One of the seemingly endless ways in which Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards left the game of cricket better than he found it, was his 56 ball 100 in the fourth innings of a Test match vs England in 1986. His innings set the record for the fastest Test century which stayed unbeaten for the next 31 years.
The captain of the West Indies side came to his own against an English side that did not seem to have any answers to the brilliance at the display from the original “Master Blaster.”
#OnThisDay in 1986, Viv Richards slammed a 56-ball hundred against England in St Johns 💥
It was the fastest Test 💯 for almost 30 years, before Brendon McCullum broke the record in 2016.
Here are all the scoring shots from Richards’ record-breaking innings ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Bjds16fXGN
— ICC (@ICC) April 15, 2020
Richards scored 110 of 58 deliveries and stayed not out as the West Indies declared soon after his record-breaking century which included seven fours and seven sixes. Richards strike rate, make no mistake it was in a Test match, read 189.65.
Consequently, the Windies led England by 410 runs and it was indeed the English side which ended up losing the game by as many as 240 runs. Quite clearly, it was one innings that had turned the match on its head and Richards was adjudged the Player of the Match.
More than 3 decades later, Viv’s record for the fastest 100 was broken by New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum who reached the triple figures mark in just 54 balls in 2016 against Australia in Christchurch.