Klinger in rare air with sweet 16th ton

Run-machine Michael Klinger is one century away from breaking a long-standing one-day record after the Australian veteran posted his 16th List A century in the United Kingdom on Wednesday.

Klinger's match-winning 134 against Kent, his first ton of the county season, powered Gloucestershire to 8-275 to help them overcome Kent by 11 runs for their second win of the tournament.

The right-hander recently achieved his dream of representing Australia when he played in the three-match Twenty20 international series against Sri Lanka in February, but he's never played a one-day international despite holding an incredible domestic record.

And considering he's never donned Australian gold in the 50-over format, Klinger could, statistically at least, lay claim to being Australia's best one-day batsman to never do so.

His century for Gloucestershire saw him equal the record held by South Africans Barry Richards and Ken McEwan for the most List A centuries among batsmen who have never played an ODI.

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Both Richards and McEwan were denied the chance to play international cricket (Richards' four Tests against Australia in 1969-70 aside) by the apartheid-era sanctions placed on South Africa.

Only another apartheid-era Proteas star in Graeme Pollock (one-day batting average of 50.06) and India batsman Abhinav Mukund (50.27) hold higher List A batting averages than Klinger among players to never play an ODI.

Gloucestershire have three more regular-season matches, and potentially three more finals games if they qualify, for Klinger to notch his 17th one-day ton and go past Richards and McEwan's mark.

The 36-year-old also passed the 7,000-run milestone in one-day cricket in Wednesday's knock, with his current tally by far the most by an Australian batsmen to never make the leap from domestic to international 50-over cricket.

Former Tasmania opener Jamie Cox (5,716 List A runs) and Chris Rogers (5,346) are other Australians without an ODI cap to score more than 5,000 runs.

But perhaps the most flattering comparison is the one to Michael Bevan. The original 'finisher' is the only Australian with a higher List A batting average (57.86 from 427 matches) than Klinger's (49.18 from 168 matches).

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After close to two decades of toil for Victoria, South Australia and now Western Australia, plus five seasons on the county circuit, Klinger finally received a maiden international berth last summer.

While it came with Australia's Test squad away for the Border-Gavaskar Test series in India, Klinger, who struck 143 runs in the three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka, admitted his long-awaited call-up was a hugely significant moment for him.

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"I held back the tears to be honest until I spoke to (his wife, Cindy)," he said in February.

"JL (coach Justin Langer) gave me a big hug, and it was hard to keep the tears away after I spoke to her and then I called my brother and my dad and my sister.

"It was a moment that I wasn't sure if it was going to come, and that half an hour when I got to speak to my family I will treasure forever.

"I couldn't ask for anything more.

"It's been 15, 16 years of hard work and it's great to get some reward now."

HIGHEST LIST A BATTING AVERAGES BY BATSMEN NEVER TO PLAY AN ODI

Abhinav Mukund (IND) – 50.27

Graeme Pollock (SA– 50.06

Michael Klinger (AUS) –  49.18

Yashpal Singh (IND) - 48.28

Ishank Jaggi (IND) - 46.55