Brilliant Ishant

[Manee]

Well. He took four wickets for 0 in the first four balls of a Test match against Pakistan.

Little of note, not nothing. He bowled a few good spells, but amongst a few years of Test cricket, that isn't much.

 

[irfan]

Ishant has been a wonderful acquisition for India. His ability to bowl long spells with sustained pace, accuracy and movement has won him many admirers. I think if he can develop a leg cutter over the next year, the kid will be unplayable on seaming decks.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Well. He took four wickets for 0 in the first four balls of a Test match against Pakistan.

3 for 0 actually. That hattrick was sensational, especially the ball which knocked over Yousuf's stumps. If I'm not mistaken, cricinfo rated that the best hattrick ever in the history of the game based on the cumulative averages of the dismissed batsmen.

 

[tooextracool]

It was certainly a very good hatrick, because it takes a lot of ability to be able to control a ball that was essentially swinging around corners for the FIRST 3 balls of the test match. Most bowlers would have bowled 1-2 down the leg side or wide of off stump, but he was on target from ball 1. However, In Pathan's case that was essentially all he could do.

 

[SJS]

Little of note, not nothing. He bowled a few good spells, but amongst a few years of Test cricket, that isn't much.

I don't know about that. He fell away sharply but he had a very good start and it carried on for some time.

In his first twenty Tests (thats not as small a number as some people think) he had 75 wickets at 29+. At the same stage Zaheer had 54 wickets at 40+ each.

Its not earth shattering by world standards but by the standards of Indian pacemen pretty decent.

Here are the statistics of the top eleven Indian new ball bowlers at the end of their 20th Test match.

[B]Bowler   	Wkts	Average	5 fors[/B]
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Pathan    	75	29.69	6[/COLOR]
Kapil        	70	31.14	3
Prasad    	63	33.38	4
Ghavri     	61	29.84	2
Prabhakar	59	42.6	3
Desai R.	55	39.9	1
Srinath    	55	35.13	0
Sharma   	54	34.54	4
Zaheer    	54	40.24	1
Phadkar  	46	30.9	3
MadanLal      	43	29.98	4

Despite the fact that he played 4 Tests against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe where he picked up a good haul, these are still very impressive figures for comparison.

Then he has had a decline and has so far played just 29 Tests for his 100 Test wickets. I don't know how many people know but he is only the fifth Indian new ball bowler (besides kapil, Ghavri, Srinath and Zaheer) to take a 100 Test wickets. How those hundred wickets compare with these other big names of Indian cricket is also interesting.

He is second only to the great Kapil Dev in both the number of Tests he took to get a 100 Test wickets and the average. Have a look.

[B]Bowler	Tests	Average[/B]
Kapil	25	26.73
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Pathan	28	31.41[/COLOR]
Srinath	30	32.1
Ghavri	36	32.62
Zaheer	37	36.4

Today when he is discarded (corrrectly) after his 29 Tests he is still Indias most successful bowler at the end of 29 Tests other than Kapil.

[B]Bowler   	Wkts	Avg	5 fors	10 fors[/B]
Kapil        	117	26.4	8	1
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Pathan    	100	32.3	7	2[/COLOR]
Srinath    	99	31.3	2	0
V Prasad	85	34.7	6	1
Zaheer    	83	35.2	4	0
Prabhakar	80	38.4	3	0
Ghavri     	79	34.0	2	0
Phadkar  	62	35.6	3	0
Madan Lal	59	36.7	4	0

Agreed that he is not the bowler he was early in his career but to rundown all his achievements is absolutely unfair.

 

[Manee]

I don't know about that. He fell away sharply but he had a very good start and it carried on for some time.

In his first twenty Tests (thats not as small a number as some people think) he had 75 wickets at 29+. At the same stage Zaheer had 54 wickets at 40+ each.

Its not earth shattering by world standards but by the standards of Indian pacemen pretty decent.

Here are the statistics of the top eleven Indian new ball bowlers at the end of their 20th Test match.

[B]Bowler   	Wkts	Average	5 fors[/B]
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Pathan    	75	29.69	6[/COLOR]
Kapil        	70	31.14	3
Prasad    	63	33.38	4
Ghavri     	61	29.84	2
Prabhakar	59	42.6	3
Desai R.	55	39.9	1
Srinath    	55	35.13	0
Sharma   	54	34.54	4
Zaheer    	54	40.24	1
Phadkar  	46	30.9	3
MadanLal      	43	29.98	4

Despite the fact that he played 4 Tests against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe where he picked up a good haul, these are still very impressive figures for comparison.

A bit more than a good haul against those two teams; 39 wickets at 11.56 to be exact. Those sort of figures skew those statistics right up.

Then he has had a decline and has so far played just 29 Tests for his 100 Test wickets. I don't know how many people know but he is only the fifth Indian new ball bowler (besides kapil, Ghavri, Srinath and Zaheer) to take a 100 Test wickets. How those hundred wickets compare with these other big names of Indian cricket is also interesting.

He is second only to the great Kapil Dev in both the number of Tests he took to get a 100 Test wickets and the average. Have a look.

[B]Bowler	Tests	Average[/B]
Kapil	25	26.73
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Pathan	28	31.41[/COLOR]
Srinath	30	32.1
Ghavri	36	32.62
Zaheer	37	36.4

Today when he is discarded (corrrectly) after his 29 Tests he is still Indias most successful bowler at the end of 29 Tests other than Kapil.

[B]Bowler   	Wkts	Avg	5 fors	10 fors[/B]
Kapil        	117	26.4	8	1
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Pathan    	100	32.3	7	2[/COLOR]
Srinath    	99	31.3	2	0
V Prasad	85	34.7	6	1
Zaheer    	83	35.2	4	0
Prabhakar	80	38.4	3	0
Ghavri     	79	34.0	2	0
Phadkar  	62	35.6	3	0
Madan Lal	59	36.7	4	0

Agreed that he is not the bowler he was early in his career but to rundown all his achievements is absolutely unfair.

Indeed, but are you telling me that these statistics can be realistically considered considering he got 39 wickets in four games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Moreover, I am not discrediting his early career due to his decline, as you imply in the final paragraph, I am merely stating that many people have overexaggerated the change in Test bowlers that has apparently occured due to his decline, whereas imo, the change has merely been in ability to hoop the new ball (something which often has little value) and to bully minnows. Pathan was once a very talented Test bowler, not a good Test bowler. (ODIs is another matter altogether of course.)

 

[SJS]

A bit more than a good haul against those two teams; 39 wickets at 11.56 to be exact. Those sort of figures skew those statistics right up.



Indeed, but are you telling me that these statistics can be realistically considered considering he got 39 wickets in four games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Moreover, I am not discrediting his early career due to his decline, as you imply in the final paragraph, I am merely stating that many people have overexaggerated the change in Test bowlers that has apparently occured due to his decline, whereas imo, the change has merely been in ability to hoop the new ball (something which often has little value) and to bully minnows. Pathan was once a very talented Test bowler, not a good Test bowler. (ODIs is another matter altogether of course.)

want me to compare his and Zaheer's figures after removing the minnows from both ??

 

[Manee]

want me to compare his and Zaheer's figures after removing the minnows from both ??

If you want, but Zaheer wasn't a fantastic bowler at the start of his Test career either.

 

[SJS]

If you want, but Zaheer wasn't a fantastic bowler at the start of his Test career either.

Zaheer comes out better anyway.

 

[SJS]

Ponting lavishes unprecedented praise on Ishant.

Ponting says in addition to being a fine pace bowler, Sharma is an operator capable of posing questions that very few international pacemen can conjure. In Mohali, Ponting was beaten in the first innings by an inswinger that had him lbw on the back foot, and in the second he was bowled between bat and pad by an unplayable off-cutter that uprooted his off stump.

"This game, the ball he got me with in the second innings is going to get me out 95 times out of 100, I think," Ponting said. "There's not much I can do about that and the ball in the first innings was fairly similar. He's using the swinging ball very well. He's unusual with the angles he creates as well as a fast bowler. There's not many quicks that you face around the world that swing the ball back into the right-handed batsman, so he's posing challenges for us there, and that's three innings in a row he's got me out."

Ponting said he knew how Sharma was trying to get him, by moving the ball into him at pace and gaining the sort of bounce only available to a bowler of considerable height. But he is yet to find a way of countering this.

"All our batsmen just need to think about ways that we can make it more difficult for them, and that's all you can do as a batsman sometimes," he said.

"You identify when a bowler's having a good trot against you and you've got to find ways to combat what they're doing. That's what international cricket is all about. My challenge over the next few days is to look at some of the vision - I know the ways he's trying to get me out but I've got to find a way to combat them."​

 

[Precambrian]

To be fair, Ponting has heaped praises on Ishant in his much-discussed Captain's Diary 08

http://www.ptinews.com/pti\ptisite.nsf/0/4C082FAA154D715A6525750800330885?OpenDocument

Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels his team could have won the crucial third Test at Perth but for that awesome spell by India pacer Ishant Sharma during the hosts second innings and said he was lucky to be part of a great sporting duel.

"I will always reckon that if I could have got through just one more over in our second innings, then we might still have won," Ponting wrote in his 'Captain's Diary 2008'.

"Tall, lean, ultra-impressive Ishant Sharma, playing just his fourth Test and still eight-and-a-half months short of his 20th birthday, had bowled an awesome spell to me: seven overs when he was fast, aggressive and relentless, where I never felt as if I was truly 'in'," he said.

Ponting lamented that Australia, who had never lost a Test to a team from the sub-continent at the difficult WACA track, went down to India by 72 runs in January this year.

"But even with his heroics, we were 2-117 seeking 413, I was 45 not out, Mike Hussey was 26 not out and I sensed Sharma was about to be taken off. However, ...Kumble gave his teenage quick one more over.

"First ball, I pushed forward at a delivery that fizzed through and edged a straightforward catch to Dravid at first slip. From then on, whenever we seemed we might be a chance to reach our imposing target, we faltered," he added.

Ponting, however, said he cherished his duel with the Delhi speedster as it was a great cricketing moment which put the bitterness of Sydney Test behind.

Ponting believes he could have chased down the 400+ target but for Ishant Sharma. ITSTL.

 

[honestbharani]

What a champ **Claps**

Best Indian seamer since the great Kapil Dev, this lad has it all Pace, bounce, seam, swing. The most complete bowler I have seen in ages.

This is an even more impressive call than mine or Jono's with Kohli... Take a bow, Xuhaib.

 

[ataraxia]

Indeed.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Post deleted

 

[ataraxia]

Post deleted

I did copy&paste it and it worked however.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I did copy&paste it and it worked however.

Conclusion: CW sucks.

 

[vcs]

That spell was fantastic.