50 years ago on this day in 1972, Rest of the World skipper Garfield Sobers smashed an epic double ton v Oz at Melbourne. His then teammate Sunil Gavaskar speaks to mid-day on the knock while the Aussies didn’t miss mentioning it in their autobiographies
Garry Sobers. Pic/Getty Images
In Sir Garfield Sobers’s words
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The Rest of the World team during the 1971-72 season in Australia. Standing (from left): Bob Cunis, Zaheer Abbas, Sunil Gavaskar, Farokh Engineer, Bob Taylor, Bishan Singh Bedi, Norman Gifford. Centre row (from left): Clive Lloyd, Richard Hutton, Tony Greig, Peter Pollock, Asif Masood, Hylton Ackerman. Sitting (from left): Rohan Kanhai, Garry Sobers (captain), Bill Jacobs (manager), Intikhab Alam (vice-captain), Graeme Pollock. Pic/Getty Images
Lillee bowled me a bouncer (in the first innings at Melbourne). I played a bit early and was caught by Keith Stackpole at first slip (for nought). At the end of the day’s play I went into the (Australian) dressing room. I said to Ian Chappell with Dennis Lillee standing just across the room: “You have a fast bowler called Lillee and every time I go out to bat, all I get are bouncers. I want you to tell him that I can bowl quick too and I think I can bat a little better than him, so look out for me when he comes in to bat.” When Lillee came to bat, Tony Greig, fielding at mid-off, told me to let him have the bouncer. So, I bowled him a bouncer and Dennis turned completely pink. New ball, he had one big swing and was out. I go to the Australian dressing room again and Chappelli said that Dennis threw his bat and said, “I’ll show that little bastard.” And I said, “Ian, he’s got the ball and I’ve got the bat.” Ladies and gentlemen, the rest is history.
Contents from a function held at Mumbai in 2010
Garry Sobers figured out!
Runs 254
Minutes 376
Fours 33
Sixes 02
Rest of the World’s victory margin 96
Sunil Gavaskar
Lillee didn’t bowl a bouncer to Garry for the first five-to-six balls with everyone thinking what will happen now. He finally bowled one and man, it was like a kaan ke niche (below the ear) hit. That’s how Garry smashed him through square leg for a boundary. After that (boundary) his feet were moving right to the pitch of the ball. The one thing about that World XI was there were no formalities and we had a fantastic manager in Bill Jacobs, nicknamed Fagan. There was no such thing as 12th man. While Garry was smashing the bowling, he wanted his sleeveless jumper. We couldn’t find it. I said there were no formalities, so I went out to give him my jumper, which was one size bigger for me. I didn’t tell Garry it was mine and he wore it. So, you could say some part of me played a role in that 254. What an absolute pleasure it was to be part of that team and to see that innings from such close quarters. It was just an unbelievable innings.
As told to Clayton Murzello
Dennis Lillee
It was superbly-controlled aggression and there was nowhere, repeat nowhere, you could bowl to contain the man. One of the best deliveries I sent down to him, a yorker with the second new ball, came back past me as though it had been fired from a cannon. It had crashed into the fence under the sightboard before I had been able to falter in my run and look back over my shoulder.
In Back to the Mark
Rod Marsh
Gary smiled at Dennis on the way out as if to say ‘too good’ [after his first innings dismissal]. The boot was on the other foot in the second innings, however. Dennıs bowled well on a wicket that was a batsman’s paradise, but Gary tore strips off him and all our bowlers. He was in such magnificent form that nobody could stem the flow of runs. I hear the reason he batted so well was that the night before he had an argument with his wife and he was still angry the next day, so he took it out on us. They were 254 mighty runs.
In You’ll Keep
Ian Chappell
Some of Garry’s shot-making was unbelievable, especially his square cutting. When I look back at the film of the innings I keep asking myself why on earth I retained two slips and a gully for Sobers. I was talking to Richie Benaud after this game about captaincy, and he told me not to worry that I couldn’t contain Sobers. “Nobody can, and I had plenty of experience trying’, Richie said. ‘The only advice I can give you is not to bother with a gully fieldsman. He does hit the ball a little in the air in that area.’
In Cricket in My Blood
Keith Stackpole
On what’s probably the biggest ground in the world, he demonstrated his power. He mauled everyone, including Lillee. In a performance that was so machine-like it finally became boring. Thank God, I bowled only one over. I tested him with a couple of short deliveries which he hit for 7.
In Not Just for Openers
Doug Walters
Perhaps his [Sobers’s] dig resulted in a rush of blood to my head, for I made 127, the last 110 in 104 minutes. That was the first time I ever made a hundred runs in a session in an international match.
In The Doug Walters Story
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