February 23, 2002, was the day when Adam Gilchrist, playing in his 29th Test, hammered the then fastest double hundred in Tests. At the receiving end were the hapless South Africans, who were coming fresh from a 0-3 beating at the hands of the same opposition in their backyard. That defeat sort of acted as a prelude to the agony Glichrist was to inflict on them. The poor South Africans could not recover from the onslaught and surrendered meekly to hand over Australia victory by an innings’ margin and go 1-0 up in the three-Test series. From the onset, things were not in South Africa’s favour, as they were without the services of their skipper and best bowler Shaun Pollock, who missed the game due to an injury. Australia thrived in his absence and pummelled 331 runs for the loss of five wickets at stumps on Day 1 after winning the toss and electing to bat first. With his 122, Matthew Hayden took the honours on the first day while Gilchrist was unbeaten on 25. Day 2 was when the real carnage took place, as Gilchrist unleashed a wide range of attacking shots, butchering the South African attack and sending virtually everything thrown at him towards the boundary ropes. A shot at fortune A local advertiser had put up a hoarding inside the stadium well behind the deep midwicket boundary, offering a gold bar worth 1.3 million rand (over £80,000) to anybody who could hit it directly. The offer seemed to be in no danger till Gilchrist arrived. But once he was in the middle, it looked like every ball he hit had a chance of earning the jackpot. The wicket-keeper batsman even had a go at it once the gentle medium-pace of Neil Mckenzie was in operation, and he missed the fortune only by a whisker, as a massive six that came out of his willow landed just metres away from the hoarding. Gilchrist’s expression said it all, as he earnestly hoped to hit the bull’s eye but was a tad disappointed to miss the target. He kept going hard at the bowlers, reaching his fifty in 89 and hundred in 121 balls. All this while, he found an able ally in Damien Martyn (133), who though was supposed to be the senior partner in their union, but played second fiddle to a ballistic Gilchrist. The two added 317 for the sixth wicket, falling just 29 short of Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton’s long standing record. At Tea on Day 2, Gilchrist had reached 199 of 211 balls; a knock that had 18 boundaries and eight sixes. The first ball from Jacques Kallis post-Tea was sent for a boundary, thus making him the then fastest Test centurion in the history of the game. He broke the 20-year old record made by Ian Botham, when the English legend scored a 220-ball double hundred against India at the Oval. The impact of his ferocious power-hitting depressed the South Africans so much so that the home side could never recover; playing out a mere 86 overs in their two innings and going on to lose the match by second heaviest margin in the history of the game — an innings and 360 runs. The aftermath South Africa went on to lose the series — second against Australia in succession. They were also forced into a phase of rebuilding, as Allan Donald quit playing Test cricket after the match while the batting line-up too was shaken up a bit. Gilchrist’s record did not stay for long, as only after three weeks, New Zealand’s Nathan Astle set a new record for fastest hundred, which stays till date. (A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is senior writer with CricLife and CricketCountry. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)