10 players who have always feasted on the Indian bowling attack

Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis were dominant against the Indian bowling. The fans of “Team India” make for a curious case study. With nothing but a victory to satiate their unending appetite, they dish out praise and brickbats in equal measure at every given opportunity. Their passion for the game and love for their side manifests in manners that are seldom seen elsewhere. From torso’s painted in the tri-colour to flinging bottles from the stands, the spectrum of emotions is there for all to witness.An offspring of these emotions are the popular “urban legends” that crop up with repeated regularity. That a hundred from Sachin would lead to India’s downfall was one such superstition that spawned in the last leg of the maestro’s career. Similarly, every time the opposition went on a run scoring spree there are chants of “out-of-form batsmen roar back to form when playing India” and “that batsmen the world over always make merry when playing India”.With AB De Villiers and Quinton De Kock scoring heavily in the ODI series against India, these chants have resurfaced. De Kock, out of form in the World Cup and on the verge of losing his place in the side, was sent for an “A” tour to India. With his confidence back after the “A” series, he was back in the thick-of-things while taking the attack right back to the Indians.And the loyal Indian fan can narrate several such instances while drawing collective consensus that the Indians regularly dish out a healthy dose of “buffet” bowling. From South Africa to Pakistan, the world’s batsmen, they claim, seem to take a particular liking to the Indian brand of bowling.Despite the burning desire to disprove these notions with ample examples of India’s bowling bravado, we choose to resist the temptation and instead, review the so called “merry-makers”.Therefore, here’s a look at 10 batsmen that have scored heavily against India in ODI Cricket.

#10 Quinton De Kock

The Indian bowling attack has thus far been his favourite in world Cricket.

The biggest talking point amongst Indian fans involves batsmen that tend to score only against their team. De Kock is one such batsman that seems to possess the uncanny knack of scoring a heap of runs when facing off against the Indian bowlers.

In 9 matches against India, the opening-batsman has scored an astonishing 5 hundreds. Three of those hundreds came in consecutive matches (on India’s tour to South Africa in 2013), placing him in the elite company of only five batsmen to have scored centuries in three successive ODIs (the others being Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar, Herschelle Gibbs and AB De Villiers).

Despite being early days in his international career, the 22 year-old has been ear-marked for greatness. His 667 runs against India have come at an average of 61.53. In comparison, his ODI career average stands at 39.86 – a clear indication of the amount of confidence he exudes when playing India.

#9 Kevin Pieterson

The talented Pieterson played with flair in India-encounters.

Despite scoring just a solitary hundred in 28 matches against India, “KP” stamped his authority every time he strode out to bat against the “Men-in-Blue”. While he did score eight fifties, what went unnoticed were the five instances where he scored 40s.

His sole hundred came at Cuttack on England’s 2008 tour to India. Batting at number 3, “KP” carried his bat through while holding the English innings together. His unbeaten 111, laced with 10 boundaries and a six, got England to a respectable 270.

Alas, KP’s top score against the Indians was to come in a losing cause. Riding on the back of a typical Sehwag innings of 91, the Dhoni led side overhauled the English total with 6 overs to spare.

Nonetheless, the tall right-hander notched up 1,138 runs at an average of 44 in all ODIs against India.

#8 Andy Flower

Flower shouldered Zimbabwe’s batting responsibilities while milking India’s bowling.

One of the finest players of spin-bowling, Andy Flower turned the reverse-sweep into a mainstream stroke. And he executed it with aplomb when playing the Indian spinners. For over a decade, the southpaw shouldered the batting responsibilities for Zimbabwe with immense pride and passion.

In 36 ODIs against India, Flower notched up 1,298 runs at an average of 41.21 with 11 fifties. The former Zimbabwe skipper was particularly severe on the Indians at neutral venues, where he averaged 50.72.

Interestingly, his only century against the Indians came at a neutral venue as well – Colombo, at the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy. Chasing 288, Flower single handedly took the chase to the Indian bowlers with a brave 145 before running out of partners.

#7 Nathan Astle

Batting with a delightful follow-through, Astle’s stroke-play was a treat to watch.

Batting with a high back-lift and always looking to strike the ball, Nathan Astle was one of the finest stroke-makers to emerge from New Zealand. Constantly on the “attack mode”, Astle took a liking to both fast and spin-bowling.

If hitting on the rise with a flamboyant follow-through was his approach towards fast-bowlers, skipping down the track to launch sixes was his preferred “release-shot” against the spinners. Playing in India against the hosts, Astle averaged a superior 47.81 while scoring two tons and three fifty’s.

Opening the batting at Rajkot on New Zealand’s 1999 tour to India, Astle’s 120 propelled the Kiwi’s to a 43 run victory against a Tendulkar led Indian side. It was to be the opener’s highest score against India in India.

In all, Astle amassed 1,207 ODI runs against India at a healthy average of 40.

#6 Chris Gayle

Always a danger-man against any attack, Gayle did not spare the Indians either.

Long before his glamorous stints in the IPL that propelled him to stardom in India, Gayle was already setting the stands alight in the country. In the 2002 ODI series of the West Indies tour to India, Gayle slammed three hundreds and a fifty in a span of 10 days against the hosts. Fans in Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Vadodara were treated to Gayle’s theatrics are the Jamaican enjoyed a rich vein of form.

Gayle’s 1,241 ODI runs against India came at a modest average of 32.24. That said, with four hundreds and five fifties, he left his mark on India-West Indies encounters.

With a strike rate of 95 when playing India in India, the fans were wary of the big man, knowing all too well that Gayle was always going to be a danger man when he strode out in West Indian colours.

#5 AB De Villiers

With a 360 degree scoring range, De Villiers has redefined batting.

There is little doubt over the fact that De Villiers is the best batsman in world Cricket today. As he continues to dazzle fans across continents, the connoisseurs scratch their heads in bewildered astonishment over the range of shots that he manages to pay all round the wicket.

His recent string of three hundreds in five matches against India will not be forgotten in a hurry and will continue to haunt the Indians each time they line up to bowl to him.

The South African skipper has amassed 1,279 ODI runs thus far against India at a superlative average of 51.33. His tally contains 6 hundreds and 5 fifties with five of those hundreds coming in India.

Still only 31, it seems as though De Villiers is only getting started. With loads of experience behind him and the freedom to play his brand of Cricket, the immensely gifted South African is bound to inflict more damage while continuing to enthrall in the years to come.

#4 Jacques Kallis

Kallis was both stylish and destructive at the same time.

In a career spanning close to two decades, Kallis reached unimaginable heights while constantly revising the benchmark for the all-rounder genre. In 37 ODIs against India, the right-hander amassed 1,535 runs at an average of 63.

Ever since his tour to India for the Wills World Cup in 1996, his love affair with the country has only blossomed. His ODI record against the hosts in India is particularly good – 580 runs in 12 matches at 82.85 with one hundred and five fifties.

His only ton against India came at Ahmedabad in 2010, when he teamed up with Hashim Amla and De Villiers to score an unbeaten 104 in a total of 365.

A true gentleman on and off the field, the fans adored Kallis’ stylish and classical approach to the game in spite of his prolific scorning spree against India.

#3 Ricky Ponting

The gritty Aussie skipper halted India’s run in the 2003 World Cup Final.

Images of Ponting repeatedly lofting the hapless Indian bowlers into the Wanderers stands in the 2003 World Cup Final will forever torment the Indian fan. The Australian skipper landed 8 hits to the stands en-route to a 140 that sealed India’s fate that day.

The gum-chewing, teeth-grinding and the highly verbal Ponting was someone that the Indian fans just “loved-to-hate”. And they had reasons aplenty. In 59 ODIs against India, Ponting scored an impressive 2,164 runs at an average of just under 40.

Incidentally, his statistics were superior when playing the hosts in India. He averaged 47.43 when playing in India and notched up three hundreds and 6 fifties. In all, Ponting had 6 hundreds and 9 fifties against India (in ODIs) and his blistering 140 at Johannesburg was the pinnacle of all his efforts against the “men-in-blue”.

#2 Inzamam-ul-Haq

A combination of “innings-building” and “big-hitting” saw Inzamam emerge as superior force in Indo-Pak ODI encounters.

Indian fans the world over recognized the big and burly “Inzy” ambling up to the crease from a distance. He is perhaps one of the few Pakistani’s that the Indian fans would recall from games not featuring the two nations.

Bursting on to the international scene in the 1992 World Cup in Australia, two images of Inzamam remain etched in our collective memories – that of him clobbering the Kiwis in the semi-final and the other rather comical episode of the big man struggling to make ground against a gravity defying Jonty Rhodes.

Notwithstanding his batting brilliance against all oppositions, Inzaman was particularly severe against India. In 67 ODIs against the arch rivals, the former skipper piled up 2,403 runs at an average of 53.23. Despite failing to score a hundred on Indian soil in 12 games, he did score 5 fifties while averaging 68.87.

In all, Inzaman scored 4 hundreds and 12 fifties against India. His top score against India was a delightful 123 at Lahore in 2004 – an innings that contained 9 boundaries and 4 sixes.

#1 Sanath Jayasuriya

Fans will remember Jayasuriya’s big-hitting in the 1996 World Cup.

The feisty Sri Lankan southpaw shot to global fame in the 1996 World Cup with his explosive opening outbursts in the first fifteen overs. Fans at the Feroz Shah Kotla will remember, albeit with a pinch of salt, his 76 which sealed the group game for Sri Lanka against the hosts India. With the diminutive Kaluwitharana for company, the pair smashed 42 off the first three overs. Manoj Prabhakar was reduced to an off-spinner after conceding 33 runs from his first two overs.

Jayasuriya was a regular in India-Sri Lanka fixtures. In all, he played 89 ODIs against India while scoring a massive 2,889 runs at an average of 34.76. This included 7 hundreds and 14 half-centuries.

He enjoyed significant success when playing the Indians on Sri Lankan turf. 12 of all his fifties against India came in Sri Lanka as did three hundreds. However, his highest score of 189 against the Indians came in the Champions Trophy Final at Sharjah in 2000. Studded with 21 fours and 4 sixes, his innings brought India down to its knees as they surrendered to a humiliating 245 run defeat.