#3 Kim Barnett 84 off 146 vs Sri Lanka, 1988
Playing in a one-off ODI for the Texaco Trophy vs Sri Lanka, England decided to try out a 6 feet moustachioed bald man who had been knocking on the doors of England outfit for quite some time with a bucketful of runs in domestic cricket. The 28-year-old right-hander went by the name of Kim Barnett and trundled across to the crease and took an awkward looking stance when the team had lost its captain Graham Gooch early in the chase of 245.
Barnett then crawled and crawled and crawled to 84 to remind many of the likes of Chris Tavare and Geoffrey Boycott. On the other side, Allan Lamb hit a strokeful 66 of 70 and Rob Bailey and Dereck Pringle scored at strike rates of more than 100. Barnett’s slumber on the pitch finally came to an end when he was run out with the team just 32 runs away from victory. He had scored 84 by then and earned himself a man of the match award on debut too.
Barnett, however, couldn’t add to his solitary ODI cap as the tour to India on which he got selected was cancelled and for being a part of Mike Gatting’s rebel tour, Barnett was banned till 1992. By that time he was past his prime but is still considered one of the legends of Derbyshire.
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