Best Innings by top batsmen?

[Precambrian]

You mean the nervous ZERO?

Never a case there. Was his most prolific score to worry too much about.

And he had a better average against Australia and England than against Pakistan and WI. Ala Tendulkar.

 

[Johnners]

Ponting:
156 v England 05 - Old Trafford
242 v India 03/04 - Adelaide
257 v India 03/04 - Melbourne
196 v England 06/07 - Brisbane

 

[Richard]

Bradman 334
The Ashes - 3rd Test England v Australia 1930 season Played at Headingley, Leeds,

Nah, Bradman's 254 at Lord's the same season was his best knock and almost certainly THE best knock in history.

Every single shot went exactly where he aimed it.

 

[Richard]

Gary Kirsten's 210 against England [ Tests - Boucher also scored a ton in the same game to save South Africa ]

Nah, that was his 275 that came in the game where he shared that massive stand with Boucher. The game was the Third Test in 1999/2000 at Kingsmead.

His 210 was in the Third Test in 1998 at Old Trafford. SA piled-up a massive first-innings total but England pulled-off one of the greatest rearguards in Test history to save the game after losing 12 wickets while still 358 behind with over 5 sessions left in the match.

Both innings' were damn good, but I'd tend to rate the 275 as the better of the two. However, an even superior performance for mine was his match double of 130 and 60 at Headingley (yet again against England) in 2003. Curiously, he was dismissed by no-balls very early on in both the 130 and the 275. The 275 one, however, I've long believed he was distracted by the no-ball call and missed the ball (he'd have been lbw) because of that - he palpably changed his shot after hearing the call, IMO. Ridiculous that Philip Tufnell was bowling no-balls off 5 paces anyway. Flintoff's got a bit more excuse, but still - if his foot had been behind the line, maybe just maybe the ball would've been different.

 

[Uppercut]

One batsman i find it hard to choose a number 1 innings for is Virender Sehwag. I'd probably go for the bat-carrying 201* against Sri Lanka this year, but that's passing up two triple centuries, two double centuries and innings of 195, 155 and 151 against Australia.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

viv richards

ODIs - 184 n.o. vs england in 1984
Tests - 120 vs pakistan in 1980

189 not out, I was there for that one. The best Test innings I saw him play in the flesh (metaphorically speaking) was his 145 against England at Lords in 1980.

 

[kingkallis]

Nah, that was his 275 that came in the game where he shared that massive stand with Boucher. The game was the Third Test in 1999/2000 at Kingsmead.

His 210 was in the Third Test in 1998 at Old Trafford. SA piled-up a massive first-innings total but England pulled-off one of the greatest rearguards in Test history to save the game after losing 12 wickets while still 358 behind with over 5 sessions left in the match.

Both innings' were damn good, but I'd tend to rate the 275 as the better of the two. However, an even superior performance for mine was his match double of 130 and 60 at Headingley (yet again against England) in 2003. Curiously, he was dismissed by no-balls very early on in both the 130 and the 275. The 275 one, however, I've long believed he was distracted by the no-ball call and missed the ball (he'd have been lbw) because of that - he palpably changed his shot after hearing the call, IMO. Ridiculous that Philip Tufnell was bowling no-balls off 5 paces anyway. Flintoff's got a bit more excuse, but still - if his foot had been behind the line, maybe just maybe the ball would've been different.

Yup, my bad!!!! He scored 275 in that game and scored 210 in England tour!

 

[Richard]

A few others:
Alec Stewart: (Tests) his twin centuries at Kensington Oval in 1993. Easily the biggest part in the storming of the fortress.
Herschelle Gibbs: (Tests) his 210 against Pakistan at Newlands in 2002/03. Rarely in a Test have I seen such murderous strokeplay. (ODIs) well... I wonder now. Even before that Bracken drop he'd played better than most people will ever play once in their lives.
Robin Smith: (Tests) his match double of 61 and 90 at Lord's in 1995 against West Indies, along with Fraser and Cork's bowling taking England to a vital victory. (ODIs) of course his 167* at Edgbaston in 1993 against Australia.
Mark Butcher and Nasser Hussain are both pretty obvious: 173* at Headingley and 207 at Edgbaston in 2001 and 1997 respectively. Both stupendous knocks that led England to in totally different ways famous victories, one that was the only victory with The Ashes at stake in 16 years, the other that saved them from a 0-5 whitewash at home.

 

[Richard]

One batsman i find it hard to choose a number 1 innings for is Virender Sehwag. I'd probably go for the bat-carrying 201* against Sri Lanka this year, but that's passing up two triple centuries, two double centuries and innings of 195, 155 and 151 against Australia.

I still think his best was the chanceless 105 (or was it 106?) at Trent Bridge in 2002. Ball swung all over the place, for once, and he rarely missed it.

 

[krkode]

One batsman i find it hard to choose a number 1 innings for is Virender Sehwag. I'd probably go for the bat-carrying 201* against Sri Lanka this year, but that's passing up two triple centuries, two double centuries and innings of 195, 155 and 151 against Australia.

Yeah, I'd agree with the 201... it also happens to be one of the few innings of his I have actually watched fully when I was on vacation in India this past summer. Sehwag may be a good batsman, but his role in Indian victories is marginal compared to his role in Indian draws. He averages 52 in victories and 65 in draws.

That 201* was a rare (and awesome) hand he played in an Indian win and given the context in which all the other Indian batsmen were getting their butts handed to them, that made it all the more awesome.

 

[Migara]

I think his best ODI inning was this 169 against Sri Lanka in 1995 : http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/match/65863.html

^ I remember watching this game live, man what a treat it was to watch Lara destroy sri lankan bowling

Again this is my opinion, you guys are free to post what ever you want

So could you remeber Tillekaratne hitting a scintillating 100 in that match? WI made 332, SL almosed chased it but 3 runs. If Lara was the example for hitting in that innigs, Tillekaratne was the example for running between wickets. He made WIndies look like grannys with arthritis.

Best ODI innigs I have seen was by Michael Bevan when he made 183 against ROW XI in Australia.

In test matches, nothing comes close to that epic 281 by VVS.

 

[Migara]

Talking about SL batsmen, Aravinda de Silva's 100 in WC 1996 is the best ODI innigs from him. And he hit Merv Huges in to submission at Brisbane in 1989, making 167. De Silva was well known for his lack of height and lack of words. Huges (who's a bully) kept sledging and bouncing and the ball kept disappearing in to the square leg boundry. Then Huges walked up to de Silva and said "F***ing midgets should not play cricket". Usually quite de Silva retorted "Even midgets have a bigger brain than a pea", and it was too much for Huges, and was taken away from bowling by the captain.

In recent matches I liked that century from Jayawardane in the 2003 WC semis. In tests, well have to be Sangakkara's 192 against Aussies at Hobart

 

[Jono]

One batsman i find it hard to choose a number 1 innings for is Virender Sehwag. I'd probably go for the bat-carrying 201* against Sri Lanka this year, but that's passing up two triple centuries, two double centuries and innings of 195, 155 and 151 against Australia.

His 201 or his 155 in 2nd test vs. Aus in 2004 IMO.

He's a gun though, love how often he plays really good knocks.

 

[subshakerz]

how can u miss that hundred at Chennai on a 5th day pitch against Wasim and Saqlain????? Easily his best test hundred, for me.. Others were falling like nine pins and he never looked like getting out.. Was so so solid out there...

If Tendulkar had won India that match, that innings would have been right up there with Lara's 153*. As such, he was the one to set the match up for India and to lose it as well. What a match is was...

 

[silentstriker]

Dravid's twin fifties vs. WI, or his double ton in Adelaide?

Dravid's twin fifties in WI was easily the best overseas batting I've ever seen live from an Indian.

And, to me, without a doubt, they were the best innings of his career.

 

[Richard]

And the 180 at Eden Gardens being his best at home for mine.

 

[honestbharani]

He had that damn injury.

which should make that innings even better than some of the other ones of his you have mentioned, though...

 

[Precambrian]

which should make that innings even better than some of the other ones of his you have mentioned, though...

No, not unless one takes sadistic pleasure in watching a struggling sportsman operating at 70%.

 

[fredfertang]

I started a thread on this subject a while ago which no one responded to but seeing this I thought I'd try it again

Having watched Gooch's innings unfold on television I certainly agree with the conclusion

I presume there must have been a thread on this subject before but hopefully this will provide a new slant on it.

I have just acquired a little book in a series of “Statistical Meanderings” by CPW Jonkers the point of which is to assess innings statistically with a view to thereby deciding which is the greatest innings ever.

He uses 5 factors:-

F1.Runs scored

Jonker’s takes the cube root of this in his calculation

F2. Quality of Pitch

To get a figure for this he divides 150 by (2 x the average runs per wicket for the match in question plus 3 x the average runs per wicket for the innings in which the runs are scored)

F3. Quality of Bowlers

The average bowling average when Jonkers wrote this was 28 so you calculate the average of the averages of the bowlers involved as at the date of the match weighted with reference to the number of overs they bowl and divide 28 by that figure.

F4. Speed of Innings

Jonkers would have liked to have used runs per 100 balls as the measure but as that is often not available for older innings he uses the individual innings runs per over. He then divides the innings figure by the overall test average (1.5 in his day) and you have F4

F5. Innings relative to that of other batsmen

The way he works this out is complicated but it is intended to be a measure of the dominance of the innings under consideration – if this thread attracts interest I will set it out in detail.

Jonkers considers F2 and F3 to be twice as important as F4 and F5

His rating is completed then by the following calculation

5F1 (2F2 + 2F3 + F4 + F5) divided by 3

Jonkers did this in 1992 – he admits only working it through on “about 30 well known innings” and his “Greatest Innings” on the basis of his formula was Graham Gooch’s 154* against W Indies at Headingley in 1991

 

[Precambrian]

I started a thread on this subject a while ago which no one responded to but seeing this I thought I'd try it again

Having watched Gooch's innings unfold on television I certainly agree with the conclusion

Interesting, can the owrk be extended from 1992 onwards?