Jan 20, 2004 02:20 PM
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(Updated Apr 23, 2004 05:49 PM)
The best middle order on show?
How good is the Indian middle order? Some critics claim that Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and co. fire only when the openers provide them with a solid platform; others swear that India's Awesome Foursome (VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly complete the quartet) can do the job no matter how the openers fare. The truth lies somewhere in between.
The table below – taken for all matches since November 2000, when Sourav Ganguly took over the mantle of captaincy – suggests that a good opening stand does enhance the chances of the team posting a sizeable score. When the opening partnership adds less than 25 – and that's almost 60% of all innings – India only average 31.51 per wicket, which translates into a total of 315. That score jumps up by more than 200 when the openers put together between 51 and 75.
1st wkt p'ship No. of inngs. Team runs/wkt
0-25 43 31.51
26-50 8 47.00
51-75 8 53.83
76-100 5 34.85
101-150 5 51.73
>150 3 64.83
Interestingly, the average score drops sharply in the next slab: when the openers add between 76 and 100, India end up with an average total of only 348. (Here's why: at Galle in 2001, SS Das and Sadagoppan Ramesh added 80, India were bowled out for 187 by Sri Lanka; two Tests later, the same pair added 97, and India made 234; and in the Bridgetown Test in 2002, Das and Wasim Jaffer managed 80, the team folded up for 296.)
These examples show the middle order in poor light, but there have been other occasions when the middle order has come to the party despite the openers failing – the latest instance being the Rawalpindi Test against Pakistan, when Virender Sehwag was dismissed first ball, and India ended up with a total of 600. In fact, out of India's 14 highest totals during this period, six came when the first wicket put together less than 20 – in fact, in three of those cases, they were separated before adding a single run. Significantly, five out of these six performances came overseas, and three of them were in a single series, in England in 2002.
Six instances of India's high totals despite poor starts
1st wkt p'ship Pair Total vs Venue, year
15 Bangar/Sehwag 628-8 England Headingley, 2002
0 Sehwag/Patel 600 Pakistan Rawalpindi, 2003-04
13 Das/Jaffer 513-9 West Indies Antigua, 2002
18 Bangar/Sehwag 508 England The Oval, 2002
0 Bangar/Sehwag 471-8 West Indies Kolkata, 2002-03
0 Jaffer/Sehwag 424-8 England Trent Bridge, 2002
How do those numbers stack up when compared with the Australian batting line-up? A look at Australia's record over the same period shows that their dependence on a good start is far lesser: when the first wicket goes down for less than 25, they still, on an average, end up scoring more than 400 (41.07 runs per wicket, which translates into an innings total of 410). Also, the average-runs-per-wicket figure goes up significantly only when the openers add more than 150.
1st wkt p'ship No. of inngs. Team runs/wkt
0-25 31 41.07
26-50 20 49.70
51-75 9 35.85
76-100 5 49.69
101-150 5 47.49
>150 8 61.15
While the Australian have, on an average, shown lesser reliance on good starts to post mammoth scores, almost all their biggest totals have been based on solid beginnings. Only one of their top 15 totals during this period came when the opening partnership failed to cross 20, and that was against Bangladesh at Cairns, when the first wicket fell at 14 and Australia ended up with a score of 556 for 4.
Leading by example
Tatenda Taibu had a rather onerous job of leading out what was pretty much a club side, but he made a good fist of it, batting with plenty of verve and even turning his arm over for a few tidy overs. In fact, the unbeaten 96 he scored was the sixth-highest score ever in an ODI by a captain in his first match. Glenn Turner's unbeaten 171 in the 1975 World Cup is the highest, while Sachin Tendulkar's 110 against Sri Lanka is in second place.
Highest ODI scores on captaincy debut
Runs vs Venue, yr
Turner 171* East Africa Edgbaston, 1975
Tendulkar 110 Sri Lanka Colombo, 1996
Richardson 106* Pakistan Sharjah, 1991-92
Jayasuriya 102 Zimbabwe Colombo, 1997-98
Gilchrist 98 West Indies Brisbane, 2000-01
Taibu 96* Sri Lanka Bulawayo, 2004
