Gundappa Viswanath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gundappa Viswanath India (Ind)
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling type	Legbreak
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	91	25
Runs scored	6080	439
Batting average	41.93	19.95
100s/50s	14/35	-/2
Top score	222	75
Balls bowled	70	-
Wickets	1	-
Bowling average	46.00	-
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	n/a
Best bowling	1/11	-
Catches/stumpings	63/-	3/-
As of 4 February 2006 Source: Cricinfo.com

Gundappa Rangnath Viswanath (Kannada:ಗುಂಡಪ್ಪ ರಂಗನಾಥ್‌ ವಿಶ್ವನಾಥ್‌) pronunciation (help·info) (born 12 February 1949 in Bhadravathi, Karnataka, India) is an Indian former cricketer. He was one of India's finest batsmen throughout the 1970s. He played Test cricket for India from 1969 to 1983 making 91 appearances and scoring over 6000 runs. He also played in One-day Internationals from 1974 to 1982 including the World Cups of 1975 and 1979. At state level, he played for Karnataka (formerly Mysore) throughout his career.

Viswanath, popularly nicknamed Vishy, had an elegant and wristy batting style which emphasised timing rather than power. Though he had a complete repertoire of shots around the wicket, Viswanath's favourite was the square cut, a shot he often used to great effect against fast bowlers.

On his Test match debut, Viswanath scored a century against Australia at Kanpur in 1969 in a drawn match. He scored 13 more centuries in his Test career and none of them came in a match that was lost. This record emphasised his importance to the Indian team. He tended to produce his best performances on difficult pitches and a number of his best innings were not centuries, but were crucial to the team's cause ^[1]. Against Australia and the West Indies, both known for their strong pace attacks, he had a batting average of over 50 ^[2].

He was at his peak in the mid-1970s. One of his most famous innings was against the West Indies at Madras in 1974-75, when he scored 97 not out out of a total of 190 against a bowling attack containing a rampaging Andy Roberts. Despite not being a century, it was regarded as one of the finest performances by an Indian ^[3] and it led to an Indian victory. The Wisden 100 (a statisical analysis of individiual Test match performances carried out in 2001) ranked it the 38th best innings of all time, and the second best non-century ^[4]. He had also scored a match-winning century in the previous Test at Calcutta, but despite a 95 in the final Test at Bombay the series was lost 3-2.

In 1975-76, Viswanath again produced some strong performances against the West Indies, the most notable of which was his 112 at Port of Spain which helped India to reach the victory target of 403. At the time, this was the highest successful run-chase in Test cricket ^[5]. Another great innings against the West Indies was in 1978-79 at Madras when he scored 124 out of a total of 255. India went on to win the match which ultimately led to a 1-0 series victory in the 6-match series, although this West Indian side was considerably weaker than in previous series after many players opted to play in World Series Cricket instead.

Viswanath also had a brief stint as the Indian captain in 1979-80. In the 2 Tests he captained, 1 was drawn and 1 was lost, the latter being the Golden Jubilee Test against England. Throughout his career, Viswanath was renowned for his sense of fair-play, and in this match he recalled Bob Taylor to the crease after the umpire had already given him out. Taylor went on to score some vital runs for England helping them to win the match.

Viswanath retired from Tests in 1983, and later served as a match referee for the ICC from 1999 to 2004. He is married to the sister of Sunil Gavaskar who he played together with for India throughout most of his career.

[edit] References

1. ^ The genius and the great from Cricinfo.com
2. ^ Statsguru - GR Viswanath - Tests - Career summary from Cricinfo.com
3. ^ The 26th anniversary of an immortal innings from Cricinfo.com 11 January 2001
4. ^ Wisden 100 - Top 100 Batsmen from Rediff.com
5. ^ Tests - Highest Fourth Innings Totals from Cricinfo.com

Preceded by Sunil Gavaskar

Indian National Test Cricket Captain 1979/80

Succeeded by Sunil Gavaskar

	India squad - 1975 Cricket World Cup
1 Venkataraghavan | 2 Solkar | 3 Gaekwad | 4 Ghavri | 5 Patel | 6 Viswanath | 7 Gavaskar | 8 Engineer | 9 Ali | 10 Amarnath | 11 Lal | 12 Bedi | 13 none | 14 none | 15 none | Coach: none

	India squad - 1979 Cricket World Cup
1 Venkataraghavan | 2 Gavaskar | 3 Amarnath | 4 Viswanath | 5 Vengsarkar | 6 Gaekwad | 7 Ghavri | 8 Kapil | 9 Brijesh | 10 Surinder | 11 Bedi | 12 Reddy | 13 Yashpal | 14 None | 15 None | Coach: Unknown