Famous/Best English cricket player: Nicholas Verity Knight

Nicholas Verity Knight, more commonly known as Nick, is a former player of the English cricket team who was a left-handed opening batsman and a premier fielder. His middle name was given in the honor of the English Test bowler, Hedley Verity of the 1930s and was killed in WWII.

Knight played in a total of 100 ODIs and 18 Test matches throughout his playing career. He announced his retirement from International cricket followed after the World Cup of 2003. Knight began his domestic cricket career in 1991 with Essex, four years after which he joined Warwickshire. It was in 1996 when he made a feat of one century in an innings of 113 against Pakistan while in 1996-7, he made his second best score in Test cricket against Zimbabwe i.e. 96. In the arcade of ODIs, Knight made his debut in 1996 wherein he scored centuries consecutively in the 2^nd and 3^rd innings. He served as a captain for Warwickshire from 2003-2005 and contributed to their County Championship in the season of 2004. Knight’s highest score was a victorious score of 303. He ended his playing career with a score of 16,172 runs averaging at 44.18 including forty 100s.

Nick Verity Knight now works as a cricket commentator for Sky Sports and is quite a recognized face in the cricket arena.

Famous Australian cricket player: Justin Lee Langer

Justin Lee Langer is an ex left-handed batsman of the Australian cricket team who represented his country in 105 Test matches on International level. He is recognized for his strong and successful partnership with famous Australian cricket player Mathew Hayden at the time. He also occasionally performed the role of a wicket keeper for One day matches owing to his strong built as a fielder.

Langer had a remarkable strike rate i.e. 54.22 which exceeded the achievement of the most notable stroke-makers like some of the best Australian cricket players Mark Waugh and Damien Martyn. He is also known to have own the title of being the highest run-scorer for the Pura Cup and Sheffield Shield matches that he participated in for Western Australia. In 2009, Langer played a match against Worcestershire wherein he made a landmark strike of the highest score in the history of first-class cricket by an Australian player. He was a strong-willed cricketer whose determined demeanor was a highlight. With 394 runs at an average of 43.77, Langer was the leading scorer in the team.

In total, he was part of only eight ODIs at a superb strike rate of 88.88! He won himself quite a lot of International Awards as Man of the Match – a proof of his strong and unrivalled profile. He is still remembered for his aggressive and full of power playing stature.

Famous cricket players of New Zealand: Nathan McCullum

Born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1980, Nathan McCullum made his ODI debut at relatively older age. He is bits and pieces sort of a player and has been filling in the shoes in the absence of Jacob Oram as an all rounder in New Zealand cricket team.

Having always been under the shadow of his more famous brother, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum is slowly carving his way into the kiwi ODI side and trying to establish an identity of his own. Playing his first match against Sri Lanka in 2009, in a young career thus far, he has played a total of 17 ODI matches where he has scored 270 runs and taken 11 wickets. He is an exceptional fielder, like most of the kiwis are, and is the preferred at the ‘Point’ position which belongs to only the very best in the business. Historically, brilliant fielders like Jonty Rhodes, Nasser Hussain and Ricky Ponting use to patrol the ‘point’ area and has since then become the most favored position for any top notch fielder.

Prior to cricket, Nathan McCullum played football at the national level and has also been the recipient of the ‘golden boot award’ in 1999. Not until 2004 did he realize the extreme passion that he felt for the game of cricket and hence to pursue it professionally he gave up football completely.

With faith being shown in him by the selectors and given the green signal to board the plane for the 2011 Cricket World Cup in the sub continent, Nathan McCullum can turn out to be a surprise since the pitches in the sub continent suit his explosive style of batting and are more prone to turning than the wickets back home in New Zealand.

 

Top 10 Left handed Fieldsmen in ODIs

Alongside batting and bowling, the importance of fielding plays a vital role in winning or losing a match. A lot of matches are being lost on account of poor fielding whereas some matches are even won on the basis of exceptional fielding. Once it comes to excellent fielding, the name of Proteas great fielder Jhonty Rhodes. Whether a fielder is right arm or left arm he follows the footsteps of Jhonty Rhodes who brought a new style of fielding in limited game of cricket.

We have seen a lot many left handed batsmen and bowlers as good fielders in the recent times. Following is the list of top 10 left handed fielders in One Day Internationals who have brought not only fame to their country because of their batting or bowling but also fielding.

• Garfield Sobers
• Sanath Jayasuriya
• Wasim Akram
• Lance Klusener
• Adam Gilchrist
• Chris Harris
• Brian Lara
• Yuvraj Singh
• Daniel Vettori
• Andy Flower

Most Catches by a 12th man in an innings

It’s very interesting to know that there are a few matches, which can be counted on fingertips where the substitute player or 12^th man has taken crucial catches for the teams. The first event of such kind took place back in 1980 when John Bracewell, the ingenious right arm off break spinner from New Zealand took 4 catches in an inning against Aussies at Adelaide Australia.

In 1994, Proteas famous right arm medium fast bowler Brian McMillan was the second 12^th man to take 3 catches in two innings during a series played against Australia at Perth. Bryan Young of New Zealand share the record of taking 3 catches in two innings during a series against India played at Nagpur, India in 1995. Pakistan’s Nasir Jamshed, a left-handed batsman who joined the Pakistan cricket team squad min 2008 is the fourth and last substitute who took 3 catches in two innings versus India in a series played at Dhaka Bangladesh.

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