aditya kumar's weblog

More than Three decades of ODI cricket. Almost 35 years. Not one team, ever, crossed the 400 run barrier. Not even when they played 60 overs per innings.

So today, When playing for a series winning decider against South Africa in Johannesburg, the Australian team made a bulky sounding 434/4 in their allotted 50 overs, most people believed that the rest of the cricket about to follow, had nothing but an academic value. Another Aussie dominated day in the offing? Different opposition, same result?

But South Africa have a certain man in their team called Herschelle Gibbs and I have always felt he has often been underestimated in the arena of International Cricket usually dominated by Batsmen of the likes of Lara, Tendulkar, Gilchrist …the list goes on… Blame it on his average of 35.77 runs maybe, he has usually found it difficult to get his photo printed on glossy paper.

Tonight, when he was playing the innings of his life, most of the world was sleeping. Tomorrow, in fact, a few hours from now, everyone will be talking about it.

Belief, you know, does some incredible things to people. One 35 year old man, once discarded by his critics and the team selectors makes his way back to the team and becomes the first Indian bowler to take 500 test wickets, the second-fastest ever to achieve this record. At 35, when most cricketers nowadays “consider” retirement and start tuning their English speaking skills to allure the viewer from the commentary box, this man tells us that ‘600 wickets is a possibility’. Another cricketer, a few thousand miles away, goes on to bat with a target in front of him that no one ever in the history of cricket had to achieve and facing a bowling attack which is literally the world’s most potent under any conditions. And almost single-handedly, this man turns the tables.

If you watched the game live, I bet you must’ve had the feeling that these had to be the highlights, such was the frequency of the ball crossing the boundary. Afterall, it’s not everyday that you get to see an innings comprising of 7 sixes and 21 fours coming from one man’s willow in little more than 2 hours time. Such was the rush.

And what is with Gibbs and dropped catches? When he dropped Steve Waugh in the 1999 World Cup, it was (rightly) said he had dropped the World cup. Today, Bracken dropped a sitter from Gibbs when he was at 130. Ouch. No World Cup but still, that must’ve hurt.

As I mentioned, it took more than three decades for any team in International cricket to achieve 400 runs in a one day innings. The best part was, the record lasted merely four hours.

Match report here and here. Scorecard here.