Most In An Innings

During the one-season lifetime of our Friday night team, GG, there was often a need for our players to compete among themselves - because the opposition were not providing any challenge. The most common game was for the batters in a particular pair to see who could hit the most sevens in their four overs.

On the other side of the coin, Popped Collars, our "pro team", are occasionally excited about (or bagging out the opposition for) playing "pro-style indoor" - that is, hitting lots of safe twos.

So today I'm going to check out the most of each scoring shot that has been achieved by a batsman in an innings.

Zero
Starting at the bottom. Dot balls. For our team, it is Andy Ragg. In a gripping game against the 4Skins, he saw off 9 dot balls, including an extraordinary 7 of them in the final 2 overs of the match. In his case, however, the acheivement was a justified tactic of seeing off the final overs when the Popped Collars needed only a few runs and managed to hang on for a 3-run win.

The true "honour" however, goes to a chap by the name of Dave from the team 501. In February this year he played an innings in which he faced a mammoth 23 balls, 11 of which were dots. To his credit, he also didn't lose a wicket until the final over, when he managed to hit his own wicket off Rian's bowling.

One
Standing out at the top of the singles list is Jake. Clearly just trying to turn the strike over, in his innings of 9 singles, he made a score of 23, comfortably outscoring batting partner Andy (10) despite only losing 1 less wicket and facing 2 more deliveries. Perhaps scoring singles is a viable strategy...

Two
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the "pro-scoring shot" - the two - has its record held by a player from the D.I.L.I.G.A.F.S. Many of their batsmen love to the play the pro-style, and clearly have been doing so for many many years now. Probably starting back in the days when they were the local centre-brats. The batter is "Shud" or "Shuddy" or "Shutty" depending on which umpire you ask. The record is 11 in an innings.

Three
The record here is 6 in an innings. It is by Andy, and it was in the same innings that he made the record for "highest score without hitting the back net".

Four
The side-back record is 5 in an innings by Brad. It was in the second game of a double-header. In a 109-run drubbing of St Jude's Dads. Brad made 48 that match.

Five
The next time we took on St Jude's Dads, Brad grabbed himself the next record. To go with his 5 fours, he this time claimed 4 fives. Clearly it doesn't matter which route the ball takes to the back net, Brad likes to put it there. Especially against the Dads.

Seven
This is the only score for which there is a tie for top place. Many people have racked up 4 sevens in an innings. Opposition batters have done it 5 times, and Popped Collars players 6 times.

Sam from the Boonies team was the first to do it, followed by 4 other opponents in the following 4 months. Since April 2010, however, no opponent has managed it, and we have pulled it off 6 times.

Xavier did it first, followed by Pearson (who actually hit 7 of them in the game, because he batted twice). In the last 3 months, Julian has done it once, and Rian has racked up a quadruple on 3 occasions! Certianly keeping up his average of more than 1 per game.