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Klusener a must Head and shoulders above the rest
Posted: Wednesday June 09, 1999 11:47 AM
By Tunku Varadarajan, CNN/SI Cricket is the only game for individuals played by a team. One man can make or mar a match; one player can withstand the collective fury of 11 opponents. In this game, more than any other, a brilliant individual performance can change the course of a tournament. The seventh World Cup has, so far, been a bowlers' cup. The hard white ball, with its prominent seam, has made batting at best difficult. Bowlers with control and guile have profited handsomely from the conditions, especially when the skies above have taken on an overcast English hue. It is only just, therefore, to pat a few batsmen on the back. The Indian trio of Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar have flowered in the desert. Their runs may have come against pedestrian attacks, but their panache with the willow has given the tournament a delicious batting flavor. Spectators want to see shots played. A constant tumble of cheap wickets can be dispiriting to watch. Jacques Kallis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Ajay Jadeja and Mark Waugh have also played shots. The first two have been particularly impressive, as both the South African and the Pakistani top orders have failed to fire with the bat. Kallis has been the caretaker of his side's batting, picking up the pieces after Kirsten, Cullinan, Gibbs and Cronje. Inzamam has often had to rouse the Pakistani batting from slumber, jolt it out of its torpor, and has scored most of his runs in the last ten overs - robustly, jauntily, classically. In this, he has received vital support from Moin Khan, one of the stars of the Cup so far. Apart from being the best 'keeper by a mile, he has scored more rapidly than any other batsman, hoisting the likes of McGrath and Donald for sixes as if they were mere net bowlers. But the true annihilator of attacks has been Lance Klusener, indisputably the player of the tournament. He has not been dismissed once and can claim to have won South Africa's toughest match - that against Pakistan - single-handedly. His bat is heavy, his hitting clean, his demeanor modest, his bowling rapid, and his fielding quicksilver. No World XI could do without him. The best bowler of the tournament, after a sluggish beginning, has been Glenn McGrath. Clinically, he shot down the West Indies - a team that could so easily have defeated the Australians. Mercilessly, he mowed the Indian top-order, dismissing Tendulkar in his very first over of the match. (In doing so, he caused the anti-climax of the tournament: the entire cricketing world had focused on the battle between him and the Little Master, and more than a few were convinced that Tendulkar would take him apart.) Shoaib Akhtar has been the most exhilarating to watch. He charges in like a lithe bull at a corrida, making straight for the batsman/matador. He is fiercely fast, fiendishly competitive, snarlingly aggressive. His figures do not do him justice, and there is no doubt that Azhar Mehmood and Abdul Razzaq - the Pakistani second-string bowlers - have snared batsmen softened up by Shoaib. Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq are my other bowlers of the tournament. They are the aristocrats of their respective arts - cunning, orthodox and inventive. Where, oh where, does Pakistan find such talent?
My World XI (in batting order), based on the first round, and the first set of matches in the Super Sixes: Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Lance Klusener, Moin Khan, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Glenn McGrath.
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