Best performances ever by an allrounder in a seies

[Harsh Thakor]

I just came across an article in cricinfo cordon by Australian writer This article is an ideal illustration oh how statistics dies not convey the true story.He considers Imran Khan's 1983-83 series performance as the best by an all-rounder ever.I would counter it as Imran hardly faced as precarious situations as Ian Botham did in the 1981 Ashes series. These are my best 10 performances by an all-rounder in a single series in order of merit. 1.Ian Botham-1981 Ashes To me I still rate Ian Botham's 1981 Ashes performance on top.His herculean efforts lifted ressurected England from the grave and revitalized the demoralized spirit of the entire English nation.Botham was literally like a one man army and but for Botham Australia would have won the series 4-0 and not lost it 3-1.His 149 n.o.at Leeds ,5-11 at Edgbaston and 118 at Old Trafford changed the shape of a series like no cricketer ever did before.Made the impact of a Greek God flashing lightning at his best from the 3rd to the 5th test match.Disregard his 1st 2 test matches.After relinquishing the captaincy he scored 365 runs at an average 52.15 and captured 28 wickets at an average of 19.68. 2.Gary Sobers-1966 Wisden trophy in England Scored 722 runs at 103.14 and captured 20 wickets at 27.05..Performed like a cricketing machine to win the series for his team.At Headingley Sobesr scored 174 and took 5041 and 3039.At Lordshe scored 163 n.o after his team was 9-5 in a record partnership with David Holford. 3.Gary Sobers-1970 for rest of the World v.England The best a ll-round performance in a season in England ever displayed when Sobers captured 21 wickets and scored 583 runs.Sobers demonstrated the qualities of an invincible army conquering territory after territory,dominating every aspect of cricket. 4.Imran Khan 1982-83 v India in Pakistan Statistically the best of all all-round performances and arguably the best pace bowling performance ever in a test series.Imran resembled a great military commander capturing 40 wickets at 13.9 and scoring at an average of around 61.Imran's spells at Karachi and Hyderabd reminded you of a tiger tearing flesh.The likes of Gavaskar,Vishwantah,Sandeep Patil and Kapil Dev were simply bamboozled . 5.Kapil Dev-1979-80 v.Pakistan in India Captured 32 wickets at 17.68 and scored at scored 388 runs an average of 30.88 Kapil Dev's swashbuckling batting at Mumbai in the 3rd test and Madras in the 5th combined with his great bowling spells at Madras and Delhi enabled India to conquer the 'invincible' Pakistani team.His 69 at Mumbai turned the game as well as his 84 runs and 7-56 bowling haul at Madras.A great enemy was conquered by Kapil Dev's herculean efforts. 6.Imran Khan-1982 series in England The best performance by an all-rounder in a series lost.Some bad umpiring decisions cost Pakistan the series.At Edgbaston and Leeds Imran was like a brown 'Gary Sobers.'Had Pakistan won the Leed's test Imran would have been credited with one of the all-time great performances.Imran outperormed Ian Botham in this series. 7.Andrew Flintoff-2005 Ashes series in England His 403 runs at 40.39 and 24 wickets at 27.29 turned the Ashes towards England.At crucial junctures he made some of the most crucial breakthoughs and scored vital runs.In the 2nd test match at Edgbaston he scored 68 and 72 and captured 4 wickets.He also scored 102 at Trent Bridge and 72 at the Oval..Reminded you a lot of Ian Botham.England now retained the Ashes after a gap of 19 years which was significant. 8.Keith Miller In West Indies in 1955 Captured 20 wickets and scored 3 centuries. 9.Kapil Dev in England in 1982 Although India lost Kapil Dev gave a great exhibition of batting in all 3 test matches scoring 89,65 and 97 in succession in addition to 2 great bowling spells at Lords.In the 1st test at Lords he looked like an Ian Botham re-incarnating when scoring 89 runsof 55 balls and then capturing 3 English wickets on the 4th day when they needed a mere 63 runs to win. 10.Jacques Kallis -1999 at home v.West Indies Took 17 wickets at 17.58 and averaged over 69 runs.No other batsman averaged above 50 in the series. Shaun Pollock in New Zealand in 1999 scored 113 runs without being dismissed and captured 13 wickets at 14.85.