Memo to the openers: if you score a half-century and don't go on, be afraid, be very afraid.
Aaron Redmond joined Matthew Bell and Lou Vincent of recent years in facing the guillotine immediately after scoring a test half-century.
Vincent scored 92 against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in 2005
before finding himself on the outer for more than two years. That dropping came just two tests after his 224, at No 4, against Sri Lanka.
Bell's last test innings was the 69 he scored against England at Napier earlier this year, after being demonised all summer by Ryan Sidebottom. Like Vincent, he was dropped earlier in his career just two tests after scoring a century, in 2001 against Pakistan.
Redmond, after scoring 83 and 19 at Adelaide, joins that unwanted club but can also claim to be part of a unique double that will never likely be repeated. Father Rodney famously scored a century and a 50 in his only test - he was dropped after struggling for form and with contact lenses on a tour to England - while Aaron falls after scoring his second test 50 at the Adelaide Oval.
Redmond might be asking why it was him and not his seemingly charmed partner who was dropped.
Selector Glenn Turner admitted that the only thing that saved the out-of-form Jamie How was more time had been invested in him - cold comfort to Redmond.
"Aaron's averaging 23 and Jamie is only half a point higher," Turner said. "Performance wise there was nothing in it but we decided to stay with the guy that we've put more time into."
