Eng-WI, Grenada'19 vs Aus-SA, Johannesburg'06: A statistical comparison

The Johannesburg ODI played in 2006 involving Australia and South Africa is believed to be the greatest ODI ever played. Australia ended up with 434 which was then the highest total by any team in an ODI. South Africa were down and out, but a certain Jacques Kallis joked to his mates in the innings break, 'they are probably 15-20 short'. The rest, as they all is history. South Africa went to record the highest chase, a record that stands upright till date.

Mark Boucher scored the winning runs for SA in 2006

Windies came agonisingly close to script the second-highest chase in ODI cricket yesterday. Windies required 32 off the last three overs with four wickets in hand. Nurse and Brathwaite were breathing fire, and a bizarre tactic by Morgan to introduce Adil Rashid in the 48th over made everyone believe that the game is all but over. The wristy showed immense character under pressure, as he ran through the Windies lower order scalping all four of them in five balls. Morgan's gamble paid off and England took a 2-1 lead in the see-saw series.

As records went tumbling in both the matches, let's have a quick statistical comparison of both the matches.

Runs Scored

Aus-SA - 872 ( The highest scoring ODI till date )

Eng-WI - 807 ( The third highest ODI total. India v Sri Lanka at Rajkot, 2009 saw 825 runs scored in a cliffhanger)

West Indies v England - 4th One Day International

No. of sixes

Aus-SA - 26 sixes, a world record back then, with both the teams scoring 14 and 12 respectively.

Eng-WI - 46 sixes, which is a world record by some distance. England (24 sixes) smashed the most no. of sixes scored in an innings, a record set by the Windies against England a few days back.

No. of fours

Aus-SA - 89 fours, which is 8 clear of the second spot ( India vs England, 2011 )

Eng-WI - 64 fours. The batsmen from both the sides fancied sixes more than fours.

Worst bowling performance

Aus-SA - Mick Lewis finished with bowling figures of 10–0–113–0 which remains the most runs conceded in a single ODI match.

Eng-WI - Chris Woakes ended up conceding 91 runs in 10 overs without a wicket. He recorded the worst figures from both the sides for bowlers completing their 10 over quota.

Fastest 150

Aus-SA - Ricky Ponting brought his 150 in just 99 balls, which was a record back then. Currently, ABD holds the record (150 runs off 64 balls )

Eng-WI - Jos Butler reached his 150 off 77 balls, which comfortably places him in the top 5.

Highest innings total

Aus-SA - SA (438-9) and Aus (434-4) were then the highest and the second highest innings total in ODIs. Now they take fifth and sixth place respectively.

Eng-WI - England's 418 takes the tenth spot in the list. England also occupies the first (481/6 vs Aus) and the second spot (444-3 vs Pak) coming in 2018 and 2016 respectively.

Brief scores

South Africa 438 for 9 (Gibbs 175, Smith 90, Boucher 50*) beat Australia 434 for 4 (Ponting 164, Hussey 81, Katich 79) by one wicket.

England 418 for 6 (Buttler 150, Morgan 103, Hales 82, Bairstow 56) beat West Indies 389 (Gayle 162, Bravo 61, Brathwaite 50, Rashid 5-85, Wood 4-60) by 29 runs.