Allan Border becomes the only cricketer to score 150 or more in both innings of the same Test
March 23, 1980 - Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan
Think Allan Border, and your mind is sure to be filled with images of an imperious middle-order batsman, who is more Queensland than a bent banana, paired with a can of XXXX.
Yet, in late March of 1980, Border – actually born on Sydney's North Shore – was still wearing New South Wales blue at Sheffield Shield level, and batting at eight for the Australian team with less than 25 Tests to his name.
Selected to tour the subcontinent for Greg Chappell's Australian side in late 1979, Border would bat late in the lineup, acting as the conduit between the big boys up top and the last source of runs before the tail order.
After the Aussies were spun out in the first Test in Karachi, losing by seven wickets, and then tying the second Test in Faisalabad, the series moved on to Lahore, with the Gadaffi Stadium providing the stage for Border to write his name into the record books.
On an absolute road of a pitch, Border would cash in, announcing himself to the world with a stellar 150* off 281 balls before Chappell declared on 407.
Following a gruelling innings in the field as the hosts returned fire with 420 runs in reply, Border backed up his opening salvo, scoring 153 against the likes of Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed.
In the 44 years that followed, no batter has matched Border's output in Lahore, with the Sunshine State's adopted son acting as the only cricketer to have scored 150 runs or more in both innings of the same Test match.
In the years to come, Border would ascend to captain his country, eventually hanging his batting spikes up in 1994 after scoring 11,174 runs in 156 Tests, cementing himself as one of Australia's finest leaders and batsmen.
