Battles of 2007!

[Jamee999]

Over these next few weeks (starting after Christmas) I'm going to run a few battles reviewing 2007!

We will start with:

Outstanding Performance In A Test Match

These are the performances I have chosen.

Makhaya Ntini 6/59 vs Pakistan, St George's Park
Matthew Prior 126* vs West Indies, Lord's
Monty Panesar 6/129 vs West Indies, Lord's
Kevin Pietersen 226 vs West Indies, Headingly
Ryan Sidebottom 4/42 and 4/44 vs West Indies, Headingly
Shivnarine Chanderpaul 50 and 116* vs England, Old Trafford
Darren Sammy 7/66 vs England, Old Trafford
Monty Panesar 4/50 and 6/137 vs West Indies, Old Trafford
Kumar Sangakkara 200* vs Bangladesh, Columbo
Kumar Sangakkara 222* vs Bangladesh, Kandy
Zaheer Khan 4/59 and 5/75 vs England, Trent Bridge
Anil Kumble 110*, 3/94 and 2/123 vs England, The Oval
Jacques Kallis 155 and 100* vs Pakistan, Karachi
Younis Khan 130* vs South Africa, Lahore
Dale Steyn 5/34 and 5/59 vs New Zealand, Wanderers
Kumar Sangakkara 57 and 192 vs Australia, Hobart
Phil Jaques 150 and 68 vs Sri Lanka, Hobart
Brett Lee 4/82 and 4/87 vs Sri Lanka, Hobart
Dale Steyn 4/42 and 6/49 vs Pakistan, Centurion Park
Wasim Jaffer 202 and 56 vs Pakistan, Eden Gardens
Misbah-ul-Haq 161* vs India, Eden Gardens
Kumar Sangakkara 152 and 92 vs England, Kandy
Sourav Ganguly 239 and 91 vs Pakistan, Bangalore
Mahela Jayawardene 213* vs England, Galle

This first battle will take 5 or 6 days (3 for the first round, 1 or 2 for semis, one for the final) and then we'll do ODI performances.

 

[Prince EWS]

Good idea. I don't normally participate in battles, but this one interests me.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Yeah, top idea Jamee.

Too many involving England though. Almost half.

Edit: Oh, and Asif's 5/76 > Ntini's 6/59.

 

[Jamee999]

Almost 40% of the Tests involved England this year...

It was something I meant to do last year, itbt, but I forgot

 

[cricman]

His doubles vs BD < Sanga's 192 vs Aus, plus if Rudy had his glasses on it would have been some 200*

 

[nightprowler10]

Toss in a few of Asif's performances against RSA early in the year.

 

[Goughy]

From the original list these are the ones that fit my loose criteria.

For International performance of the year, it must be in a game won, against decent (or above) opposition and where the performance is a shining light where others struggled.

Zaheer Khan 4/59 and 5/75 vs England, Trent Bridge

Jacques Kallis 155 and 100* vs Pakistan, Karachi

Dale Steyn 5/34 and 5/59 vs New Zealand, Wanderers

Brett Lee 4/82 and 4/87 vs Sri Lanka, Hobart

Dale Steyn 4/42 and 6/49 vs Pakistan, Centurion Park

Kumar Sangakkara 152 and 92 vs England, Kandy

 

[Manee]

From the original list these are the ones that fit my loose criteria.

For International performance of the year, it must be in a game won, against decent (or above) opposition and where the performance is a shining light where others struggled.

Totally agree with your criteria.

 

[headhunter]

Agree with the quality of opposition but not with the idea that you had to be on the winning side.
Chanderpaul vs England for example.

 

[Perm]

Kumar Sangakkara 100 vs New Zealand, Jade Stadium
Kumar Sangakkarra 156* vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Chamara Silva 61 and 152* vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Lasith Malinga 5/68 vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Muttiah Muralitharan 4/31 and 6/87 vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Inzamam-ul-Haq 92* vs South Africa, St Georges Park
Mohammad Yousuf 83 vs South Africa, Newlands
Mohammad Ashraful 67 vs India, Dhaka
Mashrafe Mortaza 70 vs India, Dhaka

More to come latter, if I can be arsed. I've probably stuffed up a few of those links.

 

[Goughy]

Agree with the quality of opposition but not with the idea that you had to be on the winning side.
Chanderpaul vs England for example.

That was no doubt a fine performance. But if we are talking about the top performance of the year it has to have come when leading your team to victory.

"We play to win the games"

A great performance that sets up victory will always be far more valuable than a great performance in a losing effort.

 

[JBH001]

I thnk that criteria is too one-sided and too deterministic.

There are a number of great performances that do not lead to victory, and not due to lack of effort from the stellar performer but merely due to the fact that cricket is a team game.

Its very rare for one performance to be solely responsible for a victory.

In any case, cricket does also have a tradition of honouring great performances in defeat and draw (and this should also be recognised in setting up awards for battles of this nature).

 

[Perm]

A great performance that sets up victory will always be far more valuable than a great performance in a losing effort.

For sure, but a great solo performance throughout a whole Test series is very impressive. It does come down to specifics though, who the opposition where, who else contributed to victory etc. I do think Chanderpaul's efforts will be hard to beat though

 

[haroon510]

Over these next few weeks (starting after Christmas) I'm going to run a few battles reviewing 2007!

We will start with:

Outstanding Performance In A Test Match

These are the performances I have chosen.

Makhaya Ntini 6/59 vs Pakistan, St George's Park
.

Asif's 5/76 and 2/34 deserve a mention on the same match considering that he played a big rule in wining the match for pakistan..

 

[nightprowler10]

Outstanding Performance In A Test Match

Makhaya Ntini 6/59 vs Pakistan, St George's Park

Just noticed this one. Is that the only part of the match you actually watched causing you to ignore Inzamam and Asif's performances in the match?

Oh and completely disagree with Goughy on the subject of including performances from winning teams only. If Chanders' effort in England can't be included then I want no part of this battle.

 

[Unattainableguy]

This, Mohammad Asif against SL
http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/PAK_IN_SL/SCORECARDS/PAK_SL_T2_03-07APR2006.html

 

[nightprowler10]

This, Mohammad Asif against SL
http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/PAK_IN_SL/SCORECARDS/PAK_SL_T2_03-07APR2006.html

Wrong year

 

[Jamee999]

Kumar Sangakkara 100 vs New Zealand, Jade Stadium
Kumar Sangakkarra 156* vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Chamara Silva 61 and 152* vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Lasith Malinga 5/68 vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Muttiah Muralitharan 4/31 and 6/87 vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve
Inzamam-ul-Haq 92* vs South Africa, St Georges Park
Mohammad Yousuf 83 vs South Africa, Newlands
Mohammad Ashraful 67 vs India, Dhaka
Mashrafe Mortaza 70 vs India, Dhaka

More to come latter, if I can be arsed. I've probably stuffed up a few of those links.

The first 5 aren't from 2007!

The bottom two aren't very good, itbt. Inzamam's was an oversight, but who do you suggest he replace?

 

[BoyBrumby]

The bottom two aren't very good, itbt. Inzamam's was an oversight, but who do you suggest he replace?

Bung in a random first round battle with 4 in for mine.

 

[Jamee999]

Format will be:

ROUND ONE
6 4-way battles (+ maybe one with 5)
Winner goes through

SEMI-FINAL
2 3-way battles
Winner goes through

FINAL
1 battle
Winner takes all