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Kepler Wessels South Africa (RSA)
Batting style	Left-handed batsman (LHB)
Bowling type	Right-arm off-break / medium (OB / RM)
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	40	109
Runs scored	2788	3367
Batting average	41.00	34.35
100s/50s	6/15	6/15
Top score	179	107
Overs bowled	15	124.5
Wickets	0	18
Bowling average	N/A	37.00
5 wickets in innings	N/A	0
10 wickets in match	N/A	N/A
Best bowling	N/A	2/16
Catches/stumpings	30/0	49/0
As of 26 May 2005 Source: Cricinfo.com Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Image File history File links Cricket_no_pic. ... Cricket batsman A batsman in the sport of cricket is a player whose speciality in the game is batting. ... In the sport of cricket there are two categories of bowler: pace bowler and spin bowler. ... Jump to: navigation, search Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. ... A One-day International (ODI) cricket match is a one-day cricket match played between two international teams each representing a particular country. ... Batting average is a statistic in both baseball and cricket measuring the performance of baseball hitters and cricket batsmen, respectively. ... In the sport of cricket an over is a series of six consecutive balls bowled by a single bowler. ... This article is about the cricket term. ... Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket. ... This article is about the cricket term. ... An innings, or inning, is a segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably baseball and cricket – during which a side takes its turn to bat. ... This article is about the cricket term. ... In the sport of cricket, the term stump has three different meanings: part of the wicket, a manner of dismissing a batsman, and the end of the days play (stumps). Part of the wicket The stumps are three vertical posts supporting the bails to form a wicket at each... Jump to: navigation, search May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Kepler Wessels (born September 14, 1957) was a South African cricketer who captained South Africa and at other times played for Australia. Jump to: navigation, search September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search A cricket match in progress. ...

He was an all-rounder, most noted as a left-handed opening batsman but also useful as a right arm off spinner and medium pace bowler. Cricket batsman A batsman in the sport of cricket is a player whose speciality in the game is batting. ... Jump to: navigation, search Off spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner and refers to a right-handed spin bowler who uses his fingers to spin the ball from a right-handed batsmans off side towards the... Darren Gough bowling A bowler in the sport of cricket is usually a player whose speciality is bowling. ...

He played First Class Cricket for a variety of teams. In his native South Africa, Wessels played for Orange Free State, Western Province, Northern Transvaal, Eastern Province and Griqualand West. In Australia he played for Queensland, and in England he played for Sussex.

Batting Style

Wessels' batting was ungainly and he always appeared cramped. His unique style was well suited to playing on the off-side, and he had the reputation of being one of the best square-cutters in the world at the time. Bowlers soon learned that any ball delivered too wide of the off stump would quickly end up on the fence. Occasionally Wessels would cut the ball for six - a very unusual scoring shot in cricket history.

World Series Cricket

In the late 1970s, Wessels was drafted by Kerry Packer to play for the Australian World Series Cricket Team. As a South African with little hope of playing Test Cricket for his country, Wessels joined the "circus" to take advantage of the better pay and conditions that the WSC offered. Jump to: navigation, search Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (born 17 December 1937) is an Australian publishing, media and gaming tycoon. ... For more coverage of cricket, go to the Cricket portal. ...

1982/83 Australian Tour of Sri Lanka

In April, 1983, Australia played their inaugural test against Sri Lanka. Wessels continued his good form with 141, thus becoming the first Australian player to score a century against Sri Lanka. He was named "man of the match" in Australia's innings victory. Jump to: navigation, search April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four with the length of 30 days. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

1983/84 Pakistan Tour of Australia

Wessels played in each of the five tests against Pakistan, scoring 256 runs at an average of 42.66. This included 179 in the third Test, which remained his top score. Despite this moderately good form, Wessels was outscored by five other Australian players who took advantage of the poor quality Pakistani bowling.

Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh all retired from Australian cricket at the end of the series, and much was expected of Wessels (and others) to score consistently against the upcoming series against the West Indies. Jump to: navigation, search Gregory Stephen Chappell (born August 7, 1948) is a former Australian cricketer. ... For more coverage of cricket, go to the Cricket portal. ... Rodney William Marsh (born Armadale, Perth, Australia November 4, 1947) was an Australian Wicket keeper. ... Jump to: navigation, search For more coverage of cricket, go to the Cricket portal. ...

1983/84 Australian tour of West Indies

Any hope that Wessels and other new Australian batsmen would cope against the West Indian fast bowling was dashed. Wessels scored 4 and 20 in the first test and 4 and 4 in the second test] before injury ruled him out of the rest of the series. He was dismissed by West Indian fast bowler Joel Garner three times, and was nicknamed "Joel's bunny" as a result. For the first time in his Test career, Wessels' form had deserted him and he was not a certainty for selection when the West Indians toured Australia in 1984/85. Jump to: navigation, search Joel Garner (born December 16, 1952) also known as Big Joel or Big Bird, was a West Indian cricket player, and a member of the highly regarded late 70s and early 80s West Indies cricket sides. ...

1984/85 West Indian Tour of Australia

As a Test player, Wessels' most successful period came during the disastrous 1984-1985 West Indian tour of Australia. After scoring only 13 and 0 in the First test, Wessels was in danger of being dropped from the Australian side. However, due to the poor performance of almost all of Australia's batting in that match, he was retained for the Second Test. He responded by being out for 0 second ball, and many people thought that his career was over. In the second innings, however, he top scored with 61, giving the selectors no option but to include him for the Third Test. Batting up number 3, Wessels top scored again with 98 runs in the first innings and 70 in the second, in a match where the Australian batting was being taken apart by the West Indian bowlers.

The Fourth Test saw Wessels continue his heavy scoring, with 90 and 0 helping Australia force a draw. It was in the Fifth Test, however, which saw him totally dominate the West Indian bowlers with 173. His batting helped Australia to 9 (declared) for 471, which was a winning total on a wicket that was taking spin.

Wessels scored 505 runs at an average of 56.11 against the West Indies, which was more than double the amount of runs scored by any other Australian batsmen during that series. Given the dominance of West Indian bowling at the time, and the fragility of the Australian batting line-up, Wessels' performance during that series was world class.

1985 Australian Tour of England - Rebel Tour links?

Unfortunately, Wessels was unable to maintain his form during the 1985 Ashes Tour of England. Although he scored three fifties (top score 83), Wessels ended the series with 368 runs at an average of 33.45. While this was not a failure, it was certainly below his best. Australia lost the series and suffered two very heavy innings defeats during the series that may have been averted had Wessels scored more runs. Apart from Allan Border, however, Australia's batting lineup was becoming increasingly fragile.

It is likely that the rebel tour to South Africa affected Wessels' attitude during the 1985 Ashes tour. Because of his South African background, Wessels was seen by many players and officials as one of the major contacts for the Rebel Tour amongst the Australian players. While he has steadfastly denied this, former Australian Cricket Captain Allan Border expressed his firm belief in a number of books he wrote about the period.

1985/86 New Zealand Tour of Australia - Retirement

Wessels final match for Australia was the First Test against New Zealand in Brisbane, 8-12 November 1985. Wessels was alone in resisting the devastating bowling of Richard Hadlee, scoring 70 out of Australia's first innings total of 179. He scored only 3 in the second innings, with Australia suffering its heaviest defeat against New Zealand. Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ...

Soon after the match was finished, Wessels announced his retirement, expressing his disillusionment with Australian cricket. Little did he realise that only 4 years later he would be playing Test Cricket again, this time for his home nation.

External links

• Statistics.
• Career overview.