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Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was known for his conventional batting and scoring runs when the odds were against his favour. He often brought India out of the jaws of defeat and made history while scoring truckloads of runs in Test cricket. His ODI career, though, isn’t as celebrated. Gavaskar was a part of the Indian team that tasted glory during the 1983 ODI World Cup, but one-day cricket did not look like something Gavaskar was tailor-made for.
That said, it does not at all specify that Gavaskar was any less as an ODI batter and has 3092 in 108 appearances for the Indian team. He also has 27 half-centuries in the format and was among the early adopters of something that marked the dawn for a new era of the way cricket is played in the modern-day.
Here are top 3 knocks played by Sunil Gavaskar in One Day Internationals (ODIs)
While ODI was still a relatively younger format in cricket, Gavaskar was getting older. But the same cannot be said for his class. In a rain-shortened match at the now-defunct Nehru Stadium in Guwahati, Sri Lanka set up a target of 146 for the Indian team and Gavaskar was the star of the run chase.
Coming to open alongside Kris Srikkanth, Gavaskar played aggressively right from the get go and seemed to be completely wary of the overcast conditions. With the help of eight fours and a maximum, the Mumbai batter accumulated an unbeaten 70 off just 83 deliveries to take India to a famous eight-wicket victory against the island nation.
While this knock would nowhere qualify in being a top knock played by any batter, it is certainly an infamous knock that defines how amateur the ODI format was when Gavaskar played. At the Lord’s during the inaugural Men’s ODI World Cup in 1975, India needed 335 runs to win off 60 overs, the usual duration of an innings back in the day.
Gavaskar entered the crease and played a sluggish knock to compile only 36 runs while facing a total of 174 deliveries, batting at a strike rate of 20.68. Gavaskar remained unbeaten as India lost only four wickets, but managed 132 runs, handing a 202-run win for the Englishmen in the first-ever match of World Cup history.
While Gavaskar’s first-ever World Cup gave him haunting demons, his last was indirectly proportional to the happy memories in his ODI career. India and New Zealand entered the batting-friendly track at the VCA Civil Lines Stadium in Nagpur with the Kiwis batting first and setting a 222 target for the Men in Blue after Chetan Sharma had picked up a hat-trick with the ball. Courtesy of an attacking opening stand between Gavaskar and Srikkant, India won the match by nine wickets.
Gavaskar was also the Player of the Match for his unbeaten 103 off just 88 balls, batting at a superlative strike rate to show that he had adapted to the format as per the growing demands of the game. The knock holds a special mention in his journey, as it marks the only century hit by Gavaskar in his thirteen-year-long ODI career.
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