One morning in September 2013, at the Humani Ranch, the Whittall’s game reserve in Zimbabwe, Guy Whittall woke up and sat barefoot on the edge of the bed for a while before making his way to the kitchen.

Most human beings do not live to tell a comparable tale, but Whittall now has two. On April 23, he was attacked by a wounded leopard, and things might have taken a turn for far worse had his dog Chikara not intervened.

“He was stabilised at Hippo Clinic by wonderful staff,” wrote his wife Hannah Stooks Whittall on Facebook. “He was then airlifted from Buffalo Range by Ace Ambulance to Harare, then transferred to Milton Park Hospital for treatment.”

Having lost a lot of blood, Whittall will undergo surgery today (April 25). Chikara, too, will be taken to the veterinary staff after being “mauled by the leopard”.

Whittall played 46 Tests for Zimbabwe between 1993/94 and 2002/03, and had 2,207 runs at 29.42 and 51 wickets at 40.94. He is best remembered for a “century average” (batting average in innings where he made a hundred) of 623, the highest in the history of Test cricket. Whittall’s four Test hundreds were 113*, 203*, 188*, and 119.

Whittall also had 2,705 runs at 22.54 and 88 wickets at 39.55 from 147 ODIs, and was part of three World Cup squads, in 1996, 1999, and 2003. Zimbabwe made it to the Super Six on each of the last two occasions.