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Thursday 13 October 2011

Saeed Ajmal's 10 wickets against West Indies In Test Match

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The Greatest Test Innings: A New Look

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The Greatest Test Innings: A New Look


It has been 10 years since Wisdenpublished their controversial list of the top 100 best innings in Test cricket history. Don Bradman topped the list with his 270 against England in 1937 after he reversed the batting order and came in at no.7 with the score at 90/5.

Ranking that innings at no.1 was not controversial at all. Indeed, it would be controversial in the extreme not to put that innings in at least the top 10 or 20 of any list attempting to rank the greatest Test innings. The controversy was caused by the absence of any Tendulkar innings in the top 100.

I have been working on ranking the best batsmen and bowlers in Test cricket and one-day international cricket for some years now. Only now am I getting close to creating a formula I am happy to present to cricket fans and followers. Whilst working on rating the great Test batsmen, I also thought about rating their innings/performances, thereby incorporating them in their career ratings. Entertaining players like Stan McCabe and Adam Gilchrist, who played some of the most famous and talked-about knocks in history, and yet only averaged in the 40s, will be well-served by this.

So, I set to work in creating a formula in ranking Test innings. I only had the help of Microsoft Excel so it has taken some time, and quite often I had to reset the formulas. Finally, I arrived at a list that I am pleased with. It is different from theWisden 100 but one thing still remains: the great Tendulkar, who I admire and enjoy watching so much, does not feature in my top 100.

I will not bore readers with the exact workings of the formula, but I will give brief summary of the factors involved:

1. Base runs scored
2. Runs scored by other batsmen in the same team innings, divided by the number of batsmen used. The highest score I have found for this measurement so far has been for Bannerman's 165 retired hurt in 1877, the first innings in Test history! The other ten batsmen used scored an average of 72 runs between them (I have discounted the 8 extras in that innings). Bannerman thus scored over 6 times more than his teammates in one innings!
3. Runs per wicket of all the other batsmen in the match. This helps players who scored heavily in large victories.
4. % of team runs scored (including the extras this time).
5. Runs scored with the bottom-half of the batting order: specifically, runs scored with no.7-11 batsmen. For example, in Clem Hill's famous 188 at the end of the 19th century, the fifth wicket fell at 32. When Hill was ninth out, the score stood at 303. Australia finally made 323, which meant that Hill helped score 84% of the total team runs with the bottom half of the batting order: (303-32)/323

Those first five factors give a base score for an innings. They are then multiplied by the following factors:

1. Strike-rate. Astle's 222 and numerous Gilchrist innings` are rewarded with this measurement.
2. Match won/drawn/or lost. Close wins or close draws?
3. State of the series. Was it a 'live' match or a dead rubber? Was it the deciding match in the series? Was a batsmen's team behind in the series and then went on to win the rubber, i.e. Botham?s 149*, or Laxman's 281?
4. Home match or Away match?
5. Strength of the opposition and/or bowling attack. Australia or West Indies at their peak or Bangladesh?
6. Situation of the match. Following on 200 or more runs behind and going onto win? Winning after chasing 350 in the final innings? Having a 100+ lead after the first innings?

All those factors will produce a final rating for any innings played in Test history. However, I have left out any innings in which the team score was less than 150 with no more than 4 wickets lost. For example, 120/1, 145/4, etc.

Before presenting you with my top 100, I want to say that in no way do I think that stats-based ratings like this one orWisden's are the only way with which to judge Test cricket innings. It is one way to promote discussion on forums and to introduce some readers to great innings long forgotten. People who have actually played the game and were there on the day should know a good innings from a bad one. Scorecards from 1902 also cannot record how fluent a batsman looked at the crease or how many chances he gave. People may not agree with my final list, but I put a lot of thought into it (you can tell by looking at the number of measurements used!), and to be honest, when an earlier formula produced a top 10 list which just looked wrong, I went back to the drawing board.

Finally, if there are any innings which I have missed out on, please let me know, and I will measure them. But let me say now that I have measured a number of Tendulkar innings and not one so far has gotten near the top 100. The closest is his 136 against Pakistan in 1999 in a losing chase, which fetched a rating of 15.48.
Enjoy the list!
DoG

Top 10 pen-portraits:
1. Brian Lara 153* vs Australia at Bridgetown in 1999. Rating: 26.84
The seminal innings in a 4th innings run chase and rated the greatest innings of all-time based on my formula. Lara was under fire throughout the Caribbean following the 0-5 loss in South Africa. He answered his critics at Kingston in the 2nd Test with a double century (rated 25th on my list) to level the series against the world-conquering Australians. It was in Bridgetown that he forever sealed his status as a great batsman. He basically won the 3rd Test single-handed after coming in at 78/3 with 230 runs still required. He put on 133 with Jimmy Adams (of which Adams made 38) before working with Ambrose and Walsh to score the final 63 runs with the last two wickets. It is the innings of a master batsman under pressure against a great bowling attack. Need I say more, except that it could have been so different had Ian Healy managed to hold onto that catch in the final stages of the run chase.

2. Ian Botham 149* vs Australia at Leeds 1981. Rating: 26.65
If there is one innings that is more famous than Lara's it is Beefy's slog at Leeds that basically turned the Ashes on its head. Following on, England were still 122 runs away from making Australia bat again when Botham came in at 105/5. He proceeded to hit 149 not out off 148 balls, putting on 221 runs with the last 3 wickets. His innings would have been a mere footnote had Willis not come out firing in the 4th innings so I guess it is somewhat appropriate that Lara's innings is rated at no.1 with Beefy having to settle for no.2.

3. Graham Gooch 154* vs West Indies at Leeds 1991. Rating 26.34.
Another great innings played at Headingley (there are a total of 5 in the top 100). This is an innings of a batsman who was so far ahead of his peers for one match that it was almost ridiculous. The next highest score in the match was 73. The average of all the other batsmen in the match was 14.40. Gooch stood alone in this match like no other batsmen has done in the modern-day era of Test cricket. And let us not forget that this was against a great bowling attack as well. Pure class.

4. V.V.S. Laxman 281 vs Australia at Kolkata in 2001. Rating: 25.55
Everyone knows of this innings and no description is really necessary. I have no doubt that the majority of Indians would deem this to be the greatest innings ever but I hope they can take solace in the fact that it is still the best of the 21st century so far. The only thing that counts against Laxman in my formula is the amount of support he got from Dravid, which means that he did not shoulder the burden alone as much as the 3 innings rated above him.

5. Charles Bannerman 165 retired not out vs England at Melbourne in 1877. Rating: 25.15
I find it somewhat fitting that the first ever innings played in Test cricket was one of top 5 greatest in the history of the game. The stats by themselves are incredible. Bannerman scored 67% of his team's runs (the highest ever) and scored 6.8 times the amount of runs that his teammates scored combined. Bannerman played only 3 matches but he left his mark on the game forever.

6. Don Bradman 270 vs England at Melbourne in 1937. Rating: 24.99
The Don's greatest innings helped turn an Ashes series in much the same way that Botham?s did some 44 years later. England won the first 2 matches of the rubber with Bradman averaging a mere 30.00, including 2 ducks. Australia batted first in Melbourne and made 200 (Bradman again failing with 13). They bowled England out for 76 after rain set in and left the wicket sticky. Bradman, the master strategist, then reversed his batting order so that he could get the best batting conditions when he came in at number 7. It worked to perfection. He came in at 97/5 but put on 346 runs with Jack Fingleton and Australia eventually won by a comfortable 365 runs. Bradman went on to score a century in each of the final two tests and Australia won the series 3-2. An incredible reversal.

7. Virender Sehwag 201* vs. Sri Lanka at Galle in 2008. Rating: 24.22
The Indian batsmen were all at sea against the debutant Ajantha Mendis throughout this series but somehow Sehwag tamed him and batted through the entire innings for a double-century triumph. And with a strike-rate of 87. India won the match and although they lost the final match and the rubber, Sehwag's innings will be remembered as one of the greats.

8. VVS Laxman 167 vs. Australia at Sydney in 2000. Rating: 24.18
It takes a special batsman to have two innings ranked in the top 10 of all time. And VVS is a special batsman whose career average of 46 does not reveal the full story of how many great innings he has played for country. This is the greatest innings in a losing cause. Against a rampant bowling attack, India were following-on, and soon in trouble. Laxman was eighth out with the score on 258. The next highest score was 25. It is a very similar innings to Gooch's, except that the match was lost and was never likely to be saved. A beautiful innings, nonetheless, and Laxman's first century.

9. Sanath Jayasuriya 253 vs. Pakistan at Faisalabad in 2004. Rating: 24.17
Jayasuriya's second-to-last century and it would not have been had Shoaib Akhtar not no-balled when he had Jayasuriya caught behind early in his innings. Sanath went on to score 253 runs out of a team total of 438 at a strike-rate over 70 to send Sri Lanka to a rare victory away from home against a Test-playing nation. The next highest score in the innings was 59.

10. Stan McCabe 232 vs. England at Nottingham in 1938. Rating: 23.46
This is one of my favourite innings and it is still the greatest innings played by an Australian abroad, according to my formula. England made a mammoth 658/8 and had Australia in all sorts of trouble at 150/5. McCabe increased his scoring rate as he lost more partners. This culminated in him scoring 72 out of 77 runs for the last wicket in 28 minutes. Whilst McCabe was at the crease, other players and extras scored a total of 68 runs! Australia made 411 and the match was eventually drawn. Don Bradman apparently summoned his players to the player's balcony to watch, saying that "they would never see anything like it again."


PosNameRunsOppositionVenueYearRating
1B.C. Lara153*AustraliaBridgetown199926.84
2I.T. Botham149*AustraliaLeeds198126.65
3G.A. Gooch154*West IndiesLeeds199126.34
4V.V.S. Laxman281AustraliaKolkata200125.55
5C. Bannerman165*EnglandMelbourne187725.15
6D.G. Bradman270EnglandMelbourne193724.99
7V. Sehwag201*Sri LankaGalle200824.22
8V.V.S. Laxman167AustraliaSydney200024.18
9S.T. Jayasuriya253PakistanFaisalabad200424.17
10S.J. McCabe232EnglandNottingham193823.46
11D.L. Amiss262*West IndiesKingston197423.11
12AzharMahmood132South AfricaDurban199822.81
13Saeed Anwar188IndiaKolkata199922.54
14C. Hill188EnglandMelbourne189822.49
15C.G. Greenidge134EnglandManchester197622.40
16G.S. Chappell176New ZealandChristchurch198221.75
17Inzamam-ul-Haq329New ZealandLahore200221.35
18Mohammad Wasim192ZimbabweHarare199821.25
19M.J. Slater123EnglandSydney199921.03
20V. Sehwag319South AfricaChennai200820.84
21D.G. Bradman299*South AfricaAdelaide193220.60
22G.L. Jessop104AustraliaThe Oval190220.58
23H.P. Tillekaratne115PakistanFaisalabad199520.46
24D.G. Bradman334EnglandLeeds193020.29
25B.C. Lara213AustraliaKingston199920.26
26M.E. Trescothick180South AfricaJohannesburg200520.26
27S.M. Gavaskar221EnglandThe Oval197920.17
28K.J. Hughes100*West IndiesMelbourne198120.01
29N.J. Astle222EnglandChristchurch200219.93
30C.L. Walcott220EnglandBridgetown195419.91
31K.C. Sangakkara156*New ZealandWellington200619.90
32AsifIqbal146EnglandThe Oval196719.84
33R. Dravid223AustraliaAdelaide200319.81
34G.M. Turner223*West IndiesKingston197219.74
35D.G. Bradman103*EnglandMelbourne193319.67
36P.F. Warner132*South AfricaJohannesburg189919.59
37R.E. Foster287AustraliaSydney190319.54
38N. Kapil Dev129South AfricaPort Elizabeth199219.46
39S.M. Gavaskar236*West IndiesMadras198319.46
40A.C. Gilchrist149*PakistanHobart199919.35
41G.C. Smith154*EnglandBirmingham200819.32
42D.G. Bradman212EnglandAdelaide193719.26
43L. Hutton205West IndiesKingston195419.19
44W.R. Hammond231AustraliaSydney193619.09
45Hanif Mohammad337West IndiesBridgetown195818.95
46M.A. Butcher173*AustraliaLeeds200118.94
47B. Mitchell164*EnglandLord's193518.90
48G.S. Sobers168AustraliaSydney196118.88
49G.R. Viswanath97*West IndiesMadras197518.88
50O.G. Smith168EnglandNottingham195718.79
51G.J. Bonnor128EnglandSydney188518.76
52V.T. Trumper159South AfricaMelbourne191118.75
53G.A. Headley270*EnglandKingston193518.55
54Hanif Mohammad187EnglandLord's196718.42
55M.A. Taylor144West IndiesSt. John's199118.34
56M.E. Waugh116South AfricaPort Elizabeth199718.26
57R.G. Pollock274AustraliaDurban197018.16
58L. Vincent224Sri LankaWellington200518.12
59C.G. Greenidge213New ZealandAuckland198718.12
60B.C. Lara226AustraliaAdelaide200518.05
61J. Ryder201*EnglandAdelaide192518.02
62D.L. Amiss179IndiaDelhi197618.01
63W.R. Hammond336*New ZealandAuckland193317.97
64A.R. Border163IndiaMelbourne198517.96
65C.L. Cairns80EnglandThe Oval199917.96
66G.R. Viswanath114AustraliaMelbourne198117.95
67B.F. Butcher133EnglandLord's196317.93
68G.R. Viswanath139West IndiesCalcutta197417.85
69K.P. Pietersen142Sri LankaBirmingham200617.85
70Kamran Akmal113IndiaKarachi200617.84
71L. Hutton364AustraliaThe Oval193817.70
72G. Kirsten100*PakistanFaisalabad199717.63
73G.R. Viswanath124West IndiesMadras197917.53
74S.M. Nurse258New ZealandChristchurch196917.50
75D.C.S. Compton278PakistanNottingham195417.49
76D.J. McGlew255*New ZealandWellington195317.43
77D.P.M.D. Jayawardene167New ZealandGalle199817.43
78C.H. Gayle333Sri LankaGalle201017.39
79D.N. Sardesai212West IndiesKingston197117.38
80C.G. Greenidge214*EnglandLord's198417.35
81M.A. Atherton185*South AfricaJohannesburg199517.35
82J.R. Reid142South AfricaJohannesburg196217.34
83R.T. Simpson156*AustraliaMelbourne195117.31
84D.G. Bradman304EnglandLeeds193417.25
85A. Flintoff73AustraliaBirmingham200517.25
86W.W. Armstrong159*South AfricaJohannesburg190217.21
87R.T. Ponting257IndiaMelbourne200317.19
88D.I. Gower154*West IndiesKingston198117.17
89G.S. Chappell182*West IndiesSydney197617.07
90K.D. Walters104*New ZealandAuckland197417.06
91Saeed Anwar118South AfricaDurban199817.06
92Aamer Sohail133AustraliaKarachi199816.98
93D.M. Jones184*EnglandSydney198716.91
94M.J. Greatbatch146*AustraliaPerth198916.90
95R.G. Pollock125EnglandNottingham196516.89
96V.S. Hazare145AustraliaAdelaide194816.88
97M.C. Cowdrey102AustraliaMelbourne195416.85
98S.R. Waugh108EnglandManchester199716.81
99K.C. Sangakkara232South AfricaColumbo200416.81
100R.N. Harvey167EnglandMelbourne195916.80

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Spot-fixing controversy: More matches were to be fixed

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Pakistan were to throw at least one limited-over international on the 2010 tour of England, a court was told on Monday, and only the timing of the News of the World's expose seemed to prevent such a result from occurring.

Mazhar Mahmood, the undercover investigative journalist who sparked the alleged spot-fixing controversy, was appearing as a prosecution witness at Southwark Crown Court on the fourth day in the trial involving former captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif, who are alleged to have bowled pre-determined no balls. They deny the charges.

A recording from secret microphones of agent and alleged conspirator Mazhar Majeed was played in chunks throughout Monday and one aspect dealt with the intention to fix results during either the five-match 50-over series or the two Twenty20 games.

It can be safely assumed he was not referring to Test matches because in earlier recordings Majeed had told of how important it was that his "best friend" and key client Salman Butt won Tests so he remained in his position for a long time. Shahid Afridi was Pakistan captain in the 20 and 50-over formats at that time.

Those matches followed the four-match Test series that England won 3-1. The newspaper, though, exposed the alleged corruption on the Saturday of the fourth and final Test at Lord's. The jury, also following the recording with a written transcript, heard Majeed's vague boasts about his corrupt intentions.

"We have been working towards the next month for a long time," Majeed was heard saying in one segment.

And in a previous sequence on the same recording, he had said to the reporter while chatting in a parked car off the Gloucester Road in London: "We're doing two results soon, within a month."

The journalist confirmed his intentions by asking: "So Pakistan will lose and then what?"

Majeed replied: "Pakistan will lose but you know when Pakistan, like a game, you know as a cricket game it goes backwards and forwards, yeah, it's your responsibility to put it on at the right times because there's gonna be times in that game, it doesn't matter what the odds are before, there's gonna be times in that game when Pakistan are the favourites."

When Mahmood inquired whether there would be any mistakes and if there was a danger that his (fictitious) Far East backers would lose their money on false information, Majeed said: "They will do their job, don't worry."

Majeed was also heard to earlier promise the journalist "four or five brackets for the Lord's Test" and two no-balls, which were meant as a tester for Majeed to demonstrate his influence over the players he controlled.

A bracket is a ten-over sequence when bettors might punt on a certain amount of runs in a set period or a number of no-balls, for instance. Majeed said a fixed bracket cost between £50,000 and £80,000. The jury was told last week that Majeed priced a fixed Test result at £1 million, a fixed one-day international at £450,000 and a Twenty20 international at £400,000.

The case continues

New Chairman Of Pakistan Cricket Is Zaka Ashraf Said By Zardari

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Breaking News

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari Made Zaka Ashraf New Chairman Of Pakistan Cricket Board .. Ijazz Butt Is No More Chairman of Pakistan Cricket
Dunya News

President Zardari has decided to appoint Zaka Ashraf new PCB chief, sources said.



Ijaz Butt, who was appointed chairman of the board on October 8, 2008, continued to work despite expiry of his term and there was no word from the President House regarding his extension till today when Farhatullah Babar, the presidential spokesman, said that Butt had not been asked to continue his office.

Sources said Zaka has also had a meeting with President Zardari, source said, adding that notification of his appointment will soon be issued.

Butt today returned from Dubai where he had gone after the expiry of his term as PCB chief. On his return, he didn’t talk to the media as he had not while flying out.

Reports said that for the appointment of the new chairman, Ali Raza’s name was being considered but later Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Zaka Ashraf also emerged as potential aspirants.

First class cricketer killed in Peshawar

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PESHAWAR: First class cricketer Nauman Habib was killed after he was kidnapped, Geo News reported.

Habib was 32 years old and was missing since the past three days. His body was recovered from the Hayatabad area of the city

Habib had represented Peshawar Panthers in the national T20 cup and claimed four wickets in a match against Islamabad.

During his career Habib played in 63 first class matches and claimed 221 wickets.

Management of Pakistan Cricket Board condoles the death of Mr. Nauman Habib—first class cricketer and medium fast bowler from Peshawar.

Nauman played his last match representing Peshawar from 6-9 October 2011 at Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar ground against Multan in which he was the leading bowler and claimed 7 wickets in the match. He also represented Peshawar Panthers in recently concluded Faysal Bank T20 Tournament.

Mr. Zakir Khan, Director Cricket Operations (Domestic) said, “He was a talented cricketer. We pray for the departed soul and share the grief of his family”.

Pakistani cricketers wanted to lose to damage Afridi: Court

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Pakistan cricketers were ready to throw one-day internationals and Twenty20s in a bid to undermine then-captain Shahid Afridi and make “a hell of a lot of money”, a London court heard on Tuesday.

Mazhar Majeed, an agent for several Pakistan players, told an undercover reporter last year that the players wanted Afridi replaced by then-Test captain Salman Butt and were prepared to fix matches to do it, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The court also heard how a shadowy Indian contact offered the agent $1 million to ensure Pakistan lost a Test match against England.

The jury in the trial of Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif saw video of meetings between Majeed and the News of the World’s investigation’s editor Mazher Mahmood.

Mahmood, a star reporter for Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct tabloid, was posing as an Indian frontman for a Far East gambling syndicate.

Prosecutors allege Butt and Asif agreed for no-balls to be bowled as part of a spot-fixing betting scam.

The two players have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, and conspiracy to cheat at gambling.

The jury saw covertly-filmed footage of a meeting between the agent and the reporter at a London hotel, at which Majeed told Mahmood he had appeared on the scene at the right time ahead of one-day internationals and T20s between Pakistan and England.

The footage showed Mahmood handing over £140,000 and Majeed counting it out.

“A lot of the boys, they want to F up Afridi because he’s trying to F up things for them, and he’s the captain of the Twenty20 and one-day,” Majeed claimed.

“They all want Butt to be captain… They want to lose anyway.”

The agent went on: “The timing you’ve come into is perfect because the one-days and the Twenty20s are about to start.

“We’re going to be making a hell of a lot of money in the Twenty20s and the one-days.”

“Say for example Twenty20. I will tell you the bowlers, how many minimum runs they are going to concede, which is much more than usual. They are going to concede those runs.

“With the batsmen I’m going to tell you how many, say for the example the two opening batsmen Salman and Kamran (Akmal) for example, you’ve only got 20 overs, they’re going to waste two overs, three overs… The Twenty20s are the easiest.”

The jury also saw footage of an earlier meeting in Majeed’s London home, where the reporter recorded the agent on the telephone with an unidentified man in India, discussing deliberately throwing the England v Pakistan Test match at The Oval, which was under way at the time.

Majeed called his Indian contact and told him: “What offer can you give me for today’s game? Tell me, just give me a figure now, we haven’t got long.

“There’s a possibility, I’m just telling you that now, they’re talking at least 1.2 (million) — at least. In dollars.”

The prosecution alleged that Majeed and the mystery contact were floating the possibility of Pakistan deliberately losing the game.

Referring to the number of Pakistan players under his wing, Majeed said: “Boss, you know how many I’ve got, you know that they do it. So of course that’s not a problem. But you just give me the figure and I’m going to get back to you. We haven’t got much time. One million, yeah?”

The Indian contact replied: “I give you one (million dollars). One I give you, but has to be a definite game score.”

In the event, Pakistan beat England by four wickets later that day.

The court heard a secretly-recorded phone call later that day, in which the agent told the undercover reporter that his players were offering to spot-fix elements of matches for £150,000.

The agent said they could not understand why he was reluctant to hand over the amount on trust, especially when the usual fee was £250,000.

Majeed said: “What they’re saying is if this guy gives 150 we’ll give him two brackets (periods of play during which elements can be pre-arranged), whatever he wants, for the next game.

“They’re not willing to give you anything until you give a large, substantial amount.”

The reporter had already paid £10,000, but the agent said it was “peanuts”.

“They (the players) just said to me: why is he not delivering?,” Majeed said. He told the reporter that Butt had asked: “What else does he want?”

Majeed and young Pakistan bowler Mohammad Amir have also been charged with the same offences but are not standing trial alongside Butt and Asif.