Matthew Hayden's profile by CricketArchive

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Player:

ML Hayden

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DateLine: 3rd June 2008

 

Matthew Hayden is a big, burly and well built batsman who doesn’t hit the ball with grac but only power. He simply strikes it on the basis of his strength, mental as well as physical. Also a fine catcher in the slips and gully areas, off the field he is a fisherman who loves to cook.

 

Hayden’s Test debut came against South Africa in 1994, and he only played two teams for a number of years, the team being West Indies. He didn’t make the best of starts and chances came few & far between after that. But the tour to India in 2001 was the turning point of his career. He slog-swept his way to 549 runs which is an Australian record for a three-Test series at that time. By the end of 2001 he had broken Bob Simpson's Australian mark for most Test runs in a calendar year and formed a prodigiously prolific opening partnership with Justin Langer.

 

He came good in the one-day arena too, but he took a long time to establish himself in this form of the game and by the time the 2003 World Cup rolled around he was ranked among the top three batsmen in both forms of the game. Later that year he hammered 380 against Zimbabwe at Perth, briefly breaking Brian Lara’s long standing Test record. He now stands behind only Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh on Australia's all-time list of Test century-makers with 30 hundreds. He has now been bought by the Chennai Super Kings to play in the Indian Premier League.

 

After having a wonderful time in the IPL, he picked up an Achilles injury during the tour of the Caribbean and had to return home abruptly. But he didn't have to worry as Katich and Jacques had a wonderful time making sure that Hayden's absence was not felt.With Hayden turning 37 in October he will think of the ashes 2009 as his final Swansong.