Arbit Stats #71: A Series of Numbers

From the University of WhatsApp came this test.

And with it came a helpful hint –."difference between each letter may or may not be the same but there is an underlying pattern i.e. difference between A & B, B & C, C & D to M & N follow a pattern. Some numbers may have to be force fitted" 

It was an interesting exercise, cracked only once the pattern had been guessed. And then reverse fitting the numbers to famous (or not so famous) cricketing instances. The difference between the consecutive numbers are in Fibonacci sequence (each being the sum of the previous two differences). So here are the solutions

A - 181 – Sir Vivian Richards vs Sri Lanka in the 1987 World Cup helping West Indies to 360 to record a 191-run victory. Richards got his 181 off 125 balls while Desmond Haynes scored a more sedate 105 off 124 balls!

 

B - 181 – Matthew Hayden’s 181 helped Australia to 346 which was overhauled by the Kiwis. After suffering a whitewash in the series Australia went to go on to win the 2007 World Cup with another undefeated run! 

C - 182 – Mohammed Azharuddin top-scored in Eden Gardens in 1993 to set the tone for 3-0 whitewash against England and rescue his captaincy. 

D - 183 – India’s team total in the 1983 World Cup final. And they won comfortably by 43 runs. New Zealand got the same score in the 2015 final and were thrashed! 

E - 185 – Shane Watson's blitzkrieg helped overhaul Bangladesh’s 229 in just 26 overs! Wonder where Watson would have ended up if he had played the full 50 overs. 

F - 188 – Gary Kirsten vs UAE in the 1996 World Cup. A match also remembered for the UAE skipper Sultan Zarawani coming out to face Alan Donald without a helmet and promptly getting knocked in the head. 

G - 193 - Netherlands stunning run-chase vs Ireland in 2014 T20WC. They needed to chase a target of 190 in under 14 overs which is exactly what they did to go through to the next round. A chase which was replicated a few weeks later in the IPL by Mumbai Indians against Rajasthan Royals (the famous Dravid cap throwing incident) 

H - 201 - Jason Gillespie came in as a nightwatchman and got a double century against Bangladesh. Got the Man of the Match & Series Awards for his efforts. And never played another Test for Australia! 

I - 214 – the 3rd highest score on Test debut – by Lawrence Rowe for West Indies vs New Zealand & Matthew Sinclair for New Zealand vs West Indies. Behind Tip Foster’s 287 & Jacques Rudolph’ 232 

J - 235 - Virat Kohli vs England

K - 269 - Kohli is 269th Indian test player and hence the tattoo. 

L - 324 - Waheed Mirza’s score in the 561 run opening partnership with Mansoor Akhtar for Karachi Whites against Quetta breaking the record of 555 made by Holmes & Sutcliffe 45 years previously. No one else needed to bat for Karachi as they recorded an innings & 294 run victory 

M - 413 – Opening partnership of Vinoo Mankad & Pankaj Roy against New Zealand. A record which stood for over half a century. 

N - 557 – Clarrie Grimmett Test runs aggregate. His record for fastest to 200 wickets was finally broken by Yasir Shah after Ashwin nearly threatened to break it. 

This was one wicked quiz. Cricket’s obsession with statistics makes it truly a mathematician’s delight.

Flashbacks

Test Match #2239: India vs England, Mumbai

Virat Kohli and Jayant Yadav put on a double-century stand (215 unbeaten at Lunch on Day 4), grinding down the English bowlers to put India into a commanding position in the 4th Test of the series. During the course of the innings they created a new Indian record for the highest 8th wicket partnership in Test cricket, breaking the old record of 161 between Azhar and Kumble made in 1996 against South Africa at Eden Gardens.

And what a game that was. Still have distinct memories of the game. Inspite of the fact that I was in school and only saw the highlights at the end of day's plays. And while the scorecard  says, South Africa won by a huge margin of 329 runs, this game still holds lots of wonderful memories for the Indian fan.

South Africa had galloped ahead and India were playing catch-up throughout the game. The openers put on a double century opening stand but were reined in by Venkatesh Prasad, probably the gentlest of medium-pacers, who took a 5-wicket haul in a space of five overs. This man had the ability to produce something special out of nowhere. (Never forget "THAT" response to Aamer Sohail!!!).

In response, the Indian top order collapsed. Nothing unusual in those days specially in the face of the top quality fast bowling. Azhar had to retire hurt, while Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, VVS (the last 3 in their 1st year of Test cricket) were all dismissed cheaply. A follow-on seemed imminent before Azhar returned and in Kumble's company just hammered everything in sight. Eden Gardens has witnessed many a spectacular performance and this certainly was one of them. Our class was updated of the score by the teachers and also one enterprising fellow who had smuggled in a pocket radio. The score certainly moved at T20esque pace with Azhar having taken a particular liking to the debutante Klusener. The highlight was Azhar hammering Klusener for 5 boundaries in a single over. 

Source: Cricinfo

The partnership brought India back into the game. Azhar recorded the fastest Test century by an Indian batsman. When he got going, it wasn't a flash in the pan but a lightning storm. But it soon got over. Meanwhile we willed on Kumble to get to his first Test century but that wasn't to be. (Kumble did eventually score one a decade later).

As is wont with the Indian fan, the partnership flashed hopes of an unlikely victory. But it wasn't to be as the ruthless South Africans put in a big score in the second innings and gave us an even bigger target in the second. And Lance Klusener had his redemption picking up 8 wickets in the second.

But for that glorious afternoon when Azhar got going and Kumble stayed on, What a wonderful passage of play that was. The ones which stay in your memory even twenty years later!

P.S. Jayant Yadav got to his maiden Test hundred and the partnership ends at 241.

P.P.S. End of Amit Mishra's Test career? Or he makes another comeback?

Arbit Stats #56: Virat Kohli

Test Match #2207: West Indies vs India, Antigua

This is India's 248th Test abroad. And Virat Kohli becomes the 1st Indian captain to score a double century away. Previous record being held by Mohammaed Azharuddin's 192 in New Zealand. (Full List)

Interestingly this is also his highest score in any format of senior cricket.

Very Very Special

Its been a couple of days since VVS Laxman announced his retirement with "immediate effect" from international cricket. Millions of blog posts have already been written about the man in the interim. Here is one more tribute to the man who made Indian fans believe in miracles.

I have actually seen him bat. That was in 1998. It was a Ranji Trophy match between Bihar & Hyderabad played in Keenan Stadium. To be honest it wasn't VVS whom I had gone to watch. It was the 2nd or 3rd day of the game. Hyderabad was batting. VVS and Venkatpathy Raju were the batsman. But I was more interested in getting a glimpse of my then idol, Mohammed Azharuddin, who would occasionally wander into the pavilion balcony and receive loads of cheers. That I got to see a triple hundred from VVS was a small sideshow at that time.

I was too young to probably realise it at that time. But that certainly was an example of how a beautiful innings is constructed. I am no master of words. And hence won't be able to do any justice to the artist that was VVS Laxman. "Lazy Elegance" must have been a phrase coined to describe VVS Laxman. The elegant wristwork, the flicks, the cuts. An inninigs could be built at a great tempo without the man even breaking into a sweat. An example of a great innings when all was lost was Sydney, 2000. India staring at a 3rd consecutive defeat while Laxman pulling off one shot after another to get to his maiden century which included 100+ runs in a single session of play.

Probably that was the innings which set up his love affair with the Aussie bowling attack. Guess that explains why the first cricketer to comment about VVS's retirement was the Aussie Captain Michael Clarke :). Jokes apart I doubt there has been any innings greater than the 281 at Eden Gardens. It was a freakish innings and had a Dravid special to complement it. An innings which has changed the way captains worldwide have perceived the follow-on. Enforcing the follow-on has become more and more debatable amonst captains worldwide.

A look at the Greatest Innings of Modern times.

If Laxman hadn't done anything else he would still have been remembered for that 281. But of course he isn't called Very Very Special for nothing. There were a sequence of 4th innings chases. The Aussies were sick of him. There was a case where Laxman got a big score and Australia lost even though they were playing in different continents.

Its a question often asked about geniuses. Individually brilliant, but was he a team-man? Well, all I can say is he refused the marquee player status in the 1st IPL and let Deccan Chargers pick him at a much lower price than he would have got otherwise (15% higher than the highest bought DC player). All this to ensure that limited money is spent wisely. That his team failed him is a different matter altogether.

With the retirement of Laxman coming soon after that of his most-oft partner-in-crime, the Indian Test batting order will bear a totally different look. Their retirements have been much discussed. But now that the reality is here, how the replacements will perform is still to be seen. And it is not just the batting lineup which will become different. There is big void created in the slip cordon. No Dravid at 1st slip and no VVS at 2nd. Who will be the replacements to fill in these legendary boots? Pretty tough to fathom.

In the end, thank you VVS Laxman for giving endless hope to the Indian fan. After all till you were at the crease, miracles did happen.

Vinod Kambli's allegations - Now is the time to speak out

As any cricket follower in the country would have been aware by now, Vinod Kambli has made some serious claims about the 1996 World Cup semi-finals. He claims that captain Mohammed Azharuddin went against the team's collective decision of batting first and chose to field instead. The match was later to be abandoned due to crowd trouble in India's innings and a crying Vinod Kambli leaving the field.



Any match-fixing claim has to be taken very seriously. These things have happened. Players have been banned, fined and now even jailed for such crimes. But its also very easy to make allegations about past events, where only the word of one person against the other stands.

In this case the credibility of the allegations is a bit low. The events happened 15 years ago. Given Vinod Kambli's recent antics, his trust level is pretty low. He was a case of talent truly wasted as a player. Thrown out of team on disciplinary grounds, making controversial TV apppearances (Sach Ka Saamna & Bigg Boss), announcing his retirement from cricket some 7-8 years after being dropped him from the Mumbai Ranji team, Going on proclaiming his friendship with Sachin Tendulkar on all possible forums. Sounds like a person who is despearate to be in news always.

Here the allegations have been made against a former India captain who is under a life ban from cricket for match-fixing based on evidence collected by CBI. So Azhar provides an easy target for such allegations.

If I remember correctly, all the analysts during the World Cup had agreed that Sri Lankans were very good at chasing down targets Performances against India, England certainly justify this claim. Even in the final they chose to chase against Australia knowing fully well that all the previous winners had batted first in the finals. So putting Sri Lanka into bat first seemed a logical decision. There was also talk of using a spinner to counter the marauding Sri Lankan openers in the inital overs. So Kumble opened the bowling with Srinath. Then there was the evening dew factor. Taking these factors into account bowling first does seem to be a logical decision. The one error was misreading the pitch. The pitch had become an unknown quantity due to opening ceremony fiasco. Given all these factors Azhar would have been roasted if he had decided to bat first.

Now coming to Kambli's remarks. He says Navjot Sidhu was all padded up to open. The toss hadn't been held till then. What if Rantunga had won the toss. Then there are claims of this being his last game when the truth is he played on and off for another 4 years. Also the timing of the allegations make no sense. He could have come out in the open then or when the match-fixing scandal came up in 2000. Why did he keep silent all these years?

Is there any truth in Kambli's allegations? I don't know. The only people who can answer are the other members of the 1996 campaign. So far the manager Ajit Wadekar, and other players like Sanjay Manjrekar, Nayan Mongia and Venkatpathy Raju and Azhar himself have already rubbished Kambli's claims. But it is very important that the other players like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath et al, whose credibility cannot be questioned speak out. This is certainly not a time of maintianing a dignified silence. Its time to come out in the open and speak out. You owe this to the Indian fan.