When Sri Lanka battered the listless Kenyans to score a mammoth 398 in the 1996 World Cup match at Kandy, the run-glut was looked upon as the gateway to a new trend of setting monstrous one-day totals. Not until the time when South Africa and Australia fought against each other in the insanely mesmerising one-dayer at Johannesburg last year, the Lankan assault on the minnows had remained the only stark reminder of what an in-form batting line-up could do to a weak bowling attack. Quite a few teams, in the next two World Cups that followed, managed to get off to starts that were precisely the 398-kind. Even in matches outside the World Cup, huge targets were being set. Nevertheless, 398 seemed a big moutain that was always in sight of great batting sides, but none quite managed to scale it. Until Johannesburg happened when the likes of Sanath Jayasuryia, Asanka Gurusinha, Aravinda de Silva and Romesh Kaluwitharana finally were pushed to the background. On stage, who had successfully attempted the coup, were the GenNext batsmen: Gibbs, Ponting, Boucher, Hussey and Smith. In a mad rush to collect runs on a perfect flat strip, the Aussies scored at a rate of 8.68 runs per over to get past the 400-run mark and record a total of 434, thus creating history. Not the ones to be done in at home, the Proteas responded in remarkable style and allowed their opponents to enjoy the distinction for no more than just a few hours. When the match ended, Graeme Smith’s team had not only shocked the world champions but made the entire world sit up and wonder that they could chase the target with a ball to spare! Even if the cynics were to maintain that scoring close to 900 runs in a one-day match was nothing but just a one-off stuff, it was hard to neglect the fact that such big totals can be chased. Four months later, Sri Lanka earned the record back when they thrashed the hapless Netherlands for 443 off 50 overs in a day match at Amstelveen. In September last, the South Africans attempted another shot at raising the bar, this time against Zimbabwe, but settled for a mere 418 at Potchefstroom and totals of 400 suddenly began to look like something of a routine. Ten years ago, Lanka’s 398 had remained the sort of dream that a team would yearn to achieve. Now with the 400-and-above trend making its way, the sky could be the limit. Surprising as it may sound, 12 out of the 15 highest one-day totals recorded in the history of the game have come about in matches played between the ICC’s Elite Test playing nations. Except for a few games, where teams like Kenya and the Netherlands have had to bear the brunt, the bigger totals have mostly been scored by teams of equal status. Apart from the Johannesburg game, New Zealand canned Zimbabwe to 397, India thrashed Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup for 373 runs while at home, they walloped the Kiwis to score 376. South Africa, meanwhile, missed the 400-run mark again when they scored 392 against Pakistan early this year in February. Now rewind to Sri Lanka’s 398 10 years ago. It wasn’t a flash in the pan.
