Scorecard of the Day : Atherton pulls off a miracle

[The Outsider]

On the day of the start of the South Africa - England series thought it might be a good time to remember perhaps the best innings played in the rivalry since the readmission of South Africa to the cricketing fold. For the uninitiated, Atherton scored 185* in five and a half sessions of battle against Donald, Pollock, Pringle, and McMillan in the 4th innings to help force an unlikely draw upon South Africa. http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/match/63701.html Atherton's autobiography has a chapter dedicated to what he says is, "a great innings" and required immense powers of concentration, technique, and determination. In Atherton's words,

All the self-sufficiency of my youth, the stubbornness and single-mindedness of my cricket, had come together in an innings that would stand as a testimony to my character as much as my batting.

Wonderful words to describe what was truly a great innings, one of the finest ever played. He says the 5th morning was the toughest passage of play for him because he was a notoriously poor starter the following day and was even dropped at short leg by Kirsten off Donald on 99. His secret to being more composed than normally when restarting an innings after an overnight break was, "some pasta and a few glasses of wine in the Sandton sun" which gave him a, "long dreamless sleep". He has high words for his batting partner, Jack Russell, who also took a world record 11 dismissals in this match and talks about how his concentration power all just came together in the innings. He was able to switch on with the bowler half way in his run up and off again once the ball was dead allowing a clutter free mind throughout the duration of the innings. The last afternoon was when Atherton was in the self confessed, "zone", for the first and only time in his career. In his words,

It is a state of being much talked about by sports psychologists and while I can describe my feeling that afternoon, I couldn't begin to explain how to replicate it. I don't think I ever completely experienced it again. The zone for me was a feeling of absolute control.

During this zone, he was able to predict when the bowler was going to deliver the slower ball by picking up subtle hints, opened up his stance subconsciously when the left arm spinner came over the wicket, and could easily spot changes in actions for the inswinger as opposed to the ball going away. And although he did get slightly nervous as the day approached the end he was taken by surprise when Cronje came up to him and shook hands signaling the end of the match, so intense was his concentration. The innings was a modern day classic and although it marked the self confessed slow but sure decline of Atherton as a batsman, he had done enough to script a masterpiece in the toughest of conditions by the time he, "sat in the dressing room at the Wanderers that day sipping cold beer and soaking up the congratulations".

[Dravid]

wow, very nice btw BM McMillan not out 100... wtf were eng bowlers doing

[Cricketics]

Dravid, brian Mcmilan was a decent bat. btw @ topic, yaa this was a pretty good knock by Atherton. it's such knock which English Media wait for to hype a player. Michael Atherton to me still remainz one of the most over hyped test cricketer/Captain

[The Outsider]

wow, very nice btw BM McMillan not out 100... wtf were eng bowlers doing

McMillan was always more of a batting allrounder. He ended up with a test average of 40 and had 3 test hundreds.

[Gambit]

A big deal of made of this innings at that time and rightly so. It was one heck of a knock. Jack Russell's momentous effort often goes unnoticed but it was very crucial to England's chances in that test as well.

[coffee_rules]

Russell not out 29 274 235 3 0 12.34 Must have been one of the slowest innings of great doggedness. Playing for 4.5 hrs and scoring 29. Sehwag would have scored a 200 in that time and won the match.:haha:

[Guest BossBhai]

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[kumble_rocks]

Very well said saar :two_thumbs_up: ... probably the best way to describe Sehwag . The way he goes about reversing the good fortunes of opposition is a sight to behold ..... People say Viv Richards did it best ..... but I have seen Viv and he was no way as destructive as Sehwag.

Saar , Viv Richards played in an era when bat and gear technology was not up to the mark and we didn't have all these crazy rules skewed against the bowler like one bouncer per over. Keep in mind , he was the only destructive batsmen in his era and nobody was close to him in terms of destructive power. Plus he played in an era where their was no dearth of fast bowling and the pitches were livelier and yet he was to dominate them without wearing helmet and minimum protective gear. I will concede that Sehwag is at par with Viv Richards but no way better than him !

[Gambit]

A player like Sehwag (and old SRT) does more damage than good in an Indian test lineup. Traditionally our bowling has been weak and has struggled to dismiss teams quickly. And overseas, our batting has been shaky. Taking those into account, a Dravid or Gavaskar batting for long periods and eating up time has ensured that the opposition more often than not did not have enough time to bat twice and dismiss us again to force a result. Which is why when Dravid makes a ton, we draw at worst because of the time he consumes and when SRT/Sehwag blitz an attack, more often that not, we lose. A quick knock from Sehwag or SRT when others fell around them only gave the other team more time to plunder the Indian bowling and make a declaration to stick us in again and bowl us out. Batting time has always helped us more than quick scoring.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[coffee_rules]

Plus IVAR struggled against leg spin esp Qadir . He would have been eaten out by Warne, Mustaq or Kumble.