The Season of World Records

Cricket as a source of entertainment is as much about statistics as it is about batting, bowling and fielding.

Who averages the most against ‘x’ country, who has taken the most wickets at a particular venue, the most successful captain, the fattest wicketkeepers (just kidding!) etc. Answers to such questions are as eagerly sought after, as Cristiano Ronaldo by Real Madrid!

The T20 has come and gone, and it’s the season of the good ol’ game of One Day Internationals again. (When was the last one played?)

In the coming months, some of the world’s top international teams will be seen fighting it out, challenging, not Australia, but South Africa’s place at the top of the ODI table! (Bet you did not remember that!)

While England and New Zealand are slugging it out in Her Majesty’s back yard, the Calypsos will soon lock horns with Australia in the sands of the Caribbean, trying to regain some of the bygone glory. All this while India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh get ready for the Asia Cup in Pakistan, along with member nations such as U.A.E. and Honk Kong.

The promise of such brilliant 50-over action has got me fantasizing already! So here I am, letting you delve into some of the records I wish to see broken in the next few months!

• The 200 Run Barrier
  
  When you think of batting records, Saeed Anwar’s unbelievable 194 is one that first comes to mind. This might very well be the oldest batting record in the limited overs game yet to be broken! His inning at The Chepauk, now M.A.Chindambaram Stadium, came in ’96 at the cost of the hosts.
  Just prior to the start of the Asia Cup 2004, Sehwag stated boldly that with teams like U.A.E. in the same group as India, he might score the first ever double. At the time he was fresh from the triple at Multan, and it seemed his abilities had no end. Yet a double proved elusive.
  Four years on, the record still stands tall, with the likes of Ponting (164 off 105, 5^th ODI, Wanderers, SA versus South Africa), Herschelle Gibbs (175 off 111, in the same game, versus Australia), M.S.Dhoni (on more than one occasion) and many more coming close!
  With the latest season already under way, and the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Virender Sehwag, Salman Butt, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Andrew Symonds, Kevin Pietersen, et al in grand form, you might want to watch out for a historic inning!
  
  
  
• The Perfect 10
  
  While the “perfect ten” (in cricket: one bowler grabbing all ten wickets in an inning) has been achieved twice in Test cricket, the closest any one has gotten to the mark in ODIs has been Chaminda Vaas, with his 8 for 19 against a visibly shaken Zimbabwe. Quite a few, like Andy Bichel and Glenn McGrath of Australia, have taken seven too, but none have breached the mark set by the thirty four year old Sri Lankan.
  Of course, I keep hearing how the limited over versions are hugely tilted in the batsman’s favour, with each bowler getting not more than ten overs to bowl, hence it would be absolutely marvelous to see a Muralitharan or a Brett Lee claiming all ten in a game!
  There are others, too, of course, capable of the feat. Vettori has always been a bowler who gets regular wickets for his side. Given a suitable wicket, he may stand a chance. Pakistan’s pace duo of Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir have been splendid form too, with the latter picking up mind blowing figures of 6 for 14 during the recently concluded IPL tournament.
  
  
  
• Run, Rabbit, Run
  
  Inzy retired quite recently, and his memories are fresh in every cricket lover’s mind! One of them is the sight of the Gentle Giant scampering through for a single, much unlike a hare and not much unlike a tortoise! Like the tortoise in the legendary race, Inzamam did win the war, ending up with a world record number of 50s in ODI cricket, over 10,000 runs, and also as Pakistan’s second highest run getter in Tests! Yet, he did lost the war, that was running between the wickets: another record that he held, the most self run outs ever!
  He went past Atapattus’s tally of 41 a couple of years ago and it seems his former deputy, Mohammad Yousuf, is soon going to over take his tally!
  
  
  
• Akram’s Mark
  
  Yes, you’ve guessed it! I'm talking about the world record for most career wickets in one dayers! Akram claimed his 500^th One Day International victim against Holland during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, and now Murali is inches close to breaking it. While the Pakistani legend often jokes about telling Murali to consider retiring from ODIs soon, it may not be long before Murali gets the 39 wickets needed to over haul the 502 taken by the left armer!
  
  
  
• Sami’s Marathon
  
  The previous installment of the Asia Cup, in Sri Lanka, saw the setting of a very unusual record. An unwanted one too, I might add!
  In a game against Bangladesh, Sami ended up bowling 17 balls in an over, the longest in One Day history!
  Sami earned the dubious distinction with 7 wides and 4 no-balls, along with the 6 legitimate deliveries.
  Though with the advent of the free hit rule, the number of no-balls bowled has gone down, don’t rule out competition to Sami in the near future!
  
  
  
• The Afridi-Suriya Show
  
  Not too long ago, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi were engaged in a race to cross the rope, that is, they fought it out for the record for most sixes and with it the crown of Best Hitter in One Day Cricket!
  It seemed Afridi had won it after Jayasuriya was dropped from the Lankan squad, and he raced away from Jayasuriya, becoming the first man to post 200 sixes in any form of the game at the international level! Jayasuriya, though, made the first of his two dream come backs to the international arena, and immediately began to chase down Afridi’s tally.
  Currently the Matara Marauder stands two clear of the Pathan, with 249 hits over the fence to Afridi’s 247.
  Get set, the rivalry is about to resume!
  
  
  
• Chasing Gilly
  
  Australians seem to set the mark in every department of the One Day game (I would have said every department of the game in any format but for the West Indies’ fearsome fast bowling wealth of the years gone by!), and so it is that an Australian holds the record for most dismissals behind the stump.
  While his effort of six dismissals in an inning has oft been repeated by him and many others, no one seems to go past the mark, which was set way back in 2000!
  With Gilly walking into the sunset, the likes of Dhoni, Akhmal, Haddin, Ramdin, McCullum and others finally have a chance to make a name behind the stumps as well!
  
  
  
• Malinga-(a)wed
  
  Quite a few bowlers, past and present, have picked up three wickets on the trot in ODIs. Yet, Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga remains the only bower to take four in as many deliveries! This spectacular feat was achieved not so long ago, during the, otherwise dull, Caribbean World Cup, against South Africa.
  Though South Africa scampered home with a wicket to spare in this game, Malinga’s effort turned the game from a one sided affair, to an intensely close game! Hopefully someone can better it!
  An over with a wicket every ball perhaps?
  
  
  
• A Thousand Game
  
  Australia and South Africa re-wrote quite a few record books on 12^th March, 2006, when, not only did Australia become the first country to surpass the 400 run mark, the Proteas became the second, and actually chased down a world record total of 434, thereby breaking the world record for highest team score on same day as it was set!
  This game saw a mind boggling 872 runs being put up by the two teams. Sri Lanka broke the record for the highest team total by scoring 443, but their opponents, the Netherlands, never came close to matching South Africa’s spine and vigor during the chase.
  I’ll be looking forward to all three records being broken: the highest team score, the highest chase and the most runs in a game!
  
  
  

Well, here’s looking forward to an eventful season! May One Day Cricket Never Die! Amen.