On This Day-November 27, 2014: The Tragic Death of Phillip Hughes

It was an event that shook the cricketing world like no other before. On the 25th of November, 2014, Phillip Hughes of Australia was hit in the neck by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield Match between South Australia and New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). He fell to the ground and never regained consciousness and died in hospital two days later - on the 27th of November. Hughes was just 25.

Hughes made his Test debut against South Africa at the age of 20 in Johannesburg. After getting a duck in his first innings, he impressed and top-scored for Australia with a fluent 75 playing a crucial role in their 162-run victory.

He was the Player of the Match in just his second Test - the second match of the series against South Africa in Durban - where, opening the innings he scored an attacking 115 off just 151 deliveries smashing 19 fours and 2 sixes against the likes of Steyn, Morkel and co. He followed that up with a 160 in the second innings becoming the youngest batsman in Test cricket history to record a hundred in each innings of a Test.

Hughes' third Test century came against Sri Lanka in Colombo (SSC) in 2011 - he scored a gritty and patient 126 in the second innings helping Australia to draw the match and win the series.

Overall, Hughes played 26 Tests for Australia in which he scored 1535 runs at an average of 32.65 including three hundreds.

He also represented Australia in 25 ODIs and returned with an average of 35.91 and strike rate of 75.09 including a career best of 138 in a series-levelling effort against Sri Lanka in Hobart in 2013. Hughes played just one T20I for Australia.

Hughes had a stellar First-Class Record where he aggregated 9023 runs in 114 matches at an average of 46.51 including 26 hundreds and a best of 243.

He also had a very impressive List-A record with an aggregate of 3639 runs in 89 innings at an average of 47.25 including 8 hundreds.

Hughes scored 63 in his final innings.

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