Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

202. Rest of the World XI v An England XI, Scarborough, September 6, 7, 8 (Match drawn) b F.J.Titmus 26 335/6d 20.5 6 46 4 C.Milburn b 201 1 P.H.Parfitt c J.D.Lindsay R.N.S.Hobbs c C.H.Lloyd I.J.Jones c and b did not bat - 238/2d 19 4 45 0 291/6 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Season 2 2 0 50 26 25.00 - - 3 Career 202 318 45 15998 365* 58.60 50 63 225 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Season (6-ball) 75.5 16 195 11 4/46 17.72 - - Career (6-ball) 4598 1281 } 16020 584 9/49 27.43 22 - (8-ball) 1362.1 163 1967/68 The M.C.C. enjoyed their most successful tour of the Caribbean, winning four and losing none of their 16 first-class games. The West Indies lost the Wisden Trophy largely because of bad strategy on Sobers’s part. He gave England a chance to win a Test in which they had generally been outplayed. The decision to ask his opponents to chase 215 runs in 165 minutes on a wicket that was still friendlier to the batsman than the bowler backfired through faulty field-placing and injudicious handling of the West Indian resources that had already been weakened by an injury to Charlie Griffith. For these indiscretions, Sobers was never really forgiven by some of his most rabid fans at home. The captain’s own personal performance, however, was beyond criticism. For the third time in five Test series against England he exceeded 500 runs and remains the only West Indian to have ever done so. Apart from Sobers, only Greenidge and Lara have twice scored more than 500 runs in Test series against England. Even the great Headley, Richards, Walcott and Worrell each did so only once and Weekes never did so at all. Sobers averaged more than 90 runs per innings on this occasion. His two centuries took him to 9 against England, another new West Indian record, surpassing the standard of 8 that Headley had established during the 1930s. Sobers extended his old West Indian record to 19 Test centuries and became the first of his countrymen to exceed 6,000 runs in Test cricket. He was only the seventh player in the world to reach this milestone. Continuing his exceptional streak at Sabina Park, he achieved perhaps his greatest century at that venue in the second Test, extending his record aggregate there to 1,147 (ave 114.70). His 113 not out in very difficult circumstances in the second innings of that match allowed him to equal Walcott’s record tally of 5 Test centuries on that ground. By the end of the campaign, Sobers’s first-class average exceeded 59 runs per innings - the highest it would reach during his career. His 13 wickets in the series also took him to 157 and he had become only the fourth West Indian (following Gibbs, Hall and Ramadhin) to capture more than 150 in Test cricket. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 203. WEST INDIES v ENGLAND, Port-of-Spain, January 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 (Match drawn) c T.W.Graveney b K.F.Barrington 17 363 26 5 83 1 J.M.Parks lbw 568 not out 33 243/8 204. WEST INDIES v ENGLAND, Kingston, February 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 (Match drawn) lbw J.A.Snow 0 143 31 11 56 1 J.H.Edrich c R.B.Kanhai 376 1 not out 113 391/9d 16.5 7 33 3 G.Boycott b 68/8 M.C.Cowdrey lbw D.J.Brown b 205. Barbados v M.C.C., Bridgetown, February 22, 23, 24, 26 (Match drawn) c A.P.E.Knott b P.I.Pocock 37 276 20 8 54 0 578/8d 1 c and b B.L.D’Oliveira 56 161/5 44