From: pvr@rice.edu (PVR Narasimha Rao)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Re: A memorable performance of Azaruddin
Date: 11 Apr 1992 21:07:49 -0500
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

In article <9204120054.AA00228@cec2.wustl.edu>, sp2@cec2.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian) writes:

>        Can you imagine India playing an one-day international without
>  Kapil Dev, Srikanth, Ravi Shastri,Chetan Sharma, Dilip Vengsarkar,Manoj
>  prabhakar, Hirwani in the last decade ? India took that risk once and

India did it because they had already won the ODI series. They wanted to test
young players.

BTW, you seem to imply that Hirwani was an integral part of the Indian team in
the last few years. He hardly played any ODIs (he did well in a few, though).
The period for which Hirwani was an integral part of the Indian ODI eleven was
very short. Very very short. And, I think that short exposure to ODIs spoiled
him.

Are you sure Chetan Sharma didn't play in the match that you are describing
here?

>  Azar exhibited a very memorable performance in it. I am writing this as
>  to refresh the memory of fans of Azar or Indian cricket fans. 

Thank you.

>        It was when New Zealand toured India in 198?. It is in this test series

NZ toured India in 1988 (India's cap: Colonel).

>  that Sir Richard Hadlee claimed his 300th wicket. I forgot the name of the

I hope you mean 400 by 300. Anyway, Hadlee's 400th wicket didn't come on that
tour. He got it when India toured NZ in 1990 (Feb) (under Azhar) [India lost
the test series 1-0 and didn't do well in Rothman's cup too].

>  batsman who was dismissed by Hadlee. Colonel was the captain for India and

If you are talking about the 400th wicket, the victim is S.V.Manjrekar.

>  it was a successful tour for India. The test series was tied (New Zealand

When NZ tours India, calling it a "successful tour for India" is slightly
confusing. You can use "series" instead of "tour".

>  won the test when Hadlee was in their team and they lost one test when
>  Hadlee left the team as he was suffering from some injuries ).

No, I think it was reverse. They won the Bombay test though Hadlee didn't
play.

It was a disastrous tour for Hadlee (in bowling). Actually, the hero of the
Bombay test (the one which NZ won despite Hadlee's absence) was the
off-spinner Bracewell, who took 6 wickets (?) in the second innings and took
some (4?) wickets in the first innings also.

>       One-day series was a success for India. It is in this one-day series
>  that Srikanth emerged as a very successful one-day bowler. He took 
>  5 wickets in three one-day games in a series. He is the only Indian bowler

You are right about the first statement, but I think he took 5 wickets in only
2 ODIs in that series and not 3.

>  with this record and he shares this record with another Asian bowler- I
>  believe Sir Richard Hadlee. Anyway, India won all the 4 one-day games that

Is NZ a part of Asia or what? I read it earlier (in rsc) once.
I used to thnik it was a part of the Australian continent. May be I am wrong
here. Can someone confirm?

Also, wasn't it true that the fourth ODI was cancelled due to bad weather?

>  it played. All top players decided to rest (may be for the world cup that
>  follwed this series ) in the 5th one-day game  and Indian cricket fans were

No, the world cup was over one year before the series. It was just that India
won the series and they wanted try a lot of new (or old, but still new) faces.
After winning the first three onedayers, India wanted to try new guys in the
next two matches. But with the 4th match (at Jammu or Srinagar?) cancelled due
to weather, they had to play all the young guys once.

>  not so keen on this one-day international.

No, I was very keen on it :-).


>       I don't remember where this one-day was played . Only top player in

I too don't remember where it was played. But it was a two-syllable name. Was
it Lucknow?

>  Indian team was Azar. It is in this one-day game that a spin bowler from

Well, there was another top-player in making - Manjrekar.

However, you are right because Manjrekar didn't have much reputation by then.

>  Madurai made his debut. His name is Venkatramana . Madurai (my home-town) 
>  was very enthusiastic as he was the first ever player from Madurai to play

Just for record, M. Venkataramana bowls off-spin. He toured WI and NZ. He
played in WI, didn't do badly. But he wasn't tried again. On the tour to NZ,
he was not in the eleven for any match as Raju was on trial (and was bowling
well).

>  he would be among the top 5 batsmen in the 'fastest century' list.(Sunil 
>  Gavaskar had a chance to break Azar's record when he scored his only one-day

Gavaskar's century was one year before this century of Azhar.

--------
PVR Narasimha Rao