Steve Waugh turned 52 on Friday. (Source: Express Archive)
Former Australian captain Steve Waugh and cricketer Mark Waugh turned 52 on Friday. Though the two brothers share their birthdays, Steve is 4 minutes elder to Mark. The elder brother made his international Test debut in 1985 and played a total of 168 matches while Mark Waugh donned the Australian Test jersey in 1991 against England.
Steve Waugh has been known as one of the best captains that Australia had and rightly so because he became only the second Australian captain to win a World Cup. He achieved the feat in 1999 at Lord’s when the Aussies thumped Pakistan by 8 wickets. Batting first, Pakistan showed no resistance to a formidable Australian bowling attack. Shane Warne spun the web for Pakistan batting unit in the final as he grabbed four wickets in the process.
Wasim Akram’s troops were bundled out for 132 in 39 overs. In reply, Adam Gilchrist hammered the Pakistan bowling to score a fifty in the final game. He scored 54 while Mark Waugh remained unbeaten at 37. Australia eventually won the World Cup by 8 wickets.
Steve Waugh was terrific batsman in the longest format too. He scored a total of 10927 runs at an average of 51.06 that included 32 hundreds in his career. He led Australia in 15 of their world-record 16 consecutive Test wins. While on the other side Mark Waugh too was a brilliant customer in Test cricket as he went on to score 8029 runs in 128 matches at an average of 41.81.
