It was year full of Test matches and runs came pouring in, players scored double centuries aplenty, in all 11 double centuries were notched up by the batters apart from the one triple century and one quadruple century that was scored. Almost all the top countries played more than 10 Test matches for the year. Many records were shattered and many records were created.
• Lara became the first batsman in Test history to score a quadruple ton
• Lara also became the second player after Sir Don Bradman to score 2 triple tons(considering 400 as a triple ton)
• Lara’s innings of 400* is the highest ever Test score in the history of the game
• Srilanka contributed 5 of the 11 double tons.
• Kumara Sangakkara from Srilanka and Sachin Tendulkar from India made 2 Test Double tons for the calendar year.
• Sehwag became the first Indian to score a Triple Century when he made 309 against Pakistan.
• Sachin’s 3 biggies(241*,194*,248*) for the year all came in foreign soil which is a remarkable achievement
• Sachin scored his first double ton against Australia as well his first double ton away from home.
• Sachin’s 248* against Bangladesh was his highest ever Test score.
• Sachin’s 248* against Bangadesh was the 250th double century in the history of test annals, incidentally the 200th double was also scored by Sachin
• Sachin, for the record scored the first and last double century of the year 2004
• Lara, Sachin, Sarwan, Dravid, Sehwag, Sangakkara, Atapattu, Flintoff made their best ever Test Score which was a great achievement as all the mentioned players apart from Flintoff already had a high test score already to their credit.
• All 4 top scores by the Indian batsmen came on foreign soil which is a remarkable achievement. (241*,309,270 & 248*)
• In the 12 Test matches played by India, they notched up 5 scores of over 500 runs. (705,675,600,526,540)
• Lara became the 3rd and fastest(Matches) player to reach 10,000 runs in Test Cricket
• Rahul Dravid became the first person to score a century against all test playing nations at their home grounds
• Anil Kumble finished the year with 444 wickets overtook Kapil’s record of 434 wickets and became the highest Indian Tests wicket taker
• Shane Warne with 562 wickets overtook Muralitharan to become the highest wicket taker in the history of Test cricket, Murali has 532 wickets
• Kallis, Flintoff and Gayle scored 7 half centuries for the year which was the highest no of fifties recorded for the calendar year
• Martyn scored 6 centuries for the year which was the highest no of tons for the calendar year
• Strauss became the first and only player to score Test centuries on debut at home and in away Tests
• Langer with 1481 runs scored the highest amount runs for the year
• Interesting thing to note is that Martyn scored 2 test centuries each against the 3 big subcontinent teams in the calendar year which I assume is a first of its kind
• Also Australia defeated the 3 big subcontinent teams in a Test series in a single calendar year which may also be a first
India started the year on a strong note against Australia with their 1st test match for the year played at the SCG. The Test Series was leveled at 1-1 after 3 matches; India piled 705/7 decl with Sachin making his highest Test score at that time after his dreadful run of scores in 2003. He was amply supported by VVS Laxman who made a fine 178. After leveling the Australian series, India confidently strode past Pakistan at their den. Sehwag scoring the first triple ton for India and was supported by Sachin’s unbeaten 194 which raised a lot of brows because of Dravid’s declaration before Sachin was able to complete his double century. After losing the second test, India came back strongly to win the 3rd Test and the series, thanks to Dravid’s magnificent 270. India lost the home test series against Australia 2-1 and won the home Test series against South Africa 1-0. India creamed Bangladesh to register a 2-0 series win in Bangladesh. Sachin scored his career highest knock of 248*. Dravid and Gambhir helped themselves to a century apiece.
3 double tons and a triple ton was contributed by India, 4 players made 5 double tons for Srilanka, Lara made the historic 400*, Sarwan creamed Bangladesh to make his career highest score of 261*. Fleming also scored a double ton against the hapless Bangladesh. Langer thwarted the New Zealand attack to score his double century for the year. Pakistan played only 7 tests for the entire calendar year with no major contributions.
Only Kallis and Martyn were among the runs consistently. Although they didn’t have a double ton or a high score to their credit they had been incredibly consistent with the bat throughout the year.
Big not out scores made up the averages for the otherwise not so consistent year for Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. Sachin was unlucky to miss out on his double ton when he scored 194* against Pakistan.
As many as 11 players reached the 1000 run mark for the calendar year. The breakup was pretty interesting, in spite of 3 West Indies players featuring in this elite list, the Windies had a pathetic year in Test cricket. 3 Australian, 2 Srilankan, 1 Indian, 1 English and 2 South African player completed this list
My Batsmen of the Year: Damien Martyn & Jacques Kallis
Damien Martyn: His average of 56.38 may not be high when compared to Sachin but he has scored 6 centuries, 5 fifties and 4 scores of 40 plus in the Calendar year with 2 knocks of 97 in the fifties that he had scored. 4 centuries coming in the subcontinent, 2 each against Srilanka and India and 2 at home against Pakistan. He was one of the main architects of the 3-0 whitewash which Australia handed to Srilanka in Srilanka.
Jacques Kallis: Averaging 80.50 for the year, Kallis has scored 5 centuries and 7 fifties with 3 of the 5 centuries being unbeaten tons. He was unlucky to miss out on his 5th Ton when he was dismissed for 92 in the 1st Test against New Zealand.
My Debutant of the Year: Andrew Strauss with 971 runs for the year, he scored 4 tons and 4 fifties and was the revelation of the English side. The player to watch out for in the future.
My All Rounder of the Year: Andrew Flintoff with 898 runs aided by 7 fifties and 2 Tons. He also took 43 wickets with a best of 5/58.
My Team of the Year: England
Although Australia was strong contender for this spot, I couldn’t rate them No 1 for 2 reasons, one being they conceded over 700 runs at Home against India and the other being, they unable to snatch victory against India in the Mumbai test and being bowled out for a paltry score. England played 13 Tests in the year and won 11 of the 13, although they played 8 Tests against Windies and 3 against New Zealand, they white washed both New Zealand and Windies at their home and thrashed Windies 3-0 in the 4 match series at Windies, Only Brian Lara’s 400 stopped the English from completing the white wash at West Indies. They finished the year with a 1-0 lead over South Africa at their own den, bad light preventing them from winning their 12 Test for the year. Great going England.
My Bowler(s) of the Year: Shane Warne with 70 wickets with five 5 wickets hauls and two 10 wicket haul from 12 Tests and Stephen Harmison with 67 wickets from 13 Tests with a best of 7-12 which is also his best Test bowling performance
A look at the Captains:
Name Matches Runs HS Avg 100s 50s
Brian Lara 12 1178 400* 58.9 3 4
Saurav Ganguly 8 408 88 45.33 0 4
Stephen Fleming 10 737 202 46.06 2 2
Maravan Atapattu 11 966 249 48.3 4 1
Michael Vaughan 12 712 140 35.6 3 2
Ricky Ponting 10 697 98 41 0 5
Graeme Smith 11 921 139 46.05 2 5
Inzamam-ul-haq 6 372 118 37.2 2 1
Tatendra Taibu 4 184 59 30.66 0 2
Habibul Bashar 6 298 113 27.09 1 1
• Brian Lara led the pack for the maximum number of runs scored for the calendar year. His average was also the highest among all the 10 captains.
• Saurav Ganguly missed out on 4 tests due to injury, his average came about 45.33 after the 2 big fifties he scored against Bangladesh.
• Stephen Fleming notched up his second double century of his career when he made 202 against Bangladesh.
• Maravan Atapattu was unlucky to miss out the 1000 run mark, he scored his career highest score of 249 against Zimbabwe.
• Both Michael Vaughan and Ricky Ponting had a quiet year despite their team astounding success.
• Graeme Smith had a good run with the bat although his team fared badly, he missed out on the 1000 run mark by 79 runs
• Although Pakistan played only 7 Tests for the entire year, Inzamam-ul-haq’s performance was below par.
• Habibul Bashar scored a ton to his credit
• Zimbabwe was troubled because of the political situation in their country played only 4 Tests for the year
A glimpse at the rest:
Sachin Tendulkar 10 915 248* 91.5 3 2
Virendar Sehwag 12 1141 309 63.39 3 4
Rahul Dravid 12 946 270 63.07 2 4
VVS Laxman 12 513 178 32.06 1 1
Kumara Sangakkara 11 1114 270 55.7 3 5
Sanath Jayasurya 11 1130 253 56.5 4 3
Mahela Jayawardene 11 861 237 45.32 2 3
Ramnaresh Sarwan 12 1005 261* 50.25 3 4
Chris Gayle 12 1135 141 54.04 4 7
Mathew Hayden 14 1123 132 43.19 3 6
Justin Langer 14 1481 215 54.85 5 4
Damien Martyn 14 1353 161 56.38 6 5
Darren Lehmann 12 803 153 40.15 2 6
Adam Gilichrist 14 837 144 38.05 3 3
Andrew Flintoff 13 898 167 52.82 2 7
Graham Thorpe 12 951 119* 73.15 4 4
Andrew Strauss 9 971 137 60.69 4 4
Marcus Trescothick 13 1004 132 43.65 4 3
Jacques Kallis 11 1288 162 80.5 5 7
Jacobus Rudolph 11 890 154* 49.44 3 5
Stats Courtesy: cricinfo.com & howstat.com
*** Players who have scored more than 800 runs in this year, the top 5 Indian Batsmen and all the test playing nation captains have been included in this list
