Batsmen and the chase

[C_C]

Interesting thing i noticed after Punter's excellent innings last night :

Batsmen choke under pressure.
In 4th innings situations, when the circumstances demand that one batsman stands up and gets counted, they almost always invariably stuffs up ( infact, i cannot remember a batsman off the top of my head who last stayed till the very end, having guided the innings throughout)...
Tendulkar stuffed up in his 136 and India lost. Lucky for Ponting, he stuffed up but Australia managed to draw. Even Lara stuffed up in his 153* but got let off....Gavaskar stuffed up against England chasing 430+ with victory not too far away.....
Its interesting that almost every single batsman stuffs up near the finish line and invariably give a chance or two...

 

[Top_Cat]

Interesting thing i noticed after Punter's excellent innings last night :

Batsmen choke under pressure.
In 4th innings situations, when the circumstances demand that one batsman stands up and gets counted, they almost always invariably stuffs up ( infact, i cannot remember a batsman off the top of my head who last stayed till the very end, having guided the innings throughout)...
Tendulkar stuffed up in his 136 and India lost. Lucky for Ponting, he stuffed up but Australia managed to draw. Even Lara stuffed up in his 153* but got let off....Gavaskar stuffed up against England chasing 430+ with victory not too far away.....
Its interesting that almost every single batsman stuffs up near the finish line and invariably give a chance or two...

By that point, they've usually batted most of the day under pressure which is higher than at any other point in the match. I would suggest they're pretty tired!

 

[Beleg]

the only two i can remember are by inzy - vs aus in 1994 and bangladesh in 2003.

(non stuff-ups, I mean)

 

[PY]

I think today is the first time I've felt sorry for a batsman who's got out against England in such a situation. He looked in disbelief and then sorrow that he'd not made it through to the end after such a monumental effort.

A poor shot in the circumstances because as someone mentioned, it was either a four or out. Not going to take anything away from him though because when his country (and himself for confidence in captaincy) needed it, he stood tall.

 

[Pothas]

didnt Gordan Grenidge get 200 in a day in a run chase against england once?

 

[Anil]

Interesting thing i noticed after Punter's excellent innings last night :

Batsmen choke under pressure.
In 4th innings situations, when the circumstances demand that one batsman stands up and gets counted, they almost always invariably stuffs up ( infact, i cannot remember a batsman off the top of my head who last stayed till the very end, having guided the innings throughout)...
Tendulkar stuffed up in his 136 and India lost. Lucky for Ponting, he stuffed up but Australia managed to draw. Even Lara stuffed up in his 153* but got let off....Gavaskar stuffed up against England chasing 430+ with victory not too far away.....
Its interesting that almost every single batsman stuffs up near the finish line and invariably give a chance or two...

no sachin choked...the others are of course heroes.....

seriously all great pressure innings....and i don't think any of them stuffed it or choked....they play these valiant innings under pressure because they are special batsmen and not chokers.....they give chances because of a variety of reasons or a combination of these: they are human and therefore not perfect, they are physically and mentally tired, they could be carrying injuries like in the case of sachin....and if australia had lost today, ponting would have joined the list of chokers for many people, that is the sad truth....a lot of people don't take into account the fact that but for these superb players, their team would not even have got close to a victory/draw in the first place.....

 

[Anil]

didnt Gordan Grenidge get 200 in a day in a run chase against england once?

yes he did, in lords...fantastic unbeaten innings and the windies hit up around 320 odd runs in an afternoon or so and blasted england by 9 wickets...

 

[archie mac]

Their was Slasher Mackay circa 1960-61 V the Windies and Mark Greatbach V Aust in early 90s.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I think it's just a mental thing. It's why in lower standard matches, you much prefer to bat first, because chasing is so much harder mentally. Test cricketers are more mentally tough and prepared to chase (generally) but it is still much harder to do, no doubt.

 

[age_master]

never liked chasing that much, it depends on how you feel about yourself and your oponent though, sometimes its nice to know how many runs to go for.

 

[Slow Love™]

the only two i can remember are by inzy - vs aus in 1994 and bangladesh in 2003.

(non stuff-ups, I mean)

I remember watching the cricinfo text commentary on that one against Bangladesh - hair raising stuff! Not sure Inzy guided the innings throughout in '94 though.

C_C, are you talking about chases strictly? ('Cause I don't really think Australia were really having a go at the target last test.) Can't remember many of those, but there have been a fair few when one batsman's stood up unbeaten for the draw, I think - Atherton against SA, Greatbatch against AUS, Astle vs England, Rhodes vs Sri Lanka all come to mind...

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Well either Langer or Gilchrist made it the whole way in 1999 against Pakistan after their big partnership in the fourth innings. One got out with a few runs to go, the other saw it out and Australia won.

 

[howardj]

Well either Langer or Gilchrist made it the whole way in 1999 against Pakistan after their big partnership in the fourth innings. One got out with a few runs to go, the other saw it out and Australia won.

Gilchrist was the unvanquished batsman

 

[King_Ponting]

Well either Langer or Gilchrist made it the whole way in 1999 against Pakistan after their big partnership in the fourth innings. One got out with a few runs to go, the other saw it out and Australia won.

Yep u beat me to it... thats the only one i remeber..

 

[Beleg]

Slow Love,

Yup, you are correct, Inzy mainly shepharded the tail in that test.

The innings from Gilchrist Fiaap mentions was a chanceless masterpiece, and though my team lost from a seemingly secure position (Aussies were like 100 odd for 5) I am actually thankful that I got to witness it.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Slow Love,

Yup, you are correct, Inzy mainly shepharded the tail in that test.

The innings from Gilchrist Fiaap mentions was a chanceless masterpiece, and though my team lost from a seemingly secure position (Aussies were like 100 odd for 5) I am actually thankful that I got to witness it.

Yeah, it was quite amazing. Langer eventually got out, and he had that dodgy caught behind call, but Gilchrist was quite amazing, and it really announced to everyone how good he was going to be. After making 80 odd at a run a ball on debut, people basically had him down as a one day slogger who just got lucky in one test, and then he came out and played that innings against the Ws and Shoaib. Quite amazing.

 

[C_C]

I remember watching the cricinfo text commentary on that one against Bangladesh - hair raising stuff! Not sure Inzy guided the innings throughout in '94 though.

C_C, are you talking about chases strictly? ('Cause I don't really think Australia were really having a go at the target last test.) Can't remember many of those, but there have been a fair few when one batsman's stood up unbeaten for the draw, I think - Atherton against SA, Greatbatch against AUS, Astle vs England, Rhodes vs Sri Lanka all come to mind...

Yeah i was speaking strictly about chases....i just noticed that almost all batsmen-nomatter how great they are- tend to stuff up near the very end of a brilliant chase...

 

[tooextracool]

cant believe no one remembered lara's 153*.
a slightly less prolific one but still extremely significant and involved a very long battle was jimmy adams' 48* off over 200 balls vs pakistan in 2000
dravids 72* at adelaide
graham thorpes 104* last year at TB

 

[Barney Rubble]

It wasn't a run-chase but Atherton's 185* at Johannesburg was his defining innings and was possibly the greatest of its kind ever played - he certainly didn't choke.

Gary Kirsten's mammoth 275 for SA against England in 1999 when they had to bat two days to save the game ranks pretty high - I think when he did get out, he must have been leaning on his bat when the bowler ran in he was so tired.

He was bowled by Mark Butcher, after all.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

There's around 20-25 instances in test history of a player making an undefeated century in a successful fourth innings chase, I was looking at them last night. Some quite remarkable and famous ones, and a few which were like 104* out of 1/190 or something. Still, it's not an unheard of feat.

Oh, and TEC, I think C_C did mention Lara's in the first post, but discounted it because he gave a chance before the end.