There are two ways to score a match-winning century - the boundary-laden bonanza and the impish quick-singled scamper. In the space of ten days in January 2002, Chris Cairns and Michael Bevan provided indelible examples of each. Chasing 242 at Brisbane, New Zealand had slumped to 98 for 5; needing 246 at Melbourne, Australia were 82 for 6. The response? Both men scored 102 not out, and they both turned a potential rout into a stunning last-over victory. Like a true predator, Cairns crept to position with 25 runs in 43 balls, then pounced the moment panic set in. He drilled yorkers into the stands at long-off, he cracked bouncers beyond the man at fine leg, and he completed the match - and his hundred - with a vast straight six and a scudding cover drive for four. Such slaughter is not Bevan's style. Only when the run-rate was slipping out of hand did he respond with violence, with three fours in an over. For the remainder of his innings he was like a woodland animal, nudging and nurdling, chivvying and chasing, and turning the ones into twos and the twos into threes with impossible speed between the wickets. The year was barely four weeks old, but already there was something in it to tell the grandchildren about. Andrew Miller

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