Matthew Hayden's debut in International Cricket
A masterful strokemaker and a symbol of strength in the dominating Australian side of the 21st century, Matthew Hayden made his debut in May 1993. Australia squared off against England in three One Day Internationals, the first of which was played at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester. England skipper Greame Gooch won the toss and put England into bat first. Hayden, who was selected in the Australian limited overs side before he was picked for the Test team, faced the first ball of the match. Along with opening partner Mark Taylor, Hayden got Australia off to a solid start, and the duo put on 60 runs for the first wicket. Hayden made 29 off those runs, and hit four fours during his 55 ball stay at the wicket. Australia went on to win the match by four runs.
In March 1994, Australia played three Tests against South Africa in South Africa. The first Test match was played at the Wanders Cricket Stadium in Johannesburg where Hayden made his Test debut. Hayden had a disappointing Test match, scoring just 15 and 5 respectively in the two innings. Australia were all out for 256 in the fourth innings of the Test match and went on to lose the game by 197 runs chasing a total of 454 runs for victory.
Hayden would not play ODI cricket for Australia after 1994, till six years later in 2000. Hayden finished his One Day Cricket career with 161 matches, and was a part of the 2003 World Cup winning Australian side. Hayden also ended up on the winning side in the West Indies four years later in the 2007 World Cup, finishing with 659 runs at an average of 73.22. In all, Hayden played 161 ODI matches for Australia, the last of which was against India at Brisbane during the 2008 Commonwealth Bank series final. In Test Cricket, he held the World record for a short while when he made 380 against Zimbabwe at Perth. Eventuall he ended up with 30 hundreds and an average of 50.