Rahul Dravid gets the catches record

Predicting events in cricket can make you look like a bit of a goose. Think about a pitch report analysis offered by the TV commentary team at the start of play. The 'expert' tends to think that what they're saying makes a reasonable amount of sense and have a fair amount of confidence in the prediction succeeding. Us, gullible viewers, fall hook, line and sinker. But like we've seen, "experts" who declare pitches as having something in it for the bowlers look so sheepish (although they're never questioned on their judgement!) when the score reads 340/2 at stumps or when a pitch pronounced a "batting beauty" produces a first innings score of 201 all out in a ODI game.

Over 4.5 years ago, I made a prediction on this blog, that Dravid would have the world record for most catches by a fielder by the time he retired.

I am willing to stick my neck out and say that that he would have the world record when he hangs up his boots, with stiff competition from Fleming. In his last 40 tests, Dravid has taken 61 catches and 33 catches in his last 20 tests. Assuming he plays on till he is 36, which is 4 years away, he'd have played another 40 odd tests which means another 65-70 catches. That'd definitely put him within reach of Mark Waugh's current record of 181. It is certainly not an impossibility.

Today, Dravid caught Tim McIntosh to go past Mark Waugh's record. You could say it was so bloody obvious that Dravid would get past the record, but I made the call, and you didn't, did you?! :)

Dravid's fielding career can be roughly divided into two phases. For the first 4-5 years of his test career, he used to primarily stand at short-leg or silly-point and he excelled in those positions. In those first few years, his catches per innings was 0.63. After that, since 2000, it is 0.78. You could attribute it to multiple factors - a better quality bowling lineup, improving his catching technique, more opportunities (since by then Azhar had been shunted out, Tendulkar had moved out of sight and as captain, Ganguly perhaps felt more comfortable from other positions). But at the same time, VVS Laxman had also started making a mark as a slip fielder, Sehwag too joined in a few years later and over the last couple of years, Tendulkar is back in the slips. So there has been "competition".

The three current players who have a chance are Ricky Ponting (148), Jacques Kallis (147) and Mahela Jayawardene (142). Surprisingly though, Ponting (0.575) and Kallis (0.590) both have rather poor dismissals/innings records. As the youngest among the 3, Mahela is most likely to get past Dravid, considering he averages 0.82 catches an innings in the last 100 innings and he has a lot of opportunities to take catches standing at slip to Murali, Mendis and Vaas. But he'll need to play something like 3-4 to get there (assuming Dravid ends up with ~ 190, that means Mahela needs 48 catches, which would take something like 60 innings in 30 tests across 3.5-4 years) I don't know if that's too likely.

Labels: catching, dravid, fielding, mark waugh, record

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:10 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Mitchell Johnson joins Craig McMillan & Brian Lara

Mitchell Johnson, has just scored 26 off an over from Paul Harris, but was stranded one boundary hit short of his first test century.

122.1 Harris to Johnson, FOUR, kneels down and slog-sweeps this one behind square leg
122.2 Harris to Johnson, FOUR, down he skips, whipping a flatter delivery off his pads over midwicket
122.3 Harris to Johnson, SIX, even better! Its maximum! Johnson goes down and slogs this one over midwicket for six, man he's targeting Harris
And that is Mitchell J's personal Test best.
122.4 Harris to Johnson, no run, fuller of off stump and this time he leaves it alone
122.5 Harris to Johnson, SIX, he's going the distance! This one's a dinger, rows back over mid-on
122.6 Harris to Johnson, SIX, oh my word, he's just going better and better! Harris keeps it flat and wide but Johnson waltzes down and clubs it across the line, off the middle of the bat for a six over long-on and out of the stadium

He is now at joint 3rd in the most runs off an over category. The other instances of 26 in an over are Craig McMillan smacking Younis Khan's part-time legbreaks around in March 2001 and Brian Lara caning Danish Kaneria in November 2006. The record holder is Brian Lara (28 off Robin Peterson) & at #2 is Shahid Afridi (27 off Harbhajan)

Labels: australia, batting, johnson, record, south africa

Thus spake Jagadish @ 6:21 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Tendulkar gets past Lara, and makes yet another debutant's day

In November 2005, the record for the most individual runs passed from Allan Border to Brian Lara. Today, Sachin Tendulkar became the holder of the record (and the first to get 12000 runs), as was probably ordained from the time he burst onto the Indian cricket scene 20+ years ago. The apocryphal story is that Sunil Gavaskar had told him soon after his debut that if he didn't get the most centuries and most runs, he would twist his arm. To that, Sachin replied that Sunny would be a very old and weak man by then. Well, at least we can now be spared of testing out Gavaskar's arm strength.

Tendulkar has been one of the all-time greats of Indian cricket, and indeed world cricket, for easily over a decade now. I've been a critic and a fan. I am in total awe of his shotmaking (the punch through cover, the straight drive, the paddle sweep, the upper cut through third man, the ferociously hit reverse 'sweep', the flick over midwicket, etc.). In fact, I am in awe of the enormous poise that he has by and large (the Multan outburst excepted perhaps) maintained over two decades, as well as the art of batsmanship that he portrays almost everytime he bats.

Sure, over the past 2-3 years his batting style has changed, but that doesn't bother me too much. In the past he had three roles to play - make a lot of runs, make them reasonably quickly, and ensure there's no collapse. Now, there is Sehwag to do the quick scoring, and in the past 6-7 years Laxman and Dravid have done the job of putting up a score through partnerships. So, Tendulkar can just be a run accumulator. So what if he doesn't evoke fear? Bowlers would much rather that Tendulkar attack them and get out for 24(30) than pile them up with a century made at a strike rate of 55. I know what I'd prefer.

My criticism isn't about how he doesn't make runs when it counts, or him averaging 35 against South Africa. The first thing that I don't really like is the way he decides when he's fit and when he isn't, resulting in far too many aborted returns from injury. The second is the way his batting slot is always #4 (unless a nightwatchman had gone in). Everyone else moves around. Tendulkar has played 81% of his innings from #4. The corresponding numbers for the rest of India's middle order galacticos are 73% @ #3 for Dravid, 54% @ #5 for Ganguly & 37% @ #6 for Laxman. There have been so many occasions when others have been in much better form, presenting a valid case for moving him down the order. But he always comes out at #4. The only occasion where he was shielded was when Ganguly came in ahead of him at Melbourne in 2003.

Oh, and there's one more thing about him that is downright irritating. It is the way he makes debutant bowlers so happy by becoming their first test wicket. The list is long, and some of the names are downright anonymous now. Ujesh Ranchod, Ruwan Kalpage, Mark Ealham, Adam Dale, Neil Johnson, Jacob Oram, Monty Panesar, Cameron White and now Peter Siddle.

Would there be any other batsman who has been so generous to debutant bowlers?

Labels: 12000, aus v ind 2008, debut, india, lara, record, tendulkar

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:45 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Eye witness account of the GODOAT

For what it is worth, GODOAT stands for "Greatest One Dayer Of All Time". While I don't subscribe to that description, several other commentators have already decreed it so. Tony Greig said it, so it must be right!

India's solicitor general, Goolam Vahanvati, appointed to inquire into racial abuse incidents which happened during South Africa's tour of Australia a few months ago, was at the Wanderers when Australia and South Africa destroyed the careers of a few bowlers.

Here is his his own account of the proceedings.

In the context of that game, I wonder why no one has complained to the ICC about the nature of the wicket. In 2004, Cricket Australia registered a complaint about the Wankhede wicket where India snatched a consolation win. Ricky Ponting publicly criticized the wicket, although he was not similarly critical of a pitch at Darwin against Sri Lanka earlier in 2004 when he said

You don't want batsmen dominating the ball as much as they did last summer.

Perhaps that was because he wasn't playing in it, while he was, at Bombay!

There've only been two occasions when an international match has been called off due to a bad pitch - Indore - India v Sri Lanka and Sabina Park - West Indies v England. Both pitches were deemed too dangerous for the batsmen. How come matches don't get called off citing that the pitch was dangerous for bowlers?

No one complained about the pancakes served up by Pakistan at Lahore & Faisalabad and India at Nagpur.

Why? Because those were superb for batting. Why bother about those stupid bowlers anyway? Let them run in 30 yards and bowl. That is what they're paid for while the batsmen gorge ourselves.

Labels: australia, pitch, record, south africa

Thus spake Jagadish @ 2:07 pm | Sledge/Read 5 sledge(s)
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