You Guys are History !!!!!!

After returning from an exile of 21 years , in English Summer of 1994 , South Africa were touring for the first time to the country where game was born . The Grandalia waited for a metamorphosis battle between the hosts and South Africans in a historic test series . It took only 5 days for South Africa to register a memorable win on the theater of Lords . Infact they crushed the English team who in 90s was going through one of their worst phases ,by a massive 356 runs . The second test ended in a draw after old war horse Peter Kirsten at 39 became the second oldest centurion since second world war and the series boiled down to the third test at the Oval . England were desperate to win and draw level after an year of shame and disgrace where they lost against India (0-3) Srilanka(0-1) Australia (1-4) West Indies (1-3) and were barely able to win against a weak Newzealand (1-0) . While the South African were ready to go down in the pages of history by winning the test series only on their first attempt after return , the test promised to be nothing less than a thriller .

Things got heated before the test when England dropped their only spinner in Phil Tuffnell. Media had enough of the matter in the summer with Mike Athertorn's dust in pocket scandal , England's massive loss at Lords and now the decision to go with four pacers was a baffling one . The temperature between two teams soared up when Jhonty Rhodes was struck on the helmet by a Devon Malcom snorter. Rhodes misjudged the length of the ball and was hit on the helmet . As he fell on the pitch , fears grew up that he might suffer a stroke ( He suffered from epilepsy ) . Rhodes lied on the ground for almost four minutes and everyone at the Oval seemed concerned for him . Thankfully he stood up amid cheers of spectators . However as a precaution he was taken to the hospital . The incident was on the Sports pages of all the leading daily nationals. Daily Mirror not only put up the cracked helmet but had an eye capturing line “ This helmet saved Jhonty's life '' . The test progress rapidly and South Africa after the early jitters scored a healthy 332 , thankfully to the Hulk Brian Macmillan and a stoic Dave Richardson who took them from 136-5 to a competitive total , a total which some deemed as enough for English batsmen against top class South African pace bowling and England almost proved every of their critics right as they stumbled . Atherton fell to a dubious

decision and Gooch 's torrid form continued at 7-222 and that score was possible only due to two Surrey players Graham Thorpe and Alec Stewart . Thorpe made 79 of 115 balls , Stewart contributed 62 valuable runs of 106 balls , yet by Friday evening England was stuttering and for the horror of home crowd it seemed that weekend was almost ruined by Atherton's team . However Darren Gough had some other ideas , he decided it was time to take on the likes of Donalds and Devilliars . Even Philip DeFreitas joined him and together they took on the attack to South Africans , both of them were specialy severe on Donald who gave away 30 runs in 2 overs . The partnership continued on the next day but then the moment came we are talking about as the 9th wicket fell, outcame no.11 Devon Malcom.

Allan Donald later told that while he didn't thought Malcom was responsible for Rhodes incident, a lot of other South African were of the view that Rhodes was in such a state only because of Devon . They all wanted to give it back to him , thats why when he came , there were few voices who said lets give him back . The first ball from Devilliars was a bouncer which crashed into Malcom's helmet taking out a small piece of foam . While Garry Kirsten tried to inquire Malcom about his wellness , Malcom was in no mood to make friends he said “ I will kill you guys'', while Kirsten smiled , some of the other fielders joined in , especially Hansie Cronje was more vocal and he clapped standing from slips. This made Malcom even more ferocious and he said “ YOU GUYS ARE F*****G HISTORY '' , It was quite debatable whether Malcom said such words but Allan Donald later on confirmed it , that Malcom has said those words.

The ferociousness was there in the eyes of the Malcom who bowled with lot of aggression in second innings in no time he knocked over brothers Gary Kirsten and Peter Kirsten , The Innings at Oval turned out the last one for Peter . The score was 0-2 and the next wicket was the one which Malcom cherishes most , he knocked of the stumps of Cronje who had his stumps taken for a walk of a snorter form angry Malcom. The revenge was done but Malcom was far from finished after looking to recover from the score of 2-3 , Malcom completely destroyed them when he came back again . He finished off with 9-57 , in what was and infact still termed one of the greatest and the most hostile spell of fast bowling .

England needed only 207 but considering their failure to fulfill the promises their was great chance that they would have fallen short. In such a situation 41 Year Graham Gooch playing in his last test at home , started in a thunderous mood hitting 33 of just 20 balls with Atherton he added 56 in just 5 overs and England next day won the match by 8 wickets with Hick's 81 runs . Allan Donald gave away astonishing 105 runs in 12 overs . England leveled the series 1-1 but was astonishing was the brutal display of aggression which lacked in 1990s English team . South Africa on the other hand were left to deal with wounds of the Malcom who really made them a history on that fateful day at The Oval .