da realbet： India batted first on what was supposed to be a bouncy track, with cloud cover
Rahul Bhatia26-Dec-2003The length bowlers go to …
India batted first on what was supposed to be a bouncy track, with cloud cover. So what did the bowlers do? They bowled short. The batsmen were hit on the head, the arm, and all over their upper torsoes. Not one wicket fell to intimidatory bowling. And when they did pitch it full, they over-compensated. As many as 84 runs came off the 70 half-volleys that were bowled.
Length
Balls
Runs
Fulllength
13
22
Yorker
2
1
Half-volley
70
84
Goodlength
352
152
Shortof a length
72
54
Short
39
4
Runs, runs everywhere
Virender Sehwag was not about to let a nagging line outside off stump stifle him. He scored 114 runs on the off side, and anything slightly close to his pads was dispatched to leg. Given the generous number of half-volleys that came his way, it was no surprise that a large number of his runs came in front of the wicket.Sehwag’s wagon wheel
Region
Runs
Runs in boundaries
Thirdman
31
20
Point
18
16
Cover
39
28
Longoff
26
12
Longon
22
12
Midwicket
45
24
Squareleg
7
4
Fineleg
7
4
His first false shot was his last
Rahul Dravid missed out on a half-century by one run, playing a loose shot off Steve Waugh straight to the fielder at midwicket, when he could have put the ball anywhere on the leg side. But until then, even by his standards, his control was exemplary.
Melbourne
Adelaide
Incontrol
85
527
Notin control
4
91
Incontrol percentage
95.5%
85.3%
Opening for India
Could Virender Sehwag and Akash Chopra be the opening pair India long been searching for? Their opening stand of 141 was India’s highest outside the subcontinent since 1990. Since then, India has played 21 openers, with only Ravi Shastri, Manoj Prabhakar and Navjot Sidhu achieving any degree of success. But the current combination has been exceptional, especially when one considers that this tour is their first overseas assignment together. (Note India’s average of their previous tour to Australia)India’s overseas opening performances since 1996
Season
Openers
Average
Opposition
2003-04
Chopra,Sehwag
64
Aus
2002-03
Sehwag,Bangar, Patel
7
NZ
2002
Sehwag,Bangar, Jaffer
17
Eng
2001-02
Bangar,Jaffer, Das, Dasgupta
18.4
WI
2001-02
Das,Dravid, Dasgupta
10.3
SA
2001
Ramesh,Das, Dighe, Badani
22
Zim
1999-00
Prasad,Laxman, Ramesh, Gandhi
9.2
Aus
1998-99
Jadeja,Sidhu
22.8
NZ
1996-97
Sidhu,Laxman, Jadeja
27.6
WI
1996-97
Mongia,Rathour, Raman, Dravid
22.2
SA
1996
Jadeja,Rathour, Mongia, Manjrekar
14.4
Eng
Rahul Bhatia is on the staff of Wisden Cricinfo.