At present days cricket is played in three formats- Test cricket, One Day cricket, and T20 cricket. Today I am talking about One Day International (ODI) cricket. In ODIs, if the team batting first makes a huge score, then the chasing team needs a good partnership between at least one pair of batsmen to reach the target and win the match. Actually, in all three formats of the game, there is very big importance is given to a partnership between the two batsmen. If there is a good partnership, then the team finds it easier to reach the target. In the ODI format, there are many batsmen who in partnership with other batsmen batted so well, and that one partnership was instrumental in winning the game.
In today’s blog, I am writing about those partnerships in ODIs where the batsmen remained not out till the end, and helped the team to win the match:
1 Kumar Sangakara and Mahila Jayawardane
These middle-order batsmen of the Sri Lanka team were involved in so many partnerships and most of the time the team won the match. It so happened that out of these many partnerships they were individually involved in13 such partnerships where they remained not out, which was instrumental in their team winning the match. When these players were playing for Sri Lanka, at that team the Sri Lankan team was considered very strong.
2 Richie Richardson and Desmond Haynes
In the West Indies team, Desmond Haynes was the opening batsman, and Richie Richardson usually bat at number three or number four. These two West Indies batsmen could turn the match at any time with their batting. They also were involved in 13 such individual partnerships with other batsmen where they remained not out and the team won the match. When these two batsmen were at the crease, the West Indies team looked unconquerable.
3 David Miller
He was involved in 13 such individual partnerships with other batsmen where he remained unbeaten till the end and the New Zealand team won the match.
4 Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge
In the 80s their batting was literally so strong that the aim of the opposing team was to get at least one of them out early when they were at the crease, otherwise, the opposing team knew they will lose the match. Individually they were involved in 15 such partnerships with other batsmen where they remained not out and the team won the match. Along with Vivian Richards, these two were the biggest assets of the West Indies team of 80s.
5 Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni
These Indian player Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni were involved in 15 such partnerships with other batsmen where they remained not out, and Team India won the match. MS Dhoni is now retired from International cricket, but Virat Kohli is still an active player, and Team India has very high hope that he will perform many such feats in partnership with other batsmen.
6 JP Dumini and AB De Villiers
JP Dumini of West Indies and AB De Villiers of South Africa were involved in 16 partnerships with the other batsmen of their team, where they remained unbeaten and their team won the match. JP Dumini is still an active player for Team West Indies, but AB De Villiers is retired and his absence is felt by Team South Africa.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
24th September 2022