New Delhi. The game of cricket is as interesting on the field as its statistics are. Now take the example of the legendary West Indies all-rounder. The cricketer whom many sports lovers consider a greater all-rounder than Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Ian Botham, was never able to open his account in ODI cricket. This legend is none other than Sir Garfield Sobers. Garry Sobers, who scored the highest score in Test matches for a long time, could never have his score recorded in ODI cricket.
Everyone knows the story of cricket's greatest batsman Sir Don Bradman. If he had scored even 4 runs in his last innings, his test average would have been 100. But he could not even open his account in the last innings. Gary Sobers also could not open his account in his last ODI match. Sobers started his ODI career on 5 September 1973. Incidentally, this also proved to be his last ODI match.
Gary Sobers played 93 Test matches in his career. In these matches, he scored 8032 runs at an average of 57.78 and also took 235 wickets. There is not a single cricketer in the world who has taken more than 200 Test wickets and scored more than 8000 runs at an average of more than 50. When Sobers fans look at the ODI record of their favorite player, they definitely wish he had opened his account on 5 September 1973.
The statistics of that debut match of Gary Sobers are interesting. Sobers could not score a single run in that match. He took only one wicket and West Indies lost that match by one wicket. In this match played in Leeds, West Indies scored 181 runs in 54 overs. In reply, England scored 182 runs in 54.3 overs by losing 9 wickets. Sobers continued to play Test matches after this match, but never played ODIs again. Today when we look at his statistics, he has more than 8000 runs in Test matches, but he has 0 runs in ODIs.
Let us tell you that Gary Sobers played an unbeaten innings of 365 runs against Pakistan in 1958. This was the highest score in Test cricket at that time. This record of Sobers remained intact for 36 years. In 1994, Sobers' compatriot Brian Lara broke this record by playing an innings of 175 runs.
tag: On this day, Test cricket
first published : September 5, 2024, 08:42 IST
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