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| March 1, 2003 | Saturday | Zul Hijjah 27, 1423 |
Maraj crawls into record books
EAST LONDON (South Africa), Feb 28: There were shades of Sunil Gavaskar at Buffalo Park on Thursday when Canadian batsman Ishwar Maraj produced the second most tedious one-day innings of all time.
The snail-paced Maraj faced 155 deliveries — 25 overs and five balls out of Canada’s 50 overs against South Africa in their World Cup Group ‘B’ match — to carry his bat through the innings for 53 not out.
Twenty-eight years ago Gavaskar, one of the great batsmen of his age, inexplicably batted through 60 overs to score a soporific 36 not out as England beat India by 202 runs at Lord’s on the first day of the inaugural World Cup.
Perhaps Gavaskar had not yet quite grasped the one-day rules and thought he was playing for a draw.
Dennis Amiss, that same day, had scored 137 from 147 balls out of England’s total of 334 for four, including 72 in boundaries. Gavaskar faced 174 balls and hit one four.
Maraj, who clearly knew the rules but was simply intent on dogged survival, may be slow to grasp what he achieved on Thursday.
The 34-year-old left-hander became only the eighth opening batsman in World Cup history to bat through an innings.
He also faced more balls than any other batsman in the 2003 World Cup to date.
Zimbabwe’s Craig Wishart faced four balls less to score 119 more runs — 172 not out — against Namibia earlier in the tournament. Sachin Tendulkar of India scored 152 off 151 balls, also against Namibia, while Herschelle Gibbs made 143 against New Zealand off 141 deliveries.
Maraj’s innings was put into the clearest context by Darren Lehmann. The Australian hit a World Cup record of 28 — more than half of Maraj’s final score — off the last six balls of the innings, again against Namibia, to end on 50 off 31 deliveries.
When South African television panned around the stands and grass banks at Buffalo Park — a venue flanked by a cemetery — they picked out several sleeping spectators. Historic achievements can do that to you, sometimes.—Reuters
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