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As the birds of Johannesburg courageously resume formation following AB de Villiers’ cornflake-choking 31-ball ton at the Wanderers, opposition bowlers must be hoping the free swinging South African’s rise to the top will expire before the World Cup opener next month.
Seriously, if 3.4 runs per ball off 44 is a warm-up, then the World Cup organisers must include hard-hats with ticket sales.
De Villers’ effortless savagery in Australia last November was a snapshot of a year-long domination that saw the ICC’s number one ranked ODI batsmen caress and bludgeon a total of 879 runs at 73 per innings and a strike rate of 114 – the highest average and scoring rate among players to exceed 550 runs for 2014.
In fact, it has been an astonishing 12 months of willow mayhem.
News Year’s Day 2014 saw New Zealander Corey Anderson trouble flight controllers at the nearby Queenstown airport in racing to a 36-ball ton – one faster than Shahid Afridi’s 17-year-old record that was set in the Pakistani’s first ODI innings as a 16-year-old.
Fans who failed to witness De Villiers’ and Anderson’s record breaking innings should spare a thought for West Indian Jason Holder, the paceman at the mercy of both digs including 0-91 off nine overs in South Africa.
Then there was Rohit Sharma’s record ODI score of 264 off only 173 balls at Eden Gardens last November, the only player to score multiple double tons.
The red ball also felt the wrath of swinging timber during the last year. Who could forget 40-year-old Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq dismantling Australia in the UAE where his 56-ball century equalled the great Sir Vivian Richards’ effort against England in 1986 as the fastest in Test cricket.
Special mention goes to explosive Kiwi Brendon McCullum, who twice broke the New Zealand record for fastest Test century. The second coming of just 74 balls before rocketing to 195 – caught in the deep off the 134th ball, with fellow countryman Nathan Astle’s fastest Test double from 153 balls at his mercy.
Twenty20 orbits another sphere altogether, where top-deck depositing is common place and despite early prognosis from the outer, produces skills that translate to the longer forms with David Warner, McCullum and De Villiers leading examples.
While reverse sweeping in Test cricket doesn’t rock my boat, I’m all for super thick bats with pronounced bows plundering balls of both colours.
But there’s one record which burns like a beacon in the glow of today’s crowd scattering efforts. And that’s Australian Jack Gregory’s 67-ball hundred against South Africa in 1921. The slashing left-hander’s effort in Johannesburg topped Test cricket’s fastest list until Richards’ effort in Antigua 65 years later.
Made with wafer thin willow by today’s standards and compiled in only 70 minutes. Supporters must have been agog at Gregory’s rapid rate – an insight into the hurry of a man 90 years before his time – so rushed, one could argue that’s why it was achieved gloveless.
So over to you Roarer’s – will today’s drop of the hat records stand the test of time or fall in rapid succession to even meatier bats?
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