Every other day under the stewardship of head coach Brendon McCullum, England are almost breaking new records. The latest record that they set was 50 of the fastest team in Test cricket.
Actually, on Thursday 18 July, in the second test match against West Indies at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, previous putting them into bat, this was what happened; Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope batted with a lot of flash to get their side to fifty within just 4.2 overs.
At the moment of authoring, the England cricket team is doing quite well at 119 for 2 wickets. Pope & Joe Root are leading the T20 team’s recovery while Duckett had found himself at fifty not out in thirty-two deliveries thus becoming among the great batters of our time.
#5 Sir Ian Botham – 28 balls vs India, 1981
In December 1981, at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi, Sir Ian Botham, England’s all-time favourite player, scored the fastest fifty after facing just 28 balls in a match against India. The Kotla was known to provide some bounce even though it was a batting paradise with very few lower-than-waist-height balls, and this Sir Ian Botham took full advantage of.
England batted first, scoring a massive 476-9 declared. In this inning, stellar centuries came from Geoff Boycott and Chris Tavare (105 and 149 respectively) and Sir Ian chipped in 42 balls and only 66 runs, breaking this record.
#4 Jonny Bairstow – 30 balls vs New Zealand, 2022
The fifty runs he made from just 30 balls against New Zealand at Headingley, Leeds during the summer of 2022 means that England’s wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow comes second in this countdown mainly because of his reputation as a very aggressive player.
In the first innings, Bairstow may have made 100(162) runs to find for New Zealand’s 329. In the second innings, he continued his run with a 71 off 44 balls to help England chase down 296 runs. This is a series of events that took place whereby England managed to win by seven wickets at Bairstow’s home ground when they batted 54.2 overs for 296 runs.
Ollie Pope (82) as well as Joe Root (86) contributed significantly to this victory along with his 71 runs (44 balls) while Bairstow too made 100 from 162 balls in the first innings to help England post 329.
#3 Sir Ian Botham – 32 balls vs New Zealand, 1986
Sir Ian Botham’s otherworldly feat of tallying a half-century in only 32 balls against New Zealand at the Oval in London one summer afternoon is worth mentioning for the nth time. Wright’s former India coach John Wright, who made a painstaking 119, steered New Zealand to 287 in their first innings.
England declared at 388-5 in the second innings. Mike Gatting made a hundred and twenty-one runs and David Gower one hundred and thirty-one for themselves while Sir Ian contributed with a spectacular fifty-nine not out of thirty-six deliveries that pushed his side into a first-innings lead.
The entirety of the rest of the match was washed out by rains except for one over which was bowled in New Zealand’s second innings.
#2 Ben Duckett – 32 balls vs West Indies, 2024
On Thursday, 19 July 2019 in Nottinghamshire, at the youthful Trent Bridge green top, England were inserted to bat by the West Indies, but they got off to a flyer despite losing their opener, Zak Crawley, off the third delivery of the innings; England opener Ben Duckett was on fire and helped himself to a very good half-century from just 32 balls – thus featuring in this list.
He eventually lost his wicket when he had scored 71 runs from 58 balls as he was caught by Jason Holder off a delivery from Shamar Joseph.
#1 Allan Lamb – 33 balls vs New Zealand, 1992
Allan Lamb, previously an English cricket player, is rated fifth here due to his 33-ball half-century in the second innings against the Kiwis in Eden Park, Auckland during their 1992 tour. The Englishmen went in to bat first and managed to make a decent effort of 203 in trying circumstances.
Nonetheless, the Kiwis were all out for a paltry 142 in their knock, as Chris Lewis took 5-31. On the second innings, England made 321 thanks in large part to Graham Gooch’s hundred (114) and Lamb’s fifty (60 from 47). After this New Zealand was skittled out quite cheaply with the English taking the match by a comfortable 168 runs.
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