New Delhi, India (BBN)-It’s not a day any Indian cricket fan will remember fondly, but it’s a landmark day in the history of the game.
On May 21, 1997 at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium, the former Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar etched his name into the record books with the highest individual score in ODI cricket, breaking the 13-year-old landmark of 189 set by Vivian Richards, reports The Times of India.
Anwar’s 194 stood as a benchmark, along with Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry who equalled the score in 2009, until Sachin Tendulkar – incidentally the captain of India on that fateful day – broke the 200-barrier in 2010.
The left-handed opener’s assault on India’s bowling was, as Sportstar cried out on its Friday cover page two days later, a ‘Blitzkrieg at Chepauk’.
On a severely hot Chennai afternoon, Anwar was virtually unstoppable.
His epic will always have an Asterix attached to it in the fact that he had a runner for much of his innings – from the 18th over until the 47th – which made it much easier for him to focus on hitting boundaries.
With Shahid Afridi , who had been well held by a running Sourav Ganguly off a miscue, doing the running, Anwar added 118 of his overall tally.
The sight of Afridi harrying between the wickets while Anwar limped towards square leg after belting the ball sparked debate and to this day divides opinion, but it takes plenty of skill to repeatedly carve out boundary after boundary.
And on that day, Anwar’s latent skill as well as fancy for Indian bowling attacks – he averaged 43.52 versus them in ODIs, and 47.28 in wins -was on ample view.
His 194 spanned 146 balls across 206 minutes, and was littered with 22 fours and five sixes.
Three of those sixes came off successive deliveries bowled by Anil Kumble; that over, the 41st of Pakistan’s innings, featured a sequence of 2, 2, 6, 6, 6, 4. One of the Hindi commentators, live on air, likened Anwar’s assault on the legspinner as akin to someone’s phone number.
The humor, though sharp, would have stung most Indians watching.
Initially his cutting, driving and chips over the legside were almost effortless, the result of swift footwork.
But as he cramped up, Anwar relied on his precision and placement to perforate the gaps.
He was fed a healthy dose of hit-me deliveries, but there were many instances of him using his crease to deflect and swivel runs past lethargic fielders.
One such shot gave him his 100 in the 26th over.
The hitherto unimaginable 200 mark was well in sight for Anwar in the 47th over, but he fell six short when sweeping at Tendulkar and getting a top edge to fine leg.
Pakistan surged to 327/5 and won by 35 runs, with India all out for 292 in 49.2 overs.
Inzamam-ul-Haq made his presence felt with a stunning catch at slip to get Tendulkar, and Rahul Dravid’s maiden century and a fighting fifty from Vinod Kambli were in vain as Aaqib Javed grabbed five.
Fittingly, a crowd of 45,000 gave Anwar a standing ovation.
BBN/SK/AD