Scoring a century for your country is always a dream for any batsman. The feeling of helping your team put up a big total is of intense satisfaction.
Raising the bat, soaking in the applause of the teammates and the crowd is what a batsman looks forward to when he entered the 90s.
However, at times this prospect of a century and the celebration burst away if the batter gets out. It is painful then. It is even more painful when the batter gets denied his three-figure score due to rain!!
In 2022, so far with 7 months past, there have been two instances of a batsman being left disappointed and frustrated as he was close to making a century but the rain played spoilsport.
Here are the two occasions when the batsmen were denied their hundreds by rain:
Quinton de Kock
In the third ODI vs England at Leeds in July, South African opener Quinton de Kock was left stranded as he missed out on what would have been his 18th ODI century by 8 runs as rain interrupted the match and didn’t relent at all.
Batting first, de Kock had raced to 92* in 76 balls and would have looked to smash the three-figure score quickly, but the rain arrived at the point, the 28th over of SA’s innings, and didn’t let any play happen after that, forcing the match to be called off.
Shubman Gill
India opener Shubman Gill was cruelly denied what would have been his maiden ODI century – his maiden international century for that matter – by rain in the third ODI against West Indies in Port Of Spain as the right-hander had to end his innings at 98* which he had scored at run-a-ball with the help of 7 fours and 2 sixes.
However, it is Gill who also have to take the guilt of not batting faster enough – he dawdled from 84 (83) to 98 (98) dealing mostly in singles without taking much risk – knowing that rain could have arrived any moment as the match had already been curtailed down to 38 overs and then eventually to 35 overs when India’s innings was called off after 36 overs with Gill on 98*.
“It was bittersweet, I was expecting to get 100. It was not under my control as it rained, but I was happy with my innings,” Gill said while bagging the Man of the Match award. That was perhaps a lesson for the 22-year-old as he missed his century while looking for his century by batting more cautiously than needed.
