|
|
Lara's ground
Wisden CricInfo staff - May 31, 2002
There have been 34 one-day internationals in Trinidad. West Indies have won20 and lost 12, with two no-results. India have played in five of them,
losing four and winning their last one in 1996-97.
Captains winning the toss have opted to field on 19 occasions. Twenty out of
32 completed matches have been won by teams batting second. However, that
trend has been reversed in the last seven games, with teams batting first
winning five times.
West Indies' 315 for 4 against Pakistan in 1987-88 is the highest score at
this venue, and one of two occasions when they exceeded 300 runs in an
innings. In the second match of the double-header that season, Pakistan
scored 271 for 6 in a 43-overs-a-side game - the highest score by a visiting
team here. That didn't help much, for West Indies overhauled the total in
just 40.1 overs.
The pitch has changed character in the last few years though, and
high-scoring matches are no longer as common. In 12 matches since 1995-96,
teams have crossed 250 just three times; seven times in the last eight
innings here, teams have been restricted to sub-200 totals.
India's only one-day victory at the Queen's Park Oval couldn't have been
more emphatic. They bowled West Indies out for 121 and then romped home by
10 wickets, Sachin Tendulkar leading the way with an unbeaten 65.
Brian Lara tends to excel in one-dayers on his home ground. He has made more
pajama runs here than anybody: 935 at an average of 71, including six fifties and
two hundreds. One of those hundreds - the 146 against New Zealand in
1995-96 - is the highest score here.
The best ODI bowling figures here are Tony Gray's 6 for 50 against Australia in
1990-91, while Ian Bishop has the best figures in West Indies-India matches:
4 for 33 in 1988-89. Indian bowlers have been slightly less successful; only
three have even managed three wickets here, and the list is hardly a who's
who of Indian cricket: offspinner Noel David and seamer Abey Kuruvilla both
took three-fors in 1996-97, and their dashing opener Kris Srikkanth turned
his arm over to similar effect in 1988-89.
S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com in India.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
|
|
|
