“Carried the Bat” is a term which is related to cricket in a strange way.
There are only 12 players who have carried their bat through a completed innings in ODI. For players to carry their bat in cricket, they have to be an opening batsman, not out till the end and also, the team should lose all their 10 wickets by dismissals or retired.
Here, we are going to discuss players who have done carrying the bat in ODI cricket.
What is Carrying the Bat in Cricket?
According to Wikipedia, the term carry the bat (or carry one’s bat) refers to an opening batsman who is not dismissed (“not out”) when the team innings is closed.
It is said, to players to carry their bat in an innings, all 10 Wickets of his team must be fallen while the batsman has to stay Not-Out at the other end until the end. Thereby it refers only to Opening Batsmen.
It is also okay when any of the Batsmen in the other end retire-out while the others get out.
It will not be considered if the innings is closed before all 10 wickets have fallen.
And that’s why Sachin Tendulkar was not considered carrying on his bat when he stayed not-out till the end when he scored 200* against South Africa & 186* against New Zealand.
List of Batsmen who have carried the bat in ODI
| BATSMEN | SCORE | TEAM TOTAL | BATTING | TEAM | AGAINST | VENUE | YEAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Flower | 84* | 205 | 1ST | Zimbabwe | England | Sydney | 1994 |
| Saeed Anwar | 103* | 219 | 2ND | Pakistan | Zimbabwe | Harare | 1995 |
| Nick Knight | 125* | 246 | 1ST | England | Pakistan | Nottingham | 1996 |
| Ridley Jacobs | 49* | 110 | 1ST | West Indies | Australia | Manchester | 1999 |
| Damien Martyn | 116* | 191 | 1ST | Australia | New Zealand | Auckland | 2000 |
| Herschelle Gibbs | 59* | 101 | 2ND | South Africa | Pakistan | Sharjah | 2000 |
| Alec Stewart | 100* | 192 | 2ND | England | West Indies | Nottingham | 2000 |
| Javed Omar | 33* | 103 | 2ND | Bangladesh | Zimbabwe | Harare | 2001 |
| Azhar Ali | 81* | 199 | 2ND | Pakistan | Sri Lanka | Colombo | 2012 |
| Tom Latham | 79* | 190 | 1ST | New Zealand | India | Dharamsala | 2016 |
| Upul Tharanga | 112* | 187 | 2ND | Sri Lanka | Pakistan | Abu Dhabi | 2017 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | 52* | 136 | 1ST | Sri Lanka | New Zealand | Cardiff | 2019 |
| Temba Bavuma | 114* | 222 | 1ST | South Africa | Australia | Bloemfontein | 2023 |
Stats Insights
Nick Knight, the England opener holds the record for the highest score while carrying on his bat.
Herschelle Gibbs has the only event of carrying the bat which includes a retired-out batsman(Gary Kirsten).
Dimuth Karunaratne recently became the 12th Overall & 2nd Sri Lanka ODI player to carry on his bat. He did it against New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup match.
Karunaratne, along with Ridley Jacobs of West Indies in 1999, are the only two ODI batsmen to carry the bat in any World Cup matches.
No Indian player has carried the bat in ODI cricket, yet.
Tom Latham is the only New Zealand player to carry his bat in ODI. He did it against India when New Zealand had toured India in 2016.
Chris Gayle is the only player to carry on his bat in a T20 innings. He scored 63 not-out off 50 balls against Sri Lanka while West Indies got all-out on 101.
There are 55 instances of carrying the bat in Test cricket, including 4 Indians. Check the list here.
Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid & Cheteshwar Pujara are the ones to carry on their bat in Tests for India.
[Dravid and Pujara are part of the record for Most Balls Faced in Cricket.]
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