At no time has Jacques Kallis’ ability as an allrounder and the importance he had in the South African side of the late 1990s and early 2000s been more obvious than was the case when he faced the West Indies in the Wills International Cup.
The competition, which later became known as the ICC Champions Trophy, featured Kallis in the semi-final singlehandedly dismissing the West Indies, first slamming 113 from 100 deliveries before bagging 5-30 with the ball to boot them from the tournament.
He would perform feats of that nature for years to come, and at the World Cup in the Caribbean was South Africa’s leading scorer, notching 485 of them.
But his ODI career, as was the case when he played Test cricket, started slowly. It took two years before he scored his first international ton in the format, scoring 111 against New Zealand at the WACA.
While his strike rate of 72.89 could be higher, it could also be said that Kallis understood that his South Africa needed him to bat that way if they were to do well. His 11,579 runs perhaps tells a better story about Kallis’ importance to South Africa. Add that to his 273 wickets from 283 innings with the ball, and you have the stuff of legends.
ODI Career (batting): South Africa (1996-2014)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s 4s 6s Ct
328 314 53 11579 139 44.36 15885 72.89 17 86 911 137 131
ODI Career (bowling): South Africa (1996-2014)
Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10w
328 283 10750 8680 273 5/30 5/30 31.79 4.84 39.3 2 2 0
Career highlights
There was not much dissension when a panel of experts selected India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni to be the man they put forward as the Ultimate ODI XI wicketkeeper.
Dhoni got the better of players like Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, the Ultimate XI Test wicketkeeper, and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara.
The clincher, for both the panel and the Zone, is Dhoni’s ability, not with the gloves, but to figure out what course of action to take in a run chase and largely come out on the winning side.
It was revealed on the SportsMax Zone yesterday that Dhoni has had successful run chases with him at the crease for India 96% of the time. Chances are if Dhoni is at the crease, India will win.
That was more important to the panel than the tremendous glovework of South Africa’s Mark Boucher, or the pinch-hitting ability of Adam Gilchrist. Those two are considered the greatest wicketkeepers of all time. However, the panel believes Dhoni is the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman the ODI game has ever seen.
More important than the panel and the Zone, are the Fanalysts, so says the weighting around the votes.
Fanalysts have 40% of the vote for who gets into SportsMax’s Ultimate XI, with the panel and the Zone, enjoying 30% each.
With that 40% of the votes, the Fanalysts have chosen to agree with the Zone and the panel for the most part. Yesterday was no exception.
In fact, Dhoni’s 46.29% to Kumar Sangakkara’s 17.14% of the votes represents the biggest margin of victory since the Ultimate XI began two months ago.
With that pick, the Fanalysts team so far includes Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar as openers, Virat Kohli, Brian Lara, and AB de Villiers as the middle order, and Dhoni as the wicketkeeper.
The Zone and panel, however, have gone with Viv Richards in the place of Lara.
This evening, the panel and Zone will be voting on the Ultimate ODI team’s allrounder, with Fanalysts already seeming to decide on Jacques Kallis.
Ian Healy’s hard work and will to succeed, complemented by an undying loyalty to his teammates made him the pulse of the Australian team from October 14, 1988, when he began his ODI career, until May 25, 1997 when he played in his last one.
Healy was an aggressive runner between the wickets when he batted and despite not having all the big shots, was more than a handful for many a bowler who expected to be rid of the Australian innings soon after he came to the crease.
His quality as a wicketkeeper was always good, bearing in mind the penchant Australia had for finding real quicks for international duty. But that quality was never more on display as he kept wicket to the big-turning Shane Warne. In fact, his very nasal, “bowling Warnie,” became a signature sound, not just in Australian cricket, but the world around. Many young boys can be recalled mimicking ‘well bowled Warnie’ even though there was never another Warne at the other end. The partnerships between himself and Glen McGrath, Jason Gillespie, and Warne yielded many a wicket, the man named to Australia’s team of the 20th century claiming 233 scalps.
Full name: Ian Andrew Healy
Born: April 30, 1964, Spring Hill, Brisbane, Queensland
Major teams: Australia, Queensland
Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Fielding position: Wicketkeeper
ODI Career: Australia (1988-1997)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s 4s 6s Ct St
168 120 36 1764 56 21.00 2104 83.84 0 4 77 5 194 39
Career Highlights
Peter Jeffrey Dujon was as stylish with the bat as he was with the gloves. Many have called his efforts behind the stumps when the West Indies bowled a four-pronged pace attack of magnificent stature, one of the most spectacular sights of the 1980s.
Not usually required to score heavily for the West Indies from his place in the lower order, Duj never scored an ODI century but had six half-centuries, inclusive of 82 not out. Playing at a time when the scoring rate in ODIs was little better than Test cricket, Dujon’s strike rate of 67.51 was not slow, even if his average of 23.15 was a little low for a batsman of his quality. From behind the stumps he managed 204 dismissals, 21 of those stumpings.
Full name: Peter Jeffrey Leroy Dujon
Born: May 28, 1956, Kingston, Jamaica
Major teams: West Indies, Jamaica
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
Fielding position: Wicketkeeper
ODI Career: West Indies (1981 – 1991)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s Ct St
169 120 36 1945 82* 23.15 2881 67.51 0 6 183 21
Career Highlights
“Shabash shabash!” were common sounds coming through stump mics around the world whenever Pakistan were playing. That was because Moin Khan was Pakistan’s wicketkeeper, urging his bowler along with a hearty ‘well done!’. Moin was the pulse of the Pakistan team throughout the 1990s and his influence made them a competitive unit. Batting with the lower order Moin never managed an ODI century but his 12 fifties, including 72 in his final year of international cricket, always seemed to come when Pakistan needed it most. As a wicketkeeper, Moin was sharp enough to snaffle up 287 victims in his 219 ODI games.
Full name: Mohammad Moin Khan
Born: September 23, 1971, Rawalpindi, Punjab
Major teams: Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan International Airlines
Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak
Fielding position: Wicketkeeper
ODI Career: Pakistan (1990-2004)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s 4s 6s Ct St
219 183 41 3266 72* 23.00 4017 81.30 0 12 218 61 214 73
Career Highlights
Romesh Kaluwitharana debuted in Sri Lanka’s One-Day International team in 1990 against India but did not bad as his side, chasing down 136, romped to victory on the back of Aravinda de Silva’s unbeaten 63. Then, Kalu was considered a wicketkeeper who could bat a bit, but with no partner for Roshan Mahanama at the top of the order, his chance would come. Kaluwitharana would forge an opening partnership with another person thought to be unlikely to suit the spot, Sanath Jayasuriya. The partnership was legendary, transforming the ODI game completely, as the batsmen blasted the opposition off the park in the first 15 overs of the game when generally, openers were looking to solidify themselves at the crease in the hopes of continuing on to a big score. The two were fearless and their exploits made for a romping 1996 World Cup victory. His opportunities diminished after 2000 and the arrival of Kumar Sangakkara, but he still managed to distinguish himself as a wicketkeeper in the ODI game with more than 200 dismissals.
Full name: Romesh Shantha Kaluwitharana
Born: November 24, 1969, Colombo
Major teams: Sri Lanka, Colts Cricket Club, Galle Cricket Club, Sebastianites Cricket and Athletic Club
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Fielding position: Wicketkeeper
ODI Career: Sri Lanka (1990-2004)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s Ct St
189 181 14 3711 102* 22.22 4776 77.70 2 23 411 17 132 75
Career Highlights
The Prince of Port of Spain did not pay enough respect to One-Day International cricket, so says world-renowned cricket umpire and commentator Chris Taylor and his opinions seem to have found favour with both the SportsMax Zone and a panel of experts picking SportsMax’s Ultimate ODI XI.
That favour does not extend to the Fanalysts picking the SportsMax Ultimate XI online though.
For them, Brian Lara is the first name that should be counted among batsmen 3-5.
Already, Lara has the most votes with India’s Virat Kohli running a close second. The final spot, according to the Fanalyst should go to ‘Mr 360’, South Africa’s AB de Villiers.
Just outside of the running for the Fanalyst is Sir Vivian Richards.
Neither the panel nor the SportsMax Zone would dare to leave Sir Viv out again after Fanalysts swung the Test XI voting in favour of Australia’s Don Bradman.
Thus far, the Zone and the panel have been moving in lock-step, both picking Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar as their openers and both coming up with Viv Richards, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli as their batsmen from 3-5.
That means, of course, there is no space for fan favourite Lara, while all three groups are in agreement that Ricky Ponting, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ross Taylor, Mike Hussey, Michael Bevan, Kumar Sangakarra, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Aravinda de Silva don’t quite match up, as great as they all are.
Shane Watson overcame a myriad of injuries to become one of Australia’s most important players in the early 2000s. Watson had more than one stress fracture in his back, hamstring strains, calf problems, a dislocated shoulder, food poisoning that presented symptoms like that of a heart attack, still, he prevailed, becoming a feared batsman, who could take a game away from you. He combined the patience he learned as an Australian Test opener with aggression and power in a way that made him a nightmare for the opposition even if he was at the crease for just a few overs.
Having bat in every conceivable position during that Test career, he became a man for all seasons in the one-day version of the game. With nine centuries and 33 fifties to go along with an average of 40.54 and a strike rate of 90, Watson is most decidedly a batting all-rounder.
But with a physique like his, being more than a medium pacer was always going to be a part of the plan.
He would end his ODI career with 168 wickets at an average of 31.79 at a strike rate of 38.4
Full name: Shane Robert Watson
Born: June 17, 1981, Ipswich, Queensland
Major teams: Australia, Australia A, Australia Under-19s, Canterbury, Chennai Super Kings, Cricket Australia XI, Deccan Gladiators, Dhaka Dynamites, Gilchrist XI, Hampshire, Islamabad United, New South Wales, Prime Minister's XI, Queensland, Queensland Colts, Queensland Under-19s, Quetta Gladiators, Rajasthan Royals, Rangpur Rangers, Redlands, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sindhis, St Lucia Zouks, Sydney Sixers, Sydney Thunder, Tasmania
Playing role: Allrounder
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm fast-medium
Height: 1.83 m
ODI Career (batting): Australia (2002-2015)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s 4s 6s
190 169 27 5757 185* 40.54 6365 90.44 9 33 570 131
ODI Career (bowling): Australia (2002-2015)
Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10w
190 163 6466 5342 168 4/36 4/36 31.79 4.95 38.4 3 0 0
Career Highlights
A team in transition was what Ross Taylor found when he joined the ranks of the black caps in 2006.
Gone were the names of the 1990s and New Zealand needed a new talisman. Taylor has not disappointed, scoring his first century in just his third One-Day International, 128, against Sri Lanka in Napier.
Taylor is brave. Known for slog sweeping quick bowlers with no thought to the danger such a ploy poses to his health. He is also a very powerful puller and cutter of the ball.
With great power comes great responsibility and Taylor has shown himself up to the task of providing the Black Caps with that necessary consistency over the last 10 years, while they hone tremendous talent around him. At 36, Taylor is in the twilight of his career but nobody would bet against him adding to his 21 ODI centuries and 51 half-centuries.
Full name: Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote Taylor
Born: March 8, 1984, Lower Hutt, Wellington
Major teams: New Zealand, Australian Capital Territory, Central Districts, Central Districts Under-19s, Delhi Daredevils, Durham, Jamaica Tallawahs, Middlesex, New Zealand Emerging Players, New Zealand Under-19s, Pune Warriors, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, St Lucia Zouks, Sussex, Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel, Victoria
Playing role: Middle-order batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak
ODI Career: New Zealand (2006-present)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s 4s 6s
232 216 39 8574 181* 48.44 10273 83.46 21 51 711 146
Career Highlights
While an undoubted talent, Sri Lanka’s Aravinda de Silva crowned himself in international glory with a century in the 1996 World Cup final to give the country its first hold on the title.
At the time of Aravinda’s arrival on the international scene, Sri Lanka were a team on the up as a force in world cricket, but their batsmen were often guilty of not being able to perform away from home and were suspected not to have the tools to deal with real pace bowling. Standing at 5 ft 3 in, Aravinda would become one of the giants who served to lay waste to that particular thought.
He cut and pull with verve and possessed a beautiful cover drive that would bring him 11 centuries and 64 fifties, of course, none of them as memorable as that 124 against Australia in the World Cup final.
Full name: Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva
Born: October 17, 1965, Colombo
Major teams: Sri Lanka, Auckland, Kent, Nondescripts Cricket Club
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak
ODI Career: Sri Lanka (1984-2003)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s
308 296 30 9284 145 34.90 11443 81.13 11 64
Career Highlights
Mr Cricket, Michael Hussey’s rise to the international ranks took place belatedly, with the middle-order batsman earning a call to Australia’s One-Day International (ODI) team in 2004 when he was just two months shy of his 29th birthday. But once he got there, his attitude to everything cricket was tremendous. That attitude meant he ended with a healthy career average of 48, rarely failing to bolster the Australian middle-order. Without aiming for the big shots over the top, Hussey scored at a brisk 87.16, running between the wickets hard and never failing to find the gaps in the field. He was as busy at the crease as he was on the field, always keeping an intensity that the rest of the Australian setup fed from. In truth, Hussey was an opener but was pushed down the order in the Australian line-up. That too was accepted with the same professionalism he approached everything. Centuries were not a regular feature of Hussey’s career, not because he didn’t have a penchant for batting for long periods, but because he generally bat with the lower order and wasn’t given the time. Still, he scored three centuries, including 109 not out against the West Indies at the Kinrara Academy Oval in 2006. He would also score 105 against New Zealand in 2007 and fell a run short of his unbeaten highest against Bangladesh in 2011.
Full name: Michael Edward Killeen Hussey
Born: May 27, 1975, Mt Lawley, Perth, Western Australia
Major teams: Australia, Chennai Super Kings, Durham, Gloucestershire, Mumbai Indians, Northamptonshire, St Lucia Zouks, Sydney Thunder, Western Australia
Playing role: Middle-order batsman
Batting style: Left-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
Height: 1.80 m
ODI Career: Australia (2004-2012)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s 4s 6s
185 157 44 5442 109* 48.15 6243 87.16 3 39 383 80
Career Highlights
Viv Richards’ is a career of firsts. He was the first to intimidate bowlers in an era that belonged to hostile pacers and he took his bravado and swagger from Test cricket into the One-Day International game. Such was the man’s class and quality in the era, that his statistics match up well with some of the best ODI players of today. With a strike rate of more than 90, Sir Viv still managed an uncanny consistency, averaging 47 and scoring 11 centuries along with 45 half-centuries. All the greats who played against Sir Viv have agreed there was no strategy for bowling to him because he had no weaknesses save for his insatiable appetite for dominating the bowling. Those who watched him, believed whenever he would play defensively, it was just to take a breather or just to show he could. As recently as 2002, Wisden chose Sir Viv as the greatest ODI batsman of all time and he was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century by a 100-member panel of experts in 2000. Of course, Sir Viv was a shoo-in for the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, making his entrance in 2009.
Full name: Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards
Born: March 7, 1952, St John's, Antigua
Major teams: West Indies, Combined Islands, Glamorgan, Leeward Islands, Queensland, Somerset
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm slow, Right-arm offbreak
ODI Career: West Indies (1975-1991)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100s 50s
187 167 24 6721 189* 47.00 7451 90.20 11 45
Career Highlights
Christopher Henry Gayle is arguably the greatest One-Day International batsman the West Indies has ever produced but today his innings in the Ultimate XI ODI edition came up short.
Gayle had, yesterday, avoided the cut and made the final six among contestants vying for the honour of being one of the two best openers the game has ever seen.
According to the SportsMax panel of experts, Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar would form the greatest partnership the game to ever grace an ODI cricket pitch.
That would leave other greats like South Africa’s Hashim Amla, Sri Lankan legend Tillakaratne Dilshan, Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar, and, of course, Gayle as bystanders.
According to the SportsMax Zone, Sharma and Tendulkar are also the best it could come up with from the shortlist of 12, of course, the Zone did not do the culling of the herd the panel did yesterday.
For the unitiated, Rohit Sharma has scored as many ODI double hundreds as there are people who have scored them, while Tendulkar is by far and away, the heaviest ODI runscorer in the history of the sport and their picks may be hard to disagree with.
Unless, of course, you’re a Fanalyst.
Fanalysts have, so far, chosen Chris Gayle as one of their two openers and have also disagreed with the choice of Tendulkar to be the man to join him, instead going for Sharma.
Tendulkar, is at this point, the reserve option for the Fanalysts, but that could all change.
Have your say in the conversation by going to SportsMax.tv and clicking on the banner, or following the link here.
The Ultimate XI ODI Edition’s discussions have started with a bang, as George Davis of the SportsMax Zone and the selection panel got into it over who should make the final six from the shortlist of openers.
There wasn’t much opposition as the Panel cut the West Indies’ Desmond Haynes from the shortlist on the first day, neither was there much of a stir when Matthew Hayden, the man who starts as opener in the Ultimate Test XI, was asked to go.
There were, however, a few ripples when Adam Gilchrist, a man who has three World-Cup-winning innings under his belt, was told he didn’t stack up well enough to make the final six players to be discussed on the Zone today.
However, major rifts developed when Sanath Jayasuriya did not find favour with two of the three panellists.
With two-thirds objecting to his appearance in today’s final, Jayasuriya had to go.
According to the voting so far, the panel, despite George Sylvester Davis’s appeals for a reconsideration, have called it right when it comes to Jayasuriya.
The Fanalysts don’t seem to think as much of Tillakaratne Dilshan or Hashim Amla as does the panel though, as they have Sourav Ganguly, Gilchrist, Haynes, and Jayasuriya, joining those two in the bottom six. The Fanalysts have also added New Zealand’s Martin Guptill to the list of those they don’t think can make it. Haynes and Gilchrist are in a statistical dead heat for one of the bottom six places.
Now here’s the truth about Jayasuriya. In partnership with Romesh Kaluwitharana, Jayasuriya is the man that made the massive totals of ODIs today possible. Thumping the ball to all parts of the ground in the first 15 overs, Jayasuriya made the work of his middle-order that much easier, as they could afford to run singles and keep the scoreboard ticking over with the expectation that normal batting would give them big scores.
Now, if you believe, like I do, that there are some crazy Fanalysts out there, you can help change the conversation with your vote.
Fanalysts votes count heavily in deciding who makes the cut as the group holds the largest percentage weight when the votes are tallied.
The panel’s decision counts for 30 per cent of votes, while the Zone gets another 30. The Fanalysts benefit from a 10 per cent bump, giving you real sway in the conversation.
To vote for your Ultimate XI go to SportsMax.tv and click on the banner or go straight to this link.
Brutally aggressive with the bat, powerful and agile on the field and deceptively dangerous with the ball, Symonds was the ultimate limited-overs package. Although his career didn't span a long time, he did enough during his stay in international cricket to make his presence felt, his performances announcing him as a pure matchwinner for Australia. He was so sensational on the field, Ricky Ponting once declared Symonds the greatest fielder he had ever seen.
Full name: Andrew Symonds
Born: 9 June 1975 (age 44), Birmingham, England
Height: 187 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Batting style: Right-handed
Bowling style: Right-arm medium, Right-arm off-break
Playing role: All-rounder
ODI Career (batting): Australia (1998-2009)
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s Ct
198 161 33 5088 156 39.75 5504 92.44 6 30 449 103 82
ODI Career (bowling): Australia (1998-2009)
Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10w
198 158 5935 4955 133 5/18 5/18 37.25 5.00 44.6 2 1 0
Career Highlights
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