Memories Of Greatest Cricketers - - #8 Shane Warne

[sivank]

The third Test at karachi was scheduled between the 14 and 19 of Nov. Before that Bedi made a novum of forfeiting a One day match. Along with the 3 Tests 3 one day matches were also in the programm. After winning the 1st one day match India lost the 2 nd one. On the 3 rd nov. India played the 3 rd one day match against Pakistan. After palying the full 40 0vers ( it was a 40 over match with 5 bowlers of 8 overs each) pak scored 205 runs. India replied strongly with gaekwad and surinder scoring fluenty. suddenly the bouncer and bumper war started. Sarfaraz bowled a over full of bouncers. Nothing was called from the umpires. As the score was 183 and 22 runs required from 18 balls with India losing only 2 wickets the dices were rolling in India´s favour. Sarfaraz started his 7th over again with bumpers. He bowled 4 bumpers without being called wide. The batsmen were in no position to score since the balls were too high. A very angry Bedi recalled his batsmen and forfeited the match. It stood in the match report:

Bishen Bedi conceded the match in protest against the short pitched bowling tactics of Pakistan. Sarfraz Nawaz's last 4 deliveries were all out of reach of the batsmen, and not called wide by the umpire

The tempers were not good between the team. The entire tour was supposed to be full of harmony. But the atmosphere was anything other than harmony.

Bedi won the Toss for the first time in tests and decided to bat. India made one change by bringing Ghavri for prasanna who never again played for India. Pak. also made one change by bringing sikandher bakt for saleem altaf.

The scoring was slow. Imran was nearly unplayable. India finished its innings with a score of 344 out of which sunny scored 111. Kapil Dev who came as a nightwatchman scored a free 59. Kapil is now being talked as a good allrounder. Pakistan batted strongly to post a score of 481 a lead of 137. javed got exactly 100 before edging to kirmani off kapil. Infact every one scored including a whirlwind 32 from Imran. India playing its 2nd innings on the 4th day was 131 for 2 with sunny 67 n.o still on the crease, losing only chetan and mohinder who scored a great 53. Everything once again looked as a draw.

Imran started with a great over to kirmani who came as NW. In trying to fend a fast short ball kirmani could only lob it to Iqbal Qasim who was posted by Imran just before this delivery. vishy followed soon after edjing to bari of f sarfaraz. Surinder who was sick played a short innings but was run out soon after standing at the same end as sunny. vengsarkar gave some support for sunny who was playing a lone fiddle. soon vengsarkar was also gone for blinder from sarfaraz. Ghavri gave some support to sunny who was again given a very suspect verdict of caught behind off sarfaraz after making 137. As every one was expecting the curtains to fall, Kapil and ghavri started hitting merrily. Ghavri who gave tremendous support to sunny to move the score from 173 to 246 was finally cleared by an Imran outswinger which he edged to the hands of javed in first slip after making 35. Two runs later kapil who was playing strongly tried to hit sarfaraz for a 3rd six found MM at long on. India were all out for 300 leaving pakistan to score 164 in less than 2 hours time.

It was a very close shave. India could have made it as a draw, but the was how Asif Iqbal and javed were stealing singles was unbelievable. Asif who should be 12 to 13 years older than Javed was running as fast as Javed. At the fall of Asif ´s wicket everyone was expecting mudassar or zaheer but Imran was sent by MM. Imran showed why he was condsidered as the best allrounder at his time. He smashed Bedi for 2 huge sixes and took 19 runs from his over. This one over changed the match for pakistan. Till then it was touch and go.

So, a match which could have been a draw ended with a victorius pakistani team.

Imran showed that even in dull Sub continent pitches firery spells could be bowled.

[Vivasaayi]

could imran be called as "the most celebrated cricketer " from pakistan without any hesitancy?

[sivank]

could imran be called as "the most celebrated cricketer " from pakistan without any hesitancy?

lesaa ul kuthu irukkura maadhiri theriyudhe j/k

In my opinion he was the greatest cricketer Pak. ever produced. I don´t think anyone would have that much of authority and acceptance in pak cricket. Imran was the born leader who led from the front

[m_23_bayarea]

could imran be called as "the most celebrated cricketer " from pakistan without any hesitancy?

And the most number of fans for any Pakistani Cricketer till date...

[Nerd]

Sivan/Murali - What do you think of the alleged soda moodi inside Imran's pant pocket in the 92 world cup? To put it in another way, what do you think of the ball tampering allegations against him?

[sivank]

hi Kasi,

It is a very good question you have arised here. You must think Imran was with Tony Greig in Sussex for a long time. Any cricket fan would know that TG would go to any level to win a game. As I mentioned before Imran learned a lot from TG.

Here is something I found:

"Imran Khan may have had a successful career in county cricket - he took the only hat-trick of his first-class career for Sussex at Old Trafford - but by his own admission not all of his bowling feats in England were entirely legit. As he revealed in his autobiography, there were numerous occasions when he scratched the side of the ball and lifted the seam. Only once, though, did he use an object, he claimed. "When Sussex were playing Hampshire in 1981, the ball was not deviating at all," he wrote. " I got the 12th man to bring out a bottle top." The upshot was that the ball began to move around as it had not done before in the match. Sussex won and the umpires emerged none the wiser"

Here is something from Wasim Akram:

You have said earlier that the most important thing about reverse swing is how you look after the ball. What are the secrets of looking after the ball?

I am not giving that away so easily. Not in a freebie interview!

Everyone in our team knew what we had to do. And we even had to change Saqlain Mushtaq's action. He used to rub the ball in a manner that used to soften the rough side. As a captain, I had to tell him, "Saqlain don't do that." In team meetings we used to go after him.

That much detail?

That much detail. Even if while throwing the ball from the outfield, if the rough side comes in touch with the grass, it will become soft. Sometimes bowlers used to stop the ball played back at them with their foot. If the boot spikes hit the rough side, it was Christmas. If it didn't, you shone the ball and moved on.

We just took our time. It all depended on the wicket, the weather, the dryness of the outfield. If the wicket is dead and the square grassy, it's not going to happen. If one drop of sweat falls on it, the reverse swing won't happen.

And now with this rule to change the ball after 34 overs, you have taken reverse swing out of the one-day equation


Here is something about Pringle :

After his side was outdone in the first two Tests on the tour of Pakistan in the autumn of 1990, mostly by prodigious reverse swing, New Zealand bowler Chris Pringle took matters into his own hands. The New Zealand players, most notably Martin Crowe, had been crying foul through the series. On the first morning of the final Test in Faisalabad, Pringle decided to put to use what he had learned while experimenting in the nets. He cut an old bottle top into quarters and covered the serrated edge with tape, leaving a sharp point exposed. At the first drinks interval the umpires did not ask to look at the ball, and with Pakistan making sedate progress, Pringle began to scratch the ball with the masked bottle top. The results were almost immediate. Pakistan crashed from 35 for 0 to 102 all out and Pringle finished with his best Test figures of 7 for 52. He recalled that as he left the stadium after the first day's play, a local dignitary tapped him on the shoulder and said: "Pringle, it is fair now. Both teams are cheating


What I want to say is, I followed very actively Cricket till Dec. 1983. After that for about 20 years. I was really out of touch. Now thanks to internet and modern communications I am able to follow. But by now lot of water has passed under the bridge. I don´t know anything about Sachin. I have never seen his batting at his young days.

The last world cup game I saw was 1983 and after that the next one was in 2003 thanks to VCDs my brother sent me. So I don´t know about the allegation you make of Imran. But he is capable of that. You should think he groomed young bowlers who think like him who worship him and would go and do anything for him. Under his tutelage the art of Reverse Swing flourished till they mastered it.

As you can see from the article about Pringle, others used it as well. So when every doesit, wrong in this modern world becomes right

[Nerd]

Sivan sir, thanks for taking pain to research about this, I am floored. The reason I brought up this issue was because of this match I saw in cricket classics in ESPN. May be I am rushing things here, this is the 82 series, you are still at 79. I hope you cover this game, here is my two cents.

India courtesy of a disastrous made 169 in their first innings, thanks mainly to Qadir's spin and Imran's first and second spells. No signs of reverse swing in the first innings. Pakistan, thanks to Zaheer Abbas' genius put up a big score on the board. Abbas was at his best, free flowing and he was the only player in that test match who read Kapil very well. Mudassar Nassar, on accounts of sickness came down the order, also managed a hundred.

India on Day 3 started their innings a little after lunch I believe. Imran was safely negotiated by the Indian top order, though there were a few unplayable deliveries - mainly due to the pace variations. India were sitting pretty at tea (70 odd for one wicket). After India reached three figures, Imran came back for a spell. It was a deadly. I mean the ball was doing all sorts of things - have only seen Wasim being *that* deadly on many occasions (I have not seen much of Imran). Vishwanath's wicket was the best, he had no clue what had just happened. A fierce leg-cutter did him. Benaud (I think) was the commentator, even he did not have a clue on what was happening, because the ball was doing something which he was witnessing it the first time. He tried to draw parallels with another spell by a 70s pakistani bowler who I don't recall. But he was stunned to say the least. Charu Sharma the anchor while concluding finished with this punchline. Commencement of a new class of fast bowling - Reverse swing.

Later I read somewhere that Imran put in a soda bottle cap in his trouser pocket which aided in writing that dream script. Not sure how true is this, may be you two can throw some light. First time I am reading first-hand reports on those classic matches. I am thrilled to bits! Also I heard people saying that he was instrumental in *teaching* reverse swing to Akram and Younis. Will come back later to write about the '92 world cup. In the mean-time please keep us enlightened, Murali and Sivan

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Great going!

[villan007]

Excellent write-ups

[Murali Srinivas]

Great recap Sivan. But one or two doubts. Venkat was definitely in the team to Pakistan but didn't get to play any Tests, right? In fact on the first day of the third Test, the press reports said that Venkat would be playing but it was not be.

Was there Live telecast for that series? We (at Madurai or for that matter rest of Tamil Nadu) didn't have TV coverage. I am damn sure that 1982-83 series was telecast because on a trip to Madras, I had seen the live relay from my friend's hostel. But 1978? Since we had to follow thro' radio, I didn't do it ball by ball. Moreover it came during our semester exams and in between Deepavali (Oct 30th in that year -1978) also intervened and that didn't allow us to concentrate ball by ball.

Nerd,

I mentioned about reverse swing that Imran used to gain upper hand in 1982 -83 series and I had the bottle top in my mind when I wrote this. But one person contradicted me saying it was indipper. As for as my limited knowledge goes, reverse swing is an inswinger or indipper that is bowled with a outswinger action just like googly. Correct me if I am wrong. Imran's admission of doing it at Sussex in 1981, substanciates my theory for 1982-83.

Regards