The Cricket World Cup - Memorable Performances…..9 : Excerpt from ‘The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011’ by Indra Vikram Singh

HAYDEN SETS NEW MARK 
FOR QUICKEST HUNDRED

Warner Park, Basseterre  •  24 March 2007

Conditions were perfect, with a flat batting track and short boundaries. Matthew Hayden was not one to miss out, and he launched a blitzkrieg right from the start. He bludgeoned the South African bowlers, racing to the fastest century in the World Cup off a mere 66 deliveries, one less than Canada’s John Davison in 2003. Hayden lofted Graeme Smith for a straight six in the 23rd over to claim the coveted record. Australia went on to post their highest World Cup total of 377 for six.

           

Adam Gilchrist was in an equally belligerent mood, and the duo motored along at 7 runs per over. They posted a century stand before Gilchrist was dismissed for a run-a-ball 42. The partnership was worth 106 in 14.5 overs. Ricky Ponting kept up the momentum as Hayden went on the rampage, putting on 61 off 51 deliveries.

Hayden straight-drove the first ball he received to the boundary off Shaun Pollock. He lost the strike for a while but made up for it as Pollock came on to bowl the fifth over. He square-cut the first ball fiercely to the boundary, then danced down the wicket to the third and smote it over mid-wicket for a six. The next delivery was pitched up on the off stump and Hayden slammed it high over long-on for another six. 

It took Hayden just 37 balls to bring up his fifty as he drove Andrew Hall to the long-off boundary. In Hall’s next over he glanced one to the fine-leg boundary and blasted the next over long-off for a six. Hayden then rocketed 3 fours in a Charl Langeveldt over. He was on 94 off 65 balls as Smith floated in his off-spinner. Hayden smashed it over the bowler’s head and beyond the ropes to take the record away from Davison. In the next over bowled by Jacques Kallis, Hayden cut one straight into the hands of Herschelle Gibbs. He had sent the crowd into raptures with his 101 off 68 deliveries, having hit 14 fours and 4 sixes. It was one of the most fierce displays power hitting that left the Proteas shell-shocked.

Ponting and Michael Clarke then posted a mammoth 161-run partnership in 130 balls, both scoring quickfire nineties. Ponting got a-run-a-ball 91 with 8 fours and 2 sixes, bringing up his 10,000 runs in One-day Internationals. Clarke was even more belligerent, hitting 92 off 75 deliveries, including 7 fours and 4 sixes, Smith and Abraham de Villiers raised a 160-run opening stand for South Africa in a matter of 21 overs. De Villiers hit up 92 in 70 deliveries with 14 fours and 2 sixes. Kallis too joined the party. But as the wickets began to fall, with chinaman bowler Brad Hogg inflicting the most damage, South Africa continued to hurtle downhill and were beaten by 83 runs.  

Despite the big hitting by the other batsmen, everything paled in comparison to Hayden’s awesome knock. Clive Lloyd’s record of the fastest World Cup hundred off 82 balls in the 1975 final stood for 28 years until it was shot down by a long way by the rampaging willow of Davison in 2003. In the 2007 tournament as many as three batsmen, Hayden, Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag scored quicker hundreds than the former West Indies skipper, and one, Brad Hodge, equalled him. This was clearly a sign of the times and an indication of how dramatically the game has changed in the last few years.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011

ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Distributed in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11 23417175, 23412567

Available in leading bookshops, and online on several websites.

The Cricket World Cup - Memorable Performances…..8 : Excerpt from ‘The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011’ by Indra Vikram Singh

AWESOME TENDULKAR TOWERS

IN MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES

                         

Supersport Park, Centurion, 1 March 2003

So often has Sachin Tendulkar pounded the bowlers into submission, and dominated top-class attacks to win matches off his own explosive bat. But has there been something like this? Consider the scene. It is a high-voltage match in the World Cup, no less, against arch-rivals Pakistan, who desperately need a win in order to qualify for the next stage. And the target is 274. This is not for the faint-hearted, or for those with ordinary ability. But then, it is really just the sort of challenge that the greats of sport revel in. Tendulkar once again rose to the occasion, stamping his pedigree on cricket’s big show of 2003.  

He said he came out to bat with a blank mind. He also stated that the moment he stroked Wasim Akram through the covers right off the sweet spot, he knew it was going to be his day. It took just three deliveries for the genius to realise what a beauty of a wicket it was and that his own Midas touch was intact enough to enable him essay yet another glittering innings. His partner Virender Sehwag too dared to square-cut the last ball of that opening over off the front foot for another four.

The pacy Shoaib Akhtar came on at the other end and promptly hurled a wide down the leg-side. The fourth ball was fast and short outside the off-stump, and Tendulkar got under it. His furious slash and the speed of the ball sent it sailing into the stands at backward point. The incensed, though seemingly chastened, speedster pitched the next one up but the direction was just a bit awry on the other side, and the little blaster whipped it to the square-leg boundary. The last delivery looked a good one but Tendulkar, now master of the situation, drove it past mid-on for another four. He had established ascendancy in a matter of two overs. Akhtar was taken off after one over that cost 18 runs. The stands were abuzz. This was indeed going to be electric.

The fifty came up in five overs. Waqar Younis dismissed Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly at 53 off successive deliveries. Tendulkar was in a different zone, zooming to his own fifty in 37 balls. He treated every bowler with disdain, flicking Waqar, executing a sweetly timed straight drive off Abdul Razzaq, and crafting a skillful on-drive to Shahid Afridi’s leg-spin, to recount a few of his dozen exquisite boundaries. His only real blemish was when he drove a bit early and Razzaq grassed the ball at mid-off.  

Mohammad Kaif helped add 102. Tendulkar got cramps but refused a runner till he was almost immobile. “Only I know how hard I have hit the ball and where it will go. A runner cannot anticipate this,” he explained. A man with immense faith in his own prowess would not risk someone ruin his precious innings. Now hobbling, he fended at a vicious Akhtar bouncer and was caught on the off-side for 98. He had faced just 75 deliveries and hit 12 fours and a six. India were already 177 in the 28^th over, with the bowling decimated. Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh ushered in an easy win. Writing in The Times of India, Wasim Akram saluted the maestro: “He has a great eye, but on this pitch, he seemed to have all the time in the world to select the right shot and play it to perfection…..he showed that he is capable of unforgettable strokeplay, which makes him the larger-than-life figure he is.” It was another page in the saga of Sachin Tendulkar.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011

ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Distributed in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11 23417175, 23412567

Available in leading bookshops, and online on several websites.

The Cricket World Cup - Memorable Performances…..7 : Excerpt from ‘The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011’ by Indra Vikram Singh

DRAVID AND GANGULY POST 
ALL-TIME RECORD PARTNERSHIP

County Ground, Taunton  •  26 May 1999

Strangely, while others were finding it difficult to score a century, Indian batsmen were reeling off hundreds after hundreds in this tournament. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid had just flayed the Kenyan bowling, and set up a plethora of records. If that was an unprecedented high in the World Cup, Dravid and Sourav Ganguly reached the pinnacle in terms of partnerships in all One-day Internationals, when India met holders Sri Lanka.

After Sadagopan Ramesh was dismissed in the first over, Ganguly and Dravid sparkled. Dravid, the accomplished technician, surprisingly set the early pace with a flurry of brilliant strokes. Ganguly, the smooth timer, picked up the cue later and launched a blistering attack like which had rarely been seen before.

They were both revelations. Ganguly was hitherto known for his silken strokes on the off-side. He was awkward, if not ungainly, while playing the ball - almost following it around - on the on-side. This was particularly marked when pace bowlers dug the ball into his ribs. There were no such inelegant jabs in this match. Once he cut loose, his big-hitting - straight and over long-on - took one’s breath away. One never knew the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ could hit so long and hard. Again it was brilliant timing.

Dravid had always been known as a copybook batsman in the Sunil Gavaskar-Sanjay Manjrekar tradition. He would often get bogged down, unable to rotate the strike. Here, on this true wicket at Taunton, Dravid went on an uncharacteristic stroke-playing binge from the very start. As he played his wristy shots to perfection, with the willow doing his bidding every time, he looked almost like a table tennis maestro relishing his forehand and backhand chops that had the opponent running hither and thither.

In terms of pure statistics it was mind-boggling. Dravid became the second batsman in the World Cup to carve back-to-back centuries, having hit an unbeaten 104 against Kenya in the previous match. Mark Waugh had achieved the feat in 1996. With Ganguly also scoring a hundred, this was the third instance of two batsmen hitting tons in the same World Cup innings after Desmond Haynes and Vivian Richards in 1987, and Dravid and Tendulkar three days earlier.

As Dravid also kept wickets in the match, his 145 was highest by a wicketkeeper in the World Cup, overtaking David Houghton’s 142 in 1987. Ganguly’s 183 was India’s highest in One-day Internationals, surpassing Kapil Dev’s 175 in the 1983 World Cup. It was second-best in the World Cup after Gary Kirsten’s 188 not out in 1996, and fourth in all One-day Internationals behind Saeed Anwar’s 194 and Vivian Richards’ 189.

Ganguly hit 7 sixes, equalling Vivian Richards’ World Cup record set in 1987 and Sachin Tendulkar’s Indian record in all One-day Internationals, which he smashed against Australia in 1998. Coupled with his 17 fours, Ganguly had now hit the maximum runs in boundaries in a World Cup knock. "Once I realised the pitch was good for playing shots, I just did not think of curbing myself", said a delighted Ganguly. Ricky Ponting broke this mark, blasting 8 sixes in the 2003 final.

Ganguly and Dravid added 318, the first triple-century partnership in One-day Internationals. The previous best World Cup stand was 237 between Dravid and Tendulkar in their last match. The highest-ever stand in One-day Internationals was 275 between Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja against Zimbabwe in 1998. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid surpassed these and re-wrote the record books with their exhilarating batting.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011

ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Distributed in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11 23417175, 23412567

Available in leading bookshops, and online on several websites.

The Cricket World Cup - Memorable Performances…..6 : Excerpt from ‘The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011’ by Indra Vikram Singh

LARA'S THEME HALTS SOUTH AFRICAN JUGGERNAUT

National Stadium, Karachi  •  11 March 1996

Brian Lara did not always relish the slow wickets of the sub-continent. With a penchant for playing even spinners on the rise, he was rarely happy with the ball not coming on to the bat. And here was a pitch which offered turn and also bounce. The opponents, South Africa, were in prime form, having won ten consecutive matches, including five in a row in the round-robin stage of the present competition. But when Lara was in good nick, little else mattered.

He came in at 42 for one off just six overs, and took charge rightaway. Using his wrists in inimitable fashion, Lara cut and flicked the pacemen. When the spinners came on he used his feet, and also employed the sweep to good effect. He raced to his fifty off just 45 deliveries, and then clouted Pat Symcox for 22 runs in an over, including five boundaries, four of them off successive balls. These were glimpses of the Lara of 1994, who broke the records for the highest individual scores in Tests as well as first-class cricket. Since then his career was chequered for a few years until he shifted into overdrive. On this day he was at his effervescent best.

The South Africans are usually an efficient, professional side. But they found themselves helpless when faced with the awesome talent of Lara in such brilliant touch. The seam of Shaun Pollock, Craig Matthews, Brian McMillan and Hansie Cronje came to him as easy as the contrasting spin of Pat Symcox and Paul Adams. In this mood no bowler troubled him as he toyed with all that was hurled at him, in his cavalier style. Being slight of build, not for him were shots of power. Rarely did he loft the ball. He wielded his bat with the deftness of touch of a born artist. Some of the strokes were patently his own - playing late, waiting for the ball to do what it had to off the pitch, and then guiding it with extremely skillful wrists. Unlike Mohammad Azharuddin, who used his wrists to flick the ball towards the on-side, Lara's wristwork enabled him to place the ball with a lightness of touch on the off-side as well. Hardly ever did you hear the thump of the ball against Lara's bat. He seemed to merely caress it most of the time.

In the company of Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Lara added 138 runs for the second wicket in just under 25 overs. By then the West Indies had reached 180 in 30.5 overs, and poised for a total of 300. Lara cruised on, reaching his first World Cup century off 83 deliveries in his 13th match, having hit five half-centuries earlier. This was the second-quickest in the event , taking one ball more than Clive Lloyd's hundred in the 1975 final. Lara proceeded to notch up 111 runs off just 94 balls with 16 hits to the fence. With this he lifted his average in the premier event to over 50. After his departure the West Indies innings lost momentum somewhat, but Lara had already ensured that his side's total would be enough to get them into the semi-finals. "The difference was Lara", rued Cronje.

Not for nothing was Lara considered a temperamental genius. When in form there was no sight quite like him in international cricket. It is also a fact that in the four years prior to this tournament - and after - the West Indies relied almost exclusively on Lara, Richie Richardson and Chanderpaul to get the runs. And so was it in their last three matches, in which they performed so well, in the 1996 tournament. Perhaps Lara felt uninspired in a lacklustre team. Whatever it was, innings like the one at Karachi were few and often far between during that phase from this immensely gifted player.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011

ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Distributed in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11 23417175, 23412567

Available in leading bookshops, and online on several websites.

The Cricket World Cup - Memorable Performances…..5 : Excerpt from ‘The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011’ by Indra Vikram Singh

MASTER CLASS OF MARTIN CROWE

Mclean Park, Napier  •  3 March 1992

The fifth World Cup played in Australia and New Zealand in 1992 had many firsts to its credit. It was the first time that coloured clothing was being worn, as also the white ball being used, and some of the matches played under lights. The teams were not divided into separate groups, but each played every other side. It was also marked by some innovative captaincy by Martin Crowe, aided no doubt by other members of the think-tank. He had off-spinner Dipak Patel open the bowling, and sent in Mark Greatbatch as opening batsman with instructions to hit the ball over the top in the first 15 overs when the field was up. Doubtlessly, the New Zealanders played inspired cricket for much of the tournament.

Their match against Zimbabwe was badly hit by rain, necessitating some quick scoring. In fact the innings was interrupted twice, and their cause was not helped by the loss of two early wickets. That was when Andrew Jones and Martin Crowe got together in a stand of 129 runs.

Crowe was brilliant. His smooth, majestic strokeplay brightened up a dull, damp day, and brought much-needed warmth and cheer to a crowd huddled under umbrellas and raincoats for long spells. Nothing that the Zimbabweans had to offer could unsettle him. The Kiwis were allowed just 20.5 overs of batting but that was enough for Crowe to equal the World Cup record for the fastest half-century, off a mere 30 deliveries. This had been achieved by Chris Old and Imran Khan earlier, though by 2007  Brendon McCullum brought the mark down to 20 balls.

Jones provided valuable support with a fifty of his own. When rain brought the innings to a close, Crowe had hit up an unbeaten 74 off just 44 balls, having cracked 2 sixes and 8 fours. It was one of the finest exhibitions of exquisite strokes. There were no violent hits or crude heaves, just shots of a master. Martin Crowe was indeed a cultured batsman, his head still, and right over the ball. There was class stamped all over when he was at the crease.

To overhaul a score of 162 was a mammoth task, as much in view of the small number of overs available as because of the dismal conditions. When the overs were curtailed further to 18, and the target score became 154 by taking into account the New Zealanders' lowest-scoring overs, the Zimbabweans were virtually out of the match even before their innings began. They lurched to 103 for seven when play ended mercifully.

The bleak and dreary end to the match contrasted sharply with the proceedings while Martin Crowe was in the middle. A charismatic batsman like him has the ability to put life into even the most boring of matches and to add a golden glow to the kind of bleak conditions that dogged the game the whole day.

As so often in his career and throughout this tournament, Crowe was a delight. In such a mood he had few peers and even they would have applauded him all the way back to the pavilion after his glorious innings.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011

ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Distributed in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11 23417175, 23412567

Available in leading bookshops, and online on several websites.