Tag: Erapalli Prasanna

All Time XIs – Given Names Beginning With E

An all time XI of cricketers whose given names begin with the letter E and a large photo gallery.

Today I pick an all time XI of players whose given names begin with the letter E. A couple of selections may well raise eyebrows but I reckon all are well justified. There will be an honourable mentions section.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Eric Rowan (South Africa, right handed opening batter). At a time when South Africa weren’t the strongest he managed to record a test average of 43.66. His highest score was 236, which at the time was the highest individual score for South Africa, beaten by Graeme Pollock in the last series of South Africa’s first incarnation as a test nation. There was a famous occasion when notified while a match was in progress that he had been dropped for the next one he proceeded to show the selectors what they were missing by scoring a match saving 156* in the final innings, batting right through the final day.
  2. EM Grace (England, right handed opening batter, lob bowler). He was the first member of his family to be an acknowledged cricket marvel (his eldest brother Henry first developed the family’s ruling passion, and his love for the game led to their father and an uncle, Alfred Pocock, coaching the whole family). His bowling achieved some great successes as well – on one occasion he accounted for the famously hard to shift Harry ‘Not at Dorking’ Jupp with a steepling lob that landed exactly on top of the stumps, dislodging a bail.
  3. Everton Weekes (West Indies, right handed batter). One of the greatest batters ever to play the game.
  4. Eddie Paynter (England, left handed batter). The highest career average of any left hander to have played 20 or more tests, 59.23. That included double centuries against both Australia and South Africa. His most famous innings was an 83 in stifling heat at Brisbane, when he was suffering severe tonsilitis and rose from his hospital bed in England’s hour of need, which helped England secure the victory that confirmed them as winners of the 1932-3 Ashes.
  5. Elias ‘Patsy’ Hendren (England, right handed batter). Only Hobbs scored more than his 170 first class hundreds, and only Hobbs and Woolley exceeded his 57,610 first class runs. One record which remains his is most FC centuries at a single ground, 74 of his having come at Lord’s.
  6. *Eddie Barlow (South Africa, right handed batter, right arm medium pace bowler, captain). He averaged 45 with the bat at test level, and while his bowling was not much used at that level his FC bowling figures stack up well. He was an inspiring captain, in the 1970s he invigorated a Derbyshire side who had grown used to propping up the championship table and led them to some very respectable finishes.
  7. +Eleanor Threlkeld (England, wicket keeper, right handed batter). One of the best contemporary wicket keepers, and a fine batter as well, as evidenced by the match winning hundred she scored for Thunder against Storm in the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy (50 overs per side, the longest non-test match format played by women) on September 16 this year.
  8. Ernie Robson (Somerset, right arm medium fast bowler, right handed batter). An excellent bowling all rounder. His outswing was rated by Jack Hobbs, aka The Master, as the most difficult bowling he ever faced.
  9. Ernest Jones (Australia, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of the fastest bowlers of the 1890s, he once famously sent a ball through WG’s beard.
  10. Erapalli Prasanna (India, off spinner, right handed batter). One of four spinners to regularly play for India in the 1970s (he, Bedi and Chandrasekhar were indisputably world class practitioners, the fourth member of the quartet, Srinisvaraghavan Venkataraghavan was a cut below the rest).
  11. Eric Hollies (England, leg spinner, right handed batter). Possessor of the all time worst wrong way round disparity between runs scored and wickets taken in FC cricket (1,673 FC runs at 5.00, boosted by 282 not outs in 616 innings, and 2,323 Fc wickets taken at 20.94 each). Also the man who stopped Bradman from recording a final test average in three figures, bowling him for a duck in his last test innings, which turned 6,996 runs at 101.39 into 6,996 at 99.94.

This side has a powerful top five, a quality all rounder, a quality keeper who can bat, a fine bowling all rounder and three splendid and contrasting specialist bowlers. A bowling attack that has Jones, Robson and Barlow to bowl pace/ seam, Hollies and Prasanna to bowl spin, and EM Grace as a wildcard has both depth and variety.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

The opening batters had few challengers – Eve Jones’ left handedness bringing her into the picture, but not being sufficient to dislodge either of my choices. On a spinning pitch Eddie Barlow would give way to Enid Bakewell, an all rounder whose bowling stock in trade was left arm orthodox spin, with EM Grace taking the captaincy. Ernest Tyldesley was the best batter to miss out, a member of the 100 FC hundreds club and possessor of a very respectable test record. Two Eds, Joyce (Ireland/ England/ Ireland) and Smith (England) were respectable rather than outstanding. The main keeping rivals to Threlkeld were EFS Tylecote who as a schoolboy in 1868 took advantage of the batting friendly conditions of Clifton College to score the first recorded quadruple century in any form of cricket, 404* in a house match (31 years later another schoolboy, AEJ Collins, scored 628* in a house match at the same ground), and going on to keep wicket for England, Edward Pooley who should have been England’s first ever keeper but was cooling his heels in a New Zealand prison when the appointed time arrived and EJ ‘Tiger’ Smith of Warwickshire and England. Ernie McCormick was fast but erratic, and his 1938 tour of England was ruined by no-ball problems. Ernest Toshack had his moments as a left arm medium pacer, including taking 5-2 in an innings against England but did not have a weighty enough record to garner more than an honourable mention. Eiulf Peter ‘Buster’ Nupen, the only test cricketer to date to have been born in Norway, would be in the mix if the match was to be played on a matting wicket, but not otherwise. Edwin Tyler, a left arm orthodox spinner, once took an all-ten for Somerset, but falls short overall. Edward Wainwright of Yotrkshire and England had a good record as an off spinning all rounder in FC cricket, but failed to take a wicket in any of his five test appearances, finding the Australian pitches of 1897-8 unresponsive to his type of bowling, setting a trend that has continued to the present day when it comes to English off spinners in Australia. Ellyse Perry is a magnificent cricketer, but for this exercise she could only be picked if her batting was good enough on its own, and given the strength of the upper and middle order of this side I do not think it is. I end with a ‘what might have been’ – Edwin Boaler Alletson (Nottinghamshire). At Hove in 1911 he reached lunch on the final day on 47* from 50 minutes, which appeared to be merely delaying the inevitable. 40 minutes after the resumption he holed out in the deep – for 189! Those last 142 came out of a last wicket stand of 152 with Bill Riley, which left Sussex grateful to emerge with a draw after they lost a few early wickets in their second innings. This was Alletson’s maiden ton, and it ended up being a first and only for him. Had that innings given his career the boost it should he might well have had the slot I gave to Ernie Robson, but it proved a flash in the pan, and nor was his bowling that impressive overall.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – the Letter P and Left Handers

An all time XI of players whose surnames begin with P, and because it is International Left Handers Day an all time XI of left handers.

Today is International Left Handers day, so this post includes a bonus feature – I lead off with an all time XI of left handers. A list of honourable mentions for such an XI would be incredibly long, so I shall not include it. After parading my chosen left handers the focus of the bulk of the blog post is on cricketers whose surnames begin with the letter B.

LEFT HANDERS XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *Graeme Smith (South Africa). A steely left handed opening batter, and the obvious choice to captain this XI – a role he performed superbly for South Africa.
  2. Alastair Cook (Essex, England). The opener is England’s all time leading scorer of test runs (though likely to be overhauled by Joe Root in the not too distant future).
  3. Brian Lara (Warwickshire, West Indies). The holder of world record individual scores at both test and first class level, a joint feat achieved only once before in cricket history, by Don Bradman for the two and a half years that his 334 was the world test record score. Also the only player to have twice held the world test record score, and one of only two along with Bill Ponsford to have two first class quadruple centuries.
  4. Graeme Pollock (South Africa). Possibly the greatest batter ever produced by his country. When the curtain came down on the first period of SA being a test nation he was left with an average of 60.97.
  5. Frank Woolley (Kent, England). The only player to achieve the first class career treble of 10,000+ runs (58,969 in his case), 1,000+ FC wickets (2,066) and 1,000+ FC catches (1,018). Capable of match winning performances with both bat and ball (as a left arm orthodox spinner), and one the finest fielders ever to play the game.
  6. Garry Sobers (Nottinghamshire, West Indies). The most complete player to have played the game. One of the greatest batters of all time, a bowler of fast, medium or slow pace (both orthodox and wrist spin) and a brilliant fielder.
  7. +Adam Gilchrist (Australia). A top quality keeper, and a destructive middle order batter.
  8. Wasim Akram (Lancashire, Pakistan). Fast bowler, attacking batter.
  9. Alan Davidson (Australia). Fast medium bowler, occasional spinner, useful lower order batter and fielder of such brilliance that he earned the nickname ‘the claw’.
  10. Mitchell Johnson (Australia). One of the fastest bowlers ever to play the game and a useful lower order batter. On his day he was simply unplayable.
  11. Hedley Verity (Yorkshire, England). A left arm spinner and a useful lower order batter (indeed he was once pressed into service as an emergency opener in a test match and did well). On surfaces that didn’t help him he was very economical and never allowed batters to feel at ease. On surfaces that did help him he was a destroyer. Yorkshire’s match against Nottinghamshire in 1932 illustrated both sides of Verity the bowler – in Nottinghamshire first innings he took 2-64 from 41 overs, in their second, when he had a rain=affected pitch to exploit he recorded figures of 19.4-16-10-10 – the cheapest all ten in FC history.

This XI has an awesomely strong batting line up, and a bowling attack of Akram, Johnson, Davidson, Verity, Sobers and Woolley is both strong and varied.

SURNAMES BEGINNING WITH P IN BATTING ORDER

We move on to the main meat of the post, an all time XI of players whose surnames begin with P.

  1. Alviro Petersen (Glamorgan, South Africa). A solid right handed opener.
  2. Bill Ponsford (Australia). One of only two players to twice top 400 in FC matches. He scored centuries in his first two test matches and in his last two.
  3. Ricky Ponting (Australia). One of the two best number three batters of the modern era alongside Rahul Dravid. He was also an excellent slip fielder, and a long serving captain, though his record in that department was tarnished by the fact that oversaw three failed Ashes campaigns – the only other three time Ashes losing skipper in 140 years being Archie MacLaren of England (1901-2 in Australia, 1902 in England, 1909 in England), hence my not giving him the role in this side.
  4. Graeme Pollock (South Africa). One of the greatest of all left handed batters (see the left handers XI earlier in this post).
  5. Kevin Pietersen (Nottinghamshire, Hampshire, Surrey, England). A batter of undoubted greatness, though problematic in the dressing room to the extent that his first two counties were both glad to see the back of him. He top scored in both innings of his test debut, ended that series with the second most important innings of 158 to be played by a South African born batter at The Oval. His test best was 227 at the Adelaide Oval in the 2010-11 Ashes.
  6. +Rishabh Pant (India). Attacking left handed batter, quality keeper. Probably his greatest moment came at the Gabba when he played a match and series winning innings for an injury-hit India.
  7. *Mike Procter (Gloucestershire, South Africa). One of the finest all rounders ever – a genuinely fast bowler, an attacking middle order batter and a shrewd captain to boot – I have given him that role in this side.
  8. Shaun Pollock (Warwickshire, South Africa). An exceptionally accurate right arm fast medium bowler and a useful lower order batter. He is also my chosen vice captain for this side in preference to either Ponting or Pietersen.
  9. Peter Pollock (South Africa). A right arm fast bowler, spearhead of the South African attack during the last few years of their first period as a test nation.
  10. Charlie Parker (Gloucestershire, England). The third leading wicket taker in FC history with 3,278 scalps at that level, but only one England cap.
  11. Erapalli Prasanna (India). An off sinner who took 189 test wicketsin the 1970s.

This side has one good and one great opener, a superb engine room at 3-5, a keeper batter, a genuine all rounder, and four great bowlers. In Procter and Peter Pollock the side has two genuinely fast bowlers, with Shaun Pollock’s fast medium to back them up. Parker and Prasanna are an excellent pair of contrasting spinners.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Eddie Paynter has a higher test average than anyone I have overlooked at 59.23, but his test career was quite brief, and his average is over a run an innings less than that of Graeme Pollock. Cheteshwar Pujara is the next most notable omission, but no way can he be selected ahead of Ponting at number three, and his efforts when India recently used him as an ersatz opener were not very impressive.

The two Nawabs of Pataudi to play test cricket (the last two to have that title) were both fine batters, but not quite good enough to break into this powerful XI.

Roy Park of Australia never got the opportunity to prove himself at test level – his batting career for his country lasted exactly one ball. Ashwell Prince of South Africa might have his advocates as well.

Ellyse Perry is unlucky to have a surname beginning with P – there are many other letters where I would be delighted to be able to choose a player of her class, but she just misses out.

JH Parks of Sussex was a fine county all rounder, but hardly a challenger to Procter. JM Parks was a batter/ keeper for both Sussex and England, but for my money Pant is better in both departments than Parks was, and even if Parks’ batting shades it I would go for the better keeper (a walkover win for Pant).

Dattu Phadkar of India was good middle order batter an enough of a bowler to take the new ball for his country (although this is partly a reflection of India’s shortage of quick bowlers in his playing days), but could hardly displace Procter.

Liam Patterson-White, an all rounder who bowls left arm spin, may be challenging for inclusion in a few years time, as might leg spinner Matt Parkinson, but as yet they are potentials rather than actuals.

Three seriously quick bowlers who missed out were Patrick Patterson (WI) whose time at the top was short, Len Pascoe (Australia), who also didn’t have great depth of achievement and Pushpakumara of Sri Lanka, whose record was very modest for all his pace.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign-off…

A juvenile gull making a practice flight across the lower Purfleet.