Rafiq's success against Australia

[sadi]

There is an interesting article in Cricinfo by S Rajesh today. In one of the topics, he mentioned how Australia is somewhat vulnerable against left arm spin. Guess who tops the list in the left arm spinners section. Yeah its our own Mohammad Rafique. His bowling average against the aussies is 27.72 when his career average is 36.59. Quiet remarkable. I know he played only two tests against them and both of them was in Bangladesh but it is impressive.

The table below shows the performances of left-arm spinners against Australia, and Rafique is the only one whose numbers against Australia are significantly better than his career stats.

<TABLE class=engineTable><CAPTION>Left-arm spinners v Aus since 1990</CAPTION><THEAD><!-- headings for each column go in the "th" cells ---><!-- use class="left" to left-align a cell, otherwise it gets right-aligned --><TR class=head><TH class=left>Bowler</TH><TH>Tests v Aus</TH><TH>Wickets</TH><TH>Average</TH><TH>Career Average</TH></TR></THEAD><TBODY><!-- table data goes in tr/td row groups as like the following ---><!-- use class="left" to left-align a cell, otherwise it gets right-aligned --><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Mohammad Rafique</TD><TD>2</TD><TD>11</TD><TD>27.72</TD><TD>36.59</TD></TR><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Murali Kartik</TD><TD>3</TD><TD>13</TD><TD>32.15</TD><TD>34.16</TD></TR><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Daniel Vettori</TD><TD>14</TD><TD>52</TD><TD>34.94</TD><TD>35.01</TD></TR><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Phil Tufnell</TD><TD>12</TD><TD>36</TD><TD>38.13</TD><TD>37.68</TD></TR><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Paul Adams</TD><TD>5</TD><TD>15</TD><TD>39.33</TD><TD>32.87</TD></TR><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Venkapathy Raju</TD><TD>8</TD><TD>17</TD><TD>50.35</TD><TD>30.72</TD></TR><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Nicky Boje</TD><TD>6</TD><TD>12</TD><TD>55.16</TD><TD>42.65</TD></TR><TR class=data1><TD class=left>Ashley Giles</TD><TD>9</TD><TD>20</TD><TD>56.95</TD><TD>40.60</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Australia versus Left-arm Spin (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/columns/content/story/272650.html)

[mhferdaus]

There is an interesting article in Cricinfo by S Rajesh today. In one of the topics, he mentioned how Australia is somewhat vulnerable against left arm spin. Guess who tops the list in the left arm spinners section. Yeah its our own Mohammad Rafique. His bowling average against the aussies is 27.72 when his career average is 36.59. Quiet remarkable. I know he played only two tests against them and both of them was in Bangladesh but it is impressive.



Australia versus Left-arm Spin (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/columns/content/story/272650.html)

just when I was about to copy paste it, some one else done it before me :D, just goes to show how much we cherish our Rafique Mamu :D

[cricket_dorshok]

Rafique the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[layperson]

And now we have an arsenal of SLA's. I think our bowling department has overtaken our batting in terms of potency. I feel our main strength now is our bowling. We have two pretty good fast bowlers in mashrafee and shahdat and our SLA's like rafique, sakib, razzak and enamul Jnr are extremely good.

[sadi]

We will find out when they play stronger teams. Razzak, Sakib and Mehrab hasn't got much exposure against quality batting yet and it will surely be a good test. Rafique deserves some credit for showing the path though. In another thread, someone mentioned how he had the lowest economy rate for a Bangladeshi bowler till yesterday when he conceded only 14 runs in 10 overs against Australia. That is impressive. :)

[layperson]

I am not sure about mehrab but I am confident that sakib and razzak will do very well against all opposition. BTW I am talking about ODI"s here. In test matches it is a different story altogether and only rafique and enamul jnr might be effective and to some extent razzak.

[gatekeeper]

Quite remarkable, especially since Rafique got to bowl only three innings against the Aussies.

[Rihaad The Man]

It's quite brilliant but Rafique won't get any more chance to play a test match against Australia in his cricket life .