10 important cricket records that were missed by a whisker

Cricket is a sport where numbers play a very important role. It is these numbers that add a whole new dimension to the game. Players feel satisfied and fans get excited when a milestone is achieved. Though many significant milestones have been achieved in cricket till date, there have been quite a few records that have been missed by agonizingly small margins.Let’s take a look at 10 such records that were missed by a whisker:(Note: The list is in no particular order)

#1 Sir Jack Hobbs: 199 first-class centuries

Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen to have graced the game, Sir Jack Hobbs is also considered to be the most prolific run-scorer in the history of the game. In his first-class career, the Englishman amassed close to 62,000 runs at a healthy average of 50.70. Though there was a major break in his career for 6 years owing to the first World War, he was incredibly consistent after cricketing ties resumed post the war. In fact, he just kept getting better with age as he scored half his hundreds in his forties. He also holds the record for being the oldest centurion in Test cricket, having scored a century at the age of 46.

Sir Jack used to represent Surrey in the county circuit as an opening batsman. In the 1934 county season, which was also his last, he scored 624 runs at a decent average of 36.70. What is incredible about these numbers is that he achieved them at the age of 52! In fact, his final first-class century, against Lancashire, came at this very age. These days, when we see many players retire in their early and mid-thirties, one cannot help but admire the quality of Hobbs.

When the Englishman retired from competitive cricket, he had 197 first-class centuries to his name. He decided to hang up his boots because he was no longer feeling comfortable while batting. Interestingly, a few years after his retirement, a couple of hundreds which he had scored for Vizianagaram’s XI in the 1930-31 season were granted first-class status, thereby taking his tally of first-class centuries to 199. Therefore, he fell agonizingly short of an incredible 200 first-class centuries by just a single hundred.

#2 Sir Don Bradman: Average of 99.94 in Tests

Sir Don Bradman is considered to be the greatest batsman in the history of the game. When he got going, something which he did very often, he used to score truckloads of runs and quite literally bat the opposition out of the game. In a career spanning 52 Tests, the Australian great scored 6996 runs at a staggering average of 99.94 that included 29 centuries. However, in spite of all the big hundreds he scored, one of the most talked about innings of his Test career is the duck he registered in his final outing.

The Don had announced that he would retire from cricket at the end of the 1948 season and there was, therefore, a lot of hype around the 1948 Ashes series. Going into his final Test, Bradman had already led his team to a convincing 3-0 victory over arch-rivals England. On a moist Oval wicket, the hosts won the toss and elected to bat. The decision backfired significantly as they were bundled out for a dismal total of 52, thanks to Ray Lindwall’s whirlwind spell.

When Bradman came out to bat, the Oval crowd gave him a thunderous applause. With an average of 101.39 prior to his final innings, all he needed to do was score 4 runs in his final innings to finish with an overall Test average of 100. Those four runs would have also taken his career tally to an impressive 7000 runs. However, as fate would have it, he was deceived by a googly from Eric Hollier and was dismissed for a second ball duck. Australia went on to win the match and wrapped up the series 4-0, thereby giving their captain a perfect send-off, but one of the game’s greatest players missed out on an incredible feat by very little.

Take a look at the Australian legend’s final innings in the video below:

#3 Sydney Barnes: 49 Wickets in a Test Series

The quality of Sydney Barnes’ bowling can be gauged from the fact that all his contemporaries unanimously considered him to be the greatest bowler ever. In those days when there was no concept of a second new ball as bowlers had to bowl with just one ball for the duration of the innings, the English quick raked up some mind-boggling numbers. In just 27 Tests, he picked up a whopping 189 wickets at an excellent average of 16.43 and a measly economy rate of 2.36. In the process, he also managed to pick up 24 five-wicket hauls and ended up picking 10 wickets or more in 7 games.

On the 1913/14 tour of South Africa, Barnes was an absolute nightmare for the South African batsmen. It seemed as if he was picking up wickets at will as he managed a five-for in seven of his eight outings and picked up 10 wickets or more in 3 out of the first 4 games. As a result, after 4 games of the 5-match series, Barnes’ tally read 49 wickets at an amazing average of 10.93.

Given the kind of form that he was in, Barnes was widely tipped to become the first bowler to pick up 50 wickets in a Test series. However, he opted out of the final Test when he was informed by the authorities that his wife’s accommodation would not be sponsored. As it turned out, he never played a Test match after that and also missed out on becoming the first bowler to reach 200 Test wickets.

#4 Hanif Mohammad: 499 vs Bahwalpur, Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, 1959

Hanif Mohammad is easily one of the greatest batsmen to have played for Pakistan. While there are several batsmen who wear bowlers out by way of their strokeplay, Hanif was the kind of batsman who relied on his concentration and stamina to just go on and on. Not surprisingly, before he took the field for this innings, he had the record for the longest Test innings to his name, having scored a gargantuan, match-saving 337, which lasted for around 970 minutes, against the West Indies just about a year ago.

On an absolute belter of a wicket, Bahawalpur were skittled out for a paltry score of 185 by a strong Karachi bowling attack on the first day itself. Karachi, then, ended day 1 at 59/0, with Hanif remaining unbeaten on 25. Thereafter, on day 2, the Little Master, as Hanif was called, was involved in several crucial partnerships as his team ended the day at 383/3. At this point, he was batting on 255* and was pretty exhausted as he had batted right through the day. His elder brother Wazir Mohammad, who also happened to be the skipper of the Karachi team, apparently reminded Hanif of Sir Don Bradman’s world record score of 452* against Queensland, motivating his younger sibling to go for the record.

On day 3, Hanif picked up from where he left off on day 2 and continued batting with all the concentration in the world. Eventually, he went past Sir Don’s record after striking a glorious on-drive for four. He then set his eyes on the next target, a score of 500. However, owing to some confusion, the scoreboard at the venue showed his score as 498 when he was batting on 496. Realising that there were just two balls left in the day and that his brother may declare overnight, the former Pakistan batsman guided the ball past point off the next delivery and got run out in an attempt to complete a cheeky second run.

When he realised that the scoreboard error had accounted for his wicket, Hanif was absolutely furious. Although he received many congratulations for having gone past the legendary Bradman, he was beyond any consolation for having missed a major milestone by a slender margin. Eventually, his record was broken by Brian Lara in 1994 when he slammed an unbeaten 501 against Durham in the County Championship.

#5 Hansie Cronje: 99 wins as ODI Captain

Hansie Cronje was one of South Africa’s most influential figures after their reinstatement in international cricket post the apartheid era. Apart from being a very good middle-order batsman, he was also very effective with his military medium style of bowling and was one of the vital cogs of the South African team in the 1990s. He was also the captain of the Proteas from 1994 to 2000 and was widely regarded as one of the best captains going around in his time.

However, all of his good work on the cricket field was undone when the former South African skipper admitted to taking bribes from bookmakers to provide information and fix matches during South Africa’s tour of India in 2000. In the enquiry that followed, he was banned from being involved in cricket for life, thereby bringing a rather ignominious end to a glorious career.

Interestingly, Cronje had led South Africa to 99 ODI victories in 138 matches with an incredible winning percentage of 73.70. He was bidding to become only the second captain after Allan Border, of Australia, to lead his team to 100 ODI victories.

As mentioned above, the match-fixing scandal brought an abrupt end to Cronje’s career, and he fell tantalisingly short of achieving the remarkable feat of winning 100 ODIs as captain. He passed away in a plane crash in rather mysterious circumstances in 2002.

#6 Sachin Tendulkar: 49 ODI hundreds

This man needs absolutely no introduction. Sachin Tendulkar, after all, holds almost every batting record in the book and is widely regarded as one of the best players to have ever played the game. In a career spanning more than two decades, the Little Master scored 34,347 international runs, including an incredible century of centuries. Given that he almost single-handedly carried the weight of expectations of a cricket crazy nation on his shoulders for 24 long years, the numbers he achieved become all the more special.

At the end of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Sachin had 99 international centuries to his name, 51 Test centuries and 48 ODI centuries. Considering that he was in stupendous form in the World Cup, many expected him to complete the remarkable feat of a hundred hundreds in the next few games. However, it seemed as if the enormity of this feat did have some kind of a bearing on the Indian great’s mind, as he came agonizingly close to achieving it on several occasions but somehow fell short.

Moreover, after the World Cup, Tendulkar had become immensely selective as far as ODIs were concerned. However, given that he was just a couple of hundreds short of 50 ODI hundreds, the general feeling was that he would go for it. Eventually, in March 2012, he got to his 100th international ton against Bangladesh, which also happened to be his 49th ODI hundred. In the subsequent game, which would also eventually turn out to be his last, he scored a fifty. Quite surprisingly, after a poor showing in the home Test series against England in late 2012, the Mumbaikar announced his retirement from ODI cricket in a bid to concentrate more on Test cricket and give youngsters an opportunity for the next World Cup. In the process, he fell just one hundred short of achieving the special landmark of 50 ODI hundreds.

#7 Mark Boucher: 999 international dismissals

“Sometimes bad luck hits you like in an ancient Greek tragedy, and it's not your own making. When you have a plane crash, it's not your fault.”

The above quote by German film director Werner Herzog aptly summarises the sudden and tragic end to Mark Boucher’s career. Known to be one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the world, the one word that would come to a cricket fan’s mind whenever Boucher is mentioned is audacity. He was never shy of the task at hand and almost always went about it by giving it his all.

Before the 2012 tour of England, Boucher had announced that it would be his swansong. Before the tour commenced, the South African had 999 international dismissals to his name, courtesy 555 dismissals in Tests, 425 in ODIs and 19 in T20Is. Naturally then, Boucher becoming the first wicketkeeper to effect 1000 international dismissals seemed nothing but a mere formality.

However, in a tour game against Somerset, the 38-year-old suffered a nasty eye injury that immediately ended his career. He was standing up to the stumps off the bowling of Imran Tahir. In what was an absolutely freak injury, one of the bails hit his left eye upon Tahir bowling Somerset’s Gemaal Hussain.

Luckily, there was no damage to his retina and he was able to regain some vision in his injured eye. However, as mentioned above, the injury forced him to quit cricket with immediate effect, and he barely missed out on 1,000 international dismissals.

Take a look at how the freak injury ended Boucher’s career in the video below:

#8 Virender Sehwag: Missed out on a record third Test triple hundred by 7 runs

Virender Sehwag is one of the biggest impact players of his generation. While ODI batting had been revolutionised by the pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana in the ‘90s, it was Sehwag who revolutionised batting in Test cricket. Irrespective of the situation of the game, he would always invariably play his natural game and go for his shots.

In late 2009, India hosted neighbours Sri Lanka for a 3-match Test series. Going into the third and the final Test of the series at Mumbai, the hosts had gained an unassailable 1-0 lead. After winning the toss, Sri Lanka elected to bat first and posted a stiff score of 393 in their first innings, courtesy of a century from Tillakaratne Dilshan and half-centuries from Tharanga Paranavitana and Angelo Mathews. India’s reply was led by Sehwag, who, it seemed, was absolutely unfazed by the stiff total that the visitors had posted.

Right from the word go, Viru went after the Sri Lankan bowlers. At stumps on day 2, India had scored 443 runs in just 79 overs at an incredible run rate of 5.60. Sehwag was batting on 284, and he had Rahul Dravid, who was batting on 62, for company. He was just 16 runs shy of a record third triple century in Test cricket, something that even the legendary Sir Don Bradman had not achieved.

On day 3, the 36-year-old resumed from where he left off as he easily made his way to 293. Just when it looked like he would get to the landmark very soon, almost against the run of play, he was dismissed by Muttiah Muralitharan, which meant that he fell short of the record by a mere 7 runs. However, his innings did not go in vain as India won the Test and became the No.1 Test team in the world.

Watch the highlights of that innings from Sehwag in the video below:

#9 Rohit Sharma: Missed out on the highest List A score by 4 runs

The way Rohit Sharma bats, he makes batting look like the easiest thing to do in the world. Gifted with a natural ability to time the ball, he is an absolute treat to watch when he gets going. After years of being in and out of the Indian team, he has firmly cemented his place in the side over the last couple of years and is going to be one of the most vital members of the team in the upcoming World Cup.

Against Sri Lanka in November 2014, Rohit became the first cricketer to score two double hundreds in ODI cricket. He scored 264 runs off just 173 balls including a whopping 33 fours and 9 sixes, which meant that 186 of his 264 runs came by way of boundaries. Interestingly, the entire Sri Lankan team was dismissed for a score of 251, a good 13 runs short of the Indian opener’s tally alone.

The 27-year-old was batting on 264 when he faced the last ball of the Indian innings. He was just 4 runs shy of levelling Alistair Brown’s record of the highest List A score, with Brown having scored 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan in 2002. However, had Rohit scored those 4 runs, he would have got the record to his name by virtue of staying unbeaten. In a bid to clear the fence off the last ball, he was caught at long-off, and in the process, fell marginally short of the record.

#10 Herschelle Gibbs: Missed out on a record 4 consecutive ODI hundreds by 3 runs

Herschelle Gibbs is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s modern-day batting greats. He had oodles of talent and was known to play some really breathtaking strokes. Overall, he scored over 6000 runs in Tests at an average in excess of 40, including 14 centuries, and over 8000 runs in ODIs at an average of 36, including 21 centuries.

In late 2002, it seemed as if Gibbs had hit a hot run-scoring streak as he scored hundreds in 3 consecutive matches, against Kenya, India and Bangladesh. The same feat had been achieved by two Pakistani batsmen, Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar. However, no batsman had managed 4 consecutive ODI centuries. Given that the 40-year old was in such good form and that his next game was against Bangladesh, the general expectation was that he would become the first batsman to achieve this milestone.

When South Africa took the field to face Bangladesh in the next game at Benoni, all eyes were on Gibbs and whether or not he would achieve this feat. After winning the toss, Pollock, the South African skipper at the time, elected to field. As expected, Bangladesh had no answer to South Africa’s disciplined bowling and were restricted to a mere 154/9 in their 50 overs. Looking at the relatively small target, it seemed as if Gibbs might not get his record after all.

However, both Graeme Smith and Gibbs had planned things out quite nicely between them. While Gibbs was looking to play aggressively in a bid to get his record, Smith was happy playing second fiddle to him. Much to everybody’s surprise, Gibbs was batting on 97 and Smith on 48 when South Africa were 5 runs short of their target. It looked as if Gibbs would get his record. However, the unthinkable happened as Alok Kapali speared a delivery way down the leg side which went for 5 wides.

As a result, the Proteas won the game by 9 wickets with Gibbs remaining stranded on 97. It is still not clear whether Kapali bowled that kind of a delivery intentionally, but in the end, it robbed the South African opener of an amazing record which might have stood the test of time.