Is Tendulkar the only 'first innings' wonder?

Recently there has been a lot of debate about India's inability to win a Test series abroad and the non-performance of Sachin Tendulkar in crunch situations. Several articles have been written by former cricketers as well as other experts, and statistics have been put forward to drive home one point or another. After India's talented middle-order trio of skipper Ganguly, vice-captain Dravid and Tendulkar batted brilliantly to help save the Trent Bridge Test, we asked the question, is it just Tendulkar who fails to deliver when a stiff fourth innings target is set, or a match has to be saved? As the following table shows, the answer is an emphatic NO!

Table 1. Second Innings Performance of India's "Big Three" compared to some current and past greats (upto and including the Trent Bridge Test):

Player	Career Average	2nd Innings Average*	2nd Innings Average (match result)
			WON	DRAWN	LOST
SC Ganguly	41.3	44.83	116	82.71	21.23
SR Tendulkar	57.04	44.91	61.3	70.36	31.24
R Dravid	51.77	46.24	58.8	89.75	26
BC Lara	49.49	40	50.76	42.61	35.44
SR Waugh	50	31.55	38	31.33	26.03
SM Gavaskar	51.12	51.46	42.2	67	40.59
IVA Richards	50.23	48.92	67.2	49.25	29.47
AR Border	50.56	54.63	54.73	77.36	40.74
J Miandad	52.57	43.92	62.81	47.73	31.73
GSt.A Sobers	57.78	55.15	68.16	85.87	29.87
DG Bradman	99.94	104.5	136	381	50.72

A quick glance shows that ALL great batsmen have performed "below average" in the second innings when their team has lost. Players like India's trio and Steve Waugh have averages in these innings which are just 50 per cent of their career averages. In fact, legends like Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Donald Bradman fall into this category!

Let us exclude Sir Don Bradman's average since his can't be compared with anyone else's for several reasons which we won't get into here. The overall second innings averages of Sunil Gavaskar, Allan Border, Vivian Richards and Sobers are pretty high compared to others. None of the current top batsmen have a second innings average of 50-plus. One possible reason for this anomaly is that batsmen nowadays lack concentration and temperament to bat for days. These are exactly the qualities which batsmen like Gavaskar and Border had in plenty. Surprisingly, Steve Waugh, who according to many, can "bat for his life", has a very poor second innings average (only 31!). In fact, he has scored only ONE second innings half-century in the last five years!

With the exception of Steve Waugh, all of the above players have very high averages when their team has won the Test Match. The reason for this is that most of these players are (were) either their team's top batsman or at least one of their top batsmen and have contributed significantly (if not single-handedly) to the outcome of the Test match. Plus, Waugh bats lower in the order compared to the rest, and if a target has to be knocked off or quick runs scored prior to a declaration, Hayden and Co. are quite capable of doing the job. Ganguly's second innings average of 116.00 is due to several not outs.

The point we are trying to make here is that all the players have poor averages when their team goes down in defeat. More often than not a Test match is won because of good bowling performances. After all, you have to take 20 wickets to win a Test match. So the ultimate fortune of a team has always depended on how their key batsmen have played in the face of high quality bowling, be it pace or spin. Of course, statistics don't reveal everything but they can't be entirely ignored. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that Tendulkar is not that bad a second innings player as many people think or say or write. But it has to be accepted that he hasn't played a match-winning innings of the quality of VVS Laxman's epic knock against Australia (Eden Gardens, 2000-2001). The closest he came to doing so was in the Chennai Test against Pakistan in 1998-99.

Coming back to the Indian batsmen, there has always been a comparison between performances at home and away. Do they flop abroad more than at home? The following table answers that question.

Table 2. Indian Players only: 2nd innings averages in a defeat, home and away:

Player	Home Tests				Away Tests
	Tests	Avg	50	100	Tests	Avg	50	100
SC Ganguly	7	12.42	0	0	15	25.64	1	0
SR Tendulkar	8	35.12	1	1	21	29.76	3	2
R Dravid	7	20.85	0	0	15	28.76	2	0
SM Gavaskar	13	26.53	3	0	21	50.21	4	4

Once again, the question of temperament comes up when you look at Gavaskar's performance abroad. Obviously, he didn't have much support. But when he did, India staged some fantastic wins (Port-of-Spain, 1976) and near-wins (The Oval, 1979). Both Ganguly and Dravid perform worse at home than abroad.

In conclusion, it can be said that Tendulkar, and perhaps Ganguly and Dravid, have at least five years of cricket left in them. Maybe, Tendulkar's best is yet to come! Once again, it is only fair to say that among the present generation of batsmen no one has the temperament and concentration to bat like Gavaskar or Border and grind out a win or go down fighting with a superlative second innings performance.

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Mail Swarna Basu and Anand Ganesan