In the tri-series against West Indies and South Africa, it took some time for AB de Villiers to crack a boundary. 91 balls to be precise. De Villiers’ drought of boundaries ended only in his third ODI of the series when he pulled a shortish delivery of Adam Zampa to the deep square leg boundary. The man who has the record of scoring the fastest 50, 100 and 150 to his name in ODIs had scored 54 runs in 91 balls across three matches without a boundary. No wonder South Africa failed to even make it to the finals of the Tri-series.
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De Villiers’ boundary-less scores were a throwback to the yesteryears when boundary hunting wasn’t the obvious job of the batsmen as it is today in the era of T20. In fact, there are several batsmen who carved big knocks in ODIs without the ball reaching the ropes even once during their innings. In Tests, its the usual suspect Geoffrey Boycott who tops the list with a knock of 77 runs against Australia in 1978-79 that contained no boundaries but an all ran 4 runs. In ODIs, no one has managed a century without boundaries.
Ricky Ponting scored a single boundary in his ton against India at Bangalore in 2003. However, the towering seven sixes pretty much compensated for the lack of the 4s in the innings.
Let’s take a look at 5 ODI knocks where batsmen scored big runs without a single boundary in the innings
#5 JP Duminy 71 off 93 vs Australia, 2009
The match is remembered for Albie Morkel’s jailbreak innings of 40 off 18 when he hit 4 biggies and a boundary to pull off a thrilling three-wicket win for South Africa in the first ODI of their series against Australia. However, Morkel’s fireworks took the attention away from JP Duminy’s uncharacteristic knock where the left-hander failed to find a single boundary throughout the innings.
The batsman was coming off a stellar debut Test series where he had starred in one of the biggest chases ever in Perth Test before scoring 166 at Melbourne to give South Africa a historic series win.
Chasing a stiff target of 272, Duminy came at the fall of second wicket and looked still to be in Test mode. The batsmen’s cause wasn’t helped by the fact that he was playing on one of the biggest cricket grounds in the world – the MCG. He completed his 50 without even threatening the boundary ropes and it was only after his fifty that one of his shot seemed to be on its way to touch the boundary ropes. Hussey played spoilsport and cut it off.
When a tired Duminy eventually got out for a well crafted 71 off 93 balls, he had managed 3 runs thrice, but could never hunt down the boundary ropes. This remains only one of the two half centuries in the last ten years to haven’t featured a single four.
#4 Desmond Haynes 76 off 133 vs Australia, 1985
On his day, he could blast the leather off the ball and on other days he would quietly watch his partner in crime Gordon Greenidge inflict similar damage on the opposition bowlers. That was Desmond Haynes for you.
While chasing 179 in the deciding final against Australia of Benson & Hedges World Series Cup, the Haynes of the former kind turned up. The fierce bowling of Michael Holding, who had skittled the Australians for 178 with his fifer earlier, had ensured that the West Indies just needed to bat sensibly to win the game and the series.
But two wickets up front threatened to halt the chase and that’s when Haynes decided to put his foot down and take his team to safety. He joined forces with Vivian Richards who too scored an equally subdued 76 with just 4 boundaries to see the team through. Haynes finished on 76 not out in a match that had seen a total of 10 boundaries apart from a solitary six. Yawn!
#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.
#2 Zaheer Abbas 84 off 113 vs Australia, 1982
The Asian Bradman stood a little higher from his peers in the 70s and 80s, not because of gargantuan scoring abilities in Tests but having adapted to the shorter format well too. Abbas was prolific in List A cricket and the elegant batsman took to the shorter format like a duck to water for Pakistan as well. His strike rate of nearly 85 is a testament to that.
However, the huge size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground challenged even Abbas when he strode out to bat at the fall of the first wicket in the 9th match of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup against Australia. Facing Lillee and Thomson, and Alderman in his prime, Abbas dug in.
Three weeks ago, Abbas had lit up the Sydney Cricket Ground with a sparkling and almost run a ball ton against the same attack. But, the match and the situation were different this time and Abbas showed his flexibility when he cut down on aggressive shots recognising the occasion.
His boundary-less 84 would prove to be match winning and would even fetch him the man of the match award. Probably tucked beneath a number of great knocks the Pakistani played, this knock proved that a good cricketer is one who knows how to adapt to different situations.
#1 Adam Parore 96 off 138 vs India, 1994
The Kiwi wicketkeeper might have climbed up the Mount Everest post retirement but on 28th October, 1994, finding a boundary seemed to be a proverbial Mount Everest to Parore, which he failed to scale. The 23-year-old Parore came in early against India, as he used to do early in his career, and steadied the ship for the Kiwis after they had lost two early wickets.
On the other end, Ken Rutherford enthralled the small Vadodara crowd when he unleashed a flurry of boundaries to notch up his career best score of 108 off just 105 balls. More enthralled was probably Parore, who forgot to score a single boundary in the 180 run partnership with Rutherford.
He would not score any throughout his stay at the crease and it came back to haunt him as he would perish just 4 runs adrift of his maiden ODI century. Parore’s 96 remains the highest total to have not featured a single boundary.
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