Cricinfo rates Australia’s one-day squad after they sealed the NatWest Challenge

13-Jul-2005

Adam Gilchrist found his form in explosive style at The Oval © Getty Images
Adam Gilchrist – 8
Explosive throughout, but prone to the odd untimely departure, Gilchrist appeared to be lacking his usual stickability at the top of the order, until his thrilling hundred in the final Challenge match. It had been two years since his last and largest one-day hundred, but on this evidence he is not yet ready to settle for conventional pinch-hitting – he is still hungry enough to continue pile-driving through the entire 50 overs of an innings.Matthew Hayden – 4
Shoulder injuries, alleged run-ins with schoolkids and that tete-a-tete with Simon Jones and Paul Collingwood – it’s been an eventful series for Hayden, but unfortunately not with the bat, the one department in which he has been largely anonymous. The bullying superbat of two years ago is looking ever so slightly vulnerable.Ricky Ponting – 6
Returned to form with a century in the penultimate match of the series, and it could not have been more timely. With a persistent habit of falling across his stumps, Ponting’s only other innings of note had been a subdued 66 against Bangladesh. But at Lord’s he regained his balance, and with one sublime flick into the Mound Stand off Andrew Flintoff, the confidence flooded back into his Ashes campaign.Damien Martyn – 7
Quiet and accumulative, it has ever been thus for Martyn, whose timeliest contribution came in the must-win encounter at Chester-le-Street. Playing the straight man to Andrew Symonds’ simmering brute at the other end, he made 68 not out from 81 balls, and put a fifth consecutive defeat beyond the bounds of possibility. Ever unflappable, he looks set for a run-laden summer.Andrew Symonds – 9
His absence was keenly, and embarrassingly, felt by the Australians at the start of the series, but once he had served his time for his misdemeanours in Cardiff, Symonds returned with a vengeance, and was indisputably the Player of the NatWest Series. His bombastic batting was offset by innumerable tight and frustrating spells of offspin and medium pace, and some of the sharpest fielding on show.Michael Clarke – 6
Opened up with two composed performances in the defeats at Cardiff and Bristol, but was less effective on his return from a troublesome back injury. An important 80 ensured against a second embarrassment against Bangladesh, but he dealt in single figures thereafter, and has yet to recapture the boyish brilliance that won him the Allan Border Medal.Mike Hussey – 8
A revelation, though not to English audiences, who have watched him stack up the runs in four seasons with Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire. At times it was like watching Michael Bevan making a comeback, as he chivvied the lower-order with a succession of invaluable innings, as often as not unbeaten. His 62 not out in the NatWest Series final deserved to be a matchwinner.Simon Katich – 5
Opportunities were thin on the ground, but he did his best to make his time in the middle count, with 36 not out against Bangladesh and a sedate 30 against England. His solitary dismissal, a rush of blood and a catch at cow corner, is not one he will want to dwell on, however.Shane Watson – 4
Briefly turned into a laughing stock after his ghostly revelations at Durham, and didn’t do a whole lot to redeem his reputation on the pitch, save for three timely wickets in the final match against Bangladesh. Lost a sledging contest with Kevin Pietersen and seemed distracted by off-pitch matters.

Brett Lee bowled at express pace and sealed his Test place © Getty Images
Brad Hogg – 6
England – and Bangladesh for that matter – couldn’t keep him out of the wickets, and he was the only Aussie bowler to reach double figures in the NatWest Series. Settled well into the role of Supersub, although he might have felt rather superfluous had Ricky Ponting not called correctly on two of the three occasions.Brett Lee – 8
Needed a massive performance to force his way back into the Test reckoning, and produced it as well, with fast and furious spells all throughout the tournament(s). His pace and swing consistently gave England’s top order the hurry-up, and that beamer controversy aside, he has reached the start of the main event in the perfect form and frame of mind.Jason Gillespie – 3
A late return to form at The Oval, but Gillespie was a troubled man for much of the series. He lacked his usual bite off the pitch and was more often to be seen shaking his mullet in bemusement than snarling in aggressive celebration. The hunter turned hunted on this occasion, with Marcus Trescothick extracting an overdue pound of flesh, and Kevin Pietersen taking it upon himself to flog his morale into the stands and beyond.Mike Kasprowicz – 5
Started his summer abysmally, conceding 89 runs in eight overs in Australia’s defeat against Somerset, but he gathered his rhythm steadily as he acquired overs under his belt, and by the end he was looking Australia’s best bet as their third seamer for the Ashes, behind Lee and the indefatigable McGrath.Glenn McGrath – 8
Preparing for his sixth Ashes campaign, but still a class apart, McGrath was the constant menace at the top of the order. His unwavering line and length provided the perfect foil to Lee’s bat-jarring pace, but he maintained a cutting edge all of his own. One regret is that under the new ODI rules, we will be seeing less of his batting.Brad Haddin – who?

When a bespectacled and studious-looking Anil Kumble made his debut at Old Trafford in 1990, he was still a few months short of his 20th birthday

Dileep Premachandran in Bangalore25-Jun-2005

Anil Kumble celebrated in style after reaching 400 Test wickets, at his home ground, the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore © Getty Images

When a bespectacled and studious-looking Anil Kumble made his debut at Old Trafford in 1990, he was still a few months short of his 20th birthday. And even as he tested out international cricket’s waters, he was eclipsed by the brilliance of a youth 30 months his junior. Sachin Tendulkar made his first century in that game, a stroke-filled 119 that thwarted England’s push for victory.In a sense, that occasion encapsulates Kumble’s career. For all his achievements and status as India’s No. 1 matchwinner bar none, Kumble’s name has always been mentioned as an afterthought, after the hosannas have been sung for Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly. And when aficionados sit down to chat about India’s glorious slow-bowling tradition, they invariably hark back to the quartet of the 1970s, or to Subhash Gupte and Vinoo Mankad from the generation that preceded Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan.Yet, with the exception of Chandra, who picked up his wickets every 65.9 balls, none of the quartet has a strike rate that can compare to Kumble’s 67.1. And his wickets-per-match ratio of 4.73 is way ahead of even Chandra (242 wickets in 58 Tests), the bowler he has been compared to most often.It hasn’t helped that almost from the first ball he bowled, Kumble was pigeonholed as a Glenn McGrath-like character, a robotic performer who relied on metronomic accuracy and steep bounce off the pitch to wear down opponents. And to be fair to the critics, there weren’t too many variations in pace or loop in those early years when he destroyed visiting teams on underprepared tracks – uncharitably called Krumblers by the cynics – with deliveries that spat up off a good length at near-medium pace.When he took the field this morning, Kumble was wearing the dog-eared, ashen-coloured cap he had been given in 1990, and his jubilation at 4pm, when Simon Katich was bowled via the hip to give him entrance into a 400-wicket club with only eight other members, was understandable when you consider how shabbily he has been treated at times during the years. Thinly veiled jibes from former greats about his limited repertoire – blatantly unfair when you consider how much he has expanded it in the past few seasons – surely hurt, as did being left out of showpiece occasions like the World Cup final.But like any genuinely great performer, Kumble avoided petulant ripostes and let his bowling answer the doubters. And the figures amply illustrate why he can stake his claim to be India’s greatest ever bowler. Kapil Dev was playing in his 115th Test when he trapped Mark Taylor leg-before at the WACA in January 1992 to take his 400th wicket. Kumble got to the landmark in 30 fewer games, and unlike Kapil, who proceeded to linger on two years past his sell-by date in his attempt to overhaul Richard Hadlee, he still retains the potency that made him such a feared competitor in his prime.Last winter, he went to Australia and sat watching in Brisbane as Harbhajan Singh – who had supplanted him in the team management’s eyes as the leading spinner – bowled abysmally with a finger injury. Given his chance at Adelaide, Kumble, whose previous five wickets in Australia had cost 90 apiece, proceeded to scalp 24 in three Tests, almost single-handedly bowling India to victory at Sydney on a final day dominated by Steve Waugh’s farewell and renditions of True Blue.The purists have also tended to compare him unfavourably with Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, regarded as the era’s two titans of spin. And while Kumble’s career average and strike rate might not stack up favourably, it’s revealing to look at his and Murali’s records against Australia, who have set the standard for almost a decade. Prior to today, both had played 10 Tests against the Aussies, with Kumble taking 61 wickets at 27.96 (strike rate of 59.8) as opposed to Murali’s 50 at 31.42 (strike rate 61.8). This, despite the disadvantage of having played only four Tests at home, to Murali’s eight.The greater variety has come at a price, and these days, Kumble does send down the occasional half-tracker and half-volley, almost unthinkable a few years ago. But the maturity that was his most eye-catching feature even as a raw 19-year-old, and a refusal to get flustered, have seen him win more battles than he has lost. Some day soon, India – whose fans remain singularly obsessed with batting landmarks – will wake up and realise that they have had a champion in their midst for almost 15 years. And the fact that he hasn’t bothered to advertise it makes him all the greater in many eyes.

For a player who has often been unpredictable with the bat, Damien Martyn’s numbers are remarkably consistent

S Rajesh08-Dec-2006

Damien Martyn: a giant in sub-continental conditions © Getty Images
For a player who has often been unpredictable with the bat, Damien Martyn’s numbers are remarkably consistent. Leaving aside Bangladesh, against whom he played only one Test, Martyn averaged between 37 and 62 in Tests against all teams, with his 61.57 against Pakistan being the highest; in all four continents he averaged in the 40s; his home average of 46.86 was only very marginally better than his 45.98 overseas (including three Tests at neutral venues); and he averaged 45.22 in the first innings and 48.65 in the second. That, in essence, sums up Martyn the Test player – at ease in all conditions, on all kinds of pitches, and against all bowling attacks. (Click here for Martyn’s career summary in Tests.)Martyn’s Test career can be neatly compartmentalised into three categories – his first seven Tests, played when he was a callow youth in his early 20s, brought him ordinary results. Worse, that second-innings waft at Sydney against South Africa when Australia failed to get to the target of 117 relegated Martyn to six years on the sidelines. When he returned, though, in 1999-2000, he was more refined and mature, and the change in approach brought him spectacular success. His average touched 50 in his 15th Test, and then stayed over that mark between Tests 20 and 26, briefly reaching the dizzy heights of 57.25. It touched 50 again in 2004-05, but a poor Ashes run brought it down significantly, and three more failures in the ongoing series ensured that he ended with the average closer to 45 than to 50.

Break-up of Martyn’s 64 Tests

Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s

First 7 Tests 317 28.81 0/ 3 8-25 1242 62.10 2/ 6 26-56 2388 51.91 10/ 12 57-67 459 25.50 1/ 2 Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Martyn’s batting was the manner in which he conquered the turning tracks in the subcontinent. For a batsman bred on the hard and bouncy WACA pitch, he adjusted remarkably well to wickets with lower bounce, and tackled the best spinners with soft hands, quick footwork and astute judgment of length. In eight Tests in India and Sri Lanka Martyn struck four centuries, including two outstanding knocks in 2003-04 against the might of Muttiah Muralitharan. As the table below shows, his average in these two countries is exceptional. (And incidentally, he happens to be the only right-hander in the top six.)

Best batsmen in India and Sri Lanka since 1990 (at least six Tests)

Batsman Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s

Brian Lara 7 904 69.53 3/ 3 Stephen Fleming 13 1090 64.11 2/ 5 Andy Flower 12 1124 56.20 4/ 5 Damien Martyn 8 864 54.00 4/ 3 Shivnarine Chanderpaul 6 429 53.62 1/ 2 Matthew Hayden 11 1114 53.04 3/ 4 Not surprisingly, Martyn has achieved a fair degree of success against all the top spinners. Anil Kumble has better stats against him than anyone else, while Ashley Giles has good numbers against him as well, but Martyn has had the better of most of the other spinners.

Martyn against spinners, since 2001 Ashes

Bowler Runs Balls Dismissals Average

Anil Kumble 178 317 5 35.60 Ashley Giles 114 189 3 38.00 Muttiah Muralitharan 122 291 3 40.66 Daniel Vettori 126 297 3 42.00 Murali Kartik 96 226 2 48.00 Harbhajan Singh 126 304 2 63.00 Danish Kaneria 132 232 2 66.00 Nicky Boje 117 235 1 117.00 His stats against the fast bowlers, on the other hand, is mixed. Thanks to his lean run against England in the 2005 Ashes, most of the current crop of England’s fast bowlers have excellent records against him, while Shaun Pollock has reduced him to a strokeless wonder – Martyn has scored at less than two runs per over against him.

Martyn against the fast bowlers (Since 2001 Ashes)

Bowler Runs Balls Dismissals Average

Stephen Harmison 92 276 5 18.40 Andrew Flintoff 60 113 3 20.00 Matthew Hoggard 64 193 3 21.33 Shaun Pollock 72 223 2 36.00 Makhaya Ntini 120 187 3 40.00 Andrew Caddick 159 319 3 53.00 Darren Gough 92 120 1 92.00 Chaminda Vaas 106 199 1 106.00 Martyn was more than just a Test batsman, though. His calm and assured run-accumulation in the middle order was a vital ingredient of Australia’s ODI successes too. Unlike some of the other modern-day biffers, Martyn’s preferred method of getting the runs was considerably less violent, but he still got them at 77.73 per 100 balls, which compares well with the scoring rates of Ricky Ponting (79.25) and Matthew Hayden (75.81). Moreover, when Martyn scored runs, Australia usually won – 37 of his 42 fifty-plus scores came in wins, in which he averaged 52.46. In defeats, it dropped to 21.88. As a matchwinner, Martyn slots in at No.3 among all Australian batsmen who have figured in at least 50 wins, and is behind only Michael Bevan and Dean Jones.

Best averages in wins for Australia (at least 50 ODIs)

Batsman ODIs Runs Average Strike rate

Michael Bevan 155 4502 65.24 75.65 Dean Jones 98 4275 56.25 74.27 Damien Martyn 153 4250 52.46 81.02 Michael Clarke 65 1821 50.58 87.33 Mark Waugh 152 6054 47.29 78.87 Ricky Ponting 185 7232 47.26 80.91 Andrew Symonds 120 3245 46.35 95.94 Geoff Marsh 75 3096 45.52 58.76 When asked to react to Martyn’s retirement, Ponting responded thus: “He is one of the world’s most unsung players in both forms of the game and I don’t think it is really understood how good a player he actually is.” Ponting clearly wasn’t overstating the facts.

Rahul Dravid’s 96-ball 12 was among his slowest innings, and one of the slowest 12s ever scored in Test cricket

S Rajesh12-Aug-2007

Michael Vaughan would have had no problems with Rahul Dravid’s approach on the fourth day at The Oval © Getty Images

At the start of play on the fourth day, India were huge favourites to wrap up a 2-0 series win. They could still get there, but England have given themselves a much better chance of saving the Test – and keeping India from joining them at No.2 spot in the ICC rankings – after an excellent day with both ball and bat.Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook did a superb job of seeing off 20 overs in the evening, but the day was set up by England’s performance in the field, when they allowed India to score at only 3.10 runs per over. Much of that run-rate was due to a rather inexplicable innings from the captain of the team trying to force a win. Rahul Dravid had some justification in starting his innings slowly after India lost three early wickets, but then he got into a rut and forgot his attacking options. By the time he was put out of his misery by Paul Collingwood, Dravid had scored 12 from 96, including a 35-ball passage – from the 18th to the 52nd ball – when he didn’t score a single run. Among innings in which he has faced at least 50 deliveries, this was his third-slowest. All have come against England, with the other two coming within a week of each other, during England’s tour of India in 2001-02.

Dravid’s slowest Test innings (at least 50 balls faced)

Runs	Balls	Scoring rate	Against	Venue & year
3	61	4.91	England	Bangalore, 2001-02
7	60	11.66	England	Ahmedabad, 2001-02
12	96	12.50	England	The Oval, 2007
7	55	12.72	South Africa	Kanpur, 1996-97
14	109	12.84	Australia	Melbourne, 1999-2000

Dravid’s strike rate of 12.50 doesn’t rank anywhere near the slowest all-time innings, though. The table below lists the slowest innings – lasting at least 75 balls – by batsmen in the top seven. The name on top of the list isn’t one you would normally associate with slow scoring – Abdul Razzaq made an unbeaten 4 off 76 balls against Australia at Melbourne in 2004-05. Not very far down the list is another name which you’d think doesn’t belong here – Ian Botham, when he needed 88 balls to score 6 against Australia in 1978-79.

Slowest innings in Tests by batsman in the top 7 (at least 75 balls faced)

Batsman	Runs/ Balls	Scoring rate	Against	Venue & year
Abdul Razzaq	4*/ 76	5.26	Australia	Melbourne, 2004-05
MAK Pataudi	5/ 84	5.95	England	Mumbai, 1972-73
Dennis Amiss	5/ 78	6.41	Australia	Edgbaston, 1975
Ian Botham	6/ 88	6.81	Australia	Sydney, 1978-79
Geoff Miller	7/ 101	6.93	Australia	Melbourne, 1978-79

Dravid’s knock was one of the slowest 12s in Test cricket, though. Only three times has a 12 needed more deliveries: Sri Lanka’s Dulip Liyanage scored one off 101 deliveries against India at Lucknow in 1994, while John Edrich and Mark Taylor both got theirs off 98 deliveries.Even as Dravid was struggling to get the ball off the square, though, his batting partner played quite an exquisite knock. Sourav Ganguly stroked some superb boundaries on the way to a 68-ball 57; only four times has he scored a 50-plus score at a faster pace.

Ganguly’s fastest 50-plus scores in Tests

Runs	Balls	Scoring rate	Against	Venue & year
101*	111	90.99	New Zealand	Hamilton, 1998-99
66	75	88.00	South Africa	Cape Town, 2006-07
53	62	85.48	New Zealand	Ahmedabad, 1999-2000
64*	75	85.33	New Zealand	Mohali, 1999-2000
57	68	83.82	England	The Oval, 2007

England have put themselves in a position to save the Test, but they still have some way to go: only three teams have ever batted more than 110 overs in the fourth innings of a Test at The Oval. India hold the record – they batted for more than 150 overs in that famous Test in 1979. England’s best is 105.1 overs, which wasn’t enough to stop them going down by 158 runs against West Indies in 1973.

Most no. of overs batted in the fourth innings at The Oval

Team	4th inng score	Overs	Opposition & year	Result
India	429 for 8	150.5	England, 1979	Draw
South Africa	423 for 7	141	England, 1947	Draw
New Zealand	270 all out	110.1	England, 1983	Lost by 189 runs
England	255 all out	105.1	West Indies, 1973	Lost by 158 runs
England	308 for 4	104.2	South Africa, 1965	Draw

Stats highlights from the second day’s play at Eden Gardens.

HR Gopalakrishna and Mathew Varghese01-Dec-2007Stats highlights from the second day’s play at Eden Gardens.

VVS Laxman became the leading run-scorer in Tests at Eden Gardens © AFP
The day surely belonged to Sourav Ganguly, who scored his first Test hundred in Kolkata, his home town. In seven Tests prior to this one at Eden Gardens, Ganguly had only one fifty – a 65 against Australia in 1998. Ganguly has no fifty in four ODIs he’s played at the ground. It was also his first century against Pakistan. VVS Laxman continued his great run in Kolkata, and became the leading Test run-getter at Eden Gardens during the course of his unbeaten 112, going past Mohammad Azharuddin. Laxman now has 898 runs at an average of 81.63 with three hundreds – the same as Rahul Dravid – in Kolkata, but is till two short of Azhar, who had five hundreds in seven Tests. Wasim Jaffer became the third batsman to score a double-hundred at Eden Gardens, after Rohan Kanhai and VVS Laxman. It is Jaffer’s second score over 200, his best being 212 against West Indies in St John’s. India’s total of 616 for 5 declared was their second-highest against Pakistan, after their 675 for 5 declared in Multan in 2004. It was also their third total in excess of 600 at Eden Gardens; India had scored more against Australia in 1998 and in 2001 – when Laxman scored 281. Danish Kaneria finished with figures of 2 for 194 from his 50 overs, the most runs conceded in an innings at Eden Gardens.

They bounced him, he hooked them. In the background, a radio played. It was the summer of 1983

Ashok Malik17-Jan-2008

	Hooking like he’d never hooked before: Mohinder Amarnath © Getty Images

Watching India bat in the second Test against Pakistan in Faisalabad this January, one moment, one delivery, something clicked in my head. Shoaib Akhtar, using the second new ball, bowled a bouncer, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with a spellbinding savagery, smashed it for six.I thought it was a hook; the next morning’s papers – describing how, in a pulsating counterattack, Dhoni had reached his first Test century and saved India from following on – preferred to call it a pull. By then my mind had moved, replaying Michael Sembello and “Maniac”, lost in a once-and-forever nostalgia oval.It wasn’t always like this. Years ago, before placid wickets and mindless one-day games made genuine fast bowlers seem like cowboys at a vaudeville show, Indian batsmen weren’t supposed to hook.Like good boys, they were supposed to defend (“That’s another immaculate forward-defensive stroke from Gavaskar. Copybook, I tell you.”), drive along the ground, sweep when the spinners came on. Some, like the oriental sorcerer Gundappa Viswanath, were obligated to late-cut.That was another India, another time: a time before 1983, a time before Mohinder Amarnath.The Lala’s second son was not a cricketer you instantly fell in love with. A slow, lumbering gait and zero charisma: this one wasn’t a charmer.He made his Test debut the year I was born. I first saw him a decade later, in 1979, wearing a , felled by Rodney Hogg, collapsing on the stumps in the Bombay Test against Australia. He looked quite ridiculous. Since he’d been hit by a Richard Hadlee bouncer earlier in the summer in England, his obituary was readied. At 29, he was history – too old and too unequal to fast bowling.Like Douglas MacArthur, he vowed to return. Mohinder didn’t give up, he scored runs for Delhi with an accountant’s determination and worked harder and harder on his fitness.In the early 1980s, in the innocence of adolescence, I took the Ranji Trophy a little more seriously than the selectors did. Mohinder grew on me, gradually. So did his status as Indian cricket’s perennial underdog. He was the outsider who appealed to the loser in us all – the antithesis of the dominant Bombay lobby.It was just before the 1982 tour of England. Mohinder had hit another century in another Ranji final, been cold-shouldered another time. Asked about it, Raj Singh Dungarpur, manager for the tour, raised his nose, “Let us talk about the future of Indian cricket, not the past.”I still haven’t forgiven him.In six months, Mohinder was back in the team, battling Imran Khan and Pakistan, hitting three hundreds in a lost cause – and hooking. At least I saw those games on television. The best was yet to come, and I only heard it on radio.In early 1983, Kapil Dev led his men to the Caribbean. It was India’s only series in the West Indies against the pace quartet. They lost 0-2: a nailbiting finish in the first Test, and a 10-wicket defeat in the fourth at Barbados, reputedly the fastest pitch of them all. I still remember the scores – India 209 and 277; Mohinder 91 and 80. Need I say more?It was an epic contest. As Subhash Gupte, by then living in Trinidad, later put it, “They kept bouncing, and Mohinder kept hooking.” In one Test he was hit on the head and retired hurt. He returned a few wickets later, was met with a first-ball bouncer – and hooked it to the boundary.

	Mohinder grew on me gradually. So did his status as Indian cricket’s perennial underdog. He was the outsider who appealed to the loser in us all

Of course, I saw none of this. It was an age before 24×7 telecasts. In a household remarkably free of cricket fans, I had but a transistor on low volume for company. In that strange, pre-modern media environment, All India Radio brought just the first two sessions live to listeners. The post-tea session was delayed, coming as a “deferred” broadcast about an hour later, perilously close to school time.In sum, this meant I was up all night. Most difficult was the period between the tea break and commencement of “deferred” commentary. The house was silent, the lights were out; only the trams could be heard moving on the streets of Calcutta, calling to each other as it were, urging me to close my eyes but stay awake, and imagine the grit, guts, and glory of a gladiator in a faraway land.As it happened, 1983 was a great year for music. Late at night, while the players had lunch, between tea and resumption of commentary, I was kept up by shortwave radio – BBC, or maybe the Voice of America, or an Australian show – and by the pirated cassettes on my Walkman: The Police and , Billy Joel and “Uptown Girl” – and “Flashdance”.Mid-tour, Sembello burst onto the charts with “Maniac”: “You work all your life for that moment in time/ It could come or pass you by / It’s a push of the world, but there’s always a chance / If the hunger stays the night.” I had found Jimmy’s anthem.It was famously said of Ken Barrington that he “came out to bat with the Union Jack wrapped around him”. Mohinder was sculpted of similar steel. He was perhaps what so many of us wanted India to be – a fighter. He was not a Gavaskar, not a natural; Jimmy was Ivan Lendl to Sunny’s Bjorn Borg.Later in 1983, Mohinder helped India to the Prudential Cup. There were to be more failures and successes, more depths and peaks, many more comebacks. The man eventually retired in 1990, having played first-class cricket from 16 to 40.For me, it didn’t matter. I could savour the Mohinder of 1983, the witching hours when I’d close my eyes and watch him hook – hooking, as Sembello may have sung, like he’d never hooked before.

Prolific partnerships in all forms of the game, and opening bowlers whose fathers were Test players too

Steven Lynch18-Dec-2007The regular Tuesday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions
about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

Eight-thousand two-hundred and twenty-seven: that’s how many runs Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have put on together for India in ODIs © AFP

Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan now hold the record of being the most
prolific partnership for Pakistan in Tests, but which is the most prolific
pair overall – in Tests and in ODIs – and, while you are at it,
Twenty20s? asked Abhijit Shukla from the United States
Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf did recently
become Pakistan’s most prolific partnership: by the end of the series
against India they had put on 3080 runs together, beating the previous
record of 3013 by Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq. But they are quite a long way
down the overall Test list,
which is headed by Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, who put on 6482 runs
together, not far ahead of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer (6081). The ODI list is headed, not
surprisingly, by Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, who have put on 8227
runs together for India, well ahead of the next pair, Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya (5462). In the short history of Twenty20 internationals,
the top pair are Australia’s Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, with 398
runs between them. For what it’s worth, there’s a full list here.In the second Test against Sri Lanka, England’s bowling was opened by two
sons of former Test cricketers. Is this a first? asked Robin from
England
In Sri Lanka’s innings during last week’s Test in Colombo, the new ball
was shared by Stuart
Broad, the son of the former England opener Chris, and Ryan Sidebottom, whose
father Arnie played once for England in 1985. This was indeed a first in
Test cricket, although there was one previous instance of both new-ball
bowlers having a father who played Test cricket – when Dayle and Richard Hadlee opened the bowling
for New Zealand against Australia at
Adelaide in 1973-74. Their father Walter Hadlee played 11 Tests for
New Zealand between 1937 and 1950-51. For a full list of related Test
players, click here.Who once bowled a 17-ball over in an ODI? asked
Dave Burton from Reading
The unlucky bowler who sent down the longest known over in international
cricket was Mohammad Sami of
Pakistan, with the third over of the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh in Colombo in 2004. It included four
no-balls and seven wides, and the sequence of the over was:
wd-4-2-nb-wd-nb1-0-wd-wd-0-wd-nb-wd-wd-nb-0-4. Ironically, Sami’s previous
over had been a wicket maiden, so he came off with the bizarre figures of
2-1-22-1. Pakistan officials explained that he was trying to remodel his
action and was struggling for rhythm. The longest over in a Test is believed
to be one of 15 deliveries – including nine no-balls – by Curtly Ambrose for
West Indies against Australia at
Perth in 1996-97.Graeme Swann missed 175 ODIs before his recall to play for England
recently. Is this is a record? asked Jamie Clifton from
Newark
Rather surprisingly, Graeme
Swann’s long gap is not even a record for England – Shaun Udal missed 193 matches in
more than ten years between 1995 and his recall in 2005-06. But Udal is only
fourth on the overall list, which is headed by the New Zealander Jeff Wilson: he missed 271 matches,
over a record 11 years and 331 days, between his debut series in 1992-93 and
a short-lived recall in 2004-05. (In between, Wilson had been playing rugby
union for the New Zealand All-Blacks.) For a full list, click here.Has any batsman scored two double-centuries in the same Test match?
asked P Balaji from India
No one has yet managed this in a Test match. The closest was by Graham
Gooch, who made 333 and 123 for England against India at Lord’s in 1990. Five other players
have managed a double and a single century in the same Test, most recently
Brian Lara, with 221 and 130 for West Indies in Colombo in 2001-02, in a match Sri
Lanka still won by ten wickets. For a list of the others, click here. Only one man has
scored two double-centuries in the same game in first-class cricket: Kent’s
Arthur Fagg, against Essex at Colchester in 1938. He scored 244 in the first innings, and 202 not
out in the second. That included a century before lunch on the first day,
and 98 in 90 minutes before lunch on the third.Who called his life story Mad As I Wanna Be? asked Jared
Christopher from Sydney
This unusual title adorned the 1997 autobiography of the New Zealand fast
bowler Danny Morrison. New
Zealand players make something of a habit of giving their books peculiar
names, as readers of this column over the years may have noted!And there’s an afterthought to last week’s question about Don
Bradman, from Max Bonnell in Australia
“I don’t know why people keep repeating the idea that Otto Nothling was, in his only Test in 1928-29, a
replacement for Don Bradman.
Bradman (a specialist batsman) lost his place in the XI to Vic Richardson (a
specialist batsman). Nothling (an opening bowler and handy lower-order
batsman) replaced Jack Gregory (an opening bowler and handy lower-order
batsman) who broke down in Brisbane with a knee injury. The idea that
Nothling took Bradman’s spot seems to be impossible to kill – it was
repeated by Peter Roebuck on Australian radio a few weeks ago – but it just
isn’t true.”

A short Test series has stirred Ricky Ponting’s attacking captaincy instincts. Since taking over from Steve Waugh, Ponting has enforced the follow-on only once before today and that was in a game where rain stole large chunks

Peter English at the Gabba10-Nov-2007

Brett Lee’s rousing performance gave Ricky Ponting an opportunity to enforce the follow-on, and Lee vindicated that decision by dismissing Sanath Jayasuriya in Sri Lanka’s second innings. (File photo) © Getty Images
A short Test series has stirred Ricky Ponting’s attacking captaincy instincts. Since taking over from Steve Waugh, Ponting has enforced the follow-on only once before today and that was in a game where rain stole large chunks. Brisbane has been experiencing unpredictable weather, but the desire to crush a struggling opponent quickly and earn a series lead before next week’s final match in Hobart was stronger.Player preservation has been Ponting’s main excuse for batting again with substantial leads and he used the tactic to secure massive wins in the previous two season-opening Tests. This time he has challenged his new batch of bowlers to deal with the extra work and floor their opponents for a second time.It is a significant development for a leader who was unsure in the beginning of his reign and would stick to a plan whether it was working or not. As his comfort in the position grew, he followed hunches successfully and the loss of three stars has increased the power of his position. What Ponting achieves with this group will be how he is remembered as a captain and it will be a high-energy journey.The first three days of the new era looked eerily similar to the last one. A huge score swept the hope away from the touring team before its batsmen wilted under a sustained assault from a varied attack. All five bowlers contributed as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 211 in 81.5 overs, leaving them needing 341 runs to force a second Australian innings.Ponting rotated his fast men, overlooking the double changes he has favoured at times, and looked to Stuart MacGill for a long spell between lunch and tea. Apart from Chamara Silva, who seemed to think it was a one-day game; Sri Lanka’s batsmen were cautious and required considered extraction. Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson were consistently testing and fed early catches to Adam Gilchrist, MacGill threatened and Brett Lee was both a stock and wicket-taking bowler.The significance of the leadership position is not the only one to have increased over the past year. Lee is now the unrivalled force of the attack and he has embraced the new duties. After taking a couple of wickets late on day two, Lee started today with a frugal spell and returned after tea to remove the obdurate Prasanna Jayawardene. The reverse-swinging full ball was followed by some short ones to the tail-enders and when he gained Fernando’s wicket he had 4 for 26 off 17.5 overs. Australia’s No. 1 bowler had shown his captain everything he needed to send Sri Lanka back in.The second innings did not begin as easily for the dominant side, but they rarely do. Sanath Jayasuriya connected early, thrashing Lee for 14 in three balls, and with Marvan Atapattu, the rock of the first innings with 51, sprinted to a half-century stand that ended when Andrew Symonds’ delivery brushed past Atapattu’s glove. The speed of the partnership created some minor doubts over Ponting’s decision, but it was the right one even before Lee caught Jayasuriya’s edge in the shadows of stumps.Australia’s batsmen have no need to fear the surface on the fifth day – if the match lasts that long – and the bowlers have more opportunities to dent the morale of the tourists. The second game starts in Tasmania on Friday and there is little time for a turnaround. Rather than extend Sri Lanka’s misery by batting again, Ponting set his sights on a swift conclusion that would create more damage.

The win that transformed Indian cricket sending it on an upswing that lasts to this day

Suresh Menon25-Jun-2008Nineteen hundred and eighty-three might have been just another unmemorable year for India. The monsoons were good and the Congress government, in the time-tested manner, took credit for it. There was communal violence in Punjab and Assam. The former would lead to the assassination of Indira Gandhi, who was prime minister then. She was head of the Non Aligned Movement and host of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet – talking shops invested with great prestige in a country whose influence in world politics was negligible. The year was unmemorable, but for one event that changed sport, changed cricket, and changed the way middle-class Indians saw themselves.In the half-century since India had made their Test debut – on June 25, 1932, on the same date and at the same venue where they would lift the World Cup in 1983 – the maharajahs and the nawabs had gone, to be replaced by college-educated Brahmins, the backbone of the middle class. But already the next phase was beginning to reveal itself. The inspirational captain of the World Cup-winning team, Kapil Dev, was neither college-educated nor Brahmin. A generation or so later, Mahatma Gandhi’s India, the one that lives in the villages, would push into the background Nehru’s India of the cities, and international players would emerge from Najafgarh, Rae Bareilly, Bharuch, Palarivattom, Aligarh, Jalandhar and Ranchi.Before the World Cup, India had played only 40 one-day internationals in the decade or so that the format had been around. “We didn’t take the game seriously,” said India’s first ODI captain, Ajit Wadekar, “We had no idea of field placings or tactics.” India refused to see the shorter game as a legitimate version of cricket. Brijesh Patel, top scorer in India’s debut match against England at Leeds in 1974 said later, “I thought this was the future.” But his colleagues behaved as if one-day cricket was a pimple on the face of real cricket, one that would disappear quickly.This attitude was exemplified by India’s best batsman, Sunil Gavaskar. In the 1975 World Cup (60 overs a side), after England had made 334 for 4, he batted through the innings to remain not out on 36. Had he been dropped from the team then, or had he voluntarily pulled out, India’s approach in the early years might have been different. His attitude affected the team, the officials, the media. Supporting the one-day game was seen as a sell-out.Yet, ironically, it was Gavaskar who played the most significant innings in the pre-1983 era; one that was to fill the team with self-belief, and lead to India’s most important victory before the World Cup.In the previous season, the Indian selectors had made one of those inspired moves for which they were criticised at the time but which shone like a beacon of common sense in hindsight. They named Kapil Dev captain of the one-day side. Under Kapil, India beat Sri Lanka 3-0, and lost to Pakistan 1-3, but the nucleus of a team took shape. It was a team built on the dual skills of the allrounder, and a team that understood the importance of the medium-pacer. In the 1970s, spinners like Bishan Bedi and Srinivas Venkatraghavan had focused on claiming wickets; now the medium-pacers borrowed from England’s strategy and concentrated on keeping the runs down. In those two series Kapil was assisted by Madan Lal, Mohinder Amarnath, Balwinder Sandhu, Roger Binny and Sandip Patil. It was the attack that won them the World Cup.On March 29, with the World Cup 72 days away, India beat twice champions West Indies in Berbice, Guyana. Gavaskar made his first 50 in 52 balls before falling for 90. Kapil Dev made 72 off 38 balls and India 282 for 5 in 47 overs. Madan Lal dismissed Viv Richards for 64, and Ravi Shastri had three wickets as the West Indies finished with 255 to lose by 27 runs. But the statistics of that win were not as important as the impact it had on a team that thought the essence of one-day cricket was simply to turn up and go through the motions.When Kapil Dev led against West Indies in India’s opening match of the 1983 World Cup, bookmakers’ odds on India were 66-1. But this was a different team psychologically. It was a team that was confident under a 24-year-old captain who was almost un-Indian in his self-assurance. Seven of the players in the final were in their twenties. There had been no conscious call to youth, but just over a year after that win, India’s youngest prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, took office. This was a new awakening, a reappraisal of long-held beliefs.Only two people believed India could beat the odds. Former Australian captain Kim Hughes, who thought India were “dark horses”, and the late Sunder Rajan, who writing in the predicted an Indian win. Neither had much to go by. India had lost a match at the previous World Cup to Sri Lanka, then not yet a Test-playing country, and their only victory had been against East Africa.Now they brought to fruition the theory prevailing at the time: pack the team with allrounders, rely on the batsmen getting the runs, and then leave it to the bowlers to be restrictive rather than attacking.The story of the 1983 World Cup is part of our collective consciousness. India began with a win, against West Indies, so clearly Berbice was no fluke. Kapil Dev’s incredible 175 helped overcome Zimbabwe after India were 17 for 5 at one stage. That was the turning point of the tournament. India had lost to West Indies and Australia before that; now they sailed through without another defeat, beating Australia and England before meeting West Indies for the third time, now in the final.While the team was creating upsets in England, the fans back home were transfixed in their drawing rooms, before shop windows, in offices, clubs and anywhere a television could be accommodated. Colour TV had come to India the previous year with the Asian Games in Delhi. Suddenly it all came together – television and live telecast from distant fields, an audience hungry for action, a significant victory, and the awareness of the marketing possibilities – and the first steps towards India’s domination of world cricket were taken. Among those who had tuned in was future India captain Rahul Dravid, then ten years old. “I remember watching that final in Bangalore,” he recalled. “That win inspired a lot of young kids to take to the game.”The pictures have been played over and over on television channels and in our minds. Krishnamachari Srikkanth square-driving Andy Roberts for four; Srikkanth taking a single running backwards in sheer exuberance; Balwinder Sandhu clean-bowling Gordon Greenidge, who had let the ball go; Kapil Dev running to catch Viv Richards over his shoulder after Richards had threatened to take the game away; Mohinder Amarnath bowling his friendly medium pace and then shyly walking up to receive his Man of the Match award; Kapil Dev handing over the World Cup to Amarnath; a bunch of unknowns, fans from India, grinning stupidly on the Indian balcony.Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesFrom no-hopers to world champions is a huge leap, and led by Kapil Dev, India took it almost casually. Soon they won the Asia Cup in Sharjah and the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. But that was only the immediate fallout. Just as the players made that huge leap, so too did the fans (and the BCCI). One-day cricket went from being dog’s dinner to emperor’s feast. There’s nothing like an international victory to ease the path towards acceptance. History was merely repeating itself with the win in the World Twenty20 last year.India’s one-day history can be divided into three phases. From their debut till the Berbice match in 1983 was a period of adjustment psychologically and physically. India relied on the established Test players to “play their normal game” and hoped for the best.The second phase, from Berbice till the end of the Hero Cup tournament in 1993, was the Kapil Dev era. Kapil pulled India out of their lethargy, showed what was possible, and inspired the World Cup victory. India played the best teams on equal terms.The third phase, the Sachin Tendulkar era, began the following year with two important developments. Tendulkar opened the batting for the first time, in New Zealand, and later made his first century, in Sri Lanka, in his 79th match.But 1983 was the turning point. Soon the World Cup moved out of England. Within a decade England and Australia lost their veto power, and after the second World Cup in the subcontinent, Jagmohan Dalmiya became the president of the ICC.When, having made 33 in 28 balls Viv Richards lofted Madan Lal in that 1983 final, the cricket world stood still. Kapil Dev took the most significant catch in India’s history. From that moment, the world rearranged itself so India would emerge as the game’s superpower. Cricket would never be the same again.

He may not be in the side anymore but he isn’t going quietly

Interview by Khondaker Mirazur Rahman02-Apr-2008

‘I have a lot of cricket left in me’ © AFP

You were dropped for the second Test against South Africa recently and not considered for the upcoming ODIs against Pakistan. Is this the end of the road?
I don’t think so. I will be back, I am not finished yet. I have had a difficult period over the last one year. It’s a part of cricket and I have to accept it. I have a lot of cricket left in me and I will fight to get my place back in the national team. As a batsman, scoring runs is my only goal and I am quite happy with my recent form with the bat in the Dhaka Premier League.You were known as “Mr. 50” for your consistency in Test cricket, and you scored fairly consistently in ODIs in the build-up to the 2007 World Cup. What went wrong after that?

I was enjoying my cricket, both as a captain and as a batsman, but the focus was always on the team. We had a very young team and leading a young team in a big tournament like the World Cup is always difficult. We achieved our goal in the World Cup but unfortunately my bad time with the bat coincided with my good time as a captain. I always believe a captain should be judged on the basis of team performance and not on his individual batting or bowling. A captain can have a bad time; no one is infallible. I was surprised to see the level of criticism despite our success in the World Cup.I tried hard to regroup after the World Cup, but it didn’t work well. I know age is not on my side but I am feeling well, the reflexes are fine, and I am regaining my confidence. I have no plans to retire from international cricket for two years at least. I want to score as many runs as possible to earn my place back and that’s what I am doing right now.The Bangladesh team is increasingly becoming younger with time, with not many senior players around to guide them. Do you think this is an ideal scenario for an international team?
It’s far from ideal. I think we are in a crucial phase for Bangladesh cricket. Most of our domestic performers are young and we have to select from among them. But we have brought too many young players into the national team without proper grooming. You cannot expect consistency from a team with an average age of 22. We must revisit our policy in the interests of the young players and the country.You have captained Bangladesh in 69 ODIs and won 29 of them. On the other hand, under your captaincy Bangladesh managed only one win and four draws in 18 Tests. Why is there such a difference?

Tests and ODIs are two different ball games. Our youth brand of cricket suits ODIs more than Tests. The fearless attitude of our youngsters can result in an ODI win on any given day. This is how we won against Australia in Cardiff, India in Trinidad and South Africa in Guyana. On the other hand, Test cricket requires patience, application and consistent performance over five days. One or two good sessions doesn’t do it.

	We have brought too many young players into the national team without proper grooming. You cannot expect consistency from a team with an average age of 22

We have made the job more difficult by selecting a young and inexperienced team for Test cricket. We have always tried to look at the future combinations. We should have realised that the future is important but not at the cost of the present. We must learn from our mistakes. Now that we have a talented bunch of young players, we should keep the core team intact for the next few years.The main reason we failed to repeat our ODI successes in Test cricket was because we have not able to put enough runs on the board. We have failed as a batting unit on most occasions. When you don’t put enough runs on the board, the bowlers don’t get enough runs to bowl at and the captain doesn’t know what fields to set – whether to attack or defend.You were awarded the captaincy at a very difficult time for Bangladesh cricket, when the team was on a losing streak. What made the turnaround possible?
After our dismal performance in the 2003 World Cup, we needed some good performances to prove our credentials. My first success as a captain was against a full-strength Zimbabwe side in Harare in 2004, which was my first game as Bangladesh captain. I must give credit to Dav Whatmore, who worked very hard to make the turnaround possible. I enjoyed a very good relationship with Dav and we shared our thoughts to lift the spirit of the Bangladesh team. With our “team first” approach we effectively turned a losing side into a winning outfit.You worked for four years with Whatmore. How do you rate him as a coach?
Whatmore was instrumental in motivating young players. He gave optimism and discipline to a team that had not won a single match for four years. He understood our team chemistry very well and he made individual cricketers’ lives easy. He allowed us to play our natural game and appreciated even very simple achievements. I personally rate him as one of the best in the business.

Dav Whatmore ‘made individual cricketers’ lives easy’ © AFP

What’s the role of a captain in a team like Bangladesh? Did you enjoy the job?
A captain has a huge role. And in a young and inconsistent team like Bangladesh, the job is far more challenging and requires a lot of patience and man-management skills. As a captain I had to work hard to help players get through the bad times and keep their motivation up.I enjoyed every bit of my captaincy – more so because we managed to beat some noteworthy opponents. Those are happy memories.What would you rate as your biggest achievement as captain?
We have managed to earn the respect of our opponents, especially in ODIs. In our early days, every team took us for granted. That’s not a great feeling – when you are not taken seriously. A match against Bangladesh is no longer seen as a walk in the park, and that’s my biggest achievement as the captain of Bangladesh. For example, when we defeated India in the 2007 World Cup and progressed to the Super Eights, every team had a different look at us. It probably made our job difficult, but it also helped us to enjoy the game. We felt counted. We haven’t yet achieved the same in Test cricket. I hope Mohammad Ashraful will be able to take the team forward and Bangladesh will be respected as a team regardless of the format of the game.International cricket has been a bumpy ride for Bangladesh so far. What’s the way forward?
Cricket is very popular in Bangladesh. We have a very strong fan base and there is a lot of passion for the game. At the same time, we need to take a few decisions to raise the standard of our game.

	A match against Bangladesh is no longer seen as a walk in the park and that has been my biggest achievement as captain

Sporting wickets are a necessity to strengthen our domestic cricket. Currently each first-class team plays with three or four spinners on slow, low wickets, which is killing our game.The BCB can introduce a quota system for international cricketers. During our time in club cricket, we benefited enormously from the presence of players like Neil Fairbrother, Arjuna Ranatunga and Wasim Akram. A similar presence of international cricketers in domestic circuit will definitely help young cricketers to learn from their game. Our cricketers do not get enough opportunity to play county cricket in England or first-class cricket in countries like Australia and South Africa. The BCB can appoint full-time agents in those countries to help our cricketers find suitable clubs. It is very much required to raise our game to the next level.I feel that we are a much better side than our results show at the moment. We are playing much, much below our potential. It’s more a mental block than anything else. Some consistent good performances can lift the block. We will probably see a much improved Bangladesh side in near future.