200 is the new hundred

There was a time, not too long ago, that reaching a hundred in a one-day international was thought to be the pinnacle of achievement for a batsman. A century may still occupy some special significance in a batsman's career, but in a broader perspective, a hundred has seemed to lose much of its lustre of late, thanks to the invasion of 200s.

Yes, 200 is the new hundred.

Remember the first ever World Cup match that was played between England and India at Lord's in 1975? Not too many people might remember the outcome or scorecard of that match, where England expectedly handed a massive 202 run-defeat to India, for it belongs to a bygone era. But the thing from that match that stands out to this day – and is often cited as a reminder of how much one-day cricket and cricket in general has evolved – is the innings from Sunil Gavaskar. The legendary batsman opened the Indian innings and stayed at the wicket for all 60 overs – a great display of technique and temperament no doubt -- and ended up scoring only 36 off 174 deliveries. Gavaskar might not have won the match for India, and to be fair he never meant to -- but the innings exemplified how most teams of that era approached one-day cricket: try playing the full quota of overs and that will end up with us having a decent score on the board, or if batting second, at least salvage some pride of not being bowled out. By the end of the 60 overs, India had lost only three wickets and amassed 132 runs. There were exceptions of course, for example, the West Indian batsmen always took it to the bowlers and the English and the Australians did so too at times, but for most, a run-a-ball innings was believed to be the benchmark of A-Grade batsmanship. And things stayed that way for a long, long time, albeit with a few upward kinks here and there, until the introduction of the Twenty20s in 2003.

The newest form of cricket brought about batting improvisations of all sorts –the no-stump approach, the switch-hit, the reverse flick and the helicopter shot to name a few –and those innovations were transferred to the one-day format which already was increasingly lenient to batsmen and severe on the bowlers with batsman-friendly rules being adopted.

Hence, while the first 39 years of ODI cricket did not witness a single double century, the last six years featured six, including two in the current World Cup. While the first 35 years produced 33 individual of scores 150 or more, there have been as many as 45 such instances in the last ten years. And there have been 15 team totals of 400 or more in the last ten years, which was previously unthinkable.

So the day may not be too far when someone will score the first individual 300 and a team will reach the magical figure of 500.