None of us would deny that for Indians, Cricket has always been more than a play. It has been worship.
Cricket seasons stay in full swing during the IPL matches, with fans and followers enjoying the daily matches. From street tea shops to friends’ get-togethers, you will hear almost everyone discussing cricket. This includes historical moments that sports gave people to cherish for life.
The involvement of many people in the discussions regarding cricket has led multiple well-known resources to publish articles. These articles are on the unbreakable records in cricket that players have set in different tournaments. This includes one of the most recent reports on 17 unbreakable records in IPL published by Cricket Addictor.
Records are surely meant to be broken. But when it’s cricket, there have been some outstanding performances leading to the top most records in cricket that are not that easy to break.
Not restricting the listing to the IPLs only, here are a few impossible cricket records to break.
Difficult to believe, but that’s true. Even a dot ball is considered difficult to obtain; playing a maiden super over as a complete surprise. West Indies spinner Sunil Narine became the first bowler to bowl a maiden in a super over, making it an unbreakable record in cricket. In the 2014 edition, Red Steel and Guyana Amazon Warriors both finished at 118/8 and 118/9, respectively, in 20 overs; (in the Caribbean Premier League) and a super over was arranged to decide on the winner of the match.
Surprising but true! English cricketer Jim Laker picked up 19 wickets in a single test match against Australia in 1956. It was an incredible achievement for the bowler, who bowled 68 overs in the game while only conceding 90 runs. This unbreakable record in cricket still holds true after so many years. It acquires the top place whenever the highest wickets taken by a cricketer in a test match are talked about. Though 2018 Yasir Shah picked 14 wickets, the record set by Laker is still believed to remain so forever.
With young players showing more interest in the sport’s shortest format, IPLs seem to be preferred more over Ranji Trophy or first-class cricket. However, nothing beats the sport’s longest format, and many find test matches to be the best form of the game. Talking about test matches, it is tough to forget Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s record as he played 200 test matches in his 24-year career. It is only after him that Ricky Ponting’s 168 matches enter the list.
This is an incredible achievement of the Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan who picked up 800 wickets in 133 tests, 534 wickets in 350 ODIs, and 13 wickets in 12 T20s. He is the player who has collected 1347 international wickets in total, recording the highest number of wickets in the history of cricket. It won’t be wrong to say that Mr Muralitharan is the man who had the potential to have the most records in cricket.
However, the next on the list is Shane Warne, who collected 1001 international wickets, which is almost 25% less than the highest set by Muralitharan.
Australian cricketer Don Bradman played 52 matches, scored 6996 runs, recorded 29 centuries with 13 fifties, and set a record batting average of 99.94. The legend played his last test match in 1948. It has been more than seven decades, and no one has even dared to challenge the record set by the player, making this an unbreakable record in cricket. However, next to him is young Aussie player Marnus Labuschagne with an average of 63.43, though he has just scored 1459 runs to date.
Moreover, in his cricket career, Bradman also scored 100 runs in only 3 overs. This was in 1931 when the match between Blackheath and Lithgow took place. The legend scored a century in just 18 minutes, setting an unbreakable record in the history of cricket.
No, it’s not the master blaster, Sachin Tendulkar! Of course, he has scored the most centuries in International cricket, but when scoring the most in first-class cricket, it is the English cricketer and opening batsman, Sir Jack Hobbs. The legend scored 199 centuries, along with 18 test centuries for England.
While Muralitharan took the most wickets in international cricket, English player Wilfred Rhodes collected 4204 wickets. Wilfred Rhodes, one of the players with the most records in cricket, also holds the highest scalps for first-class cricket. In his cricket career of 30 years, which is also a record in itself, he set a record that is not only hard but also impossible to break.
Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma set a record of three double centuries in ODIs. This record has neither been repeated yet nor broken, and it is believed to be something that can hardly happen again.
Australia, a team with the most records in cricket, has won 50-over World Cups consecutively for 3 years, i.e., 1999, 2003, and 2007. The first cup came under the captaincy of Ricky Steve Waugh, and the other two under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy. For the same match, the former wicketkeeper of the team scored 50+ runs in the same three World Cup Finals, setting yet another record. The record set by the latter, too, is believed to remain unbreakable. It is quite tough for one team to qualify in the World Cup finals back-to-back three times in a row.
The only cricketer who served as a captain at the age of 50 was Dr William Gilbert Grace in 1899. This year marked his cricket’s last test match against Australia. He later on, handed over the captaincy to Archie MacLaren.
When the team was at its prime, the Sri Lankan team brought tremors to many cricketers worldwide. Following their stint of multiple wins and record-breaking performances, Chaminda Vaas returned only to give nightmares to the Zimbabwe team.
In 2001, when Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka were head to head, Chaminda Vaas spelt magic, taking nine wickets and dismantling 80% of the team by giving off just 19 runs. This kept the spectaculars spellbound by Vaas’ capable bowling, making it one of the top unbreakable records in cricket.
When talking about the best bowling economy, Phil Simmons’s performance is inspiring and great at the same time. When playing for West Indies against Pakistan in 1992, Mr Simmons bowled ten overs and conceded only three runs. This means he had a bowling average of 0.30, and this was in the match where he returned to play for West Indies.
Interestingly, he gave eight maiden overs, making the figures 10-8-3-4, which is not easy to crack, thus, making it an unbreakable record in cricket. Even in the era of super-aggressive T20 cricket, breaking this record is a near-impossible task.
When Shoaib Akhtar was awarded the name “Shatabdi Express,” the fastest train then. The name sticks with this player because of his capability to bowl at bat-breaking speed. Shoaib Akhtar has the record for the fastest ball ever bowled, going at 161.3 km/h or 100.2 mph. He is the player who was primed to have the most records in cricket, especially when it came to bowling.
Shoaib bowled this bowl in the 2003 World Cup, where Nick Knight of England faced this bowl. Imagine the surprise of the batsman who faced this bowl, but Nick Knight could touch the ball, nonetheless.
Wilfred Rhodes was a phenomenal English player giving 30 years of his life to the game. Mr Rhodes played from 1899 to 1930, and till this year, no one has come close to breaking his record. India’s Sachin Tendulkar, who has now retired, has played for 24 years, and we are not seeing any player of today’s age coming close to both these figures, making Rhode’s tenure an unbreakable record in cricket.
Wilfred Rhodes made his test debut on 1st June 1899 and played his last test game on 3rd April 1930. In his tenure, Wilfred Rhodes was also the first English player to complete two 1000-run spells and took 100 wickets 23 times. In addition to this record, Wilfred Rhodes is also the oldest player ever to play a match, at 54 years of age.
A score of a perfect hundred in just three overs seems like an impossible feat, but Don Bradman achieved this in 1931. This happened because, at that time, one over consisted of 8 balls, which means Don Bradman took 24 balls to complete the century. He made 33, 40, and 27 runs in each over.
In this match, Don made 256 runs. In the record-breaking three overs, he scored 4 singles and one double. All the other balls in these three reached boundaries, making a remarkable entry in the list of most records in cricket.
The India-Pakistan rivalry in cricket is not new. Even those not associated with cricket take the opportunity to watch an India-Pakistan cricket match. In the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup, over 1 billion eyeballs were set on the match to know who would win, making it an unbreakable record in cricket.
India won this game by 89 runs, but the record has been set, which is not easy to break. In cricket, game-play records aren’t the only thing; we can also witness records of this type and reputation in which everyone associated with the game participates.
Getting wickets and scoring runs are the two most important aspects of cricket. And none of us would disagree that when it comes to runs in cricket, the first name that flashes is Sir Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar is the only player in cricket history to score more than 30,000 runs in all formats. If someone is expected to break this record, there is another Indian player, Virat Kohli. Virat is also a player who is expected to have the most records in cricket history, but only time will tell if that’s true.
Sachin Tendulkar is hailed as the God of Cricket in India, and he has several records tagged to his name, making him one of the best cricket players in the world.
While most achievements by many players in different cricket matches could be discussed and felt proud of, the above-mentioned 17 cricket records are most likely to be discussed and are unbreakable records in cricket history. Download the PlayO app to get more such details across global sports. Not just that, pick your favourite sport and explore every inch of it while you wish to excel at the game.
