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Tigerbill44

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Joined May 2017

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yes thommo was Simpson’s main weapon. But, there wasn’t much quality at the other end.
I have watched some videos of the series; and I got the impression that thommo’s mind was at the WSC. of course I can be wrong. certainly it wasn’t easy for thommo to play under Simpson. think things flared up a bit during the tour to WI, where I believe Thommo was made the VC.
Also, at SCG thommo got into a bit argument with Chauhan. sunny, at the other end describes the incident here
https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/chetan-chauhan-laugh-jeff-thomson-riled-6558920/

Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat

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Jun

Well, Sunny is more of an expert. Harsha, of course is very popular.
I think an issue was raised perhaps a decade about Harsha’s dominant position among commentators given he had no international experience. In fact, I don’tr know anything about his cricketing background.
I do know that he was a student of IIM (the leading business school in India). he was supposed to do commentary for Indian Radio during the 1984 Ind-Eng test of 1984. The death of Indira Gandhi meant that there was a slight change in tour schedule; and the test (cricket) coincided with his test (IIM). In a rare occurrence in the history of the Institute, Harsha was granted permission to go ahead with his commentary job, and the professors took a separate test for him.

Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat

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Jun

Thanks everyone for your comments. I would like to share some views of my own .
1) first of all I don’t like batsman from one generation being compared with another. I don’t think it’s possible. throughout the 70s Indian batting was very brittle. it depended almost entirely on Sunny and Vishy. Although they didn’t have helmet, certainly not before 1978.
2) IMO he was best Indian batsman between 1971 to 1985. In 1986 Vengsarkar with a string of hundreds perhaps took over this mantle.
3) He certainly proved himself against the moving ball in England more than once. His record in Aus perhaps can be a bit misleading as most of his runs there came against weakened attacks.
And yes, I agree that his record against WI doesn’t tell the whole story. But then you can argue that when he faced the ‘real ‘ WI attack in 1983, he was past his peak
4) As a captain he was a bit defensive minded. But, he took over the captaincy just when the great spinners were past their prime. The substitutes were never to the mark .
5) I like him as a commentator; his analysis are good and among all the Indian commentators I find him to be the most objective in his opinions.

Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

1000 runs & 100 wickets in ‘Ashes’

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat

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Jun

Wayne Clark of WA dismissed Gavaskar 4 times at Gabba and WACA. I was much surprised when he didn’t feature in the Ashes next season. To confuse things even more fro a 9 year old, a Clarke emerged in the WI team.
Now I know that his action was quite a bit suspicious.

Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

The Ahmadabad test in 1983 is memorable fro many reasons.
Apart from Sunny becoming the leading run getter in test history and Kapil creating a new bowling record:
it was the first time 4 Sikh players were on the field in a test match
Navjot Sidhu was making his test debut. he would become a leading batter for India in the 90s.
Maninder Singh, left arm spinner and my role model, was tryin to establish himself as the new Bedi.
Medium pacer Balwinder Singh Sandhu was playing his 8th and last test.
Gursharan Singh was not in the XI, but substituting for Roger Binny created a new record taking 4 catches.
A right had bat, he did play one test for India at Auckland in 1990.

Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

Gavaskar’s test record in Aus is interesting:
1977-78 5 test 450 runs 50.00 3 hundreds
1981-82 3 test 118 runs 19. 66 1 fifty
1985-86 3 test 352 runs 117.33 2 hundreds
If course both in 1977-78 and 1985-86 Aus had depleted attacks.
He had poor season in 1980-81 when he struggled in both Aus & NZ.
Lillee always rated Vishy above Sunny.

Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat

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Jun

Interesting.

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Jun

I think it was Franklyn Stevenson. There was a quickie named Franklyn Rose who came in the n2d half of the 90s. One of the many who failed to keep the fast bowling tradition going.

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Cricket
 
Jun

I still remember the hype around Lillee breaking Gibbs’ record during the 1981-82 season. I think he kept everyone waiting for one test before getting the record.
I was totally confused to learn about a spinner from WI.
It seemed like something alien to me.
I learned about the’ two little pals of mine’ later.

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Jun

So the 4th tier would be
Bishop, Clark, Patterson
Wayne Daniel, Gray to the 5th team.

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Jun

And Patrick Patterson.

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Jun

I once tried a string of WI teams keeping the 3 fast bowler restrictions intact:
1sr team (going with cricinfo)
Holding, Marshall, Ambrose
2nd) Hall, Roberts, Garner
3rd) Walsh, Croft, Griffith
still Sylvester Clark left.

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Cricket
 
Jun

I actually saw the Madras test, where Hirwani took 16 wickets on TV. The wicket was badly underprepared . Some of the WI players looked badly homesick. some of t hem were in the subcontinent from the beginning of Oct for the WC and it was late Jan. There was lot of travelling in between.
Few eyebrows were raised when Viv commented that Hirwani ws no way near Abdul Qadir in class prior to the home series against Pak. subsequently he was proved to be right. Hirwani took 36 wickets in his first 4 tests; all at home -and then faded away rapidly.

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Cricket
 
Jun

In fact for the first part I tried this title ‘Alan Border: the Loser (Part I).I wanted this to be the beginning of my ‘Loser’ series.
perhaps it would have conveyed the wrong message to the readers.

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

Based on memory the Aus team picked was something like this
Trumper
Morris
the obvious one
Chappell ( the middle one)
Harvey
Miller
Healy
Lindwall
Lilee
Tiger Bill
Warney
Ian Chappell relegated his brother to 12th man and got McCabe instead. He also suggested Marsh for Healy and Davidson for Lindwall (to add more variety to the bowling).

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Cricket
 
Jun

Cricinfo did something like this about a decade ago. I think they picked two teams, one picked by the expert, the other by voting. The 2nd teams were bit biased towards current players. For example for Paksitan the experts picked Fazal Mahmoodd to complete the pace attack with Imran, Wasim & Waqar, the public picked Shaoib.
As for WI the team picked by experts was something like this . There was restriction to pick only 3 specialist fast bowlers.
Greenidge
Hunte
Headley
King Richards
Lara
Sobers
WK (most probably Dujon but I am not 100% sure about it)
Marshall
Holding
Ambrose
Gibbs

West Indies all-time Test XI

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Cricket
 
Jun

Very interesting that the WI got 3 test series in 1979 and 1981. Possibly the 5-1 thrashing earlier had something to do with it. By the time they went to 5 test series, the difference between the teams had become enormous.

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

Yes, I wasn’t aware about the Chappell injury. Was supporting Aus in the series. Was disappointed when I learned from Radio that the Windies have successfully reached their target.

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

While Border was adjudged MOM, Micheal Holding was the Man of the series after taking 24 wickets at 14.33.
That Windies pace attack with Roberts and Holding taking the new ball and Garner and Croft as back ups was fearsome to say the least.
Ian Chappell once asked Holding whether he had any favorite ends in any grounds.
His reply was simple; ‘I have favorite end in all the grounds; opposite end of Andy Roberts’.

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

BTW, this is the 2nd part of this article. Forgot to mention it in the title; the editors didn’t correct it either.

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

Thanks for the comments.
Player for Player the Aussies were no match for the Windies; but it was individual brilliance of certain players that kept the home side in the series.
Certainly there was scope for optimism at the beginning of the final day at the Adelaide oval, 341/4 with both Hughes and Marsh looking good; skipper Chappell was still to come.
It was Joel Garner who did the damage early on the final day.

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat

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Cricket
 
Jun

Fully agree with your views. I followed this series intensely from Dacca, via the Indian radio. Apart from Border and Hughes, Yallop also enjoyed a good series. Sadly the openers disappointed.
Peter Toohey can consider himself unlucky not to make the tour; I think like Border, he could have established himself in the sun baked pitches of the sub continent.
Doshi and Shivlal Yadav the new spinners in the Indian team lacked the killing instinct of their predecessors. Doshi, perhaps got his chance after passing his best days.
Aus lost the 3rd and 6th test. at Kanpur They even took a 1st innings lead, but their batting collapsed on the 4th innings. Harsh on Dymock who took 12 wickets in the match.
At Wankhede, wining the toss gave the home side a decisive advantage.

Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat: Part 1

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Cricket
 
Jun

Bad day for Kiwi sports, the Soccer team lost to Peru in the final Qatar WC qualifier.

Pope and Root hit tons in England fightback

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Cricket
 
Jun

Bairstow thinks he is still in the IPL.

Pope and Root hit tons in England fightback

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Jun
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