KEY POINTS:
"Come outside and take a look at this", said the Don to his teammates as Stan McCabe let rip against the English in 1938. "You might never see the likes of it again."
It's hard not to feel similarly about Jacob Oram after his spell-binding century at the Waca.
The giant all-rounder is destined to play many more destructive innings in his career, but will surely find his unbeaten 101 against Australia yesterday - the fastest ODI century by a New Zealander - a hard act to eclipse.
All around Australia, punters have been tipping a glass to Oram and the Kiwis after their courageous, but ultimately unsuccessful chase for the hosts' 344, coming up just eight runs short.
It was a showdown that saw some much-needed respect returned to the New Zealand dressing room; a night when Australians finally received the contest they'd been pining for, and when Oram confirmed his potential as a world-class all-rounder.
Long respected for his ability with the ball, Oram nevertheless headed into the showdown at Perth with question marks still hovering over his batting, despite a match-winning 86 against England last week.
But when all the dust had settled, the 28-year-old had gone a long way to snuffing out any lingering doubts, having smote half-a-dozen sixes while giving the Australians their first genuine fright of the summer.
To be fair to Oram, his career record had been heavily influenced in his early days when he often batted anywhere between No 7 and No 9, limiting his opportunities.
For all that, until his back-to-back personal bests against England and Australia, it was hard to argue against a body of statistics that revealed just three half-centuries in seven years, the most recent in early 2004.
That's probably what tempted respected Australian cricket writer Andrew Ramsay to describe Oram as a "poor man's Chris Cairns", a throwaway line that made Oram feel even more determined to prove the worth of his batting.
Oram has talked before about his dislike of being compared with New Zealand's former all-rounder, saying he'd rather be viewed as an individual in his own right.
Yet parallels are inevitable when someone like Oram starts bludgeoning attacks as he did in the early hours yesterday, evoking the memory of not only Chris Cairns, but also Chris' folk-hero father, Lance.
It was, after all, Lance who gained worldwide attention for smashing six massive sixes at the McG in 1983 and Chris who stole the world record for clearing the ropes in tests.
Possibly the one aspect of Chris Cairns' batting that Oram has yet to master is the exquisite manner in which his predecessor paced himself through an innings, leading to a few of New Zealand's most magical moments.
One was in the Champions Trophy final at Nairobi in 2000 when he steered New Zealand to their first international title with an unbeaten 102, and another was a season later at the Gabba, when he struck the same score to lead his team home against South Africa.
You get the feeling, though, that it's only a matter of time until Oram follows suit. Who knows, he might even be better.
Fastest NZ 100s
* 71 balls, Jacob Oram, v Australia 2006-07
* 75 balls, Chris Cairns v India 1998-99
* 75 balls, Craig McMillan v Pakistan 2001-02
