By : Essa John
There were records before these records and these records broke those records and someday these records will break by the new records and those new upcoming records will take the place of these records. So, it was our preliminary introduction of this article; we are here with 10 insane cricket records that are almost unbeatable.
We all know that each and every record is beatable in cricket. If something is created once, it can be done again. In this modern era of cricket, there are so many matches to play for, and cricketers remain away from their homes for 6 to 10 months every year because of their international and domestic duties for their country. So, it is possible that the most incredible record you will read today will be broken tomorrow.
We want to talk about many insane cricket records here, but we will keep our focus on international cricket records for the clarity. Thus, there will be no domestic records here. We will only talk about international cricket records which include three formats: Test, One-Day, and T20.
You can agree or disagree with our list but we can assure you one thing. They all are insane cricket records. All these records are almost unbeatable given the fact that current opportunities for international are way more than any 20th-century player could ever imagine. So, nearly unbeatable but beatable.
We have compiled these records and to keep the suspense until the end, we are doing it in descending order. Let’s play!
11. 400 Runs In An Innings
It was a real display of his batting class; the innings exhibits his talent and temperament once again. He is none other than Brian Charles Lara who scored the unbeaten 400 runs against England on 10th of April 2004. He is the only international player to score quadruple hundred. The test match consisted of five days having 90 overs each day. It has four innings and became the first ever international player to score 400 runs is quite a remarkable achievement.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
Beatable, but it will cost an arm and a leg for any batsman. Before 400 not out innings, Lara held 375 runs record for many years, but ultimately Australia’s Mathew Hayden broke it by scoring 380 runs. After that Lara broke Hayden’s record of 380 runs by playing 400 runs not out innings. Somehow it is possible to dethrone Lara from this record, but quite tricky.
10. 974 Runs In A Test Series – Guess Who?
In 1928-29 summers, English batsman Wally Hammond must have been pleased when he scored a total of 905 runs on that tour against Australia for Ashes series. In the next Ashes battle, Australia visited England. Sir Don Bradman broke the Wally Hammond record by scoring 974 runs. The series consisted of five matches. The Bradman scores per inning read as 8 and 131 at the Trent Bridge, 254 and 1 at the Lord’s, 334 at the Headingley, 14 in the Manchester, and 232 at the Oval.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
It is beatable, yet it remains unbeatable after almost 90 years. So, it is not easy, but it can happen in the near future. However, the condition is that it must be a five-match series. We do not usually witness five-match test series these days, but Ashes series has five matches. The record was made during Ashes; maybe it is meant to be broken in the Ashes too. The closest anyone has ever come to break Sir Don Bradman record is Sir Vivian Richards when he scored 829 runs against England in 1976.
9. 0.30 Runs Per Over – Guess Who?
These days, anything under 50 runs in 10 overs or you can say anything under the economy rate of 5.00 runs per over is considered as a good bowling performance. On December 17, 1992, West Indies was playing against Pakistan. It was a match when Phil Simmons bowled the most economical spell. In that game, the West Indian bowler Phil Simmons gave away just three runs in 10 overs. It is 0.30 runs per over – indeed incredible! It is the most remarkable spell ever bowled by anyone. He bowled 10 overs, and 8 of those overs were maiden. He conceded only a two and one a single run in other two overs.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
In one word, unbeatable! Remember those days when 150 to 200 runs were considered as the chasable or defendable target. No one was able to bowl a spell like this. Nowadays, the ODI format is played with an attacking mindset. So it is impossible to witness any bowler surpassing Phil Simmon’s record.
8. Highest Innings Ever In ODI Cricket
Indian opener Rohit Sharma is the only player to score two double centuries in ODI cricket. First, he made 209 runs, and it is impossible for many international cricketers to overtake this record. But after 376 days, he impressively improved himself. On November 13, 2014, he replicated his first double century effort, and that was inhuman. Only 5 players including Rohit Sharma have ever scored double centuries in ODI cricket.
Rohit Sharma played the highest ever innings in ODI history by scoring 264 runs. He is the only player who outshined his own 209 runs innings by scoring 264 runs. It was something that only Rohit Sharma could have done and guessed what? He did.
At one point, India was no loss for 22 runs. Rohit was on the crease on 4 runs but played a rough shot which ended-up in top-edging the white ball in the air towards the third man position. Sri Lanka’s Thisara Parera dropped it, and that dropped catch cost 260 for Sri Lanka.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
Beatable, not easy! Kiwi batsman Martin Guptill is second in the list with unbeaten 237 runs to his name. Many players around the world are capable of beating this record but as we said that it is not an easy task to do.
7. 8 Wickets And Conceded Only 19 Runs
The bowler took 8 wickets by just giving 19 runs. He was none other than Sri Lanka’s left-arm fast bowler Chaminda Vaas. On December 8, 2001, he bagged those 8 wickets against Zimbabwe. It is still the best one-day international spell in terms of wickets by any bowler. No one ever has taken more than 7 wickets other than Vaas. Glenn McGrath has the second best bowling figures with 7 for 15 against Namibia in 2003 World Cup.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
Beatable any day – someone in the upcoming days will break this record. The ODI pitches mostly favor batsmen these days so it will be difficult. However, in recent ODI’s we saw left-arm pacer Usman Shenwari from Pakistan took Sri Lanka’s 5 wickets within his first 4 overs. He was not able to pick any wicket after that, but it was looking possible on that day.
6. 16 Consecutive Test Wins – Guess Which Team?
This record does not belong to any individual. It is the first instance in our list of insane cricket records that we include a team record. The record has been created twice by Australia. The Kangaroos managed to secure 16 test consecutively victories twice in a trot. It happened during the 1999-2001 period when Australia won 16 test matches without losing any of them under the captaincy of Steve Waugh.
The second time it happened under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting from 2005 to 2008. It was Australia’s “Golden Years”. Their bowling department comprised with the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie, Stuart MacGill, and Brett Lee. The batting line consisted of legends such as Ricky Ponting itself, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, and Michael Clarke. They were also one of the best fielding sides in international cricket.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
Both, any top international Test team can surpass this winning streak, but it is not a piece of cake. In recent times, we have not witnessed any team dominate in both home and away test matches. For crossing this streak, the team must dominate in every country; it is not even comfortable after that. Basically, you cannot break this record in a day, 16 test means 75 days of better cricket than the opposition. It is a long-term achievement, and we are not anticipating this soon.
5. 19 Wickets In A Test Match – Guess Who?
Yes, 19 wickets can you believe it? Off-spinner of England, Jim Laker missed just one wicket to get all 20 of them. Anyhow, Jim Laker took 19 wickets and gave only 90 runs in 1956 against Australia in Old Trafford. Laker grabbed 10 in the first innings and 9 wickets in the second innings. Everyone considers 10 wickets in a match as an exceptional achievement, but 19 wickets are absurd. The other bowlers of England bowled 123 overs in the game and only managed to pick just one wicket.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
Unbeatable! Though it is possible theoretically, more than 60 years have gone, and around 1500 Tests have been played, but no one has ever taken more than 16 wickets. Forget about the international cricket, no one has ever touched this record in the first-class cricket too. So we are confident that we will never see anyone breaking this record.
4. 1347 Wickets In International Cricket – Guess Who?
Can you believe it? 1347 wickets in international cricket. He is none other than the Sri Lankan off-spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan. He was just 20 years old when he bowled for the first time representing Sri Lanka. He proved himself as a capable bowler, as the top batsmen of the world begin to struggle against his spin bowling. Almost after 20 years, he took 800 wickets in Test, 534 wickets in ODI, and 13 wickets in T20 format. Murali is the leading wicket-taker in both Test matches and One-Day Internationals.
Back in 1964, the cricket fraternity thought that no one would ever break the record of 300 test wickets by Fred Trueman. However, Murali pushed the record to an unbelievable number of 800.
The Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne is number two in the list of most wicket taking bowler in Test matches. He took 708 wickets before retiring.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
Unbeatable, at least in our opinion. A bowler must play for about 10 to 15 years regularly to come even near to the record of 1347 wickets. If we talk about the current slot of international bowlers, then just one or two bowlers have taken 700 or 800 wickets total in their international cricket, and they are now at the end of their career.
3. Most Matches, Most Runs, And Most Centuries – You Probably Know This Legend!
The little master blaster Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has achieved a mountain of batting records. He has played 200 Test matches, 463 One-Days and one Twenty20 international. The matches counter has an incredible total of 664 games.
If we talk about his runs, then he has slammed 15,921 runs in the Test arena, 18,426 runs in One Day format, and 10 runs in a single T20 match. Now that makes a huge total of 34357 runs in international cricket.
If we talk about the record of his centuries, then he has a record of 100 centuries in international cricket. He has 51 hundred in Test matches and 49 in One Day Internationals.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
You better decide it yourself! We do not see anyone capable of breaking the most matches, most runs, and most centuries records of Sachin Tendulkar. Each of the above numbers is unlikely to break. It is hard to witness anyone ever overtaking Sachin’s final tally. However, there is one player according to many people of cricket fraternity who can break the 100 centuries record of Sachin Tendulkar, and he is the current Indian captain, Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli has 32 ODI hundreds and 17 hundred in test cricket. He is far away from breaking the 100 centuries record, but he can break the Sachin’s record of 49 centuries in ODI cricket, just 18 hundred away from it.
2. Shortest Test Match Ever
You might not believe it, but, in 1932, there was a match played between South Africa and Australia. It was the shortest test match ever played in the history of cricket. It was completed in a span of just five hours and 53 minutes. It seems impossible, but we will tell you how it all happened. Batting first, Australia made 153 runs, in response to which South Africa was bowled out on 36 and 45 runs. Australia won that match by 72 runs.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
This record does not belong to any individual or any team, but you can call it a match record. In our opinion, this time record is beatable, but you need to have that kind of bowling attack which can finish things up as quickly as the Australian team did in 1932.
1. Batting Average Of 99.94 – You Know The Legend!
In 80 innings of Test cricket, Sir Don Bradman who is also known as ‘The Don’ has scored runs at an average of 99.94. Number two in the list is also an Australian right-hand batsman, Adam Voges, with the average of 61.87, but he has only played 20 test matches. We can do all type of calculations and comparison with the help of these numbers, and they will undoubtedly result in one statement: Sir Don Bradman is not one of the best; rather, he is the best among the best ones the history of cricket has ever witnessed.
Beatable Or Almost Unbeatable?
Unbeatable without a second opinion! The 99.94 is the number you should know, a glimpse of Bradman’s talent. Just for your information, his overall first-class average is 95.14, and it is also unlikely to be broken either.
Final Word
The game of cricket is all about ebbs and flows. We cannot compare any former cricketer to any contemporary player. Many players are debuting, many players are retiring, and many of those have already retired. The first 100 test players set the initial records, the others broke those records one by one, and now, we have these latest records with us. All these records seem almost unbeatable. Nevertheless, you cannot say a final word in this ever-changing game of cricket. Anything can happen on any day, at any time, in any over, and on any ball. So, one day, these insane cricket records will also be broken, and the new records will take their place.
There were records before these records and these records broke those records and someday these records will break by the new records and those new upcoming records will take the place of these records.
