On May 31, 1984, during an ODI against England, played at Old Trafford, Sir Viv Richards, former Antiguan Cricketer, walked into bat. West Indies were on 11/2. Like his usual self, he was batting with ease & reached his 50 in 59 balls.
Meanwhile, his teammates were batting on a different surface. At one point, the scoreboard said 7 for 102. None of the West Indies batters was able to reach double figures & at that point, apart from Sir Viv. Their respective scores were 9,1,6,4,8,0 & 4.
That’s when Eldine Baptiste joined Sir Viv as the no-nine batsman. It looked like a low-scoring game & if Richards could stick for a while, West Indies could post somewhat of a decent total on the board & with their bowling line up they could have a fighting chance.
That’s what West Indies supporters might have thought at that time. It looks like West Indies are on track to a decent total, as the pair seems to bat exceptionally well. However, when the total was 161, Baptiste was dismissed for 26. Making things even worse, Joel Garner, too dismissed a few balls later & the score was 166/9.
With one wicket left, England fancies their chances of finishing the innings. Richards was on 96 & Michael Holding was the last man in. It was a 55-overs-per-side game & with almost about 15 overs left in the innings.
A few deliveries later, Richards scored a boundary to reach his hundred in 112 deliveries. It was a brilliant century when almost all the top orders failed to deliver; he single-handedly took the team to 173/9. Well, it wasn’t over yet.
What happened in the next hour or so was something no one could’ve expected. Even though he was the great Viv Richards, the odds were against him. Still, he took on the England bowlers leaving them wondering what struck them. Sir Viv went past his 150 in the 49th over & in the 54th over, he was unbeaten on 177. That’s a new world record.
He passed Kapil Dev 175*, a similar type of knock that happened in the previous year’s World Cup. In the last over of the innings, Richards scored another three boundaries & one of them came in the very last ball of the innings.
He finished unbeaten on 189, which took him 170 deliveries to score. Innings included 21 fours & 5 sixes. Michael Holding played a brilliant supporting role and was on 12 off 27 deliveries.
Their partnership was 106, which remains the world record for the last wicket to this day. West Indies’ total was 272/9. In that previous wicket partnership, Sir Viv scored 93 runs off the 60 deliveries he faced.
In reply, England managed to score 168. Just two runs more than the scoreboard said after the 9th West Indies wicket fell. During England’s run chase, Sir Viv picked up two wickets for 45 runs. England bowler Neil Foster summed up Richards’s innings in the following manner.
