It was the stunning Ashes debut that made teenager Ashton Agar a household name overnight, when in July 2013, he scored a record 98 runs for Australia at Trent Bridge from his position as number 11.
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But in his own retelling of the story, the hero was fellow batsman Phil Hughes, whose grit and guidance on the field, as they shared a record-breaking partnership, will stay with him forever.
The partnership was "75 per cent him [Hughes] getting me through, 25 per cent me getting him through. He made me feel so relaxed. Even with a look from him I knew what he meant. He didn't have to say anything," Agar recalls in a new book.
The story of how Hughes helped Agar that day is one of many touching tributes to the late cricketer in a new book, Phil Hughes: The Official Biography, written by Malcolm Knox and Peter Lalor, which goes on sale on November 11.
"I swear that each and every ball of that partnership he came up the pitch and said, 'Next ball'. He had such control, he was so strong mentally," Agar says in one of two extracts from the forthcoming book published by News Limited on Saturday.
"His emotion never changed during that stand. The most he would say, when I played a good shot, was 'Good boy, good boy', and then, 'Next ball'. He stayed so even. The more I think about it, the more it amazes me."
When Agar was finally caught out, he says Hughes came up to him.
"I was maybe a little disappointed, but the sincerity of his handshake is what I remember. It was a special bond, the greatest moment I have had and it was shared with him. It feels extra special now," he says in the extract.
The book will be published close to the first anniversary of Hughes' death. The young cricketer, aged just 25, died on November 27, 2014, two days after being felled by a bouncer at the Sydney Cricket Ground, in a death that prompted an international outpouring of grief.
In the same extract, teammates discussed Hughes' own anguish at being dropped by selectors shortly after the record-breaking episode with Agar.
"It made me consistently angry on his behalf," Ed Cowan is quoted as saying. "He was livid after that Lord's Test when he was dropped. He was furious... They were talking about how there was no batting coming through, but we had a guy who could be the best batsman in the world and they kept doing him over."
In a separate extract, also published by News Limited, Hughes' family members discuss his youth playing backyard cricket, and his cheeky, warm personality.
"You struggled to stay angry with him; he would always make you laugh and stop being angry," his sister Megan says in the extract.
"If he was irritating me, not making me angry, just playing with me, I would go, 'You're annoying me, Bro', and the next minute he would do something funny and it was totally gone. I could not stay angry, he had the most beautiful heart."
Fairfax Media
