When Nathan Astle scored the fastest 200 in Test history

England won the first Test of their tour to New Zealand in 2002. But the match is widely known for an unusual batting display by Nathan Astle. He scored 222 runs from 168 balls, with 28 fours and 11 huge sixes.

England's first innings was a pretty ordinary one, with a modest 228 runs on board. Captain Nasser Hussain (106) batted till the end to make sure that they cross the 200-run mark.

The New Zealand batting line-up was ripped apart by Mathew Hoggard with a fiery spell of 63/7, and the Kiwis were bundled for a paltry 147.

The English batsmen were much more fluent in the 2nd innings. Graeme Thorpe (200) and Andrew Flintoff (137) batted with a strike-rate of 80+ and they declared at 468.

Chasing a target of 540+was almost impossible at those times. New Zealand lost wickets at right intervals and they were pushed to 339/9. When the English bowlers thought the match was over, there was one man at the crease who had some weird plans in his mind.

Astle started sending the deliveries back-to-back to the crowd. There came a 10-run over, 15-run over, 20-run over and even a 25-run over. From annoying, it became threatening for the Englishmen.

Alas, he was caught by Foster off Hoggard’s delivery which ended one of the greatest Test innings ever.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How much do cricketers get paid for a bat sponsorship?

Image
Endorsements are a huge part of every sportsperson's career as it garners a huge amount of monetary benefits for them. The bigger his brand value, the more one earns in the endorsement deals. In cricket, placing  the stickers on the bats of the cricketers is a deal between the company and the player which helps players garner a lot of money. Let us look at some of the highest-paid athletes in this category.   Joe Root The English skipper is paid 1.7 crores/year by ‘New Balance’ Suresh Raina The elegant southpaw used to get 2.5–3 crores/year from ‘Ceat’ Chris Gayle The ‘Universe Boss’ gets 3 crores per year from’ Spartan’ Shikhar Dhawan The destructive Indian opener gets 3 crores from ‘MRF’ Rohit Sharma Hitman gets paid 3 crores from ‘Ceat’ AB de Villiers The 360-degree batsman ABD used to get 3.5 crores/year from ‘MRF’ Yuvraj Singh The world’s 3rd largest sportswear manufacturer ‘Puma’ paid 4 crores per year to Yuvi Mahendra Singh Dhoni Spartan used to pay 6 crores per year for dis
Read more

The unknown record of Younis Khan as a substitute fielder

Image
We all know Younis Khan as a great batsman for Pakistan. He has scored over 10,000 runs in Tests and 7000 runs in ODIs. He also has a triple hundred in Tests to his name. But he also holds the record for the most number of catches taken by a substitute fielder in a Test innings. It happened during the 1st Test of the Asian Test Championship in 2001 against Bangladesh. Batting first, Bangladesh were all out for 134 in the first innings. Danish Kaneria who picked 6 wickets for 42 runs was the pick among bowlers for Pakistan. Pakistani batsmen capitalised on the hopeless bowling unit of Bangladesh and 5 out of 6 Pakistani batsmen who came out to bat scored centuries. Saeed Anwar (101), Taufeeq Umar (104), Inzamam-ul-Haq (105), Mohammad Yousuf (102) and Abdul Razzaq (110) were the centurions. Pakistan declared the innings at 546. Bangladesh who came out to bat were ripped apart again by Danish Kaneria, as he picked another 6-fer. But the highlight was, Younis Khan who came out to field as
Read more

The only instance of 4 century-partnerships being born in an ODI match

Image
There has been only one instance in the history of ODI cricket where four hundred-run partnerships were formed in a match. Let us look at what happened that day. It was the first ODI of Sri Lanka's tour of India in 2009. Batting first, India got a dream start as Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar (69) made a terrific partnership of 153 in just 19 overs. MS Dhoni (72)who came in at No. 3 also started hitting the bowlers mercilessly and India crossed 300 in 35 overs. They added 156 runs for the 3rd wicket and India eventually finished at a mammoth score of 414. Sehwag scored a scintillating 146 off just 102 balls. The Sri Lankan batsmen started from where India left. Openers Upul Tharanga (67) along with Tillakaratne Dilshan (160) stitched 188 runs off just 24 overs. Kumar Sangakkara who came in at 3, was in a destructive mood and he made 90 runs from just 43 balls. Their partnership added 128 runs from the next 12 overs and Sri Lanka were inching towards victory. But they lost San
Read more