Top 10 brutal innings in ODI cricket

7. Saeed Anwar (194 vs India, 1997)

There are two kinds of batsmen in this world. One just stands at the crease and slogs away with gay abandon, living on the edge but scoring runs at a rapid pace.

The other mixes both caution and aggression, putting away the poor deliveries while keeping the scorecard ticking along at a fairly decent rate.

And then there is Saeed Anwar, who combines both roles with aplomb.

The Pakistani opener produced an innings that stood as a colossal record for thirteen long years. He took particular interest in leg-spinner Anil Kumble’s bag of tricks, and smashed him for 24 in a single over, punctuating it with three huge sixes.

In addition, Anwar also dispatched seamers Venkatesh Prasad, Abey Kuruvilla and Robin Singh to the fence regularly, despite suffering from cramps and heat exhaustion under the sweltering Chennai conditions. He managed to break Viv Richards’ record for the highest individual score in ODI cricket, set thirteen years ago.

Pakistan galloped to 328, and despite Rahul Dravid’s maiden ODI century, India fell behind the visitors by over thirty runs.

Incidentally, it was Sachin Tendulkar who removed Anwar for 194, and he would eventually surpass this score as well.