da betobet： © CricInfo India have a habit, for some reason, of choosing Port of Spain as theground to set many of their records, and Sourav Ganguly’s teamcontinued that tradition this time around
Staff Reporter25-Apr-2002
© CricInfoIndia have a habit, for some reason, of choosing Port of Spain as theground to set many of their records, and Sourav Ganguly’s teamcontinued that tradition this time around. The Queen’s Park Oval sawtwo individuals garner two important records, making for an unusuallystatistics-heavy Test.Ganguly himself was one of those individuals, notching up his fourthTest win overseas to pass MAK Pataudi and Bishan Singh Bedi for mostvictories abroad. Bedi and Ganguly have comparable records; theyregistered their away wins in 22 and 20 Tests respectively. Pataudi,however, posted his wins even though he was skipper for a whopping 40Tests.Interestingly enough, Ganguly and Bedi are two of the three Indian captains to win a Test in the Caribbean, with Ajit Wadekar being the third. All of India’s three wins in the West Indies, moreover, have come at Port of Spain.
© CricInfoIn passing, the comparison of each captain’s performance in his awaywins proves extremely flattering to Ganguly. The current Indianskipper averages 76.25 in those four Tests; Pataudi, in contrast,averages a measly 24.40, while Bedi took 16 wickets in the threeTests.The other notable statistic from Port of Spain, of course, was SachinTendulkar drawing level with Don Bradman. While 29 centuries is stillan achievement, and nothing should detract from Tendulkar’sperformances thus far, the difference in speed is staggering enough tofurther burnish the glow on the Don’s halo.Tendulkar took 93 matches and 148 innings for his centuries – ahundred every 5.1 innings. Tendulkar’s Mumbai predecessor, SunilGavaskar, played 95 matches and 166 innings – a hundred every 5.72innings. Bradman played 52 Tests and 80 innings – a hundred every2.76 innings, or almost twice as often as Tendulkar. So if one thinksTendulkar prolific, the imagination boggles further at Bradman.One reason for Bradman’s superior record could have been his rate ofconversion. He finished his career with 29 hundreds but only 13fifties. Tendulkar has 31 fifties to his 29 centuries. Gavaskarhad made 35 fifties when he made his 29th century.