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Follow UsAiden Markram - 106 vs India in Cape Town
On the fourth day of the year, Aiden Markram played arguably the best knock of the calendar year and certainly the best of his Test career.
On a Cape Town surface that was so spicy that the game ended up turning out to be the shortest Test match in history, Markram hammered 106 in the third innings - after South Africa had conceded a 98-run first innings lead - when no other batter in the entire Test managed more than 46.
Forget that, Markram scored 60.22% of the team’s runs in the third innings - South Africa’s next-highest score in that particular innings was Dean Elgar’s 12; their next-highest score in the entire Test was 15.
It was one of the greatest one-man shows seen this entire century. Brutally for Markram, his efforts went in vain as India registered a comprehensive seven-wicket victory.
Ollie Pope - 196 vs India in Hyderabad
It’s funny how the discourse surrounding a particular knock changes. Sometimes, rightly so.
11 months back, Ollie Pope’s 196 in Hyderabad was being hailed as the greatest knock played by an Englishman on Indian soil. Now, it’s being called the luckiest knock in Test history because of Pope’s inability to produce even 25% of what he showed that day.
But forgetting what’s happened since, isolating the knock, you’ve got to certainly put it down as one of the best batting performances this century.
England were 163/5 after having conceded a 190-run first-innings lead, effectively dead and buried. The match was supposed to be a formality from this point onwards.
Under these circumstances, Pope, who’d been a walking wicket in the 2021 tour, produced the most outrageous strokemaking seen on Indian soil to help England set India a target of 231 and eventually win the game. Scoops, reverse-scoops, paddles, reverse-paddles - you name it; Pope’s knock had it all.
The strokemaking from Pope that game was absurd, outstanding and ridiculous all at the same time.
Yashasvi Jaiswal - 209 vs England in Visakhapatnam
In the very next game of the series, 0-1 down, India were under serious pressure to bounce back. That’s when Yashasvi Jaiswal, in his very second Test at home, single-handedly took the fight to England to help India launch a comeback in the series.
Batting first after winning the toss, India made 396. 209 of these runs came from the bat of Jaiswal, who hammered 19 fours and 7 sixes.
It was an astonishing show of maturity from someone 21 years of age; no other batter in India’s star-studded batting line-up managed to even cross 35.
As it turned out, this particular knock proved to be the highlight of an ‘all-timer’ series for Jaiswal, who finished with 712 runs in nine innings, and struck another double-ton in the third Test in Rajkot.
Cameron Green - 174* vs New Zealand in Wellington
For all the talk of the ‘failed’ Steve Smith opening experiment, what it did was allow Cameron Green to bat in his best position. And in just his fourth innings at No.4, the 24-year-old showed the world why he’s rightly being dubbed Australia’s present and future.
After New Zealand won the toss and bowled, and had Australia reeling at 89/4 at one point, Green finished unbeaten on 174*.
The best part about the knock? He was on 91* when the No.11 batter, Josh Hazlewood, walked out to bat. From that point onwards, in what was a masterclass on batting with the No.11 by hogging the strike, Green went on to add 83 more runs, expertly farming the strike until.
In the 116-run stand he shared with Hazlewood, Green remarkably collected 61 runs from the final two balls of the over (balls 5 and 6).
In all, in the final two balls of overs, he hit five sixes, five fours and took 11 singles to ensure he shielded Hazlewood and kept strike the following over.
Alex Carey - 98* vs New Zealand in Christchurch
But was Cameron Green’s knock the best of that series? Alex Carey would like to have a word.
In the second Test at Christchurch, Australia was set 279 to chase in the fourth innings. In the blink of an eye, they were reduced to 34/4 and soon 80/5.
Considering the rhythm Matt Henry and debutant Ben Sears were in, and considering the ball was still doing all sorts, it looked like a series win had all but slipped away from the Aussies.
Enter Alex Carey.
With scores of 14, 10 & 3 under his belt in his previous knocks in the series, the wicketkeeper batter launched a stunning counterattack along with Mitchell Marsh to take Australia within 60 of the target.
Marsh and Mitchell Starc fell quickly, but Carey kept his cool and strung together a 61-run stand with another iceman in skipper Cummins to see Australia over the line and seal a series win for the Kangaroos.
It was the second-highest score by a wicketkeeper batter in a successful fourth-innings chase in history. It was also the second-highest successful chase at the Hagley Oval ever, and Carey did it when his team was reeling at 80/5.
Harry Brook - 123 vs New Zealand in Wellington
Another special knock in which New Zealand were at the receiving end of things.
After having been hammered in the first Test in Christchurch, the Blackcaps won a great toss and had England in absolute tatters at 43/4. They’d put down Harry Brook a gazillion times in the first Test, but this time, they were confident that Brook’s luck would run out and that they’d get him early, dominate the Test, and get back into the series.
Except Brook did not need any luck on this occasion.
‘Bowler-friendly conditions, the team in trouble, the ball doing all sorts? Lol okay, watch this’ said Brook, who went on to launch a counterattack only he was capable of doing.
Two overs after the fourth wicket fell, Brook gave the charge to Nathan Smith and spanked one over extra cover for a maximum. That proved to be a foreshadowing of sorts, as the right-hander went on to score 35% of his runs through the extra-cover and point region, repeatedly exposing his stumps and thwarting the quicks through the off-side.
England got to 280 on the back of Brook’s 123, which fetched them a 155-run first-innings lead. It was game, set and match once that happened.
Litton Das 138 vs Pakistan in Rawalpindi
Eyeing their first-ever series win against Pakistan, having won the first Test convincingly, Bangladesh were in trouble in the second Test in Rawalpindi, reduced to 26/6 after conceding 274 bowling first.
What followed from here was one of the greatest turnarounds this century, and an outrageous knock from Litton Das propelled that turnaround.
From 26/6, the wicketkeeper batter stitched together a 165-run stand with Mehidy Hasan. Mehidy departed with Bangladesh still 83 shy of Pakistan’s first innings total, but, from that point onwards, Litton single-handedly took on the Pakistan bowling to take the Tigers within 12 runs of the hosts’ total. In an innings where just Bangladesh batters passed the 15-run mark, Litton finished with 138; he smashed 13 fours and four humongous sixes.
Litton’s knock got Bangladesh back into the contest, and the rest was history. They knocked over Pakistan for 172 and successfully chased 185 to win a series against the Men in Green for the first time in their history.
What were some of the other great Test knocks this year?
Rachin Ravindra 134 vs India in Bengaluru
Harry Brook 317 vs Pakistan in Multan (first Test)
Agha Salman 63 vs England in Multan (second Test)
Dhruv Jurel 90 vs England in Ranchi
KL Rahul 84 vs Australia in Brisbane
Temba Bavuma 70 vs Sri Lanka in Durban
Rishabh Pant 64 vs New Zealand at Wankhede
Ravichandran Ashwin 113 vs Bangladesh in Chennai
