On his day Eric Alfred Burchell Rowan was a delight to watch. Few have been as fearless at the crease: batting against Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller without gloves or the box was no joke. Off the field he was the outspoken rebel, never hesitant to give it to the authorities. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the day when Rowan combined the two features, scoring one of the most astonishing hundreds of all time, on December 30, 1948.