Famous retirements in 2012
The year 2012 was an year of retirements. In March, Rahul Dravid bid adieu to international cricket. Laxman retired in August 2012. Both of them just announced their retirement and did not play a farewell game.
Rickey Ponting also retired from international cricket on 29th Nov 2012. Mike Hussey has also announced his retirement and is currently playing his last Test match against SL as in am writing this post.
The biggest shock came when the Little Master (Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar) announced his retirement from ODI cricket on 23rd Dec. It needs to be seen till how long he plays test cricket.
World cricket results summary – Tests
India had a dismal 2012, performing badly in all formats of the game, specially in Test cricket. The retirement of Laxman and Dravid did effect the team. R. Ashwin has also not been able to shine as a test bowler. India could only manage 3 victories of the 9 test matches it played in 2012. The worst was the 4-0 dubbing at the hands of Australia in Australia in Dec 2011 – Jan 2012. Even worse was the 2-1 home series loss against England in Dec 2012.
The following screenshot shows the win-loss record of all test playing nations in 2012.
World Cricket results summary – ODIs
If we look at ODI matches, SA had a phenomenal year, winning 12 out of the 15 matches. Here is a synopsis of the results of the matches played in 2012.
World Cricket results summary – T20s
T20 cricket was a mixed bag for all the top cricket playing nations. Australia bettered its woeful 2011 record. WI team made a good comeback and won a number of games. The surprise of the year was however Ireland who won the maximum %age of matches played in 2012. They won 8 of the 13 T20 matches they played in 2012. However, all the wins came against Kenya, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
A snapshot of the T20 match results of 2012 is as follows:
Key performers in 2012
In test cricket, the year belonged to Michael Clarke who scored 4 double centuries (including a triple century). Clarke scored 1595 runs in the calendar year at an average of 106.33
Alastair Cook also had a great year. He scored 1249 runs in tests played in 2012, scored 4 hundreds in his first four Tests as captain, led from the front and took England to an unlikely victory in India. Hashim Amla, Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott were the other players who grossed over 1000 test runs in 2012.
In ODI, 3 players scored over 1000 runs in calendar year 2012. Kumar Sangakkara top scored with a total of 1184 runs at an average of 43. Virat Kohli had a phenomenal 2012; he scored 1026 runs in 17 innings at an average of 68.40 and scored 5 centuries in the process. The 3rd player to cross 1000 ODI runs in 2012 is Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Cheteshwar Pujara was a find for Indian cricket in 2012. He showed great determination in Tests. He scored the first double ton of his career against England. The new year 2013 has begun with a lot of action. India getting trounced at home against Pakistan, with England waiting in the wings for an ODI series. NZ touring SA and Sri Lanka touring Australia. Hope there will be much more entertainment in the coming year 🙂
We, cricket fans, at CricBol.com wish you a fun filled and prosperous new year 2013.
We will bring more posts on the memorable cricketing moments of 2012 as part of this series.
Stay tuned…