The Gayle-Ganga opening act, and England's profligacy

Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, or Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga? It looks like a no-contest, but going strictly by numbers, it seems there isn't that much difference between an opening pair considered to be among the best in the history of Test cricket, and another which some might say isn't even the best opening pair in the West Indies today. Admittedly, Greenidge and Haynes did it against much better bowling attacks, and over a much longer period of time, but in the few games that Gayle and Ganga have opened together, they have racked up a fairly impressive record. The 143-run stand in the third Test against India in St Kitts was the pair's fourth century partnership, and it lifted their average stand to just over 45, only two runs fewer than what Greenidge and Haynes managed over their 13-year partnership.

These runs also lifted the Gayle-Ganga duo to third in the all-time aggregates for West Indian opening pairs, sneaking them past the partnership of Allan Rae and Jeff Stollmeyer.

Since the departure of Greenidge and Haynes from the scene, West Indies have clearly been struggling to put up a decent pair upfront - in all Tests since the pair's last innings, against Australia in Antigua in 1991, West Indies' opening partnership - apart from the ones involving Gayle and Ganga - has only averaged 34.43, more than ten fewer than the average partnership between the current pair. There have been a few pairs that have shown promise, but they have not been given a long enough run, or have flattered to deceive. Wavell Hinds and Devon Smith both combined well with Gayle, but Hinds lost form and his place in the team after scoring 1300 runs with Gayle at the top of the order, while Smith and Gayle combined to make four hundred stands in just 23 innings, but still managed an average of just 39 together, an indication of just how inconsistent they were.

The aggression and flair of Gayle and the dour defence of Ganga makes for a fine contrast, and while their highest stand of 214 came against Zimbabwe, they have scored in more testing conditions as well, most recently against New Zealand at Auckland, when they put together 148, knocking off more than half the target in the fourth innings before the rest of the line-up put up a spineless performance to lose the match. Ganga's inability to kick on and convert his starts, though, has meant that he is far from a certainty in the side - his last century came more than three years back, and since then he has averaged a paltry 20, with three half-centuries in 30 innings (before the St Kitts Test). However, Gayle's tendency to smash the bowling has given Ganga more breathing space - the pair once slammed 126 against South Africa at Cape Town, with Ganga's contribution a mere 17. Now, he seems to have the confidence of his captain - fellow Trinidadian Brian Lara - as well. Could it mean that West Indies might have, at last, found a stable pair at the top of the order?

England's utterly shambolic display in the field in the first two one-day internationals of the ongoing series against Sri Lanka is further indication of just how far they have to go before being considered among the top one-day sides. Of particular concern to Duncan Fletcher would be the number of extras they conceded - the total from those two games amounted to a whopping 75, while their opponents gave away just 24. They were especially shocking in the first match, at Lord's, allowing 42 extra runs while Sri Lanka conceded just 12. The difference of 30 was more than the 20-run margin that decided the match. In matches won by the team batting first, this difference is the third-highest - the table below shows the highest differences in such games. Interestingly, Pakistan managed to beat New Zealand in a game in Wellington in 2000-01 despite conceding 41 extras while defending target of 243. That attack, though, included Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Saqlain Mushtaq, bowlers who were in a different class to the ones who comprise the current England attack.