Immortal Knocks <100

[Teja.]

Most of Test Cricket's best Innings are hundreds and big ones at that, but there are some absolutely epic Innings where the Batsman don't get to the three-figure mark. Please share the best you know.

Sunil Gavaskar- 96 against Pakistan(1987)

It was the final match of arguably the best and definitely the most successful opening batsman to play the game. The pitches prepared earlier in the series were as flat as Kiera Knightley and the Curators were pressurized to prepare a pitch offering something for the bowlers. The Curator went one unnecessary step further and made the pitch an absolute minefield. A 'Patch instead of a pitch' as a newspaper put it. The pitch offered an enormous amount of turn and unpredictable bounce and the Pakistan Team realized that and rightly selected two young spinners Iqbal Qasim and Tausif over the ageing Qadir.

The Pitch proved true to it's hype as Maninder Singh ran wild over Pakistan taking 7-27 getting Pakistan out for 117. The two Pakistani Bowlers made deadly and efficient use of the conditions taking 5-48 and 5-54 and restricting India to 145. Despite being behind by 21 runs, Pakistan batted sensibly in the second innings with a pitch threatening to crumble away but still intact, with handy contributions from Rameez Raja, Malik, Imran Khan and Yousuf Pakistan post a respectable total of 249. If batting in the first and second Innings was tough, Batting in the fourth was bloody hell to put it mildly. 221 was needed, the match was evenly poised and Pakistan was looking for their first series win in India with the two young spinners treating the batsmen with the disdain of the Raja of Baroda shooting down prey. A very young Akram picked up two early wickets, leaving the spinners to run through the order on a crumbling 4th day minefield.

But Pakistan did not account for Gavaskar playing what would have been the Innings of his life is he was any lesser batsman. Gavaskar displayed his impeccable technique defending anything coming on to the wicket, and dispatching any ball wide of the wicket by even a micron with perfect drives right of the copybook. Despite his strike-rate of 37 in that Innings, one could say he was dominating the bowling. Partner after Partner fell pray to the spinners, but Gavaskar stayed put. With the score at 180-7, a ball from Qasim brushed Gavaskar's pad and went to the fielder, and he was wrongly given out. His return to the Pavilion was greeted with awe-filled Silence as if to say. Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?. India went to lose the match, But Imran Khan and the rest of the Pakistan team had no doubt in their minds that this was the greatest Innings they have ever seen. and mind you, Imran Khan has seen a great many hundreds.

[vcs]

Wrong symbol of inequality.

Sachin's 98 against Pakistan in WC '03.
Dravid's 81 and 68 against WI in Kingston '06.
Dravid's 72 n.o. in Adelaide '03.
Laxman's 66 in the 2nd innings in Chennai '01 against Australia.
Sehwag's 83 against England in Chennai '08.

Dravid's innings in Kingston are the only ones that come closest to being called "epic", though.

[indian_legend]

Virender Sehwag - 83 off 68 balls, v England, Chennai 2008

India, set a target of 387 to win off 110 overs in the 4th innings. A situation from where a win looked almost unlikely & even a draw was looking tough. The required run-rate being over 3,5 rpo. Enter Virender Sehwag, who turned the game in the next 5-10 overs with breathtaking batting, racing off to a 50 off only 32 balls as India set off at a 20/20-esque rate scoring 54 runs off the first 6 overs. Although Tendulkar finished off the chase with a century, and Andrew Staruss hit a 100 in each innings, but such was Sehwags dominance that he needed only 68 balls to make his mark in the test match and change the course of the match in only 5-10 overs. Sehwag rightfully earned the man of the match award as well

This chase of 387 by India was Indias 2nd highest run chase in tests and it started off a series of spectacular run-chases of 400+ in tests & FC matches

[fredfertang]

21* and 7* - The Burnley Express and Monty at Cardiff last year

[_Ed_]

Mark Richardson (89) - fantastic innings, in the context of this match.

1st Test: New Zealand v India at Wellington, Dec 12-14, 2002 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

[zaremba]

Eddie Paynter

Originally Posted by cricinfo

In the fourth Test at Brisbane [during the 1932/33 Ashes series], he was taken to hospital with tonsillitis and doubtless, had all gone well with England, would not have batted. But all did not go well, and at 216 for 6 he emerged from the pavilion, refused Woodfull's offer of a runner, was still there at the close, and returned to bed in hospital. Next morning, he was not out until he had scored 83 in nearly four hours. On this occasion he and Verity put on 92 for the ninth wicket. Normally quick on his feet and a fine driver, he had conserved energy by waiting for opportunities to hit the ball to leg, preferably to the boundary. Few innings in history have so captivated the imagination of the public. Moreover, Paynter insisted on fielding for a couple of hours before retiring and then, as if to show that he was none the worse, in a brief second innings he finished the match with a 6.

[fredfertang]

Originally Posted by zaremba

Eddie Paynter

Excellent call Mr Z

... and while on the subject of Lancastrians Cyril Washbrook's 98 in his comeback test at Headingley in 1956 - we'd probably not have had Laker's 19-90 if he hadn't

[Neil Pickup]

Sorted the mathematics!

[zaremba]

Jack Hobbs, 49 runs in England's 2nd innings, 3rd Test of the 1928/29 Ashes at the MCG. He only scored one boundary, and Herbert Sutcliffe went on to make 135 which he rated as his finest ever innings, but Hobbs' effort is also rated incredibly highly by those that saw it.

Originally Posted by Brian Travers, in discussion with Johnners in 1980

I think the greatest innings I ever saw in a Test Match was an innings played by Jack Hobbs at Melbourne, in the last days of 1928....Third Test Match at Melbourne, and Jack Hobbs made 49. I think that 49 was the greatest innings I ever saw. The wickets weren't cover in those days...you were at the mercy of the elements...and there was a tremendous thunderstorm the night before. The sun came out the next morning and really baked the wicket, and Australia still had two or three good wickets to lose. Palmer-White polished them off in a coule of overs, and Jack Hobbs said (this was lunch) "I'm afraid we'll all be out by tea-time".

At tea-time, he and Sutcliffe were still there. That must have been the worst batting wicket anyone could ever conceive...I went and saw it at the end of play; it was like concrete with great lumps and holes in it. Terrible.

[zaremba]

That Brian Travers interview makes quite interesting reading, btw.

[fredfertang]

Originally Posted by zaremba

That Brian Travers interview makes quite interesting reading, btw.

As a result of that acclaimed interview the 94 year old Travers wrote a book of cricket reminiscences imaginatively entitled "94 Declared" - you'd enjoy it Mr Z

[zaremba]

John Arlott: What a wonderful life it must have been, before the first world war, ....

BT: People like Jessop - would you like me to tell you about that?

John Arlott: Yes

One of the easier questions that John Arlott would ever have to answer...

[Bouncer]

Originally Posted by Teja.

With the score at 180-7, a ball from Qasim brushed Gavaskar's pad and went to the fielder, and he was wrongly given out.]

For crying out loud......*(%^&^&((&*(

He was out clearly twice before his eventual dismissal....Which was clear as hell...

SJS, please come and post here and correct your fellow.

[Sir Alex]

[L Trumper]

Originally Posted by vcs

Wrong symbol of inequality.

Sachin's 98 against Pakistan in WC '03.
Dravid's 81 and 68 against WI in Kingston '06.
Dravid's 72 n.o. in Adelaide '03.
Laxman's 66 in the 2nd innings in Chennai '01 against Australia.
Sehwag's 83 against England in Chennai '08.

Dravid's innings in Kingston are the only ones that come closest to being called "epic", though.

You missed Vishy's 97 against WI, which was always rated as the best indian batting performance till VVS 281. In the last 35-40 years Vishy's 97 considered arguably the best innings of less than 100.