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Chi I yaam very saari... It was the Kochi match on March 31st where Jadeja scored a century and Sachin Picked up 5 wickets... this one spoiled my Science board exam.....Quote:
Originally Posted by ajithfederer
BTW Stan naa CBSE!! Still naa yen april 22nd nadantha intha sharjah match a thiruttu thanama maadilenthu paarthen nu theriyala... Annual leave thaane :roll:
Aravida De Silva was rated next to Sachin by Peter Roebuck in one of his articles in India Today.
One of the most underrated batsman, IMO.
P.S: That Kochi match was on April 1 ;)
Oh Yeah then My science exam must have been on the 2nd of April!!Quote:
Originally Posted by littlemaster1982
To me some how Aravinda's style of batting resembled Roy Dias who was part of Srilankan test team in the inagural dates :)
Any team's technically best batsman comes in at one-drop. The reason is that he can enter at various stages of the game depending how the opening pair fared. So you need someone who is comfortable in seaming conditions and against spin. He would also need to be able to change the pace of the game as the situation demanded. Aravinda was a master.
As mentioned in the previoius post, his innings in the WC semi in Kolkata '96. When the deadly openers were gone India perhaps assumed the game was as good as over. They couldn't have been more wrong. de Silva's steadied the boat. The steadying was not about getting his eye in and playing a sober 'behind-the-line-of the-ball' innings.
He played freely and elegantly as if nothing happened. Scoring at a brutal pace.
He reached his 50 with 10 boundaries !!!
But not a single slogging shot. All of them well time drives, late cuts and signature pulls. One ball from Srinath was a little short of length but an extremely uncomfortable line. The only humanly possible scoring shot was a hook to deep square leg. The fielding restrictions were still on and Azhar had a deep square leg in place.
de Silva rose with the ball, a little jump in fact and got on top of it to play it through mid wicket. It beat the fielder to the fence. That was a clear example of reading the field, the wicket (the bounce - his innings was still only a few balls old at that time) and choosing the perfect shot.
He did such things several times that day and in the final. Have seen him play that stroke in tests too.
Perhaps if he had gone back and hooked it he may have still gotten six runs. His hook was one of his better strokes. But the way he played the pull seems to me to reflect a certain admancy about being in control of the ball despite his height. That makes it more exciting for me.
And of course, he could change gears and slog too. Like Chanderpaul and Azhar he also had this half step walk into the shot sometimes. Every now and then, he would walk a clear step ahead to play a shot.
In Sharjah he made Damien Fleming's life miserable once by ambling down and smashing him over mid-on/mid-wicket. Sachin has a drag and pull kind of shot. When he completed the execution - pardon the pun- it will look like he is losing the balance to his leg side. It essentially opens up so much room for him to play that stroke.
OTOH de Silva used to create room dangerously. Opening the gate between bat and pad when walking down. Many times he would sky a medium pacer to the covers but when it clicked he would have made the bowler look like a fool.That was clear arrogance, announcing to the bowler he was coming down even before the bowler had completed his run up. Daring him to choose a difficult length for him to negotiate even now.
Everything about de Silva is 'sometimes'. There is very little typicality in his game. He was flexibile as the situation demanded. He would get out to the most unthinkable shots sometimes. But many times the memories will be of de Silva creating runs out of the most impossible balls.
Darren Gough is one of the best death bowlers of the 90s. In a C&U series in Aus, Gough made a habit of picking up atleast 2-3 wickets in the last few overs. One matches de Silva showed him (and captain Stewart) why he himself is the king of death.
Straight and back over the bowler she'll go, an inch of width and he'll pick the gap perfectly, a couple of attempted yorkers (Gough's deadly ones) where turned into lollipops with de Silva walking down that half steps.
The extent to which he controlled the bowling reached hilarious levels in a Pak-SL match before the indpendence cup. SL won th match by 9 wickets. They just lost Jayasuriya. de Silva had scored a century (or 50+). They needed one to win and had plenty of overs to make them. de Silva was saving that one run for Atapattu who was hanging at 49. (Mind you Atapattu opened the innings and had a partnership with Jayasuriya !). The bowler sent down an express down the leg side. Left alone it would have been a wide, he had to stop it with the face of the bat. An edge may have run to the fence !
He moved his bat beyond his left leg, with a straight face and stopped it dead. Atapattu hit the winning run next over.
I dont know much about Cricket terminologies, but he was delight to watch, being small in size, one wonders how he used to terrorise the bowlers, i remember in the 2000 (or something world cup) Lee was smashed to all over the park :rotfl:
1996 World Cup
De Silva did not play in Kent's two last County Championship matches having left to join the Sri Lankan squad on their tour of Pakistan. Sri Lanka had embarrassingly lost a first-class match against Pakistan Cricket Board Patron's XI and the following first Test against Pakistan both by an innings.[10] He joined the team only few days before the second Test and was dismissed for a duck in the first innings; however, in Sri Lanka's second innings his third wicket stand of 176 runs with Chandika Hathurusingha helped to win the Test for Sri Lanka.[11] Sri Lanka went on to win the third Test and clinch the Test series against Pakistan 21. Sri Lanka also proved victorious with the same numbers in the subsequent three-match ODI-series against Pakistan, where de Silva was Sri Lanka's leading wicket-taker with five wickets at an average of 17.80.[10][12]
In the three-nation Champions Trophy tournament in Sharjah in October 1995 with Pakistan and West Indies each team ended up with two wins and two losses in the preliminary round-robin stage, and West Indies and Sri Lanka were selected to play in the final due to their higher run rates. In the final Sri Lanka proved victorious by 50 runs. De Silva ended up with a modest 117 runs at an average of 29.25 in five matches.[13] His batting form slumped lower in the three-test Series in Australia, where the Sri Lankan batsmen struggled with the bowling of Glenn McGrath, who took 21 wickets while de Silva managed 98 runs at an average of 16.33. In the third test he acted as captain after the regular captain Arjuna Ranatunga pulled out due to finger injury. The series was shrouded in controversy, as in the first Test Sri Lanka was first found guilty of ball-tampering only to be exonerated later by International Cricket Council, while in the second Test the Australian umpire Darrell Hair no-balled Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan seven times in just three overs for throwing.[14] Concurrently with the Test series Sri Lanka also participated in three-nation ODI series with Australia and West Indies. In the seventh match of the tournament against West Indies Muralitharan was again called for throwing and did not play again in the ODI series. The tournament was won by Australia, who beat Sri Lanka in both final matches, confirming their favourite position in the forth-coming ICC World Cup in the Indian sub-continent. In the absence of Ranatunga, de Silva captained Sri Lanka in the ODI tournament until Ranatunga returned in the later stages and finished the series as Sri Lanka's top batsman with 258 runs at an average of 25.80.[15]
In 1996 World Cup Sri Lanka, who hosted the cup together with India and Pakistan, played only three games in the preliminary rounds as both West Indies and Australia forfeited their matches in Colombo due to security reasons. Neither Zimbabwe nor Kenya were able to truly test Sri Lanka team in both matches de Silva was selected man-of-the-match following his 91 and 145 runs with bat. De Silva's 145 from 115 balls against Kenya was the highest ever score for Sri Lanka in ODIs, and the third highest in 1996 World Cup. India proved a stronger opponent, but despite Sachin Tendulkar's 137 runs, Sri Lanka cruised to a comfortable six wicket victory.[16]
In the quarter-finals Sri Lanka defeated England by five wickets, the first time they had ever beaten England outside Sri Lanka.[17] The semi-final opponent was India, which had beaten Pakistan in their quarter-final match. Winning the toss at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, India selected to field and had a very good start with Javagal Srinath dispatching Sri Lankan opening pair for only one run. Playing at fourth batsman, de Silva lead the Sri Lankan recovery hitting 66 runs from 47 balls as Sri Lanka set the target of 252 runs. This 66 runs that does not really stand out in statistics tables, is however regarded as one of the finest innings by Aravinda. In their response, the batsmen of India failed to score with the exception of Tendulkar (65 runs).[18] After India had collapsed to 120 runs for 8 wickets at 34.1 overs, a densely-packed home crowd vented their anger by throwing bottles on to the outfield and setting fire to the seating. Eventually the match referee Clive Lloyd had to abandon the game and Sri Lanka won by default.[19]
However, the highlight of his career was almost certainly the 1996 World Cup Final against Australia, where he took 3 wickets for 42 runs (including the Australian captain Mark Taylor and the future captain Ricky Ponting), two catches and then followed that with 107 not out with the bat to secure Sri Lanka a convincing 7 wicket victory, thereby clinching the World Cup, and also the Man of the Match award.[20] His role in the final was recognised by Wisden in 2002 as the eight most significant batting performance in ODI cricket while his bowling was ranked 82nd in Wisden top 100 bowling chart.[21]
On 28 July 2007 he made a one-off appearance for a friend for Dorset county league side Sherborne.[22]
Prabhu,
What happened to
Quote:
His hook
His innings pacing
When he goes ballistic
The intelligent bowler that he is
Sridhar, I kinda covered some of the innings pacing in the last posts.
Aravinda's hook is stuff of legend. It is a myth that short batsmen can play the hook naturally. They are more suited to it that is all.
Nor is the hook only the preserve of short batsmen - Mohinder Amarnath was not noticeably short - but played the shot gloriously.
It is a shot that calls for split-second selection and fearlessness. Take your eye of the ball - which is on a scary trajectory - and you play an ill-controlled shot. Lobbing it to deep backward square or worse still square leg/fine-leg.Aravinda de Silva wore a grillless helmet and fearlessly hooked the fastest in the game. That too with such grace and control.
One of the rare times when I saw Wasim Akram being dominated by a batsman was in a match in Sharjah when he locked horns with Aravinda. Wasim very rarely changes his line to go from around to over to a right hander.He maintains the same annoying line. But de Silva tortured him so much that he moved to over the wicket and tried bowling short to cram him for room. That is a very difficult angle to hook as you are trying to hit the ball away from where it is naturally headed. Yet de Silva did exactly that.
There was the signature slight movement to his right from which he generated yards of room. Converting a perfect line ball into a wide short pathetic delivery that deserved the assault.
He is one of those batsmen you shouldn't watch and learn from. you simply can't. Only Aravinda fossible. :notworthy:
makkaLE, PM me nominees for the cricketers who you think should be up next here. Needless to say, those who are nominating would be contirbute significantly by writing about the cricketer.
current :lol: :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Kalyasi
nostalgic :bow:
Great #4
Imran Khan
One of Pakistan's greatest cricketers. One of the game's most popular captains. In his heydey he was among the quickest bowlers in the game and consistently improved his batting to become a good allrounder. He is best known for leading his team to the 1992 World Cup triumph. Let us know more about him.....
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Thanks Prabhu for nominating my favorite cricketer the great Khan, Imran. In my opinion Imran was the greatest cricketer Pakistan has ever produced. Ofcourse, there were better batsmen and better, faster bowlers came from pakistan. Still, Imran was the born Leader. I can talk about this legend for hours and hours. He was the main reason why pakistan became such a formidable force in Cricketing world. No one attained the heights Imran reached in Pakistan cricket. The way how I see things it is likely that one one would achieve this place in Pakistan cricket.
Imran Khan Niazi hailas from a very wealthy family, who were able to send their son to England for studies. Imran aged 17 in fact played against the Indian Team of 1971 in a practice match with worchester. Again, he played against the visiting Indian Team of 1974. Gavaskar, fondly remémbers the encounter with the young Imran in his memoires. Tha slim and well built Imran actually made his debut for Pakistan Test team in 1971 against England. Intikab Alam the genial pak. captain gave a chance for the 17 year old whou couldnīt make a big impact in his debut. He sprayed a lot while trying to be faster. Logically, he was dropped and it took 3 years for him to play his second test in 1974. During this Test he showed that he could bat as well. He was at those days considered as a second line bowler who could bat a bit. This was the situation till 1976.
A dramatic change went through Imran after 1975. He started playing for Sussex under Tony Greig. I think he learnt a lot from Tony Greig at those times. He beacme really good at the art of fast bowling. Being narrow hipped and broad shouldered he was the man girls were looking for. Whenever and whereever he played the girls were thunder struck. Still Imran was on the beginning stages of his great career
Nice intro. Hope to read more. Particularly about...
1) About his pace. Have heard from Wasim Akram that he was among the fastest bowlers in his heyday. And if the injury that ate up a couple pf years (?) of his career had not happened, he would have been among the leading wicket takers.
2) Picking cricketers from nowhere: Akram, Waqar, Abdul QAdir, Inzamam ul Haq
3) The tour of Pak where he decimated India with his outswingers - a battery of slips and gullies
4) His gentleman tag. Gavaskar and Imran shared a good camaraderie I hear. I once heard Gavaskar say: "those were the days when opposing captains used to be able to talk without the umpires having to come in between and separate them" :lol:
5) While searching for a pic there was one I saw where Imran was pulling up Saleem Yousuf for claiming a catch which was grounded
6) His relationship with Javed Miandad. It was always thorny I hear but they put on many partnerships on the field. The one I remember best is the '92 WC final. You can recount more memorable ones too.
Imran was a Pathan whose ancestors hailed from NWFP but Imran was a Lahore boy. [The eternal ego clash between Imran and Javed can be traced to the historical rivalry between Lahore and Karachi - Javed being the street figher of Karachi]. Coming to the cricket part of Imran, it was not a great start (Sivan had said this). He and Javed made their World Cup debut in the inaugural cup of 1975.
He shot into prominence during the 1978 Test series against India played at Pakistan. Cricketing relationship was revived after 17 years (the last series between the sub continent rivals was in 1961) and Pakistan floored India 2-0. Zaheer Abbas and Sarfaraz were the heroes with Imran chipping in with the side being captained by Majid Khan (Imran was related to Majid).
Next year 1978- 1979 saw Pakistan touring India and India took a a sweet revenge by beating them 2-0. That was the tour when Imran came to India for the first time as a player and the crowds simply loved him. Asif Iqbal captained the side but lost the same just like Bedi was axed after the 1978 tour.
The real Imran emerged in the 1982-83 series played in Pakistan. With his famous reverse swing, Imran demolished India with a haul of 40 wickets and India lost 3-0. Nobody could fathom the swing and our batsmen were all at sea. If my memory serves me right, except Jimmy, no other batsmen could counter Imran and that bowling performance ended the illustrious career of Vishy.
Subsequent World cup (1983) saw him playing as a batsman because he had an injury (shin or ankle?) which did not allow him to bowl. The return series in India in 1983 was a tame affair with all the three tests getting drawn. Same way the next year 1984 series (2 tests and the third abandoned due to the assasscination of Indira Gandhi) produced a resultless series.
There was no Imran for the 1985 World Series Benson & Hedges Cup which India won beating Pakistan in the finals. But he had his sweet revenge when he captained the side that won the 1986 Auatralasia cup on 18th April, 1986, at Sharjah but Javed took the entire credit with the last ball six of a full toss.
The captain in him came out in 1987, about which I will come back.
Regards
After the 1974 tour in England Imran found himself out of the team other than the 175 WC. Intikhab Alam has given way to Mushtaq Muhammed as the new captain of the Pak Team. MM preferred Sarfaraz and Asif Masood as the new ball openers.
It took more than 2 years for Imran to play again a test series this time against the Kiwis in Pakistan. Imran has become a very good pace bowler during this period thanks to the numerous games he underwent with Sussex. What a come back it was. Pak won the 3 test series with 2-0 by winning the first two tests and drawing the last one. Imran took 13 wickets in that series and from then on there was no more turning back. Subsequently Pak visitied Australia for a 3 test series.
Australia was with their full team with Lillee and Thompson raring to go after their debacle with WI. A bouncer war started. AUS with Lillee, Thompson and gilmour were definitely the stronger side. But Pak retaliated strongly with Imran, Altaf and Sarfaraz.
With the first test drawn and the second test won very comfortably by Aussies Greg Chappell was very confident about the third test in sydney. Lillee was bowling his heart out.
GSC won the toss and elected to bat. Imran was breathing fire. He and Sarfaraz tore the Aussies for a mere 211. Imran took 6 wickets in the first innings. He was so fast that made sarfaraz like a slow bowler. Aussies were so surprised at the pace of Imran and Lillee showed why he was considered as the best fast bowler of the world at that time. Bouncers were used even at the non regular batsmen.
The second innings of Aussies was a repetion of the first innings. Imran was even more faster and again picked 6 wickets for 59 leaving the Pak to score 32 for a win, which they did after loosing 2 wickets to Lillee. It was a very ugly match where the umpires had to warn Imran and Lillee for bowling bouncers at the non Regular batsmen. The victory against Australia was the moment for Imran to announce the world that even the sub continent can produce world class fast bowlers. A very shattered Greg Chappell admitted in the press conference that he was surprised at the pace Imran produced and he also admitted that at times Imran was as good as Lillee, which was the greatest compliment one can ever get from an Australian.
After the australian tour the Pak team visited WI to play a 5 test series where again the fast bowlers were the center of attraction. WI with their battery of fast bowlers against the pace trio of Pak. Imran was again the best bowler for the paks with 25 wickets from 5 tests. WI won the series with 2-1.
Imrans sussex captain Tony Greig with Ian Chappell and Asif Iqbal were the cheif architects for forming the Kerry Packerīs World Series of Cricket. Pakistan was robbed of the servcices of Imran, Sarfaraz, Mushtaq Muhammed, Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan and few others. Eventhough Javed was included in the side of WORLD XI up to my knowledge he never took part in any of those games. Instead he was palying for Pakistan under Wasim Bariīs captaincy.
Imran was a huge success in Australia with the WSC. He learnt a lot from other fast bowlers like Andy Robers, Mike Procter, Garth la Roux. The cameraderie was very good between the WSC Australia, WSC WI and WSC World XI since they were outcasted as rebels.
Imran was originally a raw pace bowler but gradually developed batting skills. He was one of the fastest bowlers during his era.
On 82 series, some factually incorrect information ! May I correct :
It was Imrans Indipper which caused havoc. There was no concept of reverse swing those days. Imrans favourite delivery is inswinger but this time, the swing was too much. It came from wide outside the off stump to middle stumps !
Apart from Mohinder, Sunil Gavaskar scored 430 + runs @ an average of 48. Considering that he was an opener, you can assess the value of 48 as an overall avge. He scored 1 century and 3 fiftees plus 1 forty I think. I remember Gavaskar even carrying his bat once ! proof of his mastery over Imran.
Yashpal Sharma played the later part of the series and did well. He also played Imran confidently. Even Shastri played reasonably well in whatever chances he got.
The real failures were Vishvanath, Sandeep Patil, Vengsarkar etc. Guys like Arun Lal ( who talks so many things about Cricket now ) also failed.
Kapil was considered an arch rival of Imran and everyone expected a good contest between them. Sadly Kaps failed with the bat
Before the series, Sunil said that Pak will crush us to Pulp ! and India lost. Sunil lost his captaincy to Kapil who led the team to WI.
Though India lost there also, the team went to England for the WC with confidence having faced the most fearsome bowling attack.
Vishvanath was given extended life by his BIL. Else, he would have been axed before. Finally, the Imran indippers ended his career. The Karachi test saw Vishvanath shouldering arms to an indipper which vicisouly came in sharply from outside the offstump to take the stumps ! Many guys fell for this similar delivery.
It was a 6 test series out of which Iindia lost 0-3 . The latter part of the series saw Indians playing Imran to some extent.
The series in India in 83 .There was no Imran at all ! The team was led by Zaheer Abbas.This was conducted after the worldcup. India won the onedayers while the tests were drawn.
India won the Victory cup in Australia under Gavaskar, the captaincy went to Kapil again. The team went to Sharjah and won a series sensationally ! Imran bowled well there.
Imran was never the same threat after that 82 series. Srikanth used to blast him . Imran actually bowled well in a series in England . That was his real boosting series before the Indian series.
Imran was a very good captain. Astute leader. Commanded respect fm members.
Groomed world class guys like Wasim Akram, Waqar Yunis etc
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prabhu Ram
I had written about 1986 Australasia Cup being a grudge match for the Benson & Hedges cup of 1985. There was one more tournament in 1985 April at Sharjah (Asia Cup?). In the finals, the sub continent rivals clashed. It saw one of the most hostile spell of bowling from Imran when he single handedly demolished India for a platry score of 125 and his analysis read 6 for 14 in 10 overs which was a record untill Aquib Javed claimed 7 wickets in 10 overs in the same sharjah (including a hatrick) in 19991. Records apart, the spell of Imran on that day was awesome. Nobody could even play a correct shot and even the 14 runs came through edges. India only after his spell was over could breathe easily and piled up 125. But the pakistani batsmen let Imran down and with Kapil marshalling his resources well, Pak was shot out for 89 and we won by 36 runs. So the 1986 triumph (from the jaws of death) was a very sweet one for Imran.
When 1987 dawned, Imran made public his 4 desires. The first one was to beat India in India, second was to beat England at England, the third one was to beat WI in Windies and last to win the World Cup. These have never been achieved by any other Pak team. Pakistan was scheduled to tour all these three countries and participate in the World Cup of 1987 to be joint hosted by India and Pakistan.
Indian tour turned out to be a watershed in Pak cricket's history. in the First Test at Madras, Srikaa scored 123 to set up a decent Indian score. Imran who could not take part in the later part of Indian innings due to stomack upset was on trips. But when Pakistan innings began to crumble, he came out to bat. What an innings he played. He scored 135 which not only pulled Pakistan out of trouble but also effectively ended any hopes India had in mind. This man without any solid food intake stood for 4 hours and also hit 5 sixes, which showed what he is made of.
He could inspire the fellow players. During those times, the Tests and one dayers were interwined and so the first two one dayers were held after the tests. In the second test at Calcutta, Roger Binny opened up the Pak batting and captured 6 wickets. [This was the Test that Sunny opted out citing the reaction of Calcutta crowds towards him. Arun Lal who came in scored two half centuries but had to sit out in the next Test as Sunny "rightfully" reclaimed his place]. But Imran made sure that there was no hiccupps and again draw resulted.
Coming to the second one dayer at Calcutta (the first having been comfortably won by Pak), Srikka again scored 123 and when Pak started chasing, wickets began to tumble but imran found one man for the occasion. Salim Malik simply toyed with the Indian bowling and in 40 odd balls scored 70 + runs to set up an improbale win. The one dayers ended in favour of Pak with the score line reading 5-1, the only victory for India coming at the third match at Hyderabad but that could be called pyrrhic because India won on a technical point.
With the third and fourth tests meandering to draw, it boiled down to the fifth and final test at Bangalore. The curator Kasturi Rangan had prepared a pitch which turned out to be a minefield of a pitch. Imran on reading the pitch choose Iqbal Qasim and Abdul Quadir. Pak won the toss and elected to bat but Manninder spun a web around the Pak batsmen by claiming 7 wickets and Pak was bundled out for 116. India stared off well and finished the day at 72 for 2. The chances were bright for India. But Imran had a long team meeting and lot of strategies were discussed. Iqbal and Abdul Qadir as a part of the strategy went and met Bishen Singh Bedi and asked for tips Bedi gladly gave the same. his main advise was dont try anything extra. Pitch the ball in the right area and the turf will do the rest. On the next morning India overtook the Pak score and were 119 for 4 when the collapse happened and we ended up at 145, with just 29 runs lead. In the second innings, Pak batsmen fared better and they scored 249. Set 221 to win, India started disastrously losing Srikanth and Mohinder very cheaply. imran opened up with Wasim and Iqbal Qasim and his strategy started paying off. Sunny alone was waging a lone battle while wickets were falling at the other end. End of the day, we were 113 for 5 with Sunny and Azhar at the crease. The next day was rest day and the entire Pak team were working on so many plans. 5 wickets stood between Imran and his dream.
He started with Wasim on the fourth day and Azhar started with his customary wristy flicks which fetched him some runs thus by raising the hope of India. But it was not destined to be. Azhar fell and soon Shastri was gone. Sunny after battling the pitch and the bowlers finally fell for 96 which turned out to be his last outing for India, the writing was on the wall for India. Binny scored some lusty blows but Imran was not to be denied his due and we ended up at 204 falling short by 16 runs. I still remeber the glee and euphoria in Imran's face as the final wicket fell and for us who were watching it live on TV, it was a shattering blow (same emotions we had when we were watching the last ball 6, in the previous year) but here was a man who showed what leadership is and we could understand what does it mean when people say leading from the front.
Will come back later.
Regards
Sivan sir & Murali sir :clap: :clap:
Imran Khan The Legend!
August 4, 2008
http://niuse.wordpress.com/2008/08/0...an-the-legend/
I will write my thoughts/memories on Imran Khan sometime later. 8-)
Few quick notes on Imran Khan!
* Imran was widely considered as the BEST allrounder of the "famous 4" of his era (i.e. Imran, Botham, Kapil, Hadlee)
* During his times, Imran Khan was a huge "box office" draw not just in Pakistan but across the world alongside Viv Richards & Ian Botham!
* Besides cricket, Imran Khan was a philanthropist who tried his hands in politics (albeit with little success)! But he was successful in fulfilling his dream of building a cancer hospital for the poor and needy!
I will write more about his cricketing stuff and my memories later! 8-)
Great posts folks. Enjoying reading them :thumbsup:
Sure. But what I meant was if you knew about the incident of Imran pulling up Saleem Yousuf for claiming a grounded catchQuote:
Originally Posted by sivank
Imran in flow
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1987 England tour - Pak had played 5 tests and won 1-0. If my memory serves me right, it was the third test at Headingly (?) which produced the result. If I am not off the mark, it was an innings victory for Pakistan and of course the hero was Imran. He had a 10 wicket match haul (or was it 11?) and Pak triumphed in a low scoring match. I remember the weather God was not kind enough and 2 tests ended in draw because of rain. In the fifth test at Oval, Javed scored a century but it ended in a draw. Thus Imran's second wish of beating England in England also materialised.
Come October 1987, the Reliance World Cup started. India and Pakistan were in different groups and so India played all its matches in India and Pak in Pak. There were six matches for each team and India after losing the first match in Madras to Australia by 1 run came back strongly to win the next 4 matches. Pakistan on the other hand had won all the 5 matches in a row and the "invincible" tag attached to them looked real. Before the final match started, it became more or less sure that India , Pak, Aus and England would make it to the semis. The only issue was if India loses or wins by a lower margin, it had to travel to Pak to play the semifinal against Pak, which was dreaded by the team and the public. But in Nagpur against NewZealand, Sunny played his Lifetime one day innings (eventually his only one day century came in this match) and he was ably supported by Cheekaa. [To quote R. Mohan, who covered the match " The onslaught was started by the master and sustained by the pupil" , which came out on the 1st of Nov 1987 in "The Hindu", the match having been played on Oct 31st Saturday, the previous day. The match had assumed so much importance that another news that of MGR returning for the one final time from USA on the same day (Oct 31st) after his annual check up took a back seat in the minds of TN people]. This ensured that we would play our semi here in Bombay against England. Pakistan who had to play WI in the last match surprisingly lost it. For Viv Richards led WI, it was something to rest content with, they having been denied entry to the last 4 stage for the first time.
If my memory serves me right, the semifinal between Pak and Aus was on Nov 4th at Gadaffi stadium, Lahore. Aus batted first and had piled up a good score with Boon scoring a half century but Imran realising the danger came with a sudden burst that claimed 3 wickets but in the process did a cardinal mistake. When he came back for the second spell (having bowled 5 overs in the first spell), he came at 41st over and bowled the 43rd,45th,47th and 49th overs. Wasim (surprisingly off colour on that day) finished his quota by 48th over. Now the 50th over was a problem and Imran threw the ball to Salim Jaffer. Aussies who were on 249 at the end of 49th over made full use of this gift and scored 18 runs of it, taking the score to 267.
This 250 + score boosted their morale and Border put the pressure right back on Pak. The Pak batsmen till that time in that tournament had not experienced such a pressure and within no time Craig McDermott struck leaving Pak limping having lost 3 wickets for less than 40. Imran joined Javed and slowely they steadied the ship. They scored their runs in singles and twos and notched up a century stand and Imran himseld had scored a half century. When things started looking again bright for Pak, Border did a master stroke by bringing himself on. Imran looking at the climbing asking rate tried to take on Border only to hole it out. With the main block gone, Border attacked more vigoursouly. But the old wily fox, Javed was still there. Off day or on day, Javed was Javed and he nudged, pushed and kept going, though he lost one more partner. But when Bruce Reid breached his defence, the writing was on the wall. [My joy no bounds when I saw Javed falling. Though in hindsight, it looks childish, the feeling at that time was Pak should lose. திமிர் பிடிச்சவங்க]. As usual Pak tail enders hit some lusty blows but they could manage only 249 with one over remaining. The irony was the 50th over of Aus innings had produced 18 runs and at the end the victory margin was 18 runs with one over remaining.
Imran who had cherished the dream of lifting the World Cup after his two earlier wishes had come true, stood shattered and at 34 it seemed, it was the end of the road for him. But how we were proved wrong !
Let me come back.
Regards
Great post Mr.MuraLi. Felt like I was following the Aus-Pak match real time.
As you were unsure I looked up cricinfo. The match was indeed at Headingley, Leeds. 10 wickets for Imran and 5 for Wasim.Quote:
Originally Posted by Murali Srinivas
Thanks Prabhu and Thanks Senthil.
After the World Cup, England started its tour of Pakistan but Imran was not playing. Javed led the team. England who swept the one day series 3- 0, lost the Test series 0-1. It is more remembered for the Mike Gatting - Shakkoor Rana spat in the second test at Faislabad.
Came the West Indies tour of 1988. Imran who was out with an injury had come back and led the side. WI after the Indian tour of 1987- 88 had just come back with the series having ended in a tie (1-1). With Gavaskar retired and Kapil stripped of the captaincy, it was Dilip Vengsarkar who led India. But due to a disiplinary action, he had sit out the last test at Madras and Ravi Sastri captained the team. Narendra Hirwani rewrote history books with a haul of 16 wickets on his debut (equalling Bob Massie of Australia who did the same against England in 1971-72) and series was levelled.
Viv and his team smarting under this defeat came back roaring at the Pak and they black washed the Pak 5-0 in the one day series. The interesting point was Viv was not available for most of the one dayers. But when Test series started, Pak team or for that matter Imran spat fire. With Viv out of the first test at Georgetown, Pak beat WI and Imran had a 10 wicket haul. With Javed scoring a century, Pak saw two of its top players firing at he same time, which helped them.
Richards was back for the second but Imran again was fire and claimed almost a 10 wicket haul and again Javed scoored a century(I was fuming that this guy is going on scoring centuries and coming at WI against Marshall and Patterson, it was special) But WI managed to draw. I think this was at Port Of Spain.
Third test (Bridgetown?) had become a prestige issue for WI. They have never lost a series for the past 10 years at home preceding that and so Viv and his team won but they struggled before reaching there. When it mattered most Imran couldn't recreate the magic and WI scrapped through and kept their home record intact. Neverthless Imran ended up with 23 wickets, the highest on either side.
From a spectator point of view, it was one of the best competitive series played. Though Imran the captain couldn't fulfil his wish, Imran the bowler delivered.
Regards
I was mentioning that I will try to cover the 1978 Tour to Pakistan by India which happened after a gap of 18 long years. As I heard( I was 12 ) from my friends and neighbours who were all elder to me and cricket fanatics India was hoping to meet a Pakistani Team minus the WSC players. But unfortunately for India the Pakistan Board suddenly solved their problems with their WSC stars and presto the Team against India was again led by Mushtaq Muhammed with his strike bowlers Imran and Sarfaraz. The team also consisted Zaheer Abbas, Javed, Asif Iqbal who was burning to play against India where he was born and grew up.( Asif was from Hyderabad and studied in Osmania University). Spin dept. was in the hands of MM and Iqbal Qasim.
India came to Pakistan with its famous spin trio (venkat was not selected for the Test matches, oh god we were furious at Bedi and BCCI which was actually a blessing in disguise as it was prooved later) and its unchanged batting order for the last couple of years and 2 fast bowlers. A very young lad from Haryana who was 19 was selected to play his debut. The Amarnath brothers were there to give boost in the middle order along with Vishy and Vengsarkar.
The hype was very high about this match. It was the first match I saw live in DD. I think we didnīt go to school for couple of days. The streets were empty during the match.
The first test match took place between the 16th and 21st of oct. 1978. Bedi lost the toss and MM had no qualms in batting. The pitch was slow and apt for batting. Kapil opened the bowling with M. Amarnath. Pak lost 3 wickets for 110 and then the roasting started. Zaheer and Javed were merciless. They added about 250 runs before a careless shot of Zaheer was caught for 176 by Vishy of Prasanna. On the other end Javed was very cautious but reached his 50, 100 and 150 by hitting enormous sixes. Javed carried his bat with a score of 154 n.o. Imran joined the circus and hit a whirlwind 32 before he was out. Altogether they made our famous spinners looking very old and declared the innings for 503 for 9 at the stroke of tea on the 2nd day.
We were sitting at house was completely frustated by the pakistani batting. As the Indian innings started with Gavaskar and chauhan we were astonished to see the pace Imran produced in that dust bowl. But Imran was not accurate since he tried for raw pace. The Indian openers were not bothered and at the end of the day they were 64-0. We were thinking of a century from sunny the next day
India actually answered the Pakistani innings with good knocks from Gavaskar, Vishy, Vengsarkar with Vishy top scoring with 145. Sunny missed his ton by 11 runs and vengsarkar by 17 runs. Good knocks by chauhan and S.Amarnath brought the Indian total to 462.
Since the match was edging towards draw it was sheer batting practice for Zaheer who was again merciless against the spinners. He was well poised for a second century of the Test as he was removed for 96 by Gavaskar. Yes, Gavaskarīs only wicket was of Zaheer Abbas who was 4 runs short of his second century. The test ended in a drab draw. Imran couldnīt make much impression is this match as he tried too much for pace. His hurricane knock of 32 should have warned Bedi, as he realised it later at the 3 rd Test.
The only highlight of Indian innings was the bowling of kapil who really bowled well. Ghavri the other fast bowler didnīt get a chance to play. By scoring 145 in the first innings vishy became the first Indian to score centuries against all Test playing countires of that time.
The negative imprint was the verbal clash Gavaskar had with umpire Shakoor Rana regarding M.Amarnath walking in the pitch.
The second Test match in Lahore was between Oct.27 and 1st Nov. After drawing the first Test Indians were confident that they carried the same team as they had for Faisalabad. Pak. made 2 changes Mudassar Nazar came in for Sadiq muhammed, Saleem Altaf the veteran seam bowler came in for the young sikandher Bakt. MM won the toss and opted for fielding. Where as Faisalabad was a dry dust bowl Lahore was a grassy pitch.
If Imran was fast in Faisalabad here was absolute unplayable. Bari was standing a good distance away from the stumps which was not normal in Sub continent. Even then he had to gather balls from Imran in front of his face as they were still climbing. Altaf who opened the bowling with Imran got rid of sunny as he went fishing out side the off stump. Imran and Sarfaraz were very severe to the Indian batsmen. Only Vengsarkar managed a score of 76 and the next highest was 20 by vishy and mohinder. Mohinder had to leave the field after being hit by an Imran bouncer. It was so sickening to see mohinder drooling after being hit. As the wickets were falling regularly mohinder came again and this time fell over the stumps as he tried to hit a bouncer from sarfaraz. kirmani helped a bit and with 28 runs in extra India made a total of 199. At the end of the dayīs play pak were 28 for 1 after losing mudassar to kapil. Incidentally Sunny was the openeing partner of Kapil.
Wasim Bari who came as Nightwatchman and Majid made merry of Indian bowlers soon Zaheer joined the band wagon and after that it was only zaheer. All the others were silent spectators. Mushtaq dec. the pak innings at 539 for 6 with Zaheer 235 n.o. at the stroke of tea on the 3rd day with a lead of 340.
We couldnīt believe our eyes as we saw sunny and chetan playing such strokes that too at the end of the dayīs play. With in no time India were 92 - 0 with sunny at 50 and chetan at 40. sunny cut, drove hooked Imran and sarfaraz as if they were slow medium bowlers. The fourth day was no different the opening pair went to build the then record opening stand of 192 as Javed was given the ball by mushtaq. He immediately got chetan out edging to Bari(WK) for 93. Chetan was not happy about the decision indicating that the ball brushed the pads. He had to go. The very next over Mushtaq got sunny out for 97 caught by sarfaraz at forward short leg. Again sunny was unhappy at the decision indicating that it was not from the bat. But he too had to go. Suddenly from 192 - 0 it is 202 -2. Surinder and Vishy started to build the innings slowly but steadily. At the end of dayīs play India were a healthy 307 -3 after losing a dashing surinder for 60.
We were shocked about the dismissals of the opening pair. we couldnīt beleive that the umpires have decided like this. Sunny who had a bout with umpire Rana at the First Test was really a victim. Action replays showed very clearly that it was the pads at both case not the bat. Clearly wrong calls. Still vishy is at crease and middling the ball clearly. We were certain India would post a good total and draw this game as well. How wrong we were.
After a partnership of 70 runs Imran broke Kapils defence who went for 43 and again it was vishy and vengsarkar who was very slow in building the innings saw through lunch. The match was moving towards draw. Just an hour after the lunch, MM brought Mudassar into attack. Mudassar bowled Vishy for 83 and had veng. caught for 17. After that it was pretty down hill with a sick mohinder who was peppered with bouncers who mercifully got out for 7. Solely kirmani who sheltered the spinners made 39 n.o to give a lead of 126 leaving pak to score 127 in about 90 minutes.
The match which was supposed to be a draw was won by pakistan by losing 2 wickets.
We were shell shocked. We couldnīt believe that India lost. The test was ugly. MM was having trouble in containing Javed and Sarfaraz. The way how they menacingly ran towards umpire for the verdict as chetan and sunny were judjed out. To be fair Imran even though he bowled bouncers he never bowled bumpers as Sarfaraz did. Neither he had a grin as Mohinder was struck on the head. Infact it was Imran who was among the first who went to Mohinder who went down to the ground.
The third Test at karachi was scheduled between the 14 and 19 of Nov. Before that Bedi made a novum of forfeiting a One day match. Along with the 3 Tests 3 one day matches were also in the programm. After winning the 1st one day match India lost the 2 nd one. On the 3 rd nov. India played the 3 rd one day match against Pakistan. After palying the full 40 0vers ( it was a 40 over match with 5 bowlers of 8 overs each) pak scored 205 runs. India replied strongly with gaekwad and surinder scoring fluenty. suddenly the bouncer and bumper war started. Sarfaraz bowled a over full of bouncers. Nothing was called from the umpires. As the score was 183 and 22 runs required from 18 balls with India losing only 2 wickets the dices were rolling in Indiaīs favour. Sarfaraz started his 7th over again with bumpers. He bowled 4 bumpers without being called wide. The batsmen were in no position to score since the balls were too high. A very angry Bedi recalled his batsmen and forfeited the match. It stood in the match report:
Bishen Bedi conceded the match in protest against the short pitched bowling tactics of Pakistan. Sarfraz Nawaz's last 4 deliveries were all out of reach of the batsmen, and not called wide by the umpire
The tempers were not good between the team. The entire tour was supposed to be full of harmony. But the atmosphere was anything other than harmony.
Bedi won the Toss for the first time in tests and decided to bat. India made one change by bringing Ghavri for prasanna who never again played for India. Pak. also made one change by bringing sikandher bakt for saleem altaf.
The scoring was slow. Imran was nearly unplayable. India finished its innings with a score of 344 out of which sunny scored 111. Kapil Dev who came as a nightwatchman scored a free 59. Kapil is now being talked as a good allrounder. Pakistan batted strongly to post a score of 481 a lead of 137. javed got exactly 100 before edging to kirmani off kapil. Infact every one scored including a whirlwind 32 from Imran. India playing its 2nd innings on the 4th day was 131 for 2 with sunny 67 n.o still on the crease, losing only chetan and mohinder who scored a great 53. Everything once again looked as a draw.
Imran started with a great over to kirmani who came as NW. In trying to fend a fast short ball kirmani could only lob it to Iqbal Qasim who was posted by Imran just before this delivery. vishy followed soon after edjing to bari of f sarfaraz. Surinder who was sick played a short innings but was run out soon after standing at the same end as sunny. vengsarkar gave some support for sunny who was playing a lone fiddle. soon vengsarkar was also gone for blinder from sarfaraz. Ghavri gave some support to sunny who was again given a very suspect verdict of caught behind off sarfaraz after making 137. As every one was expecting the curtains to fall, Kapil and ghavri started hitting merrily. Ghavri who gave tremendous support to sunny to move the score from 173 to 246 was finally cleared by an Imran outswinger which he edged to the hands of javed in first slip after making 35. Two runs later kapil who was playing strongly tried to hit sarfaraz for a 3rd six found MM at long on. India were all out for 300 leaving pakistan to score 164 in less than 2 hours time.
It was a very close shave. India could have made it as a draw, but the was how Asif Iqbal and javed were stealing singles was unbelievable. Asif who should be 12 to 13 years older than Javed was running as fast as Javed. At the fall of Asif īs wicket everyone was expecting mudassar or zaheer but Imran was sent by MM. Imran showed why he was condsidered as the best allrounder at his time. He smashed Bedi for 2 huge sixes and took 19 runs from his over. This one over changed the match for pakistan. Till then it was touch and go.
So, a match which could have been a draw ended with a victorius pakistani team.
Imran showed that even in dull Sub continent pitches firery spells could be bowled.
could imran be called as "the most celebrated cricketer " from pakistan without any hesitancy?
lesaa ul kuthu irukkura maadhiri theriyudhe j/kQuote:
Originally Posted by Vivasaayi
In my opinion he was the greatest cricketer Pak. ever produced. I donīt think anyone would have that much of authority and acceptance in pak cricket. Imran was the born leader who led from the front
:yes: And the most number of fans for any Pakistani Cricketer till date... 8-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Vivasaayi
Sivan/Murali - What do you think of the alleged soda moodi inside Imran's pant pocket in the 92 world cup? To put it in another way, what do you think of the ball tampering allegations against him?
hi Kasi,
It is a very good question you have arised here. You must think Imran was with Tony Greig in Sussex for a long time. Any cricket fan would know that TG would go to any level to win a game. As I mentioned before Imran learned a lot from TG.
Here is something I found:
"Imran Khan may have had a successful career in county cricket - he took the only hat-trick of his first-class career for Sussex at Old Trafford - but by his own admission not all of his bowling feats in England were entirely legit. As he revealed in his autobiography, there were numerous occasions when he scratched the side of the ball and lifted the seam. Only once, though, did he use an object, he claimed. "When Sussex were playing Hampshire in 1981, the ball was not deviating at all," he wrote. " I got the 12th man to bring out a bottle top." The upshot was that the ball began to move around as it had not done before in the match. Sussex won and the umpires emerged none the wiser"
Here is something from Wasim Akram:
You have said earlier that the most important thing about reverse swing is how you look after the ball. What are the secrets of looking after the ball?
I am not giving that away so easily. Not in a freebie interview!
Everyone in our team knew what we had to do. And we even had to change Saqlain Mushtaq's action. He used to rub the ball in a manner that used to soften the rough side. As a captain, I had to tell him, "Saqlain don't do that." In team meetings we used to go after him.
That much detail?
That much detail. Even if while throwing the ball from the outfield, if the rough side comes in touch with the grass, it will become soft. Sometimes bowlers used to stop the ball played back at them with their foot. If the boot spikes hit the rough side, it was Christmas. If it didn't, you shone the ball and moved on.
We just took our time. It all depended on the wicket, the weather, the dryness of the outfield. If the wicket is dead and the square grassy, it's not going to happen. If one drop of sweat falls on it, the reverse swing won't happen.
And now with this rule to change the ball after 34 overs, you have taken reverse swing out of the one-day equation
Here is something about Pringle :
After his side was outdone in the first two Tests on the tour of Pakistan in the autumn of 1990, mostly by prodigious reverse swing, New Zealand bowler Chris Pringle took matters into his own hands. The New Zealand players, most notably Martin Crowe, had been crying foul through the series. On the first morning of the final Test in Faisalabad, Pringle decided to put to use what he had learned while experimenting in the nets. He cut an old bottle top into quarters and covered the serrated edge with tape, leaving a sharp point exposed. At the first drinks interval the umpires did not ask to look at the ball, and with Pakistan making sedate progress, Pringle began to scratch the ball with the masked bottle top. The results were almost immediate. Pakistan crashed from 35 for 0 to 102 all out and Pringle finished with his best Test figures of 7 for 52. He recalled that as he left the stadium after the first day's play, a local dignitary tapped him on the shoulder and said: "Pringle, it is fair now. Both teams are cheating
What I want to say is, I followed very actively Cricket till Dec. 1983. After that for about 20 years. I was really out of touch. Now thanks to internet and modern communications I am able to follow. But by now lot of water has passed under the bridge. I donīt know anything about Sachin. I have never seen his batting at his young days.
The last world cup game I saw was 1983 and after that the next one was in 2003 thanks to VCDs my brother sent me. So I donīt know about the allegation you make of Imran. But he is capable of that. You should think he groomed young bowlers who think like him who worship him and would go and do anything for him. Under his tutelage the art of Reverse Swing flourished till they mastered it.
As you can see from the article about Pringle, others used it as well. So when every doesit, wrong in this modern world becomes right
Sivan sir, thanks for taking pain to research about this, I am floored. The reason I brought up this issue was because of this match I saw in cricket classics in ESPN. May be I am rushing things here, this is the 82 series, you are still at 79. I hope you cover this game, here is my two cents.
India courtesy of a disastrous made 169 in their first innings, thanks mainly to Qadir's spin and Imran's first and second spells. No signs of reverse swing in the first innings. Pakistan, thanks to Zaheer Abbas' genius put up a big score on the board. Abbas was at his best, free flowing and he was the only player in that test match who read Kapil very well. Mudassar Nassar, on accounts of sickness came down the order, also managed a hundred.
India on Day 3 started their innings a little after lunch I believe. Imran was safely negotiated by the Indian top order, though there were a few unplayable deliveries - mainly due to the pace variations. India were sitting pretty at tea (70 odd for one wicket). After India reached three figures, Imran came back for a spell. It was a deadly. I mean the ball was doing all sorts of things - have only seen Wasim being *that* deadly on many occasions (I have not seen much of Imran). Vishwanath's wicket was the best, he had no clue what had just happened. A fierce leg-cutter did him. Benaud (I think) was the commentator, even he did not have a clue on what was happening, because the ball was doing something which he was witnessing it the first time. He tried to draw parallels with another spell by a 70s pakistani bowler who I don't recall. But he was stunned to say the least. Charu Sharma the anchor while concluding finished with this punchline. Commencement of a new class of fast bowling - Reverse swing.
Later I read somewhere that Imran put in a soda bottle cap in his trouser pocket which aided in writing that dream script. Not sure how true is this, may be you two can throw some light. First time I am reading first-hand reports on those classic matches. I am thrilled to bits! Also I heard people saying that he was instrumental in *teaching* reverse swing to Akram and Younis. Will come back later to write about the '92 world cup. In the mean-time please keep us enlightened, Murali and Sivan :bow:
Great going! :clap: :clap: :clap:
Excellent write-ups :clap: :bow:
Great recap Sivan. But one or two doubts. Venkat was definitely in the team to Pakistan but didn't get to play any Tests, right? In fact on the first day of the third Test, the press reports said that Venkat would be playing but it was not be.
Was there Live telecast for that series? We (at Madurai or for that matter rest of Tamil Nadu) didn't have TV coverage. I am damn sure that 1982-83 series was telecast because on a trip to Madras, I had seen the live relay from my friend's hostel. But 1978? Since we had to follow thro' radio, I didn't do it ball by ball. Moreover it came during our semester exams and in between Deepavali (Oct 30th in that year -1978) also intervened and that didn't allow us to concentrate ball by ball.
Nerd,
I mentioned about reverse swing that Imran used to gain upper hand in 1982 -83 series and I had the bottle top in my mind when I wrote this. But one person contradicted me saying it was indipper. As for as my limited knowledge goes, reverse swing is an inswinger or indipper that is bowled with a outswinger action just like googly. Correct me if I am wrong. Imran's admission of doing it at Sussex in 1981, substanciates my theory for 1982-83.
Regards