England vs South Africa 2012

[Stan AF]

SA 2-0

[GautiMaan]

The Bresnan effect

Are some players lucky charms? Or do we use luck as lazy short-hand slang to avoid the effort of identifying the set of skills that really sets them apart? Tim Bresnan, England's bowling allrounder, now has a remarkable record in Test matches: played 13, won 13. So Bresnan will begin his 14th Test match this week yet to feel the pain of defeat in a white England jersey. Is that luck or skill? Bresnan's role in those 13 consecutive victories has been mostly unflashy. Indeed, for many of those 13 selections, his place in the XI has been the most in jeopardy: the other ten players were picked first, with Bresnan battling it out for the final place. So far, the selectors have been proved right every time. The unheralded rise of this understated Yorkshireman reminds me of "The No-Stats All-Star", a brilliant New York Times article by the American writer Michael Lewis. Fans of Lewis' iconic book Moneyball should read it immediately. Lewis' starting point is trying to understand how some players have an effect on a team that is not captured in their own statistical performance. Lewis' subject is Shane Battier, a defensive player for the Houston Rockets. Battier seems to have the ability to make a team win, and yet no one knows quite how he does it. Battier's job is to guard the most talented opponents, shutting down attacking geniuses such as Kobe Bryant. So you would expect Battier to have poor numbers as a shooter and dribbler. Much more interestingly, he doesn't even have outstanding stats using the standard defensive metric of rebounds. Nor is Battier universally highly rated by his peers.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/567418.html Not sure how being an average player helps the team as far as cricket is concerned,but right now we have some "inverse-Battiers" as the author says in our team

[Cricket Tragic]

Chawla is our Bresnan. He was picked specifically by N Srinivasan's astrologer.

[GautiMaan]

Chawla is our Bresnan. He was picked specifically by N Srinivasan's astrologer.

He won the world cup just by being in the squad. Srini:adore:

[The Outsider]

Chawla is our Bresnan. He was picked specifically by N Srinivasan's astrologer.

What about Sreesanth - played the World Cup and the T20 WC finals and got plastered in both. Maybe his shoddy performance inspired others to perform better? :hmmm:

[GautiMaan]

We have different Bresnans for different seasons,our current Bresnan Mr.J has been a :fail: so far,but lets keep our fingers crossed

[saneindian]

Rajesh Chauhan IIRC never lost a test in his short career. Gilly won first 16 tests with the Aussies before his first defeat at Eden.

[Cricket Tragic]

India won every test when umpire SK Bansal was on the field. And we were struggling in a few of them: Kolkata 2001 is well-known A'bad 1996 where we were only defending 170 and won Mumbai 1994 where we were 40/4 in the second dig with a small first innings lead

[vvvslaxman]

Sreesanth figuring in two world cup final..

[vvvslaxman]

India has lost only one test whenever M Vijay plays but won 8 tests.

[Cricket Tragic]

He won the world cup just by being in the squad. Srini:adore:

More like Venkatesan

[1983-2011]

Brez is a very good test bowler though which you cant say the same about sree and chawla. 52 wickets in 25 innings @ 25.46, s.r. 54.6 :hatsoff:

[Tapioca]

What about Sreesanth - played the World Cup and the T20 WC finals and got plastered in both. Maybe his shoddy performance inspired others to perform better? :hmmm:

Without him, Aus would have won the T20 semifinal with three or four overs to spare.

[Crookbond]

And India would've won the finals against Pakistan with 3-4 overs to spare.

[Raghav_12]

And India would've won the finals against Pakistan with 3-4 overs to spare.

and Dhoni would have got a Century in WC final if he had got few more overs

[vamos_rafa]

MS did not lose a test series for almost 4 years. Captain cool was luckiest guy ever. Now, look at his fate.

[rkt.india]

MS did not lose a test series for almost 4 years. Captain cool was luckiest guy ever. Now' date=' look at his fate.[/quote'] Also look at Ponting. One of the few captains to lose Ashes thrice 1 home and 2 away. One of the most successful Aussie captain.

[Sidhoni]

:hatsoff:

[davros84]

Bresnan has won 13 out of 13 but it looks like that run is now over. The first two days of the third test have been washed out (the first time since the 60s in England surprisingly) and the forecast isn't good after that. Unless he pulls off some Trent Bridge magic (ala vs India in 2011) a result is not gonna be possible....

[davros84]

Not sure how being an average player helps the team as far as cricket is concerned,but right now we have some "inverse-Battiers" as the author says in our team

I take objection at Bresnan being an average player. He would walk into the Indian test side.... and his stats are incredible!