Cricket Rules - dimensions of ground

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Highest individual scores in ODIs

Above list of 13 highest top scorers in ODI format is quite interesting one. It has great batsmen, tremendous strike rates, involvement of test playing nations (well, almost). And now, gradually, shift your attention to the right most column-‘Ground’. What do you see? 9 out of 13 scores are in Indian subcontinent - 5 out of those 9 are in India itself! Now, what does that mean? What triggers batsmen so much that they love to score such big scores in Indian subcontinent?

Few reasons:-

• Subcontinent pitches are flat – batsman friendly
• No much movement either through seam or swing for fast bowlers
• List includes majority of players playing in known home conditions
• Batsmen are just too great – it’s obvious they scored these big scorers

All the above points can be arguably agreed upon. Thought, there is one more point which I want to discuss is size of ‘Grounds’. As you know, most of subcontinent grounds are smaller as compared to the grounds in England, South Africa. Grounds in Australia, I believe, are largest. Now this certainly brings one question in my mind. Why there is difference in dimensions of cricket grounds across the world? And what guideline has ICC/ MCC set for dimensions of cricket ground?

Virender Sehwag Double Century

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Ever since Sehwag stared opening the innings in ODI matches, we looked at him as potentially the only Indian to score double ton in ODI for India. He did it. But it wasn't as much a surprise for me that Sehwag did it, the only surprise was that he was the second Indian (and in World too) to do it! In a way this was a much expected record from him.

Though I was lucky enough to view 'the shot' that made Sehwag's score read 201*, I was not fortunate enough to see the entire innings. Hence followed the score on the internet. There were few instances when I did not look the score for 8- 12 minutes and suddenly, Sehwag had added 15- 20 runs to his account. Such was the pace and strike rate of his innings that it was just impossible to stop him.

Below is the interesting stats of the highest individual score in an ODI innings broken and held so far.

Player	Runs	Mins	Balls	4s	6s		Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	ODI #
JH Edrich	82	150	119	4	0		England	v Australia	Melbourne	5 Jan 1971	ODI # 1
DL Amiss	103	161	134	9	0		England	v Australia	Manchester	24 Aug 1972	ODI # 2
RC Fredericks	105	-	122	10	1		West Indies	v England	The Oval	7 Sep 1973	ODI # 9
D Lloyd	116*	-	159	8	1		England	v Pakistan	Nottingham	31 Aug 1974	ODI # 14
GM Turner	171*	190	201	16	2		New Zealand	v East Africa	Birmingham	7 Jun 1975	ODI # 20
N Kapil Dev	175*	-	138	16	6		India	v Zimbabwe	Tunbridge Wells	18 Jun 1983	ODI # 216
IVA Richards	189*	-	170	21	5		West Indies	v England	Manchester	31 May 1984	ODI # 264
Saeed Anwar	194	206	146	22	5		Pakistan	v India	Chennai	21 May 1997	ODI # 1209
CK Coventry	194*	191	156	16	7		Zimbabwe	v Bangladesh	Bulawayo	16 Aug 2009	ODI # 2873
SR Tendulkar	200*	226	147	25	3		India	v South Africa	Gwalior	24 Feb 2010	ODI # 2962
V Sehwag	219	-	149	25	7		India	v West Indies	Indore	8 Dec 2011	ODI # 3223

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The biggest threat to the record of Sehwag is from Sehwag, himself!