Sydney, Dec.31 (ANI): South African stars Graeme Smith and Dale Steyn may be focussing on overtaking Australia as the world’’s No.1 Test cricket side, but they can also reflect on 2008 as a stand-out year individually.
The Proteas can attribute much of their success this year - 11 wins, two draws and two losses from 15 Tests, and series wins in England and Australia - to Smith’’s magnificent batting and Steyn’’s brilliant fast bowling.
Smith has scored 1,656 runs at an average of 72, and his tally is the third-highest in a calendar year in the game’’s history, only behind the 1,788 runs Pakistan’’s Mohammad Yousuf amassed in 2006 and the 1,710 the West Indies” Viv Richards tallied in 1976.
Steyn was the man of the match in the second Test at the MCG for his bowling and batting heroics, and his 10-wicket haul gave him 74 scalps for the year, at an average of 20.01 runs apiece.
The leading run-scorers and wicket-takers in Test cricket in 2008, according to the Sydney Morning Herald are as follows: MOST RUNS 1,656 - Graeme Smith (RSA) 15 matches, average 72.00 1,462 - Virender Sehwag (Ind) 14 matches, average 56.23 1,182 - Ricky Ponting (Aust) 14 matches, average 47.28 1,162 - Hashim Amla (RSA) 15 matches, average 52.77 1,134 - Gautam Gambhir (Ind) 8 matches, average 70.87 1,086 - VVS Laxman (Ind) 15 matches, average 47.21 1,073 - Neil McKenzie (RSA) 14 matches, average 53.65 1,063 - Michael Clarke (Aust) 13 matches, average 50.61 1,063 - Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) 13 matches, average 48.31 1,061 - AB de Villiers (RSA) 15 matches, average 58.94 MOST WICKETS 74 - Dale Steyn (RSA) 13 matches, average 20.01 63 - Mitchell Johnson (Aust) 14 matches, average 29.01 63 - Harbhajan Singh (Ind) 13 matches, average 31.53 57 - Brett Lee (Aust) 14 matches, average 33.05 54 - Daniel Vettori (NZ) 14 matches, average 26.12 54 - Makhaya Ntini (RSA) 15 matches, average 28.46 47 - Ryan Sidebottom (Eng) 8 matches, average 20.25 46 - Jimmy Anderson (Eng) 11 matches, average 29.84 43 - Morne Morkel (RSA) 13 matches, average 32.16 42 - Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) 6* matches, average 23.71 (ANI)