Post date: 24-Feb-2010 16:51:19

21st May 1997: A date that has annoyed, irritated or in some cases tormented many a cricket fan. It was on this day that Saeed Anwar broke Viv Richards' record for the highest ever score in a One Day International. The record was thus passed on from a legend of the game to a player who was merely good, but by no stretch extraordinary - Anwar averaged 37.62 against the major nations in ODIs, and away from home his average shrank to 26.70. Then last year, another name joined Anwar at the top of the list: Charles Coventry. Even after he scored 194 not out, a lot of people in a lot of cricketing discussions over lots of beers in lots of pubs, would still be asking: Charles who? The anomaly at the top of the record charts was begging to be corrected. As my colleague Srivathsa said, he was waiting for this day since that fateful May night almost 13 years ago.

He was not alone. There were thousands - millions probably - who felt that the name that belonged at the top of the table was that of Sachin Tendulkar.

In what is proving to be a golden twilight of his career, Tendulkar has systematically gone about checking all the un-checked boxes in his cricketing CV. One important one was ticked when he led a mammoth fourth innings chase against England at the same ground that he had failed to complete the job against Pakistan in 1999. Another was accomplished today, with the world's highest ODI score and first ODI double-century. No other name seemed to have belonged so naturally at the top of the list than his.

Until today, Tendulkar had seemed like the logical successor to Viv Richards as the greatest ODI batsman of his generation. Not anymore.

He is now undoubtedly, the greatest ODI batsman ever. He has made the great Viv seem like a mere prelude to the real thing.

From the moment he came out to bat and stroked his first boundary to the moment when he raised his arms in triumph, in release, in acknowledgment - he looked like he was batting in a different zone. This is supposed to be a man on his last cricketing legs, but he didn't use a runner for a single minute of his innings and came out to field from the first ball to boot! With Sachin Tendulkar though, what is supposed to be and what is, don't always match.

One man is not supposed to carry the hopes of a nation of a billion every time he walks out to bat. But he does.

One man is not supposed to be the barometer of a country's happiness - he is being thrust with an impossible responsibility. But he is.

A man who makes his debut as an impressionable, precocious 16 year old is not supposed to last for 20 years as an international celebrity and not have any outrageous scandals associated with him. One man isn't supposed to display a superhuman quality of being human, if he has been granted the superhuman gifts that Sachin Tendulkar has. But he remains so.

A man is supposed to be mortal, to be granted the allowance for errors. But he isn't.

A man is not supposed to retain the same enthusiasm for a sport across more than 20 years, having spent the majority of those years under public scrutiny like no other. But he has.

I thought I had expended all possible superlatives for Sachin Tendulkar, when he completed twenty years in international cricket and I wrote this piece. I forgot, for a moment, that with Sachin Tendulkar superlatives don't ever exhaust themselves. There might come a day when Roget's Thesaurus will fail to find adequate words to describe the man, but he himself will not fail.

As he raised his arms in triumph, a country pumped its collective fist and let out a collective primeval roar. The relief, the sense of accomplishment, and the satisfaction at getting to the landmark was all the more keenly felt because for a long time now, there has been only one man who seemed capable of breaching the 200-run mark in an ODI. Sehwag has also threatened to do that, but Sehwag has never come as close as Sachin has. He made 186 not out against New Zealand at Hyderabad, but that was in an era when 300 was an almost certainly winning score. He then hit 163 not out against New Zealand a year ago, but retired with cramps. And then of course there was that heart-breaking 175 against the Aussies in November last year.

Many of us feared that his best shot at the record was gone with the end of that innings. When we, his fans, could not pick ourselves up after that shattering loss, how would he manage to do so?

However, while that loss might have broken lesser men, it seemed to spur Sachin Tendulkar on towards ensuring that such heart-break was never to be experienced again. The next time he came so close, there would be no denying him. And so he battled on. He had hit the ball with unbelievable power, and his hands must have been tiring. He had placed the ball with unbelievable dexterity, and his inventiveness must have been ebbing. He had run every single run with unwavering commitment as hard as he could - his partners' and his own - and his legs must have been sending urgent messages to his brain to let up. But nothing was going to sway him today. There had been too many golden moments snatched from him at the last moment. This one was going to be had.

The final flourish of a golden career is going considerably better than the purple patches of most other batsmen's careers. Two check-boxes remain to be ticked - a Test triple century beckons, but more than that, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will want to keep his date with destiny on April 2nd 2011 in Mumbai.

Even if those landmarks are not achieved though, India will remain happy. He doesn't require much effort to keep India happy - all he has to do is get hold of a bat and stride out to the middle.

And so, years from now, when he has retired, we will be fondly paraphrasing Robert Browning to the next generation and the next: Sachin Tendulkar was in his batting gear and all was right with India.

© Cricbuzz

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Posts about: Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe who equalled the previous highest individual score of194* runs with Saeed Anwar of Pakistan.....

Highest individual score by Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe

Posted on August 17, 2009

Filed Under ODI cricket records | Leave a Comment

Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe equalled the highest individual score of194* runs with Saeed Anwar of Pakistan.Charles Coventry made this glitzy knock against Bangladesh in the 4th ODI of Bangladesh tour of Zimbabwe in August 16th 2009.Charles Coventry’s 194 runs include 16 fours and 7 sixes in 156 deliveries.

Zimbabwe, batted first took 312 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 50 overs.Charles Coventry’s remarkable innings went in vain since Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh took 154 runs in 138 deliveries and led Bangladesh an easy victory in 47.5 overs.

Saeed Anwar scored 194 against India in Chennai in 1997. However,Saeed Anwar was out on this individual score while Coventry was unbeaten on 194.

Charles Coventry not only equalled Saeed Anwar’s record but also surpassed the highest ODI score by a Zimbabwean. Craig Wishart scored172 runs unbeaten against Namibia in Harare at the 2003 World Cup.

Charles Coventry has an ODI world record score

Bowled on August 17th, 2009 by King Cricket

Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry hit 194 not out against Bangladesh. Zimbabwe lost. This equals the world record individual one-day international score. How do we all feel about that?

The original 194 not out was scored by Saeed Anwar against India 12 years ago. Even in these days of tree-sized bats and four yard boundaries, Anwar’s score has still never been bettered. Does Coventry’s knock warrant equal billing though? It pushes Viv Richards and Sanath Jayasuriya down a spot in the list of top ODI scores.

It’s common for people to effectively disregard Test scores against Bangladesh, but how do you feel about ODI records? Do they count? And does it even matter? Is the game played to establish a list of records or is it played against eleven opponents for victory in that particular match?

We haven’t seen him bat, but we’re fairly certain that Charles Coventry is a worse batsman than Viv Richards and this record in no way disproves that.

3 Appeals to “Charles Coventry has an ODI world record score”

1. Rezwan // Aug 17, 2009 at 7:40 pm

Most people disregards scores or records per se against Bangladesh. As if Bangladesh is taken for granted for picking some easy runs or a handful of wickets. But is it true that everybody can do that? From the current ICC ODI Championship Batting Rankings only 5 batsmen out hundred has their career best against Bangladesh. In the list of most runs in an ODI innings out of more than 50 individual scores over 150 runs only twice have been scored against Bangladesh.

Because of Bangladesh’s inexperience and some weaknesses some had the luck to bring on some records. Does that make them great? Or does it mean that everyone can do it on their will against Bangladesh? It all depends on the situation and the specific matches.

Let the record speak. Gary Kirsten made 188 against UAE in 1996 whereas V. Richards made 189 against England in 1984. How do you compare those two innings. I am sure the conditions were far more different.

Viv Richards was a 55 over game where he stood tall (170 balls) with the second highest score from WI was 26.

And Gary Kirsten did it in 50 overs and played less balls (159) than Viv Richards. The second highest innings by a SA was Cronje’e 57. So how can we compare them?

Coventry played 191 balls (out of 300 balls) for his 194 and the second highest from Zimbabwe was 37. He just had the luck to stay there most of the time of Zim’s innings thanks to a dead pitch (made to nullify Bangladesh’s spin attack) and the absence of Bangladesh’s injured pacers -Mashrafee & Rubel Hossain, and two dropped chances.

If you compare it with Saeed Anwar’s Innings, he played only 146 balls for his 194 in a tense match in front of hundreds and thousands of supporters. So does the record means that Coventry equals Saeed Anwars batting talent?

I haven’t watched the Bangladesh -Zimbabwe match. But what I read from Cricinfo is that Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal’s innings of 154 from 138 balls was more responsible one where Coventry’s was one of aggression and trying for luck.

But nonetheless it is a feat which makes Coventry’s innings an outstanding one, because he could apply himself in the situations correctly. And it would be wrong to compare him with the great. He can also be a great player. Let him prove it with his own averages and rankings.