The best of the year

Jon Hotten makes his picks for the best batting performances of 2013, in his blog The Old Batsman.

It was also the year that an era of batting like no other at last slipped away. The 2013 IPL gave us Pondulkar. Both halves of that star-crossed partnership are now gone, Sachin amid scenes that will live long in the memory. The speech was a belter, too. Then Jacques Kallis did what neither could, and closed his Test career with a century that left him forever one run ahead of Rahul Dravid on the all-time list. The big four stand on their Olympus now.