Kapil Dev - The Finest All rounder India has Ever Produced

Kapil Dev is the finest all-rounder India has ever produced. His greatest feats were leading India in the 1983 world cup and winning in style.  Kapil Dev was outstanding in his accuracy and ability to swing the ball, usually away from right-handers. And he could hit a ball even more brilliantly than he bowled it, with uncomplicated flair. Kapil Dev was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002. 

Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 3rd Test at Kandy 1994

The Pakistan national cricket team toured Sri Lanka in August and September 1994. Those days it was considered outside the normal cricket season, for a three-match Test series and five Limited Over’s International matches. Pakistan won the Test series 2–0.

On the first day of the 3^rd Test match played at Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy in August 1994 (Test Match # 1267). Pakistan beat Sri Lanka with the super performance of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram. Both bowled superbly and bowled out Sri Lanka just 71 runs without being unchanged. At one stage Sri Lanka was 48 for 9, but the last wicket added a few precious runs to reach the score of 71. This was the lowest Sri Lanka score at those times.

Pakistan wins the toss and is elected to field first on the tricky track. Sri Lanka handed Test cap to Chaminda Vaas, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Sanjeeva Ranatunga, while Kabir Khan made Test debut for Pakistan.

Waqar Younis declared Man of the Match of 6 for 34 and 5 for 85. He also made 20 useful Runs in the first innings. Waqar Younis dismissed Roshan Mahnama, Sanjeeva Ranatunga, Arjuna Ranatunga, Hashan Tillkaratne, Kumar Dharmasena, and Chaminda Vaas.

Sri Lanka Bowled bowled out 71 Runs in 28.2 overs. Wasim Akram 4 for 32, Waqar Younis 6 for 34.

Pakistan First Innings 357/9d Inzamam-ul-Haq 100, Aamer Sohail 74, Basit Ali 52, Saeed Anwar 31, and Captain Salim Malik 22.

Ravindra Pushpakumara 4 for 145 and Kumar Dharmasena 4 for 75.

Sri Lanka 2^nd innings 234 all out. (Hashan Tillekeratne 83 not out, Ruwan Kalpage 62 and Arjuna Ranatunga 32.

Waqar Younis 5 for 85, Mushtaq Ahmad 3 for 35, Wasim Akram 1 for 70, and Kabir Khan 1 for 39.

Pakistan won the match by an innings and 52 runs.

Pakistan also won the test series by 2-0.

The test match supervised by Sri Lankan B.C Coorey, and Ian Robinson of Zimbabwe., while T.V umpire was K.T Francis. Match Refree was Camie smith. 

Imran Khan - The Greatest Cricketer

Imran Khan is the greatest cricketer ever produced by Pakistan. A great leader, a Captain, and a true man make history to won the 1992 cricket world cup. 

 

Willie Watson Former England Batsman

Willie Watson the former Yorkshire and England batsman died on April 24 at his home in Johannesburg, in South Africa. He was 4A Watson, a graceful and correct left-hander, scored over 25.000 runs in a first-class career that spanned 25 years but will probably be best remembered for a match-saving century in the 1953 Lord's Test against Australia when his 109 runs — and his long _ partnership with Trevor Bailey — staved off what had seemed to be certain defeat. Willie Watson was born in Bolton-on-Dearne Bolton in 1920.

Watson was a fine all-around sportsman. Apart from cricket, in which he made his debut for Yorkshire in 1939, he was also a fine footballer. He played for Huddersfield, Sunderland, and Halifax, and won four England caps. He was part of the first England squad in Brazil in 1950, although he took part in the World Cup, he didn’t actually play the match. The following year he made his England Test debut, against South Africa at Trent Bridge, scoring 57 in his first match and 79 in his second, But Watson was jostling for a position with the likes of Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, Peter May, Tom Graveney, and Colin Cowdrey, in a golden era of English batting, and found it difficult to nail down a regular place in the side.

Even after that hundred on debut against Australia at Lord's in 1953, when his four-hour stand of 163 with Bailey saved the game, Watson wasn't secure: he was dropped before the end of the series and missed the deciding final Test at The Oval, Which England won to recapture the Ashes after 19 years. Football commitments at an end, Watson toured West Indies in 1953-54 and added a second Test century in Jamaica. He flitted in and out of the Test side until the end of the decade, playing his last Tests in Australasia in 1958-59, when one of his teammates was another double cricket/football international, Arthur Milton. Watson finished with 879 runs from his 23 Tests, at an average of 25.85.

By then Watson was playing his county cricket for Leicestershire, whom he’d joined as assistant secretary and captain in 1958. He played on to 1964, finishing with 25,670 runs in all (39.86), including 55 centuries. His highest score was 257, for MCC against British Guiana at Georgetown in 1953-54, when he shared a stand of 402 with Tom Graveney, who made 231. In England Watson’s best was 217 not out, for Leicestershire against Somerset at Taunton in 1961, when he shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 316 with Alan Wharton, which remained a county record until 2003. And he carried his bat for his new county against his old one in 1959, scoring 79 not out in Leicestershire’s total of 132 against Yorkshire at Grace Road.

That season — which ironically followed what turned out to be his last Test appearance — turned out to be his most prolific one, as he passed 2000 runs for the first time and finished with 2,2 12 at 55.30. Watson was a Test selector for three years from 1962 and immigrated to South Africa in 1968 to coach at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg. He saw out his twilight years in South Africa in somewhat straitened circumstances, although he was always keen to join in the various reunions of England players over the years.

Imran Khan - The finest all-rounder the game has seen. Now, the prime minister of Pakistan.

 

Walter Hadlee - The Father of Richard Hadlee, who also represented New Zealand in Test matches.

 

England Great Batsman Denis Compton playing towards leg side.

 

Aamir Nazir - Former Pakistan Fast Bowler Learnt the art of Reverse Swing from Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

Aamir Nazir - Former Pakistan Fast Bowler Learnt the art of Reverse Swing from Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. But unfortunately, he didn't perform up to the selectors' expectations and being dropped after few years. Though, he has the reverse swing class. At one time, he was being a future prospect of a Pakistan attack. He had his runup problems at the start of his career, but later on, he rectify his issue.  

 

Graham Gooch scored 333 vs India at Lord's

In July, 1990 Graham Gooch scored 333, the highest innings at Lord's, in the 1st Test v India at Lord's. With Len Hutton in the stands, the Test record was within Gooch's grasp when he was bowled by Manoj Prabhakar.

Warwick Armstrong bowled two consecutive overs in the same innings in a Test match

This day, 1921, at Old Trafford, Warwick Armstrong bowled two consecutive overs in the same innings in a Test match for the first time since it was outlawed, in 1890. The rain had reduced the Test to a two-day match. England batted, and Lionel Tennyson declared at 5.50 with the score on 341/4.

But as the umpires and batsmen left, Australian wicketkeeper Sammy Carter informed his captain Armstrong that as per Law 55, Tennyson was not allowed to declare within the last 100 minutes of a day in a two-day match. So the Australians stayed put (I am more or less certain Armstrong enjoyed this) as everyone had to return.

Then Armstrong, who had bowled the last over before the break, bowled the next one as well. Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921, and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two.

Wasim Akram had various other idiosyncrasies which hardly helped matters for the batsman.

But with the Pakistanis – starting with Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz before Wasim and Waqar came on the scene – it was a very different game.

Brian Lara - All Time Great Batsman

Brian Charles Lara born on 2 May 1969 in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad. Sachin Tendulkar’s international career may have been half as long again as Lara’s. But Lara arguably played more truly brilliant innings that took the breath away with their technical mastery and audacity. Brian Lara (The Prince of Port of Spain) was capable on his day of shredding even the finest bowlers in a way that few if any of his peers could match. He won games off his own bat, something that convinced some of his superiority to Tendulkar.

What is beyond argument is that for many years these two incredible cricketers – Lara at 5ft 8in the taller by three inches – stood head and shoulders above their batting rivals. Lara will be best remembered twice claiming the world Test record score. The mind-blowing 400 not out against England in Antigua in 2004 still stands the world record.

Then another his marathon 501 not out in 474 minutes off only 427 balls for Warwickshire in a county championship match against Durham, which remains the highest individual innings in any first-class match. This brutal inning consists of 62 smashing fours and 10 towering sixes. Earlier in the season, he was unstoppable by scoring six centuries in seven innings playing for Warwickshire. In 1995, in an away series, he scored three consecutive centuries against England that earned him a man of series.

Astonishing though these displays were in their scope and stamina, as was his original Test record score of 375 in 1994, also against England in Antigua, he had even better days than those. What marked him out was how he dealt with the best bowlers of his day. He was brilliant against Muttiah Muralitharan in Sri Lanka, and that is not easy. Nor was this someone thinking in terms of taking ones and twos, and of rotating the strike, and boring the bowler to death.

He was picking each delivery, and whacking it, and making Murali the Magnificent look Murali the Mortal. He was every bit as good against Shane Warne. Only eight Test double centuries were scored against Warne and Lara scored three of them. One of these came in Jamaica during a remarkable series in 1999 which was drawn 2–2 and went through every conceivable twist and turn.

In the previous game, West Indies had been dismissed for 51, leaving Lara’s future as captain on the line. In 1998-99 West Indies suffered first-ever whitewashed 5-0 at the hands of South Africa under the captaincy of Lara. A match-winning 213 was his response. He then played even better in the next game in Barbados, carrying his side to an improbable victory with an unbeaten 153 after his team lost their eighth wicket with 63 still needed. According to Wisden Top 100 Test Innings, Lara’s 153 not out is second best innings after Sir Donald Bradman 270 against England at MCG in 1936-37

Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, in turn, held firm but of necessity Lara did most of the scoring. Shane Warne suffered the rare indignity of being dropped for the next match. Brian Lara must have been one of the best of all-time against spinners. Perhaps he was fortunate to be brought up in Trinidad (as the tenth of 11 children) where pitches turned more than elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Even so, the way he dominated Murali and Warne was very special. He was also, it seems trite to say, very good against pace, at least until his later years when a tendency to jump across his crease became exaggerated and he was perhaps grateful for the protection the helmet afforded him. His first international hundreds came against world-class fast bowlers such as Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis for Pakistan and Allan Donald for South Africa while playing as a one-day opener in 1993 when they were at something like their peaks.

It is surprising to think that Lara did not score his first century for West Indies until he was 24 years old but despite the obvious excitement over his ability in his native Trinidad. Where in his second match for the island he scored 92 against a Barbados attack containing Malcom Marshall and Joel Garner, and his own immense self-belief, he was kept waiting for his chances.

He had played only two Tests by the time he turned 23 but in his first full series scored 277 at the SCG in Jan 1993, an innings that not only turned the series but many heads too. Therefore, Brian Lara names his daughter Sydney after scoring the first Test century. Brian Lara described it as his favorite innings and named his first child Sydney in its memory. I was commentating on Australia’s Channel Nine during that match and can testify to Lara’s brilliance.

The difference between Lara and so many of the other batsmen in this list was the strength of the team he was playing for. For the most part, it was not great (and sometimes downright terrible). West Indies relied on him so much. Lara finished on the losing side in almost half of all the Tests he played – 63 out of 131 to be precise. But the blame could not often be laid at his door.

He scored 5,316 runs in those 63 defeats at an average of 42.19 with 14 hundred. Lara sometimes enabled West Indies to compete with the stronger sides, but often the challenge proved too much even for him. In his greatest series against Murali in Sri Lanka in 2001, Lara scored a staggering 688 runs in three games, yet all three games were still lost.

When he played for Warwickshire in 1994, he helped turn a modestly talented team into treble-winners. The 400 not out, which came in the fourth and final Test of a series, was shaped by three earlier defeats. In the context of the game, it was perhaps overdoing it. But given what had happened in the series.

It was his way of restoring pride in West Indian cricket and salving the wounds inflicted by Michael Vaughan’s pace attack, against which he personally had had to grit his teeth and battle hard. The broadcaster for that innings had been for the 375 ten years earlier. On the first occasion, there was something romantic and emotional about watching Garry Sobers.

One of the great heroes and Lara’s too, walk out to congratulate him. Garry Sobers said he could not have been happier that Lara had been the one to break his record: ‘To me, he is the only batsman around today who plays the game the way it should be played. He doesn’t use his pads, he uses his bat.’ The record was broken by Mathew Hayden 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003.

In an interviewed with him at the start of the 2004 series and asked if there was a chance of him reclaiming the record and he’d said, ‘Oh well, maybe, you never know. I’m not really thinking about it. Perhaps most extraordinary was how relaxed he was when he resumed on 313 at the start of the third day.

The commentators of Sky TV’s build-up, we were on the outfield and we’d asked him if we could borrow his bat, was holding it and saying, ‘This is the bat with which Brian Lara is today going to attempt to get back his world record. And then there he was, walking past on his way to the wicket. ‘Here you are, you might need this. He said thanks and off he went to get his 400.

Most players would have wanted that bat with them in the dressing room, familiarizing themselves with how it felt again. Not Lara. He had far too much style for that. Did he get a little bit carried away with himself at times? Possibly. There perhaps was one difference with Tendulkar. In 1989 he selected for West Indies B Team toured to Zimbabwe, where he scored brilliant 145 in one match. Therefore, Lara was given an opportunity to play against Pakistan in 1990. In the first Test Match at Lahore, he scored 44 in the first inning and 5 in the second inning.

On the same tour, Lara debut in one day international at Karachi where he scored 11 being LBW by Waqar Younis. When he suddenly became very famous, he found it hard to handle the change in lifestyle and it took him time to adjust. Nor did the West Indies captaincy always sit easily with him. His technique was far from orthodox. He had a high backlift, which made him vulnerable to fast Yorkers.

If he was not in the right position, but conversely it meant his hands were high for the cross-bat shots at which he excelled, and it helped generate tremendous bat speed and therefore tremendous power. Denying him width was the best way to keep him quiet, as Glenn McGrath showed, but few had McGrath’s discipline.

Brian Lara was second men in the history of the game, who scored two first-class quadruple centuries after Bill Ponsford. Moreover, he has nine double centuries in Test cricket, third on the list after Bradman 12 and Kumar Sangakkara 11. As a captain, Lara scored five double centuries, highest by any captain in the world.

By and large his quick eyes, hands, and feet allowed him to get into good positions and make outrageously late adjustments to his shots. There were repeated rumors, towards the end, that his eyes were going, but if true they did not stop him playing until his 38th year, scoring a double century in his penultimate Test, or retiring with more Test runs to his name than any other cricketer to that point.

Of course, Tendulkar overtook him in the end. Brian Lara announced the retirement on 19 April 2007 from all forms of cricket and played his last ODI against England on 21 April 2007. Brian Lara eventually runout in his last match, scoring 18 after he had a mix up with Marlon Samuels, as England won the match.

He is widely acknowledged greatest batsman of all time, topped the ICC test ranking many times along with several world records. He also shares most runs in an over in Test Cricket smashing 28 runs to left-arm spinner Robert Peterson, later share by George Baily of Australia. Brian Lara awarded Wisden Leading Cricketer of the Year in 1994 and 1995. He also received world most prestigious award BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year along being others are Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne. In 2012, Brian Lara has included ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Brian Lara played 131 Test Matches, scored 11,953 runs at an average of 52.88 with the best of 400 Not out including 34 hundred, 48 half-centuries, and 164 catches. In 299 ODI’s, he scored 10,405 at 40.48 with the best of 169, including 19 hundred, 63 fifties and 120 catches. He never played any T20I match.

Also, in 261 first-class matches, Lara scored 22,156 runs at 51.88 with the best of 501 Not Out, including 65 hundred, 88 fifties and 320 catches. In 429 List-A matches, he scored 14,602 runs at 39.67 with 27 hundred, 86 the fifties and 177 catches. Moreover, in 3 T20s he scored 99 runs with the best of 65. These stats clearly show the greatness of Brian Charles Lara. Those who had watched him, never forget his flamboyant shots. He had written immortal cricket history with his bat.