The right-handed batsman reached the magic figure of a double century in just 220 balls. (representative photo)
Botham played a brilliant innings of 208 runs at a strike rate of 92.04 with 19 fours and four maximums.
Ian Botham is widely regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders to have played the game. The British had the ability and confidence to crush any opposition anywhere in the world. One of his such efforts, one of the biggest innings of his cricket, came against India at the Kennington Oval in London.
England was against India in the last Test match of the three-match series on 9 July 1982. The toss went in favor of home captain Bob Willis and he elected to bat. Botham, a stylish middle-order batsman in the first innings, saw his head turning. He played a brilliant innings of 208 runs.
The special thing about this innings was that he reached the magic figure of double century in just 220 balls. It was the fastest recorded double century in terms of facing the ball at that time.
His innings had 19 fours and four sixes.
Botham’s exploits took the hosts to a mammoth total of 594 runs. In reply, India scored 410 runs and Kapil Dev played a brilliant innings of 97 runs. It was a high scoring game and there is no doubt that the batsmen ruled the show. England declared on 191 in the third innings. Chris Taware was the highest run-scorer for the hosts as he added 75 runs to the scoreboard.
However, the England bowlers failed to take all the ten wickets of the Indian batsman within the stipulated time and as a result the match ended in a draw. Meanwhile, England went on to win the Test series 1–0 as they won the first Test by seven wickets.
Botham held the coveted record for 20 years before Adam Gilchrist made the leap. Australia scored a double century in 212 balls against South Africa.
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