The day of the spinners
Anant Gaundalkar
Time was when spinners, and not pacers, used to call the shots.
Today, they have become a neglected lot -- it is the medium or fast bowlers
who are increasingly counted on now; and it is they who form the majority of
any squad's bowling side.
However, spinners still do make matches. As was evident
when Australia's Shane Warne with a match haul of
nine wickets steered his side to a fine victory by a
huge margin of 268 runs at Manchester. It helped his team to make
a comeback in the series with new vigour and level it to one-all
with three matches yet to go. Warne, in the process, crossed the
250-test-wicket barrier and now stands fourth in the August list
of spinners. He enjoys the best strike rate of a wicket every 63.36 balls and is
second to compatriot Clarence Grimmett, with a rate of 4.58 victims per test
(see table below).
The list of nine spinners who have claimed more than 200 test wickets,
comprises three Australians, two each from India and the West Indies
(including the multi-purpose bowler Sir Garfield Sobers), and one each from
Pakistan and England. With Warne going great guns, it is now a foregone
conclusion that he will soon eclipse Lance Gibbs's record of 309 wickets
which the legendary West Indian has held for over two decades.
Following are the bowling details of the nine:
Tests Balls Runs Wkts Avg 5WI 10WM Wickets Balls
per Test per
wicket
L R Gibbs 79 27115 8989 309 29.09 18 2 3.91 87.75
(West Indies)
D Underwood 86 21862 7674 297 25.83 17 6 3.45 73.60
(England)
B.S Bedi 67 21364 7637 266 28.71 14 1 3.97 80.31
(India)
S K Warne 55 15967 6050 252 24.00 11 3 4.58 63.36
(Australia)
R Benaud 63 19108 6704 248 27.03 16 1 3.93 77.04
(Australia)
B S 58 15963 7199 242 29.74 16 2 4.17 65.96
Chandrashekar
(India)
Abdul Qadir 67 17126 7742 236 32.80 15 5 3.52 72.56
(Pakistan)
G S Sobers 93 21599 7999 235 34.03 6 - 2.52 91.91
(West Indies)
C V Grimmett 37 14513 5231 216 24.21 21 7 5.83 67.18
(Australia)
NOTE: Warne's figures are true up to the third test against England.
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