Anil Kumble Profile

Anil Kumble
Full Name: Anil Kumble
Born: October 17, 1970, Bangalore, Karnataka
Major teams: India, Karnataka, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Surrey
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Legbreak

Achievements: Highest wicket-taker for India in ODIs and Tests; best bowling figure by an Indian in a ODI (6-12 against West Indies); one of only two bowlers ever to have taken all 10 wickets in a Test innings; only the second player (after Shane Warne) to score 2000 runs and take over 500 Test wickets; Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1996

Anil Kumble has been an Indian Cricket player and Captain of the Indian Test Cricket team. A right handed batsman, Kumble specialized in Right Arm Leg Spin (Legbreak Googly) bowling. He has taken the third biggest number of wickets in the history of Test Cricket, having taken more than 300 wickets in Test matches.

Early Life
Anil was born on 17th of October 1970 at Bangalore, Karnataka. Fondly known as Jumbo, as a kid he joined a Cricket Club named Young Cricketers. He was a very brilliant student and finished his Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bangalore in the year 1991-92.

He started playing First Class Cricket for Karnataka team with a match against Hyderabad in the year 1989, and managed to grab 4 wickets in the match.

Debut in Cricket
Anil made his debut in the One Day International (ODI) Cricket with the Australasia Cup tournament at Sharjah in the year 1989-90, in a match against Sri Lanka. He took 1 wicket in this match, and gave 42 runs.

His Test Cricket career began with a Test Series against England played at Manchester in August 1990. Anil took 3 wickets and gave 105 runs in 43 overs out of which 7 were maiden ones.

The 10-wickets Charisma
Anil Kumble has to his credit the fame of having taken all the 10 wickets in a single Test innings. He achieved this rare feat in February 1999 in a Test match played against Pakistan in Delhi. Apart from Jim Laker, he has been the only bowler in the world to have done so till date.

Days of Captaincy
He also represented the Test Cricket team of India in the year 2007 when the reigning Captain Rahul Dravid resigned from the post. He led India to Test Series against Pakistan and Australia, in which the National team won by 1-0 and lost by 1-2 respectively.

Vital Statistics
Throughout his Test Cricket career, Anil Kumble played 132 Test matches in which he managed to grab 619 wickets at the loss of 18355 runs, with an average of 29.65 runs. During his Test career he scored 2506 runs with an average of 17.77 runs. His highest score in Test Cricket was 110 not out.

As far as One Day International (ODI) Cricket is concerned, Anil played 271 ODI matches throughout his career in which he took 337 wickets giving away 10412 runs with an average of 30.80 runs. He scored 938 runs with an average of 10.53 runs in the ODI matches he played, his highest score being 26.

The Last Moments
Anil Kumble played his last ODI match against Bermuda at Port of Spain on 19th of March, 2007. In this match, he took 3 wickets and gave away 38 runs. His last Test Cricket match was against Australia during the Border Gavaskar Trophy, played in October 2008 at Delhi. In this match, Anil took 3 wickets, and gave away 126 runs combining both the innings.

Anil retired from his Cricket career gracefully on the 2nd of November 2008. He was conferred with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India in the year 2005.

Virender Sehwag

Full Name: Virender Sehwag
Born: October 20, 1978, Delhi
Major teams: India, Delhi, ICC World XI, Leicestershire,
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak

Achievements:

* First ever Indian to score 300 runs in a Test innings
* Highest individual score by an Indian in Tests (309)
* Highest-ever Test score at over a run-a-ball (254 off 247 balls against Pakistan)
* Involved in the highest opening partnership for a Test played away from India (410 with Dravid)

Virender Sehwag, fondly known as Viru, is an Indian Cricket player and considered to be one of the best batsmen India has got. He is a right handed batsman and a casual Off Spin bowler. Sehwag has a number of records to his credit, including the highest score by an Indian player in a Test match that he achieved in a match against South Africa played at Chennai on 26th of March 2008. He scored 319 runs off just 278 balls in the match, which was also the fastest Triple Century in Test Cricket. Sehwag is one of the three batsmen in the world who have scored 2 Triple Centuries in Test Cricket, and scored the fastest ODI century by an Indian Cricketer in March 2009 off just 60 balls in an ODI match against New Zealand on 11th of March 2009 at Hamilton.

Early Life
Virender Sehwag was born on the 20th of October 1978 at New Delhi in a business family. He developed a liking for the game of Cricket at quite an early age, and received his education at Arora Vidya School in Delhi where he started learning to play Cricket seriously under the guidance of his coach A.N. Sharma.

He started playing for the Delhi Cricket team in the year 1997-98, and played for North Zone in the Duleep Trophy tournament in the year 1998-99. In the year 1999 he was selected for the National Under-19 Cricket team of India, and was chosen for the National Cricket team 2 years later.

One Day International (ODI) Debut
The One Day International (ODI) Cricket career of Virender Sehwag began with an ODI match against Pakistan played in Chandigarh on 1st of April 1999, although he just faced 2 balls by Shoaib Akhtar and got LBW out after scoring a single run in this match. 2 years later, he scored 58 runs off 54 balls in an ODI match against Australia played in Bangalore to win his first Man of the Match award. He also took 3 wickets, giving away 59 runs in this match.

Test Debut
Sehwag debuted in Test Cricket with a Test match against South Africa played at Bloemfontein on 3rd of November 2001. He played an impressive 105 runs in the first innings and 31 runs in the second innings of the match, although he took no wickets and gave away 22 runs in the match.

He is known for making huge scores, and the last 11 centuries he has scored have been over 150 runs, breaking Sir Donald Bradman’s record of scoring 7 centuries more than 150 runs in a row.

Overall Performance
In his overall Test Cricket career till April 2009, Sehwag has played 69 Test matches and has scored 5757 runs including 15 centuries and 18 half-centuries with an average of 50.06 runs and a highest score of 319 runs. He also took 29 wickets in these matches giving away 1265 runs, with an average of 43.62 runs.

Sehwag has also played 205 One Day International (ODI) matches, and has scored 6592 runs in these matches with an average of 34.33 runs and a highest score of 130 runs. He has managed to grab 84 wickets in ODI matches, giving away 3531 runs at an average of 40.58 runs.

Delhi Daredevils Captaincy
Virender Sehwag has been leading the Delhi Daredevils team in the Indian Premiere League 2009, as he was the Captain of the team last year too. Under his leadership, Delhi Daredevils have defeated Kings XI Punjab in the Twenty 20 match played on 19th of April 2009 at Cape Town by 10 wickets. Due to rains, the target for Delhi Daredevils had been limited to 54 runs from 6 overs, and they accomplished it in 4.5 overs. Sehwag contributed by scoring 38 runs (Not Out) off just 16 balls to get his team the victory in its first IPL match in the year 2009.

Sunil Gavaskar Profile

Sunil Gavaskar
Full Name: Sunil Manohar Gavaskar
Born: July 10, 1949, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Major teams: India, Mumbai, Somerset
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium

Achievements:

* First player to score more than 10,000 runs in Tests
* One of the only two players to score centuries in each innings, three times
* Highest number of runs in a debut series by an Indian (774 against West Indies)
* Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1980
* Awarded Padma Bhushan

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, popularly known as Sunil Gavaskar has been an Indian Cricket player and considered to be one of the all time best opening batsmen in the history of Test Cricket. Sunil is known for having set many batting records that lied unbroken for long years after some other batsman. He was the biggest Test scorer with the biggest number of centuries to his credit during his times. His record of scoring 34 Test centuries took 20 years to be broken when Sachin Tendulkar outclassed it in the year 2005.

Gavaskar was especially quite good against the fast bowlers, and maintained a decent average of 65.45 runs against the super-fast West Indian bowlers. He also served as the Captain of the Indian Cricket team, although the team couldn’t fare much better under his leadership. In fact, during his Captaincy, the Indian Cricket team one played 31 Test matches without a single victory.

Early Life
Sunil Gavaskar was born on the 10th of July 1949 at Mumbai, and started playing Cricket right since his school days. In the year 1966 he was declared the Best Schoolboy Cricket of the year in India. He had scored 246*, 222 and 85 runs in School Cricket. He made his debut in Ranji Trophy in the year 1968/69 with a match against Karnataka although he scored a duck in the match and was out for a 0 score. But in the next match against Rajasthan he scored 114 runs and hit 3 consecutive centuries in the tournament.

Test Debut
The Test Cricket debut of Sunil Gavaskar was made in a Test match against West Indies played at Port of Spain on 6th of March 1971. He scored 132 runs in this match, getting India its first over Test victory over West Indies. In the 5th Test match between India and West Indies, he scored 124 and 220 runs in both the innings, helping India to score its first Test Series victory over West Indies, which was not repeated for a period of 35 years to come till the year 2006.

One Day International (ODI) Debut
Gavaskar made his One Day International (ODI) Cricket debut in an ODI match against England played at the Leeds ground on 13th of July 1974, where he scored 28 runs off 35 balls.

Captaincy
Sunil Gavaskar also stayed the Captain of the Indian Cricket team for some time, but his record as the Captain has not been much impressive, as a bigger number of matches he led the team into turned out to be drawn. He led the team to 47 Test matches, out of which 9 were won, 8 were lost and 30 were drawn. Under his Captaincy, the Indian Cricket team played 37 ODI matches, out of which 14 were won, 21 were lost and 2 went without any result.

Sunil Gavaskar’s last Test match was against Pakistan played at Bangalore on 13th of March 1987, and he scored 117 runs in the match. His last ODI match was against England played at Mumbai on 5th of November 1987, and he scored just 4 runs in the match.

Overall Performance
In his overall Test Cricket career, Sunil Gavaskar played 125 Test matches and scored 10122 runs including 34 centuries and 45 half-centuries, with an average of 51.12 runs and a highest score of 236 Not Out. Regarding his ODI Cricket career, he played 108 matches. He scored 3092 in them including 1 century and 27 half-centuries, with an average score of 35.13 runs and a highest score of 103 runs.

Other Achievements
Sunil Gavaskar has been conferred upon Padma Bhushan, and had been appointed the honorary Sheriff of Mumbai in the year 1994. Having written 4 books upon Cricket, he has also been named the advisor of the Indian Cricket team, and the Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee. In his honor, a Test Cricket Series between India and Australia has been named jointly after him and the Australian Cricketer Allan Border, as Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Mohammad Azharuddin Profile

Mohammad Azharuddin
Full Name: Mohammad Azharuddin
Born: February 8, 1963, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Major teams: India, Derbyshire, Hyderabad
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium

Achievements:

* Scored 22 centuries in Test Cricket with an average score of 45 runs.
* Scored 7 centuries in One Day International (ODI) Cricket with an average of 37 runs.
* Has been the only player to have hit three consecutive centuries in first three Tests
* Has been the only player in the world Cricket to have taken 156 catches in One Day International (ODI) Cricket
* Got India 14 Test and 103 ODI wins during his captainship, making him one of the most successful Cricket captains India has ever got
* Has scored fastest ODI century by an Indian off 62 balls
* The first player to have played more than 300 ODIs
* Was awarded Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1991

Early Life
Mohammad Azharuddin, one of the best known players and captains the Indian Cricket team has ever had, was born and brought up in Hyderabad, the state capital of Andhra Pradesh. He studied in a Catholic convent school named All Saints High School, which has been the Alma Mater to some other prominent Indian Cricketers too, including Venkatapathy Raju and Noel David.

The Batting Maestro
Azharuddin has been most famous for his wonderful wrist flicks that transformed a Cricket match into a poetic creation with aesthetic nuances of a masterpiece. Eventually, Azharuddin showed the best of his batting capabilities against spin bowlers. In fact, John Woodcock, one of the well known Cricket writers had once quoted that asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin would be like expecting a greyhound to win the London Derby! His smooth and clean batting style was often compared with the same of David Gower, a batsman from England.

Darker Side of the Story
But as every story has its dark twists, Azharuddin’s life too saw its bad moments. Hansie Croje, the captain of the South African Cricket team who had confessed his role in international match fixing, had taken Azharuddin’s name regarding his involvement in the scandal. Further, Central Bureau of Investigation, the prime investigation agency of India looked into the matter and found Azharuddin guilty of receiving money from bookies to fix Cricket matches. The CBI also found Azharuddin involved in bringing other players along with him into the dirty game, and as a consequence the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) banned Azharuddin from playing Cricket for his lifetime in the year 2000. Ironically, Azharuddin had played 99 Test Cricket matches in his life till then and was on the verge to enter the coveted 100 Test Cricket Club. Although the ban was lifted in the year 2006, he couldn’t make the dream come true.

Political Foray
On the 19th of February 2009, Azharuddin formally joined the Indian National Congress Party. He contested the General Elections 2009 from the Moradabad seat in Uttar Pradesh and is now a Member of Parliament.

Sourav Ganguly Profile

Sourav Ganguly
Full Name: Sourav Chandidas Ganguly Born: July 8, 1972, Kolkata, Bengal
Major teams: India, Bengal, Glamorgan, Lancashire
Batting style: Left-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium

Achievements: Most number of Test victories as India captain; more than 10,000 runs in ODI cricket; highest ODI score by an Indian in World Cup; first Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan; India captain in most number of Tests

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, commonly known as Sourav Ganguly has been a member of the Indian Cricket team, and regarded to be one of the most successful Captains ever of the Indian Cricket team. As a matter of fact, the Indian Test Cricket team won 21 Test Cricket matches out of total 49 that were played under his Captainship, which is one of the best success rates any Captain of the Indian Test Cricket team has ever managed to accomplish. Not only this, Ganguly, fondly known as Dada by his fans and Maharaj by his teammates, has to his credit the feat of having nurtured a number of efficient players who played under his Captainship. These include Virender Sahwag, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh among others.

Early Days
Ganguly started playing Cricket at a very early age, as he got inspired by his elder bother Snehashish who played Cricket for Bengal. Interestingly, Sourav started playing with his left hand so that he could use his brother’s Cricket gear who himself was a left handed batsman. In his school days, Ganguly was the captain of St. Xavier’s School.

Beginning of the Cricket Career
Sourav Ganguly showed a good performance in the Ranji Trophy season of the year 1990-91. In the year 1992 he started his One Day International (ODI) Cricket career with a match against West Indies, in which he grabbed just 3 runs.

Again in the domestic Cricket he performed quite nicely during the years 1993-95. He scored 171 runs in an innings during the Duleep Trophy tournament of 1995-96 and was included in the national team for the England tour of the year 1996.

Test Debut
Sourav Ganguly made his Test Cricket debut at Lord’s Cricket Ground, in which he scored a century with 131 runs. This has been the highest score a batsman has achieved at Lord’s in his debut Test match.

Throughout his Test Cricket career, Ganguly played 113 Test Matches and scored a total of 7212 runs, including 16 centuries and 35 half-centuries. He scored 900 fours and 57 sixes as a Test Cricket batsman. His highest score in Test Cricket was 239 runs, and the overall Batting Average was 42.17 runs.

In the One Day International (ODI) Cricket, Ganguly played 311 matches and made a total score of 11363 runs comprising of 22 centuries and 72 half-centuries. The record included 1122 fours and 190 sixes, and the overall Batting Average was 41.02 runs.

Successful Captaincy
Sourav Ganguly is said to be one of India’s all time greatest Test Cricket Captains. After the match fixing scandal of the year 2000, He was declared Captain of the team. Under his Captaincy the Indian Cricket team reached the finals of the World Cup Cricket 2003, where Australia beat India to win the championship. During the year 2000-2005, he led the Indian Test Cricket team to 49 matches, out of which 21 were won by the team. He also led the Indian team to 146 One Day International (ODI) Cricket matches, out of which 76 were won by the team. In the year 2004, Ganguly was conferred upon with the Padma Shri award.

The Comeback
Ganguly made a comeback to the Indian Cricket team in a tour match against Rest of South Africa, in which he scored 83 runs leading India to victory. In his first Test Cricket innings after the comeback, he grabbed 51 runs in a Test match against South Africa. He also came back to the Indian ODI team in the year 2007, and in his first ODI innings after the comeback scored 98 runs in a match against West Indies.

Ganguly’s score of 66 runs was the highest in the first round match of the Indian team against the Bangladesh team in World Cup 2007, although the Indian team lost the match by 5 wickets.

He was named the Captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the IPL Twenty-20 Cricket tournament 2008. In a match played between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals during the tournament, Ganguly scored 51 runs off just 39 balls, which was his highest Twenty-20 Cricket score.

Last Moments
Ganguly played his last Test Cricket match against Australia in the year 2008, and scored 85 runs. He played his last ODI Cricket match against Pakistan on 15th of November 2007, in which he scored 5 runs.

India's First Test Victory

India achieved its first ever Test victory in 1951-52 when it beat England in Madras. Having made its Test debut in 1932, India had to wait for 20 long years in the sidelines before making its mark in the big stage. In that eventful year, India also recorded its maiden series triumph against Pakistan.

In this historic match legendary batsman Vijay Hazare led the Indian contingent while his English counterpart was Donald Carr. With England sitting pretty on a 1-0 lead, the Indian team was looking to restore parity in this final Test of the five match series.

The England team won the toss and elected to bat. Thanks to an inspired bowling performance by Vinoo Mankad, the English team was bowled out for 266 with Mankad grabbing eight wickets. India replied with a mammoth total of 457, riding piggyback on fine centuries by Pankaj Roy and Polly Umrigar.

On a pitch that was breaking up and spinning, India bowled out England for a paltry 183 in the second innings, to win the Test by an innings and eight runs. Mankad and Ghulam Ahmed shared the spoils with four wickets apiece.

Even though England was missing the services of some key players, nothing can take the sheen off India's emphatic first ever Test victory.

Most Runs Off One Over In Twenty-20 international cricket

Cricketer who scored most runs off one over in the T20 international cricket match is Yuvraj Singh who smashed 6 sixes in an over.The Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh dominated over the English bowler Stuart Broad at Durban in the 2007 T20 world cup in which the Indian team became the ultimate champions.

Batsmen

Runs

Bowler

Match

Venue

Date

Yuraj Singh
36
SCJ Broad
England v [...]

Cricketers Who Took Most Number Of Catches In Test Cricket

Rahul Dravid is the present world record holder for the most number of catches in test cricket.He took 183* catches from 134 matches

Cricketer
Team
Total Catches

Rahul Dravid
India
183

Mark Waugh
Australia
181

Stephen Fleming
New Zealand
171

Brian Lara
West Indies
164

Mark Taylor
Australia
157

Allan Border
Australia
156

Ricky Ponting
Australia
148

Jacques Kallis
South Africa
147

M Jayawardene
Sri Lanka
142

Matthew Hayden
Australia
128

Cricket Players Who Smashed Most Number Of Sixes in their ODI Career

Cricketers who smashed more than 150 sixes in their ODI career are Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka,Shahid Afridi of Pakistan,Saurav Ganguly of India,Sachin Tendulkar of India and Chris Cairns of New Zealand.

Players
Matches
Innings
Sixes

Sanath Jayasuriya(SL)
432
420
270

Shahid Afridi(Pak)
271
254
248

Saurav ganguly(Ind)
311
300
190

Sachin Tendulkar(Ind)
425
415
173

Chris Cairns(NZ)
215
193
153

Cricket World Cup Records-Most Number Of Centuries

Sachin Tendulkar(Ind),Sourav Ganguly(Ind),Mark Waugh(Aus),Ricky Ponting(Aus) are the cricket players who smashed most number of centuries in the World cup cricket.Sachin Tendulkar is the cricketer who scored most runs (1796 runs) in the world cup cricket.

Cricketer

Matches

Runs

Highest Score

Centuries

Sourav Ganguly(Ind)
21
1006
183
4

Mark Waugh(Aus)
22
1004
130
4

Sachin Tendulkar(Ind)
36
1796
152
4

Ricky Ponting(Aus)
39
1537
140
4

Rameez Raja(Pak)
16
700
119
3

Matthew Hayden(Aus)
22
987
158
3

Vivian Richards(WI)
23
1013
181
3

Saeed Anwar(Pak)
21
915
113
3

Sanath Jayasuriya(SL)
38
1165
120
3

Kevin Pieterson(Eng)
9
444
104
2

Cricket World Cup Records-Most Number Of Wickets

Glenn McGrath Of Australia took the most number of wickets in the world cup cricket ever.He took 71 wickets in 39 world cup matches.

Cricket Player

Matches

Wickets

Glenn McGrath(Aus)
39
71

Wasim Akram(Pak)
38
55

M Muralitharan(SL)
31
53

Chaminda Vaas(SL)
31
49

Javagal Srinath(Ind)
34
44

Allan Donald(SA)
25
38

Brad Hogg(Aus)
21
34

Imran Khan(Pak)
28
34

Shane Warne(Aus)
17
32

Chris Harris(NZ)
28
32

Highest individual score by Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe

Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe equalled the highest individual score of 194* runs with Saeed Anwar of Pakistan.Charles Coventry made this glitzy knock against Bangladesh in the 4th ODI of Bangladesh tour of Zimbabwe in August 16th 2009.Charles Coventry’s 194 runs include 16 fours and 7 sixes in 156 deliveries.

Zimbabwe, batted first took 312 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 50 overs.Charles Coventry’s remarkable innings went in vain since Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh took 154 runs in 138 deliveries and led Bangladesh an easy victory in 47.5 overs.

Saeed Anwar scored 194 against India in Chennai in 1997. However, Saeed Anwar was out on this individual score while Coventry was unbeaten on 194.

Charles Coventry not only equalled Saeed Anwar’s record but also surpassed the highest ODI score by a Zimbabwean. Craig Wishart scored 172 runs unbeaten against Namibia in Harare at the 2003 World Cup.