5 whirlwind innings by 'slow' batsmen

There are certain players who have been stereotyped as batsmen who cannot take the attack to the opposition, who cannot turn on the heat when it matters the most. Some of these players, usually, legends in their own right, have at times come up with absolute gems and silenced their critics in the best manner humanly possible. Today, we look at 5 such batsmen who took not only the opposition but their own team and even themselves by surprise. Since there is not any specific criteria that renders a player as slow-or fast-scoring, the players chosen in this list are those who are widely renowned and accepted to be players who play on the slower side.

#1 Sunil Gavaskar

103 off 88 balls v New Zealand at Nagpur, 1987, One Day International (ODI)

Innings strike-rate: 117.04

Career strike-rate: 62.26

Though there have been many faster innings, this was chosen ahead of them for a couple of reasons: 117.04 in 1987 is equivalent to at least 140 these days and it remains Gavaskar’s only century in ODIs, coming in an all-important World Cup clash.

The Kiwis, batting first, had scored 221 at Nagpur, clearly a below-par score. However, the twist in the tale was that India needed to score those runs in 42.2 overs, which was 5.25 runs per over: a daunting task indeed.

Says who, though? The man who once carried his bat in a 60-over (ODI) scoring merely 36 had different ideas this time round and struck one of the most memorable centuries of all time. It was then the second-fastest century by an Indian batsman in the World Cup history and to this date remains the 4th fastest. India won the match in 32.1 overs, making a mockery of the total. Stunningly, his knock included 3 sixes, an aberration for a man who has only 26 career sixes in Test Matches.

What makes the innings even special was that Gavaskar was rumoured to be unwell prior to the match. On a lighter note, whether that was a knock on the head cannot be ruled out as yet.

Here is a never-before, never-after video of the Indian batting great, where one can see him tonking the ball to all parts of the ground en-route to his stunning ton.