5 Best Blockathon

Match-Saving Knocks

Introduction

No format of Cricket tests the skills of a cricketer more than Test cricket

The longest format of cricket pushes cricketers to show amount of determination and patience too

Test cricket has witnessed some highly patient yet heroic knocks

Which helped their team secure a hard-fought stalemate

Mike Atherton (England)185* (492 Balls) vs. South Africa at Johannesburg,

1995

Mike Atherton produced one of the most memorable match-saving knocks in the history of cricket

He scored a marathon 185 not out off 492 balls to pull a draw against South Africa

England was chasing a mammoth target of 479 when skipper Mike Atherton took up the mantle of saving the match

Atherton put on an unbelievable display of Test match batting against world class bowlers like Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock

To be precise, he spent 10 hours and 43 minutes at the crease

Mark Greatbatch (New Zealand)146* (485 Balls) vs. Australia at Perth, 1989

Being asked to follow on, New Zealand were tottering at 107  for 4 at one stage

Mark Greatbatch remained steady at the crease and built a couple of match-saving partnerships

His 82 runs stand with Jeff Crowe was one of these

Burly Kiwi scored an unbeaten 146 facing as many as 485 deliveries

Which resulted in saving his team from a heavy loss

Andy Flower (Zimbabwe)232* (444 Balls) vs. India at Nagpur, 2000

You can place this inning at the top of Andy Flower's many single-handed rescue efforts

Zimbabwe had followed on 227 runs behind, and were 61 for 3

Flower dug in against handy Indian attack including Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan

He spent nearly 544 minutes at the crease facing 444 balls

His 232 not out remains the highest Test score by a wicket-keeper

Faf du Plessis (South Africa)110* (376 Balls) vs. Australia at Adelaide, 2012

In his debut game, Faf du Plessis gave batsmen all over the world a crash course on saving a Test match

Chasing 430, the Proteas were already 4 wickets down for 77

First session of the last day saw Faf du Plessis repairing the inning with AB de Villiers without losing a wicket till lunch

Soon after the beginning of the post-tea session, the young South African reached a memorable century

Faf du Plessis showed extreme determination to pull a historic draw for South Africa

Jacques Kallis (South Africa)109* (346 Balls) vs. West Indies at Guyana, 2005

Jacques Kallis is one of the few players who made a career out of saving Tests

South Africans were enforced to follow on after getting all out for 188 in response of West Indies 543

The Proteas 2nd innings was all about a dogged resistance from Jacques Kallis

He scored unbeaten 109 from 346 balls and batted almost 7 hours

He make sure that his team left the match unscathed, avoiding an embarrassing loss