A rare scorecard

[Don Sharma]

Bump! Graham Gooch's 154no

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There is an argument, and not an entirely absurd one, that this is the greatest individual performance in sporting history. It is certainly legitimate to hail it as the greatest Test innings of all, a hair's breadth ahead of Brian Lara's legendary 153 not out in qualitative and quantitative terms. As always, context governs our comprehension of what Gooch achieved. England had just been embarrassed in Australia and had not won a Test at home to the West Indies for 22 years; the pitch was a dog, dangerously uneven and seaming as violently as a drunk's mood; Gooch was in pitiful form and under pressure because of the David Gower row; Curtly Ambrose, who took the first six wickets in the second innings, led a truly menacing attack that included Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall and Patrick Patterson. England had two chances, and slim was packing his bags. The will of Gooch's innings boggles the mind. Only two other Englishman reached double figures in the innings (in the entire match, only four of 4 innings exceeded 40), but Gooch became the only man to carry his bat against the West Indies in their glory years. Whatever they threw at him, he just stood there, bat raised, eyes wide, moustache unflinching – an upper lip has never been stiffer – and punched his off-drives and thumped his pull strokes. His 154 not out accounted for 61.11% of the runs, an England record, and the moment when he refused an offer of the light on the third evening was one of the great psychological statements of modern times. Gooch, aged 37 lest we forget, walked into the darkest of alleys just off cricket's meanest street and said simply, "Let's do this." When daylight broke 452 minutes and 331 balls later, he stood triumphant, with four of the game's heavyweights sparked out at his feet. The book says that England beat West Indies by 115 runs in this game. In reality, Gooch beat them on his own.

Source ======================================================== Wisden rates this as the best innings ever by an Englishman. Note: There is nothing rare about this innings..just didn't feel like creating another thread.

[DomainK]

Very interesting. I remember Sachin once dismissing Viv Richards. Cant remember whether it was a charity match or an official one. Anyone remembers that?