40th anniversary today of Imran Khan scoring his 1st ever test century-His best knock ever and best ever innings by an all-rounder v West Indies top attack ?

[Harsh Thakor]

Today on November 24th we commemorate a historic day when Imran Khan scored his 1st test century ever ,at Lahore.Above all it was against the West Indies,arguably the best test team ever.Pakistan were tottering in the grave at 95-5,before Imran Khan ressurected them with a fighting 123,to enable Pakistan to reach a respectable score of 369.

No knock defined Imran's batting prowess as this one,considering he was up against the great Calypso pacmen like Sylvester Clarke.It must have been a sight to behold Imran nurturing his team with the patience or skill of gardener or surgeon and the discipline and courage of a military commander rallying his troops.Rarely has an allrounder done a repair job so meticulously.Was it the best ever knock by any all-rounder versus the top West Indies pace attack?

I rank it as Imran's best ever batting performance.Ian Botham never scored a century against West Indies.Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee scored hundreds but not with their team's back to the wall.I rate it ahead of his 136 in Adelaide in 1989-90 ,his 135 at Madras in 1987 ,75 not out at Leeds in 1987 or his 64 at Bangalore in 1987.

Ironic it was performed when Imran was nether at his peak as a bowler or batsman.Without doubt one of the finest innings ever executed by an all-rounder.Hard to envisage even a Botham or Kapil,playing such calculating innings.It was also scored on a challenging wicket.

Arguably in building an innings like an architect Imran was the best batsman amongst allrounders of his time,even if not as flamboyant as Botham or Kapil.At his best Imran could be as handy as a very good batsman in a crisis.In the later part of his career Imran was close to a truly great  batsman ,averaging over 50 in hi speak.I can never forget Imran smouldering the spinners at Bangalore to win a tset in 1987 on bad wicket or his counter offensive at Leeds in 1982 when his team was in disarray.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Harsh Thakor

[Serpico]

yeah it sounds like a great knock, but what is with your incredibly narrow criteria? "the best ever knock by any all-rounder versus the top West Indies pace attack in back to the wall situation." Really? if you are going to filter out every other entry into a list like that, what is even the point of preparing the list?

 

I checked the scorecard of other centuries you mentioned..

 

Hadlee scored his century against Holding-Croft-Garner-Roberts. (Home match)

 

Kapil's second century against Holding-Marshal-Garner-Roberts (Away match)

 

Imran's century in lahore is against Clarke-Croft-Marshal-Garner (Home match)

 

to me bowling in imrans match looks less impressive than hadlee/kapils matches as I haven't heard of  Sylvester clarke. maybe people who followed cricket those days can weigh in

 

scorecards:

 

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=0886

 

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=0950

 

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=0874

Edited November 24, 2020 by Serpico

[Straight Drive]

Sylvester Clarke was  fast but he was not good enough to be in that West Indies team. Iirc he got in the team because of disciplinary action being taken against some West Indian bowlers who played Packer World Series. He wasn't better than Holding, Marshall, Roberts or Croft though.  Given that the scorecard is of 1980, this series has to be after the Packer series which had a near time impact on WI team.

 

Plain and simple imo - Clarke would not have been in team had Packer series did not happen.

 

Lahore during that time was a batsmans paradise. It was not the best of the wickets to bowl on and only few pace bowlers like Kapil Dev have suceeded there. Just to highlight Dev took 8 wickets at Lahore in an innings once. But by no way Lahore was a bowlers wicket.

 

Not taking anything away from Imran Khan but there is context to it which scorecard does not reveals. Imran was at his peak though in 1981 and 1982. But then flat wickets in Pakistan, umpires blatantly favoring home players while giving decissions also helped a lot. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Straight Drive

[putrevus]

1 hour ago, Harsh Thakor said:

Today on November 24th we commemorate a historic day when Imran Khan scored his 1st test century ever ,at Lahore.Above all it was against the West Indies,arguably the best test team ever.Pakistan were tottering in the grave at 95-5,before Imran Khan ressurected them with a fighting 123,to enable Pakistan to reach a respectable score of 369.

No knock defined Imran's batting prowess as this one,considering he was up against the great Calypso pacmen like Sylvester Clarke.It must have been a sight to behold Imran nurturing his team with the patience or skill of gardener or surgeon and the discipline and courage of a military commander rallying his troops.Rarely has an allrounder done a repair job so meticulously.Was it the best ever knock by any all-rounder versus the top West Indies pace attack?

I rank it as Imran's best ever batting performance.Ian Botham never scored a century against West Indies.Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee scored hundreds but not with their team's back to the wall.I rate it ahead of his 136 in Adelaide in 1989-90 ,his 135 at Madras in 1987 ,75 not out at Leeds in 1987 or his 64 at Bangalore in 1987.

Ironic it was performed when Imran was nether at his peak as a bowler or batsman.Without doubt one of the finest innings ever executed by an all-rounder.Hard to envisage even a Botham or Kapil,playing such calculating innings.It was also scored on a challenging wicket.

Arguably in building an innings like an architect Imran was the best batsman amongst allrounders of his time,even if not as flamboyant as Botham or Kapil.At his best Imran could be as handy as a very good batsman in a crisis.In the later part of his career Imran was close to a truly great  batsman ,averaging over 50 in hi speak.I can never forget Imran smouldering the spinners at Bangalore to win a tset in 1987 on bad wicket or his counter offensive at Leeds in 1982 when his team was in disarray.

Are you seriously insane.Stop creating useless milestones. There is nothing historic about scoring a 100 on flat pitch with home cooked umpiring.

[Harsh Thakor]

56 minutes ago, Serpico said:

yeah it sounds like a great knock, but what is with your incredibly narrow criteria? "the best ever knock by any all-rounder versus the top West Indies pace attack in back to the wall situation." Really? if you are going to filter out every other entry into a list like that, what is even the point of preparing the list?

 

I checked the scorecard of other centuries you mentioned..

 

Hadlee scored his century against Holding-Croft-Garner-Roberts. (Home match)

 

Kapil's second century against Holding-Marshal-Garner-Roberts (Away match)

 

Imran's century in lahore is against Clarke-Croft-Marshal-Garner (Home match)

 

to me bowling in imrans match looks less impressive than hadlee/kapils matches as I haven't heard of  Sylvester clarke. maybe people who followed cricket those days can weigh in

 

scorecards:

 

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=0886

 

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=0950

 

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=0874

 

 

You forget that Imran faced a precarious position with hi team reeling at 95-5 ,unlike the innings of Hadlee and Kapil where other batsman made a bigger contribution.Sylvester Clarke was arguably the fastest bowler in the world at that time .The pitch too had a somewhat uneven bounce.Most of kapil's runswere scored when the match was virtually saved as well as Hadlee's. Imran's main rival is Mushtaq Muhammd when scoring 121 at Trinidad to pull of  a historic win for Pakistan at Trinidad.

 

 

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Just now, putrevus said:

Are you seriously insane.Stop creating useless milestones. There is nothing historic about scoring a 100 on flat pitch with home cooked umpiring.

 

From 95-5 he ressurected his team from the grave like no all-rounder ever did against the great Calypso pace attack?

[putrevus]

14 minutes ago, Straight Drive said:

Sylvester Clarke was  fast but he was not good enough to be in that West Indies team. Iirc he got in the team because of disciplinary action being taken against some West Indian bowlers who played Packer World Series. He wasn't better than Holding, Marshall, Roberts or Croft though. 

 

Lahore during that time was a batsmans paradise. It was not the best of the wickets to bowl on and only few pace bowlers like Kapil Dev have suceeded there. Just to highlight Dev took 8 wickets at Lahore in an innings once. But by no way Lahore was a bowlers wicket.

Spot on Clarke was not better than any of those 1970 and 80s WI bowlers.Patrick Paterson was better than Clarke.Imran was always bowler who could bat nothing more but this OP is turning him into Gary Sobers. 

[putrevus]

41 minutes ago, Harsh Thakor said:

 

From 95-5 he ressurected his team from the grave like no all-rounder ever did against the great Calypso pace attack?

Kapil Dev scored 119  that too facing follow on with 5 wicket down and added 200 to avoid follow on and was the reason for tied test.Botham played as one man army in many tests. 1980 Golden Jubilee test 100 plus 13 wickets. Kapil Scored 100 in WI against those fearsome foursome but we don't call that a historic knock.Imran was not even a patch as a batsman on either Botham or Kapil Dev.

 

Clarke was not that great and Marshal was just starting He became Marshall only in 1983.Don't make Lahore into Barbados pitch of 1980s or Perth.So there is nothing historic about this lousy test. Scoring 100 after playing test cricket for nearly a decade is not a great achievement.So don't make into a great achievement.

Edited November 24, 2020 by putrevus

[Straight Drive]

48 minutes ago, Harsh Thakor said:

 

 

You forget that Imran faced a precarious position with hi team reeling at 95-5 ,unlike the innings of Hadlee and Kapil where other batsman made a bigger contribution.Sylvester Clarke was arguably the fastest bowler in the world at that time .The pitch too had a somewhat uneven bounce.Most of kapil's runswere scored when the match was virtually saved as well as Hadlee's. Imran's main rival is Mushtaq Muhammd when scoring 121 at Trinidad to pull of  a historic win for Pakistan at Trinidad.

 

 

 

Jeff was not as fast in late 1970's and early 80's as he was in mid 70's. So yes, you can say that Sylvester was arguably the fastest bowler during that time. But being fastest does not makes the bowler great in test format where batsmen look to defend. How much success have so called speed machines like Tait, Nantie Hayward and many other speedsters acheived without the discipline in bowling. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Straight Drive

[Straight Drive]

3 hours ago, putrevus said:

Kapil Dev scored 119  that too facing follow on with 5 wicket down and added 200 to avoid follow on and was the reason for tied test.Botham played as one man army in many tests. 1980 Golden Jubilee test 100 plus 13 wickets. Kapil Scored 100 in WI against those fearsome foursome but we don't call that a historic knock.Imran was not even a patch as a batsman on either Botham or Kapil Dev.

 

Clarke was not that great and Marshal was just starting He became Marshall only in 1983.Don't make Lahore into Barbados pitch of 1980s or Perth.So there is nothing historic about this lousy test. Scoring 100 after playing test cricket for nearly a decade is not a great achievement.So don't make into a great achievement.

Good point. I think  it was 79 or 80, during which a lot of class WI players were lost due to Packer series.Malcolm Marshall and Sylvester Clarke were totally inexperienced at international level then. WI had come to India. India  won the test series. Clarke did well as compared to others, but when the  main players were back in Windies team, Marshall palyed with them as part of the bowlign attack. Marshall was the most complete pace bowler since i started following cricket. Garner and Holding were ATG bowlers but Marshall still looked better than them.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Straight Drive

[R!TTER]

3 hours ago, Harsh Thakor said:

From 95-5 he ressurected his team from the grave like no all-rounder ever did against the great Calypso pace attack?

You forgot Pak played with 13 (14?) players at home 

[rkt.india]

5 hours ago, Harsh Thakor said:

 

 

You forget that Imran faced a precarious position with hi team reeling at 95-5 ,unlike the innings of Hadlee and Kapil where other batsman made a bigger contribution.Sylvester Clarke was arguably the fastest bowler in the world at that time .The pitch too had a somewhat uneven bounce.Most of kapil's runswere scored when the match was virtually saved as well as Hadlee's. Imran's main rival is Mushtaq Muhammd when scoring 121 at Trinidad to pull of  a historic win for Pakistan at Trinidad.

 

 

 

Sylvester Clark was as fast as Courtney Walsh, let alone fastest.

[Vilander]

Maajid Khan.

[MechEng]

6 hours ago, putrevus said:

Kapil Dev scored 119  that too facing follow on with 5 wicket down and added 200 to avoid follow on and was the reason for tied test.Botham played as one man army in many tests. 1980 Golden Jubilee test 100 plus 13 wickets. Kapil Scored 100 in WI against those fearsome foursome but we don't call that a historic knock.Imran was not even a patch as a batsman on either Botham or Kapil Dev.

 

Clarke was not that great and Marshal was just starting He became Marshall only in 1983.Don't make Lahore into Barbados pitch of 1980s or Perth.So there is nothing historic about this lousy test. Scoring 100 after playing test cricket for nearly a decade is not a great achievement.So don't make into a great achievement.

 

Pakistan prepared greentops when the opposition side had no fast bowlers like in 1982 vs India, and 1989 tour too (except Faisalabad which was slow). If West Indies and Australia toured Pakistan then slower pitches were prepared. 

 

Not to forget Kapil Dev's 129 at Port Elizabeth in 1992 when India were 27/5 in 2nd innings and Donald was bowling scary fast.

[Khota]

9 hours ago, Harsh Thakor said:

Today on November 24th we commemorate a historic day when Imran Khan scored his 1st test century ever ,at Lahore.

 

I quit reading after that.

[putrevus]

42 minutes ago, MechEng said:

 

Pakistan prepared greentops when the opposition side had no fast bowlers like in 1982 vs India, and 1989 tour too (except Faisalabad which was slow). If West Indies and Australia toured Pakistan then slower pitches were prepared. 

 

Not to forget Kapil Dev's 129 at Port Elizabeth in 1992 when India were 27/5 in 2nd innings and Donald was bowling scary fast.

1982 VS India was mainly due to reverse swing and umpiring offcourse. India would have done very well on green tops.Kapil Dev took 24 wickets vs Imran's 40 in that series . Umpiring was so biased even in that series.

 

Imran was never a good batsmen, even though he ended with highest avg among all the four allrounders, I would put behind Botham and Kapil Dev as batsmen.

 

 129 by Kapil is 1000 times better than any knock Imran ever played in his career. 

[Harsh Thakor]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Sylvester Clark was as fast as Courtney Walsh, let alone fastest.

Incorrect.He was quicker even than Marshall,Read Gary Sobers bio

[putrevus]

1 minute ago, Harsh Thakor said:

Incorrect.He was quicker even than Marshall,Read Gary Sobers bio

Patrick Paterson was quickest of all WI fast bowlers and Kapil Dev scored 87 in an odi with him rampaging from one end. Kapil again scored 109 in Hirwani's debuts test in Chennai against all Walsh , Patrick Patterson and  Winston Davis with 156/5 and helped India win that test.Nobody calls that Kapil's  test innings as a monumental knock.

 

A history lesson for you.

Kapil's 87 against Paterson in odi was one of the best odi innings against a very fast bowler on an uneven pitch, he was the best batsman in that match better than all those WI batsmen including Viv Richards. Shastri who is a very good batsman on his own scored 20 was unable to lay bat on ball while Kapil dev scored 87 out of their 100 run partnership.

 

That was caliber of Kapil Dev and Botham. When they clicked they would bat better than the top order batsmen. Imran never had that battting ability.

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/16728/scorecard/64313/india-vs-west-indies-1st-odi-west-indies-tour-of-india-1987-88

 

So stop hyping ordinary things .I would  not call any of Imran's test innings as great His 100 against Australia would be his best as he did play well there.

[coffee_rules]

@Harsh Thakor Are you Sanju Majnu? How many times was Imran out and saved by his Home-fed umpires?

[rkt.india]

8 hours ago, Harsh Thakor said:

Incorrect.He was quicker even than Marshall,Read Gary Sobers bio

No way he was quicker than Holding, Roberts, Marshall. Have seen his bowling video.