Stats: Batsmen with highest individual scores who carried out their bat in a Test inning

Any amateur cricket fan could tell you that a batsman will be referred to as ‘not out’ if he comes out to bat and doesn’t get dismissed throughout till the culmination of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress and is denoted by an asterisk at the end of his score, for e.g., 100*. However, a batsman staying not out until the end is one of the toughest jobs in cricket. Only determination and hard work won’t cut it. One needs to have the tenacity, perseverance and the match- presence to guide you through to the end.

Former England skipper Alastair Cook currently tops the list of openers who carried out their bat with his blistering 244* in the ongoing 4th Ashes Test at Melbourne. In the process, the crafty left-hander scripted history by shattering records.

With the double ton, Cook became the first Englishman since Wally Hammond to score a double hundred at the MCG (in 1928) and his 244 not out is now the highest score made by any player against Australia in Melbourne, breaking the 208 Viv Richards made for the West Indies in 1984.

Cook also overtook Mahela Jayawardene, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Brian Lara to move into outright sixth place among test cricket’s all-time leading scorers while posting the fifth double century of his career.

Legendary English opener Len Hutton features in the list at the fifth spot. The late England opener enjoyed a long and illustrious career spanning almost 18 years, before pulling down a curtain in 1955. His knock of 202* against West Indies in 1950 is still amongst the top scores where the batsmen carried the bat.

The only Indian to feature in the list is Virender Sehwag. Succeeding Hutton at the 6th spot, Sehwag’s 201* against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2008 could be recounted as one of his finest innings.

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