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What are the best ODI innings ever?

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Robin Smith's 167* in a losing cause against Australia in 1993 is to this day the only ODI innings that really sticks out in my mind - by 2019 standards it was nothing out of the ordinary, but at the time it was quite exceptional
 

vcs

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Robin Smith's 167* in a losing cause against Australia in 1993 is to this day the only ODI innings that really sticks out in my mind - by 2019 standards it was nothing out of the ordinary, but at the time it was quite exceptional
I posted about that innings earlier in the thread. Back then, it felt extraordinary and magical when batsmen scored at more than a run a ball.
 

Burgey

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Robin Smith's 167* in a losing cause against Australia in 1993 is to this day the only ODI innings that really sticks out in my mind - by 2019 standards it was nothing out of the ordinary, but at the time it was quite exceptional
I watched that live and it’s still one of the best LO knocks I’ve ever seen. Crazy power and timing
 

Burgey

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I think anything else is a secondary factory, the primary factor was that Gavaskar at that point considered ODIs to be a **** and giggle not to be taken too seriously.
The weird thing is that in December of the same year he made a nearly run a ball 80 vs the WI in a home ODI though (linked a few posts above this one in the game where Viv made 140 odd off 90 or so).

I suspect in that WC match he just had a ****ing strop about something tbh and decided he’d be a ****, and didn’t care about the match. Those with a better knowledge of Indian cricket at the time than me might set me straight, but I recall there was some tension between him and Kapil when the latter got the captaincy - sort of like the Javed/ Imran thing. I wonder if that had something to do with it too
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
I was at Old Trafford for Viv's 189. The idea that it was "ahead of its time" is BS. It was the greatest one day innings I've ever seen, but was very much of its time. These were 55 over matches, no white balls and fielding restrictions were in their infancy. We obviously wanted England to win and at 70 odd for 6, 100 odd for 7 and 160 odd for 9 we were in with a chance. At soon as the score got past 200 were we done on that wicket and people watching just wanted Viv to bat forever no matter who they supported - and he probably could have.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
That's amazing. The Pakistan opener probably felt really good about his 120 ball 70 til Viv made him look like a selfish ball waster lol
Mudassar was a selfish ball waster all his career, Viv didn’t expose anything people didn’t already know...and I am sure he didn’t care either...:)
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
England in the early 80s had a much stronger bowling attack than in 2011.
Not sure I'd go for that.

1984
- Willis (in his last summer)
- Botham
- Foster
- Miller
- Pringle

2011
- Anderson
- Broad
- Swann
- Bresnan
- Yardy/Collingwood

I wouldn't say the 1984 attack was any better than 2011.
 

Kirkut

International Regular
Tendulkar 175(141) vs. Australia
Tendulkar 98(75) vs. Pakistan
Buttler 110*(122) vs. Australia
Razzaq 109*(72) vs. South Africa

I think Kevin O'Brien's innings has a decent case for greatest ODI knock of all time, all things considered. Definitely up there with Kapil against Zimbabwe.
I would repeatedly watch Sachin's 98 for that backfoot defense shot off Akhtar's 154 kph ball going for four.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Craziest innings I've watched on tv because this was long back before the T20 era and you would expect a batsman to be naturally more cautious in a World Cup Final.
It was the best batsman in the world at the time aggressively crushing their opposition in the most important match around. It was Viv-like. Must have been so demoralizing to be on the other end of. A bit like de Silva in the 96 final.
 

TheJediBrah

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Been some dominant WC final batting performances hasn't there?

de Silva, Ponting, Gilchrist, and probably a few earlier that I don't care about
 

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