Whenever we hear the name Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the first thing that comes to our mind is his unique way of taking guard at the crease. His batting stance is such that cricket fans would find it difficult to be replicated for the ages to come. This column is all the about the man from Guyana who turns 47 today.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his debut for West Indies in the year 1994 and played his last game in 2015. During the initial part of his career, he had to play under the shadow of Brian Lara and by the time he retired, T20 cricket was on the rise and the likes of Chris Gayle and other T20 specialists became the face of cricket in the Windies. However for any ardent lover of the game, Shivnarine Chanderpaul is one of the most liked cricketers around the world. He was not one of those big guns whose presence could send chills down the opponent's spine or one of those entertaining cricketers who could tear any bowling lineup on their day, but he made a place of his own in the international cricket arena by his sheer willpower.
TEST CAREER
Shivnarine Chanderpaul is one of the rare cricketers in the world who found tremendous amount of success in both the formats of the game he played (not considering the T20 format as it came quite late in his career and he has played only a handful number of matches in that format). However, it was the format of Test Cricket where he was the most effective. He made his Test debut against England on 17th March,1994 at Georgetown and played his last match against the same opposition in 2015 at Bridgetown. Let us take a look at his returns in Test cricket:
Matches 164 Innings 280 Runs 11867 Balls 27395 Highest 203* Average 51.37 Strike Rate 43.32 Not Out 49 Fours 1285 Sixes 36 Ducks 15 Half-Centuries 66 Centuries 30 Double Centuries 2
He also accounted for 9 wickets, 66 catches and 10 run outs.
Analysis & Notable Records: Shivnarine Chanderpaul sits at number 8 among the leading run scorers in Test cricket. He is the second leading run scorer for West Indies and has just 86 runs lesser than the first placed Brian Lara. Out of his 11867 career runs, 6883 have come while batting at number 5. No batsman in Test cricket history has scored more amount of runs while batting at that position.
Chanderpaul's tally of 30 hundreds in Tests is the second best by a Windies cricketer. He has the second most fifties by any batsman in Test cricket and is 5th on the list of batsman having the most number of 50+ score in Tests. He was awarded the Player of the Match award on 16 occasions in Tests and he was adjuded the Player of the Series 7 times which is the 7th most for any cricketer.
An outstanding aspect of Chanderpaul's Test career was that he succeeded against all teams in all sorts of conditions. Barring Zimbabwe, he averages 40+ against all nations. He averages above 45 away from home and averages more than 35 in all the continents. For any non-subcontinent batsman, the Asian conditions are considered as their toughest challenge. His average of 48.7 in Asia speaks volumes about his ability as a batsman. Even some of the greats of the game struggle in 4th innings but Chanderpaul managed to keep an average of above 40 in all the innings of a Test.
Some Interesting Facts About Chanderpaul's Test Career:
He is among the 6 cricketers to bat for 1000+ minutes without getting dismissed and the only one to do it more than once (he did it 4 times).
He is the only batsman in the world to have played 1000+ consecutive balls without getting dismissed.
He is among the 4 batsman in the world to average above 100 in the course of 2 calendar years (minimum 400 runs).
He is among the 6 players to register a score of 50+ in 7 consecutive innings.
He holds the record of the 6th fastest century and the 2nd fastest by a West Indies player (69 balls).
He is the most capped Windies cricketer and has played the 5th most matches by any cricketer.
His 203* is the second highest score on captaincy debut.
He was involved in 750 partnerships in Tests, the highest by any cricketer.
ODI CAREER
Even though he is mostly remembered for his accomplishments in Tests, Shivnarine Chanderpaul was quite a handful batsman in the 50-over format. Let us have a look at his returns in ODI cricket:
Matches 268 Innings 251 Runs 8778 Balls 12408 Highest 150 Average 41.41 Strike Rate 70.74 Not Out 39 Fours 722 Sixes 85 Ducks 6 Half-Centuries 59 Centuries 11
He also accounted for 14 wickets, 73 catches and 21 run outs.
Analysis & Notable Records: Modern era cricket fans might think that he used to bat really slow after looking at the strike rate, but that's not the case. His strike rate is quite decent for any player of that era, for example, Rahul Dravid (71.23) and Sourav Ganguly (73.71). Many great ODI batsman have played for West Indies and yet Shivnarine Chandrapaul is the 3rd leading run-scorer for the West Indies in ODIs. His tally of 11 hundreds is also the 4th most by a West Indies player. His tally of 8778 runs is at the 22nd position (8th among left-handers) in terms of most runs scored by a batsman in ODIs.
LEGACY
Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a story of extreme grit, hardwork, perseverance and dedication. He has amassed a total of 20988 runs in his career and only 9 batsmen have scored more amount of runs than him in international career. In cricketing folklore, while talking about the great batsmen of the game very rarely will we ever come across the name of Shivnarine Chanderpaul as he is highly underrated by virtually everyone in the cricketing fraternity. When Chanderpaul was new to the competitive cricket arena, upon seeing his technique the majority used to think that he might not even succeed at the domestic level but Chanderpaul defied all odds and ended with over 20000 international runs to his name. With his unique batting guard, crab like batting stance and the presence of stickers below his eyes, Shivnarine Chanderpaul will be remembered for a long time only for the way he used to appear while batting but the amount of runs he has piled on will always make sure that he is forever seen with the utmost respect in the cricketing fraternity.
