Michael Slater's Masterclass vs. South Africa 2nd Test at Sydney in 1993-94.

Michael Slater's Masterclass vs. South Africa 2nd Test at Sydney in 1993-94. A combative and wholehearted cricketer, Michael Slater has played many vital innings for Australia as an opening batsman with his adventurous brand of strokeplay. In 1993-94, the South African team was returning from the sporting wilderness and playing Australia at the SCG. In a cracking test match, South Africa beat Australia by a narrow margin of 5 runs and took the lead 1-0 in the three-match series. In this famous Test match, Michael Slater scored a brilliant 92 off 262 balls, including 5 fours. Allan Donald finally bowled him just short of his third test century.

Throughout his career, Slater was susceptible to the "nervous nineties": of the 23 times he reached a score of 90 in a Test inning, he was dismissed nine times before reaching 100. Michael Slater played 74 Test matches and 42 one-day internationals for Australia. He was a part of the Australian squad that finished as runners-up at the 1996 Cricket World Cup. A specialist right-handed batter as well as a very occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler, Slater represented the New South Wales Blues in Australian domestic cricket and played English county cricket with Derbyshire. Fanie De Villiers was declared player of the match for 4 for 80 and 6 for 43. His performance was against a strong team, away from home, and while defending a very low target. The match umpires were Bill Sheahan, and Steve Randell, as Tv umpire Ian Thomas and match referee Jackie Hendricks. This was test match # 1243.