Most runs in an innings by a captain

 

 

Participating in sports representing your country is the biggest achievement for a sportsperson and if you are leading from the front and also contributing yourself in the win it becomes even more special, today we are going to learn about those cricketers who have just not captained their team too but also contributed their best performance in an innings for the team.

 

Most runs in an innings by a captain in an international test match (Men):-

 

When England visited West Indies in 2004 they were looking forward to a good challenge, however, Michael Vaughan's men were pretty much aware that this is not the same West Indies team that people used to fear before, it has lost its major star players and despite Windies still have some good players in their team but England team were confident of winning the series the only major obstacle in their way was West Indies skipper Brian Charles Lara.

 

Till the 4th test match, England pocketed the series with a 3-0 result, the man, the hero, the maestro, whom England thought can be a major threat never looked like the player he was famous for, he managed to score 100 odd runs and the average was just 16.67, people were criticizing his performance both as a batsman and captain and he was ready to prove himself in the next test match in Antigua.

In the fourth test match Lara won the toss and decided to bat first, after losing the first wicket quite early in the match Lara came at the crease and played the greatest innings of his international career, he scored an unbeaten 400 on the third day of the test match, he became the first batsman to score a quadruple century while facing 582 balls and smashing 43 boundaries and four sixes, by making these score he made it sure that West Indies doesn't have to face the embarrassment of getting whitewashed by England.

Coincidentally, this was the same ground and the same opposition against which Lara broke the then highest score of 365 made by Sir Garfield Sobers and made 375, the record that remained unequalled or untouched till 9 years (Lara scored 375 in 1994), Australian opener Matthew Hayden scored 380 against Zimbabwe on October 10, 2003, after Hayden broke Lara's record, Lara congratulated him but wants to claim the record for him again as then Windies coach Gus Logie had said :

 

“Brian was one of the first people to congratulate Matthew Hayden, but I think deep down he felt that the record was his, Brian was under a bit of pressure for his job as captain, but he always gets up for it, he’s mentally strong, he kept saying that he was hitting the ball well in the nets: ‘I’m feeling good it will come.’ That gave me confidence that a big score was coming, whether in this series or the next.” 

 

Interestingly, Brian Lara is also the batsman who holds the record of the highest first-class score. He scored an unbeaten 501 for English county cricket team Warwickshire against Durham in 1994, Lara is currently the only batsman to score a century, double century, a triple century, Quadruple century and quintuple century, although this test match ended up as a draw and England team won the series, it was due to this innings that everyone was talking only about Lara's commendable performance, Logie, later on, put the things as it was : 

 

“When we realised how close he was, I don’t think a declaration came into consideration, it was a collective decision. Had the series been in the balance, it might have been different.

Brian would have made the decision that we can win the series, but if we had won a Test match as opposed to Brian scoring 400, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation. His 400 was news throughout the world, I don’t think one Test match win against England would have caused a stir, we had to give him the opportunity.”

 Most runs in an innings by a captain in an international test match (women):-

 

She was considered as the Dr W.G. Grace of women's cricket, she played for England women's cricket team (1960-82)and captained the national side from 1966 to 1978, while she was the captain her team never lost a match, She played in 22 Women's Test cricket matches from 1960 to 1979, with a batting average of 45.54 in 38 innings. She took 3 Test wickets and scored three Test centuries and was unbeaten in six Test series in total, She also played in 23 Women's One Day Internationals, with a batting average of 58.45 and a top score of 114, She was the first woman to hit six in a test match, she was also the goalkeeper for the England national field hockey team in 1964 and among the first ten women to become a member in MCC.

She was the main reason due to which women's cricket started the greatest spectacle of all time in international cricket - cricket world cup for women (1973) and mind you this was done even before the start of men's cricket world cup (1975), the first cricket world cup was held in England at the year, this was only possible because she was able to convince and secure the funding from Jack Hayward, England won that inaugural world cup tournament.

In the year 1976, the Australian women's team toured England, in the third test with England batted first and were dismissed for 134, Australia, after their scintillating bowling performance batted well and with Jan Lumsden century reached 379, with more than 200 runs lead England were under pressure from the word go.

However, Rachael Heyhoe- Flint batted brilliantly for more than 8 hours and scored wonderful match-saving innings of 179 runs, England scored 326 in their second essay the second-best in that innings was of 39 by Megan Lear, the match ended as a draw.

The score was made in 1976 and it is still the highest score in an innings by a captain in a women's international test match, please remember the name -Rachael Heyhoe- Flint.

 

Most runs in an innings by a captain in a One-Day international match (Women):- 

If you check the highest score made by Virender Sehwag as Indian captain is considered the highest score made by a captain in One-day internationals but that is not completely true, before Sehwag and even before Sachin, it was Australian women's team captain Belinda Clarke who eclipsed the 200 runs mountain and that also at the grandest stage of cricket- women's cricket world cup.

Yes it was against Denmark, yes it was against a hapless attack, it was against minnow cricket nation, a team which doesn't feature any major international stars and it might be their first cricket world cup but still it takes nothing away from Belinda who was at her absolute best on December 16, 1997. 

 The highest score by an individual cricketer in One day international was achieved by Saeed Anwar (194 vs India, in India) in the same year, in May, but it was Australian captain Belinda Clark who scored the first-ever double century in one day internationals and mind you this is also the first time any team has scored 400 or more runs in one-day internationals, the highest score in men's international cricket was Srilanka's 398/5 Vs. Kenya at that point of time (Australia- 412/3, Denmark- 49), this is also the highest winning margin (Run) by any team in ICC World Cup history and still, the highest score by a captain in a One-Day International match is Belinda Clark's 229.

 

Most runs in an innings by a captain in a One-Day International match (Men):-

We used to believe that if Virender Sehwag is in and in the form he is capable to destroy any opponent and breaking any record which is the record books.

 

Sachin Tendulkar completed an unfulfilled task of scoring a double century in Men's international cricket on February 24, 2010, and it went in record books, but Sehwag had up his game by scoring not only a double century but also scoring it in a brisk strike rate (146.98) and it is still the highest score by a captain in one-day internationals in men's cricket.

 

On December 08, 2011, more than a year after Sachin's unbelievable feat, under the leadership of Virender Sehwag, the Indian team faced the West Indies team (who were under enormous pressure due to internal conflicts with their board) in the Holkar stadium.

 

After his catch was dropped by Sammy he was sure that he is meant to score a gigantic inning as he mentioned later on: 

 

"I am happy to have broken my role model Sachin Tendulkar's record," Sehwag said. "It won't be easy for people to score double hundreds. Over the last so many years only two have done it. This opportunity will come only once in a lifetime and I am happy I have taken it. I dedicate this knock to my father who is no longer with us."

Such was the dominance of the Indian team in the mentioned match that they not only scored 418/5 in their stipulated 50 overs but also bowled out Windies for 265 and won the match by 153 runs.

 

Most runs in an innings by a captain in a T-20 international match (Men):-

Australia's limited-overs captain Aaron Finch is considered among the best batsmen in white-ball cricket, he tried his hand in the longest format of the game but his stint so far in red-ball cricket is nowhere close to his success in the limited format of the game.

In the T20I, Aaron Finch has an enviable record, he is so far the only batsman to score more than 150+ innings in T20Is which is a huge achievement in itself, he has scored two T20Is centuries and both are 150+ innings.

On July 03, 2018, Australia faced Zimbabwe in Harare cricket stadium,batting first Australia scored a huge 229/2 in their stipulated 20 overs thanks to a superb performance by Finch who scored 172 which is still the highest score by any skipper so far in T20 Internationals.

Most runs in an innings by a captain in a T-20 international match (Women):- 

Another current Australian captain to feature in this list, Meghann Moira Lanning is leading her team not only with an example but also topping the chart of highest score by a captain in T20 Internationals so far.

 

Lanning is both number and number two in the list but I will mention the innings which is currently at the top.

 

On July 26, 2019, Australia played against arch-rivals England at Chelmsford, Australia batted first and scored a huge total of 226/3, largely on the back of skipper Lanning's best performance of her career so far 133 not out, in reply, England can only make 133/9 in their stipulated 20 overs.

This is the list so far, kindly let me know what you think about the list, feedbacks are always welcome and yes the list is compiled with the help of Wikipedia, Google and Espncricinfo if you want to check the whole list you can check there, thanks again for reading.