An elegant left hander with a voracious appetite for runs and a penchant for tall scores, Woorkheri Venkat Raman played eleven Tests, scoring 448 runs with four fifties and a highest score of 96. He also played 27 ODI's hitting 617 runs with one century (against South Africa) and three half centuries. A prolific run getter for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, his highest score was 313 against Goa in 1988-89. Since retiring from first class cricket last year, Raman has written regular columns for The Hindu. He will be writing on international cricket for CricInfo.
The six match one-day series ended in Mumbai amidst great excitement with both teams winning three each. India should have won the series by a 5-1 margin but for their reluctance to learn from earlier mistakes. This was more apt in the case of the middle-order batsmen and once again they made a hash of things when the Indian side was cruising to a victory.
[Read on]