Indian cricket team (Photo-PTI)
Let’s start the story with flashback. It is about 13th July 1974. The Indian team had entered the field for the first time to play a match in ODI format. The match was against England and the stadium was Leeds. Great cricketer Ajit Wadekar used to be the captain of the Indian team at that time. There used to be 55 over matches in the ODI format at that time. Players like Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Farooq Engineer, Madan Lal, Eknath Solkar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Venkataraghavan were part of the Indian team in that match.
In that match, the Indian team had added 265 runs on the scoreboard. In this, Brajesh Patel had scored the maximum 82 runs. England achieved the target of 266 runs by losing 6 wickets in 51.1 overs. John Edrich played a brilliant inning of 90 runs in 97 balls. He was chosen man of the match. In this way, the ODI cricket history of the Indian cricket team starts with a defeat, but today, almost 50 years later, the position at which the Indian cricket team is at is being discussed all over the world. After refreshing the memories of the first match in the ODI history of the Indian team, now let us come back to the present time and tell you what feat can the Indian team do which it has never done till now.
Achievement of three centuries in one match
The history of ODI cricket is not very old. The first ODI match was played in the seventies. Since then till now, there is one feat which has been done by only two teams. This is the feat of scoring three centuries in a single ODI match. That is, that match when three players of a team have scored centuries in the same innings. This feat has been done only 4 times in the history of ODI cricket, out of which the South African team has done this feat 3 times and the England team once. By the way, the South African team has also achieved this feat in this World Cup.
Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram had achieved this feat on behalf of Sri Lanka in the match played on 7 October. Earlier in 2015, South Africa had achieved this feat against West Indies and Indian team. Hashim Amla, Rilee Rousseau and AB de Villiers scored centuries in the match against West Indies. Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers scored centuries in the match against India. When England achieved this feat against Netherlands, Phil Salt, Dawid Malan and Jos Buttler had centuries in that match. That means the feat of scoring 3 centuries in an innings of an ODI match has been done only 4 times so far. Whose details we have given you. It is also clear that the Indian team never achieved this feat.
Indian team was very close to this record
Now we come completely to the 2023 World Cup. India defeated Sri Lanka by 302 runs in its seventh league match and secured a place in the semi-finals. But the most interesting thing in this match was the performance of 3 batsmen. These three batsmen are Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer. Unfortunately, none of these three batsmen could score a century, but after knowing the score and the circumstances of the match, you will also understand that all three batsmen could have completed their century. That means, they could create that history of ODI cricket which is not yet known to the Indian team. Shubman Gill was out after scoring 92 runs. At that time there were more than 20 overs left in the match. He could have completed his century comfortably. Virat Kohli was out after scoring 88 runs. At that time there were more than 18 overs left in the match. He too could have completed his century very comfortably. Shreyas Iyer was out after scoring 82 runs.
Even then, there were 15 balls left in the match, if they had wanted, they could have easily completed their century, but these three batsmen kept the interest of the team in mind rather than their individual records. Otherwise, the name of the Indian team would also have been registered in the list of records of 3 centuries in an innings.
Team’s score is priority, not century.
Generally it happens that the pace of runs of most of the batsmen decreases as they approach their century. He becomes a little cautious to score a century. After scoring a century, he once again hits shots openly and adjusts his strike rate, but many times it is also seen that batsmen play extra balls to score a century and get out immediately after the century. In such a situation, a few less runs are added to the team’s scoreboard.
Team India’s batsmen avoid doing this. He knows that if he wants to win the World Cup, he will have to keep personal achievements aside. Captain Rohit Sharma has missed two centuries in this World Cup. He was out after scoring 86 runs against Pakistan. Whereas against England he lost his wicket for 87 runs. Now when the captain of the team is strengthening the scoreboard of the team regardless of his century, then the other players are also following the same path. Despite the small margin by which the players have ‘missed’ the century, it is clear that the day a little bit of luck gets on the side, the name of the Indian team will also be added to the big record of three centuries in an innings. Who knows, those days may be seen in this World Cup itself.
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