Well we anticipated so much yesterday, but it was not to be. Bell fell for a well made 58 and looked good to complete a second ton in successive tests. On the other hand, looks like Joe Root is determined to get a big one and close all escape routes for India, the weather notwithstanding. India would do itself no harm if they can get both Buttler and Root out early tomorrow. Bhuvi as usual bowled well and surprise surprise Varun Aaron impressed all in his brief spell of play. Ishant might be squirming and cursing his injury tonight.
Elsewhere, the old Srilankan workhorse Kumar Sangakkara completed another test ton, his 37th, to move past another legend of test cricket, Rahul Dravid on the list of Most Hundreds in a Career. Dravid amassed 36 centuries in his illustrious career. Sachin Tendulkar is obviously sitting pretty with 51 hundreds followed by Jacques Kallis (45) and Ricky Ponting (41) both retired and not moving up on that list. With the kind of form Sanga is in, he might be in sight of Ponting's number as well in some time. Sanga has got to these many hundreds in just 127 matches as against the 164 Dravid had played. This in other words means that Sanga has a better career average (58.8) than Dravid and infact any one in the top 10 in the list of Most Hundreds in a Test Career. The only other active batsman in the Top 10 is fellow Srilankan Mahela Jayawardane (at 8th) with 34 hundreds. Sunil Gavaskar (34), Brian Lara (34), Steve Waugh (32) and Mathew Hayden (30) complete the list.
It is interesting to know that amongst the active cricketers, the ones who are expected to shake this list in the near future are Shivnarine Chanderpaul (29), Micheal 'Pup' Clarke (27) and Alistair Cook (25). Neither of Clarke or Chanderpaul have enough cricket left in them to emulate Ponting or Lara as the leading hundreds amasser for Australia and West Indies. However, Cook to me seems to be destined to be the greatest English batsman of all time especially in this regard. Only Ian Bell (21) has a realistic chance of beating his record and no English batsman has as many hundreds as Cook and will not have as many hundreds for a very long time. So in my mind Alistair Cook is already a legend. And as an Indian fan, I dread he has many years left in him, he is only 29 after all !
England will keep winning if Bell and Cook continue with their century making exploits. For tommorrow however it would be Joe Root's chance to get his 5th ton in 20 test matches with a best effort of 200*. Onus is on India to take back the game in their hands.
Elsewhere, the old Srilankan workhorse Kumar Sangakkara completed another test ton, his 37th, to move past another legend of test cricket, Rahul Dravid on the list of Most Hundreds in a Career. Dravid amassed 36 centuries in his illustrious career. Sachin Tendulkar is obviously sitting pretty with 51 hundreds followed by Jacques Kallis (45) and Ricky Ponting (41) both retired and not moving up on that list. With the kind of form Sanga is in, he might be in sight of Ponting's number as well in some time. Sanga has got to these many hundreds in just 127 matches as against the 164 Dravid had played. This in other words means that Sanga has a better career average (58.8) than Dravid and infact any one in the top 10 in the list of Most Hundreds in a Test Career. The only other active batsman in the Top 10 is fellow Srilankan Mahela Jayawardane (at 8th) with 34 hundreds. Sunil Gavaskar (34), Brian Lara (34), Steve Waugh (32) and Mathew Hayden (30) complete the list.
It is interesting to know that amongst the active cricketers, the ones who are expected to shake this list in the near future are Shivnarine Chanderpaul (29), Micheal 'Pup' Clarke (27) and Alistair Cook (25). Neither of Clarke or Chanderpaul have enough cricket left in them to emulate Ponting or Lara as the leading hundreds amasser for Australia and West Indies. However, Cook to me seems to be destined to be the greatest English batsman of all time especially in this regard. Only Ian Bell (21) has a realistic chance of beating his record and no English batsman has as many hundreds as Cook and will not have as many hundreds for a very long time. So in my mind Alistair Cook is already a legend. And as an Indian fan, I dread he has many years left in him, he is only 29 after all !
England will keep winning if Bell and Cook continue with their century making exploits. For tommorrow however it would be Joe Root's chance to get his 5th ton in 20 test matches with a best effort of 200*. Onus is on India to take back the game in their hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment