Copy and pasting this because this was one of the best innings I remembered growing up...it triumphs so many others of the day,
On This Day:
22 Years ago; The Cleanest hitting of the Red Cherry happened at Christchurch
Nathan Astle; came to bat at 119/3 & in next 4 hours he smashed 222 runs in just 168 balls with 28 Fours & 11 Sixes in 4th inning while chasing the Target of 550
Now allow me to give some insights about this already celebrated inning:
After 81 overs,Score was 315/8 & Nasser Hussain took the new ball & 89 runs were smashed in next 6 overs, in which one over was wicket maiden!
Astle scored 70 runs in 20 balls after new ball taken & went from 100 to 200 in just 39 balls...
Chris Cairns was not supposed to bat as he was injured but as per Stephen Fleming; Astle was in such a mood that they just wanted to see what else he can do & Cairns came to bat at the score of 333/9
118 runs were added for the last wicket in...10.5 Overs!
Hoggard who picked up 7 wickets in 1st inning got smashed for 41 runs in his 2 overs...
Caddick who picked up 6 wickets in 2nd inning got even worse hammering as his 7 consecutive balls went for 38 runs(4 6 6 4 6 6 6)
Third man, Extra Cover,Midwicket & Down the ground straight, every corner of the ground Astle just smashed it...
England tried even negative tactics to stop Astle as out of 168 balls he faced, 38 were pitched outside leg;But he was unstoppable...
During this onslaught;Astle hit the new ball onto the roof of the Stand No. 2 stand where it was lost... The ball that was taken in his place was again hit by him onto the roof of the Stand No. 1 & again got lost.
As Nasser Hussain himself said: "When every ball was disappearing out of the ground & I'm at mid-off, they are looking at me as if to say, "Skip, what do we do here, this doesn't usually happen."
Anyone who watched that innings will always remember the horror looks on the faces of Nasser Hussain & English players...
New Zealand lost this game by 98 runs when Astle finally dismissed but the way Astle was batting that day; it was matter of just extra half an hour ...