Well that was the world cup where the defending champions Sri Lanka had evoked a lot of interest and expectations among the fans and among the board as well after they had not only won the championship in 1996 but also had done so without losing a single match en route to the final triumph. Sri Lanka was the second nation to do so after the mighty West Indies led by Clive Lloyd in the 1975 and 1979 editions. Sri Lanka was led by Arjuna Ranatunga who was the captain in 1996 world cup as well needless to be said.
In the 1999 world cup all that the Sri Lankans were able to extract from the more or less world cup winning squad was a win against Zimbabwe and Kenya, the least that any test playing nation can be expected to do. Worst come, in the match against Kenya at Southhampton, though Sri Lanka managed a win in that inconsequential match after losing to England, South Africa and England, the man of the match was awarded to Maurice Odumbe of Kenya for scoring 82 runs from 95 balls. In the game against Zimbabwe, Sri lanka lost 6 wickets en route to their successful chase of 198.
Luckily, the man of the match was awarded to a Sri Lankan batsman Marvan Atapattu for reasons not so important here. Going back, in the 1st game the Sri Lankans faced against England, Sri Lankans were the favorites not only against England but also against any opposition but for RSA. Sri Lankans were bowled out for 204 and the English batsmen chased down the target in 46.5 overs losing just 2 wickets en route. In the next game against South Africa, though not rated as favorites, Sri Lanka would have had it share of betters after RSA was bowled out for 199 with Klusner remaining unbeaten on 52.
But, forget about winning, the Sri Lankans should have thanked their Gods for not having them all out for a score less than 100. A margin of 89 runs chasing 199 on board is just unforgivable. Then comes the game against India where once again, Sri Lanka were termed as favorites but once again thumbs down. Sri Lanka started off on a positive note after scalping the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Sadagoppan Ramesh not before handing themselves to the hands of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. The two contributed together 328 runs with extras apart. Sri Lankans slogan might have been "Welcome to My World"
Sri Lanka were left with no choice but to end up on a winning note in their inconsequential match against Kenya with a lot of compromise.
Showing posts with label Arjuna Ranatunga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arjuna Ranatunga. Show all posts
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Kallis breaks Ganguly's record!
Well records mean records and they don't make a difference whether they are for the good reasons or for the bad. And, the case is exactly the same when it comes to the South Africa's most experienced batsman bowler all - rounder when he scored his first double hundred in tests (obviously). Prior to this feat of Kallis, his highest score in test match cricket was 189 which he scored against West Indies way back in the late 2003. With four players in history to have crossed the 300 run mark twice, Kallis feat is well short of reasons to celebrate. But, lots to be satisfied with.
Atleast now, Kallis need not retire with a bad mark that none of his 38 hundreds in test match cricket had a double hundred. One double hundred is better than none of them to his credit whatsoever. Kallis is way ahead compared to the Waugh brothers - viz Mark and Steve with stats suggesting that Steve Waugh had just one double hundred while Mark Waugh had just one score above 150 in tests, let alone double hundreds. So has been the case with the former India captain Sourav Ganguly who scored his first double hundred in his last test match against Pakistan in 2008.
Likewise, the England all - rounder Andrew Flintoff retired from test cricket last year after winning the Ashes without a single double hundred against his name. This was the last thing that was expected from one of the world's most promising all - rounder. Flintoff has been responsible for England's Ashes victory on two occasions. With that apart, few other examples include Sri Lanka's world cup winnings captain Arjuna Ranatunga whose highest individual test score is an unbeaten 135 against Pakistan in his 4th year of serving his country in international cricket. That score stood as his highest individual score for 13 more years until he called it a day.
If those were regarding batsmen who had limited success with double hundreds, it is strange to know that some lesser known cricketer like Marvan Atapattu had six double hundreds to his credit, with three of them coming against Zimbabwe and one against Bangladesh. Even Sachin Tendulkar has just 5 double hundreds to his name which is one less than what Atapattu could manage. Bowlers like Wasim Akram and Jason Gillespie have one hundreds against their name which puts them on par with Ganguly and Kallis off late when their double hundreds are compared. Finally, I'd like to put an end to this topic by dedicating it to my friend with whom I had all these stats which I've put up and with this I say Happy Birthday Buddha!.
Atleast now, Kallis need not retire with a bad mark that none of his 38 hundreds in test match cricket had a double hundred. One double hundred is better than none of them to his credit whatsoever. Kallis is way ahead compared to the Waugh brothers - viz Mark and Steve with stats suggesting that Steve Waugh had just one double hundred while Mark Waugh had just one score above 150 in tests, let alone double hundreds. So has been the case with the former India captain Sourav Ganguly who scored his first double hundred in his last test match against Pakistan in 2008.
Likewise, the England all - rounder Andrew Flintoff retired from test cricket last year after winning the Ashes without a single double hundred against his name. This was the last thing that was expected from one of the world's most promising all - rounder. Flintoff has been responsible for England's Ashes victory on two occasions. With that apart, few other examples include Sri Lanka's world cup winnings captain Arjuna Ranatunga whose highest individual test score is an unbeaten 135 against Pakistan in his 4th year of serving his country in international cricket. That score stood as his highest individual score for 13 more years until he called it a day.
If those were regarding batsmen who had limited success with double hundreds, it is strange to know that some lesser known cricketer like Marvan Atapattu had six double hundreds to his credit, with three of them coming against Zimbabwe and one against Bangladesh. Even Sachin Tendulkar has just 5 double hundreds to his name which is one less than what Atapattu could manage. Bowlers like Wasim Akram and Jason Gillespie have one hundreds against their name which puts them on par with Ganguly and Kallis off late when their double hundreds are compared. Finally, I'd like to put an end to this topic by dedicating it to my friend with whom I had all these stats which I've put up and with this I say Happy Birthday Buddha!.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Malings speaks
Very rarely does someone like Lasith Malinga is found throwing out his words when he recently comments on the floodlights to be a nightmare for the team batting second. Whatever, this makes bloggers like me to pen more about the issue in the form of critics and opinions. However, Lasith Malinga partly has something when he says the above statement supporting the team batting second. Mosyt of the time it has been the team batting first that wins the game but, one has to definitely make it sure that it is not only because of the reason cited by Malinga.
History says that India won the finals of the Natwest series against England in 2002 by chasing a mammoth total of 326 under lights and so was India's successful run chase against the West Indies later the same year when they chased down 324 against the same. At the same time, the other three highest successful run chases by South Africa and twice by New Zealand happened to be under day light. Here, Malinga's words have an upperhand. Whatsoever, pressure does exist with the team batting second no matter whether it is under lights or not. And this was yet again proved when Pakistan failed to get past 243 runs.
Most of the captains choose to bat after they win the toss rather than to bowl. The one undue advantage that the team batting first gets is that they have two options in hand, out of which they can choose to do one which will see them through that game. When they bat first, either they can put up a decent score for the opposition to chase failing which will see the team batting first win the game. And, in case they fail to do that, they can either get the opposition out or restrict the opposition from crossing the barrier.
Whereas, for the team batting second, the only thing left is to chase down the total imposed by the team batting first and there can be nothing like restricting the team batting first for a less score. If course, totals less than 200 are tough to defend but, the team batting second always has the task of overhauling the score put up by the team batting first. The team batting 2nd will have to overhaul the score set by the team batting first. However, in the past 8 - 9 years or so, there have been many cases of 300+ scores being chased unlike the three occasions in the 90s which included India & Australia over Pakistan and Sri Lanka over Zimbabwe.
One thing that would be worth mentioning here would be the fact that Malinga comes from the team where once the world cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga wins the toss and elects to field first in the finals of the 1996 world cup and still ends up winning the trophy.
History says that India won the finals of the Natwest series against England in 2002 by chasing a mammoth total of 326 under lights and so was India's successful run chase against the West Indies later the same year when they chased down 324 against the same. At the same time, the other three highest successful run chases by South Africa and twice by New Zealand happened to be under day light. Here, Malinga's words have an upperhand. Whatsoever, pressure does exist with the team batting second no matter whether it is under lights or not. And this was yet again proved when Pakistan failed to get past 243 runs.
Most of the captains choose to bat after they win the toss rather than to bowl. The one undue advantage that the team batting first gets is that they have two options in hand, out of which they can choose to do one which will see them through that game. When they bat first, either they can put up a decent score for the opposition to chase failing which will see the team batting first win the game. And, in case they fail to do that, they can either get the opposition out or restrict the opposition from crossing the barrier.
Whereas, for the team batting second, the only thing left is to chase down the total imposed by the team batting first and there can be nothing like restricting the team batting first for a less score. If course, totals less than 200 are tough to defend but, the team batting second always has the task of overhauling the score put up by the team batting first. The team batting 2nd will have to overhaul the score set by the team batting first. However, in the past 8 - 9 years or so, there have been many cases of 300+ scores being chased unlike the three occasions in the 90s which included India & Australia over Pakistan and Sri Lanka over Zimbabwe.
One thing that would be worth mentioning here would be the fact that Malinga comes from the team where once the world cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga wins the toss and elects to field first in the finals of the 1996 world cup and still ends up winning the trophy.
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