Phillip Hughes hoped that South Australia’s first-class match with New South Wales on 25 November last year would help him earn a recall to the Australian Test side. “He was making a statement,” David Warner recounts in the batsman’s official biography. “He was going to go big. He was sick the night before, he was sick that morning, but he had to play because there was a Test around the corner.” Though not at his fluent best as the New South Wales attack tested him with the short ball, Hughes passed 50 and had designs on recording his 27th first-class hundred in the week of his 26th birthday. On 63, he received a bouncer, which he shaped to hook, but Hughes was too early on the ball and it struck him on the back of the neck. Hughes staggered for a few seconds and then collapsed. He would never regain consciousness and, two days later, was pronounced dead.
R.I.P

R.I.P