Of course being who I am,I will start the ball rolling with the incomparable Garry Sobers scoring an undefeated 113 on a minefield at Sabina Park in 1968.
Message Board Archives
Test Centuries on difficult pitches
Hoops...flawless 134 vs Pakistan 3rd test Lahore Dec 1990. Lance Gibbs the manager said the pitch was cracked before a ball was bowled and it was one of the worst pitches he had ever seen. Pakistan's bowling included Imran, Wasim, Waqar and Qadir. Imran when asked about some of the best innings he had ever seen talked about this one first.
beauty beyond compare
In reply to Dukesthat wicket was bad! remember the cracks look more like trenches.
In reply to Oilah
Yes, and Imran predicted Hooper would go on to become of the greatest.
It is why Hooper is considered the greatest underachiever in the history of WI cricket: His performance did not equal his talent.
In reply to Dukes
Well you also have to add the quality of the bowlers and the context of the match, in which case I will go for Majid Khan 167 vs WI in 1977 in BG.
In reply to camos
Underprepared?
In reply to camos
In 1968?
Didn't know you were in that age group.
In reply to Drapsey
Didn't know you were in that age group.
He is still a kid
In reply to Emir
Just messing with my brethren, camos.
Actually, I was around then too, but as a kid I can't recall such details at this point.
In reply to Drapsey
was at school ,watching on TV! Knockalva, happy new year bro!
In reply to Dukes
1st Test: India v West Indies at Bangalore, Nov 22-27, 1974
Kallicharan 124
Link
In reply to camos
I can recall coming to Knockalva to play cricket (70/71), and Leachman (sp), of all people, top scored against us.
Happy New Year to you too, bro.
In reply to Narper
It was a nice knock by Kalli saving the blushes in the first innings, the pitch wasn't a minefield and the opposition's attack was good but not deadly.
Lara's 375, second only to his 400.
In reply to Drapsey
take it you are from Ruseas, what ever became of that little red guy Leachman?
In reply to Dukes
Yes Doctor cannot forget that one balls were squatting and shooting like falling stars. John snow had the great one for a first ball duck, LBW with a shooter before his customary Sabina ovation had even died down. WI were dismissed for less than 140 if memory serves me right,and were forced to follow-on. Then the great one made that one of a kind century in the second innings on the mine field and had England hanging on at the end for a draw. Mi cousin, the intelligent one, tell mi seh NASA as a pre-courser to the 1969 moon landing had studied the pitch to get a view of what the craters on the moon would be like. By the way this was the test where there was a bottle throwing and tear-gassing incident
In reply to CWWeekes
for me the highlight was Sobers taking the new ball in England's second inning and sending back a few batsmen.
In reply to camos
Remember that too. Rushing home from school that Tuesday afternoon to see Sobers on TV open the bowling and creating havoc. Play was extended to the following day to makeup for time lost to the bottle throwing incident. Remember seeing the end of the game on school TV during my lunch time. Sobers and Gibbs were trying to get in as many overs as possible to dismiss England.
[
In reply to Oilah
hoops in Pakistan.
Devon Smith VS England @ Sabina.
In reply to Emir
the pitch wasn't a minefield and the opposition's attack was good but not deadly.
Au Contraire my friend.Overnight rain had seeped under the covers and it was just short of a length where the balls from Chandrashekar were taking off and he was unplayable so that WI went from 212-2 to 289 all out with Kalli scoring 60 out of the 77 runs scored.
Indeed it is innings like that which inform my belief that Kallicharran was a class above Richie Richardson.
3 excellent examples on this tread of WI batsmanship at its best in difficult situations from 3 different generations.
Sobers in 1968
Kallicharran in 1974
Hooper in 1990
In reply to Dukes
Like your 3 examples.
But Devon Smith is not the same generation as Hooper.
I understand he is not the right name, having a failed Int. Career. ...but his century at Sabina was a bad wicket gem.
It's kinda same as bowling gems. Sammy had a dibbly dobly bowling career for WI, but that should not diminish that his 7fer in England as a bowling gem.
In reply to Tagwa1
I was there at Sabina Park and that was by no means a bad wicket.However it was an excellent innings by Devon Smith and I remember coming on this forum singing his praises as playing the best Innings by a West Indian opening batsman since the days of Haynes and Greenidge.
In reply to Devin
Here endeth this thread.
In reply to Dukes
Didn't Sarwan score a century at POS against Pakistan I think when the wicket was seemingly unplayable to save the game for WI? I cannot remember all of the details now.
In reply to Dukes
WI made 47 in the second innings and Harmison was unplayable with the uneven bounce. The innings was unplayable on the fourth day when Harmison ran through WI in an otherwise pretty even test.
In reply to Tagwa1
That pitch was not unplayable.It was good bowling and very poor batting.I have seen much worse pitches where people scored centuries.Every time WI are bowled out for less than 100 does not necessarily mean a difficult pitch.
I'm still a rookie but Rahul Dravid in 2006 at Sabina Park was a beauty to watch. Ball was swinging, seaming, lifting. Crafted out two half centuries in that game. All the other noteworthy batsmen struggled.
In reply to Dukes Rowe's 123 vs England at Queens Park Oval 1974 (Greig 8/86).
In reply to jen
That, I think, especially his second innings, was the best batting I have seen in difficult conditions. I remember , I think it was Collymore bowled someone with a ball that didn't seem to get up off the ground at all and everybody in the Headley stand leapt to their feet. And I wonder if we realized that WI had to bat on that same surface, which was likely to deteriorate even more.
Sunil Gavaskar's last test innings..on a minefield of a turner in Bangalore..
Players who made centuries on English wickets against the swinging ball
Brian Charles Lara's 132 at Perth in 1997.
In reply to Runs
Viv Richards 291.
He kept swinging the overrated swinging ball into the stands.
In reply to Tagwa1 Swing ball alright- Richards 291. A total of 1507 runs were made in that Test match. The difficult conditions would have been Holding's match figures of 14 for 149.
In reply to alfa1975
Yup. That was a master class.
In reply to alfa1975
That innings of 291 was not easy for him for the first hundred. He was out of form and the first hundred was a bit scratchie. After that it blossomed into a masterpiece. Dennis Amis also made a double for England. The real difficulty was indeed Holding's 14 wickets.
This brings me to that 7 for 76 that Jermaine Lawson took to set the W.I. record breaking win against Australia. That was the man of the match performance and not Chanderpaul's century on a batsman friendly pitch. He was reported for pelting though.
In reply to NineMiles
This. Not another hundred in that game. I can't remember another second-day pitch that cracked up. And while it was not exactly a minefield, it also was not half as good a pitch as Lara made it look.
In reply to Tagwa1
In reply to Dukes
Was that the match with tear gas? here is some video
In reply to Dukes
What about Dessie in this test?
In reply to jen
I concur. It seemed as if he was batting on a totally different pitch to the other batsmen from both teams.
In reply to django In reply to Ninemiles
Dead rubber match. Australia had already won the series. McGrath, Bichel and Reifel? Please.
Robert Samuels scored 76 and Pooper 57 in that same innings, so it couldn't have been very difficult.
In reply to SnoopDog
Kohli at Johannesburg. Both teams piled on the runs in their 2nd innings, but neither team scored 300 in the first.
India batting first scored 280, Kohli made 119 with no other batsman in his side crossing 50. He faced the likes of Steyn, Philander and Morkel. South Africa were bowled out for 244 with the batting might of Graeme Smith, Amla, Kallis, AB De Villiers, and Faf Du Plessis.
India vs England at Visakhapatnam.
While Kohli didn't score a century, his 81 in the 2nd innings out of a total of 204 came on a track turning square. Deliveries misbehaving on the same length; one ball rolling while the next was rearing up at the batsman. The 2nd highest score was 27.
England were bowled out for 158 in their 2nd innings.
Search
Live Scores
- no matches