Ashes 1998/99 | Australia vs England 1st Test
A spectacular thunderstorm, which set in forcibly at tea on the final afternoon, prevented any further play and allowed England to escape with a draw. They had been set 348 to win by Taylor, in his 100th Test, and briefly threatened to worry Australia... but reality soon set in. MacGill, the leg-spinner playing only because Warne had not fully recovered from his shoulder operation, bamboozled Butcher, and later Hussain and Ramprakash as well, by which time England had more than one eye on the darkly massing clouds.
A result might just have been obtained if the floodlights had been turned on in the gathering gloom before tea. But the England management had vetoed their use, saying that the case for using the lights was unproven. (The previous season, the South Africans had felt their batsmen were disadvantaged under lights in gloomy weather at Sydney.) England were very satisfied to escape from Brisbane without suffering the deflating First Test defeats which had shaped the previous two Ashes series in Australia.
The Gabba had a curious look for this match, with separate building sites cutting the spectator accommodation in two as new stands were erected for the soccer matches of the 2000 Olympics. Anyone wanting to move from one end to the other had to leave the ground and walk around the block. The gaping holes did mean that Mexican waves were doomed to failure, and the reduced capacity of around 14,000 was all but reached on the first three days.
Overall, England had only themselves to blame for sliding into trouble. On a good batting pitch, they reduced Australia to 178 for five on the first day, but then gave Steve Waugh and Healy two lives apiece. Late on the first day, Waugh, then 68, was dropped by Hussain at second slip, low to his right off Gough. Earlier, on 29, Waugh had escaped a run-out when Mullally, the bowler, stuck his hand in front of a wicket-bound throw from Stewart. Healy, cutting and carving characteristically on his home ground, had 36 when he mis-pulled Gough to third man, where Fraser grassed the chance. And early next morning, on 62, Healy played on - to the despairing Gough again - but the bails stayed put.
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