Shivnarine Chanderpaul: India's unconquerable nemesis

Over the years many batsmen have tormented the Indian bowling attack, few of these names include Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad ( Chetan Sharma will still have nightmares about him), Matthew Hayden, Andy Flower, Mohammad Yousuf, Viv Richards, Sanath Jayasuria and many more. But one name that stands out from all these players is that of Shiv Chanderpaul, who always relishes playing on Indian soil. Why won’t he? After all he is an Indian by origin , but no one can deny that he is perhaps one of the best batsman of spin.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul does not exactly have the best technique in the world, possesses a very iffy stance and shuffles way too much in the crease, but his performance speaks volumes about his talent. His unbeaten hundred on the day 1 of first test between India and West Indies has proved yet again that when the going gets tough, Chanderpaul can be counted on to get going.

I remember watching the late night Caribbean Test Series in early 2000′s, India would bowl brilliantly at the start and would take the wickets of the openers cheaply but then things would change. When Shiv would arrive on crease you could almost sense that he is at a ridiculous ease playing the Indian seamers and spinners. There are many instances when he has single-handedly drawn a game against India. His career average against India is much higher than his overall test average.

Whenever he arrives at the crease, the Indian fans can only pray that he gets out as early as possible because he has a knack of playing long innings against his favorite opponents. The laziness with which he plays spin gives him more time to play his late cuts and delicate shots. He is rated rightly as one of the best players of spin bowling. India’s match winners of the past decade, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, both have a very abysmal record against Chanderpaul. He has an excellent conversion rate against the Indians, nearly 1 century every 2 half century which is very good record to say the least.

Another statistic which shows Chanderpaul’s dominance over Indian bowling is that he has the highest average among West Indies players of last decade against India. His average is above that of Brian Lara, Sarwan, Carl Hooper and Jimmy Adams against India. One cannot help but feel sorry for Indian bowlers who have time and again toiled very hard to get him out cheaply but alas with little success.

As Chanderpaul completed his 24th century today, one can only hope and pray that the Indian bowlers get him out as early as possible on the 2nd day. Else he might even go on to score a double century against his favorite bunnies and torment them. As for India they have a sigh of relief because in a year or two it is inevitable that he will retire, for he is already 37 and is not getting any quicker. But that is a matter for the future and there is still the matter of dealing with him in the ongoing series.