"If you've ever been lucky enough to score a century you'll know how seismic a moment it is when you finally get over the line. Some play the game for a lifetime and never make one, the three-figured kingdom for ever out of reach, a promised land they are destined never to enter. Yet cricket lures you back like a devilish lover. You just can't quit it. Next time might be your time. It could be you. Why not?"
"Bethell spent eight balls on 99, his parents Graham and Giselle and his sister Laura having an entire cattery's worth of kittens in the Brewongle Stand. Their boy appeared at least to be ice cold, shutting up shop to the returning threat of Mitchell Starc and the unrelenting Scott Boland before seizing on the opportunity to skip down and loft Beau Webster's off-spin over midwicket to get over the line and carve his first notch."
"In cricket the century is the hallmark of individual success for a batter, the team sport unique in the way that it lauds personal milestones. The Test Match Special statistician Andy Zaltzman says that a century carves an immutable notch in a player's history and, at the highest level, an eternal legacy in the annals of the game. The difference between a two- and three-figure score might be only one run but in cricket they may as well be different realms."
A cricket century functions as a defining individual achievement within a team sport, creating an enduring legacy in a player's record. The psychological gap between 99 and 100 runs is vast; a single run can separate obscurity from immortalisation. Players often experience intense pressure and visible nerves when approaching three figures, and even great players can falter on the cusp. Jacob Bethell experienced that intensity, spending eight balls on 99 before confidently lofting an off-spinner over midwicket to reach his maiden first-class and Test century in Sydney. The century remains a coveted, career-defining notch.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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