Run-machine Gauti in elite company

Chittagong, Jan. 20: Batsmen often fantasise about ideal scenarios — big hundreds, centuries in each innings of a match, successive hundreds — but few go on to live out those dreams. One such is India opener Gautam Gambhir, who on Wednesday joined a very select list with his fifth Test hundred in as many games.

The pugnacious left-hander eased to an attractive 116 on the penultimate day of the first Test against Bangladesh to etch his name alongside Sir Donald Bradman, South African Jacques Kallis and Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan among those who have achieved the rare feat.

The Don, of course, had gone one better with six on the trot in successive Ashes series against England between 1937 and 1938.

Gambhir also finds himself just behind another great — Sir Vivian Richards — in terms of scoring consecutive half-centuries. Against Sir Viv’s eleven 50-plus scores on the trot, the Delhi batsman now has 10, and is well-positioned to equal the sequences of both his illustrious predecessors.

Chittagong is in fact a happy hunting ground for Gambhir, who scored his first Test hundred — 139 in the first innings of the second Test in the 2004 series. That effort though came at the MA Aziz Stadium, now converted into a full-time football venue.

Gambhir, whose century came at a strike-rate of close to 90, had an up and down tri-series that preceded this Test match with scores of 8, 18, 71, 41 and 0. His latest hundred follows the earlier ones at Napier (137 against New Zealand in March 2009), Wellington (167 against New Zealand in April 2009), Ahmedabad (114 against Sri Lanka on November 16, 2009) and Kanpur (167 against Sri Lanka on November 24, 2009).

The left-hande is closing in on 3,000 Test runs after 28 games at an average of 57.27. Gambhir’s last 10 matches has seen him average 77 and an even amazing 84.88 in these last five games. The statistics however, overshadow the human side of his phenomenal growth as a batsman. He is on record of having said that his times outside the team had made him determined to make the most of every opportunity.

Whatever the mantra, bowling attacks around the world have been suffering the consequences.

SOURCE :- cricket.123india.com/news