Get back and bowl us out

Reading Paul Reiffel's little piece on Steve Waugh's epic 200 at Kingston during the 1995 Australia-Windies series reminded me that the Waugh-Ambrose confrontation is one of the classic misremembered events. Ask someone when that took place; the odds are that the person will reply that it took place during the 200 itself, at Kingston. But of course, it didn't. The confrontation took place at Trinidad, in the first innings, as Waugh made 63 not out, and the rest of the team collapsed. But most people run the 200 and the starefest together into the same innings because that confirms a more colorful myth: one in which Waugh stared down Ambrose on his way to beating the Windies and winning back the Frank Worrell Trophy. That the confrontation was separated from the 200 by days doesn't seem to quite fill this picture out right.