by Andy H
With the India Test Series now behind us, it looks like Sri Lanka has, at most, two Tests scheduled in the next nine months, those being the end-of-year matches in Bangladesh (these matches haven’t been officially scheduled, but Hilal and I are both under the impression that they are occurring).
Bangladesh has won exactly one Test match in its history (over Zimbabwe in 2005), and there’s little reason to believe they will add to this tally against a Sri Lanka team whose Test form looks as good as it has … well, maybe ever.
However, there is a bit of side drama that could be very interesting indeed, as Mahela Jayawardena has a chance to join a very elite club, achieving something that eluded the likes of Graham Gooch, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Javed Miandad, Viv Richards, Allan Border, and Steve Waugh.
By my count, there are only eight (ed. seven) players who have scored 8,000 runs in their first 100 Tests:
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Sunil Gavaskar
Gary Sobers
Brian Lara
Jacques Kallis (thanks, Damith -- no he did not)
Ricky Ponting
Matthew Hayden
The Sri Lanka captain currently has 7,757 runs in 98 matches. This means he needs 243 in the next two to make it to 8,000. For what it’s worth (and I realize this is a statistic of very limited usefulness), Mahela has averaged 112.7 runs per match over his last 10 Tests.
9 Comments:
Nice stats. However didnt Kallis achieve his 8000 runs in his 101st match ?
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283187.html
Wow! He has to be Sri Lanka's best ever skipper. Some say Jayasuriya and others say Arjuna because of WC 96. But Arjuna captained a very weak team for years so his results are terrible.
Not even Sanga is on that list and you see the caliber of batsman there. He stands with an elite crowd all right. Will you guys slaughter me alive since I'm an Aussie if I say Mahela makes up for his stats at home as he fails constantly overseas?
Stumpcam> Why should we cuz its true.
avg 66 at home
avg 38 away. Speaks for it self.
66% of his runs come at home.
No 100s in Pak,SA and surprisingly Ind as well.
Annon> You cant weigh a captains worth simply on results.
To me Arjuna is still the best captain SL had for several reasons.
And statistically MJ never won us a WC .. yet :P
watevr said and done,according to me mahela is the best skipper,whether he makes runs at home o away,runs are runs!!you cant kum up with silly reasons to put him down..
No complains when Hussey, Bevan, Ponting and Co. made thousands of runs in their own backyards, Australian pitches are as a tough as Sri Lankan pitches are to an outsider..
Annon> Id like to know how I 'put' down Mahela. And also how its a silly excuse ? I just pointed out some facts.
Mahela is no doubt a very good batsmen but Id like to see him score more runs abroad. Which is the ultimate test for any batsmen.
Albie >Hussey and Ponting have scored alot of runs away from home. Bevan was not even in the test team for too long since he could not handle the short ball. Specially away from home.
Ponting avg 51 away
Hussey avg 48 away.
Andy H> Just helping another blogger out :)
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