|
|
Gooch's hunting-ground
Wisden CricInfo staff - January 21, 2002
The Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, in the north-eastern state of Orissa, is one of 33 grounds in India that have hosted one-day internationals. Tomorrow's game will be the 11th ODI there. The first was the match between India and England in 1981-82.
England have played at Cuttack three times but only twice against India. In 1981-82 Keith Fletcher's team made 230 (Fletcher himself 69 from 52 balls, Botham 52 from 52) but lost to the Sunil Gavaskar's India by five wickets (Gavaskar 71, Sandeep Patil 64). In 1984-85 David Gower's England successfully chased a revised target of 238 in 46 overs, scoring 241 for 6. An opening stand of 188 between Kris Srikkanth and Ravi Shastri proved to be in vain as Paul Downton (44*) and Vic Marks (44) swung the bat down the order. In 1989-90 Graham Gooch's team beat Pakistan in a low-scoring game in the Nehru Cup, reaching 149 for 6 in 43.2 overs after Pakistan had made 148 for 9 in their 50 overs. Gooch himself took 3 for 19 - his career-best one-day figures, and the best by any bowler at Cuttack.
In four of the first five matches at Cuttack, the poor quality of the pitch was mentioned in the Wisden Almanack report. However, this doesn't seem to have been a problem lately. The last four matches have produced an aggregate of 1987 runs, or 248 per innings.
The team batting second has won the game in 70% of the matches. Of the six first-innings totals of 230-plus made at Cuttack, four have been overhauled.
However captains still seem unconvinced of the benefits of batting second. Only 50% have chosen to bowl first on winning the toss.
India have won their last four games at Cuttack and six out of eight overall. These victories included their first-ever one-day win over the West Indies in 1994-95 and Kenya's first full international in 1995-96. Sachin Tendulkar and Ajay Jadeja put on more than 150 for the first wicket in both games - 176 against West Indies and 163 against Kenya.
In 1997-98 Mohammad Azharuddin and Jadeja put on 275* for the fourth wicket, at the time an all-wicket world record, beating 263 by Aamir Sohail and Inzamam-ul-Haq against New Zealand in 1993-94. The current record is 331 by Tendulkar and Dravid against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999-2000.
It is a happy hunting-ground for Tendulkar who has scored 264 runs at 66 in five matches. Anil Kumble has done well in both of his matches here too, taking 3 for 43 against West Indies in 1994-95 and 3 for 28 against Kenya in 1995-96.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
|
|
|
