Zimbabwe's Coventry equals ODI batting record

 Dear (s)

 

Even the regular followers of the game might not know the name of Charles Kevin Coventry, born on 8^th March 1983 and made a lackluster debut way back in 2003.  Infact he played against Indians making his Test debut in 2005. 

Soon all Sport quizzers will get to know his name.  A double-century in an ODI remains an elusive dream for batsmen.  On some occasions, players have come painfully close but not a single male player has converted it thus far.    In the Independence Cup during 2007 in sweltering Chennai heat, desert fox Saeed Anwar came close to realizing this dream.    Sachin captained India and can you recall the bowlers of ignominy.  See the bottom of this article. 

Now coming to our new hero -  Charles "Chappie" Coventry is an aggressive middle-order batsman who can open in one-day cricket and also keep wicket. He was Zimbabwe's youngest first-class player at 15 years 303 days, for Matabeleland in 1998, although that was due to being in the right place when a selected player withdrew at the last minute. Son of international umpire Charles Coventry, he learned his cricket at Whitestone School and Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo, and plays for Bulawayo Athletic Club.  He bats in glasses and most of his successes have been in one-day cricket though nothing outstanding thus far.   He reportedly was sent out of WI tour for disciplinary reasons   -  all that is thing of the past.    

 

At Queens Sports Club, Bullawayo on 16^th Aug 2009, a  masterfully paced knock in the fourth ODI against Bangladesh catapulted him to the top of the most-runs-scored-in-an-innings chart. He walked in after Zimbabwe had made their usual poor start, losing Mark Vermeulen in the second over and remained unbeaten with 194 made of 156 balls.  But even that was not enough was Zimbabwe as the tourists ramped home by 4 wickets with 13 balls to spare  outweighed by the efforts of Tamim Iqbal.

 

Here is a comparison of Coventry’s efforts with than of Saeed Anwar

Player	Status	Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s	SR
CK Coventry	not out	194	191	156	16	7	124.35
Saeed Anwar	Out	194	206	146	22	5	132.87

 

 And in case,  you still want to know the Indian attack put to grind by Anwar at Chepauk – it was spearheaded by our present bowling coach – Venkatesh Prasad with Kuruvilla, Kumble, Sunil Joshi, Robin and Sachin completing the quota.  In fact the main spinner Sunil Joshi bowled only 4 overs and fared poorly on the field too.

 

With regards

S Sampathkumar.

17.8.2009

A post circulated to my group – those days my blog had not been born !

From: S Sampathkumar <samviji@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 7:44 AM
Subject: RECORDS ARE MEANT TO BE REWRITTEN

Update

That was to be his only 100 !  - he ended up playing 2 tests and 39 ODIs + 13 T20Is for Zimbabwe.  This bespectacled player still holds the record for the highest ever ODI score bating at no. 3 position – though few 200s have come later made by Openers.