A tribute to the Chanderpaul in numbers

“Has it gone? Has it gone? Has it gone? Has it gone? It’s gone” – Ian Bishop was commentating in the first ODI between West Indies and Sri Lanka at Port of Spain in 2008 when Chanderpaul managed to pull off a heist with ten required off two balls and only the last man for company. That was Chanderpaul. Known for his stubbornness out there in the middle he could also pull of some unbelievable innings out from nowhere. He was the greatest proof to the fact that there is life beyond the coaching manual. A crab like stance with the back of the bat facing the fielder at the backward point, the little man from Guyana scored over 10000 runs in tests at an average of above fifty in a career spanning over 21 long years. Let us ride through his career with the help of a few numbers.

FACT FILE

NAME: Shivnarine Chanderpaul

BORN: August 16, 1974, Unity Village, East Coast, Demerara, Guyana

MAJOR TEAMS: West Indies, Derbyshire, Durham, Guyana, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Khulna Royal Bengals, Lancashire, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Stanford Superstars, Uva Next, Warwickshire, Warwickshire 2nd XI

BATTING STYLE: Left handed

BOWLING STYE: Right arm leg break

CAREER STATS – BATTING & FIELDING

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	Ct
Tests	164	280	49	11867	203*	51.37	30	66	66
ODIs	268	251	40	8778	150	41.6	11	59	73
T20Is	22	22	5	343	41	20.17	0	0	7
First-class	349	570	103	25399	303*	54.38	71	133	185
List A	408	380	70	13031	150	42.03	12	96	112
Twenty20	81	78	11	1576	87*	23.52	0	8	24

CAREER STATS - BOWLING

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	SR	4w
Tests	164	43	1740	883	9	1/2	1/2	98.11	193.3	0
ODIs	268	28	740	636	14	3/18	3/18	45.42	52.8	0
T20Is	22	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	349		4812	2532	60	4/48	-	42.2	80.2
List A	408		1681	1388	56	4/22	4/22	24.78	30	2
Twenty20	81	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Chanders: The immovable crab

(In)Auspicious start

Chanderpaul made his first class debut for Guyana in his home ground Bourda at a young age of 17. He was run out for a duck in the first innings and scored ninety in the second innings while following on (out of 243 when no one crossed fifty). Two years later, he made his way into the test side. Playing against England at Bourda, he scored 62 in his only outing. He was just 19 years & 215 days old, thereby making the third youngest West Indies player to score fifty or more on debut innings.

Second in command

For a major part of his career, Chanderpaul had to play the second fiddle to Brian Lara. However one interesting record that the two combined hold is the highest difference between two scores in the same innings in a test match. When Lara scored the record breaking 375 against England at St John’s in 1994, the next highest score was Chanderpaul’s 75* - difference of exactly 300. It is the only instance of a difference of 300 or more between two scores in the same innings in tests.

First of the 30

India toured West Indies after 8 long years in 1997 under Sachin Tendulkar. In the two dud draws in the first two tests, Chanderpaul scored 52, 48, 42 and 79. But the elusive three figure score eluded him even after 18 tests. In the only test match that had a result in the 5-match series, Chanderpaul scored 137* at Bridgetown – his only test hundred batting in the top three positions. It was just the beginning of the love affair he was to have with the Indians.

The watershed moment

After 51 tests, Chanderpaul’s career stats were: 2934 runs at 38.6 with two hundreds and 23 fifties in 85 innings. Hardly earth shattering. His favorite opposition once again visited the Caribbean shores in the summer of 2002 and in the series which followed, he just refused to get out. His scores read – 140, 1 & 67*, 101*, 136* and 58 & 59 – 562 runs at 140.5 earning him a Man of the Series award. He batted for 1513 minutes between his first innings dismissals in the second and fifth tests – a world record. He went on to bat undismissed for over 1000 minutes thrice more in his career – 1031 minutes in 2004, 1074 minutes in 2007 and 1115 minutes in 2008.

Century of 69 balls

When your side is reeling at 51/5 against Steve Waugh’s all conquering side of the 2000s, no one expects you to score a century in 69 balls, especially if your name is Shivnarine Chanderpaul. But that is exactly what happened at the Bourda in April 2003. In company of ‘Iron Gloves’ Ridley Jacobs, he thrashed the Aussie bowlers to all corners of the ground. It was then the third fastest hundred in the history of the game (currently the joint 5^th fastest).

The world record chase

Despite of Chanderpaul’s heroic efforts, West Indies lost that Bourda test as well as the next two tests. Coming into the fourth test at St John’s in Antigua, they were on the threshold of facing the ignominy of first whitewash at home. Set to chase 418 in the last innings writing was on the wall. When Lara departed just after lunch at 165 it was just a matter of time. Chanderpaul, who was nursing a broken thumb, joined fellow Guyanese Ramnaresh Sarwan in the middle and batted out the day scoring 103. He added only one more on the fifth morning but that was enough to set up a West Indian victory at last. West Indies’ 418/7 still remains the highest successful fourth innings chase in the history of cricket. It was also the last time West Indies beat Australia in a test match.

Double century on captaincy debut

Chanderpaul was one of the two players to score a double century on captaincy debut. Leading a depleted side against the mighty Proteas, he scored an unbeaten 203 on his home ground at Georgetown, Guyana. The first player to score a double hundred on captaincy debut was New Zealand’s Graham Dowling (239 vs India, Christchurch, 1968). In the same innings, opener Wavell Hinds also smashed his first double century. It was the second and the last time, two West Indians scored double hundreds in the same innings. The other occasion was when Garfield Sobers made the world record 365 not out and Conrad Hunte scored 260 in the same innings against Pakistan in 1958.

One of eight

In the last test match of the series discussed above, eight hundreds were scored for the first time in a test match (emulated once later).  AB de Villiers, Graeme Smith, Jack Kallis and Ashwell Prince from South Africa and Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo and Chanderpaul from West Indies reached the three figure mark.

The Bridgetown classic

Against Pakistan in Bridgetown in May 2005, Chanderpaul scored 92 in the first innings and an unbeaten 153 in the second which paved for a rare West Indian victory. It was the second time in leas then 12 months where he scored a hundred and ninety-odd in the same test. He was the first player to do it twice (Alistair Cook is the only player to emulate him since). He has also scored a century and a duck in the same test thrice – Andrew Strauss being the only other to do so.

The run of seven consecutive fifties

Chanderpaul was the third player to score fifty or more in seven consecutive innings in tests after Everton Weekes in 1948/49 and Andy Flower in 2000/01. The record run started in the second innings of Karachi test against Pakistan where he scored 69. In the England tour which followed, Chanderpaul scored 74 at Lord’s, 50 and 116* at Old Trafford and 136* & 70 at Chester-Le-Street. In the Boxing Day test against South Africa ta Port Elizabeth he scored 104 in the first innings. His dismissal for 8 in the second innings ended the run. Kumar Sangakkara and Chris Rogers emulated the feat since.

The 64^th loss

In the Kolkata test of 2011 tour of India, Chanderpaul went past Brian Lara’s dubious record of being in the losing side of most tests. The Kolkata test was his 64^th and he ended the career with 77 losses. Chanderpaul (5370 runs) and Lara (5316 runs) are the only ones to score more than 5000 runs in test losses. In the 43 test losses they featured together, the duo scored 6003 runs combined – more than any other pair.

203* again

In his second tour to Bangladesh in 2012, Chanderpaul scored his second test double century. It was the second time in his career he scored 203* and it remained his career best. 203* is the joint highest identical career highest score for a batsman. Shoaib Mohammed also scored 203* twice in his career which remained his personal best.

The late stumping

Chanderpaul was stumped for the first time in his career in his 266^th innings – the most by any before getting stumped. He was stumped by BJ Watling off Matt Craig at Bridgetown in 2014. Graeme Smith is at a distant next with 194 innings before getting stumped. Mahela Jayawardene has played the most innings without ever getting stumped in tests – 252.

Refusing to get out

When Bangladesh toured the Caribbean in 2014, Chanderpaul scored 270 runs in the series without getting dismissed (85*, 84* and 101*). It was the then second highest run aggregate in a series without getting dismissed (currently third) by a batsman with more than one innings.

Last bow from test cap #204

Chanderpaul was the 204^th cricketer to play for West Indies. In his last test at Bridgetown, he played alongside Shai Hope who was the 302^nd to represent the West Indies. The difference of 98 (302 - 204) is the biggest for a side other than England. A testament to his longevity and consistency!

The perennial not out man

Chanderpaul has remain unbeaten on a record 49 times – more than any other specialist batsman. Steve Waugh is next best with 46. The 4094 runs he scored in his not out innings is clearly ahead of the next played Waugh who has 3318 runs. Chanderpaul remained unbeaten on 18 of his 30 test hundreds, again another list where he leads. Tendulkar is next best with 16.

The fulcrum

Batting at number is not the easiest thing for one to do. You have to farm the strike well and protect the tail-enders thereby sacrificing your opportunities to score big hundreds (Ask VVS Laxman). Among batsmen with ten or more innings at number six. Chanderpaul’s average of 64.82 in the highest. His seven hundreds at #6 is only behind Gary Sobers and Asad Shafiq.

The explorer

Chanderpaul played his 164 test matches in 58 separate grounds – second only to Sachin Tendulkar who played in 59 (in 200 tests). He played the most in Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados – 19 times. Among away grounds, the most came at Lord’s - five.

Top scoring in each innings

Chanderpaul has top scored for the West Indies in each innings for a record nine occasions – the joint most with Ken Barrington and Brian Lara.

The man who saw the most

Chanderpaul has witnessed the dismissal of 519 partners from the other end in 771 partnerships – the most by any in both aspects. Rahul Dravid is the distant next with witnessing 453 dismissals in 738 partnerships.  Chanderpaul has played with 105 team mates in his 21 year long career and forged partnerships with 83 of them – another world record.

Nine in nine

Chanderpaul has taken nine wickets in his entire test career – all nine coming in separate innings in separate tests. The next best is Joey Carew with eight followed by Roy Fredericks and Michael Hussey with seven each.

The man who carried a team on his shoulders has finally faded into the oblivion without even a farewell test match like his more illustrated contemporaries. And as a cricket fan and admirer of Chanderpaul and West Indies cricket of the 1990s and 2000s, I hope his legacy is carried forward by his son Tagenarine Chanderpaul.

READ:: How his career winded down - Chanderpaul; has the age finally caught up with him: http://cricking.com/chanderpaul-has-age-finally-caught-up-with-him/