Top 5 Unexpected knocks in international cricket

3. Jason Gillespie 201* (425) vs Bangladesh at Chittagong, 2006

It was the second match of the Australia-Bangladesh Test series in 2006. Australia had already won the first Test. Bangladesh won the toss and chose to bat first. They were bowled out for just 197 runs. Mathew Hayden and Phil Jaques came out to open. Hayden was caught out for 29 runs and as there were only 22 minutes left in the day. Ponting sent out his best blocker i.e 31-year-old Jason Gillespie as the night-watchman.

As what night watchmen are supposed to do, Jason didn’t lose his wicket on the first day and came out to bat on the second. Jason looked steadfast in his defense. He soon started hitting boundaries and it looked like that a proper No.3 batsman was playing at the crease. If someone was watching cricket on that day for the first time in his life, he would have perceived Gillespie as a proper batsman who has eight to nine hundreds to his name. But this wasn’t the case. No one expected Gillespie to score above 50 but he got to his hundred, then 150 and then finally double hundred out of nowhere.

He and Michael Hussey struck a 320-run partnership before Hussey got out after scoring 182 off just 203 balls. Ponting wanted to declare but Jason was in his 190s, So he let him achieve the milestone. Gillespie reached his double hundred and Ponting declared the innings. Before coming out to bat, Gillespie had only two fifties and zero hundreds in front of his name. The innings was declared at 581/4 and Australia won the Test match on fourth day itself by an innings and 80 runs. Gillespie was adjudged the Man of the match and Man of the series also. This match also turned out to be his last match.