A statistical review of recent India-Pakistan clashes
Mathew Varghese02-Jul-2007India and Pakistan play a one-off ODI at Glasgow on Tuesday. The two teams last met in a two-match series in 2006 at Abu Dhabi, with both teams winning a match apiece.Since 2003, the teams have played 23 ODI matches, with both sides claiming almost an equal share. However, the overall record favours Pakistan, having emerged victorious in 64 of the 108 encounters between the two teams, with four matches ending in no-results.
Overall108 40 64 0 4 Since 2003 23 11 12 0 0 Neutral venues 62 24 36 0 2 Sharjah 24 6 18 0 0 India will go into this match with one advantage, having beaten South Africa at Belfast to win the Future Cup series. Pakistan lack match practice, their game against Scotland on Sunday was washed out.For the Indians, the highest run-getters in the Future Cup were Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh. But captain Rahul Dravid leads the run-chart for India against Pakistan since 2003. A good sign is that four of the Indian batsmen in the current line-up average over 40 in recent encounters against Pakistan, with three besides Dravid having a strike-rate of over 90. India’s vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a phenomenal record, averaging over 60 and scoring at more than a run-a-ball.
Rahul Dravid 23 1005 47.85 1973.57 Sachin Tendulkar 18 787 43.72 3390.25 Yuvraj Singh 23 783 43.50 1596.19 MS Dhoni 13 542 60.22 14105.44 Sourav Ganguly 14 308 22.00 0073.50 The Indian batsmen would also take heart from the fact that the Pakistan squad doesn’t feature Naved ul-Hasan, the most successful Pakistan bowler against India since 2003. In 15 matches against India, Naved ul-Hasan has taken 31 wickets at an average of 23.67. Although his economy rate of 5.70 might look expensive, he has picked up a wicket every 25 balls against India.The rest of the bowling comes a cropper against India, with speedster Shoaib Akhtar topping the averages at 31.31.
Naved ul-Hasan 15 128.4 734 3123.675.7024.9 Mohammad Sami 15 131.3 795 2137.856.0437.5 Shoaib Malik 22 122 657 1738.645.3843.0 Shoaib Akhtar 10 89.5 501 1631.315.5733.6 Abdul Razzaq 23 187.1 979 1565.265.2374.8 Shahid Afridi 23 115 639 1349.155.5553.0 The seamers not mentioned in the above list – Mohammad Asif, Iftikhar Anjum and Umar Gul – fare no better, with their 6, 3 and 1 wickets against India costing 44.83, 65.66 and 126 respectively.Although Sourav Ganguly has not enjoyed great batting form against Pakistan of late (he averages only 22 in the 14 matches since 2003), he does possess the best bowling average for this Indian squad (minimum 10 wickets). The other bowler who’s done well against Pakistan is left-armer RP Singh, who has taken 8 wickets in his three matches against the side in 2006.In fact, bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad could pass on a bit of advice to his likely opening bowlers Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan, who have little to boast of. Prasad, along with Ganguly, Tendulkar and Arshad Ayub, are the only Indian bowlers to have picked five-fors against Pakistan.
Irfan Pathan 26 25.07 4.97 30.2 Ashish Nehra 20 31.90 6.19 30.9 Zaheer Khan 19 45.26 5.85 46.3 Ajit Agarkar 14 30.21 4.91 36.8 Sachin Tendulkar 14 39.35 5.68 41.5Pakistan’s new captain Shoaib Malik will be hoping to lead from the front with the bat. Malik is the only batsman apart from his counterpart Dravid to register more than 1000 runs in India-Pakistan matches since 2003, and also averages over 45. Another batsman who averages over 45 is his deputy Salman Butt. The stylish left-hand batsman has scored three match-winning centuries against India.
Shoaib Malik 1034 49.23 2 8 90.14 Inzamam ul-Haq 954 45.42 2 4 85.71 Mohammad Yousuf 606 27.54 0 5 80.69 Younis Khan 521 30.64 0 3 84.03 Abdul Razzaq 490 30.62 0 3 98.19 Salman Butt 457 45.70 3 0 80.31 Shahid Afridi 407 25.43 1 1 148.54 Yasir Hameed 293 36.62 0 2 68.13 Kamran Akmal 230 23.00 0 0 85.18 Interestingly, both captain and deputy also pair well against India, having been involved in three century partnerships. The only other pair to do so is that of Inzamam ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf. Butt and Malik also average over 70 in partnerships against India, the highest for any Pakistan pair having played alongside each other in more than five innings.
Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik 6 429 71.50 30 Javed Miandad, Saleem Malik 13 658 59.81 15 Ijaz Ahmed, Saeed Anwar 12 674 56.16 22 Inzamam ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf 16 817 54.46 32 Inzamam ul-Haq, Moin Khan 9 326 54.33 02 For India, captain Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif are the only players to be involved in three partnerships of hundred or more against Pakistan. Although Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have amassed over 1000 runs in tandem against Pakistan, no current pair figures in the best five partnership averages.
Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar 8 456 76.00 2 2 Navjot Sidhu, Sachin Tendulkar 7 482 68.85 1 2 Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif 8 465 66.42 3 0 Ravi Shastri, Dilip Vengsarkar 6 187 62.33 0 1 Sourav Ganguly, Robin Singh 8 473 59.12 1 2