Sir Garfield Sobers is considered the greatest overall cricketer by a lot of yesteryear cricket fans who had the good fortune of seeing him play live and what a player he was and Test cricket was his format and he scored 8032 runs at an astounding average of 57.78 which has to be one of the highest averages for any player after playing 93 Test Matches. So, today we are talking about a really special cricketer.
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Sir Garfield Sobers was a role model and people looked at him and Vivian Richards in the same breath as in only 93 Test Matches he had scored 26 Test centuries and 30 half centuries that means in 56 innings out of the 160 he played in he crossed the 50 run mark. These are seriously incredible numbers especially considering the fact that in those times the pitches were uncovered and the bats were not as thick as now. If Garfield Sobers would have played now then this 8000+ runs would have been 14000 easily. Let’s look at the Top 5 Best Sir Garfield Sobers Innings.
365* vs Pakistan (1958)
Such kind of innings happens only once in a career of an international cricketer and who knows if the declaration has not come when he was on 365* maybe he would have been the first man to score 400 in a test innings before Brian Lara. This innings was a pure demolition of the Pakistan bowling and he hit as many as 38 fours in this innings which means 152 runs came in boundaries. This innings established Garfield Sobers as the best in the world at that time and from here on it was just hundred after Hundred for him.
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226 vs England (1960)
This was an innings in a difficult situation where the West Indies team needed someone to stand up and play a Blinder of an innings and that’s exactly what he did in this innings vs England. England batted first in this test match and made 482 in the first innings and un reply West Indies were 102-3 and then Gary Sobers just played an innings which is still remembered to this day. He counter attacked the England bowling attack and scored runs with his partner Frank Worrell and these two just kept batting and till the score reached 502 West Indies did not lose another wicket and Gary Sobers made 226 with 24 fours and the match was drawn.
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198 vs India (1958)
This innings was one of his absolute best and it came not in the first or second innings of the test match but in the all important 3rd innings where West Indies needed to gain the momentum of the match and due to this innings from Gary Sobers West Indies won the match by over 200 runs. The first innings scores in this test match were identical with both the teams making 222 in their first innings but in the West Indies second batting innings it was Gary Sobers who took the attack to the Indian bowlers and made a brilliant 198 runs and ensured the win for the West Indies.
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132 vs Australia (1960)
There have been only 2 Tied Test matches in the history of test cricket and the match we are talking about was one of them. In this match there were some incredible Performances by both sets of players but one stood out and that was Gary Sobers with his 132 in the first innings of this test match. West Indies were in bother at 65-3 and then Gary Sobers came out and rescued the team like he always does and made a century that any player would be proud of. He hit 21 fours in the innings meaning a total of 84 runs came in boundaries for him. The match was tied and it was a historic test match.
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168 vs Australia (1961)
This was the match immediately following the tied test match at the Gabba and both the teams wanted to win this match to be ahead in the series and West Indies batted first yet again at SCG. West Indies were at 89-3 again and yet again it was their hero Gary Sobers who bailed them out with his majestic innings which allowed West Indies to be ahead in the test match. And he made those 168 runs in just 234 balls at a great strike rate of over 71 and he hit 25 fours and 1 six meaning a total of 106 runs in boundaries and from here on Australia could not come back in this match and West Indies won by 222 runs.
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