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King of the Asian Keeper-Bats

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Make sure this thread results in some disgustingly lengthy diatribes, some diabolical back and forths, with a few condescending jibes thrown in for fun.

#oldschooltribute

Who's the king of all the keeper-batsmen Asian teams have showcased over the years?

Kumar Sangakkara and Prasanna Jayawardene are the 21st century giants to beat, even though I forgot the latter existed in the other thread.

Keeping > batting for the purposes of this thread, but some of you will feel free to ignore this since some of you are ****s.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Link provided plus the fact it's nit been mentioned before suggests to me that it's a load of bull****.
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I'd like to see that scorecard.

Only 46 balls? Yet he got 109 in as long as 155 minutes? Seems pretty unlikely to me, even allowing a generously low over rate (about 14 an hour was not uncommon then). He scored 94 before lunch. Warner's stroke of lunch hundred last summer took 78 balls with 17 boundaries. Edit: and Renshaw scored 21 off 80 balls in that time, a similar proportion to Sardesai's innings.

It could be that the scorecard only showed scoring shots, and I've seen quite a few other test scorecards done that way. He scored 72 in 18 boundaries, that would leave 37 runs to be scored in 28 singles or twos.

That seems a bit more likely.
 
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mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
His opening partner spent a lot of time in the middle for not many runs, it's possible he also had his fair share of strike, especially if Farokh was dealing in boundaries Right?
 
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mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You could fact check his story by looking at the scorecard assuming it has detailed information about the bowlers
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
What might work in favour of Engineer's story is that his opening partner in the innings, Dilip Sardesai, took 127 minutes to score 28, suggesting a blockade at one end which would result in extending the duration of Engineer's stay out in the middle.

Sardesai's wicket fell at the score of 129. He got 28 out of the 129. Definitely suggests a quick century.
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Apparently Engineer believes he hit a six first ball after lunch to bring up his hundred, yet the scorecard lists no sixes in his innings (but two in Sober's 95). A journalist who covered the match said that he got it with a single
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Let's say 25 overs were bowled before lunch (being generous to Engineer). Of those, Sardesai's blockathon consumes 2/3rds. That gives 50 deliveries for the 94 before lunch.
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Comparing with other fast innings in terms of balls and minutes (for example Majid Khan's 108(74) before lunch of 112 in 130 minutes in 1976, with Sadiq Mohammed making 34 in 164 minutes at the other end) I suspect that the actual number of balls for the hundred was probably 75-90, with 46 scoring shots. Warners 100* off 78 had 38 scoring shots.

I think it would be quite difficult to maintain the rhythm to score such an innings with a very low proportion of the strike. I personally used 28 overs and found he would have gotten about 1/4 of the strike. Most such innings seem to involve a near even or larger proportion of the strike. 75 balls for the 94 would give him 46% of the strike and a strike rate of 130, and let Sardesai score 26 before lunch (the only figure I've come across for him in that session) at a strike rate of 28.

I agree with Marc. You'd think if it was true it would merit more mention than it does. It was the first I'd heard of it. And if someone had recorded the actual balls faced (which would be needed if he had a scorecard showing it) then they or someone else who was aware of it might have raised notice of such an exceptional innings.
It's hard to understate what an exceptional innings it would be if true, especially against a quality bowling attack. It'd be a nearly 20% improvement on McCullum's innings. It would have been a staggering achievement for the time.
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yeah that puts it to bed. Weird claim of the six really.

Engineer's batting record is good though, esp since he opened half the time.
 

OverratedSanity

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Sanga was a very good batsman when he was keeping and was also as good a keeper as any I've seen tbh. As long as we don't operate under the mythical assumption that cricket is an RPG where you can only put a limited number of skill points into keeping and batting and thus have to sacrifice one for the other, Sanga is the clear frontrunner AFAIC.
 

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