Garfield Sobers, Renowned ‘All-Rounder’ Cricket Star, Dies at 89

In cricket, there are the batsmen, who finesse the ball with a careful shot or bash it to the boundary.

There are the bowlers, who speed the ball past the batsmen or baffle them with a spinner.

And then there are that rare breed, the all-rounders, who do both things well.

Garfield Sobers, who in the long history of cricket was quite possibly the best all-rounder of them all, has died. He was 89.

Cricket West Indies announced the death in a statement on Friday that did not cite a cause or say where he died.

Although initially considered primarily a spin bowler, Sobers, who was known as Garry, swiftly showed himself to be a brilliant batsman as well. He scored 365 runs against Pakistan in 1958 at just 21. It was the highest total in the history of Test matches, the most important games in international cricket. The feat took 10 hours.

Scoring 100 runs in an innings is considered a spectacular performance, while 50 is a great one. Sobers had an average score of 57 runs per innings in his 93 Test matches. He finished his career with 8,032 runs in Tests from 1953 to 1974, a record at the time.

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