Are you missing cricket? Me too. I love April but it’s not the same without the start of the county championship to look forward to. The weather is improving, it’s still light at 6pm, the magnolia trees (a personal favourite) are in bloom, the cherry blossom is gorgeous but …. there’s no sodding live sport. Sigh.
It’s been hard finding the motivation to write about cricket in recent days – it all seems a bit irrelevant when hundreds of people are dying and the prime minister is in intensive care – but I’ll do my best to pique your interest and hopefully raise a smile with the following reminiscences.
What’s the best innings you’ve ever seen? I’ll give you my top 5 below. Some of them I witnessed in the flesh and the rest were on TV (they all count).
I haven’t just chosen the highest scores, of course, otherwise this would turn into a Brian Lara tribute. Instead my choices take account of the strength of the opposition, the match circumstances, and intangibles that I can’t explain i.e. they just captured my imagination and stuck in the mind for some reason.
Anyway, here goes. I imagine many of you will remember these knocks too …
DI Gower 215 – England versus Australia, Edgbaston 1985
Although the 2005 Edgbaston Test was possibly the best match I’ve ever seen, events twenty years beforehand at the same venue will always be special to me on a personal level. Why? Because they’re my very first cricketing memory.
I was just a nine year old flicking between the three TV channels available when I alighted on coverage of The Ashes. I was immediately hooked. There was something mystical, ceremonial, and tactical going on. And I wanted to know more.
The hero of that game was an elegant left hander who appeared to be the England captain. He flayed what I later discovered was a pretty handy Australian seam attack (Craig McDermott, Geoff Lawson, and Jeff Thomson) to all corners with incredible panache. I’m pretty sure this is why I still favour stylish batsmen today. I’m always pining for Gower.
England went on to win the Ashes that summer. Little did I know that we wouldn’t beat the Aussies at home again until 2005! I’ll never forget Gower’s rapier-like blade, curly blonde hair, and the fact I was completely flummoxed by the concept of ‘turn’. The commentators kept talking about it when Emburey and Edmonds were bowling in tandem. What the hell was ‘turn’?
Cricket seemed weird. But it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair.
GA Hick 172 – Worcestershire versus West Indies, New Road 1988
This is still the best innings I’ve witnessed live. BY A DISTANCE. I’ve never seen such a high quality attack taken to the cleaners so brutally.
To appreciate this innings fully one must understand the context. The 21-year old Hick (that’s younger than Ollie Pope remember) had started the domestic season like the proverbial Japanese bullet train. He’d scored runs for fun, including that famous 405 versus Somerset, and went into this tour game against the Windies at a packed New Road needing 153 more runs to achieve a staggering feat – 1,000 first class runs before the end of May.
The local press (and some of the national journos) had been bigging this statistic up for a while. Would he? Wouldn’t he? As the opposition was the fearsome West Indies, and this would be Hick’s last opportunity to reach the milestone, most wagered that he wouldn’t.
But the pundits didn’t realise just how fearless the young Hick – before his tortuous wait to qualify for England – really was. This version of Hick was completely free of mental demons and just went out and expressed himself.
The Windies won the toss and inserted the hosts. Patrick Patterson bowled a maiden first up, and then Ambrose struck with the first ball of the second over. Hick therefore strode to the middle with Worcestershire on 0-1. Was he nervous? Don’t be silly. He just twatted it from the word go.
Hick cruised past the 153 he needed and finished the day on 172*. He was completely dominant. The Windies attack of Patterson, Ambrose, Walsh, and Bishop (that’s the pre-injury rapid Ian Bishop by the way) were absolutely pummelled. It was sensational – as good as anything the onlooking Viv Richards could’ve produced.
It’s amazing to think that Hick had some trouble with the short ball when he eventually played for England. On this particular day he hooked and pulled like a legend. In fact, the more the increasingly agitated West Indians bowled at his head, the faster the scoring rate seemed to rise.
I’ll always wonder what Hick might have achieved at international level had he made the step up in class at this point rather than stagnating for another three years (during which the expectations increased massively too).
Steve Waugh 122* – Australia v England, MCG 1998
Everyone remembers this game for Dean Headley and Darren Gough’s heroics. However, I’ll never forget Steve Waugh’s brilliance in a losing cause too. Australia were under pressure throughout but Waugh stood tall, almost as if he was disgusted by his teammates lack of fight, and he almost denied England a famous win singlehandedly.
After England made a subpar 270 in the first innings, the Aussies were expecting a big first innings lead. However, an inspired Gough snared four of the first five wickets to fall and Australia found themselves under pressure at 98-3, 127-4, and then 151-5. Maybe England would be the team to emerge with a precious first innings advantage?
Nope! Steve Waugh was completely untroubled throughout and made an absolutely flawless 122 not out. He was serene. And his steady progress towards a century seemed inevitable. What’s more, he marshalled the tail like the grizzled old pro he was and added nearly one hundred runs for the eighth wicket with Stuart MacGill. Australia were eventually dismissed for 340.
When England cobbled together 244 in their second dig, the Aussies only required an easily achievable 175 for victory. It wasn’t to be, however, as Headley’s 6-60 blew them all away. That’s all except for Steve Waugh, of course, who finished 30 not out. The glare he gave each departing Australian batsman will live with me forever. He was not amused.
Waugh’s match aggregate of 152 (without being dismissed) in a low scoring game is probably the second best individual batting performance I’ve seen live.
Kevin Pietersen 108* – South Africa versus England, Bloemfontein 2005
This was KP’s first hundred for England. However, I don’t want to single out this innings alone. His performances in this whole ODI series were breathtaking. He backed up this unbeaten ton at Bloemfontein with 100* at East London, 75 at Cape Town, and 116 at Centurion.
Overall the young Pietersen finished with 454 runs in six innings at an average of 151 – not bad for your first series in an England shirt against top opposition.
What astounded me about Pietersen’s performances was the sheer audacity of them. Here he was, in his home country, a country he’d controversially abandoned (in the eyes of many) yet he was completely unfazed.
The crowds booed KP throughout. And it certainly wasn’t friendly banter either. It made the ‘abuse’ Steve Smith received in England last summer look like a lockdown country stroll. There was real bad feeling, bitterness, and outright hostility in the air. But KP didn’t care. He made the critics pay and shut them right up.
After watching those six innings I concluded three things (a) Pietersen was insanely talented (b) he had a natural penchant for the big occasion, and (c) he had perhaps the biggest cojones of any cricketer I’d ever seen up to that point. Damn he was impressive.
Graham Gooch 154* – England versus West Indies, Headingley 1991
I’ve saved the best until last. This was unquestionably the finest innings I’ve witnessed either on TV or in the flesh. It was the captain’s innings personified.
This was the famous occasion when Gooch carried his bat against the might of Ambrose, Patterson, Marshall, and Walsh in the second dig. The bowlers were on top throughout the match and only three other players made it to 50 in a very low scoring affair. It was, after all, a typical Headingley seamers’ wicket that made even England’s attack (which included the not so mighty Steve Watkin and Del Boy Pringle) look unplayable.
Things were pretty even after the first innings. England made 198 and the Windies replied with 173. But what happened next won the game for the hosts. England managed to post a competitive 252 – setting a challenging target of 278 that the Windies didn’t get anywhere near.
How did England post such a competitive second innings total? It was all thanks to Zap. He made an unbeaten 154 (well over half his team’s runs) and the next highest score was Ramprakash’s 27! It was an incredibly gutsy effort that required amazing skill and resilience in the face of some potent bowling.
Given the match situation, and the fact he was a captain carrying the whole team on his shoulders, I’ll probably never see a better knock.
It’s worth remembering too that the Windies were still a very fine side at this point, boasting not just three legendary fast bowlers but also batting stars like Sir Viv, Desmond Haynes, Richie Richardson, and Gus Logie, not to mention Jeff Dujon behind the stumps.
Can you think of a betting innings than Gooch’s 154*? You’ll be hard pressed. Tell me what you think in the comments below. I’d love to hear your personal favourites.
James Morgan
The best innings I’ve seen, live or on TV (in this case TV) must be Ben Stokes’ 135* at Headingley last year. It’s all been said.
Live, although in a losing cause, I would say Sunil Gavaskar’s 221 for India v England at the Oval.
I should add a disclaimer here. I couldn’t include Stokes’s innings because I missed most of it. I was at a birthday lunch for my mum and only returned to see the last wicket stand.
There have been other amazing efforts too. Pietersen’s ton at Mumbai sticks in the mind, as does Thorpe’s amazing century against Murali when he scored 90% of his runs in singles (I forget the exact proportions). However, I was either at work or otherwise engaged during these innings and only really saw the highlights.
The match was drawn although failing to win the match meant India lost the series.
My best innings live was Brian Lara’s 175 v England at the Oval in early noughties. The amazing thing about the innings was that he scored all his runs in about 4 hours. Amazing effort. The best innings on TV must be Stokes innings in 2019 World Cup final. In the context, it was brilliant and so brave.
Lord’s Ashes test,1972, more famously remembered for Massie’s sixteen wickets but Greg Chappell’s 131 was a masterpiece full of patience, grace, poise and the most sublime of on-drives, to square the series.
Very well put. The same could be said of several of his innings. I would put him with Gower as the most aesthetically pleasing batsmen I have seen.
It is the obvious choice but Gooch’s 154* would be the greatest I’ve seen on TV.
The best I’ve seen in the flesh was at Northampton in the very late 1980s. Northants needed about 270 on a dog track of a pitch against a Leicestershire attack of Agnew-Ferris-Lewis-Parsons-Willey and with uneven bounce (James Whitaker had a hand broken by Winston Davis). Allan Lamb came in with Northants very-little-for-two and hit 148 without giving a chance or looking like getting out. The next highest score was 39. Two things lodge strongly in the memory: Lamb hitting Agnew for 4 consecutive 4s then pulling a six when a piqued Agnew tried a bouncer and Lamb coming off at lunch with his eyes absolutely ablaze (Thorpe after his 119* was the only look I’ve seen comparable). Northants collapsed when Lamb was out and won by 1 wicket.
A word also for a 143 I saw Gordon Greenidge hit in the mid-1980s when on one leg and on a green-top pitch where nobody else in a strong batting line-up could make over 55.
I was never a Gooch fan..but it was a splendid innings..of course he did have a bit of luck…and why not it was Headingly against the Windies….funnily enough I chatted to a Jamaican way back in the early 90s…he reckoned that Gooch’s ton against Marshall, Croft, Holding and Garner was better…he saw both. In those days Sabina park rated alongside Perth as a quick track. He went on to say however that Gower’s 150 not out to save the match was even better…shame that this was not televised
I was at Old Trafford as a 15 year old in 1984 to witness I V A Richards 189* in a one day game v England
Enough said
I was there as a 22 year old. Bit special wasn’t it
I was there too (18 y.o) and yes. It was quite amazing and totally unforgettable. My immediate response when I saw the question at the top.
At county level, I remember enjoying (and that’s rarely the case when it’s against my team) watching Ian Botham score 139 against Lancashire in 1986. End of season game. Not really much on it (I don’t think) but great fun.
Great blog James. I remember that Gower innings very well from back in the days when BBC covered every ball without ads and with great commentators including Richie Benaud and Tony Lewis.
Gooch’s innings that you list was the one that immediately sprung to mind for me. I missed Stokes’ last year too (my wife forcing me to go sailing with a jaunty “they haven’t got a hope, we’re not staying at home all day for that!”) We’re still married…
I saw KP make 100 live in about 3 hours in a Test at Lord’s that was the easiest, most in inevitable century I’ve ever seen. Can’t remember when or who against though.
The other that springs to mind is the 150-odd Graeme Smith made to win a Test at Edgbaston (I think). Brilliant, while being just as ugly and infuriating as usual.
Pietersen’s 158 against Australia at the Oval, 2005. To make your first Test ton, against the World’s best team, in the second innings of the final match of history’s greatest ever Test series, with 20+ years of public expectation weighing on you – it was insane. I was working at a national newspaper at the time and I vividly recall the entire newsroom, to a man (and woman) absolutely enthralled – it was on every single TV screen (which is unprecedented). I nipped out to buy a sandwich and you could hear every boundary being cheered from inside neighbouring buildings or people listening on the street. It wasn’t technically perfect, he rode his luck, but holy shit it was the greatest knock I’ve ever seen. It perfectly encapsulated the spirit of that Vaughan-led side – plucky, abrasive, aggressive, self-confident – and proved a fitting climax to a tumultuous series. I’d been fortunate to watch a lot of England batsmen over the years – Gooch, Robin Smith (that cut shot…), Hussain, Vaughan etc. – but none came close to KP for talent and the ability to single-handedly grip a game by the nuts. He epitomises FIIDIM (Fuck It I’ll DO IT MYSELF), which is probably what riled some people. But he’s by some distance my favourite ever England batsman.
I have always thought that the innings in that match that doesn’t get the recognition it deserved was Strauss’ first innings 120ish. Good opening partnership with Trescothick then 4 wickets went down quickly but he rebuilt with Flintoff to get England up to 370-odd. It was the vital, class knock without which England would likely have been skittled for c200 and unlikely to hang on for the draw.
Not taking anything away from KP’s, because it was exciting and the eye-catching one that got the headlines but I wouldn’t rate it amongst KP’s best for England.
I only saw news footage at the time and have since searched in vain for a recording but, if news footage counts then it has to be the innings by Dennis Amiss in Kingston in 1974. Not so much for the style or even quality of the batting, more for the sheer bloodymindedness of scoring 262* to secure a draw with the next highest score being 38 and the no11 as his partner at the end. That requires a real test mentality not even equalled by Gooch. If Willis (the no11) had been dismissed (and the game lost) Amiss would have had the highest score ever by a player carrying his bat in a test.
Can anyone imagine any of the current crop of white ball wonders (or even their predecessors like Pietersen) being able to bat for 183 overs to save a game?
I have a similar memory of Peter Willey blunting a (much better) WI bowling attack in 1980 for several hours with only Bob Willis for company, in a match which England could very easily have lost. I’m pretty sure the ninth wicket halfway through the afternoon session. An underrated innings I think–as was Willis’s several-hour 24* (just checked–off 114 balls) given the standard of batsman he was!
1974 seems to be a thing for me. I was on vacation from uni that summer and had the good fortune to be at Edgbaston when Rohan Kanhai and John Jameson made an unbroken 400+ for the second wicket. Kanhai may be the best bat I ever saw and he would have been absolutely lethal in the white ball game.
Best innings was the first I ever saw back in 1966. Big Colin Milburn, run out without scoring on his maiden test innings, flogged the West Indies all over the place before falling for a wonderful 96. Wonderful stuff and started my love affair with cricket.
Some good ones here. My choice:
LIVE
1. Test: Peterson last test 2005 Ashes for a Test innings that eclipses even Stokes last year.
2.County Championship: Ian Ward 170 odd not out batting with the tail to an incredible win against Kent at Canterbury 2002, after Surrey saved the follow on by I run. Surrey were under the hammer for 3 days out of 4. If I had to choose one game for sustained edge of your seat excitement it was this one. Witnessed by only 100 people and led Surrey to the Championship that year.
3. Alistair Brown’s 265 in a B&H one day match against Glamorgan 2002 at the Oval. Unbelievable hitting and still a World record. AND Glamorgan nearly got them: Surrey 437 for 8 I think and Glamorgan 429 all out. A one day game that had everything.
TV
1. Ian Botham 149n/o Headingley 1981. Bravado for sure and maybe it wasn’t quite Peterson or Gooch, but in the context of the game it has to be in thier. And I saw it all as it happened.
2. Yes again Ian Botham Old Trafford 1981. 118 scored when his partner Tavare scored about 20. The abiding memory was hooking a furious Lilliefor several 6s, often not looking at the ball!
I was at the Botham Old Trafford one (see below). The fact that Tavaré was at the other end made it even more fascinating. They actually complemented each other really well. And Tavaré was actually the overall top scorer on either side in that test!
The Headingley Botham innings was an amazing feat. No-one has ever proved “see I CAN do it” quite so definitively.
Was away on holiday with family for the OT game but as getting TMS (R4 LW) was no problem in Alkmaar, I was listening to it on the radio.
Stokes’ two from last summer (World cup final as well as Headingley) rate very high, but I would put Gooch (one half of the opening pair in my all time Essex XI: https://aspi.blog/2020/03/27/all-time-xis-essex/ – part of a series I am doing that has so far encompased 16 counties). at Headingley 1991 right at the top – the fact that Ambrose tore through the rest of the front line batting, and the nearest thing he got to support came from Derek Pringle (the antithesis of an all rounder – not good enough with either bat or ball), that no one else on either side made big runs in any innings of that match (Robin Smith I seem to recall made a gritty 54 on the opening day) set it apart. I also have fond memories of Gower’s 157 not out to save the match at The Oval in 1990, when he dominated the final day’s play.
KP’s ton’s in the ODI’s vs SA in his debut series
KP’s 150+ vs Aus 2005
Stokes 135*
Ponting’s 166 only to get out just before the end
I can’t remember his score but when Collingwood fought and fought and fought and finally got out
I think they are my favourite Innings to have sat and watched
In no particular order
1. Gooch’s 154* above
2. Matt Prior’s 103* v India at Lords in 2011 which dug England out of an Ishant Sharma sized hole.
3. Flintoff’s 95 v South Africa to put England into a winning position at the oval in 2003
4. Robin Smith cutting his way to 148 v west indies at lord’s in 1991. The match petered out into a draw but it was the first test I ever attended and I loved watching him bat and the fact that after all the battering we were finally standing up to the West indies quickstep
5. Dominic Cork 23* I think to see us home at the same venue in 2000. First time I ever witnessed an England test victory in the flesh and such an exciting finish.
5.
Prior’s was very good.. that’s up there..
I agree. I was there that day and the way the atmosphere built as he got closer 100 was fantastic. I seem to remember it was the first Test century by a wicket keeper on debut.
Kent v South Africa in 1965 – Graeme Pollock hammered the Kent attack for 203. The Kent side was a pretty reasonable team – the only bowlers used were Derek Underwood, Alan Brown, Ted Fillery, and Alan Dixon. I particularly remember Deadly Derek being walloped for several sixes. The South Africans scored 365 for 2 on the first day, and then bowled Kent out twice on the second day, for 74 and 144. At the time I was a 16 year old schoolboy and thought that after the first day I would not go on the second but would go on the third instead. Unfortunately there wasn’t one. Before the game started I was in the crowd when Colin Bland gave a fielding demo, which is I believe on YouTube, with a commentary by Peter West.
If you class the best innings as the most memorable I guarentee no one else will have picked this.
I have banged on about it before but it’s the one that sticks in my mind more than any other. When you are in at the start of greatness, which transcends the game it was played in it’s a once in a lifetime experience.
It involved a 17 year old David Gower, playing for Leicester in the under 19 final against Northants in the early 70’s. I can’t recall how many he made, but it was only 20 or 30 and he wasn’t in long and Leicestershire lost the game anyway with Fulton making the match winning innings.
From the moment he came to the crease he waved that magic wand like no player I had ever seen and the state of the game hardly seemed to matter. Every shot was purely instinctive and beautiful to watch, there was no hurry just a caressing of the ball in both defence and attack. The ball flew to all parts with equal surety and when he was out I knew I would never forget the privelidge of being able to see those sublime moments.
Of those I saw personally two stand out, not least because they were scored on successive days of the same Test at Lord’s in 1980.
Viv Richards scored a wonderful 145, against a decent England attack. He was in one of those imperious moods in which he, rather than the bowler, determined the length of the ball by his footwork. He was so quick. The other thing was his timing. I remember one ball from, I think, Hendricks when I was watching him from the old Tavern. He played what looked through the binoculars as being a forward defensive push – there was no discernible power in it. I took the glasses down expecting to see someone trotting in from cover to pick it up, but instead the ball was on its way to the boundary in front of the old Mound stand. He was out, if I remember correctly, first ball after tea when he turned a seemingly innocuous ball from Willey round the corner where Dilley, on as a substitute, took a sharp catch. He sloped slowly off, disconsolately, sensing a missed opportunity. A mere 145 when, as John Arlott said of him on another occasion, ‘there seemed no reason that he shouldn’t get a thousand’!
Gooch’s 123 was in it’s own way no less remarkable, not least because it was made against Roberts, Holding, Garner and Croft. He played with that trademark Gooch positivity, and I don’t remember him giving a chance. To put it into context, no one else scored 50. The next highest scorer was Tavaré with 42. He was of course dropped for not taking that powder puff attack apart more quickly, even though his score was higher than those of Boycott, Gatting and Botham combined !
I saw that innings too. I can still Richards hitting his first ball from Botha for four.
Another innings worth a mention because it was the beginning of something special was the first time I saw another 17 year old, Warwickshire’s talent to burn, Paul Smith. It was a John Player game and he came in about no.6. He started by smacking his first ball into Canon Hill Park, over the pavilion straight as a die and went on to make 40 something before trying to bring up his fifty with yet another boundary. I have never seen a youngster treat bowling with such disdain and I don’t remember him giving a chance as he tried to win the game single handed. I don’t know whether he was playing under instruction or taking a punt, though it was pretty typical of his cavalier approach to the game. As a bowler with genuine pace he was used in short spurts to unsettle batsmen and spent one season opening both bowling and batting for a depleted Warwickshire, scoring almost 1,000 runs and taking close to 50 wickets.
Unfortunately his cavalier approach to the game extended to his life off the field and his sex, drugs and rock-n-roll lifestyle brought his career to an premature end, but could we have have had the exhilleration of his cricket without that approach to life in general. He was a good looking lad with long flowing blonde hair and the temptations were out there every day. Sadly there appeared to be no one at the club who was willing to take him under their wing and try to find a lifestyle balance. He was cricket’s version of the 70’s maverick soccer stars like Bowles, Marsh, Hudson, George, Currie, Worthington and of course Best, whose off field antics limited their careers.
I also recall seeing Smith as a teenager (although not at 17). Certainly a wasted talent, although I think he played into his 30s. I think it was Clive Lloyd who,when Smith was 19, said he was the fastest white bowler in the world.
On TV Gooch’s v WI
Live is undoubtedly Root’s at Trent Bridge in 2015. The day is remembered for Broad’s 8 wickets and Root’s innings is generally overlooked. But on a day when every other batsman looked like they could get out at anytime Root played a sublime innings of true greatness, he was playing on a different level to everyone else. The comparison between the assured crispness of Root and Bairstow, who hit a streaky 70 odd, was the difference between a batting God and a mere mortal. Starc, Hazlewood and Mitch bowled well – Root was simply awesome.
Strangely it is that innings why I doubt the wisdom of him captaining, if you can bat like that why would you put any hurdle in his way?
If you extend this blog to partnerships I’ve 3 for you. All county matches at Edgbaston on feather beds admittedly and with the wickets towards to the edge of the square, one even had netting over the members bar seats to protect the punters.
We’ll start with that one as Hampshire opened with Gordon Greenidge and Barry Richards, surely one of the classiest and most destructive opening pairs in county history. By lunch they had well over 200 on the board, both passing 100 but in very different ways. I felt sorry for John Whitehouse, who had to patrol the far side almost single handed, he must have run miles.
Whitehouse did get his own back in a way against Yorkshire, where on another feather bed the sides were trying to manufacture a result so Carrick and Cope bowled in tandem for the entire sesssion and Whitehouse and Kanhai, now approaching 40, helped themselves to centuries in one of those afternoons that you never wanted to end. The spinners bowled with attacking fields forcing the batsmen’s hands and they didn’t disappoint.
The third featured the stalwarts Amiss and Jameson opening against Northants. They put on almost 200 by lunch as poor old John Dye kept disappearing over the Hollis stand into the colts ground. For years there were a couple of holes in the roof of that stand where Jameson didn’t quite make it. By lunch there were 2 ballboys fielding over there to assure quick return of the ball. Good job there wasn’t a match in progress.
The thing which always sticks in my mind about Jameson is that he was the first bat I ever saw that played the lofted cover drive for 6 on a fairly regular basis. Many straight drove sixes, but the cover drive was a real rarity.
During Amiss’s benefit season he brought some Warwick players down to play a double wicket competition with us. Though alas Jameson wasn’t amongst them I did get to try Amiss’s bat, which I understand was very similar to Jameson’s. it weighed close to 4lbs and I had a job controlling the backlift. They both had arms like tree trunks so it wasn’t a problem to them and you can understand why they hit so many apparently effortless boundaries. Even misfits would have travelled with that thickness of wood behind them.
There are some good suggestions in this thread, but I fear too many are mistaking the test to be the most memorable innings rather than the best. Pietersen and Stokes (as examples) both played memorable innings but I doubt either would be capable of the sort of extended master classes seen from players such as Sobers (and Bradman before him). Best does not mean the ability to take an attack apart for 1 or 2 hours. It means being able to apply all the skills of batting, including a tight defence, to make a difference in the context of the game. That is why the Amiss 262* in 10 hours is, for me, the best of all.
Best is a subjective thing though, isn’t it. You do have to remember that Stokes batted for hours on the 4th evening just to be there for the final assault which is why his innings is up there.
Was just too young to remember Amiss first hand.
The problem with best is you have to take I to account the nature of the conditions, the standard of the opposition and the state of the game. That is almost imposssible to compare. Clearly the Windies attack from mid 70’s to mid 80’s was the most taxing in the history of the modern game, so any significant innings against them home or abroad, as most of their bowlers played regular county cricket, was worthy of consideration. Allan Lamb is surely a prime candidate here.
Memorable doesn’t have that issue it’s just what makes the most impact on you at the time. The opening partnership by Close and Edrich, both around forty at the time, against Holding and co bowling body line for almost an entire session was certainly tops in the memorable stakes, but as they were both out the following morning it would not qualify as a footnote in best.
Allan Lamb in 1984 must have been one of the great performances of all time.
best is when it’s a mixture of defence and attack.. when the situation meant that all the odds were against you
KP at the oval… the game was against him.. the calibre of the attack was against him…
Stokes this year… the game was gone.. Aus were going to win.. He (with Denly/Root showing genuine test quality batting that innings) managed to not only blunt the attack, grind and show fight.. he then, when Aus were tired AND the game situation determined he had to attack.. attacked and even managed to win
Prior saving games with backs to the wall knocks
Brig Block himself (Collingwood)
Ponting’s 166 only to fall at the last and allow england to win
Innings are innings.. doesn’t have to be one that wins… just needs to be one that you could watch again and again and GENUINELY show to kids ‘this is how you bat in test match cricket’
was stokes 250 vs SA actually a high quality test knock??? Not a chance.. it was a white ball cricketer (he has since shown massive improvement) coming off on the day.. Nothing special about it.. that knock was simply bish bash bosh..
Many many innings (Bairstow, Roy, Buttler, Moeen, Curran to name a few of the ‘modern’ players) are all in the same bracket.. Just happen to come off a few times.. They’ll 99% NEVER play an actual innings of substance or high quality because they neither have the ability, mentality or technique to do so
I think you’re rather over-egging the pudding here in your eagerness to prove your point.
Whilst I agree about some of the players you mention–Roy, for example–are you really suggesting that Moeen Ali’s innings in his second test (108* off 281 balls from no. 7 in a test which England looked very likely to lose and, largely due to him, came within a few balls of saving) isn’t an innings of substance? Or that Bairstow somehow managed to score 1500 test runs at an average of 60 in 2016 without ever playing an innings of high quality?
That looks to me like saying that, because someone isn’t a great player, by definition they can’t play a great innings.
It also seems to come close to saying that if a player scores fast, then they’re just a one-day biffer. But was Bairstow in 2016 much different from Adam Gilchrist, or Virender Sehwag (who was a better test player than ODI player)? After all, you could probably say the same about Kusal Perera, but his innings against SA has all the same reasons for being a great innings that Stokes’s in the Ashes does.
In Ali’s case, I also find his career quite difficult to evaluate because he was picked at a time when he had spent his whole career as a no. 3, then made into a front-line spinner–which he never had been–and often treated like a tailender. A comparison might have been playing Graham Gooch–who was a pretty useful change bowler at county level–as the successor to Mike Hendrick and batting him at no. 8. Who knows what would have happened to his batting then?!
A related but slightly different question, the best innings you wish you’d seen:
In Tests, it would have to be Roy Fredericks 169 in Perth in 1975/76 when he smashed Lillee-Thomson-Gilmour-Walker to all parts. Dennis Amiss’s epic match-saving 242* in the West Indies 1973/74 would be a close second (nobody else made over 40).
In the CC, I’d love to have been in Kidderminster in 1974 when Barry Richards made 240 off Warwickshire (nobody else made over 60). A close second is Javed Miandad’s 200* out of just over 300 for Glamorgan against a quality Essex spin attack on a raging bunsen.
I would love to have seen Derek Randall’s 174 in the Centenary Test.
I go back in time to 1947 and 1948 for one of the greatest ever Englishmen, DCS, scoring a ton between Lunch and tea in the Lord’s Test against South Africa and in 1948 the greatest ever batsmen scoring a ton against Surrey at the Oval. 1947 was a wonderful summer weatherwise but even taking that into account, Dennis scored 3,816 in the season and the one I saw was one of…18! As this happened 73 years ago, I do not remember too much about this innings apart from one shot. He danced down the wicket and when the bowler dropped it short late cut the ball for 4. Sheer poetry in motion! I remember even less of the Don’s ton except its inevitability and the score just mounted. I was there! But for sheer unbelief in the circumstances, and on TV, Stokes 135*, mostly scored with the No.11, has to take pride of place even though unlike my other 2, I only saw it on TV. The only other innings to compare was Botham’s 149* in what appeared also to be a lost cause although I only saw part of it on TV.
Ron
Tough to keep it to 5
Lara’s 153* vs Australia in Barbados 98/99 Big 4th innings chase against that attack and shepherding Ambrose and Walsh through the last 50 runs is arguably the greatest innings ever. McGrath, Warne, Gillespie and MacGill.
Gavaskar’s 221 vs England Oval 1979. They almost chased down 438 to win – England bowling was strong, Indian batting line up not its strongest.
Randall 174 v Australia, Centenary test. Loved watching Randall bat – first cricketer I really had an affinity to. Massively underrated cricketer and his final record nevere really matched his talent.
Atherton 185* v SA Jo’burg 1995. Just for the sheer, determined utter bloody-mindedness of it. Glorious.
Richards – 138* v England Word Cup Final 1979. Led me to ask for a SS Jumbo for my birthday. Recovered from precarious Windies position of 99-4 to a winning position.
Ah, the Jumbo. A boon to all of us seam bowlers who were usually not quick enough to bother a decent bat. The things were so heavy that the off cutter was lethal as the batsman went back and across and then desperately tried to overcome the momentum of the Jumbo to change its trajectory. :)
The junior one I had when I was 12 wasn’t so bad – not many off cutters at under 13 level……..
David Gower 123 v Australia at SCG January 1991.
Gower was on about 35no overnight, Atherton c90no his partner. When they resumed the next morning, Gower batted like a dream. At one point a source fours were blazing through cover and mid on, it honestly looked as though he might reach his ton before Atherton. As it turns out, Atherton got there but Gower wasn’t far behind.
It was a good pitch, as the innings scores set suggest but from a wintry pre Gulf war Birmingham, this was a through the night feast on Sky to behold. He played many fine innings of course but there really was something special about this one especially as his selection was dependent on that ton at the Oval the previous summer against India. It’s like he was constantly playing for his place and yet he was streets ahead of anyone that day.
Adelaide followed and that was the beginning of the end.
Other notable are the 189no by Viv in 1984 mentioned elsewhere (considering where Cricket was as a sport a the the time it was a ridiculous knock),
Michael Clarke 151 v S Africa in 2011 was pretty special too.
I was at Old Trafford in 1981 to see Ian Botham score 118 off 102 balls against the Aussies. 6 6s including (I think) a sweep off Ray Bright to bring up his hundred. Chris Tavaré was at the other end for a while which made for a fascinating contrast in styles. Wonderful stuff.
Just a quickie about how many of these great innings actually won a game. That was one of the special qualities of Ben Stokes remarkable knock, as he graduated from survival to assassin in the space of a few hours. Even Bothams ashes hundreds didn’t do that. The pressure to hold things together and actually triumph in adversity is so rare in test cricket. Most of the above innings seemed to set things up for others to finish off, not Stokes. He carried the game and the series on his shoulders for hours and still had the presence of mind to farm the strike so effectively. A great cricket brain in action.
a great knock is a great knock.. doesn’t matter if it wins a game or not. Especially in draw/red ball cricket the best knocks are usually when the team is backs against the wall and saving a game.. The rest of hte time it’s just a white ball cricketer coming off generally
It matters a lot if you are there at the winning post If you’re judging best. It’s the extra pressure of the situation that engenders. To produce under those circumstances is extra special. Backs to the wall knocks are generally under no pressure to score runs, it’s just about survival, you don’t have to take risks. If you’re in with the tail and runs are required it’s a totally different ball game. A greater cricket brain is required to judge when to adopt what tactic.
To suggest Stokes was a white ball cricketer coming off doesn’t take into account the balls he faced without scoring at the start of his innings.
It’s not officially announced yet but the indications are that the ECB have lost Specsavers as a sponsor.
It’s funny how last year’s Headingley Test turned a spec-wearer into a hero, just in the interests of the sponsor. It’s funny how Australia dropped a catch, made a ridiculous hash of their reviews and missed the easiest of run outs. It’s funny how the umpire turned down a plumb LBW. It was funny how a section of the crowd felt compelled to take off their shoes and start waving them. It’s funny how that led to the next test making a huge wad of cash.
The whole thing was fishier than a shoal of haddock and is why I for one will never vote for Stokes’ innings as the greatest anything.
Si,
Now then.. I do not ever believe some of the Asian teams results (especially things like the PSL/IPL etc).. However, to suggest that 22 blokes managed to contrive a game is a little tin foil hat.
Lyon actually has precedent for missing run outs like that, I’ve seen highlights this lock down of him doing the same vs SA I think it was as an example… Increase the pressure 100 times for an ashes test and in that exact situation..
Stokes innings was a masterclass in what test match (red ball/draw) cricket is all about.. dig in.. work hard.. show fight.. take your time.. then, when the time is right… accelerate.. NOt like some of hte innings above which were just bish bash bosh and happend to come off (stokes 250 for example)
Well hello Mr conspiracy theory. I have yet to meet anyone who was sure that Stokes LBW was plumb in real time. It always looked like it was drifting down the leg side as Stokes was falling over that way off balance when it hit his pads.
Also the catch they dropped off Stokes was hardly straight forward. If he’d have caught it you would said it was a great catch, similar to Tim Southey’s off Buttler in the World Cup final.
I think you need to go back to burning down five G towers.
Absolutely right regarding Gooch. I believe hos score was double the next best. In the fullness of time Stokes will rank alongside it. I prefer to let the dust settle before including recent innings in such lists
This one? :)
https://www.cricket-championship.com/innings/701961
Hello,
I’m sure this is already being done, but, anyway, just in case not and it sparks off any ideas. My brother and I have scribbled down three “best of” Sussex X1’s, sent it to each other and a couple of others. Criteria was – roughly – players we’d actually seen in action ‘live’. I’ve not seen Sussex for years so no-one from the last couple of decades gets in – odd but there we have it. Mike, my brother, is far more up to date! On the other hand Ted Dexter is in my first team because I’m determined that I did see him though can’t find a scorecard to support my claim!
Maybe – if not already being done, it could become a bit of a fun “thing” for supporters of all counties to do, share and compare?
Kind regards