Shane Watson’s Test career

Although Shane Watson‘s Test career was not extraordinary, he fulfilled the role of a batting all-rounder for some years. His contribution to limited overs cricket was more striking, as he holds the record for Australia’s top score in ODIs (185*) and second highest in T20Is (124*).

Leaving out the Test against the ICC XI, he played 58 Tests, scoring 3697 runs and taking 75 wickets. If we compare his all-round performance in those of other Australians who had a minimum of 1000 runs and 50 wickets, it is above average but not outstanding (9th out of 22). The only other Australian of that time who might be called an all-rounder was Mitchell Johnson, who was a considerably better bowler but certainly a worse batsman.

However, Watson does have one claim to fame in that he is one of only 4 players to feature on the “neutral” honours board at Lord’s. More about the honours boards here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord’s_honours_boards

Only two neutral Tests have been played here. One was between Australia and South Africa as part of the experimental triangular Test series of 2012:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62391.html

Australia easily defeated South Africa by 10 wickets. In general it was felt that the triangular Test series was a bad idea and it was not repeated. The nearest revival it got was the interlocking tours of England and West Indies to Australia in 1979-80.

Then there was the Test between Australia and Pakistan in 2010:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/426394.html

The neutral honours boards thus have these entries:

Batting:

Bowling:

(There is also a board for ten wickets in a match, which does not have any entries yet).

The actual board being “unveiled” with the new entries:

This Test marked the Test debuts of Steve Smith (1, 12 and 3-51) and Azhar Ali (16 and 42). Watson got the first of his three fivers  while North got his only one here. This match marked Shahid Afridi’s only Test as captain; after this he retired from Tests altogether.

In the second neutral Test at Leeds, Salman Butt’s ill-fated captaincy began with a 3-wicket victory over Australia.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/426395.html

Watson recorded his career-best 6-33 in this Test, while the two As (Asif and Amir) combined to bowl Australia out for 88.

 

 

Overall T20WC records as on March 23

As we pause for breath after the last over against Bangladesh, here is a snapshot of major records in all T20WC matches from 2007 to March 23.

Most matches (25 and more):

Dilshan, Afridi and Dhoni look set to add a few more matches-though they probably will have retired by the next World Championship. Note that the previous record of 31 was shared by three Sri Lankans.

Most runs: (500 and more)

M. Jayawardene’s record is under threat from Gayle and Dilshan.

Of those who scored more than 500 runs, Kohli has by far the highest average (67.33). The next is Gayle with 45.35

The highest strike rate here is 153.31 by Afridi, followed by 148.33 by Pietersen.

Most wickets (20 and more):

Afridi (39) has taken over the record from Malinga. Next among current players is Shakib with 30.

The record of 6-8 by Ajantha Mendis has not come under threat this time as no one has taken more than 4 wickets in an innings.

From those listed above, Mendis has the best average of 15.02, Vettori the best economy at 5.83 and Mendis the best strike rate of 13.4

Fielding (12 or more dismissals):

De Villiers (31) has the most dismissals and is set to add to his record. Most of his catches were as a fielder. Dhoni (29) and Ramdin (26) have a chance of catching up.

Kamran Akmal has the most dismissals (30) among the “pure” keepers. Guptill and Warner with 15 lead among the pure non-keepers, although de Villiers has 22 catches as a fielder along with 7 catches as a keeper and 2 stumpings.

Finally,

Best all-round performance (Minimum 100 runs and 10 wickets):

Using this criterion, Kallis ranks the highest, followed by Shakib and Mathews from the current players.

As we can see, a few of these records may be broken before the end of the 2016 World Championship.

 

 

The easternmost points of India

We start with this map (which appeared in the Economist some time ago) to see the various disputed areas involving India, Pakistan and China.

While the LOC in Kashmir is basically a result of Pakistan grabbing whatever it could in 1947-48, the borders with China are somewhat more complicated, involving treaties by various entities controlling Kashmir, the former NEFA and Tibet over the past two centuries.

There is even a small disputed area called Bara Hoti on the border between Uttarakhand and Tibet, but nothing much happens there. China claims most (but not all) of Arunachal Pradesh; the dark green part of the map is the undisputed part of that state. And Tawang was supposedly governed by Tibet until 1951 before India occupied it.

That bit about Arunachal is necessary to understand this extract from the Wikipedia article on “Extreme points of India”:

East (disputed, administered)	Kibithu in Anjaw district	Arunachal Pradesh	Tibet, China	28.01744°N 97.40238°E	[4][8]
East (undisputed)	Near Kumki, in the Changlang district	Arunachal Pradesh	Kachin State, Myanmar	27.12622°N 97.16712°E	[9]

Kibithu is in the disputed part of Arunachal while Kumki is in the smaller undisputed part.

You can click on the coordinates to get the location on Google Maps or other sites. The first one seems to be wrong as it shows a point in Myanmar. The second one shows a point in India near the border although no place name is given.

This map of Arunachal Pradesh may also be helpful:

You can see Kibithu north of the better-known Walong in Anjaw district.

The place Kumki is not shown here, but would be east of Vijoyanagar (which, like Walong, has an Advanced Landing Ground which can handle medium transport aircraft such as the AN-32 and C-130J).

As Wikipedia has got it wrong, let us explore Walong and its surroundings in Anjaw district on Google Maps:

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.1383739,97.0662292,11z?hl=en

Anjaw is the easternmost district of India. Naturally its HQ at Hawai is the eastermost district HQ at 96.8027 E. The easternmost subdivision is Walong, whose HQ is at Walong (97.067 E).

Walong listed as a cantonment and town, at longitude 97.0167 E

Dong   listed as the easternmost village in India, at longitude 97.0412 E

Kibithu listed as one of the easternmost towns in India and the easternmost             roadhead in India, at longitude 97.0156 E which is west of Walong and Dong.

And the village closest to the Chinese border in this locality is Kaho, near Kibithu.

There is a post office at Walong (Pin code 792104) which covers these places. It would be the easternmost post office in India.

The easternmost bank branch is that of SBI at Hawai in Anjaw district, (96.8027 E). While there are several bank branches in Changlang district, none are so far east.

Also note the tri-junction of India, China and Myanmar about 20 Km east of the Walong-Kibithu route, apparently without any inhabited place in between.

However, the curiously-named village of Dong would  be the easternmost civilian inhabited place in India-even though it consists of 3 huts (and a population of 15 in 4 households). The children go to school in Walong.

In spite of its remoteness it does attract a small number of tourists. Walong is reachable by road via Tezu (which was once served by Vayudoot flights, and now may have Pawan Hans helicopter services run by the state government). Otherwise one can start from Mohanbari airport or Tinsukia railway station.

As a formality, we also visit the “undisputed” easternmost point in the vicinity of Vijoyanagar in Changlang district:

https://www.google.com/maps/@27.1925253,96.9753302,11z?hl=en

There does not seem to be any civilian inhabited place between Vijoyanagar and the Myanmar border. This has a longitude of 96.9939 E which is west of Walong and its neighbours. Changlang district has numerous places of tourist interest (including the Miao sactuary) which can be reached from Mohanbari airport or Tinsukia railway station.

However, life in Vijoyanagar is hard, as you can read here: https://yobindreams.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/non-existence-of-road-inflicts-miseries-a-story-of-vijaynagar-changlang-district/

That is based on an article written in 2009. Perhaps things have improved since then.

Fortunately the western and southern extreme points of India are not so remote, as we will see later.

More detailed maps of Anjaw and Changlang districts:

 

The northernmost points of India (Revised June 2017)

 

There are some countries like Britain whose extreme points are well documented. The little towns of Land’s End and John O’Groats are well-known tourist spots.

In many countries one or more borders and extreme points are in remote areas-particularly so in India’s northern and eastern borders. There is a difference between:

1. What the Indian government says its borders are
2. What area is actually controlled by the Indian government
3. What area is disputed by other countries (though this is really of no concern to the Indian public, one has to see maps published from other countries which show a large area as disputed).

One can also look up the definitions of “de jure” and “de facto” if one wants to be further confused.

Anyway, this Wikipedia article claims to mention all the extreme points of India. For today we deal with the northernmost points, and we will return to the other points later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_points_of_India

We start with a typical map of Jammu and Kashmir from a school atlas:

If one was to take this seriously, the international borders shown here are the true borders of the India since Independence.

A point of interest is the thin sliver of Afghanistan (known as the Wakhan corridor) bordering India’s territory. Crossing this you enter Tajikstan, formerly part of the USSR.

But what is actually controlled by India? This map from Wikipedia sums it up:

Note the green area which has been controlled by Pakistan since shortly after independence, although minor changes have occurred in the 1965 and 1971 wars.

Then there is the Aksai Chin (in beige, like the rest of China and Tibet) which was taken over by China some time in the mid-1950s, without the Indian government or armed forces knowing about it. Also note that a portion of  south-eastern Ladakh is held by India and is marked as disputed.

The Siachen glacier (in white) was not permanently occupied by any government until the Indian armed forces occupied positions there in 1984.

Then there is the Shaksgam valley which is supposed to be in India, and was occupied by Pakistan and later transferred to China.

So you can see that the northern-most point actually occupied by India’s forces would be somewhere near the northern end of Siachen, on the border with Xinjiang province of China.

Now we look back to the Wikpedia article referenced earlier: If you click on the co-ordinates you will end up with a map showing the location. But it may take less time if you first open Google maps or Wikimapia etc and enter the coordinates yourself.

The borders will be shown differently if you are using google.co.in  or, say,   google.com. (Update: This was true in 2016, but not now as the borders in all Google versions shows the same border as in Google.co.in).

Heading	Location	Administrative entity	Bordering entity	Coordinates[nb 1]	Ref
North (disput-ed, govern–ed	Near Indira Col, Siachen Glacier	Indian-administered Kashmir	Xinjiang, China	35.674520°N 76.845245°E	[3]
North (disput–ed, claimed)	Dafdar in the Taghdumbash Pamir near Beyik Pass	Xinjiang, China	Wakhan Corridor, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan	37°24′00″N 75°24′00″E	[4]
North (undis- -puted)	Near Dharwas, Chamba district	Himachal Pradesh	Indian-administered Kashmir	33.24902°N 76.82704°E	[5]

The first point shows what may be the northernmost Indian military post at Indira Col in the Siachen, with latitude approximately 35.6745 N.

The second shows a place some distance along the Karakoram highway near Tashkargan, the first town in Xinjiang.

And the third shows the northernmost point of Himachal Pradesh (since the whole of J & K is disputed 🙂 )

This is all rather messy, so you may prefer the map referenced here:

which shows the location of Indira Col with reference to the Line of Control.

This article explains the significance of NJ 9842 and the line heading northeast from it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siachen_Glacier

There are a few helipads in the glacier area. One of them, at Point Sonam, has been listed as the world’s highest helipad at 21,000 ft. It is referenced here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helipad

Apart from the location above, there is a built-up area at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) airstrip:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daulat_Beg_Oldi 

which is at 35.390 N . Note the comment:

“Other than Siachen Glacier military bases, it is India’s northernmost built-up area.” There is a nearby small town of Murgo, (35.0411 N) which is not yet connected by motorable road to Leh although some roads exist around DBO.

And DBO is listed as the world’s highest airstrip at 16,600 ft. It was first operated with Packet aircraft in 1962, and now handles AN-32s and C-130Js. References are given in the Wikipedia article.

The northernmost town which can be visited by the Indian public is now Warshi:

http://vargiskhan.com/log/warshi-village-nubra-valley-opened-travelers/nubra-valley-opened-till-warshi-village/

Also see this map for the roads here:

http://vargiskhan.com/log/warshi-village-nubra-valley-opened-travelers/leh-to-nubra-valley-map-with-distances-2/

Warshi’s latitude is 35.0629 N, while the previous northernmost accessible place was Turtuk with 34.8474 N. Turtuk was under Pakistan’s control until 1971.

Fortunately the extreme points in the west, east and south are not so confusing. We visit them next.

Footnote: here is another map of disputed territories, which seems to have appeared in “The Economist” at some point. We will meet it again when we come to the eastern extreme points.

You may also like this one about disputed territory on the Uttarakhand border:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/where-is-barahoti/

Tail piece: Indian journalists routinely mis-spell the McMahon line as the MacMohan line, thinking of the second-rung villain of Bollywood:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/gallery/actor-mac-mohans-life-in-pics/1/3163.html

A travelogue on Turtuk, which was opened to tourists some years ago:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190730-the-village-that-lost-its-country

 

The extreme points of India

We hear the phrase “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari” or the next-door version “from Khyber to Karachi”. In Britain there is “From Land’s End to John O’Groats” which are supposed to be the extreme southwest and extreme northeast points of the British mainland. In contrast, the US gets by with “From sea to shining sea” in one of their patriotic songs.

Ever wondered about the extreme points of India? One may think that the question is answered in the Wikipedia article linked below. Actually it is not as simple as that as there are several different ways of deciding where India ends in the north. (Do you mean what the official atlas says, or the point actually under Indian military control? And since many countries think that Kashmir is a disputed territory, then what should be the “undisputed”northernmost point?)

Even the eastern border is disputed by China although it is firmly in Indian control. The western extreme is a point in the sea off the Gujarat-Sind border. And the southernmost point is not Kanyakumari on the mainland but a remote settlement on an island in the Nicobars, with a population of 27.

We shall be visiting these places over the next few blogposts. We also look at the nearest inhabited places (which are hard to find unless you are at Kanyakumari).

Read this first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_points_of_India

Summary statistics of T20 2016 World Championship

 

For 2016 alone:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=3;filter=advanced;orderby=matches;size=200;spanmin1=24+Feb+2016;spanval1=span;template=results;trophy=89;type=allround

For all matches in this World Championship since 2007:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=3;filter=advanced;orderby=matches;size=200;template=results;trophy=89;type=allround

Those who are familiar with Statsguru should be able to extract various parameters such as total runs, batting averages, strike rates etc. from the output of these links.

Summary of the 2016 Asia Cup

Though the Asia Cup is considered a small sideshow in the cricket calendar, it has been held sporadically since 1984. India won that first tournament in 1984 and now has a total of 6 titles, including 2016 which was held in the 20-over format for the first time. It is expected that it will be held in this format whenever it is held in the same year as the World T20 Championship.

For the full history see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Cup

The leading individual performances are given below:

Most Runs (80 and above)

Somewhat ironically the most runs were scored by a batsman from Hong Kong which played only in 3 matches in the first round. From the “main” teams Sabbir Rahman scored the most runs (176) and  was named the “Man of the Tournament”. Babar Hayat and LD Chandimal were the only ones to cross 50 twice.

Highest Individual Scores (50 and above)

RG Sharma made the highest score (83) among the main teams, followed by Sabbir Rahman with 80.

Bowling: 4 or more wickets overall

Among players from the main teams, the lesser-known Al-Amin Hossain took the most wickets (11) followed by Kulasekara, Mohammed Amir and Pandya with 7 apiece.

Best innings bowling: 3 or more wickets

Malinga’s 4-26 is the best performance for the main teams. Unfortuately for Sri Lanka that was the only match he played. The next best is 3-8 by Pandya. Al-Amin Hossain was consistent with three 3-wicket hauls.

Most dismissals (3 and above)

Not surprisingly, Dhoni topped this list along with SP Patil of the UAE. Nurul Hasan had the most stumpings (3). The most catches by non-keepers were 6 by Babar Hayat and Soumya Sarkar.

Overall all-round performance (at least 40 runs and 4 wickets):

Useful contributions by Mahmudullah and Shakib, besides the trio from the UAE.

All-round match performances (at least 20 runs and 2 wickets)

Rohan Mustafa had the best all-round match performance,while Mahmudullah had the best performance among the main teams.

It is interesting to see that India won the tournament without any spectacular performances (except RG Sharma’s 83). The whole performed better than the sum of the parts, which is supposed to be the hallmark of a good team.