Batsmen Whose ODI Highest Score Is More Than Their Test Highest Score
Published - 08 Jul 2020, 09:16 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:31 AM
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Cricket is probably the only game that boasts of a plethora of formats. And, while every format has its own challenges, Test cricket is still the ultimate parameter as far as judging the worth of any cricketer is concerned.
We have seen a plethora of cricketers in the past who have stroked their way to record the massive individual scores in white-ball cricket, while failing to do the same in Test cricket.
Here’s a look at batsmen whose ODI highest score is more than their Test highest score:
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Charles Coventry ODI – 194*, Test – 37
Charles Coventry broke record books when he went on to equal the long-standing record of the highest individual score during a 2009 ODI against Bangladesh.
Coventry launched a stunning assault on the hapless Bangladeshi bowling attacking, stroking them for a whirlwind 194 off 156 balls- an innings which included 16 fours and seven sixes- to help Zimbabwe post 6-312 in 50 overs.
Unfortunately, Coventry’s party was gatecrashed by an equally belligerent knock by Tamim Iqbal, who racked up 154 to help Bangladesh overhaul the total of 312.
Coventry played a total of 39 ODIs and 13 T20Is, but given the turmoil in Zimbabwe cricket, he could feature in just 2 Tests, both of which came against India in 2005 (Sourav Ganguly’s last Test series as Indian captain).
He notched up his highest score of 37 in the first innings of what turned out to be his last Test of his career.
Martin Guptill ODI – 237*, Test – 189
Martin Guptill has been one of the bedrocks of the Kiwi batting-unit in white-ball cricket for a better part of the last decade.
Guptill was at the height of his powers during New Zealand’s campaign in the 2015 World Cup, the zenith of which is undoubtedly the double-hundred that he scored against the West Indies in the quarter-finals.
In what a breathtaking display of power-hitting, Guptill smoked the Windies across all corners of the Westpac Stadium in Wellington. Guptill fell just 21 runs short of scaling Rohit Sharma’s 264 but his 237 is still the highest individual score by a batsman in World Cup history.
Guptill is one of the leading white-ball batsmen of the current era but just like many of his fellow contemporaries, he has not been able to emulate his white-ball feats in Test match cricket.
Guptill, who averaged 29.29 after 47 Tests, played his last five-day game way back in 2016 against India. His finest day in red-ball cricket came in 2010 when he racked up a brilliant 189 to rescue his side from a precarious situation of 5-158 against Bangladesh.
Fakhar Zaman ODI – 210*, Test – 94
Fakhar Zaman is one of the many Pakistan openers in the post-Saeed Anwar era, who was tipped for greatness after having got off to a brilliant start in his career.
Zaman shot to instant fame when he scored a match-winning hundred against arch-rivals India in the 2017 Champions Trophy final. But his moment of reckoning came during the ODI series against Zimbabwe in 2018 when he went on to become the first Pakistani batsman to score an ODI double-hundred [210].
Zaman soon got a call-up to the Test side for the Test series against the visiting Australians in UAE. And, he celebrated his debut with a brilliant 94 in his very first innings. Unfortunately, Zaman has been able to add just two more Test caps since then, with his last appearance in red-ball cricket coming against South Africa in the New Year Test of 2019.
Mark Waugh: ODI: 173, Tests: 153*
Mark Waugh was at the height of his powers during a tri-series ODI against the West Indies in 2000 when he racked up a sumptuous 173.
Two years prior to scoring his career-best score in 50-over cricket, Waugh racked up his highest score in the longest format of the game during the 1998 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at the Chepauk where he dealt with the Indian spinners disdain, scoring a brilliant 153 not-out off 267 deliveries.
Faf du Plessis: ODI- 185, Test- 137
Faf du Plessis has been one of the bedrocks of the Proteas batting-unit in the past few years. When on song, Du Plessis is an unstoppable beast and we saw that to the hit during a 2017 ODI against Sri Lanka.
The former South African captain smoked a whirlwind 185 off 141 balls- an innings which included 16 fours and three sixes- to help his team post 5-367 in 50 overs.
Exactly four years earlier, Du Plessis flattened a Kiwi attack that boasted of the likes of Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Doug Bracewell to the tune of his career-best 137 to help the Proteas notch up a crushing victory by an innings and 193 runs.
Saeed Anwar ODI- 194, Test- 188*
Saeed Anwar was an artist masquerading as a left-handed batsman. And, he absolutely loved batting against India.
Anwar relished facing the Indian bowling attack. And, so it comes as no surprise that his career-best scores in both ODI and Test cricket came against the Men in Blue.
Anwar’s masterly 194 against a hapless Indian bowling attack during a 1997 ODI in Chennai is a part of folklore. The southpaw smoked the Indians to all corners of the Chepauk to the tune of 194 off 146 balls, an innings which included 22 fours and 5 sixes.
Two years later, Anwar was at it again, this time in red-ball cricket, as he shellacked his career-best 188 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata to help Pakistan beat India by 46 runs in the Asian Test Championship.
For the longest period of time, Rohit Sharma remained the only batsman who had three double-hundreds to his name in ODI cricket (an insane feat, right?) but not a single one in red-ball cricket.
That all changed when the stylish batsman was elevated to the opener’s slot in Test cricket against South Africa last home season.
After having scored back-to-back hundreds in his debut Test as an opener, Sharma upped the ante in the third Test at Ranchi where he smoked a swashbuckling 212.
Of course, that still wasn’t enough to overhaul his ODI best score of 264, a feat that he achieved during a 2014 match against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens.
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