Cramping, vomiting, unbroken: Remembering Dean Jones’ Madras epic 40 years on

Dean Jones would have been 65 this year.

While the kid from Coburg, Victoria was wrested from this earth prematurely in 2020, his memory lives on for cricket fans all over Australia and the world, perhaps no more so than from his exploits on this day 40 years ago at Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, India, or Madras as it was then known.

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It was on that baking hot and humid day on the east coast of India that Jones delivered one of the most iconic innings Test cricket has seen, in one of its most iconic matches, just the second tie in more than a century of Test cricket.

While he would go on to be best known as a trailblazer of the 50-over game, it was in this gruelling match of red ball cricket that Jones truly entered cricketing folklore.

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Jones battled the Indians, the elements and his own body to score a crucial double century (210) in the first innings of the First Test.

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Yet it may never have happened were it not for the infamously 'tough love' delivered by Australian captain Allan Border.

Images of a 25-year-old Jones crouched over the barren Chidambaram Stadium playing surface, cramping and vomiting alongside the pitch are etched in the minds of cricket fans.

Jones wanted to retire hurt due to his rapidly failing physical condition, but rather than offer sympathy the legend goes Allan Border accused the young batsman of being a 'weak Victorian'.

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'I woke up in the hospital at one o'clock in the morning'

Rightly or wrongly Jones stayed at the crease, and ended up in the history books not to mention on a drip in an Indian hospital with severe dehydration after losing a reported eight kilograms of bodyweight during the innings.

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"I came off the ground and they put me in an ice bath," Jones later recalled.

"When I got out of the bath I completely passed out and woke up in the hospital at one o'clock in the morning."

Just over a day later Jones was back at the batting crease, scoring 24 runs in the Australian second innings as a declaration set the Indians a final innings target of 348.

Somewhere cruelly, for all his bravery Jones' doubt century didn't deliver a victory for the Australians. In fact only a somewhat controversial LBW decision (aren't they all?) saw Indian spinner Maninder Singh given out with just two balls left in the match to allow the Australians to claim a desperate tie.

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With the second Test ruined by heavy rain, the three-match Test series ultimately ended 0-0 and with Jones as Australia's top scorer with 371 runs at 92.75.

You may be gone Deano, but you are not forgotten.

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