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Just two good!

One day game theory has become very simple, in recent times -- and can be encapsulated as "a good start is half the battle".

This, obviously, places a premium on good opening partnerships, with the focus being entirely on the two men who walk out to open the innings, or to lead the chase, as the case may be.

Trawling through the history of the game, I came up with six opening pairs who deserve, for both quality and quantity of run-making in the crucial slot, to be celebrated.

And surprise, surprise, the latest Indian combination of Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly have, in course of the 42 matches that their association has lasted till date, combined brilliantly to outstrip all competition.

In terms of sheer quantum of runs accumulated, the West Indies pair of Greenidge and Haynes stands head and shoulders above the competition. But when you check out the various parameters, the Indian left-right combo appears to have the edge over all competition.

Thus, in terms of average, the Indian duo heads the table. When it comes to strike rate, they are next only to the Greenidge-Haynes combo. In terms of aggregate runs, they are number four, and climbing rapidly towards a higher position.

But the real test of such a partnership is consistency. There are opening pairs -- the Kaluwitharana-Jayasuriya pairing, or the Afridi-Anwar pair come immediately to mind -- that explode, going at incredible strike rates. However, such explosions remain few and far between, which effectively means that while the team benefits from the starts such pairs do provide, they cannot be relied on to provide them a respectable proportion of the time.

As can be seen from the table below, even a partnership of Gavaskar the master technician, and Srikkanth the original slap-dasher, failed to produce real high strike rates, nor did they have much to show in terms of consistency. For instance, the Sachin-Saurav pair not only have accumulated more runs over a shorter number of games (and remember, the Gavaskar-Srikkanth era played during a time when fields were more attacking, and fielding standards considerably below today's par), but are also ahead in terms of consistency (contrast the solitary instance, in 42 games, wherein the current Indian pair have failed to open their account, with five for the earlier combo).

The Sachin-Saurav combine underlined their increasing stature in the just concluded Akai Singer Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka, notching up a world record opening stand of 252 runs in the final, both openers scoring individual centuries in course of that effort.

It is this combo that India will be relying on, to provide platforms for the middle order, in the 1999 World Cup.

Follows complete details of the premier opening pairings:

	Inns	Unbeaten	Runs	Highest stand	Avg	100’s	50’s	0’s	Strike Rate	% of consistency ratio
Haynes & Greenidge (WI)	102	4	5150	192*	52.55	15	24	3	86.75	38.24
Boon & Marsh (Aust)	88	--	3524	212	40.05	7	25	5	80.19	34.09
Saeed Anwar & Aamir Sohail (Pak)	66	--	2513	173	38.08	3	17	2	84.32	30.30
Tendulkar & Ganguly (Ind)	42	1	2248	252	54.83	7	10	1	85.12	40.48
Mudassar Nazar & Moshin Khan (Pak)	54	1	1782	141	33.62	2	10	2	76.56	22.22
Gavaskar & Srikanth (Ind)	55	--	1680	136	30.55	2	11	5	78.93	23.64

Notes: (1) The percentage of consistency ratio is arrived at by taking the number of opening stands over 50 divided by the number of innings, multiplied by 100.
(ii) Record correct upto the end of the Akai-Singer Nidahas Trophy.