On this day in 1972, England batter Dennis Amiss scored the first-ever century in one-day-international history against Australia in the first match of the three-match series in Manchester. This was a remarkable achievement back then. The first-ever ODI was played on January 5, 1971 between these two sides. Many players had to adjust to this new limited overs format of the sport. Hitting a century indeed meant that batters were slowly getting accustomed to this then-new format.
Amiss had hit a 134-ball 103 decorated with nine classy fours that helped England secure a six-wicket win over Australia. Electing to bat first, Australia posted 222/8 in 55 overs. Captain Ian Chappell (53), Ross Edwards (57) and Greg Chappell (40) delivered some good contributions. Medium pacer Bob Woolmer (3/33) and Goeff Arnold (2/38) took vital wickets for England.
Chasing 223, England lost Geoff Boycott for 25 at a score of 48. But then a 125-run stand followed between Amiss and Keith Fletcher, who fell for 60 to Bob Massie to break the stand. Amiss stuck around and hit the first-ever ODI ton and was dismissed by Graeme Watson (2/28) when the team was eight runs away from the win. England chased down the total in 49.1 overs. This would not be the only century that Amiss would score. In his 18-match ODI career, he would go on to score three more. In 18 matches, he scored 859 runs at a superb average of 47.72 and best individual score of 137. His century showed that the batters were slowly started to adapt to this new format of cricket.
Years later, a century being scored is a common sight in cricket. Many batters worldwide have broken records on their path towards scoring in three-digits. Players have posted a monstrous amount of runs with these centuries. India’s Sachin Tendulkar has scored the highest number of centuries in ODI cricket, with a total of 49. He is followed by the likes of Virat Kohli (43), Ricky Ponting (30), Rohit Sharma (29). Sanath Jayasuriya (28), Hashim Amla (27) and Ab De Villiers (25) etc.
