Batting

	Name	Score	For	Against	Season	Rating
1	GA Gooch	154*	Eng	WI	1991	252.0

On a traditionally tricky Headingley wicket, against a typical West Indies pace quartet that included Curtly Ambrose, Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh, Graham Gooch carried his bat through the second innings, scoring over 60% of England's runs (no-one else made more than 27) to set up their first home win over West Indies since 1969. A true captain's innings, it's right up there at No. 3 in The Wisden 100.

2

IT Botham

149*

Eng

Aust

1981

240.8

Headingley has proved a batsman's graveyard so often that any major innings there is likely to be highly rated. So it's no surprise to find two in the top four of The Wisden 100. This one changed a match, a series, and even how a country felt about itself. After his pair at Lord's, Ian Botham lost the captaincy - but rediscovered his form. With only three wickets left, England were 92 short of making Australia bat again, only for Botham's outrageous hitting to turn the match on its head. England won after following on, the series was squared - and Botham hadn't finished yet. His performances that year made him England's last authentic cricketing hero.

3

JH Edrich

310*

Eng

NZ

1965

217.1

New Zealand were tearing their hair out over this. Left-hander John Edrich played and missed almost as often as he connected - but he had the classic opening batsman's ability to forget about the last ball and deal harshly with the next. A Test record 238 of his runs came in boundaries as England won by an innings. His knock is at No. 20 in the Wisden 100.

4

DB Vengsarkar

102*

Ind

Eng

1986

206.9

Dilip Vengsarkar had made an unbeaten century to help win the previous Test at Lord's. Now he did it again, only better. According to Wisden, he demonstrated "the art of batting on a bad pitch", shepherding the tail so well that India won a low-scoring match and took a winning 2-0 lead in the series.

5

DG Bradman

334

Aust

Eng

1930

201.1

You could say The Don quite liked Headingley. Four years later, he would make 304 there against England. But on this occasion (1930) he showed the hand-eye co-ordination and confidence of youth (he was only 21) in hitting 309 in a day, a record in Test cricket. He made 974 runs in the series, another Test best, as Australia regained the Ashes.

6

PJP Burge

160

Aust

Eng

1964

193.3

Australia were 187 for 7 when England captain Ted Dexter took the new ball. This turned out to be a mistake. Taking advantage of some ill-advised bouncers from Fred Trueman, Peter Burge put all his meaty strength into a series of hooks that turned the game. The last three wickets added 211 runs to win the match and eventually the series.

7

G Boycott

191

Eng

Aust

1977

189.1

Trust Sir Geoffrey to hog the limelight. He batted for ten hours, became the first man to hit his 100th hundred during a Test match, and was on the field throughout the game. Oh, and England won the match and regained the Ashes.

8

DG Bradman

103

Aust

Eng

1938

187.9

No treble-century this time - but the pitch and the light weren't as good as in 1930 and 1934. Keeping the strike expertly, Bradman reached his hundred while no-one else in the lower order made more than 13. Australia took a narrow first-innings lead and won the match to retain the Ashes.

9

MTG Elliott

199

Aust

Eng

1997

176.6

Matthew Elliott was annoyed to join the exclusive band of batsmen dismissed for 199 in Tests - but it was a minor irritation. Riding his luck (he was dropped three times), he added 268 with Ricky Ponting to set up an innings win. Elliott scored 556 runs in the series, which Australia won 3-2 to retain the Ashes.

10

MA Butcher

116

Eng

SA

1998

176.5

Against an opening attack of Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, Mark Butcher held it together in every sense. Opening the batting, he made his maiden Test century out of a total of only 230. In a low-scoring match, it was enough to beat South Africa by just 23 runs and win the series.

The Headingley Top Ten - Bowling
Wisden 100 - the full list

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