Thursday 17 March 2011

Graeme Swann and Abdur Razzak: the match winners - ICC World Cup 2011

When the fast bowlers fail to bring the required results, the partnerships have stabilised and the conditions look helpless, the Captain can utilise the spinners from their armoury to bring instant changes with positive results. The spinners serve as a key component to the formation of any team and have opened the bowling in the shorter version of the game, with relative success.
A brief look at two prominent spinners in the modern game, Graeme Swann of England and Abdur Razzak of Bangladesh is as follows.
Graeme Peter Swann is a right-arm off break bowler and a useful right-hand lower order batsman. He has played for England, Nottinghamshire and the famous Northamptonshire County.
Swann started his career by posting a large amount of runs in county cricket, but diverted his attention to spin bowling. Within a short time, he excelled in his bowling and became a very important part of the English team. Swann is a tall lanky bowler and is expected to take a wicket in his first over when asked to bowl.
He is an integral part of the English side in all three forms of the game, as he has led them to many victories in different matches and was instrumental in bringing the Ashes back home on their visit to Australia in 2010-11.
Swann made his debut in One Day Internationals against South Africa on 23 January, 2000 at Bloemfontein, which England won comprehensively by 9 wickets. He has played 47 matches and has taken 69 wickets at an average of 24.59 runs per wicket with the best of 5 for 28 runs. Swann has contributed 339 runs with the bat at an average of 13.56 runs with the best of 34 runs.
He is playing his first World Cup and has played 4 matches, taken 7 wickets at an average of 24.28 runs per wicket with the best of 3 for 47 runs and has scored 40 runs in the 3 innings he played.
The spinners are proving very successful on the Subcontinent pitches, as Shahid Afridi of Pakistan is the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 15. This fact gives a tremendous amount of encouragement to all the spinners in the tournament and Swann is looking forward to putting in a good performance for his team.
Abdur Razzak is a slow left-arm spinner and a left-hand batsman. He has played for Bangladesh, Khulna Division, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Asia XI.
He is a left arm attacking spinner with the capability of breaking partnerships and useful in blocking the score, as the batsmen are playing freely. He was the fifth best One Day International bowler in 2010 International cricket with 29 wickets at an average of 32.00 runs per wicket with the best of 5 for 30 runs.
Razzak made his ODI debut on 16 July, 2004 against Hong Kong at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo, as Bangladesh won by 116 runs and he opened his account with 3 wickets. He has played 116 matches, grabbed 168 wickets at an average of 26.97 runs per wicket with the best of 5 for 29 runs. Razzak has scored 577 runs at an average of 13.41 runs with the best of 33 runs.
He has appeared in 12 World Cup matches and has taken 14 wickets at an average of 32.57 runs with the best of 3 for 20 runs.
Razzak will play an important role for Bangladesh as they try to make their mark in the tournament. The team will be counting on his ability to take early wickets and restrict the batsman.
The performance of both spinners is vital for their respective teams, as the Subcontinent pitches favour the batsmen. Their ability to turn the ball and contain the batsmen is crucial in keeping the score low. It will be interesting to see how the spinners take on the challenge and chase the ultimate trophy.

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