In the series of best performances in this article we will talk about a player who has been the backbone of the New Zealand batting order and he has excelled in all 3 formats of the game and he is also one of my favorite overseas batters to watch so I am glad that I am able to do a best performances article about the great Martin Guptill. He is destructive and hits sixes for fun and he still has a few years left in him.as far as international cricket goes. We will look at his records below.
He has been playing international cricket since 2009 and although he did not play that much cricket he still has some incredible performances. He played 47 Test Matches for New Zealand and he made 2586 runs at an average of 29.39 with 3 Hundreds in test cricket. He has played 198 ODIs and he has scored 7346 runs at an average of 41.74 with 18 hundreds and 1 Double Hundred in ODI cricket. He has also played 121 T20IS till now for New Zealand and has made 3497 runs in T20I cricket and is currently 3rd in the all time runs scoring in history. Let’s look at his Top 5 Best Performances.
237* vs West Indies (2015)
This was the Quarter Final of the 2015 ICC World Cup and for Martin Guptill to smash the second highest ODI score of all time and the most important double hundred in ODI cricket was sensational. He opened the batting and he batted for 163 balls and he smashed the West Indies bowling to all parts hitting 24 fours and 11 sixes in this monster innings which means a total of 162 runs in boundaries alone. Hua strike rate was an astonishing 145.40 and he single handedly took New Zealand to the semi final of the World Cup and this innings is the greatest ODI innings in the history of New Zealand cricket.
Also Read: Top 10 Greatest New Zealand Cricketers of all time
189* vs England (2013)
The second performance on this list came against England and it was a good team at that time and he once again on his own took the match away from England. He hit a blistering 189* from 155 balls and he hit 19 fours and 2 sixes in this innings at a strike rate of 121.94 and the best part is that he does not get out while playing these big Innings which is simply remarkable. This was a hammering of England and New Zealand won this match by 86 runs.
Also Read | Top 5 Best Performances of Chris Cairns
180* vs South Africa (2017)
Martin Guptill might have 3 of the Top 20 Scores in ODI cricket and all of them have been not outs but this one came in a run chase of 280 where he alone made 180* of those runs. It is incredible that he scored so many and he played for 135 balls in this innings and he destroyed the South Africa bowling by hitting 15 fours and 11 sixes meaning a total of 126 runs in boundaries. His strike rate was 130.43 and all the 3 mammoth ODI innings in this list have been not outs from the first ball to the Last ball of the Innings.
Also Read | Top 5 Best Innings of Stephen Fleming
189 vs Bangladesh (2010)
This is his highest score in test cricket and it came against Bangladesh and he came to bat at number 5 and from ball 1 he was in attack mode as well as playing himself in and he did not throw his wicket away. He faced 310 balls and he hit 18 fours and 1 six in this innings and he was striking at 60.97. This innings must have given him a lot of confidence that he can play test cricket at the highest level.
Also Read | Top 5 Best Innings of Brendon McCullum
101* vs South Africa (2012)
This was the first out of 2 hundreds that he has scored in T20IS and this resulted in a big win for New Zealand so this is the 5th performance on this list. New Zealand were chasing 169 runs to win from 19 overs and Martin Guptill came out to open and he made it look so easy as he just kept hitting fours and sixes to all parts of the stadium and he only took 69 balls to hit 101* with the help of 9 fours and 6 sixes which means a total of 72 runs in boundaries and his strike rate was 146.38 and he won this match for New Zealand on the last ball of the match and he became a T20I legend as time went on.
Also Read: Top 5 Best Performances of Ross Taylor
