Records which might not be broken

Cricket, otherwise a game of glory, at the end of the day is all about numbers. And some of these records are so colossal that they seem out of reach for anyone in the future.

With so many batsmen having distinguished careers, stats like total runs scored, number of fifties, number of hundreds, highest score, et al, is one of the ways to gauge their success and the impact they have had on the world of cricket. Similarly, for bowlers, the number of wickets, number of maiden overs bowled, number of five-wicket hauls, etc is ideally used as means for comparison. Records and numbers aren't just limited to batting and bowling. For people who are still wondering, fielding stats in the likes of number of catches a player has taken, number of stumpings by wicketkeeper etc. are equally accounted for.

Cricket is a team game and hence records don't just end at individual scores or performance. There have been several team records viz a viz highest score by a team, no of wins by a team, victory margins, partnership records, and one can just go on for this ain't an exhaustive list. Some players have performed consistently in their careers and created world-class records over the period of time while some even create history on a single day.

Cricket records, made or broken, have always captivated its passionate enthusiasts all over the world. Let's take a look at a comprehensive listing of all time herculean records which are seemingly impossible to break.

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#1 Highest score by a player in a Test innings

Brian Lara in 1994 broke his own countryman Garry Sobers' record of highest score by a batsman in a Test innings. He scored 375 against England. In 2003 by scoring 380, Mathew Hayden broke Brian Lara's record. A year later, Lara regained his record by scoring 400* again against England and became the first man to score 400 in international cricket. It has been more than 14 years and his record still stands. Mahela Jayawardene came close to breaking the record but got out on 374.

With the introduction of T20, batsmen these days are playing too many shots and getting out cheaply. Hence it will be really difficult to break Lara's record.

#2 Highest score in ODI by a player

Rohit Sharma, the Indian opener played an unbelievable knock of 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014. He has a knack for playing long innings. He already has 3 double hundreds in ODIs to his name. No other player has even two. Though Martin Guptill came close to breaking Rohit's record in the 2015 World Cup when he scored 237* against West Indies, it will take some doing to break this record.

#3 Highest score by a player in T20 internationals

Aaron Finch broke his own record when he scored a whirlwind knock of 172 against Zimbabwe this year in T20 Internationals. His previous best of 156 against England was the highest score in T20s until then. Although Chris Gayle did score 175* in IPL but in international cricket, Finch's 172 is the current world record. It is not easy to score such big tons in T20s mainly due to the shortage of overs. It looks very difficult to break this record.

#4 Most matches in Test and ODIs by Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar in his long international career played 200 Test matches and 463 ODIs. No other player has played as many matches in either of the formats. From the current lot of players, MS Dhoni is closest to the record with 321 matches in ODIs but I don't see him playing another 140 to overhaul this landmark. In the Test format, Alastair Cook was the closest with 161 matches, but with him retiring now, James Anderson is closest to Sachin with 143 matches. Though Anderson will play more, I don't think he'll play another 60 Test matches.

#5 Sir Don Bradman's 99.94 average in Test matches

Sir Donald Bradman was one of the finest cricketers to have ever played the game. His stats are unbelievable. In just 62 Test matches he scored close to 7000 runs at a whooping average of 99.94. If he had scored a boundary in his last innings he would have overshot an average of 100, but he was dismissed for a duck. Among the current players, Steve Smith has the highest average (61.37) which is way too far behind from Bradman's. It is nearly impossible to break this record.

#6 Muttiah Muralitharan's most wickets in international cricket

The Spin Wizard from Sri Lanka has many bowling records to his name. In almost every list of bowling records, you will find his name on the top.

He has 800 Test wickets and 534 ODI wickets, both of them being world records in themselves. In total, he has 1337 international wickets and Shane Warne is second on this list with 1001 wickets. You can see the huge margin between the first and second position and this is reason enough to believe that this record will be nearly impossible to break.

Also, he has the most five-wicket hauls (67) in Tests. Again, Shane Warne is a distant second with 37 five-wicket hauls. If you look at ten-wicket hauls in a Test match, Murali tops this list too with 22 and Shane Warne comes second with just 10. Anil Kumble had 8 and rest have 3 or even lesser.

#7 Jim Laker's best bowling figures in a Test match

Twice in a Test match, a bowler has taken all ten wickets in an innings. Anil Kumble achieved this feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla in 1999. The other man to achieve this feat was Jim Laker from England.

In 1956 against Australia, in the first innings, he took 9 wickets for 37 runs and followed it up in the second innings by taking all ten wickets for 53 runs, taking his figures to 19 for 90 for the entire match. It has been more than 60 years and this record still stands. To break this record a bowler will have to take all the 20 wickets by himself which is nearly impossible.

#8 Highest score by a team in Tests

In August 1997 in Colombo, India on the back of hundreds from Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Navjot Singh Sidhu scored 537/8 in the first innings. It was a daunting total but Sri Lanka replied to it in a record-breaking fashion.

Sri Lanka kept on batting and only the first innings of both teams were completed when the match was called a draw. Sanath Jayasuriya scored his highest score of 340, Roshan Mahanama scored a double century and Arvind de Silva also scored a century. In total Srilanka scored 952/6, breaking England's 903/7 record. In the last few years, we are not seeing very big scores in Test cricket and it looks very difficult to break this record.

#9 Fastest hundred by AB de Villiers in ODIs

Lovingly known as Mr. 360, AB de Villiers in 2015 against West Indies in Johannesburg went bonkers. He scored the fastest fifty in ODIs in just 16 balls. But that was not all. In the next 15 deliveries, he brought up his hundred and broke the fastest hundred record which was earlier held by Corey Anderson who had scored it in 36 balls. What is interesting to see is that the fastest hundred in T20 internationals is still in 35 balls.

#10 Fastest 50 in T20 Internationals by Yuvraj Singh

In the inaugural edition of the T20 world cup, against England, Yuvraj Singh played a memorable knock. In his knock of 52 from 12 balls, he smashed 7 sixes out which 6 was hit in an over by Stuard Broad. Although Chris Gayle also scored a 12-ball fifty while playing for Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash against Adelaide Strikers but still it looks really difficult to better this record in internationals. To improve this record a player would have to play with a strike rate of close to 500 which is very difficult.

It's been more than 11 years and this still stands unbeaten and tells us why it might linger around for more.