Virender Sehwag's epic 219 at Indore saw India post a total of 418 for five at Indore against the West Indies in the fourth ODI in the series which concluded on Sunday © AFP

 

By Dhananjay Devasper

 

Gone are the days when 300 seemed to be a large score. In fact, on a fair batting wicket, one can’t even call it a fair score. If one checks out the top 20 scores in One-Day Internationals (ODIs), the 20th slot is occupied by Australia, who scored 368 against Sri Lanka. The advent of swashbuckling batsmen, the high-quality bats, shortened boundaries, flat pitches, innovative and outrageous strokeplay and, of course, the birth of T20 cricket, have all contributed to teams raising the bar in posting big scores.

 

Until now, the 400-run mark has been crossed nine times. India leads this list with four scores of 400 plus, followed by South Africa and Sri Lanka (twice each) and Australia and New Zealand (one each). For India, there is also the small matter of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag having scored double centuries in two of the matches. There have been two occasions when both teams have scored 400 in the same ODI, making for thrilling run-chases. One during the world record run-chase that involved South Africa and Australia, and the other when Sri Lanka almost chased down India’s 414 at Rajkot to end at 411.

 

If we go further down the list, we see that India figures another six times when scores over 350 have been achieved. The rest of the world shares the remaining seven spots. It is safe to say that India’s ability to rack up high scores is unmatched in world cricket today. Before once jumps to conclusion that these have been achieved in India or the subcontinent, of the seven 350+ scores, four have come in the subcontinent, with the rest overseas.

 

Team

Score

Overs

Inns

Opposition

Ground

Match Date
Sri Lanka

443/9

50

1

Netherlands

Amstelveen

Jul 2006
South Africa

438/9

49.5

2

Australia

Johannesburg

Mar 2006
Australia

434/4

50

1

South Africa

Johannesburg

Mar 2006
South Africa

418/5

50

1

Zimbabwe

Potchefstroom

Sep 2006
India

418/5

50

1

West Indies

Indore

Dec 2011
India

414/7

50

1

Sri Lanka

Rajkot

Dec 2009
India

413/5

50

1

Bermuda

Port of Spain

Mar 2007
Sri Lanka

411/8

50

2

India

Rajkot

Dec 2009
New Zealand

402/2

50

1

Ireland

Aberdeen

Jul 2008
India

401/3

50

1

South Africa

Gwalior

Feb 2010
South Africa

399/6

50

1

Zimbabwe

Benoni

Oct 2010
Sri Lanka

398/5

50

1

Kenya

Kandy

Mar 1996
New Zealand

397/5

44

1

Zimbabwe

Bulawayo

Aug 2005
South Africa

392/6

50

1

Pakistan

Centurion

Feb 2007
India

392/4

50

1

New Zealand

Christchurch

Mar 2009
England

391/4

50

1

Bangladesh

Nottingham

Jun 2005
India

387/5

50

1

England

Rajkot

Nov 2008
Pakistan

385/7

50

1

Bangladesh

Dambulla

Jun 2010
Australia

377/6

50

1

South Africa

Basseterre

Mar 2007
India

376/2

50

1

New Zealand

Hyderabad

Nov 1999
India

374/4

50

1

Hong Kong

Karachi

Jun 2008
India

373/6

50

1

Sri Lanka

Taunton

May 1999
Pakistan

371/9

50

1

Sri Lanka

Nairobi

Oct 1996
India

370/4

50

1

Bangladesh

Dhaka

Feb 2011
Australia

368/5

50

1

Sri Lanka

Sydney

Feb 2006

 

With ODI curators pushed to prepare batsmen-friendly pitches and with the likes of Virender Sehwag, Shane Watson and hopefully Chris Gayle someday, opening the batting for their respective countries, high scores and high run chases might become the order of the day.

 

Stay tuned…

 

(Dhananjay Devasper is an “IT guy” by profession and a sports fanatic at heart. He has an unbridled passion for sports and Indian achievements in sport. Extremely opinionated, he attempts offering perspectives around sports which are simple to understand and easy to relate with)