Cricket: Ton up for iconic SCG

The Sydney Cricket Ground. Photo / Getty Images

Great moments, heroic acts, major controversies and some of cricket's greatest names - there's not much that hasn't happened in the SCG's Test match history.

The second Test between Australia and India starting on Tuesday will be the 100th at the Moore Park venue, just the third ground worldwide after Lord's and the MCG to achieve the milestone.

It all began in 1882 when the sixth Test match in history was held at the SCG between old rivals Australia and England.

In a low-scoring affair off-spinner Joey Palmer took 11 wickets including a first innings haul of 7-68 as Australia claimed a five-wicket win on their way to a 2-0 Ashes series win.

Given the history between Australia and England it's not surprising Ashes clashes dominated the early history of Test action at the SCG.

That rivalry reached its nadir during the infamous Bodyline series in 1932-33 and it was at the SCG where Australian fans got their first look in a Test match at English captain Douglas Jardine's controversial leg theory tactics.

Fast bowler Harold Larwood took 10 wickets as England romped to a 10 wicket win on their way to a controversial 4-1 series victory.

Despite the loss Stan McCabe played one of the great knocks at the SCG, scoring an unbeaten 187 amid the barrage of deliveries aimed at his upper body, an innings cricket historian David Frith described as "among the most stirring innings Test cricket has ever produced".

The iconic fan Stephen Gascoigne, better known as Yabba, epitomised Australian's feelings towards Jardine when he uttered his famous quip at the English skipper after he tried to wave away a fly while out in the field.

"Oi, leave our flies alone, Jardine," he is quoted as saying. "They're the only flamin' friends you've got here."

England were again involved in controversy at the SCG almost four decades later when paceman John Snow hit Australian tailender Terry Jenner with a bouncer during the last Test of the 1970-71 Ashes.

A fan grabbed Snow by the arm when the English quick returned to his fielding position on the boundary and cans rained down from the stands onto the field, prompting England captain Ray Illingworth to lead his team from the ground in the first walk-off in Test history.

The modern era has had its controversies as well, none more than the fiery 2008 Test the last time India were on these shores.

Michael Clarke was the unlikely hero with the ball as Australia wrapped up record-equalling 16th straight Test win with a late flurry of wickets on day five.

But it was Andrew Symonds' allegation that Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh had called him a monkey which dominated discussion, the eventual hearing into the incident resulting in a suspended three-match ban for the Indian and a fiery rebuke from Symonds' friend and team-mate Matthew Hayden.

That match and its bitter aftermath certainly did little for Indian-Australian relations on the cricket pitch but this summer's visitors have plenty of SCG highlights to add to the ground's history.

Their mammoth 7(dec)-705 in the first innings in 2004 is the highest Test total at the ground and it was at the SCG that Sachin Tendulkar announced himself to Australian audiences.

At the 1992 Test the 18-year-old Tendulkar became the youngest player to score a century at that level in Australia when he made an unbeaten 148.

Tendulkar is just one of many famous names to make their mark at the ground.

Shane Warne's 300th Test wicket was secured at the SCG in 1998, while West Indian great Brian Lara scored 277 as a 23-year-old and went on to call his daughter Sydney in honour of the city he fell in love with.

Former Australian captains Allan Border and Steve Waugh have special SCG memories as well.

Waugh's dramatic career-saving century in 2003, posting three figures with a boundary off the final ball of the second day's play against England, has since been immortalised in a bronze statue outside the ground's dressing rooms.

Border's moment of Sydney glory was a touch more unconventional for the left-handed batsman.

He never scored a Test hundred at the venue but against the Viv Richards-led West Indies in 1989 he claimed 11 of his 39 Test wickets in one match, going on to post the best bowling figures by an Australian Test captain in the victory.

Iconic, revered and much-loved, the SCG is a cornerstone of cricket's history - a ground with as many stories to tell as any other in the world.

- AAP