They don't make pitches like they used to: if a Test captain declared at 32 for 7 nowadays, Lord Condon's phone wouldn't stop ringing. But sticky wickets do funny things to a man, and when Australian captain Lindsay Hassett called time on that score in 1950-51, nobody complained ... because his side won the first Test by 70 runs. By any standards, it was an astonishing game of cricket. The first day was standard fare: Australia batted first on a good wicket, and England bowled extremely well to restrict them to 228. Then came a typically tropical Brisbane rainstorm - and after that, the fireworks. With the ground flooded, no play was possible on Saturday, and eventually it resumed after lunch on Monday. England were chucked straight in at the deep end on a pitch on which the ball grubbed one minute and reared nastily the next.

Reg Simpson's hour-long 12 was up there with Alec Stewart's 9 not out in Jamaica in the abandoned Test of 1997-98 for bravery, but once he fell, the dam burst. England were 49 for 1 at one point, but in the rest of the day they and the Aussies lost 19 wickets for only 81 runs. England declared at 68 for 7, then Australia at 32 for 7, and England closed on 30 for 6, still 163 from victory.

Len Hutton and Denis Compton had been controversially demoted to Nos 8 and 9 in the hope that Tuesday would bring friendlier conditions. It didn't - but Hutton still managed to play one of Test cricket's most remarkable innings ...

Almanack report
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Rob Smyth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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