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Thursday, November 10, 2011

An Indian win at Kotla and the feat of Boucher

After the constant mirage chasing in England, the win at Feroz Shah Kotla offered some solace though it was obtained in the cleanest of possible manners against not so formidable opponents.   West Indies dominated a major part of the match before nosediving in their second innings – but Darren Sammy can be proud of the way it was battled.  Chanderpaul scored a century and held their innings together well and on day 1 they held their heads high.

On the bowling front, it was good for India for they were able to bowl out the opposition twice with an inexperienced attack with only Ishant Sharma being an experienced pro – Pragyan Ojha alongside debutants Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin fared so well. 

In the batting front, India seemingly lacks the consistency and revolves on the starts being provided by Virender Sehwag – who lashes the cherry to all parts of the ground and also can get out suddenly.  The strength of having Viru, Gambhir, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dhoni looks redoubtable but of late has not proved to be as strong.  It is perhaps time to shake a couple of old fort and provide youngsters like  Cheteshwar Pujara a chance to cement themselves even ahead of the likes of Manoj Tiwary, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.   The present  West Indies team clearly misses Chris Gayle whose presence can make huge difference to their morale and of course to the totals.  For the outsiders, his forced exclusion appears to be clash of ego rather than disciplinary grounds.   For the next test Adrian Barath would be in contention and whether he will make any significant difference remains to be seen.

Their current manager is a person who scored 5959 runs in 86 tests (16 ceturies) and 6248 one day runs in 224 matches, after making his debut in India in 1983-84 season.   Richie Richardson emerged out of the shadows of great Viv – as explosive in batting but modest when it came to speaking.  Like Richards, he also would not wear a helmet and would bat with a maroon sun hat.   In Mar 1991, he blasted 182 against Aussies at Georgetown with more than a 100 in the final session of first day.  As a coach, he is struggling on the same pitches where he once made merry.

Elsewhere at the Newlands ground, Mark Boucher had the remarkable feat – a 500 test catches perhaps is as good as 15000 runs that Sachin got at Kotla.  He has played the most no. of Tests as wicketkeeper still his landmark is unprecedented and unlikely to shaken by any of the present bunch.  From 1997, he has been a regular – a quality batsman and good behind the stumps.

There are only 13 keepers who have had more than 200 dismissals – Boucher tops that list and yesterday he completed 500 catches







140
266
523
501
22
119
224
395
366
29
96
191
416
379
37
96
182
355
343
12
95
174
269
250
19
91
175
219
173
46
82
141
241
227
14
81
146
228
201
27
79
150
270
265
5
67
121
201
194
7
65
122
219
207
12
62
115
202
176
26
53
99
206
184
22



His achievement can be better understood, when you know that only 4 Indians have had 100 victims and more

Player
Mat
Inngs
Dism
Catches
Stumpings
MS Dhoni
62
115
202
176
26
SMH Kirmani
88
151
198
160
38
Kiran More
49
90
130
110
20
Nayan Mongia
44
77
107
99
8



With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

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