Players who remained unbeaten on 99 in 21st century ODIs
Any cricketer who plays for their country wants to contribute their best for the nation. For any batsman, scoring a century is the biggest milestone that they cherish the most. However, some players get unlucky sometimes and get out in the 90s. It is a bigger disappointment if someone gets out on 99 or remains stranded on 99. In ODI cricket there are 11 players who remained unbeaten on 99 since 2000.
Alistair Campbell – Zimbabwe
The first player to remain not out on 99 in ODIs in the 21st century was Alistair Campbell of Zimbabwe. His team was chasing 265 runs in that match, and were en route an easy victory. With 9 runs to win, Campbell was batting on 98 and it seemed he would get a century. But in the 48th over, his partner O’Connor smashed a six on the second ball, and then both took singles on the next two balls. With Campbell unbeaten on 99 at the other end, O’Connor hit the winning run with a boundary on the fifth ball.
Ramnaresh Sarwan – West Indies
Later in 2002, Ramnaresh Sarwan of West Indies had a similar fate but this time while batting first. The West Indies team scored 324/4 in their 50 overs with a century from Chris Gayle and a 99-run unbeaten knock from Sarwan. In his 104-ball innings, Sarwan hit a total of 8 fours and shared a 66-run partnership with Carl Hooper for the fifth wicket. India chased this total in 47.4 overs winning the match by 5 wickets with Rahul Dravid hitting a wonderful century.
Hodge, Yousuf, Clarke follow suit
Five years later in 2007, Brad Hodge played a 99-run not out innings off 86 balls in a successful 291-run chase against New Zealand. In the same year, Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan too missed a century against India in the Gwalior ODI. India won this match by 6 wickets as they chased 256 runs in 46.3 overs. Former Australian captain Micheal Clarke too went to the pavilion after scoring 99 not out against England in 2010.
Virender Sehwag – the unluckiest
One of the unluckiest players to miss out a century on this score was Virender Sehwag. India were chasing 171 runs in this match and by the end of 34 overs, they were 166/4 with Sehwag playing on 99. There were 4 bye runs on the first ball of the 35th over and the next two balls were dot. On the fourth ball, Suraj Randiv bowled a controversial no-ball denying a well-deserved ton to Sehwag.
After Sehwag, there have been 5 more batsmen who missed out on a hundred in the last moments of the innings. This includes Malcolm Waller, Swapnil Patil, Calum MacLeod, Jason Holder and Evin Lewis. It is to be noted that Jason Holder is yet to score a century in the 50-over format. He could have gotten his first one against PNG in 2018, but he took a single when 1 run was needed off 43 balls to win, while batting on 98.
