Here i've tried to compare a very good list of ODI Batsmen to their Teammates. For the comparison i've selected a list of Batsmen who have scored over 4000 Runs and and average 40+ against the Top 8 ODI Teams.
For Comparison i've considered the matches where the Said player was playing and compared his Average and Strike Rate to the Rest of the Team's Average and Strike Rate.
List of 30 Batsmen make the Criteria Cut of 4000 Runs and 40+ Average vs the Top 8 Teams.
Following is the list sorted by how better they Averaged compared to their Teammates.

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	MG Bevan (AUS)	1994-2004	203	174	58	6200	108*	53.44	73.56	6	40	30.46	77.59	75.44%	-5.18%
2	AB de Villiers (SA)	2005-2018	191	184	35	8093	162*	54.31	99.75	20	46	31.3	83.57	73.51%	19.36%
3	V Kohli (INDIA)	2008-2020	225	219	33	10917	183	58.69	93.17	39	55	34.43	89.15	70.46%	4.51%
4	DM Jones (AUS)	1984-1994	160	157	24	5935	145	44.62	72.56	7	44	26.33	66.81	69.46%	8.61%
5	Javed Miandad (PAK)	1975-1996	223	212	40	7103	119*	41.29	66.76	8	47	25.12	67.15	64.37%	-0.58%
6	BC Lara	1990-2007	257	250	26	8970	169	40.04	77.5	16	55	24.38	69	64.23%	12.32%
7	IVA Richards (WI)	1975-1991	185	166	24	6705	189*	47.21	90.14	11	45	28.86	65.9	63.58%	36.78%
8	KS Williamson (NZ)	2010-2020	127	123	8	5189	148	45.12	81.58	11	33	28	87.1	61.14%	-6.34%
9	KP Pietersen (ENG/ICC)	2005-2013	118	111	13	4038	130	41.2	87.15	9	22	26.15	77.12	60.11%	13.19%
10	LRPL Taylor (NZ)	2006-2020	192	181	29	6860	181*	45.13	81.72	17	37	28.5	86.4	58.35%	-5.42%
11	SR Tendulkar (INDIA)	1989-2012	399	391	31	15495	200*	43.04	85.23	38	85	27.67	74.75	55.55%	14.02%
12	KC Sangakkara (ICC/SL)	2000-2015	333	316	29	11695	169	40.74	77.99	18	79	26.59	76.96	53.03%	1.20%
13	AD Mathews (SL)	2009-2020	180	156	40	4852	139*	41.82	83.46	3	34	27.53	81.73	51.91%	2.12%
14	JE Root (ENG)	2013-2020	138	130	19	5515	125	49.68	86.06	15	31	33.09	94.84	50.14%	-9.26%
15	MS Dhoni (INDIA)	2005-2019	310	267	74	9595	183*	49.71	87.11	7	68	33.17	85.91	49.86%	1.40%
16	CG Greenidge (WI)	1975-1991	127	126	12	5029	133*	44.11	64.79	10	31	29.52	71.17	49.42%	-8.96%
17	HM Amla (SA)	2008-2019	153	151	10	6616	154	46.92	87.79	20	34	32.38	88.29	44.90%	-0.57%
18	DL Haynes (WI)	1978-1994	235	234	27	8483	152*	40.98	62.94	17	55	28.47	70.23	43.94%	-10.38%
19	RG Sharma (INDIA)	2007-2020	197	191	27	8039	264	49.01	89.18	25	38	34.4	88.48	42.47%	0.79%
20	DA Warner (AUS)	2009-2020	118	117	3	4805	179	42.14	93.6	16	21	29.88	86.25	41.03%	8.52%
21	MEK Hussey (AUS)	2004-2012	162	141	38	4812	109*	46.71	86.56	2	35	33.19	82.86	40.74%	4.47%
22	JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	1996-2014	288	281	45	10071	139	42.67	71.89	15	74	30.91	78.95	39.53%	-8.75%
23	SPD Smith (AUS)	2010-2020	113	102	9	4127	164	44.37	88.73	11	23	32.09	90.08	38.27%	-1.50%
24	F du Plessis (SA)	2011-2019	122	117	16	4631	185	45.85	87.92	10	28	34.67	89.89	32.25%	-2.19%
25	MJ Clarke (AUS)	2003-2015	208	193	35	6865	130	43.44	79.08	6	50	33.52	84.31	29.59%	-6.20%
26	RT Ponting (AUS)	1995-2012	323	320	33	11843	164	41.26	80.37	26	72	32.47	80.83	27.07%	-0.57%
27	AJ Finch (AUS)	2013-2020	124	120	3	4844	153*	41.4	87.02	16	26	33.54	92.37	23.43%	-5.79%
28	Q de Kock (SA)	2013-2020	104	104	5	4334	178	43.77	94.5	14	19	35.53	89.97	23.19%	5.04%
29	ML Hayden (AUS)	1993-2008	136	133	10	5291	181*	43.01	78.01	10	30	36.34	82.66	18.35%	-5.63%
30	S Dhawan (INDIA)	2010-2020	122	119	7	4977	143	44.43	94.11	14	27	39.15	90.99	13.49%	3.43%

Here the % Avg and % SR indicate how better they did compared to their teammates. While Team's Avg and Team's SR are the Averages and Strike Rates of the Teammates in those matches.
P.S A -ve value indicates that the Player was that much worse than their team's Avg or SR.
Now the Same list Sorted by %SR

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	IVA Richards (WI)	1975-1991	185	166	24	6705	189*	47.21	90.14	11	45	28.86	65.9	63.58%	36.78%
2	AB de Villiers (SA)	2005-2018	191	184	35	8093	162*	54.31	99.75	20	46	31.3	83.57	73.51%	19.36%
3	SR Tendulkar (INDIA)	1989-2012	399	391	31	15495	200*	43.04	85.23	38	85	27.67	74.75	55.55%	14.02%
4	KP Pietersen (ENG/ICC)	2005-2013	118	111	13	4038	130	41.2	87.15	9	22	26.15	77.12	60.11%	13.19%
5	BC Lara	1990-2007	257	250	26	8970	169	40.04	77.5	16	55	24.38	69	64.23%	12.32%
6	DM Jones (AUS)	1984-1994	160	157	24	5935	145	44.62	72.56	7	44	26.33	66.81	69.46%	8.61%
7	DA Warner (AUS)	2009-2020	118	117	3	4805	179	42.14	93.6	16	21	29.88	86.25	41.03%	8.52%
8	Q de Kock (SA)	2013-2020	104	104	5	4334	178	43.77	94.5	14	19	35.53	89.97	23.19%	5.04%
9	V Kohli (INDIA)	2008-2020	225	219	33	10917	183	58.69	93.17	39	55	34.43	89.15	70.46%	4.51%
10	MEK Hussey (AUS)	2004-2012	162	141	38	4812	109*	46.71	86.56	2	35	33.19	82.86	40.74%	4.47%
11	S Dhawan (INDIA)	2010-2020	122	119	7	4977	143	44.43	94.11	14	27	39.15	90.99	13.49%	3.43%
12	AD Mathews (SL)	2009-2020	180	156	40	4852	139*	41.82	83.46	3	34	27.53	81.73	51.91%	2.12%
13	MS Dhoni (INDIA)	2005-2019	310	267	74	9595	183*	49.71	87.11	7	68	33.17	85.91	49.86%	1.40%
14	KC Sangakkara (ICC/SL)	2000-2015	333	316	29	11695	169	40.74	77.99	18	79	26.59	76.96	53.03%	1.20%
15	RG Sharma (INDIA)	2007-2020	197	191	27	8039	264	49.01	89.18	25	38	34.4	88.48	42.47%	0.79%
16	HM Amla (SA)	2008-2019	153	151	10	6616	154	46.92	87.79	20	34	32.38	88.29	44.90%	-0.57%
17	RT Ponting (AUS)	1995-2012	323	320	33	11843	164	41.26	80.37	26	72	32.47	80.83	27.07%	-0.57%
18	Javed Miandad (PAK)	1975-1996	223	212	40	7103	119*	41.29	66.76	8	47	25.12	67.15	64.37%	-0.58%
19	SPD Smith (AUS)	2010-2020	113	102	9	4127	164	44.37	88.73	11	23	32.09	90.08	38.27%	-1.50%
20	F du Plessis (SA)	2011-2019	122	117	16	4631	185	45.85	87.92	10	28	34.67	89.89	32.25%	-2.19%
21	MG Bevan (AUS)	1994-2004	203	174	58	6200	108*	53.44	73.56	6	40	30.46	77.59	75.44%	-5.18%
22	LRPL Taylor (NZ)	2006-2020	192	181	29	6860	181*	45.13	81.72	17	37	28.5	86.4	58.35%	-5.42%
23	ML Hayden (AUS)	1993-2008	136	133	10	5291	181*	43.01	78.01	10	30	36.34	82.66	18.35%	-5.63%
24	AJ Finch (AUS)	2013-2020	124	120	3	4844	153*	41.4	87.02	16	26	33.54	92.37	23.43%	-5.79%
25	MJ Clarke (AUS)	2003-2015	208	193	35	6865	130	43.44	79.08	6	50	33.52	84.31	29.59%	-6.20%
26	KS Williamson (NZ)	2010-2020	127	123	8	5189	148	45.12	81.58	11	33	28	87.1	61.14%	-6.34%
27	JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	1996-2014	288	281	45	10071	139	42.67	71.89	15	74	30.91	78.95	39.53%	-8.75%
28	CG Greenidge (WI)	1975-1991	127	126	12	5029	133*	44.11	64.79	10	31	29.52	71.17	49.42%	-8.96%
29	JE Root (ENG)	2013-2020	138	130	19	5515	125	49.68	86.06	15	31	33.09	94.84	50.14%	-9.26%
30	DL Haynes (WI)	1978-1994	235	234	27	8483	152*	40.98	62.94	17	55	28.47	70.23	43.94%	-10.38%

This Gives a clear picture of some players being a level above the others in terms of both Average and Strike Rate. However it's still not truly fair to look at this directly. Because the Average and Strike Rate Differential for openers is visibly less as compared to the Middle order batsmen. So a more accurate way of judging them would be sorting them by the Position they predominantly batted in.
So I divided the list into No 1-2, No 3 and No 4-7. A happy coincidence that all the three lists have exactly 10 Batsmen each.
No 1-2 sorted by %Avg

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	SR Tendulkar (INDIA)	1989-2012	399	391	31	15495	200*	43.04	85.23	38	85	27.67	74.75	55.55%	14.02%
2	CG Greenidge (WI)	1975-1991	127	126	12	5029	133*	44.11	64.79	10	31	29.52	71.17	49.42%	-8.96%
3	HM Amla (SA)	2008-2019	153	151	10	6616	154	46.92	87.79	20	34	32.38	88.29	44.90%	-0.57%
4	DL Haynes (WI)	1978-1994	235	234	27	8483	152*	40.98	62.94	17	55	28.47	70.23	43.94%	-10.38%
5	RG Sharma (INDIA)	2007-2020	197	191	27	8039	264	49.01	89.18	25	38	34.4	88.48	42.47%	0.79%
6	DA Warner (AUS)	2009-2020	118	117	3	4805	179	42.14	93.6	16	21	29.88	86.25	41.03%	8.52%
7	AJ Finch (AUS)	2013-2020	124	120	3	4844	153*	41.4	87.02	16	26	33.54	92.37	23.43%	-5.79%
8	Q de Kock (SA)	2013-2020	104	104	5	4334	178	43.77	94.5	14	19	35.53	89.97	23.19%	5.04%
9	ML Hayden (AUS)	1993-2008	136	133	10	5291	181*	43.01	78.01	10	30	36.34	82.66	18.35%	-5.63%
10	S Dhawan (INDIA)	2010-2020	122	119	7	4977	143	44.43	94.11	14	27	39.15	90.99	13.49%	3.43%

No 1-2 Sorted by %SR

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	SR Tendulkar (INDIA)	1989-2012	399	391	31	15495	200*	43.04	85.23	38	85	27.67	74.75	55.55%	14.02%
2	DA Warner (AUS)	2009-2020	118	117	3	4805	179	42.14	93.6	16	21	29.88	86.25	41.03%	8.52%
3	Q de Kock (SA)	2013-2020	104	104	5	4334	178	43.77	94.5	14	19	35.53	89.97	23.19%	5.04%
4	S Dhawan (INDIA)	2010-2020	122	119	7	4977	143	44.43	94.11	14	27	39.15	90.99	13.49%	3.43%
5	RG Sharma (INDIA)	2007-2020	197	191	27	8039	264	49.01	89.18	25	38	34.4	88.48	42.47%	0.79%
6	HM Amla (SA)	2008-2019	153	151	10	6616	154	46.92	87.79	20	34	32.38	88.29	44.90%	-0.57%
7	ML Hayden (AUS)	1993-2008	136	133	10	5291	181*	43.01	78.01	10	30	36.34	82.66	18.35%	-5.63%
8	AJ Finch (AUS)	2013-2020	124	120	3	4844	153*	41.4	87.02	16	26	33.54	92.37	23.43%	-5.79%
9	CG Greenidge (WI)	1975-1991	127	126	12	5029	133*	44.11	64.79	10	31	29.52	71.17	49.42%	-8.96%
10	DL Haynes (WI)	1978-1994	235	234	27	8483	152*	40.98	62.94	17	55	28.47	70.23	43.94%	-10.38%

No 3 Sorted by %Avg

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	V Kohli (INDIA)	2008-2020	225	219	33	10917	183	58.69	93.17	39	55	34.43	89.15	70.46%	4.51%
2	DM Jones (AUS)	1984-1994	160	157	24	5935	145	44.62	72.56	7	44	26.33	66.81	69.46%	8.61%
3	BC Lara	1990-2007	257	250	26	8970	169	40.04	77.5	16	55	24.38	69	64.23%	12.32%
4	KS Williamson (NZ)	2010-2020	127	123	8	5189	148	45.12	81.58	11	33	28	87.1	61.14%	-6.34%
5	KC Sangakkara (SL)	2000-2015	333	316	29	11695	169	40.74	77.99	18	79	26.59	76.96	53.03%	1.20%
6	JE Root (ENG)	2013-2020	138	130	19	5515	125	49.68	86.06	15	31	33.09	94.84	50.14%	-9.26%
7	JH Kallis (SA)	1996-2014	288	281	45	10071	139	42.67	71.89	15	74	30.91	78.95	39.53%	-8.75%
8	SPD Smith (AUS)	2010-2020	113	102	9	4127	164	44.37	88.73	11	23	32.09	90.08	38.27%	-1.50%
9	F du Plessis (SA)	2011-2019	122	117	16	4631	185	45.85	87.92	10	28	34.67	89.89	32.25%	-2.19%
10	RT Ponting (AUS)	1995-2012	323	320	33	11843	164	41.26	80.37	26	72	32.47	80.83	27.07%	-0.57%

No 3 Sorted by % SR

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	BC Lara	1990-2007	257	250	26	8970	169	40.04	77.5	16	55	24.38	69	64.23%	12.32%
2	DM Jones (AUS)	1984-1994	160	157	24	5935	145	44.62	72.56	7	44	26.33	66.81	69.46%	8.61%
3	V Kohli (INDIA)	2008-2020	225	219	33	10917	183	58.69	93.17	39	55	34.43	89.15	70.46%	4.51%
4	KC Sangakkara (SL)	2000-2015	333	316	29	11695	169	40.74	77.99	18	79	26.59	76.96	53.03%	1.20%
5	RT Ponting (AUS)	1995-2012	323	320	33	11843	164	41.26	80.37	26	72	32.47	80.83	27.07%	-0.57%
6	SPD Smith (AUS)	2010-2020	113	102	9	4127	164	44.37	88.73	11	23	32.09	90.08	38.27%	-1.50%
7	F du Plessis (SA)	2011-2019	122	117	16	4631	185	45.85	87.92	10	28	34.67	89.89	32.25%	-2.19%
8	KS Williamson (NZ)	2010-2020	127	123	8	5189	148	45.12	81.58	11	33	28	87.1	61.14%	-6.34%
9	JH Kallis (SA)	1996-2014	288	281	45	10071	139	42.67	71.89	15	74	30.91	78.95	39.53%	-8.75%
10	JE Root (ENG)	2013-2020	138	130	19	5515	125	49.68	86.06	15	31	33.09	94.84	50.14%	-9.26%

No 4-7 sorted by %Avg

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	MG Bevan (AUS)	1994-2004	203	174	58	6200	108*	53.44	73.56	6	40	30.46	77.59	75.44%	-5.18%
2	AB de Villiers (SA)	2005-2018	191	184	35	8093	162*	54.31	99.75	20	46	31.3	83.57	73.51%	19.36%
3	Javed Miandad (PAK)	1975-1996	223	212	40	7103	119*	41.29	66.76	8	47	25.12	67.15	64.37%	-0.58%
4	IVA Richards (WI)	1975-1991	185	166	24	6705	189*	47.21	90.14	11	45	28.86	65.9	63.58%	36.78%
5	KP Pietersen (ENG)	2005-2013	118	111	13	4038	130	41.2	87.15	9	22	26.15	77.12	60.11%	13.19%
6	LRPL Taylor (NZ)	2006-2020	192	181	29	6860	181*	45.13	81.72	17	37	28.5	86.4	58.35%	-5.42%
7	AD Mathews (SL)	2009-2020	180	156	40	4852	139*	41.82	83.46	3	34	27.53	81.73	51.91%	2.12%
8	MS Dhoni (INDIA)	2005-2019	310	267	74	9595	183*	49.71	87.11	7	68	33.17	85.91	49.86%	1.40%
9	MEK Hussey (AUS)	2004-2012	162	141	38	4812	109*	46.71	86.56	2	35	33.19	82.86	40.74%	4.47%
10	MJ Clarke (AUS)	2003-2015	208	193	35	6865	130	43.44	79.08	6	50	33.52	84.31	29.59%	-6.20%

No 4-7 Sorted by %SR

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	Team's Avg	Team's SR	% Avg	%SR
1	IVA Richards (WI)	1975-1991	185	166	24	6705	189*	47.21	90.14	11	45	28.86	65.9	63.58%	36.78%
2	AB de Villiers (SA)	2005-2018	191	184	35	8093	162*	54.31	99.75	20	46	31.3	83.57	73.51%	19.36%
3	KP Pietersen (ENG)	2005-2013	118	111	13	4038	130	41.2	87.15	9	22	26.15	77.12	60.11%	13.19%
4	MEK Hussey (AUS)	2004-2012	162	141	38	4812	109*	46.71	86.56	2	35	33.19	82.86	40.74%	4.47%
5	AD Mathews (SL)	2009-2020	180	156	40	4852	139*	41.82	83.46	3	34	27.53	81.73	51.91%	2.12%
6	MS Dhoni (INDIA)	2005-2019	310	267	74	9595	183*	49.71	87.11	7	68	33.17	85.91	49.86%	1.40%
7	Javed Miandad (PAK)	1975-1996	223	212	40	7103	119*	41.29	66.76	8	47	25.12	67.15	64.37%	-0.58%
8	MG Bevan (AUS)	1994-2004	203	174	58	6200	108*	53.44	73.56	6	40	30.46	77.59	75.44%	-5.18%
9	LRPL Taylor (NZ)	2006-2020	192	181	29	6860	181*	45.13	81.72	17	37	28.5	86.4	58.35%	-5.42%
10	MJ Clarke (AUS)	2003-2015	208	193	35	6865	130	43.44	79.08	6	50	33.52	84.31	29.59%	-6.20%

Talking about the Openers, They have a slightly less Average and Strike Rate differential as they have less notouts and generally take time to settle and therefore score at a lower Strike Rate than the Rest of the Team. But Sachin Tendulkar is just on another level. Considering the team he played in he had a considerably Better Average and Strike Rate as compared to his Teammates. David Warner is also underrated. He has been overshadowed because of Rohit Sharma and Hashim Amla but definitely a great opener. Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes didn't really cared about scoring quick. Probably because they had a beast to follow them (More about him later), but were pretty consistent. Shikhar Dhawan and Quinton de Kock are the Modern Batsmen. They are showing the Trend that Openers are not conservative at the Top anymore and are sacrifising a little bit of consistency for quick scoring. A trend started by Jayasuriya, Sehwag and Gilchrist. Matthew Hayden is a weird one. He just played in too good a team to perform significantly better than them.
N0 3 is the most vital position in the Team generally. They generally are the most significant scorers so a lesser Strike Rate Differential shouldn't be criticized that highly. That being said Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Virat Kohli scored fairly quickly with a great average differential too. Brian Lara and Dean Jones are pretty underrated as ODI Batsmen. Statistically speaking they did significantly better than their team mates. Kumar Sangakkara also had better Average and Strike Rate differentials than their teammates. Ricky Ponting despite having a phenomenal career doesn't has as impressive differentials as some other greats. He just had a damn great team. The clique about Jacques Kallis is true. He did score at a lesser rate but was fairly consistent, Joe Root probably plays in the ideal Batting Lineup. He has a set defined role of scoring runs without worrying about the Scoring Rate and he does that perfectly. Kane Williamson's team heavily depends on him for scoring runs and he does that very well. Du Plessis and Smith has decent numbers too.
No 4-7 does nopt have a set defined rule and need to be adaptable according to team's need. Need to Build Partnerships some day, need to score quickly the other. Michael Bevan has the Best Average Differential. He was the OG Finisher and there's a reason why people rate him very highly. Sir Viv Richards has the best average Strike Rate differential and it's fucking filthy!!!. To put into context if he batted in today's English Lineup he would strike at 127!!!. He Really is the Goat. Ab de Villiers's is 2nd on both the Avg and SR Differentials. He has a better Avg Differential than Virat Kohli while having an unbelievable SR Differential. Ideal No 4-5 for any team. Kevin Pietersen is really underrated as a ODI Batsman. He has a phenomenal record compared to his teammates. Him being in all time XIs is not a bad proposition. Michael Clarke just like his teammates suffers from playing in a great team. Mike Hussey and MS Dhoni managed very impressive numbers despite playing in good batting lineups. Javed Miandad was also very consistent and scoring rate was also decent. Taylor and Mathews also have good numbers and they value Consistency over scoring quickly.
These are my thoughts. You can share your views on what you found impressive or not about the comparison. At the end of the day it's only a statistical comparison.
Also if anyone was wondering here is the player's performance in the World Cups(Restricted to vs Top 8 Teams only)

S.No	Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50
1	SR Tendulkar (INDIA)	1992-2011	31	30	1	1397	137	48.17	85.02	3	10
2	RT Ponting (AUS)	1996-2011	30	29	3	1352	140*	52	80.09	4	6
3	IVA Richards (WI)	1975-1987	21	20	5	997	181	66.46	84.63	3	5
4	Javed Miandad (PAK)	1975-1996	29	29	5	994	103	41.41	66.35	1	7
5	KC Sangakkara (SL)	2003-2015	24	23	4	980	117*	51.57	76.62	3	4
6	AB de Villiers (SA)	2007-2015	15	14	3	848	162*	77.09	118.6	3	4
7	BC Lara (WI)	1992-2007	23	23	1	846	116	38.45	82.61	2	5
8	JH Kallis (SA)	1996-2011	22	22	3	770	96	40.52	70.77	0	7
9	DL Haynes (WI)	1979-1992	23	23	1	764	105	34.72	56.84	1	2
10	SPD Smith (AUS)	2011-2019	17	15	1	692	105	49.42	88.15	1	7
11	KS Williamson (NZ)	2011-2019	17	16	4	686	148	57.16	78.57	2	2
12	ML Hayden (AUS)	2003-2007	14	14	1	676	158	52	92.6	3	0
13	V Kohli (INDIA)	2011-2019	17	17	1	673	107	42.06	83.81	1	5
14	F du Plessis (SA)	2011-2019	16	15	4	650	100	59.09	82.17	1	5
15	AJ Finch (AUS)	2015-2019	14	14	0	644	153	46	94.42	3	2
16	LRPL Taylor (NZ)	2007-2019	24	23	2	624	131*	29.71	68.72	1	2
17	JE Root (ENG)	2015-2019	12	12	2	619	121	61.9	88.42	3	2
18	RG Sharma (INDIA)	2015-2019	11	11	1	599	140	59.9	92.29	4	1
19	MJ Clarke (AUS)	2007-2015	16	15	4	566	92	51.45	88.57	0	5
20	MS Dhoni (INDIA)	2007-2019	18	17	5	544	91*	45.33	94.28	0	4
21	DA Warner (AUS)	2015-2019	14	14	0	538	122	38.42	88.05	2	2
22	CG Greenidge (WI)	1975-1983	14	14	1	486	106*	37.38	57.04	1	4
23	DM Jones (AUS)	1987-1992	13	13	1	476	90	39.66	72.56	0	3
24	MG Bevan (AUS)	1996-2003	18	14	4	460	74*	46	62.92	0	5
25	HM Amla (SA)	2011-2019	15	15	1	437	80*	31.21	79.02	0	4
26	AD Mathews (SL)	2011-2019	15	12	3	417	113	46.33	83.4	1	1
27	S Dhawan (INDIA)	2015-2019	6	6	0	389	137	64.83	97.73	2	1
28	KP Pietersen (ENG)	2007-2011	7	7	0	358	104	51.14	84.23	2	2
29	Q de Kock (SA)	2015-2019	12	12	2	325	78*	32.5	91.03	0	3
30	MEK Hussey (AUS)	2007-2011	9	5	0	66	37	13.2	68.75	0	0

Unusual Bowling Feats (Part Three)

Welcome to the final part of this series! Don't forget to read Parts One and Two first!

No-Balls

Remember how Virat Kohli took a wicket with his zeroth ball in T20Is? Has there ever been a situation in which a bowler has finished an innings with figures of 0-0-1-1? Unfortunately, no. It's possible, however, with the most likely circumstance being that a bowler dismisses the No. 11 with a legside stumping. Theoretically, a bowler could finish with career figures of 0-0-1-1, which would give them a strike rate of 0; now that would be truly unusual!
Nonetheless, the question remains: What is more unusual than bowling one ball in an innings? Why, bowling zero balls in an innings while still conceding runs, of course! Now it is time to consider those bowlers who have bowled in an innings while still maintaining a '0' on the first column of their figures.
In Tests, this has occurred thrice. Firstly, we have Allan Lamb. During a 1986 Test against the West Indies, England were absolutely dominated, and the Windies required just five runs to win in their second innings. Desmond Haynes hit a four off of Greg Thomas' bowling in the first over, meaning that the West Indies required just one more run for victory. Utterly defeated, England sent in Allan Lamb to roll his arm, but his first delivery was a no-ball, which gave the West Indies the victory. Lamb finished with figures of 0-0-1-0. FWIW, this is often regarded as one of England's worst tours, and you can read all about it here.
Later that same year, David Gower achieved this same feat. In the final innings of a 1986 Test between England and New Zealand, he finished with figures of 0-0-4-0. How? I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Based on the scorecard, he bowled one delivery (which was a no-ball) for four runs, so I presume it must have been a no-ball which was struck for three. That was apparently enough for New Zealand to win as Gower didn't bowl again after that.
More recently, we have Sri Lanka's Dhammika Prasad. The Lions toured South Africa in 2011-12, but they didn't do too well in the third Test. Prasad took 2/154 in SA's first innings at an economy rate of 5.13, and he wasn't even the worst of the Sri Lankan bowlers. The Sri Lankans batted the next two innings as they were forced to follow-on, and the Saffers were left with a target of two runs. The first delivery of the first over by Prasad was a no-ball which was hit for a single by Alviro Petersen, resulting in figures of 0-0-2-0 for Prasad.
This feat has supposedly been achieved four times in ODIs, though I have by doubts. I mean, it's being claimed by Cricinfo that Pakistan's Mansoor Akhtar ended up with innings figures of 0-0-1-0 in a 1984 ODI against the West Indies, but it's also claiming that he didn't bowl a no-ball or a wide, so where did that run come from? HowStat is instead claiming that Akhtar finished with figures of 0.1-0-1-0, which would make more sense. I think this is just a scorecard error on Cricinfo's part, like the 1*(0) I mentioned in my last post.
The first actual case of this feat occurring in ODIs came in 2000, with the West Indies facing Zimbabwe. The Windies had managed a score of 232/7, but Zimbabwe found itself at 232/4 after 45 overs. For some bizarre reason, the West Indian captain, Jimmy Adams, chose not to bowl himself until 45 overs had passed, although considering his sole delivery was a wide which granted Zimbabwe the victory, the decision becomes a little more understandable.
The next case occurred in a 2006 ODI between Bangladesh and Kenya. Although Kenya fell for 184 in their innings, they had Bangladesh at 180/8 after 46 overs with two tailenders at the crease, so the match certainly hung in the balance. They entrusted all-rounder Collins Obuya with securing the win, but unfortunately, his first delivery of the match was a no-ball which was smacked for four, leaving him with figures of 0-0-5-0.
Now, this last one is very unusual indeed. Notice how in the previous section, the most I ever talked about was 0.1-0-6-0? Some of you may be wondering if it's theoretically possible to concede more than six runs from one ball, and the answer is yes, thanks to no-balls and wides resulting in runs being conceded despite not counting as 'balls'. However, the reason I never mentioned this was because it has never occurred in international cricket, ever. 0.1-0-7-0, 0.1-0-8-0, 0.1-0-9-0 etc. have never happened in any international innings, at least not yet. Heck, thanks to Kohli's zeroth-ball wicket, we know that even figures of 0-0-8-1 are possible (a no-ball which is hit for six, followed by a wide which dismisses the last batsman; note that this can only occur in Tests due to the 'free hit' rule in white-ball cricket). That has unfortunately never happened, but man, it'd be hilarious to see a bowler concede runs and take a wicket while still not technically bowling any balls!
Anyway, you know what the truly strange thing is? 0.1-0-8-0 has never happened, yet 0-0-8-0 has. Yes, there has been precisely one bowler in the history of international cricket who has conceded more than six runs in an innings despite not bowling a legal delivery. His name? Abdur Rehman.
It was the 2014 Asia Cup, and Pakistan were facing Bangladesh. To provide a rest to seamer Junaid Khan, Pakistan drafted in left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman to take his place. As you can tell from his bowling figures, it didn't go well. However, unless you already know about this match, Rehman's innings was even more bizarre than you may think.
Pakistan's captain Misbah-ul-Haq brought Rehman on in the eleventh over, and he began by bowling a beamer (a waist-high full toss) to Imrul Kayes (yes, a beamer from a spinner!). This resulted in a warning, of course, and nothing was thought of it. The very next delivery...another beamer. Imrul Kayes decided for whatever reason that it was worth playing at this delivery, and he ended up hitting the ball straight to deep midwicket. However, since it was a no-ball, he got away with it, and even scored a single in the process. Under ICC rules at the time, two beamers was enough for a bowler to be sent off, even a spin bowler. However, umpire Johan Cloete showed some leniency and allowed Rehman to continue.
Now, you'd think that Rehman would be more careful from here on out. After all, he had somehow managed to bowl two consecutive beamers despite being a spin bowler, and by the letter of the law, he should have been off. The fact that he was still bowling was due purely to an act of generosity from the umpire, who really should have told Misbah to replace him with another bowler. Rehman got more chances than he ought to have had, so surely, he'd thank his lucky stars and go on to bowl a fantastic spell?
Nope. His next delivery was yet another beamer, which was hit for four by Anamul Haque. The umpire clearly had enough and finally told Misbah to take Rehman out of the attack and bring someone else on; Fawad Alam bowled the rest of the over. This would be Rehman's final ODI, and it was probably the worst ever way to end his career. All-in-all, Rehman conceded one run from his first delivery, two from his second and five from his third; he had failed to bowl a single legal delivery. No other bowler in international cricket has been able to match this feat. In all honesty, I feel sorry for him; you do not want to be known as the guy who once finished with figures of 0-0-8-0. Of course it's difficult to deny that there is something funny about the whole situation, but I can only hope that this incident hasn't affected him too badly.
Incidentally, Bangladesh scored 326/3 in their innings; Pakistan had never chased down such a large total in ODIs before and had only reached such a total in their second innings once. At one point during the chase, they were on 225/5 and required 102 runs from 52 balls to win. However, talented 15-year-old Shahid 'Boom Boom' Afridi arrived and smashed what was at the time the second-fastest fifty in ODIs (18 balls), finishing on 59(25). He probably would have made more had he not been injured during his innings, which eventually resulted in his run-out (he apparently asked the umpires for a runner before being reminded that they had since been abolished in international cricket!). Afridi is a bit of a meme nowadays, but when he was on it, he was an absolute delight to watch.
Despite Afridi's ridiculous knock, Pakistan were still left needing 33 runs from 19 balls to win, with just four wickets remaining. Fawad Alam and Umar Akmal did a fantastic job accelerating the innings, and by the final over, Pakistan required just three runs to win with Alam and Akmal still at the crease; they had put together a partnership of 30 runs from just 13 balls faced. Al-Amin Hossain was to bowl the final over with Akmal on strike, and it seemed as if Bangladesh had blown it. However, there was more drama yet to come.
First ball: A dot. 3 from 5 required. Pakistan still on top.
Second ball: Another dot. 3 from 4 now. Akmal went for a six but failed to connect. Alam reminded him that with just three required, he didn't need to take such risks.
Third ball: A single. 2 from 3, Fawad Alam on strike. Surely, Pakistan can't lose it from here, can they?
Fourth ball: WICKET! Alam run out, Umar Akmal on strike, 2 from 2 required. Alam went for the ramp shot but failed to connect properly. Pakistan were lucky that Umar Gul (the next batsman in) wasn't on strike, else Bangladesh would have been at a clear advantage going into the final two deliveries. As it stood, the match was evenly poised with Pakistan close to choking after all the hard work put in by Afridi, Alam and Akmal.
Fifth ball: FOUR! Akmal kept his nerve and slogged the penultimate delivery to the midwicket boundary, thus giving Pakistan the victory by the barest of margins. Absolute ecstasy for Pakistan; agony, agony for Bangladesh! Shahid Afridi of course received the man-of-the-match award, but damn, now I regret not watching this live! What a match!
Anyway, I don't know how surprising this fact will seem to you, but never in the history of T20I cricket has a bowler conceded runs without bowling a legal delivery, or at least they've never maintained that throughout an innings. I was sure there'd be at least one example, but apparently not. Looks like this record is still up for grabs, so be sure to keep an eye out for it!

Keeping All-Rounders

Traditionally, an all-rounder is a player who is adept with both the bat and the ball. I happen to subscribe to this narrow definition. However, in recent years, I've seen people refer to players who are good at both batting and keeping as 'all-rounders' (e.g. Adam Gilchrist), though I prefer to call them 'wicket-keeper-batsmen'. A few have even considered fielding in addition to batting or bowling, which is just pushing it too far in my opinion. With all this in mind, why are people ignoring players who are adept at both keeping and bowling?
Yes, I'm serious. There have been thirty-seven instances in Tests where the designated wicket-keeper has bowled. MS Dhoni has done it the most at seven times (good batsman, good wicket-keeper, good fielder, good captain and now good bowler; Dhoni is truly the all-round cricketer). Of course, in such cases, someone else has to take charge behind the stumps temporarily (for example, against New Zealand in 2014, Dhoni bowled himself for one over, with Kohli taking the gloves). Shockingly, in ten instances, the wicket-keeper has actually taken a wicket! If you look at wicket-keepers who have bowled in Tests, however, one name stands out above the rest.
Go back to 1884 and England are leading Australia 1-0 in the Ashes, requiring only a draw in the third Test to win the series. Back then, Tests in England were only three days long and declarations weren't allowed, so teams who wanted enough time to bowl the opposition out had to slog at everything and hope to be dismissed (obviously, this occasionally led to the bowling team not even trying to take wickets). Australia, who were on 532/6 on the second day, had no choice but to use this strategy to stand a chance at tying the series. What happened next was almost farcical.
Before that, however, I must introduce the Honourable Alfred Lyttelton. One of England's best amateur sportsmen of the Victorian era, he was adept not just at cricket but also at football, rackets (a British variant of squash), real tennis and the hammer throw; in fact, he was the first man to play both football and cricket for England. Despite his obvious talent, he considered himself more of a politician than an athlete, and retired from all sports at the age of 28 to pursue a political career (later becoming an MP and even the Colonial Secretary). At the time, most wicket-keepers didn't stand up to the stumps without a long stop in place, but Lyttelton was so talented that he went without.
Anyway, on the first day, with Australia cruising, the England captain brought on Lyttelton (who had never taken a first-class wicket at the time) to bowl military mediums which, by all accounts, were pretty terrible deliveries. On the second day, with Australia trying to get out, the captain once again brought on Lyttelton, who learned from the previous day and decided instead to bowl some underarm lobs. Amusingly, he gave his gloves to W. G. Grace (yes, the W. G. Grace) while keeping his pads on, which must have been quite the image.
To the surprise of everyone, Lyttelton took a wicket with his first underarm delivery when the ball lodged in the wicket-keeper's gloves, though questions were asked (including by Grace) regarding whether the batsman had actually made contact. He went on to take 4/19 in the innings, easily the best bowling performance by a designated wicket-keeper in Tests (as well the best bowling performance of all the England bowlers used in that innings). He was one wicket away from being the only wicket-keeper to take a 5fer in a Test match! Those four wickets would be the only first-class wickets that Lyttelton ever took! Despite Australia enforcing the follow-on, the match ended up being a draw, with England's second innings lasting a little over an hour.
Designated wicket-keepers have bowled in ODIs eight times (taking wickets on three occasions) and in T20Is three times (Thailand's Md Shafiqul Haque being the only one of those to take a wicket, doing so in a 2019 T20I against the Maldives). That said, none of them have reached the prowess of Alfred Lyttelton, unfortunately. We still have to wait for a designated wicket-keeper to take a 5fer in international cricket.
Finally, there have been four instances in international cricket in which all eleven players have bowled in an innings, with all of these cases happening in Tests. Never before has it happened in ODIs or T20Is, so we're still waiting for that one.
The first such instance happened in 1884, in the same Test where Lyttelton took a 4fer as wicket-keeper. That's two unusual bowling feats for the price of one!
The second instance occurred in 1980, when Australia toured Pakistan. Having scored 617 in their first innings, Australia went on to bowl all eleven of their players against Pakistan. Despite this, only one Australian bowler (Geoff Dymock) took a wicket. The match ended as a draw.
The third occasion was in a 2002 Test between India and the West Indies. On a flat deck (1,142 runs were scored for the loss of just eighteen wickets), India used eleven bowlers in the West Indies' first innings to no avail. This match was most notable, however, for Anil Kumble bowling fourteen consecutive overs (and dismissing Brian Lara in the process) with a broken jaw after being struck by Merv Dillon while batting; as Cricinfo slyly notes, Kumble 'became the first bowler to dismiss Brian Lara while bowling with a broken jaw', which I suppose counts as an unusual bowling feat in itself.
The most recent instance of all eleven bowlers being used came in 2005, during the South African tour of the West Indies. As you might have guessed, this was yet another instance where the pitch was flatter than a motorway; Cricinfo writes that '[Graeme] Smith gave everyone a bowl, perhaps in an effort to stop someone wandering off to the local rum shop in search of a more interesting way of spending the final afternoon of the series'. Mark Boucher, who had never bowled in Tests before, gave the gloves to AB de Villiers and managed to dismiss Dwayne Bravo. This time, 1,462 runs were scored in the match for the loss of just seventeen wickets, and as you can imagine, numerous individual and partnership batting records were broken (not that the spectators would have been paying enough attention to notice).
You know what's sad about this whole thing? Wicket-keepers have bowled forty-eight times in international cricket, yet on only four occasions have all eleven players bowled. That means that on forty-four occasions, the wicket-keeper bowled ahead of some of the batsmen. Just how awful do you have to be at bowling that the captain would rather trust the bloody wicket-keeper with the ball over you? Granted, on some of these occasions, the captain was the wicket-keeper, but it must be pretty embarrassing nonetheless.

Bonus

I've generally restricted myself to international cricket, but this is too hilarious not to include. What is the highest number of runs conceded in one over? 36, of course; just ask Stuart Broad. 36 is not the maximum possible, however; no-balls and wides can ensure that more than 36 runs are scored off one one over. This has never ever happened in international cricket, but domestic cricket is a different matter.
In List A cricket, the highest total off one over is 43. This occurred in a 2018 Ford Trophy match between Northern Districts and Central Districts (the former won by 25 runs, so they must have been dancing in the streets of Northern Districts that night). The Central Districts' Willem Ludick was the unlucky bowler on this occasion: His first delivery went for four; the next two were no-balls which were both hit for six; the second ball (fourth delivery) also went for six; the third ball went for a single; and the last three all went for six. Solid effort there.
However, that's not what I wanted to talk about. The most runs conceded off one over in first-class cricket is...well, let me explain. Firstly, no, this isn't the match where two batsmen supposedly ran between the wickets 286 times after the ball got stuck in a tree (the veracity of this urban myth is questionable, and in any case, the supposed match in which this happened didn't even have FC status; see this article for more details). Now on to the actual record.
This incident happened in a 1990 Shell Trophy match between Wellington and Canterbury. Wellington needed a win to secure the title (though a draw would have been enough if other results went their way), but there was a problem: Although Canterbury required 291 runs from 59 overs (a more-than-doable chase), they found themselves at 108/8 and so decided to shut up shop and hold out for the draw. This was inconvenient for Wellington as they wanted the win, and so once Canterbury were on 196/8, Wellington's captain Erv McSweeney hatched a truly unusual plan.
The strategy was thus: Send in batsman Bert Vance to lob numerous no-ball full tosses, which Canterbury would of course put away with ease. Once they approached the target, Canterbury would begin to go for the win, and then at that point, Wellington would begin to bowl normally and go for the win themselves. It was a high-risk, high-reward strategy, and when one thinks about it, it was a genius plan. It was unironically 4D chess, and it was brilliant.
Of Vance's first seventeen deliveries, only one was legitimate. He ended up conceding 77 runs off the over, which is now the record by quite a margin. Amusingly, the scorers were so confused by the chaos that they resorted to asking the spectators to keep track of the score, and the scoreboard was left in a frenzy. Even more amusingly, Vance only actually bowled five legitimate deliveries in the over, 'owing to the umpire's understandable miscalculation' as Cricinfo puts it.
The mathematical among you will have noticed that since Canterbury started the over at 196/8, since they scored 77 runs off it and since the target was 291, they required just 18 runs off the final over for victory. However, in a truly farcical turn of events, the scoreboard operators had given up trying to keep score at that point, so neither team knew of this fact! The Canterbury batsmen scored 17 runs from the first five balls of the final over (since Wellington did not realise that their opponents were so close to the target, they left an incredibly leaky field), but unaware that they thus needed to score just one more run for victory, they blocked the last delivery of the match!
This series began with an instance where the bowler blatantly violated the spirit of the game, and so it has ended with another such instance. Needless to say, once the situation had finally been understood, Canterbury were furious at this stunt and demanded that points be docked from Wellington. Not only did that not end up happening, but results elsewhere meant that Wellington ended up winning the championship regardless. Fortune favouring the bold, or cheats getting away with it? I'll leave that up to you, but I have to say, there's no need for urban myths such as '286 runs off one ball' when real life already provides plenty of unusual stories, as this post has hopefully shown.

That's it from me! Man, that was much longer than I expected; I really wanted all this to be one post, but there was too much here to cut down (the initial draft was over twice the length of the character count!), so I had little choice but to cut it into three parts. I hope you enjoyed reading all that; if you guys want, I'd be happy to do one for fielding as well, though understand that it's going to be shorter than the first two as it's much harder to dig up statistics for fielding.

The Lineal World Championship: An Alternative History of Test Cricket (Part 4/5)

As we approach the end of the first cycle of the new World Test Championship, I wanted to see what would happen if the world championship was decided on a challenge basis, as in combat sports, i.e. to be the champ, you have to beat the champ. I added a caveat: the world title would not be on the line in every series played by the champion. For a team to get a shot at the title, it would have to:

Tour the current champions as the #1 contender; or
Tour the current champions after beating them at home; or
Host the current champions after beating them away.

To be the #1 contender, a team would have to beat the current #1 contender away from home. A team does not lose its #1 contender spot if another team wins the title using rules 2 or 3. However, a team that has earned a title shot through rules 2 and 3 would lose the shot if the title changes hands. A drawn series favours the incumbent, whether champion or #1 contender.
After applying these rules to the existing history of Test cricket, I found that the lineal world championship has been contested 60 times by eight teams. In these posts, I will provide a brief history of these 60 series, spanning 138 years. By recounting this alternative history, I hope to demonstrate the soundness of this model of deciding the world Test champion and to revisit some of the most iconic series of all time, as well as to have something to do during the commercial breaks. (Parts 1, 2 and 3)
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PART FOUR: BLUNDERS DOWN UNDER (1983-2007)
Two dynasties dominated the world championship over four decades: the West Indies and Australia. Both teams held the record for most consecutive Test wins at the height their title reigns and, barring the series when the title changed hands between them, they only lost one Test each while defending the title during this period, in series that form cornerstones of their opponents' Test history: Pakistan's 1987-88 tour of the West Indies, and India's 2003-04 tour of Australia. England, on the other hand, were swept, 5-0, in both their title shots in this era.

#37: WEST INDIES v INDIA (5 TESTS, 1982-83)
Months before their historic upset in the World Cup final, India took a shot at the West Indies' Test title, having beaten the champions at home, 1-0 after six Tests, in 1978-79. The team that arrived in Jamaica in February 1983, however, had just suffered a 3-0 loss in Pakistan that ended the captaincy of Sunil Gavaskar. The new captain, Kapil Dev, took 4/45 and, along with Ravi Shastri (4/43), kept the Windies first-innings lead to three. But Andy Roberts twice ran through the side, finishing with 9/100 for the match, and Dev's 4/73 in the second innings could not prevent a four-wicket defeat. After Clive Lloyd asked Dev to bat on a rain-affected first day in the Trinidad Test, Malcolm Marshall took 5/39 to bowl India out for 175. Balwinder Sandhu dismissed both openers for ducks and Dev had Viv Richards caught behind for 1, but Lloyd (143) and Larry Gomes (123) added 237 for the fourth wicket and the champions took a 219-run lead. Mohinder Amarnath batted for nearly six hours to score 117 and, once a draw was inevitable, Dev scored a century off 95 balls.
After two days were lost to rain in the drawn Georgetown Test, as was most of the first day at Bridgetown, the Windies pace quartet bundled India out for 209 and, thanks to a 130 by Gus Logie and fifties by Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Richards and Lloyd, the champions piled on 486 by the fourth day. Amarnath (91 and 80) was the only Indian batsman to stand up to the scrutiny of the short ball, as India could only set a target of one run. Having lost the series, the Indian batsmen made the most of an easier pitch at St John's, with Shastri scoring a century, and Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar scoring nineties, in a first-innings total of 457. The Windies openers responded with centuries in a 296-run stand, as did Lloyd and Jeff Dujon in a 207-run sixth-wicket partnership, and the champions took a 93-run lead, while Amarnath scored the game's sixth century to secure a draw.
Result: West Indies retain, 2-0. Player of the Series: Mohinder Amarnath (598 runs @ 66.44)

#38: WEST INDIES v NEW ZEALAND (4 TESTS, 1984-85)
New Zealand had earned their maiden shot at the world title in a bad-tempered home series in 1980, as the West Indies—jaded after a tough series win in Australia, missing Viv Richards due to a sore back, and incensed by poor umpiring and the refusal of several Kiwi players to walk when they were clearly out at crucial junctures—lost the Dunedin Test by one wicket and could only draw the other two games, while threatening to cancel the tour and go home on multiple occasions.
The title defence was Richards's first series as captain, following the retirement of Clive Lloyd, and he chose to bat first on a Queen's Park Oval pitch that favoured pace bowling. Richard Hadlee dismissed Desmond Haynes and Larry Gomes with the score at 9, but Gordon Greenidge (100) and Richie Richardson (78) added 185 runs for the third wicket and Richards (57) batted with the tail to take the score to 307. Despite a century stand between John Wright and Jeff Crowe, the West Indies took a 45-run first-innings lead. After most of the third day was rained out, Richards scored 78 in 89 balls to set New Zealand 307 on the final day but, although Malcolm Marshall had the Kiwis at 83/5, the challengers escaped with a draw.
Richie Richardson scored 185 on a lifeless pitch at Georgetown, but Martin Crowe responded with 188 in 462 balls to secure another draw. However, despite nearly eight hours of play being lost in the Bridgetown Test, Malcolm Marshall took 4/40 and 7/80 to dismiss the Kiwis for 94 and 248, while Richards scored a century, in a ten-wicket victory to retain the title. Then, in the final Test at Kingston, the champions survived Hadlee's hostile bowling to score 363 before responding in kind to bowl New Zealand out for 138 and 283.
Result: West Indies retain, 2-0. Player of the Series: Malcolm Marshall (27 wickets @ 18.00)

#39: WEST INDIES v ENGLAND (5 TESTS, 1985-86)
Nearly a decade after Tony Greig infamously promised to make the visiting West Indies grovel, David Gower's England arrived in the Caribbean hoping more to avoid embarrassment than to wrest away the world championship. Since their last title shot, in 1981, England had held on to their #1 contender status by twice beating Australia at home, as well as India, Pakistan and New Zealand, although Sri Lanka managed a draw at Lord's in 1984. On a fast, uneven surface at Kingston, however, they collapsed for 159 and 152, with Patrick Patterson taking 7/74 on debut. Despite a 106-run fourth-wicket partnership between Gower and Allan Lamb at Port of Spain, England could only manage 176 in the first innings, before Richie Richardson's 102 and Malcolm Marshall's 62* took the champions to 399. Gower added 80 runs with Graham Gooch for the second wicket in the second innings, while Lamb and Peter Willey added 81 runs for the fourth, but Marshall's 8/132 for the match kept the target at 93 and the champions won by seven wickets.
Richardson (160) and Desmond Haynes (84) had a 194-run second-wicket partnership in the Barbados Test after Gower chose to field after winning the toss, but England took the final six wickets of the innings for 57 runs to dismiss the West Indies for 418 on the second day. Gooch and Gower then had England at 110/1 at stumps. However, on the third day, the challengers suffered a collapse of 63/9, finishing on 189. Following on, England could only manage 199 and the series was lost. It was 200 and 150 at the second Trinidad Test, and, despite a fighting 90 by Gower in the first innings, 310 and 170 in Antigua. England had been "blackwashed" in its worst ever Test series. No Englishman had managed a century, or even an average of 40, in the tour, while the bowlers took only five second-innings wickets over the five Tests.
Result: West Indies retain, 5-0. Player of the Series: Malcolm Marshall (27 wickets @ 17.85, 153 runs @ 38.25)

#40: WEST INDIES v PAKISTAN (3 TESTS, 1987-88)
After India took England's #1 contender status with a 2-0 win in 1986, Pakistan took it off them by winning the Bangalore Test of March 1987 by 16 runs, after the first four Tests were drawn. In the opening Test of their first ever title shot, at Georgetown in April 1988, with Viv Richards and Malcolm Marshall out due to injuries, captain and future prime minister Imran Khan took 7/80 to bowl the champions out for 292 on the first day. Javed Miandad scored 114 to get Pakistan to 297/5, before Saleem Yousuf added 62 to secure a 143-run first-innings lead. Khan then took 4/41 to complete the West Indies' first home defeat in nine years.
Richards and Marshall returned for the second Test, at Port of Spain. Khan took 4/38 to dismiss the champions for 174 on the first day, but Marshall had Pakistan at 55/5 by stumps, finishing with 4/55 to keep the Pakistani lead at 20. Richards came in to bat late on the second day, with the West Indies at 66/3 in the second innings. After Richie Richardson was dismissed early the following morning, Richards (123) added 94 runs with Carl Hooper (26) and 97 with Jeff Dujon (106*), who batted with the tail to set Pakistan a target of 372 in 129 overs. Ramiz Raja made an attacking start with 44 but, after three wickets fell for nine runs, Miandad and Saleem Malik dropped anchor, taking Pakistan into the rest day at 107/3. They eventually added 86 for the fourth wicket, before Malik was dismissed for 30 with the score at 153/4. After Khan was dismissed with the score at 169, Miandad and Ijaz Ahmed (43) added 113 for the sixth wicket. Miandad was out just before the final hour, for 102 in 265 balls, with Pakistan needing 84 off 21 overs and the West Indies needing three wickets. Marshall dismissed Wasim Akram with the score at 311, but Yousuf (35 off 59) and Ijaz Faqih (10* off 51) defended into the final over of the match, and Abdul Qadir blocked the final five balls to keep the series lead.
Fifties by Raja and Shoaib Mohammad took Pakistan to 309 on the first day of the final Test, at Bridgetown, as Marshall took 4/79. Pakistan then had the champions at 21/2, before Desmond Haynes (48 off 155) and Carl Hooper (54 off 88) added 79 for the third wicket, and Haynes and Richards (67 off 80) added 98 for the fourth. Mudassar Nazar dismissed Haynes and Gus Logie, Dujon was run out for a duck and Akram dismissed Richards with the West Indies at 201/7. Marshall counter-attacked with 48 off 62, and the Windies ended their innings, early on the third day, just three runs short. Nazar, Mohammad and Miandad added 147 for the second and third wickets but, after losing four wickets for 16 runs, Pakistan ended the day at 177/6. Khan fought back after the rest day, with an unbeaten 43, to set the champions a target of 266 to retain the title. Akram dismissed Haynes with the score at 21, and took four wickets to have the West Indies at 207/8, but Dujon (29 off 92) and Winston Benjamin (40 off 72) got the champions to a two-wicket victory.
Result: West Indies retain, 1-1. Player of the Series: Imran Khan (23 wickets @ 18.08)

#41: WEST INDIES v PAKISTAN (3 TESTS, 1992-93)
Pakistan returned to the Caribbean in April 1993 as ODI world champions, having preserved their #1 contender status in home series against England, Australia, India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, and drawn two series against the West Indies. No other challengers had emerged in the five years between the two title shots, as Pakistan and England were the only teams to not lose a series against the Windies.
After the champions elected to bat first on a dry pitch with lots of variable bounce, Desmond Haynes and Phil Simmons put on a 63-run opening partnership, before all ten wickets fell for 64 runs. Aamer Sohail scored 55 to get Pakistan to 100/2, but Curtly Ambrose (4/34) and Ian Bishop (5/43) engineered a collapse of 40/8 to keep the Pakistani lead at 13. Haynes (143*) then carried his bat through the second innings, adding 103 with Richie Richardson (68) and 169 with Brian Lara (98) to take the West Indies to 333/3 at stumps on the second day. Wasim Akram (4/75) and Waqar Younis (3/88) ran through the rest of the batsmen to bowl the champions for 382 the following day, but Carl Hooper took 5/40 to win the Test by 204 runs.
Haynes scored 125 at Bridgetown in a first-innings total of 455, before Courtney Walsh took 4/56 to secure a 234-run lead. Following on, Asif Mujtaba (41 off 198 balls) and Javed Miandad (43 off 68) had Pakistan at 113/2, but the rest of the batting could only take the score to 262, allowing the champions to retain their title with a ten-wicket victory. Hooper then scored 178* in Antigua, but Inzamam-ul-Haq's 123 and rain on the final day prevented a sweep.
Result: West Indies retain, 2-0. Player of the Series: Desmond Haynes (402 runs @ 134.00)

#42: AUSTRALIA v WEST INDIES (c) (5 TESTS, 1996-97)
In May 1995, Mark Taylor's Australia did what had not been done since Ian Chappell's Australia visited the Caribbean, in 1973: they beat the West Indies at home. This entitled them to a title shot when Courtney Walsh's West Indies visited in 1996-97. After Walsh chose to bowl on a damp Gabba pitch, Taylor (43 off 136) and Ricky Ponting (88 off 150) added 126 runs for the second wicket, before Ian Healey, who came in to bat at 196/5, added 142 runs with Steve Waugh (66 off 184), remaining unbeaten on 161 when Australia were finally bowled out for 479. The Windies openers and Brian Lara were dismissed with the score at 77 and, after Carl Hooper (102 off 228) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (82 off 230) batted for most of the third day to add 172 for the fourth wicket, the last seven wickets fell for 28 runs. After choosing not to enforce the follow on, Taylor declared shortly after tea on the fourth day, setting the champions 420 in 119 overs. Sherwin Campbell batted out 54.3 of those overs on his own over seven hours, before being dismissed for 113 by Michael Bevan (3/46) in the final hour of the Test, and Australia won by 123 runs.
Walsh took 5/98 at Sydney, but Australia managed to score 331 in just over four sessions. Campbell (77 off 155) and Robert Samuels (35 off 115) put together a 94-run opening partnership, but McGrath took 4/82 to secure a 27-run lead. Matthew Elliott (78 off 162) and Mark Waugh (67 off 159) then added 77 for the third wicket, before they collided while taking a run and Elliott retired hurt with a knee injury. Bevan (52 off 154) and Greg Blewett (47* off 62) stretched the target to 340. Despite a 117-run fourth-wicket partnership between Hooper (57 off 124) and Chanderpaul (71 off 68), Shane Warne (4/95) mopped up the tail soon after lunch on the fifth day, and Australia won by 124 runs.
Australia collapsed to 27/4 at Melbourne, as Curtly Ambrose took 5/55 to dismiss Australia for 219. McGrath responded with 5/50, and the West Indies could only manage a 36-run lead. Ambrose then took 4/17 in 12 overs to bowl Australia out for 122 and, even though McGrath responded with 3/41, Chanderpaul (40 off 82) and Hooper (27 off 36) added 50 runs for the fourth wicket to secure a six-wicket victory. Bevan, who had been dropped for the third Test, returned at Adelaide to take 10/113 while dismissing the Windies for 130 and 204, while also scoring 85* off 263 to assist Matthew Hayden (125 off 226) and Blewett (99 off 154) in scoring 517 against a bowling attack missing Ambrose due to injury. In the dead rubber at Perth, Ambrose returned to take 7/93 in the match, as Australia were bowled out for 243 and 194, while Lara scored 132 in a first-innings total of 384 to set up a ten-wicket victory.
Result: Australia win, 3-2. Player of the Series: Glenn McGrath (26 wickets @ 17.42)

#43: AUSTRALIA v INDIA (3 TESTS, 1999-2000)
Having won back the world title after 27 years, and then winning away series against South Africa and England, Australia faltered on its 1997-98 tour of India, losing the first two Tests before winning the third at Bangalore. This provided India their first title shot in 16 years when they returned Down Under in 1999. It was the first world-championship series I ever watched and might have something to do with my aversion to waking up early.
After losing to Queensland and beating a depleted New South Wales side, as well as losing a List A fixture against the Prime Minister's XI at Canberra, India made a promising start to the Adelaide Test, restricting Australia to 52/4 on the first morning. However, Steve Waugh (150 off 323) and Ricky Ponting (125 off 198) batted for the rest of the day to add 239 runs for the fifth wicket, and Shane Warne scored 86 in 100 balls on the second day to get the Australian total to 441. India lost their openers for nine runs and, although VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid added 81 for the third wicket, they were both dismissed shortly before stumps. The Indian captain, Sachin Tendulkar (61 off 133), and his soon-to-be successor, Sourav Ganguly (60 off 133), added 108 runs for the fifth wicket on the third morning, but Warne dismissed both on either side of lunch, taking 4/92 in 42 overs to secure a 156-run lead. The Indian bowlers made scoring difficult on a pitch with uneven bounce, but Greg Blewett scored 88 in 262 balls to set India a target of 396 in just under four sessions. Damien Fleming took 5/30 as, after that lbw decision, India ended the fourth day at 76/5, before being bowled out for 110.
India drew their first-class fixture against Tasmania, who declared their first innings at 548/5. Then, after rain forced the abandonment of the first session of the Boxing Day Test, Javagal Srinath dismissed Blewett and Justin Langer to have Australia at 28/2 in the eleventh over, before Michael Slater (91 off 179) added 95 runs with Mark Waugh and 69 with Steve Waugh. Ponting (67 off 85) and Adam Gilchrist (78 off 119) then added 144 runs in 32 overs for the sixth wicket. Australia were bowled out for 405 on the third morning—the final session of the second day was also rained out—and Brett Lee took 5/47 on debut to bowl India out for 238 in the second over of the fourth day. After Ajit Agarkar had Australia at 32/2, Gilchrist walked in and scored 55 off 73, and the Waughs added 58 in 77 balls before declaring at 208/5 an hour before stumps. Tendulkar, whose 116 off 191 in the first innings had helped avoid the follow-on, scored 52 in 122 balls, but India were bowled out for 195. McGrath took 5/48 and 5/55, while Langer scored 223, in an innings victory at Sydney to complete the whitewash.
Result: Australia retain, 3-0. Player of the Series: Ricky Ponting (375 runs @ 125.00)

#44: AUSTRALIA v WEST INDIES (5 TESTS, 2000-01)
The West Indies team that returned to Australia in 2000 was a shadow of its previous self, having lost its last five away series amid internecine disputes between the players and their board. And, after losing to Western Australia and Victoria in tour games, Jimmy Adams's side were bowled out for 82 on the first day of the Brisbane Test, with Glenn McGrath taking 6/17 in 20 overs. Michael Slater (54 off 137) and Matthew Hayden (44 off 94) overcame the Windies total in their opening partnership, putting on 101 before Hayden was run out half an hour before stumps. Marlon Black took three quick wickets on the second morning, but the Waughs added 62 in 178 balls to stabilise the innings, while Adam Gilchrist (48 off 66) and Brett Lee (62* off 80) added 61 in 60 balls for the eighth wicket, getting Australia to 332. McGrath then took 4/10 in 13 overs to bowl the challengers out for 132 to seal the innings victory.
The West Indies were at 22/5 after the first ten overs of the Perth Test, but Ridley Jacobs (96* off 151) added 75 runs with Wavell Hinds (50 off 87) and 65 with Mervyn Dillon (27 off 48) to take his team to 196. Hayden (69 off 120) and Mark Waugh (119 off 175) allowed the champions to declare with a 200-run lead shortly before stumps on the second day. Lee then took 5/61 in 15 overs to dismiss the Windies for 173 and complete Australia's twelfth consecutive Test win, breaking a record set by the challengers in 1984-85.
Brian Lara scored a century on the first day of the Adelaide Test, eventually scoring 182 in 235 balls to take his team to 354/5, before the final five wickets fell for 37 runs. Slater (83 off 123) and Hayden (58 off 119) responded with an opening partnership of 156, while Mark Waugh (63 off 142) and Ricky Ponting (92 off 156) added 123 for the fifth wicket, and the champions managed to take a 12-run lead early on the fourth day. Colin Miller, who had taken 5/81 in the first innings, followed up with 5/32 in the second, as the champions retained their title with a five-wicket victory after bowling out the Windies for 140. A century by Steve Waugh and 9/88 by Gillespie won Australia the Boxing Day Test by 352 runs, while Slater scored 96 and 86* to secure a six-wicket win at Sydney.
Result: Australia retain, 5-0. Player of the Series: Glenn McGrath (21 wickets @ 17.09)

#45: AUSTRALIA v SOUTH AFRICA (3 TESTS, 2001-02)
South Africa had taken over as #1 contenders by beating the West Indies in April 2001 and arrived in Australia later that year for their first title shot since returning to the cricketing fold. In the nine years since they lost their comeback Test in the West Indies, in April 1992, South Africa had lost just three Test series: a home series against Australia, and two away series against India and England. Australia, meanwhile, had seen their run of 16 consecutive victories end in India earlier that year and, despite comprehensively winning the Ashes in England, had failed to beat New Zealand in three home Tests. Steve Waugh said before the Adelaide Test that Australia wanted to prove they were "still a very good cricket side."
Justin Langer, who had been promoted to open the batting with Matthew Hayden during the Ashes, scored 116 in 246 balls on the first day at Adelaide, getting out just before the second new ball was due, with the score at 238/5. His partner at the time, Damien Martyn, went on to score 124* in 210 balls to take Australia to 439. In response, Herschelle Gibbs (78 off 187) and Gary Kirsten (47 off 86) had an 87-run opening partnership, before Neil McKenzie (87 off 168) and Mark Boucher (64 off 149) added 141 for the seventh wicket. Warne polished off the tail to finish with 5/113, and Australia took a first-innings lead of 65. Hayden (131 off 207) then added 181 runs for the third wicket with Mark Waugh (74 off 134) to set South Africa a target of 375 in the final hour of the fourth day. The Australian bowlers had the challengers at 74/8 on the final day, but Jacques Kallis's 65* in 174 balls took South Africa to the relatively respectable total of 128.
After rain delayed the start of the Boxing Day Test, Glenn McGrath dismissed the South African openers with the score on 37. McKenzie (67 off 163) put up some resistance, while Shaun Pollock (42* off 93) and Nantie Hayward (14 off 22) added 44 for the final wicket to get South Africa to 277 by tea on the second day. Langer (85 off 176) and Hayden (138 off 211) got Australia to stumps at 126/0, eventually adding 202 for the first wicket. Steve Waugh's 90 in 156 balls made sure that, even though Australia lost their final five wickets for 25 runs, the champions took a 210-run first-innings lead on the fourth morning. After Kallis was run out on 99, the challengers could only set a target of ten runs. Having retained the title, the Australian openers scored centuries in a 219-run partnership at Sydney, and Kirsten's 153 in 359 balls was the only reason the Test even went into a fourth day.
Result: Australia retain, 3-0. Player of the Series: Matthew Hayden (429 runs @ 107.25)

#46: AUSTRALIA v INDIA (4 TESTS, 2003-04)
India's historic victory at Eden Gardens, in 2001, stopped the Australian juggernaut in its tracks, and Sourav Ganguly's team secured a title shot on their next tour, which would be Steve Waugh's final Test series. Zaheer Khan took the only two wickets to fall on a rain-affected first day at the Gabba, as Justin Langer (121 off 194) got Australia to 262/2 at stumps. Only 16 overs of play was possible on the second day, but that was enough for Khan (5/95) and Ajit Agarkar (3/90) to get the champions to 323/9. In the 38 balls that were possible on the third, India took the final Aussie wicket, while their openers remained unbeaten on 11. In the absence of Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee, they added 50 more runs on the fourth before three wickets fell in 22 balls, but Ganguly, who had sought Greg Chappell's advice on how to survive in Australian conditions, scored 144 in 196 balls to take India to 329/6, while the tail wagged to get the first-innings total to 409 on the fifth morning. Hayden (99 off 98) and Ponting (50 off 75) then added 140 runs for the second wicket to ensure the draw.
Australia ended the first day of the Adelaide Test at 400/5, with Ponting still batting at 176. He was eventually dismissed for 242 with the score at 556/8, as Kumble took three wickets in the over to prevent any further runs from being scored and finish with 5/154 in 43 overs. A 66-run opening stand was followed by India losing four wickets for 19 runs, but Rahul Dravid added 303 runs with VVS Laxman (148 off 282), before batting with the tail to finish at 233 in 446 balls, with India just 33 runs behind. Agarkar then took 6/41 on the fourth day to bowl Australia out for 196, and Dravid scored 72* in 170 balls on the final day to secure an unlikely four-wicket win. Although Lee returned for the Boxing Day Test, Virender Sehwag scored 195 in 233 balls, adding 141 with Aakash Chopra (48 off 138) and 137 with Dravid (49 off 89), as India finished the first day at 329/4. The challengers could only add 37 runs on the second morning, losing six wickets for 16 runs in seven overs. Hayden (136 off 173) and Ponting (257 off 458) then added 234 runs for the second wicket, and Australia ended their innings on 558 late on the third day. Despite Dravid's 92 in 244 balls in the second innings, India lost their final six wickets for 33 runs to set Australia a 95-run target on the final morning, and the series was tied going into the final Test.
Sachin Tendulkar (241* off 436) and Laxman (178 off 298) added 353 runs for the fourth wicket at the SCG, with India batting for over two days before declaring at 705/7, but, despite Anil Kumble's 8/141 in 46.5 overs, centuries by Langer (117 off 149) and Simon Katich (125 off 166) allowed Australia to bat into the fourth day. Despite being 231 runs ahead, Ganguly chose to rest his bowlers by not enforcing the follow-on, and Dravid scored an attacking 91* in 114 balls, adding 138 runs for the third wicket with Tendulkar (60* off 89), before Ganguly declared half an hour before stumps, giving his team 94 overs to bowl the champions out and win the championship. However, on the final day of his Test career, Steve Waugh (80 off 159) added 142 runs for the fifth wicket with Katich (77* off 96) to save the match and retain the title.
Result: Australia retain, 1-1. Player of the Series: Rahul Dravid (619 runs @ 123.80)

#47: AUSTRALIA v SRI LANKA (2 TESTS, 2004)
Sri Lanka had an obscure claim to a title shot when they arrived in the winter of 2004 to play two Tests against Australia: they had beaten Pakistan away in 1995-96 to become #1 contenders, but never received a chance to contest the title, either in the West Indies or in Australia, in the next nine years. Their bid to become world champions was dealt a crippling blow after the world's leading wicket-taker, Muttiah Muralitharan, pulled out of the tour for "personal reasons." He had been no-balled for chucking on the previous Test tour, been booed incessantly when Sri Lanka returned for an ODI series and was called a chucker by the Australian prime minister, John Howard. Even a delegation sent by the government of the Northern Territory, which would host the Tests at Darwin and Cairns, failed to convince him to reconsider.
After Marvan Atapattu chose to field first at Darwin, the Australian openers added 72, while Damien Martyn (47 off 84) and Darren Lehmann (57 off 107) added 97 for the fourth wicket. However, after Sanath Jayasuriya dismissed Martyn at the stroke of tea, with the score at 177, Chaminda Vaas (5/31) and debutant Lasith Malinga (2/50) ran through the rest of the Australian batsmen for only 30 runs in the final session. Glenn McGrath responded with 5/37 to bowl Sri Lanka out for 97 on the second morning. Vaas (2/51) and Malinga (4/42) then had the champions at 77/5 before tea, but stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist scored 80 in 123 balls to set Sri Lanka a target of 312 at stumps. On the third day, Michael Kasprowicz took 7/39 to seal a 149-run victory and retain the title. Matthew Hayden (117 and 132) and Justin Langer (162 and 8) then scored centuries at Cairns but, despite Shane Warne's 7/199 in the match, which helped him equal Muralitharan's wicket tally, Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa batted out the final ten overs of the Test to secure a draw.
Result: Australia retain, 1-0. Player of the Series: Matthew Hayden (288 runs @ 72.00)

#48: AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND (5 TESTS, 2006-07)
England wrested away the #1 contender status from South Africa by winning a five-Test away series, 2-1, in 2004-05, then beat Australia by the same margin in the 2005 Ashes at home. It was the first time the world championship would be defended in an Ashes series since 1972. On the first day at the Gabba, Justin Langer scored 82 in 98 balls, before Ricky Ponting (196 off 319) and Michael Hussey (86 off 187) added 209 for the fourth wicket, taking Australia to 346/3 at stumps. The champions declared at 602/9, and Glenn McGrath took 6/50 to bowl England out for 157. Langer scored a century to allow Australia to declare at 202/1 early on the fourth day. Chasing 648, Paul Collingwood (96 off 155) and Kevin Pietersen (92 off 155) added 153 for the fourth wicket to get England to stumps at 293/5 but, after Pietersen was dismissed in the first over of the final day, the rest of the side could only add 77 runs.
Collingwood (206 off 392) added 113 runs for the third wicket with Ian Bell (60 off 148) on the first day of the Adelaide Test, before adding 310 runs in over a day with Pietersen (158 off 257). England declared at 551/6 in the final hour of the second day, and Andrew Flintoff dismissed Langer early to have Australia at 28/1 at stumps. However, Ponting (142 off 245) and Hussey (91 off 212) added 192 for the fourth wicket on the third day, before Clarke (124 off 224) added 98 with Adam Gilchrist (64 off 79) and 118 with Shane Warne (43 off 108) on the fourth to keep the first-innings deficit at 38. England were at 59/1 going into the final day, but lost nine wickets for 70 runs to set Australia a target of 168 in one session. Ponting (49 off 65) and Hussey (61* off 66) added 83 runs in 96 balls to secure a six-wicket win.
Hussey's 74* in 162 balls got Australia to 244 on the first day of the Perth Test, despite Monty Panesar's 5/92 and Steve Harmison's 4/48. England reached stumps at 51/2, and kept losing wickets at regular intervals, with Pietersen's 70 in 123 balls taking them to 215. Matthew Hoggard dismissed Langer off the first ball of the second innings, but Matthew Hayden (92 off 159) and Ponting (75 off 128) added 144 for the second wicket. Centuries by Hussey (103 off 156), Clarke (135* off 164) and Gilchrist (102* off 59) allowed Australia to declare at 527/5 on the third day and, despite a 170-run partnership for the second wicket between Alastair Cook (116 off 290) and Bell (87 off 163), Warne took 4/115 to seal a 206-run victory to retain the title. England could only manage totals of 159, 161, 291 and 147 in the final two Tests to be whitewashed for the first time in an Ashes series since the disastrous tour of 1920-21.
Result: Australia retain, 5-0. Player of the Series: Ricky Ponting (576 runs @ 82.28)

Unusual Batting Feats

Introduction

Brian Lara's 400*. Don Bradman averaging 99.94. Sachin Tendulkar scoring 15,921 Test runs. Chris Martin scoring 12*. The batsmen who achieved these Herculean feats have all gone down in cricket history. However, these are not the only batting performances which exist. There are multiple cases in which a batsman has achieved something unusual, or even at times truly unique, yet they do not get recognition. This post is dedicated to all those batsmen who have managed to achieve what few others have achieved, regardless of whether those achievements are good or bad.

Howzat?

There are ten methods of dismissal (formerly eleven) in cricket, but of these, only five can be considered 'normal': Bowled, caught, LBW, stumped and run out. One could also make a case for hit wicket, and it's common enough that I don't think it counts as being truly unusual. What about the other five, then? Has any batsman in international cricket been dismissed through any of those methods? Thankfully, Wikipedia has a list which I highly advise you to check out, so I'll just be summarising in this section.
First, there's obstructing the field. Only one batsman has ever been dismissed obstructing the field in Tests, and that batsman is Len Hutton against South Africa in 1951. After striking the ball, he noticed that it was about to land onto his stumps and thus bowl him, so he used his bat to strike the ball a second time and protect his stumps. This is actually a legal manoeuvre for a batsman provided that it doesn't prevent a fielder from taking a catch; unfortunately for Hutton, there was a fielder nearby who was ready to take a catch, so he became the first (and so far only) batsman in Test history to be dismissed obstructing the field.
Interestingly enough, there have been seven instances in ODIs of batsmen being given out obstructing the field. In all of those cases, the batsman in question obstructed throws from fielders in order to avoid being run out, in contrast to Hutton who obstructed a catch in order to avoid being caught. In three of those cases, the batsman used his bat or his body to deflect the ball away from the stumps while out of his crease, and in three other cases, the batsman changed his direction of movement while running in order to block the ball. Ben Stokes was out obstructing the field in the most unusual way, however, when he pulled a Maradona and used his hand to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps in a 2015 ODI against Australia.
There have been two instances of a batsman being dismissed obstructing the field in T20Is. Jason Roy was given out in a 2017 T20I against South Africa for changing his direction of movement while running, and Maldivian cricketer Hassan Rasheed was given out obstructing the field in 2019 for...I don't know, actually. It's pretty hard to find articles on bilateral T20Is between the Maldives and Qatar. If there's anyone here who is an expert on Maldivian or Qatari cricket then I'd appreciate finding out more about this incident.
As for handling the ball, this has happened ten times in international cricket (seven times in Tests and three times in ODIs). In 2013, the Laws were changed so that only the striker could be given out handling the ball and even then only before he had finished playing his stroke (strikers handling the ball after the completion of his stroke, and non-strikers handling the ball at any time, would be given out obstructing the field). In 2017, this method of dismissal was removed entirely and instead came under obstructing the field.
I won't go through all the players, but I will pick out some particular highlights. South Africa's Russell Endean was the first batsman in international cricket to be dismissed handled the ball in 1957 when he used his free hand to knock the ball away from the stumps, but according to a later interview, he actually wanted to head the ball away at first; I don't know whether that's actually against the Laws, but given that they didn't wear helmets back then, I can't imagine that it would have ended well. Michael Vaughan was the last player to be dismissed in this manner in Tests back in 2001, and Zimbabwe's Chamu Chibhaba holds the distinction of being the last cricketer to be dismissed handled the ball in international cricket after he was given out for handling the ball in an ODI against Afghanistan in 2015.
This post is about unusual feats, however, and when it comes to being given out handled the ball, there is none more unusual than the story of Australia's Andrew Hilditch. In a Test match against Pakistan in 1979, following a wayward throw from a fielder, Hilditch (who was at the non-striker's end) decided to return the ball to the bowler. It's actually against the Laws for a batsman to return the ball to a fielder without that fielder's permission, and controversially, the bowler (Sarfraz Nawaz) decided to appeal, which led to Hilditch's dismissal. This would be the only instance in international cricket of a non-striker being given out handled the ball, so Hilditch takes the biscuit when it comes to this unusual method of dismissal.
Retirement is rather unusual in that depending on the situation, the batsman can be considered out or not out. Generally, retirement occurs due to injury, in which case the batsman is considered 'retired hurt' and is entitled to return to the crease upon the fall of a wicket or upon another batsman's retirement. This situation is not at all unusual. What is unusual, though, is a batsman retiring for reasons other than injury, and unless there is some other acceptable reason for their absence (which I'll talk about shortly), the fielding side has the right to prevent them from returning to the crease, in which case they are retired out.
This has only occurred three times in international cricket. In a Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in 2001, in which Sri Lanka demolished the then-new Test nation of Bangladesh, the Sri Lankan captain (Sanath Jayasuriya) retired Marvan Atapattu after he scored his double-century, and later in the same innings, retired Mahela Jayawardene after he smashed 150(115). Obviously, this move was criticised by some for breaching the spirit of the game, and these are the only two instances of batsmen being retired out in Test cricket. The other such instance in international cricket is when Bhutan's Sonam Tobgay was retired out in a 2019 T20I against the Maldives (something about the Maldives and unusual dismissals for some reason), but I can't find any further details of the incident.
Now, this post is generally meant to be a light-hearted celebration of unusual batting achievements, but this next story is rather more sombre. In a 1983 Test between the West Indies and India, Gordon Greenidge was on 154* in the West Indies' first innings when he received news that his daughter was dying; he retired in order to be able to visit her, and she sadly passed away two days later. Although Greenidge had not been injured, he was given as 'retired not out' due to the tragic circumstances. To this day, this is the only instance in international cricket of a batsman being given retired not out.
Hit the ball twice and timed out are perhaps the most unusual dismissals of all in the sense that no batsman has ever been given out for those reasons in international cricket (not yet, anyway; there's a first time for everything). There was one instance, however, in which a batsman could have been timed out in Test cricket, but ultimately wasn't.
The Law states that a batsman must be at the crease within three minutes, else they can be timed out. In a 2007 Test between India and South Africa, Sachin Tendulkar was due to come in at #4. However, he had temporarily been off the field during South Africa's innings, and he still had unserved penalty time when two Indian wickets quickly fell, meaning that he couldn't bat at #4. As a result, India, who were confused by the whole ordeal, didn't send out a batsman for six minutes until Sourav Ganguly finally arrived at #4. Both the umpires and South Africa's captain, Graeme Smith, agreed that an appeal would be against the spirit of the game, but had Smith appealed, this would have been the only instance in international cricket of a batsman being timed out.

The Best Since Bradman

It's common knowledge among cricket fans that Don Bradman holds the record for the highest Test batting average, at 99.94. However, this isn't strictly speaking true. It is correct to say that Bradman has the highest average among batsmen who have played a minimum of twenty innings, but among all batsmen, Bradman only comes in at a measly third (what a fraud). Who are ahead of him, then?
Firstly, let us dispel with the notion that a batsman who is never dismissed has an infinite average. That is not true. A batsman who is never dismissed has an undefined average, since it is impossible to have a batting average without any dismissals. Pakistani off-spinner Afaq Hussain holds the record for the most Test runs scored without being dismissed, having scored 65 runs in four innings.
Looking at batsmen who have been dismissed, however, we come across West Indian wicketkeeper Andy Ganteaume in second place. The poor lad struggled to get into the Test team because of his slow scoring rate in tour matches, but an injury to Jeff Stollmeyer forced the selectors to play him against England. In his only Test innings in 1948, Ganteaume hit 112 but was criticised (once again) for scoring too slowly and was subsequently dropped; he would never play another Test match. Still, he can lay legitimate claim to having a higher Test batting average than Bradman, which only one other batsman has achieved.
Who's the best since Bradman, then? With a minimum cut-off of twenty innings, we have Adam Voges, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, all Australian, two of them still active international cricketers. As is tradition at this point, the batsman with the highest Test batting average of all time is an active Australian cricketer, Kurtis Patterson to be precise. He forced himself into the team after scoring twin centuries in a tour match and although he only scored 30 in his first innings, he scored 114* in his second to end up with an average of 144.
Australian fans go crazy over Smith and Labuschagne, declaring them to be the best since Bradman. Little do they realise that they have in their ranks a batsman who is not only statistically better than Bradman but who is also statistically better than the GOAT Test batsman Andy Ganteaume.
How about ODIs, though? Who has the highest ODI batting average of all time? I'll give you a hint: He's a Dutch player. No, it's not Ryan ten Doeschate; it is, in fact, Max O'Dowd. He scored 86* in his first innings followed by a score of 59 in his second innings to end up with an average of 145. ~~South African~~ Irish cricketer Curtis Campher comes in at second with an average of 127.
Who has scored the most runs in ODIs without being dismissed, though? Well, let me ask you a different question: Who is England's greatest ever ODI player? If you said Jos Buttler then you'd be wrong. By law, anything that Buttler can do, Foakes can do better, and Ben Foakes does in fact hold the record for the most runs in ODIs without being dismissed, having scored 61* in his only ODI innings. Buttler would never.
In T20Is, the greatest ever batsman is someone who you probably haven't even heard of. Chris Gayle calls himself 'Universe Boss', but the true Universe Boss is surely the guy who averages 126 in T20Is. Enter Portugal's Najjam Shahzad, who scored 27* in his first innings, 46 in his second and 53* in his third. Not only does he have the highest T20I average of all time but he's also improving with every innings, so it won't be long until Portugal becomes a powerhouse in T20I cricket thanks to megadaddy hundreds from Universe Boss Najjam Shahzad.
If Shahzad is the Universe Boss, however, then Saudi Arabia's Mohammad Adnan is the Multiverse Boss. He holds the record for the most runs in T20Is without being dismissed, scoring 14*, 38* and 8* in his three innings. Not only that, but he has a career strike rate of 193.54, so he doesn't waste time. Give this man an IPL contract already.

Duck, Duck, Goose

Ducks and golden ducks are not unusual in and of themselves. That doesn't mean that scoring a duck or golden duck can't still be unusual feats, however; it all depends on how those ducks or golden ducks come about.
You might be aware that New Zealand's Geoff Allott holds the record for the most balls faced for a duck in Tests, having faced 77 balls against South Africa in 1999 (he also holds the record for the longest duck, having batted for a whopping 101 minutes). What about the other formats, though? The late West Indian batsman Runako Morton holds the record for most balls faced for a duck in ODIs, having scored 0(31) against Australia in 2006 (unsurprisingly, the West Indies lost that match). Morton took 56 minutes for his duck, which is also an ODI record.
T20Is are where it gets juicy, however. Canada's Sandeep Jyoti holds the record for most balls faced for a duck in T20Is, scoring 0(12) against Zimbabwe in 2008 (it was a close match, though, as Canada only lost by 109 runs). In terms of minutes batted, however, Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor holds that record, having batted for 19 minutes in a T20I against South Africa in 2010 for a five-ball duck; Jyoti, by comparison, batted for 15 minutes.
The record for most balls faced for a golden duck is...one. By definition, golden ducks involve the batsman facing exactly one ball. However, who took the longest time for their golden duck?
In Tests, that accolade belongs to Bangladesh's Nazmul Hossain, who spent 14 minutes at the crease against India in a 2004 match before being run out for a golden duck. England fans were probably waiting in anticipation for a superb knock from the #3 batsman, Martyn Moxon, when they were 47-1 against Australia in a 1985 ODI, but after 19 minutes of tension, Moxon was dismissed LBW off his first ball. In a 2015 T20I between England and Pakistan, Pakistani opener Rafatullah Mohmand somehow conspired to spend 17 minutes at the crease before being dismissed LBW in the third over for a golden duck; amazingly, he was only two minutes away from equalling the record for the longest duck in T20Is!
What if a batsman just doesn't feel like scoring runs, though, and ends on 0*? Obviously, batsmen can end on something like 0*(0) or 0*(1) or 0*(5), and that wouldn't be too unusual. The truly remarkable feats are when a batsman plays a marathon innings and yet still finishes on 0*. Some of these players put Geoffrey Boycott to shame.
Firstly, let's consider Tests. In 1968, England scored 351/7d in the first innings and bowled Australia out for 78, forcing them to follow on. Cricinfo states that Paul Sheahan 'never completely mastered the art of crease occupation', which is a bizarre claim to make about a player who faced 44 balls in Australia's second innings without scoring a run, thus not only securing the draw but also setting a record which remains unbroken to this day. His marathon innings took 52 minutes, which is a joint record along with New Zealand bowler Danny Morrison's 0*(30) against South Africa in 1995.
Fun fact: Had Jack Leach not scored that single at Headingley while still remaining not out, he would have broken this record having batted for 60 minutes, yet assuming that he completed his final over, he would have only faced 20 balls (fewer than half the balls Paul Sheahan faced). I think this demonstrates just how effective Stokes was at farming the strike.
Moving on to ODIs, Zimbabwean #11 batsman Chris Mpofu (who averages 2.85 with the bat) holds the record here, having scored 0*(20) in a tenth-wicket partnership of 12(38) against Bangladesh in 2006. His partner was the #10 batsman (and Zimbabwe's captain) Prosper Utseya, who certainly didn't prosper with his 21(42), thus stranding Mpofu 80 balls short of his dentury. Who holds the record for the longest 0*, though?
Picture the scene. It's March 2019 and Sri Lanka is struggling in an ODI against South Africa. It's the first innings and Lasith Malinga has been run out for a duck, leaving Sri Lanka on 131/9 after just 33.4 overs. Everyone knows about Kusal Perera's incredible 153* earlier that year, but what happened next, while not nearly as impressive, was nonetheless incredible. #9 batsman Isuru Udana and #11 batsman Kasun Rajitha put on a tenth-wicket stand of 58 runs from just 34 balls. Udana ends on 78(57). Rajitha ends on 0*(9), having batted for exactly half an hour. South Africa still won comfortably, but Rajitha's immense innings saw him enter the history books as having scored the longest 0* in ODI history. Udana's innings was alright as well.
Finally, in T20Is, the record for the most balls faced for a 0* is held by Bermuda's Rodney Trott, who scored 0*(7) against the Netherlands in 2019. Cricinfo doesn't know how long it took, however. For that, we have to look towards India's Yuzvendra Chahal, who took 15 minutes for his 0*(4) against Australia in 2019. Solid contribution from him.
All these feats are just in one innings, though. Some batsmen go above and beyond that and spend their entire career not scoring runs (either that or they don't know what a batsman's main job is). Two Sri Lankan players (Ishara Amerasinghe and Dinuka Hettiarachchi) hold the joint record for most balls faced in Tests without scoring a single run, both having faced 25 balls. In fact, the entire top four is made up of Sri Lankans; clearly, a significant proportion of Sri Lankan cricketers view run-scoring as optional. Hettiarachchi (who Cricinfo reckons is an all-rounder despite an FC batting average of 9.55) beats out everyone when it comes to minutes batted, though, having batted for 39 minutes in Tests without scoring a single run.
Bangladesh's Harunur Rashid holds the record for most balls faced in ODIs without scoring a run, having faced 17 in total. However, we have to look to our old friend Rajitha to find the player who's batted the most minutes in ODIs without scoring a run; he has batted at least 32 minutes, almost all of which comes from his partnership with Udana. Portugal's Sukhwinder Singh has faced nine balls in T20Is without scoring a run, which is the record, but Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mathew Sinclair both hold the joint-record for having batted seven minutes in T20Is without scoring a run.

Diamond Ducks Are Forever

Ducks and golden ducks aren't too unusual for the most part, but diamond ducks (in which a batsman is dismissed without facing a single ball) are. Think of what needs to happen for a diamond duck to occur. The player can't be a striker for obvious reasons, so bowled, caught, LBW, stumped, hit wicket and hit the ball twice (all of which can only apply to the striker) are out of play. Timed out is out of play as soon as a batsman enters the crease. This leaves just three possible dismissals for a diamond duck: Run out, obstructing the field and retired out. The latter two almost never happen, so diamond ducks almost always occur due to run-outs.
There have been 153 diamond ducks in ODIs and 53 diamond ducks in T20Is, so in those formats, diamond ducks aren't that unusual. This makes sense, of course, as run-outs are more likely to occur in those formats. Tests are where diamond ducks count as an unusual batting feat, as there have been in the history of Tests only 29 diamond ducks that we know of. Chris Martin holds the unfortunate distinction of being the only cricketer in the history of Tests to be dismissed for a diamond duck twice (one of which came in his final Test innings, which is a perfect summation of his batting career).
Most of these diamond ducks have of course come through run-outs, but there have been seven international diamond ducks (three in ODIs and four in T20Is) which have come through stumpings. On the surface, this shouldn't be possible; how can a batsman be stumped without facing a ball? The answer is simple: Leg-side stumpings. In white-ball cricket, any leg-side delivery tends to be given as a wide, and the odd thing about wides is that they do not count as a ball faced by the striker yet the striker can be dismissed stumped or hit wicket off of them. This would explain why this kind of diamond duck has occurred seven times in LOIs yet has never occurred in the history of Test cricket.
FWIW, there has yet to be an international diamond duck from a method of dismissal other than run out and stumped, but it is theoretically possible for a batsman who is dismissed hit wicket (off a wide), obstructing the field or retired out to achieve a diamond duck. Will any batsman be brave enough to make history and try to achieve what would be a unique feat by being dismissed for a diamond duck through one of these modes of dismissal? We'll have to wait and see.

Specialist Six-Hitters

So far, this post has been focusing largely on defensive stalwarts, but those are boring to watch. Everyone knows that real cricket is about walking up to the crease and hitting sixes from the get-go, so this section will be dedicated to those players who consider a strike rate under 600 to be too defensive. No score illustrates this mentality better than the rare 6*(1), so let's start with that.
In all the Tests throughout history, only once has a batsman finished on a score of 6*(1). The year is 1993 and Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya enters the crease with his team five wickets down but needing just four runs to beat England. Phil Tufnell is the bowler who is trying to take his wicket and help pull off a miracle for England, but Jayasuriya is having none of it and promptly smacks his first delivery for six. As far as Tests go, Jayasuriya's 6*(1) is a true case of batting scorigami (maybe I'll do a cricket scorigami post at some point).
As for ODIs and T20Is, a final score of 6*(1) is more common as you might imagine. In fact, it has occurred nine times in ODIs and thirteen times in T20Is. It appears to be the case that when a batsman is dismissed on the penultimate ball of the first innings, the batting team will send out a specialist six-hitter to get the job done. Credit goes to Afghan wicketkeeper Shafiqullah and England all-rounder Chris Jordan for being the only two players to achieve this unusual feat twice (Shafiqullah has achieved it twice in T20Is whereas Jordan has achieved it once in ODIs and once in T20Is).
A 6*(1) is probably my second-favourite score, but you know what my favourite score is? 6(2). I don't think any score illustrates the dual nature of batting quite like this one does. You can be dominating a bowler and smashing them for six one moment, then the very next moment, you can find yourself dismissed by the same bowler. It's poetic. It represents not only the duality of batsmen but the duality of man himself; you can be breezing through life one second then you could be rock-bottom the next. 6(2) is not just a score; it is a representation of life itself, cricket's ode to the erratic nature of mankind's existence.
Much like 6*(1), 6(2) has only occurred once in Test cricket, in 1958 to be precise. The West Indies were 401 runs behind Australia heading into the third innings and they required a miracle just to stay in the game. A 179-run partnership between Walcott and Sobers gave the West Indies hope, but they then proceeded to collapse from 244/3 to 283/8. In comes Frank King at #10 with his team needing over a hundred runs just to make Australia bat again. Not wanting to go down without a fight, he heaves the bowler for six off his first ball. Alas, his very next ball results in him being caught, but one cannot fault King for his effort in the face of certain defeat (apart from the fact that he had Everton Weekes at the other end, but we'll just ignore that).
This scoreline of 6(2) has occurred ten times in ODIs and eleven times in T20Is. No batsman in international cricket has ever achieved it twice. The first player to achieve it twice will thus have their names etched in the history books for their unique feat.
South Africa's Mangaliso Mosehle deserves special mention, though. He has achieved the ultimate cricket scorigami: His score of 6(1) against Sri Lanka in a 2016 T20I is the only such score in the entire history of international cricket. He came in at #6 at the end of South Africa's ninth over and hit his first international ball for six. He was then run out as the non-striker in the next over, leaving him on a score of 6(1). Not only did his team win the match, but Mosehle achieved what no other batsman has achieved before or since. Truly, his name must be counted among the likes of Lara, Tendulkar and Bradman for this one-of-a-kind feat.
In cases such as 6*(1) and 6(1), the batsman was left with a strike rate of 600. Can it go higher, though? Has any batsman done better than 600? For the first question, the answer is surprisingly yes. It is indeed theoretically possible for a batsman to finish an innings with a strike rate greater than 600. If he hits a ball for three and the fielding side then throws the ball to the boundary, the number of runs scored off of that delivery will be 3 + 4 overthrows = 7. This is how it would theoretically be possible for a batsman to conclude an innings with a strike rate greater than 600.
Does this mean that there is a batsman out there who has struck at a rate greater than 600? Unfortunately, no. Though it is doable, it has never happened in international cricket. The highest SR ever achieved in an international innings is 600; that includes Mosehle, all the players who have scored 6*(1), and Afghanistan's Dawlat Zadran, who against Oman in 2016 scored 12*(2) to win his team the T20I by three wickets with three balls remaining. He clearly did his job as specialist six-hitter very well indeed, for he is the only batsman in international cricket to have finished an innings with a strike rate of 600 having faced more than one ball.
Since no batsman has struck at greater than 600 in an innings, it stands to reason that no batsman has struck at greater than 600 over their career. Has anyone struck at exactly 600, though? Is there a batsman who hit their only ball in international cricket for six?
No-one's done it in Tests, that's for sure. The batsman with the highest confirmed career strike rate in Tests is Australia's Fred Freer, who hit 28*(21) in his only innings for a career SR of 133.33. However, Bill Howell (also Australian) may have had an SR of up to 205.88, though we don't have full ball-by-ball data for his innings.
In ODIs and T20Is, the records are undisputed. South African pace bowler Johann Louw holds the accolade in ODIs, having scored 23(7) in his only innings for a career strike rate of 328.57, and Bahrain's Qasim Zia hit a four off his only international delivery to take the record for the highest career strike rate in T20Is.
As you can see, not only has no batsmen ever finished with a career SR greater than 600, but none have even managed to finish with an SR of exactly 600. To strike at greater than 600 over the course of an innings would be unique in international cricket; to strike at exactly 600 over the course of a career would be truly special; to strike at greater than 600 over the course of a career, however, would be the holy grail of unusual batting feats. The player who manages to achieve that would surely go down in cricketing folklore for all eternity.

To Be Or Not To Be On Strike

All of the aforementioned batting feats require that the batsman has actually faced a ball. What if that's not the case, though? What if a batsman's dedication to weirdness is so great that they do not even bother to get themselves on strike? Or, perhaps more accurately, what if a batsman's dedication to weirdness is so great that they do not allow their partner to take the strike?
That is precisely what happened in 2012 when England faced Pakistan in the first Test of the tour. With Pakistan on 319/9 in their first innings, Adnan Akmal evidently didn't trust his partner Aizaz Cheema to face even one delivery, with the result that the two batsmen put on a 19-run partnership for the tenth wicket despite Cheema not facing a single ball. What makes this notable is that Cheema batted for 20 minutes without facing a delivery, which is a Test match record. Amusingly, Cheema ended his career with five innings batted, five not-outs, a high score of 1*, 23 balls faced and a strike rate of 4.34.
As for T20Is, I must admit that I am rather bemused. Afghanistan's Amir Hamza holds the record for the most minutes batted in a T20I innings without facing a ball, having batted for 10 minutes against the Netherlands in 2013. However, I'm confused as to how he managed to achieve this. Afghanistan's ninth wicket fell on the final ball of the nineteenth over, and so Hamza's partner faced the first ball of the final over. However, Hamza was also run out for a diamond duck on the first ball of the final over. This means that the gap between the end of the nineteenth over and the beginning of the final over was 10 minutes. How is that even possible in a T20I? Cricinfo isn't helping me at all here.
Now for the reason I wanted to make this post in the first place. This particular innings took place in 2017, during an ODI between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand had set the Aussies a target of 287 and the chasing side found themselves facing certain defeat on 226/9, with only Marcus Stoinis and Josh Hazlewood left at the crease.
What happened next was nothing short of spectacular. Stoinis somehow managed to farm the strike with such effectiveness that immediately prior to the final ball of the 47th over, the two batsmen had put on a tenth-wicket partnership of 54 runs and needed just six more runs to win. The kicker? Hazlewood didn't face a single ball. Stoinis had faced every single delivery in the partnership. Australia's innings finally ended on the final ball of the 47th over when Hazlewood was run out for a diamond duck while attempting to take a single, but if Stoinis had pulled it off, it would surely have been one of the greatest ODI innings of all time.
All in all, Hazlewood batted for 26 minutes, which is by far the longest innings by a batsman without facing a single ball in the history of international cricket. When I first heard about this stat, I couldn't believe it; I found it so unusual and so unique that I decided to look for more weird and wonderful batting feats, and that's how this post came about. Hats off to specialist non-striker Josh Hazlewood, then, for inspiring me to do this.
You might think that any batsman who faces zero balls in an innings can only end up with a score of either 0 or 0*, and if you think that, you'd be right. Nonetheless, while searching through Cricinfo's database to find the weirdest batting feats out there, I came across this scorecard. Apparently, this is due to a scoring error as the scorer incorrectly neglected to count the no-ball as a ball faced. The fact that this is the only such instance of this happening in Cricinfo's database supports this theory.
Hazlewood's achievement was superb, but even he only managed it in one innings. How about over an entire career? Who holds the record for the most minutes batted over a career without facing a ball? Unfortunately, Cricinfo won't let me find that out for Tests, and the ODI and T20I data present nothing at all unusual (the record is 2 minutes for ODIs and 5 minutes for T20Is, in case you're wondering).
Matches played is somewhat more interesting. Once again, Cricinfo won't let me do this for Tests, but India's Jaydev Unadkat holds the record for the most ODIs played without facing a single ball, having played in seven ODIs. However, he's also never had to bat; if we restrict our search only to those who have batted at least one innings, Lance Gibbs and Pakistan's Mohammad Khalil come out on top, both having played three ODIs without facing a ball.
The West Indies' Krishmar Santokie holds the record for the most T20Is played without facing a single ball, having played in twelve of them (talk about specialist bowler!), although India's Mohammed Shami and Scotland's Hamza Tahir are closing in on that record, both having played in eleven T20Is without facing a single ball. Unlike Unadkat (and Shami and Tahir, for that matter), Santokie actually batted in one innings (against Ireland in 2014), though that would be his only international innings with the bat.

Extra, Extra!

I don't think Extras gets enough credit. The dude's been batting for 144 years and yet no-one praises his longevity. This final section will thus be dedicated to the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Extras himself.
Despite his long and illustrious career, Extras has only top-scored in 19 completed Test innings. The lowest such score came in 1924; England scored 438 in the first innings while South Africa could only manage 30, with Extras scoring a swashbuckling 11 to lessen South Africa's humiliation. The skipper, Herbie Taylor, was the next-highest scorer with 7; a true captain's knock from him. Extras' highest score was a 76 for Pakistan against India in 2007 (he had also scored 38 and 41 in India's two innings, so it was a good match for him), but this was not the highest score in the innings.
In total, Extras has top-scored in 39 completed ODI innings. This includes a 2004 ODI between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, in which Extras scored 7 of Zimbabwe's 35 runs (tied with Dion Ebrahim for Zimbabwe's top scorer that game). Extras has also scored three half-centuries in ODIs, his highest score of 59 occurring twice in 1989 and 1999, both for Pakistan. For some reason, Extras just really loves scoring for Pakistan.
Extras has top-scored in 10 completed T20I innings, the lowest of which was once again a score of 7, this time coming for Turkey against Luxembourg in 2019 (Turkey scored just 28 runs in that match). Extras has never scored a half-century in T20Is, with his top score being 39 for Czechia against Turkey in 2019.
That's strange. This Extras fellow, despite having a 144-year-long batting career, has never scored a century, or even approached a century. I personally think that he's been given enough chances and should be dropped. I've heard that he can't even field or bowl, so what's the point in having him in the team if he's not scoring?

Conclusion

When discussing impressive batting feats, a lot of people place emphasis on comparisons: Who has the better average? Who has scored more runs? Who has the better strike rate in white-ball cricket? Who has the better beard? Who has the lower dot-ball percentage when batting in the third innings of the second Test in the series on a Tuesday with a lead of 100 runs or more?
However, the most unusual achievements in the art of batting tend not to derive from excellence in the craft but rather from unique circumstances which lead to bizarre stats or scorelines. To achieve what no batsman has achieved before in international cricket, even if it's something terrible such as becoming the first batsman in the history of international cricket to be out hit wicket for a diamond duck, is impressive in its own way. Also, the subsequent memes can be pretty funny.
I hope you enjoyed the read. Next time, I'll be doing the same thing but for bowling. Get ready for first-ball wickets and economy rates of 0.

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Brian Lara Biography – Career, Wife, Daughters. By. Rakesh - June 11, 2019. Image Source : Sport360. Brian Charles Lara (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Lara topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing Brian Lara Biography - Get Brian Lara full profile with all the records, quotes and latest news. Also have a look on Brian Lara career statistics and performance analysis with batting, fielding Read about Brian Lara's Profile, Latest News, Articles, Career updates only on ESPNcricinfo.com. Find Lara's Records, Biography, Centuries, Runs, wickets. Download Images Watch Videos online Brian Lara Personal Information Full name: Brian Charles Lara Born: May 2, 1969, Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad Current age: 51 years 260 days Major teams: West Indies, ICC World XI, Marylebone Cricket Club, Mumbai Champs, Northern Transvaal, Southern Rocks, Trinidad & Tobago, Warwickshire Playing role: Batsman Batting style: Left-hand bat Bowling style: Legbreak googly Height: […] Read about Brian Lara's career details on Cricbuzz.com Lara, who opened the batting, rattled 333 at a breezy rate. Two years later he produced a monumental feat, notching up 375 versus England One look at Brian Charles Lara's Test scores, and there is no doubt in one's mind that here is a batsman with a vociferous appetite for runs. In the year 1994, he broke his countryman Gary Sobers' long standing record for many decades by scoring a brilliant 375. Brian Lara Biography: Brain Charles Lara was born on 2nd May 1969 at Santa Cruz Trinidad and Tobago.He had 11 siblings at the age of 9 his father Had Demised. His Father and elder Sister Identified the Batting Talent In Lara And Joined Him in the local Cricket Coaching Center at the age of 6. At the Age Of 14, He Started His first-class Cricket Career with His Friend Michael. Brian Lara (West Indies / ICC World XI) Profile & Statistics Summary Sri Lankan cricket fan waves flag for over 30 years Percy Abeseykera, the famous cricket fan has seen the story of Sri Lankan cricket, at exceptionally short proximity for almost 60 years, cutting a specialty for himself as an encapsulation of the difficulties, enthusiasm, and Brian Lara One of the all-time greats of the world game, Brian Charles Lara came into the West Indies team in 1990, batting at number four behind a top order of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Richie Richardson. Brian Charles Lara is the former West Indies cricketer and played in all forms of cricket for West Indies. Brian Lara is one of the greatest cricketer in the world. He made huge number of records

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EP#07 - Career Performance/Statistics Brian Lara - YouTube

Brian Lara's 400* vs England in 2004 is the highest individual score in test cricket by any batsman.SUBSCRIBE the channel for more videos.#BrianLara#batting#... west Indies legendary batsman brian lara batting technique analysis Disclaimer -video is for educational purpose only.Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 ... Brian Lara together with Sachin Tendulkar were considered the two best batsmen of their era. ( 1900s and 2000s). While Tendulkar was more consistent, Lara wa... The Greatness about BRIAN LARA is that - he will make people say that " WOW! WE WILL NOT SEE THIS TYPE OF BATTING AGAIN. Also in Test Cricket - Brian Lara is... Brian Lara 216 vs Pakistan at Multan 22 Fours 7 Sixes 262 Balls 422 minutes in 2006 - Last double hundred of his career2nd Test, West Indies tour of Pakistan... Brian Charles Lara has played one of the greatest innings in the World Cup. Here is his 111 against South Africa in 1996 Quarter Final, which took WI into th... EP#07 - Career Performance/Statistics Brian LaraThis series includes the career performance/Statistics of retired players. Brian Lara Playing a breath taking inningsSovik: Sovik

Brian Lara Biography – Career, Wife, Daughters

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Statistical Comparison of some of the Best ODI Batsmen with respect to their Teammates.