Royal London One-Day Cup: Notts and Northants rewrite record books
The stats behind a stunning match at Trent Bridge...
Thursday 9 June 2016 08:55, UK
It was a Royal London One-Day Cup North Division match and the Monday crowd at Trent Bridge could never have expected what was to unveil in front of their eyes.
A total of 98.2 overs, 870 runs, 18 wickets, a record partnership, three centuries, a record amount of sixes, two injured batsmen, and some very weary bowlers waiting until after the watershed to read their X-rated bowling analysis.
It started so serenely. The first 50 runs were clocked up in just over nine overs, but the Nottinghamshire openers, Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels, had already noticed that this wicket was very batsman-friendly.
And they piled in, rattling along at 8.7 runs per over to ease past the record English domestic List A partnership for any wicket of 311 between the Gloucestershire opening pairing of Tony Wright and Nick Trainor against Scotland at Bristol in 1997, and then put Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid's List A partnership record in England behind them.
The Indian pair hit 318 in the 1999 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at Taunton, but the Notts duo ensured they wrote their names in the record books with a brilliant 342 in just 39.2 overs.
Their effort finally came to an end when Wessels fell for 146 - his List A career best and third century in this format - but it was still the third-highest partnership for any wicket in List A cricket history since the first game way back in 1963.
Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels hold that particular record, posting 372 off a hapless Zimbabwe attack in the 2015 World Cup at Canberra, while the opening partnership record stays with the South African pairing of Morne van Wyk and Cameron Delport at Bloemfontein in 2014 for the Dolphins.
Lumb continued his merry way to 184 off 150 balls, a career best for him (his fifth century in List A cricket and first since 2009 in domestic cricket), the highest by a Nottinghamshire batsman in List A cricket and also the best at Trent Bridge, going past Graham Gooch's 171 in 1985 for Essex.
The rest of the batsmen kept up the momentum, 103 runs coming once the record stand was broken in 10.4 overs and their total of 445-8 was the second highest in the world after Surrey's ridiculous 496-4 at The Oval in 2007 against Gloucestershire.
However, unlike Gloucestershire, who were bowled out for 239 in 34.1 overs, Northamptonshire gave it everything and amazingly got within 20 runs of victory before finally being bowled out for 425.
That was, in no small part, down to opening batsman Adam Rossington, who cracked 97 off 69 balls, getting them off to a perfect start which was surpassed by a sublime innings from South African Rory Kleinveldt.
Coming to the crease suffering a calf injury and batting with a runner, he clubbed nine sixes and 10 fours in a blistering 128 off 63 balls, bringing up his 100 in only 45 balls, the fifth fastest in English domestic cricket.
Somerset's Graham Rose holds that particular record, helping himself to a ton in only 36 balls off the Minor County bowlers from Devon at Torquay in 1990.
If only another South African, Richard Levi - who still holds the record for the fastest International T20 century of 45 balls - hadn't hurt his wrist and been forced to come in at No 11, Northants might just have pulled off the biggest turn around since the famous Johannesburg ODI in 2006.
He was finally dismissed, although he did manage to hit a six down the ground to bring the curtain down on a staggering game of 870 aggregate runs, just two runs shy of that record South Africa v Australia game 10 years ago of 872.
And if that wasn't enough, Levi's final six of the day was the 35th hit in the match and only the one-day international between India and Australia at the 'Mecca of Sixes', the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, in 2013, where Rohit Sharma hit 16 in his 209, has seen more.
There were 38 in that game while the 33 in yesterday's match cruised past the English record of 29, compiled in that Surrey-Gloucestershire game in 2007.
Live Royal London One-Day Cup Cricket
And some say that 50-over cricket is a bit dull. Tell that to the Trent Bridge crowd of Monday, June 6, 2016 - they will be pouring through the gates for more.
