, in general.
Because truth certainly is that Sir Clive Lloyd was a courageous and inspirational captain, someone who, in his very first assignment as West Indies' ODI captain, took his team to glory in the 1975 edition of the Prudential World Cup.
Not only that, he scored a massively important century against the Australian cricket team back at Lord's in 1975 whose talented players included names like Rodney Marsh, Chappell Brothers, Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee.
The courageous left-hander made a 102 off just 85 deliveries, long before strikingly good looking strike rates weren't discussed as often as the falling stock prices in today's times or the launch of new IPO's.
If that's not brazen courage, then what is?
Aravinda de Silva
A glorious, courageous and formidable force as a batsman and an equally wonderful person off the pitch, Aravinda is, and will, always be considered a legend of the game. Except one, we don't talk about all that much- do we?
But back in the big Wills World Cup 1996 finals, he hit a fine and crafty century against Australia to help Sri Lanka cruise to a great, perhaps definitive world cup win that helped his country rise to the forefront of worldwide attention.
He cut, pulled, drove and hopped on his way to taming greats like Warne and McGrath and not to forget, Fleming as he scored an unbeaten 107 off just 124 deliveries to score a fairy-tale end for his country, thus carving a supreme knock against a mighty fine opponent.
