Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI

[head coach]

He gave birth to an aggressive batting approach in the first fifteen overs which became the norm afterwards. His explosive batting style had to be replicated by other teams. He is still the "Master Blaster"

[Predator_05]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in

He gave birth to an aggressive batting approach in the first fifteen overs which became the norm afterwards. His explosive batting style had to be replicated by other teams. He is still the "Master Blaster"

Who are you talking about ?!

[head coach]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in

He gave birth to an aggressive batting approach in the first fifteen overs which became the norm afterwards. His explosive batting style had to be replicated by other teams. He is still the "Master Blaster"

Who are you talking about ?!

Sanath Jayasuriya - He cuts and pulls with awesome power, his trademark shot being the brutal smash over point, (invented by himself), which sometimes sails for the maximum six runs.

[Predator_05]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in

Sanath Jayasuriya - He cuts and pulls with awesome power' date=' his trademark shot being the brutal smash over point, (invented by himself), which sometimes sails for the maximum six runs.[/quote'] Rubbish. The advent of the 15 over charge pre-dates Jayasuriya. Mark Greatbatch had done it back in the '92 WC, as did Kris Srikkanth and to a lesser extent - Sidhu ('87 WC).

[head coach]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in

Sanath Jayasuriya - He cuts and pulls with awesome power' date=' his trademark shot being the brutal smash over point, (invented by himself), which sometimes sails for the maximum six runs.[/quote'] Rubbish. The advent of the 15 over charge pre-dates Jayasuriya. Mark Greatbatch had done it back in the '92 WC, as did Kris Srikkanth and to a lesser extent - Sidhu ('87 WC).

You may disagree Predator but this guy was the most effective on using it to its best along with his partnership with Kaluwitharana. 100 runs in 15 overs was set by these two with their hitting over the top of fielders.

[Anakin]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI So did SRT in the first time he opened against NZ IIRC, and before Sanath. Srikanth used to bat like that quite often as well.

[head coach]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI

So did SRT in the first time he opened against NZ IIRC' date=' and before Sanath. Srikanth used to bat like that quite often as well.[/quote'] They all tried this approach but Jaysuriya estabilished this in ODIs. Check the ODI records that stands against him...

[audioman]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI Jaya is surely the first one to have done this consistently enough.

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI -- Removed on request of the user --

[jf1gp_1]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI Mark Greatbatch was the first who showed how to utilize first 15 overs during 92 world cup, england were next when they started sending botham at top india tried and failed with kapil who open once. Sachin started opening in 94, jaya and kalu came after him.

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI -- Removed on request of the user --

[head coach]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI

SRT has a better Avg and almost the same strike rate as Jaya ... and he started biffing much before Jaya did ...

Bheem, Jayasurya and Kaluvithanrana brought the urgency into the mindset of openers to score as much as they can in 15 overs. And Jaysurya was the leader among them. I remember Gangully when he was the captian mentioning about the need to score 100 runs in 15 overs and how SL has set this as a standard after WC. (but Unfortunately I dont have any proofs in hand to show this). Tendulkar shows his class with his flashing square cuts, cover drives but Jayasuriya kind of implemented the rule of smashing over point. Greatbatch did this for NZ but he was not repetitive and consistent as Jayasuriya.

[CC1981]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI Jaya and Kalu definately were the pioneers of 'ultra-fast' batting in ODIs and batting with a mindset that wasn't just aggressive but 'smash every ball'. Greatbach, Botham, etc. were all about scoring at a very fine clip and getting 50 in 50-60 balls but Kalu and Jaya were the ones who made scorelines such as '40/0 after 5 overs' a common occurance. Their batting style for a period leading up to and following the 96 world cup was 'smash the hell out of the first 10 overs, slow down a bit after that and pinch around singles. Infact, a lot of Jaya-Kalu 'success stories' were where they put 30-40 runs in 4-5overs before getting out, deSilva/Ranatunga/Mahanama/Tillekratne consolidating and pottering around for singles before the late push. For an era where 270-280 was 'high scoring', 40/1 after 5 overs is 'revolutionary' indeed. In almost every SL match i watched from that period, when Jaya and Kalu did well, SL were almost always 20-30 runs ahead at the 15 overs mark than the opposition.

[Lurker]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI Pioneer in ODI opening history? I do not think so. Trend-setter? Nope. Great opening batsman who took ODI a step forward? Yes. It should be worthwhile to remember that Jayasurya was not sent out as an opener(in 1996) but more like a pinch-hitter. This was due to Arjuna Ranatunga's strategy as Sri Lanka could bat deep. Heck players like Mahanama would come at 7. It should also be remembered that before 1996 WC Jayasurya had played about 100 ODI and averaged under 20. He was predominantly a bowler who could throw his bat a bit. There are some who suggest Mark Greatbatch was the one who started it all. Yes he was successful but anyone who has seen 1991/92 WC would know that a large part was due to small cricketing grounds in NZ. True Mark succeeded where others(Kapil, Botham including) failed but come on how can you pick one championship and say because of that a player is trend-setter? Of them all Sreekanth was the original master blaster. All the while he played the game he played exactly like thw way Jayasurya did. And that included all the original fielding, not the 15 overs restriction we have today. If one suggests that Jayasurya has been the pioneer in the 15 over restriction era I would agree but overall? No. xxx

[Holysmoke]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI but def , gave a lot to cricket, and hopefully theres more to come :wtg:

[head coach]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI

Pioneer in ODI opening history? I do not think so. Trend-setter? Nope. Great opening batsman who took ODI a step forward? Yes. It should be worthwhile to remember that Jayasurya was not sent out as an opener(in 1996) but more like a pinch-hitter. This was due to Arjuna Ranatunga's strategy as Sri Lanka could bat deep. Heck players like Mahanama would come at 7. It should also be remembered that before 1996 WC Jayasurya had played about 100 ODI and averaged under 20. He was predominantly a bowler who could throw his bat a bit. There are some who suggest Mark Greatbatch was the one who started it all. Yes he was successful but anyone who has seen 1991/92 WC would know that a large part was due to small cricketing grounds in NZ. True Mark succeeded where others(Kapil, Botham including) failed but come on how can you pick one championship and say because of that a player is trend-setter? Of them all Sreekanth was the original master blaster. All the while he played the game he played exactly like thw way Jayasurya did. And that included all the original fielding, not the 15 overs restriction we have today. If one suggests that Jayasurya has been the pioneer in the 15 over restriction era I would agree but overall? No. xxx

Lurker, I agree with you on most of the stuff except for Srikkanth. I like Srikkanth as a person but not as a player. He was a great entertainer but I feel he contributed very less to the team's interest. Not to take away from this thread's topic but out of the 140 or so ODI's he played he scored 4 centuries. Srikkanth was lucky most of the time on not getting out (atleast the matches that I have watched him play). Most of his shots were careless. Jayasuriya contributed immensely to the betterment of ODI Cricket overall atleast made the total ticking. You are exactly right that Jayasuriya set the trend of hitting every ball over the top of fielders within 15 overs.

[Lurker]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI

Lurker, I agree with you on most of the stuff except for Srikkanth. I like Srikkanth as a person but not as a player. He was a great entertainer but I feel he contributed very less to the team's interest. Not to take away from this thread's topic but out of the 140 or so ODI's he played he scored 4 centuries. Srikkanth was lucky most of the time on not getting out (atleast the matches that I have watched him play). Most of his shots were careless.

HC, You are correct that Sreekanth did not score a lot of centuries. Heck he did not even score as much as he should really. I remember a ODI where he went in, prodded an over, in the next one hit the first for a 6, next for 4(or was it 4 and then 6?) and was then bowled off the very next ball. The point is that he always wanted to score, and against the very best(in the innings I mention the bowler was Malcolm Marshall). Remember this was the good old age where there was no 15 over restriction and also bouncers were not no-balled. I mention that because imagine Jayasurya facing a Marshall today, hitting him for a six off the first ball, the bowler does not even have a choice of bouncing him. This is indeed the reason why players like Jayasurya, Ganguly etc have scored as many runs. They are never pushed on the back-foot and are free to play their shots off the front. With the 15 over restriction it is double whammy for the bowler and extra bonus for the batsman. This is not meant to demean the modern-era players but to put things in perspective as how fielding restriction have altered the ODI fabric. Also at his time players did not score many centuries really. Three of the greatest ODI batsmen ever, who incidentally played in same era as Sreekanth, have 4(Martin Crowe), 7(Dean Jones), Alan Lamb(4). Kapil has 1, Imran 1, Hadlee and Botham none. xx

[gator]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI

Lurker, I agree with you on most of the stuff except for Srikkanth. I like Srikkanth as a person but not as a player. He was a great entertainer but I feel he contributed very less to the team's interest. Not to take away from this thread's topic but out of the 140 or so ODI's he played he scored 4 centuries. Srikkanth was lucky most of the time on not getting out (atleast the matches that I have watched him play). Most of his shots were careless.

u obviously have not followed indian cricket closely in the 80s.... Cheeka had the highest number of centuries among his indian peers and they included gavaskar, kapil, vengsarkar, amarnath, patil, shastri, sidhu..... again, he had 4 centuries and he had around 4-5 90s.... if they had been converted, he would have 9 centuries in 140 matches, which is terrific in those days.... thirdly, imran, richards, border have all testified at some point or the other, that Cheeka in the 80s was the most feared batsman in the indian team.... imran, even went on to state , the only batter he cannot set the field for is Cheeka.... u got to watch how he launched the 2nd or 3rd ball from Marshall in the match into the longoff stands.... it was unheard of in those days for a batter to hit a 90+ bowler over his head for 6 in the first over of a match... Calling Jayasuriya as the original master-blaster before Cheeka or Richards or even Greenidge smacks of knowledge of odi cricket in 80s.... it is impossible to compare stats across eras and even more difficult to do it for ODIs.... pitches, bowler quality, mindset, boundary length, bat quality have all changed...

[Sooda]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI ^Nothing like on the same scale as Jaya though. i think thats HC's point. Tendulkar, barring that one knock vs NZ, was not a super fast scorer in the mid 90's as opener. IMHO the series which really MADE SRT the hyper destructive opening batsman we know and love was the 96 tour to SAF. Check out his centuries in matches before then. Not many, if any at all, were quicker than run a ball Anyone remember this match http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1996-97/OD_TOURNEYS/SBIODS/IND_ZIM_SBIODS_ODI9_09FEB1997.html And later in the final he was going insane chasing SAFs 278...but fell after a great knock. We did v well that day. Dravid played great- (THAT six of Donald in the below match) Azhar had a great series...I Digress... http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1996-97/OD_TOURNEYS/SBIODS/IND_RSA_SBIODS_ODI-FINAL_13FEB1997.html

[head coach]

Re: Man who revolutionised the mindset of opening batsmen in ODI Lurker/Gator, I dont want to negate your opinion about Srikkanth. You both think that he performed the best he can during that period. I still have a feeling that his contribution towards turning the results in favor of India was limited. But lets not get hung on this. My point is the game of One day had a facelift after the Lankans showed that runs could be scored in three figures within 15 overs and Jayasurya played a large role in it.