Saeed Anwer smashed 194 against India the highest individual score on that time. What an inning. It's not a day any Indian cricket fan will remember fondly, but it's a landmark day in the history of the game.
On May 21, 1997 at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium, the former Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar etched his name into the record books with the highest individual score in ODI cricket, breaking the 13-year-old landmark of 189 set by Vivian Richards.
Anwar's 194 stood as a benchmark, along with Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry who equalled the score in 2009, until Sachin Tendulkar - incidentally the captain of India on that fateful day - broke the 200-barrier in 2010. The left-handed opener's assault on India's bowling was, as Sportstar cried out on its Friday cover page two days later, a 'Blitzkrieg at Chepauk'.
On a severely hot Chennai afternoon, Anwar was virtually unstoppable. His epic will always have an Asterix attached to it in the fact that he had a runner for much of his innings - from the 18th over until the 47th - which made it much easier for him to focus on hitting boundaries. With Shahid Afridi , who had been well held by a running Sourav Ganguly off a miscue, doing the running, Anwar added 118 of his overall tally.
The sight of Afridi harrying between the wickets while Anwar limped towards square leg after belting the ball sparked debate and to this day divides opinion, but it takes plenty of skill to repeatedly carve out boundary after boundary. And on that day, Anwar's latent skill as well as fancy for Indian bowling attacks - he averaged 43.52 versus them in Odis, and 47.28 in wins -was on ample view.
On May 21, 1997 at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium, the former Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar etched his name into the record books with the highest individual score in ODI cricket, breaking the 13-year-old landmark of 189 set by Vivian Richards.
Anwar's 194 stood as a benchmark, along with Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry who equalled the score in 2009, until Sachin Tendulkar - incidentally the captain of India on that fateful day - broke the 200-barrier in 2010. The left-handed opener's assault on India's bowling was, as Sportstar cried out on its Friday cover page two days later, a 'Blitzkrieg at Chepauk'.
On a severely hot Chennai afternoon, Anwar was virtually unstoppable. His epic will always have an Asterix attached to it in the fact that he had a runner for much of his innings - from the 18th over until the 47th - which made it much easier for him to focus on hitting boundaries. With Shahid Afridi , who had been well held by a running Sourav Ganguly off a miscue, doing the running, Anwar added 118 of his overall tally.
The sight of Afridi harrying between the wickets while Anwar limped towards square leg after belting the ball sparked debate and to this day divides opinion, but it takes plenty of skill to repeatedly carve out boundary after boundary. And on that day, Anwar's latent skill as well as fancy for Indian bowling attacks - he averaged 43.52 versus them in Odis, and 47.28 in wins -was on ample view.
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