Denesh Ramdin - Innings of glory and moment of madness

He no doubt was the most feared and demolition man – Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, the very name that made bowlers surrender – with a swagger he would walk in to the arena and force the bowlers to submission.   He made 8540 test runs in 182 innings and 6721 ODI runs in 167 innings – the speed and strike rate was phenomenal.

The little Master Sachin Tendulkar is great in every sphere of activity on the field and that includes his impeccable temperament and manners.  On Mar 16, 2012, he made another history of becoming the first batsman to make 100 international centuries, getting to the milestone against Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla stadium in Mirpur at 5:05pm local time.  That last one came after a year-long wait for one of the most discussed landmarks in cricket history, and was his first ODI hundred against Bangladesh.  He reached the 100th hundred in the 44th over with a nudge behind square leg, one of his favoured strokes to reach a century. Despite the huge amount of hype surrounding the landmark, he did not over celebrate.  He took the helmet off in characteristic style, waved his bat, looked up to the sky, acknowledged his team-mates by raising his helmet towards the dressing room.  The Master is a class every inch. 

At Birmingham,  West Indies who have been struggling to make tall scores had a great day as in the Third Test WI made 426 which seemed improbable at the stage when they lost their 9th wicket – it was a remarkable rearguard of  Tino Best and Denesh Ramdin as they added 143 for the last wicket with Best scoring a record 95.  Best's 95 is the highest score by a No.11 batsman in Tests. The previous highest was Zaheer Khan's 75 against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2004 and prior to that it was  Wesley Hall's 50 against India in 1962.  At the other end, Denesh Ramdin scored a century and remained unbeaten.  It was his 2nd ton in Tests ; the earlier one coming against England in 2009.  In late 1980s Jeff Dujon was a handsome keeper batsman, who scored some useful runs.  Together Best and Ramdin made 143 which is still only the 3rd highest tenth wicket stand. 

Coming back to celebrations, some get overawed upon reaching individual milestones and Denesh Ramdin did it in most unusual and unexpected way.   He dropped his bat and took out  a piece of paper from his pocket which contained a pointed message to Viv Richards. It read - "Yea Viv talk nah"; a reaction to some criticism Richards had made of Ramdin's recent performances. Reportedly Richards as BBC commentator had told that Ramdin had deteriorated in a big way.  Richards retorted that   "If you are given enough chances then you will get it done." – and went on to suggest that Ramdin's innings did not come in a pressure situation.

Sure England felt a sigh of relief when Tino Best got out but he sure deserved a Test century- and that was a catch with which Andrew Strauss equalled the record for the most Test catches by an England player; that came in his 97th Test,  equaling the record of Ian Botham. 

The hero of IPL  Sunil Narine  had a disappointing Test debut.  If Adrian Barath had been sharp enough, he should have had Ian Bell as his first victim.  At the end of the day's play,  an embarrassed Ramdin admitted he had gone overboard and that his statement, which he had prepared on Saturday morning, was an "emotional" one.

In the end, after a fairy tale partnership both the architects – Ramdin, Best had reasons to rue their acts !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.