Top 10 most brutal innings in Test cricket

A great test match innings is expected to be a high scoring one wherein the temperament of the batsmen is tested to the maximum and the batsman steps up to it. There are tonnes of resolute defences, many leaving-the-ball-alones, and boundaries which come about only when a loose ball is presented, that constitute such an inning. And then there have been brutal knocks by players who have given no respect whatsoever to the opposition and have played their attacking game from the word go. Presented here is a collection of the 10 most brutal innings played in test cricket that have literally uprooted the opposition from the game.

10. Adam Gilchrist (152 vs England, Ashes 2001)

Gilly has played quite a few such innings. He came in to bat at no. 7 and smashed the England bowlers all over the park to score a blistering knock of 152 off 143 balls, smashing 20 fours and clearing the stadium a total of 5 times. The Aussies posted a mammoth 576 in reply to England’s first inning 294 and came back with a superb bowling effort to give England an innings defeat. Gilchrist was man of the match. Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn also scored hundreds. Gilly was the last man to get out. He partnered with Martyn for the 7^th wicket to add 160 runs to the total and also had a last-run stand of 53 along with McGrath, which enabled Australia to reach such a huge total. McGrath contributed just a single run to the partnership!

Gilchrist reached his hundred in a 118 deliveries and thereafter switched gears during the last-wicket stand when he realised he better get as many runs as possible before the opposition bowl them out. He pelted 22 runs off a Mark Butcher over to take the score from 542 to 564, before he got out 2 overs later to a Caddick delivery.

9. Daniel Vettori (127 vs Zimbabwe, NZ in Zimbabwe 2005)

You don’t expect his name to feature in a list where great test innings are being talked about. But sure enough, he did play a carnage of an innings to outplay Zimbabwe in the first test match of the series in which they hosted New Zealand. A thunderous 127 off only 98 deliveries that took the NZ total to 452 set the stage for a huge defeat for the home team. Zimbabwe replied with a 59 in their first innings and a 99 when following on, giving New Zealand a win by an innings and 294 runs (Vettori took 6 wickets in the two innings combined). New Zealand declared the innings when Vettori got out after stringing some useful partnerships with the lower order. He had scored the fastest test hundred for New Zealand, and did not spare any of the bowlers. NZ scored the runs on the first day itself that was their highest total on a single day, and then managed to dismiss Zimbabwe twice on the second day of the test. Vettori was man of the match.

8. Adam Gilchrist (162 vs New Zealand, Trans-Tasman trophy 2005)

New Zealand were lucky that the game ended with a draw because of unplayable conditions at Wellington when they were into their 2^nd innings (following-on) after Australia had scored a total of 570 in their first owing to centuries by Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist. Gilly played with a strike rate of a 110, pelting 22 fours and 5 biggies on the on-side. He reached his century in 86 deliveries, which was his third in three innings. He and Damien added 256 for the 6^th wicket in just 281 balls, which really broke all restrictions that the Kiwis would have wanted to impose on the scoring. The stand took the score from 5/247 to over 500 runs, thus taking away all hopes of NZ who would have wanted to dismiss them below 300 at one stage. Gilchrist hit Vettori thrice out of the park in the mid-wicket to long-on region.

He was adjudged player of the match.

7. Adam Gilchrist (102* vs England, Ashes 2006)

This one came off 59 balls. That is brutal enough for a T20 game too, let alone test cricket. Australia managed a lead of 29 runs after the first innings after both teams scored 200 plus runs in their first innings. But they had different plan in their second innings, and posted a staggering 527 with the help of centuries from Clarke, Hussey and the ruthless 172 strike-rate carnage by Gilly. England fell short of the target while chasing and Australia won the game by 206 runs.

After getting out on a duck in the first innings, Gilchrist looked in a murderous mood and did not look like getting out at all this time. He remained so when Australia declared the innings. He struck 12 fours all around the park and 4 sixes over mid-wicket. He singled out Panesar, who had dismissed him in the previous innings, for some special treatment, scoring 40 off the 17 balls that he faced from him, hitting 3 off his 4 biggies against him. Gilchrist and Clarke constructed a 152 run stand off just 120 balls, in which Gilchrist’s contribution was 102. Australia scored 408 runs in the day. Gilchrist scored the 2^nd fastest century, reaching there in 57 balls.

6. Adam Gilchrist (204* vs South Africa, Australia in South Africa 2001)

This was a special effort. No team can ask for anything better when their wicket-keeper can score a double hundred (not-out) against a South African bowling attack. Hayden and Martyn also scored tonnes in the same innings, and helped Australia put 652 on the board as their first innings total. The man of the match wicket-keeper hit 19 fours and 8 sixes in his innings which had a strike rate of over 95. Those many runs scored at that pace can surely hurt the opposition, and it did. Australia won by a huge margin- an innings and 360 runs.

The Aussies had reached 650 early in the second day, taking only 146 overs to do so. Gilchrist hit 4 huge sixes off Nicky Boje’s bowling, 3 of them were over his favourite mid-wicket area. Martyn and Gilchrist were once again involved in a huge partnership of 317 that came at a healthy scoring rate, consuming only 377 balls. This took the game away completely from the Proteas, who could not come up with a single score of 50-plus in the two innings that they batted.

5. Nathan Astle (222 vs England, England in NZ 2002)

Although England won this one, it was one of the best displays of power hitting that Nathan Astle produced, scoring 222 off just 168 deliveries, hitting 28 fours and 11 sixes. Having fallen for just 147 in their first innings, the Kiwis needed 550 runs to win while chasing in the 4^th innings. They did look like going all the way when Astle was playing, and especially during the last wicket stand that added 118 off just 69 deliveries after they were 9 down at 333. The English got some real scares when Cairns and Astle looked like they were going to take the game away from them.

Astle having reached the fastest double hundred in test cricket, eclipsing the previous record set by Gilchrist by 59 deliveries. England were propelled to a huge total in their 2^nd innings thanks to Man of the Match Graham Thorpe’s 200 off 231 balls and Flintoff’s 137. Astle hammered Caddick and Hoggard for good when he batted, hitting 5 and 4 sixes off their bowling respectively. It was a huge relief for England when Astle got out on a Hoggard delivery with New Zealand were still a good 98 runs short of the England lead.

4. Virender Sehwag (309 vs Pakistan, India in Pakistan 2004)

This man has a way of dismissing the opposition that nobody else has. The inning that earned him the title of ‘Multan ka Sultan’ was one such display of hitting that was not seen often before. He scored one of the fastest triple hundreds in an innings that lasted 375 deliveries. India ousted Pakistan of the game with the help of Viru’s innings and won the game by an innings and 52 runs. Sehwag hit a total of 39 fours and 5 sixes. India reached the 350-run mark on the first day itself, helped by the brisk scoring that Sehwag does when he is in his element.

He was part of the 160 run stand for the first wicket along with Aakash Chopra and a 336 run-partnership with Sachin for the 3^rd wicket, who scored an unbeaten 194 to take the 1^st innings total to 675, when Dravid surprised everyone by declaring the innings without waiting for Tendulkar to complete his double ton. Sehwag, on the other hand, crossed the 100 and 300-run mark by hitting sixes, which makes this inning all the more ruthless. Pakistan bowlers were left searching for deliveries to bowl to him, and it looked like they had given up the hope of taking his wicket. The win was India’s first in Pakistan and the decision for man of the match was pretty straightforward.

3. Virender Sehwag (319 vs South Africa, South Africa in India 2008)

Although the game ended in a draw, it left many mesmerised because of what it had for stroke play lovers. Scoring a triple hundred against an attack that has bowlers like Steyn, Ntini and Morkel at more than a run a ball is no easy feat. Yet Sehwag achieved it, batting in the usual fashion that he does, scoring the fastest triple century in tests. India posted a 600-plus total in response to South Africa’s 540. SA batted for some time in their second innings before it was time to end the game without a result.

Sehwag hit 43 boundaries and 5 sixes and was part of 200-plus partnerships for the 1^st and 2^nd wickets with Jaffer and Dravid respectively. He became the only player from India to score a triple hundred in Multan four years ago and now had two in his tally, with no other Indian having reached the 300-run mark. This one was special also because it came after fielding for two days during the South African batting. The crowd of Chennai would have been happier had they seen India win, but they definitely got their money’s worth seeing Sehwag bat effortlessly and reaching his triple ton to join Sir Don Bradman and Brian Lara as the only players to have scored 300-plus runs more than once.

2. Virender Sehwag (293 vs Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka in India 2009)

Sri Lanka would have felt their hold on the match having posted 393 on the board in their first innings. But they did not know that they would soon be subject to a Sehwag storm that would render them completely helpless. India posted 726 in their reply, which starred huge innings from Sehwag (that came off just 254 balls) and Dhoni who scored a 100 not out. India won the game by an innings and 24 runs.

Sehwag was man of the match as well as the man of the series. He hit a total of 40 fours and 7 sixes in a single day. He took the attack to the spinners, scoring at a 100-plus strike rate against both Herath and wily customer Muralitharan. Sri Lanka tried different field placing, bowlers changed ends and varied their deliveries- but nothing worked. Viru was seeing the ball like a football and finding gaps at will. He was dismissed the next day at 293 after a delightful innings that had done the damage to the Sri Lankan attack and which was eventually responsible for their downfall.

1. Matthew Hayden (380 vs Zimbabwe, Southern Cross trophy 2003)

This one is topmost on the list because it featured one of the most destructive batsmen tearing apart one of the weaker teams in test cricket with the second highest individual score of all time, batting with a healthy strike rate of above 85, taking his team to a victory of an innings and 175 runs. Lara’s 400 came against England and at a strike rate of below 70, and the match did not yield a result.

Australia reached 350 on the first day itself and finally posted an impossible for Zimbabwe to get 735 on the board. Gilchrist also chipped in with a hundred. Hayden was part of all Australian partnerships, two of which yielded more than 200 runs.

Hayden hit 38 fours and 11 huge sixes. He favoured the on-side while scoring and scored more than 200 of his runs in that region. All of his sixes came down the ground between long-on and long-off. He attained the highest individual score at that time in test cricket, breaking all records present (Lara’s 400 came later). The rest of the game panned out as expected, and the choice for the man of the match award was never easier.