Mastered by apprentices

Every once in a while, a bunch of novices are pitted against battle-scarred and proven opponents. And in the lead-up to the touted mismatch, endless discussions will be held on the severity of the whipping the young 'uns will suffer. Very few give them a chance, and if the rookies do pull off an upset against all odds, the happiest are the daredevils who backed them at the bookmakers. This week, the List looks at matches when a young team beat a far more experienced opposition.

The most recent instance that makes it into our top 20 is England's famous win at the Wankhede to draw the series 1-1 against India. In that match, England had just four players - Andrew Flintoff , Andrew Strauss , Matthew Hoggard and Geraint Jones - who had played 20 Tests. India, however, had two players - Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble - who had played over a hundred and Rahul Dravid who was playing his 100th.

South Africa had played just one Test since their readmission before the home series versus India in 1991-92. They drew the first two Tests before winning by nine wickets at Port Elizabeth largely due to Allan Donald who took 12 wickets in his fourth Test. Kepler Wessels , having played Test cricket for Australia, was the only player with experience of more than five Tests. South Africa went on to take the series 1-0.

Biggest difference in collective matches for an inexperienced team beating an experienced team - Tests

Team	Caps	Opposition	Caps	Diff	Ground	Season	Scorecard
South Africa	122	v Australia	563	-441	Johannesburg	1993/94	Test 1252
India	229	v Australia	628	-399	Chennai	2000/01	Test 1539
South Africa	102	v Australia	492	-390	Sydney	1993/94	Test 1243
South Africa	328	v Australia	705	-377	Durban	2001/02	Test 1595
England	183	v West Indies	549	-366	Kingston	1989/90	Test 1140
England	279	v West Indies	606	-327	Leeds	1991	Test 1171
England	348	v Australia	675	-327	Birmingham	2005	Test 1758
South Africa	59	v India	383	-324	Port Elizabeth	1992/93	Test 1206
Australia	202	v West Indies	520	-318	Sydney	1984/85	Test 1006
Pakistan	308	v India	615	-307	Karachi	2005/06	Test 1783
England	292	v West Indies	596	-304	The Oval	1991	Test 1175
India	318	v Australia	617	-299	Kolkata	2000/01	Test 1535
Australia	257	v West Indies	547	-290	Sydney	1988/89	Test 1113
Sri Lanka	86	v India	375	-289	Colombo (PSS)	1985	Test 1024
England	214	v India	500	-286	Mumbai	2005/06	Test 1791

India's series-clinching win against Australia at Chennai in March 2001 ranks second on the list. India had made two changes from the Kolkata Test , and gave before Sameer Dighe and Sairaj Bahatule their Test debuts. Dighe eventually steered India to victory with a gutsy 22. Australia's least-experienced player in the match was Matthew Hayden , playing his 16th Test.

Much has been written about Australia's old legs being part of the reason why they lost the 2005 Ashes. Here's another angle to that story - the sides they fielded at Old Trafford and Lord's are the most experienced ever to take the field, if you exclude the World XI of Super Series fame. Australia's team at Old Trafford had 762 caps with only Brett Lee (40th Test), Simon Katich (19th) and Michael Clarke (15th) having played under 50. England by no means were inexperienced - six of their players had over 30 caps - but Marcus Trescothick, in his 64th Test, would have ranked eighth in the Australian side.

Biggest difference in average age for an young team beating an old team - Tests

Team	Age	Opposition	Age	Diff	Ground	Season	Scorecard
West Indies	27.44	v England	36.89	-9.45	Georgetown	1929/30	Test 192
Australia	27.02	v England	33.59	-6.57	Lord's	1972	Test 699
South Africa	27.60	v England	33.37	-5.76	Durban	1927/28	Test 172
Australia	27.59	v England	33.17	-5.57	Melbourne	1876/77	Test 1
South Africa	27.19	v England	32.71	-5.51	Lord's	1935	Test 243
South Africa	24.91	v England	30.35	-5.43	Johannesburg	1930/31	Test 200
West Indies	27.12	v England	32.15	-5.02	Manchester	1976	Test 779
Australia	26.97	v England	31.91	-4.94	The Oval	1972	Test 702
Pakistan	25.20	v England	30.13	-4.92	The Oval	1954	Test 390
South Africa	28.02	v England	32.94	-4.91	Johannesburg	1927/28	Test 171
India	26.83	v Australia	31.72	-4.89	Adelaide	2003/04	Test 1673
West Indies	26.85	v Australia	31.67	-4.82	St John's	2002/03	Test 1645
Pakistan	25.08	v England	29.88	-4.80	Lord's	1992	Test 1190
India	26.83	v England	31.59	-4.76	The Oval	1971	Test 692
South Africa	26.16	v Australia	30.91	-4.74	Durban	2001/02	Test 1595

In one-day cricket, barring Asian and World XI sides, Pakistan's team for the 2003 World Cup match against England is the most experienced. They had a total of 2028 ODIs between the players and only Shoaib Akhtar (78) and Younis Khan (73) had played fewer than 100 matches. England, on the other hand, had only Alec Stewart over the 100-ODI mark. Pakistan's vast experience counted for nought as they crashed to a 112-run defeat, and which ranks second on our list of differences in caps.

Biggest difference in collective matches for an inexperienced team beating an experienced team - ODIs

Team	Caps	Opposition	Caps	Diff	Ground	Season	Scorecard
Bangladesh	198	v Pakistan	1726	-1528	Northampton	1999	ODI 1471
England	657	v Pakistan	2028	-1371	Cape Town	2002/03	ODI 1962
Kenya	427	v Sri Lanka	1780	-1353	Nairobi (Gym)	2002/03	ODI 1965
England	529	v Sri Lanka	1610	-1081	Lord's	1999	ODI 1443
West Indies	365	v Sri Lanka	1389	-1024	Colombo (RPS)	2005	ODI 2266
England	528	v Sri Lanka	1536	-1008	Adelaide	2002/03	ODI 1937
Africa XI	1044	v Asia XI	2047	-1003	Centurion	2005	ODI 2269
England	197	v Pakistan	1194	-997	Birmingham	1996	ODI 1109
England	187	v Pakistan	1183	-996	Manchester	1996	ODI 1107
England	596	v Pakistan	1589	-993	Karachi	2000/01	ODI 1645
Australia	1035	v ICC World XI	2010	-975	Melbourne (DS)	2005/06	ODI 2283
Australia	1240	v ICC World XI	2201	-961	Melbourne (DS)	2005/06	ODI 2284
South Africa	87	v Australia	1044	-957	Sydney	1991/92	ODI 719
South Africa	678	v India	1631	-953	Sharjah	1999/00	ODI 1581
West Indies	717	v Sri Lanka	1654	-937	Kingstown	2003	ODI 2024