Top Notch of One-Day Cricket

As the title suggests this essay of mine will be about those players who were, in a way, made for one-day cricket. Players like Lara and Tendulkar are amongst those who can play well in both forms of the game, but what I am interested in are players like Jhonty Rhodes, Jayasuriya and Michael Bevan, the sort of players who can change the fate of an ODI in a matter of balls. The sort, who can bat, ball and field well and deliver when it matters most. In the following paras, I'll try to give an account of the BEST in the game.

Lets start with the charismatic South Africans middle-order batsman Jhonty Rhodes. This hockey goalkeeper single handedly changed the concept of fielding in cricket. His flying run-out of Inzimam in the 1992 World Cup can be forgotten by few. His ability to save at least 20-30 runs a game puts him in class of his own. His terrific fielding and catching has helped South Africa to win many a match. His speed and agility has also raised the standard of fielding of his fellow countrymen and in fact of sides all over the world. The two Aussies, Ricky Ponting and Michael Bevan, have similar achievements but really it was Rhodes who started it all.

Moving on we come to probably the most explosive batsman in the game, Sanath Jayasuriya. His explosion in the first 15 overs revolutionized the game in a radical manner. His record breaking fastest 50 of 17 balls and 100 of 45 balls in Singapore against Pakistan shocked the world. The trend the SriLankans followed was to explode and get of to a flyer in the first 15 overs and then consolidate. This scheme worked so well that the SL eventually won the World Cup of 1996. Jayasuriya and his opening partner Kaluwitharana bamboozled bowlers with their unorthodox lofted drives and scoring in excess of 6 runs an over.

Now we turn the only man in cricket to have in excess of 300 wickets in both forms of the game. It is none other than Wasim Akram. In today's world where batsmen dominate Wasim Akram's consistency and wicket taking ability are hard to find. Termed as the greatest left arm bowler in cricket, he can bowl with speeds of upto 90 miles/hour along with subtle variations to confuse the batsmen. His phenomenal record of two hat-tricks in ODI's in itself is evidence of his greatness.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic