Does the name Chetandra Pratap Singh Chauhan ring a bell? No?
What about Shane Warne? It does, but....! Don't worry, I'll tell
you a few quick things about them, and get on with my article.
Chetandra Pratap Singh Chauhan, or Chetan Chauhan as he is more
familiarly known, a former Indian opening batsman, is the world
record holder for the most 50s in a career without a century. He
made a total of 16 half-centuries without reaching the coveted
three-figure mark, and was at one time the only Test cricketer in
history to aggregate over 2000 runs in Tests without getting a
hundred. His career ended after 40 Tests; 68 innings, an aggregate
of 2084 runs; highest score of 97; and an average of 31.57.
Sir Isaac Vivian ('Viv') Alexander Richards was distraught as we
discussed, into the early hours of Friday, the whys and wherefore
of the decline of West Indies cricket from Olympian heights to
Stygian depths.
Viv lamented the lack of discipline and application in the present
squad. "What the lads need to do is earn respect, he told me.
Respect is precisely what the West Indies batsmen played for
yesterday. And earned abundantly, one might add.
At the end of the fourth day's play, all the elements that go
into the making of a great finish were in place at the Eden
Gardens. The West Indies have reason to think that a test victory
is in their sights if they take a few early wickets tomorrow, while
all of India will be looking to Tendulkar to keep Indian hopes
alive. If that was not enough to make the result of this game
difficult to predict, the pitch has behaved alarmingly at times,
which would make any fourth innings target competitive.
A superbly disciplined display of batsmanship saw the West
Indies gain the ascendancy in the second test match at the Eden
Gardens today.
West Indies began the day at 189/3, in the familiar situation of
having to bat through most of the day if they were to stay in the
match. The overnight batsmen, Gayle and Chanderpaul started off
rather well, though it seemed that for the first time in the
innings, Gayle was less than comfortable against Kumble, having
more than one lbw appeal turned down when he opted to pad up to
deliveries pitched perilously close to the stumps. Chanderpaul, on
the other hand, wasted no time in trying to hit Harbhajan off his
length with some very well timed shots through the onside.
Trinidad and Tobago opener Daren Ganga has been dropped from the
16-man squad for the seven ODI matches against India following a
calculated decision by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to trim
the squad to 15.
"Normally, we pick a squad of 14 for a limited-overs series, but
with 10 matches in a row and as we tried to fine tune for the 2003
World Cup, we considered increasing the squad to 16," WICB chief
operations officer Michael Hall said. "We, however, felt that we
should move it back into line with the World Cup stipulation of 15
and this has now been corrected."
