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Green Park: A happy hunting ground for India
India go into the fifth one-dayer against Pakistan on Friday with the comforting knowledge that they have a 67% success rate at Green Park.
India go into the fifth One-Day International against Pakistan on Friday with the comforting knowledge that they have a 66.67 per cent success rate at Green Park — and Sachin Tendulkar has the highest aggregate.
In other words, India, level at 2-2 with Pakistan so far in the six-match series, have won six of their eight matches at this historic venue since the first one-dayer was held on December 24, 1986.
This is the first time that India and Pakistan are playing a one-day match at the Green Park, also the place where India achieved two other milestones — the highest team total (259/4 against England in 1989-90) and the highest target chased, both in the same match.
On the flip side, the home side also performed the worst when Sri Lanka bowled them out for 78 in 1986-87.
In all, nine matches have been played at this venue, the other being the West Indies-Sri Lanka encounter in 1988, which the Caribbean side won by 25 runs.
Tendulkar, who regained his form with his 38th century in the fourth match at Ahmedabad on Tuesday, has so far aggregated 312 runs at an average of 78 in six matches, with the help of one century and two half-centuries.
Interestingly, Tendulkar's schoolmate and India team-mate Vinod Kambli is second in the list with 217 runs scored at 54.25 in four matches. Kambli also has the record of the top individual score with 106 against Zimbabwe in 1995-96.
Sourav Ganguly, out of this match due to a six-match ban by the International Cricket Council for India's slow over rate at Ahmedabad, is third with 168 in three one-dayers.
The best bowling performance in Kanpur has been the 5-24 by former pacer Javagal Srinath against Sri Lanka in 1993-94.
The Karnataka pacer also has the highest wicket tally at this ground — of nine at 13.56. Ajit Agarkar is second with eight scalps. If he plays on Friday he could surpass Srinath. Ganguly is surprisingly third with seven.
