Vinay Kumar
In the first match of the Test series between Zimbabwe and West Indies (ZIM vs WI), Zimbabwe’s batsman Gary Ballance created a unique record in the history of international Test cricket. He has scored a century in Test cricket playing for two different countries in his career.
Significantly, Gary Ballance has also played Test cricket for England before stepping into Test cricket for Zimbabwe. He scored a century in Test cricket even while playing for the English team.
The history of international Test cricket tells that before Gary Ballance, only one batsman in the world had such a record. Kepler Wessels played for both South Africa and Australia during his international Test career and scored centuries in both the teams.
Records show that Gary Ballance played a total of 23 Test matches for England between 2014 and 2017. During that time, he became the third batsman from the English team to score the fastest 1000 runs in Test cricket. In the year 2015, he scored a century while playing for the England team.
Born in Zimbabwe, Balance has decided to play for Zimbabwe in the year 2022. And, now playing for Zimbabwe, hit a fresh century in the ongoing Test match against the West Indies. Significantly, Zimbabwe declared the innings on a score of 379 runs in the first innings. In this innings, Gary Balance faced 231 balls and scored 137 runs with the help of 12 fours and 2 sixes.
Significantly, in this match being played at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first and declared their innings after scoring 447 runs for 6 wickets in their first innings. After which, while chasing this target, Zimbabwe scored 379 runs in their first innings at the loss of 9 wickets and declared the innings. Now at the end of play on February 7, the fourth day of the match, the West Indies had scored 21 runs in their second innings without losing any wickets and currently lead Zimbabwe by 89 runs.
For the West Indies, opening pair of Craig Brathwaite and Tej Narine Chanderpaul performed brilliantly in the first innings. Brathwaite played an inning of 182 runs in 312 balls with the help of 18 fours. And, Chanderpaul scored 207 runs in 467 balls with the help of 16 fours and 3 sixes.