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Beyond the boundaries

By Harish Kotian
March 22, 2003 21:03 IST
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When India meet Australia in the final of the 2003 World Cup on Sunday, it will be a contest between the two most aggressive batting line-ups in the competition.

While the bowlers have prospered in this tournament, the batsmen, especially those in the mould of Adam Gilchrist and Sachin Tendulkar, have enjoyed creditable success.

The title-clash will, in some ways, represent the acme of aggression.

Both the teams have batsmen who believe in dominating the bowlers right from the outset. Little wonder more than 40 per cent of the runs scored by both the teams have come in boundaries.

While the Australian batsmen have hit 210 boundaries and 33 sixes in all their 10 matches preceding the finals, India is not far behind with 200 boundaries and 30 sixes.

The most number of boundary hits from the Australian blades came against Pakistan, when they hit 33 boundaries and 2 sixes in their score of 310-8, after being 86-4.

Coincidentally, the Indian batsmen too feasted on the Pakistani bowling: they hit a total of 29 boundaries and 3 sixes when they successfully chased 274 runs at Centurion. Tendulkar & Co also massacred the Namibian attack to score 311 runs with 29 boundaries and 4 sixes.

The tables below gives you a detail of runs scored by both teams in boundaries:

INDIA

TEAM SCORE 4's 6's
Holl 204 13 1
Aus 125 11 1
Zim 255 21 2
Nam 311 29 4
Eng 250 24 3
Pak 276 29 3
Ken 226 23 2
SL 292 19 7
NZ 150 17 0
Ken 270 14 7
TOTAL 2359 200 30
41.54% of total runs scored in boundaries

 

AUSTRALIA

TEAM SCORE 4's 6's
Pak 310 33 2
Ind 128 11 2
Holl 170 16 0
Zim 248 23 0
Nam 301 24 8
Eng 208 19 3
SL 319 28 7
NZ 208 17 4
Ken 178 26 4
SL 212 13 3
TOTAL 2282 210 33
45.49% of total runs scored in boundaries

 

Although in pure statistics Australia has been the best team in this World Cup, with India coming a distant second, India has won more man of the match awards than the dominant Aussies: the boys in blue walking with eight gold watches to seven from the men down under.

The Indian batsmen have dominated the awards (Tendulkar 3, Ganguly 2). The other three awards have been shared by the 3 fast bowlers underlining their role in India's turnaround. The only two matches in which the Indians did not walk away with the MoM awards was against The Netherlands and Australia.

Australia's seven MoM awards have, in contrast, been equally distributed, with Andrew Symonds winning it twice. Brett Lee, though, has yet to figure in the list. The other baffling aspect is that the Aussies have missed out on the awards on 3 occasions, against Zimbabwe, Kenya and New Zealand. Even a Brett Lee hat-trick against Kenya, was not sufficient to earn him the man of the match award.

Awards Won by Aussies

Won by Against Type
A Symonds Pak Batsman
D Martyn Holl Batsman
R Ponting SL Batsman
A Symonds SL Batsman
J Gillespie India Bowler
G McGrath Nam Bowler
A Bichel Eng Bowler

Awards not won

Won by Team
A Blignaut Zim
S Bond NZ
A Karim Ken

Awards won by India

Won by Against Type
S Tendulkar Zim Batsman
S Tendulkar Nam Batsman
S Tendulkar Pak Batsman
S Ganguly Ken Batsman
S Ganguly Ken Batsman
A Nehra Eng Bowler
J Srinath SL Bowler
Z Khan NZ Bowler

Awards not won

Won by Team
T de Leede Holl
J Gillespie Aus

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Harish Kotian