Desmond Haynes : Record holder for the highest score in ODI debut : Limited version games have always been dominated by the batsmen with the bowlers being hit all over the park and beyond, more so by the so-called ‘power-hitters’.
Batsmen like Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, to name a few, prove to bowlers’ nightmare.
Under the circumstances, if a batsman does these heroics on debut, that adds to the flavour.
The first ODI between West Indies and Australia of 1977-78 series was played on 22nd February, 1978, at Antigua Recreation Ground, St John’s, Antigua.
Five West Indies players – Richard Austin, Faoud Bacchus, Wayne Daniel, Irvine Shillingford and Desmond Haynes made their debut for in ODIs.
Australia led by Bob Simpson won the toss and elected to field.
Desmond Haynes, who in later years, went to put up many record breaking partnerships alongwith Gordon Greenidge, had the company of the other debutant Richard Austin, to open the innings.
Losing Austin (8) very early, Haynes put up small partnerships of 29 runs for the second wicket with (Sir) Vivian Richards (9), 22 runs for the third wicket with Alvin Kalicharan (7) and 43 runs for the fifth wicket with Irvine Shillingford (24) respectively.
Wicket-keeper-skipper, Deryck Murray then joined Haynes with West Indies at 121 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. The duo went on a running spree and added 126 runs for the sixth wicket. This was the highest partnership for any wicket in that match.
Haynes was ruthless on the bowlers with the likes of Jeff Thomson, Wayne Clark, Ian Callen, Bob Simpson, Trevor Laughlin unable to stop his onslaught.
After spending 191 minutes at the crease, facing 136 deliveries, Haynes was bowled out by Jeff Thomson but not after scoring his maiden ODI century – 148 runs with the help of 16 fours and 2 sixes at 108.82 strike rate.
Thereafter three more wickets fell in the form of Joel Garner (13), Andy Roberts (3) and Murray (51).
West Indies put up a mammoth 313 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 50 overs. Thomson, the most successful Aussie bower, finished with the analysis of 10-0-67-4.
Thanks to the weather god, the match got reduced to 36 overs and Australia had to chase the revised target of 226 runs.
Except for Gary Cosier (84), no other Aussie batsman could make any significant contribution. West Indies speedsters, Colin Croft (10-1-44-3) and Joel Garner (8-0-29-3) ensured just that.
Australian innings folded up with 181 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 36 overs. West Indies won the match by 44 runs and went 1-0 up in the 2-match series.
For his blitzkrieg with the bat, Desmond Haynes walked off with the ‘Player of the Match’ award which was the icing on the cake.
This record of Dessy Haynes still remains undisturbed.
