Justin Langer - Famous Duels and Partners

Famous Duels and Partners

Langer is famous for his trilogy of duels with Shoaib Akhtar. They both have great respect for each other as well as fear. Langer once said he has nightmares because of thunderbolt bouncers and good length deliveries, Shoaib answered that he has nightmares of Langer's square cuts, cover drives, pulls and hooks. During a match in Peshawar in 1998, Langer and Mark Taylor had a massive partnership. Shoaib was bowling at an extreme pace on a batsman's paradise. In that match Langer played a square drive off Akhtar's bowling that went for four between deep point and deep backward point. Shoaib rates this shot as the best stroke played by a batsman against his bowling.

Makhaya Ntini and Curtly Ambrose are among the very few bowlers who have been able to use their pace and accuracy to pressure Langer. In his 100th test, Langer was hit by a devastating bouncer from Ntini (South Africa v Australia, 3rd Test, Johannesburg, 2nd day). He underwent scans in hospital and suffered concussion. Despite the risk of being killed if hit on the head again, Langer padded up to bat in the second innings if it was required of him. Captain Ricky Ponting wrote in his diary, that because of Langer's intention of defying medical advice, he would have had to declare the run chase and forfeit the match to prevent Langer from facing the bowling. Brett Lee scored the winning runs before he was needed, however.

Justin Langer's most notable opening batting partner was Matthew Hayden. The opening pair represented Australia in more than 100 Test innings. The pair made 5654 runs while batting together in partnerships, with an average of 51 runs per partnership; only Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes of the West Indies have scored more Test runs as a partnership, with 6482.