On this day at the MCG five years ago, Matthew Hayden suffered one of the most ignominious Test dismissals imaginable; bat aloft, he allowed the fifth ball of an Australian innings from Curtly Ambrose unimpeded passage to off stump before trailing off into an enveloping silence. It was hard not to cast one's mind back to that moment when he raised his bat again today, for the happier purpose of acknowledging applause for his fifth Test century of 2001. The figure of five years ago seems unrecognisable when compared with the batsman who today also seized from Bob Simpson a 37-year-old Australian record for Test runs in a calendar year.

The height and outsized physique that once made Hayden appear ungainly now lend him an undeniable presence. He pervades the crease, his middle-stump guard completely obscuring the wicket from the bowler.

Now and again, there is a hint of Hayden's old fallibility when he topples over to the ball on middle and leg, like a mighty oak under the axe. But South Africa's bowlers, even Shaun Pollock, have moved the ball too little to trouble him, both here and at Adelaide. Hayden also bends his front knee more than of yore when playing forward, and is surprisingly fast on his feet to slow bowling. The stroke with which Hayden overhauled Simpson's record of 1381 Test runs in 1964 was exemplary, an inside-out drive over the infield from Claude Henderson, using the power he has always possessed and the nerve to which this is now harnessed.

There are notable parallels between the former record-holder and his dispossessor. Both commenced their Test careers in South Africa, and had spent seven years in international cricket building rather modest records before their breakthrough years: Simpson's Test average at the outset of 1964 was 35, Hayden's at the beginning of 2001 only 26.

Once he found his feet, however, Simpson never looked back. Hayden may be the same. The late bloomer, gingered by the remembrance of failure, can be even more predatory than the player who seems to assimilate Test cricket's demands immediately: Hayden's Test average, 45.61, already exceeds that of Mark Waugh, a prospect unthinkable a year ago.

In his native Queensland, of course, Hayden has always been a favourite. When he was surplus to Australian requirements, they'd quote his handsome first-class record with a sage nod, as though his exclusion was another of those tricky southern conspiracies like daylight saving. Nowadays, to judge from the ovation for Hayden's hundred today, even those southerners have come round.

Gideon Haigh is one of Australia's leading cricket writers and the author of several books including The Summer Game, the acclaimed history of Australian cricket from 1948 to 1971.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd