Monday 4 July 2011

Half centurion VVS Laxman

VVS Laxman misses another century. In the 2nd test against the West Indies Laxman scored 2 half centuries, 85 and 87 in both innings but could not go past 100. This is not new. Laxman in his career has been in a position to score the hundred several times but then just gets out in the 70's or 80's. Coming to the statistic part, among India's 3 premier batsmen Dravid tops the half century list with 60 while Tendulkar and Laxman follow with 51 each. Laxman has played the least number of tests among the 3 but stil he sits pretty close to both of them in this department. In 100's Laxman has only 16 where Dravid has double the amount while Tendulkar has more than triple the amount of 100's. This clears the picture that Laxman has a poor conversion rate in converting 50's to 100's.

While many including Laxman himself argue that  he has batted at the no. 6 position for most if the tests and has had only tail enders for his support and thus has been unable to score the amount of 100's he should have considering his potential and experience. But then just have a look at Adam Gilchrist's record. He has scored 17 hundreds , 1 more than Laxman in 96 tests , much less than Laxman and at no. 7 in a world champ team whose top order seldom failed. And in this test match he batted at no. 4 but still the old habit ceases to get away. While Laxman has played innumerable match winning innings in his career but has many times failed to top it with 100's. In the recent cases, He guided India to an unbelievable win in Mohali with Ishant Sharma as his partner. He made 96 but again could not make the win even sweeter with an epic 100. He helped India win in Durban with a great gritty innings but again could not convert it to 100. His best innings of 281 in a follow on against Australia was memorable but then yet again this time he missed the big 300 mark.

Even though Laxman is respected by one and all for playing match winning innings almost every time he is asked for and playing selflessly only for the team(recent example was trying to score against WI in the 2nd innings). But ad mist all this respect, He needs to do justice to his records. Though team's victory is much more important than records, but then why get out in the 90's while you have guided your team to victory. You can equally do so with a 100. Whenever people talk about great batsmen, they would first have a look at the stats and a player of caliber  of Laxman deserves the best records. You may say I do not care about records, I only want my team to win and blah blah but inside you do want to get those 100's instead of 80's. Lets hope Laxman in his new no. 5 position sets the record straight in the twilight of his career.

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