Memories Of Greatest Cricketers - - #8 Shane Warne

[vramesh]

Crowe in 1985 had a series of hundreds(188 v WI in WI). Plus he had matchwinning 100s enabling NZ to beat Aus in Aus('85) and Eng in Eng('86). So Somerset wanted to have someone for the future and it did not go well with Viv

[sivank]

Thanks prabhu for bringing a wicket keeping legend into focus. Rod Marsh was in his active days one of the most successful WK batsman. He usually comes at position 7 and gave a very solid support for the lower order. He made about 3600 runs at an ave. of 26. He made 3 centuries and got out at the 90s for 5 times. He had the enviable record of 355 dismissals behind the stumps. 343 catches and 12 stumpings.

Up to my knowledge Rod Marsh is the only wicket keeper to have this record of having the highest number of catches from one particular bolwer. The tandem of Lillee nad Marsh shared 95 wickets among them. Yes, this word caught Marsh bowled Lillee was repeated 95 times.

Even though Marsh was not the first choice to represent Australia. As Brian Taber decided to hang his gloves some how Mr. Iron Gloves as RM was called then was given a chance among heavy and loud protests. He was over weight and his gathering and moving behind the stumps was not perfect. Still he was given the choice since he was good at lower order batting. Bill Lawry the captain then took the risk.

The oncoming Test series against England was the starting for Rod Marsh. He batted brilliantly in the 2nd test in Perth which was held for the first time in Perth. He scored 44 and supported ably Greg Chappel who scored his maiden century on his first test. People slowly started to believe in RM as they saw that he gave the lower order a good batting support. Marsh should have scored his maiden century on his 4th Test on Melbourne but Bill Lawry didn´t allow it. Australia batted first and scored more than 400 runs, Marsh was 92 n.o. as BL declared the innings. Everybody criticised BL for his action. Already a very didliked person and captain BL made no new friends for his action. His deputy Ian Chappell criticised him the most. From there a wonderful friendship started between the Chappell brothers and Marsh. Bill Lawry was sacked after the England series and Ian Chappell took over as the new captain for the coming Test Series again against England (this time AUS visited England).

RM reduced a lot of weight for the new season and became more fitter. The chemistry between RM and Lillee flourished. Marsh must have learned a lot from IC as he stood always at the first slip. RM had the uncanny ability to notice the weakness of the opposing batsmen. He used to give tips for Lillee where he has to bowl. This is acknowledged by Lillee by running into Marsh´s hands everytime he takes a wicket.

[vramesh]

Ghavri gave some support to sunny who was again given a very suspect verdict of caught behind off sarfaraz after making 137.

Apparently Sarfraz got Sunny plumb in front when he was on zero but Shujauddin the umpire ruled in the batsman's favor to compensate for the first innings mistake. Sunny fell to Sarfraz for 137 when he lost concentration after Sarf came round the wicket and there was some problem with the sightscreen being moved.

But all in all, a great and outstanding performance from sunny...He had a run of 89, 8*, 5, 97. 111, 137 in Pakistan followed by a run of 205, 73, 0, 107, 182* against the West Indies. If not for that bad decision at 97 he might well have headed for 5 centuries in 5 innings!

Starting 1977 till end of 1979, he played close to 24 tests, where barring 3-4 tests, he scored atleast a 50 or a 100 in every test. This doesn't include the fact that in the midst of a 5 or 6 test home series, he would play 3-4 matches in Ranji or Duleep and score some more hundreds. He once flew back in the morning from an away series and few hours later, was batting in the Kanga League.
The ultimate and dedicated run machine.

One of the reasons that those who followed Sunny in the seventies say there can never be a batsman like him. I am sad to say I only watched him on TV from 84.

There was no Imran for the 1985 World Series Benson & Hedges Cup which India won beating Pakistan in the finals. But he had his sweet revenge when he captained the side that won the 1986 Auatralasia cup on 18th April, 1986, at Sharjah but Javed took the entire credit with the last ball six of a full toss.

Regards

Dear Mr.Murali, I think there is a typing error above and you are referring to Wasim Akram who missed the final match. Imran led Pakistan in the cup, starting with the opening match v India at Melbourne. It was a terrific hostile spell from Imran who took 3-27. Srikkanth was clueless to the swing and movement and India fell to 42-3 chasing 183 if I remember right. It was Azhar(93*) and Sunny(54) who took them to victory and it was debutant superstar Azhar fresh from 3 hundreds who was the star. I bought the disc just to see how Azhar tackled Imran but the Paki guy who sold it edited the innings and showed only the victory stroke apart from Indian dismissals.

Gavaskar wrote that in the final, Imran had a tremendously huge lunch and was surprised by the quantity as he was due to save Pak with his bowling. Miandad had complained to Sunny that the first game was lost due to one bad decision against Pak but admitted that Pak were beaten fair and square in the final(the lack of Akram also hurt them a lot)

Richards was back for the second but Imran again was fire and claimed almost a 10 wicket haul and again Javed scoored a century(I was fuming that this guy is going on scoring centuries and coming at WI against Marshall and Patterson, it was special) But WI managed to draw. I think this was at Port Of Spain.

Third test (Bridgetown?) had become a prestige issue for WI. They have never lost a series for the past 10 years at home preceding that and so Viv and his team won but they struggled before reaching there. When it mattered most Imran couldn't recreate the magic and WI scrapped through and kept their home record intact. Neverthless Imran ended up with 23 wickets, the highest on either side.
Regards

There was also some issues between WI officials and the senior players that series and it affected their performance. To their great credit, Dujon and RIchards delivered when it mattered and silenced their critics(with some help from umpires)

Seriously those were the two of Javed's best centuries. Truth to tell, Javed had his own style of batting but seriously he cannot be bracketed among the greats like Sunny, Sachin, Richards. Miandad was a big flop in most of Pakistan's great victories(talking about tests only) such as Leeds 87, Bangalore 87, Lords 92. No wonder for a batsman with a prominent shuffle across middle stump, he was dismissed 25 times lbw abroad and none at home from 1976-86, first lbw in Pak came in '86 and therefore his career figures were little inflated.

But as I said he had his own strength and Javed as a person is much more mellow than he is talked about, very approachable and friendly guy. In 1996, when India were getting thrashed by a really insipid ragtag England team, it was Javed who went to the Indian nets to help them out. But seriously, battingwise, not as great as he's talked about, and not above Inzi or Yohana.

[vramesh]

Sorry if my post is distracting the flow of the thread. Lets continue with Rod Marsh.

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Who is next? Let me know!

[littlemaster1982]

Reviving...

[littlemaster1982]

Port-of-Spain, 30 March 1994

West Indies had a small total to defend. They also had Ambi

West Indies were defending a paltry 193 runs with three sessions to play on the last day. England had a point to prove and their resolve appeared strong. In the press box, English cricket writer and erstwhile Somerset captain Peter Roebuck said, "This ought to be England's game". I nodded.

And then Richie Richardson handed Curtly Ambrose the ball. These were the days when West Indian crowds still understood and loved Test cricket, even preferred it to the one-day game, and the Oval went absolutely silent as the ground focused on Ambi's long, loping run-up. With every breath held, every pair of eyes checked to see if Ambrose's back foot fell behind the line, if the ball pitched between wicket and wicket, at what length - it was the last point of "good" before "full" - and we all watched the ball as it skidded, at an incredible pace, into the England captain's pad with a thud heard plainly before the cries went up, first from the fielders, appealing, and then from the crowd, cheering. The ball was so fast, so deadly, the crowd did not need the umpire's finger to begin celebrating raucously.

I turned to Roebuck and said, "I think I have to watch this in the ground." It's not considered polite to scream in the press box.

England were all out for 46, still one run fewer than West Indies' lowest score against them, and the seven extras Ambrose and Courtney Walsh allowed in 19.1 overs outscored every English batsman bar Alec Stewart.

Anyone present at that ground could tell you that the English defeat was secured not with the last ball but with the first. If that was not a magic moment, brother, the word "magic" may as well be stricken from the dictionary.

[ajithfederer]

Raging Bull Ambrose

Easily my fav 90's Bowler. Thanks LM For the link.

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Good Choice LM!

[Sanguine Sridhar]

CURTLY AMBROSE


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