Hermann's 150 and a world record with an asterisk
Jordan Hermann's record-equalling ODI debut hundred came after he survived a run-out that should have sent him back for 30, highlighting the inequities of a game without DRS
All things being equal Jordan Hermann would have been out for 30 in Windhoek on Wednesday. But all things were not equal and he scored 150. And thereby hangs a share of a world record.
Hermann’s timing was off when he drove Max Heingo to mid-off in the 16th over of the inaugural men’s ODI between Namibia and South Africa. Hermann and Tony de Zorzi set off on a single anyway.
The throw came in clean and straight, and the direct hit splayed the stumps at the non-striker’s end. The umpire said not out. Replays proved him wrong — clearly Hermann was short of his ground. But because DRS is not being used in the series Hermann survived and prospered.
So much so that he matched the 150 Matthew Breetzke scored against New Zealand in Lahore in February as the highest score made by an ODI debutant. Breetzke would have watched that happen from the dressingroom; he is in South Africa’s squad but he didn’t play on Wednesday. Oh to have been around when the two of them met between innings.
None of which is meant to suggest Hermann didn’t play well until he lobbed a catch to backward point off a slower ball — the 126th delivery he faced — from Ruben Trumpelmann in the 42nd. His focus was unshakeable and he hit the ball cleanly and crisply, and with authority. He stroked 17 fours and three sixes — comprising more than half of his runs — hammered more than a third of them between point and mid-off, and scored 35 from his pull shot alone. He ran hard for 39 singles, eight twos and three threes. Hermann shared 190 off 167 with De Zorzi, who scored 72 off 84, and 58 off 45 with Dewald Brevis.
But he should have been out for 30. Did he know that, and how did it make him feel?
Bizarrely, Hermann wasn’t asked that question at the press conference that followed the match. Instead it was all about the 150.
“My whole life I’ve been taught that you don't just get 100,” he told reporters.“You try to push it further and further.”
Happily Cricbuzz, with the help of the team’s media manager were able to track down an answer to the most relevant question that somehow went unasked.
“I did see on the big screen that I was a couple of inches short and I tried to capitalise on that,” Hermann said.
Fair enough. Players don’t dismiss themselves, especially when they’ve been run out.
And it wasn’t as if South Africa needed Hermann to stay at the crease to stay in the match. It helped that he scored almost half their total of 348/6. But they were always odds on to beat their neighbours, who were set a DLS target of 262 off 31 after two interruptions for rain and shambled to 162/8 with Prenelan Subrayen taking 4/29.
Even so it has to hurt the Namibians that, in countries where cricket enjoys more money, DRS would have rewarded them for ending Hermann’s innings 120 runs before they were able to get him out a second time. Let no-one try to pretend modern international cricket is fair to all who play it.
