Was Kapil paaji our BIGGEST hitting beast eva ?

[Aadhavzone]

But If Afrirdi stays, then you can presume match is over! looks he has changed a lot in recent games!

[siddhu]

But If Afrirdi stays, then you can presume match is over! looks he has changed a lot in recent games!

Not buying it... And how many times has he stayed to finish a match... 2-3 matches in almost 300 match career?? I can show you atleast 10 instances in last 3-4 years where his team was in the winning position and he threw it away because he wanted to hit a six and "please" his demented followers... He is a retard (no offense to mentally challenged). This just means that his luck is favoring him. Anybody can keep swinging the bat like a madman... which is what khurasia and bedade and their likes were guilty of and were dropped.

[The Outsider]

I am not very well versed in my Zoology and Taxamony, so won't be able to comment on the beastliness or lack thereof of Kapil Dev. However, as a destructive batsman Sehwag is the only one who can compare to Kapil from Indian cricket. Some of his innings are of course part of folklore like the 175 against Zimbabwe and his 77 at Lords' where he hit 4 consecutive sixers to save the follow on. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Due to poor TV coverage and crappy journalism, our cricketers before the 90s have lost out on so much of well deserved fame. As a 23 year old, Kapil blasted 89 off 55 deliveries at Lords' and was on his way to the fastest ever test hundred. He scored 89 out of the 117 runs scored while he was at the crease and is said to have hooked and pulled Botham and Willis into desperation. Wisden wrote :

Although he fell short of the record then, it would be surprising if he does not break it on some occasion in his career, so quick is his eye, so clean his hitting, so laughing and cavalier his manner.

He immediately came out to bowl and picked up 3 wickets in England's second innings and ended up with 8 wickets and 130 runs in the match. Wisden wrote about that passage of play :

By his own admission, India's position in their first innings at Lord's was the most awkward he faced: hounded by Bob Willis and Botham, India were 45 for five wickets. Kapil Dev had to be circumspect, but clearly the chafing shackles were going to be thrown off at the next opportunity. That came on the fourth evening, after Dilip Vengsarkar had worn down England's bowling but India were still in arrears in the follow-on. Kapil Dev then hit 89 out of the 117 runs which India added in fifteen overs. Test cricket can have seldom seen such exuberance. His runs might have come off even fewer than 55 balls if Dilip Doshi had not been the last man in and Kapil Dev forced to neglect some runs in order to keep the strike. When he finished off his evening's work by taking England's first three wickets in four overs, he had enjoyed as glorious a session of play as any immortal of the game.

In the very same series, he was on the verge of another faster than run a ball hundred at the Oval and made 97 off 93. He was of course Man of the Series having outdone an in form Botham at his home. Unsurprisingly, he was named the Wisden cricketer of the year for those performances. Sportstar ran a full length feature on the his exploits which are the only memories I have left of the innings apart from the sporadic radio commentary. The very next year he scored a faster than run a ball hundred against Holding, Marshall, Garner, and Roberts - perhaps the best fast bowling attack to have ever played in tandem. Just to show it was no fluke, he almost repeated the feat a couple of tests later when he was dismissed for 98 off 97 deliveries. With a bit more luck, he could have had 4 faster than run a ball test hundreds within a space of few months. Then there are two terribly underrated centuries of his - one in the tied Chennai test where India were struggling to save the follow on and in his own words Kapil decided to play "responsibly", possibly also to do with the fact that he was dropped from the test team a year back for playing an irresponsible shot even though he was a bowling allrounder. The result was a follow saving effort of 119 at a strike rate of 86. The striking feature of the innings was that even with the spinners in operation for a long time, he did not hit a single six. All his strokes were on the ground - 21 of them reaching the fence. It set up one of the greatest tests in history but the knock gets overshadowed by Jones and Gavaskar's innings. The second was once again against the West Indies in the Narendra Hirwani test match. The pitch was not only a rank turner, but was totally up and down as well and playing fast bowlers was not easy either. India were struggling at 150/5 when Kapil turned the match around scoring 109 of the 157 runs while he was at the crease at a strike rate of 90. It was again the temepered approach which stood out during this innings. Nothing was hit in the air. His square drives and on drives were just amazing on a two paced up and down wicket where playing drives was the most difficult thing to do. That driving was bettered at Port Elizabeth where he scored 129 out of a team total of 215 coming at number 7. The innings made a cut in the Wisden top 100 despite the obvious bias of those rankings against the losing side. Donald and Schultz were at the top of their game at the time. There were times when one felt there might be an outside chance of India pulling off a miracle win during the innings. And not meaning to be disresepctful to some of the names bandied around on this thread, no one except Sehwag can come close the destructive batting that Kapil brought and mentioning names like Yuvraj and Khurasia is frankly a joke.

[siddhu]

anway coming back to the thread even though kapil paaji was a good hitter of a six....he was a little inconsistent....

[Aadhavzone]

Not buying it... And how many times has he stayed to finish a match... 2-3 matches in almost 300 match career?? I can show you atleast 10 instances in last 3-4 years where his team was in the winning position and he threw it away because he wanted to hit a six and "please" his demented followers... He is a retard (no offense to mentally challenged). This just means that his luck is favoring him. Anybody can keep swinging the bat like a madman... which is what khurasia and bedade and their likes were guilty of and were dropped.

ya i knew that well :haha: but i said in recent T20! WC

[Aadhavzone]

anway coming back to the thread even though kapil paaji was a good hitter of a six....he was a little inconsistent....

Relating a 6 down player with consistency :haha:

[observer1]

anyone who saw kapil dev's batting (on tv) in the 80s will surely agree that his ability to take the game away from the opposition by clean hitting was simply unparalleled. He used to play the Sehwag Chennai 2008 type innings about once every 6 games I would venture to say. And, follow it up with the most amazing outswing bowling I have seen from an Indian

[siddhu]

Relating a 6 down player with consistency :haha:

does that matter in test matches... and plus he played most of his playing days with *****y batsmen... bar a few...

[chiku]

Guyz why you all are not talking about Viru? :blink: i agree Yuvi is the cleanest hitter, but Viru as well naa? also Raina is simply swashbuckling!

Raina is not just a clean hitter... he has the capacity to hit monsters:omg: i dont know did u ever see the ball getting lost due to viru's six?

[siddhu]

Raina is not just a clean hitter... he has the capacity to hit monsters:omg: sorry most of virus sixers just cross the boundary line. i dont know did u ever see the ball getting lost due to viru's six?

and lets say... if the ball is lost... does the batsmen get more runs for that?? a six qualifies as a ball crossing over the boundary line...

[chiku]

and lets say... if the ball is lost... does the batsmen get more runs for that?? a six qualifies as a ball crossing over the boundary line...

no... but we are discussing about which indian player hit the biggest SIXERS:winky:

[siddhu]

no... but we are discussing about which indian player hit the biggest SIXERS:winky:

well wouldn't it be better if the sixes / matches ratio along with consistency in scoring is measured. just a thought...

[chiku]

well wouldn't it be better if the sixes / matches ratio along with consistency in scoring is measured. just a thought...

yeah why not, thats the way to do it.... i like watching players who can hit the ball a mile, just for the sheer thrill... its amazing

[Aadhavzone]

Raina is not just a clean hitter... he has the capacity to hit monsters:omg: i dont know did u ever see the ball getting lost due to viru's six?

but he treats the bowlers with contempt... so poor look a bowler who gets punished before him... ayyo ayyo! :hysterical:

[DomainK]

Kapil's 175b sounds like a dream innings. I don't think any of the modern day hitters have ever played something of the sort. Too bad it was not recorded.

[Aadhavzone]

Kapil's 175b sounds like a dream innings. I don't think any of the modern day hitters have ever played something of the sort. Too bad it was not recorded.

OMG chanceless and so terrific to even had dreamt of that knock! noway he cant tresspassed! :hatsoff: Kapil Dav Saab!

[varun]

I am not very well versed in my Zoology and Taxamony, so won't be able to comment on the beastliness or lack thereof of Kapil Dev. However, as a destructive batsman Sehwag is the only one who can compare to Kapil from Indian cricket. Some of his innings are of course part of folklore like the 175 against Zimbabwe and his 77 at Lords' where he hit 4 consecutive sixers to save the follow on. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Due to poor TV coverage and crappy journalism, our cricketers before the 90s have lost out on so much of well deserved fame. As a 23 year old, Kapil blasted 89 off 55 deliveries at Lords' and was on his way to the fastest ever test hundred. He scored 89 out of the 117 runs scored while he was at the crease and is said to have hooked and pulled Botham and Willis into desperation. Wisden wrote : He immediately came out to bowl and picked up 3 wickets in England's second innings and ended up with 8 wickets and 130 runs in the match. Wisden wrote about that passage of play : In the very same series, he was on the verge of another faster than run a ball hundred at the Oval and made 97 off 93. He was of course Man of the Series having outdone an in form Botham at his home. Unsurprisingly, he was named the Wisden cricketer of the year for those performances. Sportstar ran a full length feature on the his exploits which are the only memories I have left of the innings apart from the sporadic radio commentary. The very next year he scored a faster than run a ball hundred against Holding, Marshall, Garner, and Roberts - perhaps the best fast bowling attack to have ever played in tandem. Just to show it was no fluke, he almost repeated the feat a couple of tests later when he was dismissed for 98 off 97 deliveries. With a bit more luck, he could have had 4 faster than run a ball test hundreds within a space of few months. Then there are two terribly underrated centuries of his - one in the tied Chennai test where India were struggling to save the follow on and in his own words Kapil decided to play "responsibly", possibly also to do with the fact that he was dropped from the test team a year back for playing an irresponsible shot even though he was a bowling allrounder. The result was a follow saving effort of 119 at a strike rate of 86. The striking feature of the innings was that even with the spinners in operation for a long time, he did not hit a single six. All his strokes were on the ground - 21 of them reaching the fence. It set up one of the greatest tests in history but the knock gets overshadowed by Jones and Gavaskar's innings. The second was once again against the West Indies in the Narendra Hirwani test match. The pitch was not only a rank turner, but was totally up and down as well and playing fast bowlers was not easy either. India were struggling at 150/5 when Kapil turned the match around scoring 109 of the 157 runs while he was at the crease at a strike rate of 90. It was again the temepered approach which stood out during this innings. Nothing was hit in the air. His square drives and on drives were just amazing on a two paced up and down wicket where playing drives was the most difficult thing to do. That driving was bettered at Port Elizabeth where he scored 129 out of a team total of 215 coming at number 7. The innings made a cut in the Wisden top 100 despite the obvious bias of those rankings against the losing side. Donald and Schultz were at the top of their game at the time. There were times when one felt there might be an outside chance of India pulling off a miracle win during the innings. And not meaning to be disresepctful to some of the names bandied around on this thread, no one except Sehwag can come close the destructive batting that Kapil brought and mentioning names like Yuvraj and Khurasia is frankly a joke.

Ah finally, some substance in a sea of fluff. Nice read

[cricketman]

In terms of purely strike rate, you can't go past Viru. The guy gets 80 runs per 100 balls or something in TESTS, thats unheard of!

[patriot]

VIV RICHARDS..avg of 47 at a strike rate of 90+ in an era where 200-220 were good scores.

[patriot]

In terms of purely strike rate' date=' you can't go past Viru. The guy gets 80 runs per 100 balls or something in TESTS, thats unheard of![/quote'] The fact that he has done it as an opener makes him an absolute legend. A once in a lifetime player.