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| Match Winners XI ( ODI ) |
Views : 2291 |
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| 21st January, 2012. |
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| Introduction |
| There are different ways of picking an All-Time ODI XI. You could go for team balance, with a regulation five best batsmen, a keeper, an allrounder, three quicks and a spinner. You could take advantage of the greatness of the players under consideration and choose three quicks who were also handy with the bat, such as Akram, Hadlee and Dev. You could fill your lower order with sloggers to put the score out of sight in the death overs, and have Zulu Klusener batting alongside Shahid Afridi. |
| This article looks at another way of selecting such a team. What we will do is make a table of the players who have the highest ratio of Man-of-the-Match awards to games played. Then, for each batting position, we will simply choose the player who has the best ratio. |
| Some guidelines must be put in place before teams can be selected in this manner. The player must have won at least ten Man-of-the-Match awards. For simplicity's sake, the player can only represent a team in the position in which they have played most of their matches. If a slot is taken then the player in question drops down to the next XI. The exception is that each team must have at least one specialist wicketkeeper. |
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| Viv Richards |
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| Sachin Tendulkar |
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| Jacques Kallis |
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| Ricky Ponting |
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| Sanath Jayasuriya |
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| Andrew Symonds |
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| MS Dhoni |
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| Lance Klusner |
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| Player |
Match |
MoM |
Ratio |
| V. Richards |
187 |
31 |
6.03 |
| G. Greenidge |
128 |
20 |
6.4 |
| S. Tendulkar |
453 |
62 |
7.31 |
| M. Crowe |
143 |
19 |
7.53 |
| S. Anwar |
247 |
28 |
8.82 |
| N. Astle |
223 |
25 |
8.92 |
| L. Klusener |
171 |
19 |
9 |
| G. Marsh |
117 |
13 |
9 |
| S. Jayasuriya |
445 |
48 |
9.27 |
| S. Watson |
140 |
15 |
9.33 |
| A. Lamb |
122 |
13 |
9.38 |
| A. Symonds |
198 |
21 |
9.43 |
| D. Haynes |
238 |
25 |
9.52 |
| B. Lara |
299 |
30 |
9.97 |
| J. Kallis |
319 |
32 |
9.97 |
| S. Ganguly |
311 |
31 |
10.03 |
| A. Flintoff |
141 |
14 |
10.07 |
| D. Jones |
164 |
16 |
10.25 |
| A. Gilchrist |
287 |
28 |
10.25 |
| A. de Silva |
308 |
30 |
10.27 |
| V. Sehwag |
240 |
23 |
10.43 |
| H. Cronje |
188 |
18 |
10.44 |
| N. Sidhu |
136 |
13 |
10.46 |
| C. Gayle |
228 |
21 |
10.86 |
| Y. Singh |
274 |
25 |
10.96 |
| S. Al Hasan |
122 |
11 |
11.09 |
| A.B. De Villiers |
122 |
11 |
11.09 |
| A. Sohail |
156 |
14 |
11.14 |
| M. Trescothick |
123 |
11 |
11.18 |
| A. Ranatunga |
269 |
24 |
11.21 |
| H. Gibbs |
248 |
22 |
11.27 |
| G. Gambhir |
124 |
11 |
11.27 |
| G. Gooch |
125 |
11 |
11.36 |
| R. Hadlee |
115 |
10 |
11.5 |
| R. Ponting |
370 |
32 |
11.56 |
| G. Kirsten |
185 |
16 |
11.56 |
| M. Waugh |
244 |
21 |
11.62 |
| P. Simmons |
143 |
12 |
11.92 |
| S. Afridi |
333 |
27 |
12.33 |
| J. Miandad |
233 |
18 |
12.94 |
| M. Dhoni |
196 |
15 |
13.07 |
| K. Srikkanth |
146 |
11 |
13.27 |
| S. Malik |
200 |
15 |
13.33 |
| U. Tharanga |
134 |
10 |
13.4 |
| M. Atapattu |
268 |
20 |
13.4 |
| I. Khan |
175 |
13 |
13.46 |
| B. Lee |
205 |
15 |
13.67 |
| S. Pollock |
303 |
22 |
13.77 |
| P. Collingwood |
197 |
14 |
14.07 |
| R. Sarwan |
173 |
12 |
14.42 |
| A. Razzaq |
265 |
18 |
14.72 |
| C. Hooper |
227 |
15 |
15.13 |
| J. Rhodes |
245 |
16 |
15.31 |
| W. Younis |
262 |
17 |
15.41 |
| S. Waugh |
325 |
21 |
15.48 |
| Y. Khan |
234 |
15 |
15.6 |
| I-ul-Haq |
378 |
24 |
15.75 |
| M. Yousuf |
288 |
18 |
16 |
| A. Border |
273 |
17 |
16.06 |
| S. Warne |
194 |
12 |
16.17 |
| W. Akram |
356 |
22 |
16.18 |
| K. Sangakkara |
309 |
19 |
16.26 |
| D. Boon |
181 |
11 |
16.45 |
| S. Fleming |
280 |
17 |
16.47 |
| G. McGrath |
250 |
15 |
16.67 |
| S. Chanderpaul |
268 |
16 |
16.75 |
| A. Stewart |
170 |
10 |
17 |
| I. Ahmed |
250 |
14 |
17.86 |
| G. Flower |
221 |
12 |
18.42 |
| T. Dilshan |
222 |
12 |
18.5 |
| M. Azharuddin |
334 |
18 |
18.56 |
| M. Clarke |
206 |
11 |
18.73 |
| S. Styris |
188 |
10 |
18.8 |
| M. Bevan |
232 |
12 |
19.33 |
| A. Flower |
213 |
11 |
19.36 |
| A. Jadeja |
196 |
10 |
19.6 |
| K. Dev |
225 |
11 |
20.45 |
| D. Martyn |
208 |
10 |
20.8 |
| D. Jayawardene |
359 |
17 |
21.12 |
| C. Cairns |
215 |
10 |
21.5 |
| S. Malik |
283 |
13 |
21.77 |
| R. Richardson |
224 |
10 |
22.4 |
| R. Dravid |
344 |
14 |
24.57 |
| M. Muralitharan |
350 |
13 |
26.92 |
| D. Vettori |
272 |
10 |
27.2 |
| C. Vaas |
322 |
11 |
29.27 |
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| Richard Hadlee |
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| Glenn Mcgrath |
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| Wasim Akram |
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| Allan Donald |
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| Curtly Ambrose |
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| Waqar Younis |
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| Shane Warne |
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| Andrew Flintoff |
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| The teams |
| Because each team must have a wicketkeeper, some other players have to be displaced, although this is not necessary in the 1st XI, because M.S. Dhoni wins his slot anyway as the matchwinningest No. 6 batsman of all time. In the 2nd XI, Adam Gilchrist knocks Saeed Anwar down into the 3rd XI, and in the 3rd XI Kumar Sangakkara knocks Dean Jones out of contention. |
| Man-of-the-Match 1st XI |
| 1. |
G. Greenidge |
6.4 |
| 2. |
S. Tendulkar |
7.31 |
| 3. |
J. Kallis |
9.97 |
| 4. |
V. Richards |
6.03 |
| 5. |
A. Symonds |
9.43 |
| 6. |
MS Dhoni (wk) |
13.07 |
| 7. |
R. Hadlee |
11.5 |
| 8. |
L. Klusener |
9.00 |
| 9. |
B. Lee |
13.67 |
| 10. |
W. Younis |
15.41 |
| 11. |
G. McGrath |
16.67 |
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| Man-of-the-Match 2nd XI |
| 1. |
A. Gilchrist (wk) |
10.25 |
| 2. |
N. Astle |
8.92 |
| 3. |
B. Lara |
9.97 |
| 4. |
M. Crowe |
7.53 |
| 5. |
A. Flintoff |
10.07 |
| 6. |
I. Khan |
13.46 |
| 7. |
S. Pollock |
13.77 |
| 8. |
W. Akram |
16.18 |
| 9. |
S. Warne |
16.17 |
| 10. |
M. Muralitharan |
26.92 |
| 11. |
S. Bond |
13.67* |
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| Man-of-the-Match 3rd XI |
| 1. |
S. Anwar |
8.82 |
| 2. |
D. Haynes |
9.52 |
| 3. |
K. Sangakkara (wk) |
16.26 |
| 4. |
A. Lamb |
9.38 |
| 5. |
Y. Singh |
10.96 |
| 6. |
M. Bevan |
19.33 |
| 7. |
A. Razzaq |
14.72 |
| 8. |
C. Vaas |
29.27 |
| 9. |
D. Vettori |
27.2 |
| 10. |
J. Gillespie |
13.86* |
| 11. |
A. Donald |
18.22* |
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| * These three players did not meet the minimum qualification of 10 Man-of-the-Match performances, but because only one specialist No. 11 player ever has (McGrath) and only two specialist No. 10s ever have (Younis and Muralitharan), this was necessary to complete the XIs. I relaxed the minimum Man-of-the-Match requirement to 6 for these positions. I feel that it's hard to argue that Bond, Gillespie and Donald are not worthy of consideration for such teams anyway. |
| Discussion |
| Considering that 22 players take the field, a ratio of a little over 6, as achieved by Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge, is truly astonishing, especially when the quality of players on their own teams are considered. However, a closer look at the allocation of Man-of-the-Match awards reveals one unfortunate practice: they usually go to batsmen. In each of the XIs given above, the batsmen have far lower ratios than the bowlers, and the openers tend to have lower ratios than the players in the middle order. This latter point is perhaps understandable: opening batsmen have more time and opportunity to stamp their mark on the game than middle order batsmen, but I struggle to think of a reason why Glenn McGrath and Waqar Younis should be so far behind, for example, Andrew Symonds. |
| The 1st XI, despite not being a true All-time ODI XI, would be hard to beat by any measure. The top four batsmen all average in the mid forties, and then come four heavy hitters in Symonds, Dhoni, Hadlee and Klusener. Lee and Younis would probably open the bowling, with McGrath and Hadlee first change, so if swing and extreme pace wasn't enough, the 1st XI could test the opposition with line, length and movement. |
| A quirk of this methodology was that the 2nd XI became stacked with allrounders, with Shaun Pollock, Imran Khan and Andrew Flintoff among the all-time greats in this player category, and Shane Warne and Wasim Akram close to being considered bowling allrounders. Probably this team would select their bowling options based on match conditions, or save some of the allrounders in case one of the frontline bowlers misfired. |
| Nathan Astle would probably not be one of the first players most people considered for an All Time ODI 2nd XI, but his ratio speaks for the value he had to the New Zealand side, as well as to his inconsistency. His 16 centuries explain why his ratio is so low, but what isn't taken into account is the number of ducks he scored. If there was an anti-Man-of-the-Match award he might have taken a few. A team of this quality, though, could easily afford such a hit-and-miss player at the top of the order. |
If you want to see these players in simulated action, have a go at my One Day International flash cricket simulator.
Have you picked your favorite ODI XI yet? If no, vote now... |
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