Ask Bearders #184

In Tests, what is the highest 1st innings total posted by a team batting 1st, only to go on to lose the match?

And from the other end of the spectrum (If I may cheekily sneak in another question) What is the lowest 20/20 total that has been successfully defended (excluding D/L results)

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Has their ever been a cricket team who defeated both England & Australia in a TEST SERIES Away from home in a CALENDAR YEAR?

Would South Africa be the first country ever to achieve such a feat should they beat Australia in the 2nd Test at MCG?

I am from South Yorkshire, England.

Keep up the wonderful work.

In the Boxing Day Test I noticed that Michael Clarke went a whole session without hitting a boundary scoring just 25 runs. Obviously in the really old times this was nothing irregular but since 1975 how many batsman have gone a whole session without hitting a boundary and also who holds the record for the lest runs in a session since 1975.

Is Dravids score in the second innings of the boxing day test of Australia vs India 2007, the least runs scored per ball bowled?

Links to scorecard

https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2007/12/14335/html/scorecard.stm

I'm not sure if its possible, and might take a lot of hard work, but is it possible to show Andrew Flintoff's bowling figures to right and left handed bastman, because its been raised before that he's much better to left handers than he is right handers and I was hoping the stats would back up or reject this argument.

which brothers have the most test runs combined together. my guest is steve and mark waugh

should England be allowed to push the borders in a 'gentlemans' game;they got away with it in the bodyline series but K.P. switch-hitting ?

question 5 - Mr Yorkshire Taff

no it isn't

Dravid's 5 in 66 balls is slow scoring, a run every 13.2 balls, but its not the slowest

i don't actually know the slowest but several are slower than Dravid, just a couple of examples:

G Miller ENG vs AUS 1978 - 7 runs in 101 balls, 14.4 balls per run

Nawab of Pataudi Jr IND vs ENG 1973 - 5 runs 83 balls, 16.6 balls per run

Hi Bill,

I have a question about Greek Cricketers...now I know that ex-Aussie fast bowler Jason Gillespie is half Greek and of course Safrican keeper Nic Pothas is also of Greek descent - but are these the only "Greeks" to have played
a) international cricket
b) first-class cricket

I thought there might be a few more Aussies (esp in Victoria)/Saffers around.

By the way we have a new ground in Athens which, fingers crossed, will herald the rise of the Minotaurs on the world cricket scene...

Cheers El Greco

question 7 - Alonso Must Stay

yup they are, but Sunil Gavaskar and his brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath run them close

Waughs 10,927 + 8029 =18,956
Sunil and Vis. 10,122 + 6080 = 16,202

also to be mentioned are the 4 brothers who played for Pak, Hanif, Mushtaq,
Sadiq and Wazir Mohammad, whose combined total is to be reckoned with

Mohammads 3,915 + 3,643 + 2,579 + 801 = 10,938

which together would put them 4th on the run scoring list just above Steve Waugh

and the 3 Chappells who scored 79 + 7110 + 5345 = 12,534

as far as i can see no other brothers have combined to score 10,000+ runs

has anybody apart from andrew strauss been on the losing side despite scoring a century in both innings of a test match?

question 12 - Jez229

yes...this was answered in the last blog (maybe a forum would solve this problem)

batsmen who scored a 100 in each innings but their team still lost

A Flower ZIM vs SA 2001
Gavaskar IND vs PAK 1978
Hazare IND vs AUS 1948
G Headley WI vs ENG 1939
Lara WI vs SL 2001
Strauss ENG vs IND 2008
Sutcliffe ENG vs AUS 1925
Walcott WI vs AUS 1955

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Re 1 (devonFRATTONiser)

There have been six instances where a first innings of a test match (batting first) of 500 or more scored by the losing side, five of them in Australia:

586 - A (586/166) v E (325/437). Sydney, 1894-95
556 - A (556/196) v I (523/233-6), Adelaide, 2003-04
551-6d - E (551-6d/129) v A (513/168-4). Adelaide, 2006-07
526-7d - WI (526-7d/92-2d) v E (404/215-3). Port of Spain, 1967-68
520 - A (520/209) v SA (435/297-4), Melbourne, 1952-53
519 - E (519/257) v A (491/287-5), Melbourne, 1928-29

The lowest first innings (batting first), 100 or less, by teams eventually winning:

45 - E (45/184) v A (119/97), Sydney, 1886-87
63 - A (63/122) v E (101/77), The Oval, 1882
75 - E (75/475) v A (123/333), Melbourne, 1894-95
76 - E (76/162) v SA (110/75), Leeds, 1907
92 - E (92/330) v SA (177/330), Cape Town, 1898-99
The lowest in the past ten years is:
104 - I (104/205) v A (203/93), Mumbai, 2004-05

Following on from the Botham question in the this blog...

Obviously many players come over to England as overseas players but I haven't heard of many Englishmen going the other way.

Therefore, which Englishmen have played in 1st class cricket in other countries (discounting the likes of Pietersen who started playing in their native country)?
Also, how do their stats compare?

Re 5 (MrYorkshireTaff)

Runs Balls
0 - 77 - GI Allott, NZ-SA, Auckland, 1998-99
3* - 100 - JT Murray, E-A, Sydney, 1962-63
7 - 101 - G Miller, E-A, Mrlbourne, 1978-79
9 - 102 - CG Rackemann, A-E, Sydney, 1990-91
11 - 108 - DP Fleming, NZ-E, Wellington, 2001-02
13 - 157 - Yashpal Sharma, I-A, Adelaide, 1980-81
17* - 157 - GM Ritchie, A-I, Sydney, 1985-86
22 - 161 - Salim Altaf, P-E, Leeds, 1971
28 - 177 - CL Smith, E-P, Karachi, 1983-84
29* - 235 - RC Russell, E-SA, Johannesburg, 1995-96
35 - 240 - CJ Tavare, E-I, Chennai, 1981-82
38 - 275 - TE Bailey, E-A, Leeds, 1953
68 - 427 - TE Bailey, E-A, Brisbane, 1958-59
91 - 487 - AC Bannerman, A-E, Sydney, 1891-92
136* - 510 - S Chanderpaul - WI-I, St John's, 2001-02
158 - 524 - CT Radley, E-NZ, Auckland, 1977-78
177 - 603 - WR Hammond, E-A, Adelaide, 1928-29
234 - 667 - SG Barnes, A-E, Sydney, 1946-47
259 - 759 - GM Turner, NZ-WI, Georgetown, 1971-72
364 - 847 - L Hutton, E-A, The Oval, 1938

Athanasios John Traicos ( SA + Zim) was of Greek descent. I remember reading about another South African of Greek descent (Xenophon Balaskas , 1910-1994), in either the Cricketer or Wisden Cricket Monthly in the 80's . I think he was a coach.
I once heard a story that some cricket was played on Corfu , due to forces influence
( Michael Green, author of the ' Art of coarse'
series, possibly ) .

re 16 : Diverging to international cricket ,I'd imagine that this happened quite a lot in the early days of test cricket-
Frank Hearne played for SA against his two brothers in the England team. (seven others have played for England and another country, but I'm not sure where these were born) . Recently, I think Courtney Browne
(WI W-K ) was born in London. Was Roger Twose (NZ) not English ? .

Hick and Maynard spent time in NZ in the 80's

Hi

I was wondering if you could tell me which player has taken part in the most test matches as a 12th man?

Also, does taking part as a 12th man count as an official test in the players personal record?

Thanks

Bill, I've been doing my own research into this but have hit a bit of a brick wall. I'm trying to compile a list of players who have taken a test wicket, made a test stumping and scored a test hundred, obviously not necessarily in the same match. So far I have Mark Boucher, AB De Villiers and Javed Miandad, but I'd expect to find a couple more. Could you help at all on this?
Mike - Liverpool

#8

KP's Switch hitting, is not 'pushing the borders in a gentlemans game', he is deploying a shot that is near on impossible to execute. He has developed this shot through hours of practise in the nets & should be congratulated for pushing the borders of batsmanship

I have recently been reading a book about the Coopers Deloitte Ratings in the eighties and the match report for Australia v Sri Lanka at Perth in Feb 1988 states that only the first day was shown on TV. I was wondering when it last occured that a Test or ODI wasn't televised? I seem to remember that India v Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup (including Kapil Dev's 175 not out) was not televised at all due to a cameraman's strike.

Re: 12 and 13.

Brian Lara scored a double century and a single century against Sri Lanka and West Indies still lost.

re 21

I think this is more common than you might think. Kirmani and Parks

Clyde Walcott took 11 wickets made 11 stumpings and hit 15 centuries

I notice that you often refer to the method or location of death of cricketers. Is this an interest?

What is the most unusual method of death for a first class cricketer? How many have been murdered?

in 1995, the following players played in an u19 international between England & South Africa.

ME Trescothick
VS Solanki
A Flintoff
AJ Tudor
MV Boucher
AG Prince
HH Dippenaar
ND McKenzie
BK Hughes
M Ntini
M Morkel

I wondered which u19 fixture had the most players, who went on to play full Test cricket

27, surely Morkel can't have played in 1995, he was only born in 84!

28

True!! Although there was an M Morkel who played in the game & opened the bowling

In the last match of the India England test series a large number of overs were lost due to the bad light at the start of each days play. In recent years captains often get fined for low over rates as the full 90 overs aren't bowled each day.
If a match ends in a draw then in a 90 overs a day match in theory 444 can be competed (90*5 - 3*2 for change of innings) though there will likely be several incomplete overs at the end of innings. Has this figure ever been achieved? If not what is the largest number of overs bowled in a 5 day test match? Presumably more were bowled in the timeless tests?

Richard
Cambridge

Bearders,
With the recent resurgence of the tail batting on and on in the Australia vs South Africa series, it led me to wonder what would be considered the Test innings where the runs were most evenly shared by the 11 batsmen, and how often has the bottom half of the batting order outscored the top half?
Cheers from New York
Peter Steep

question 26 - Sir Ian Blog

the opposite of your question is Leslie Hylton, who played 6 tests for WI, and was hanged as a murderer

of 1st class cricketers who were murdered there are at least 11 certain and 5 or 6 others (including Woolmer and Hookes) who may have died at the hands of others

of the 11 only one played tests Jeff Stollmeyer - WI 32 tests

question 21 - Rice YYY

of genuine keepers (those who were nominated 'keeper at the start of the match) there have been 6 who have scored 100 and made a stumping and taken a wkt in their career:

JM Parks
T Arif (the test when Miandad took a stumping)
Kirmani
T Taibu
M Boucher
C Walcott (although never took a wkt when designated keeper)

others have also achieved this but as batsmen who took the gloves in emergencies, examples not yet mentioned:

Vijay Manjrekar IND scoring 7 tons, 2 stumpings and 1 wkt
John Reid NZ 6 tons, 1 stump, 85 wkt
Robert Christiani WI 1 ton, 2 stump, 3 wkts

there are probably a few others too, go here

https://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerCountryList.asp

and spend 60 minutes or so going through all the nations, you'll find them all easily

Bearders:

Kindly tell me which opening test batsman had the most opening partners. I'm thinking it's the late Roy Fredericks who had Steve Comacho, Geoffrey Greenidge, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Lewis, Vivian Richards, Derrick Murray, Leonard Baichan, and a few others. Am I correct?

Sincerely,

Roy Brummell

I think Graham Gooch may have had more opening partners than Roy Fredericks. I can remember M Brearley, G Boycott, C Tavare, T Robinson, W Slack, M Benson, M Moxon, W Athey, C Broad, T Curtis, J Stephenson, W Larkins, M Atherton, A Stewart, H Morris - purely out of those who were actually selected as openers. Not to mention that on one occasion, David Gower was pushed up the order to open a second innings with Gooch when quick runs were needed and the other official opener was the slow-scoring Atherton (the tactic failed, as it happened.)

So, I've been able to find 16 opening partners for Gooch in Tests, 15 if you discount Gower. If we add in ODIs as well, you can also add G Fowler as well (and it was a surprise that they never opened as a pair in Tests): and there may be more.

Boycott may have had even more opening partners, though. Not been able to count them all, although he only shared three opening partners with Gooch: Brearley, Tavare and Larkins (often with Gooch batting in the middle order), plus, of course, opening with Gooch himself on a lot of occasions. Can anyone list the people Boycott had as opening partners? From the "regular openers" to such cases as D Randall, normally a middle-order batsman but pushed into opening on a few occasions in ODIs?

As for #8's snide comment about "bodyline" bowling: An Aussie, I assume? And you guys call *us* Whinging Poms. Guess who's still up to carrying on the longest whinge in history, even after having produced Lillee and Thomson... If there was a disgrace, I would tend to say it was the way Larwood was subsequently treated by both English and Australian cricket authorities.

#10 - There was a person of Greek descent who played for South Africa in the 1930's, and even won a Test at Lords against England: Xenophon C. Balaskas.

Bearders, I'm currently arguing with a few of my Australian mates about the merits of certain bowlers. They swear blind that currently Shane Watson, a player who can't make the Australian starting 11 is a better bowler than Freddie Flintoff. Their principle argument is Freddie is worse because he isn't taking top order wickets at the moment. I'm convinced that Freddie is by far and a way a superior bowler, what facts could help me convince them of this?

Re 16 (LichfieldBlade)

Not a full answer to your question but assuming your thoughts are confined to players in teams contesting national championships then I can at least supply a list of British born players who first played in the County Championship before taking part in the Sheffield Shield / Pura Cup (Australia). A couple surprised me! Here they are:

GAR Lock
1962/63-1970/71 - W Aust - 66 matches - 1271 runs (15.31) - 302 wkts (23.87)
PJ Loader
1963/64 - W Aust - 1 - 0 (0.00) - 0 (for 85 runs)
TW Graveney
1969/70 -1971/72 - Queensland - 6 - 134 (19.14) - did not bowl
JH Hampshire
1977/78-1978/79 - Tasmania - 10 - 782 (41.15) - did not bowl
J Simmons
1977/78-1978/49 - Tasmania - 10 - 373 (26.64) - 29 (32.37)
PD Bowler
1986/87 - Tasmania - 1 - 7 (7.00) - 0 (for 21 runs)
RM Ellison
1986/87 - Tasmania - 8 - 261 (29.00) - 21 (27.85)
VJ Marks
1986/87 - W Aust - 11 370 (46.25) - 30 (31.83)
IT Botham
1987/88 - Queensland - 11 - 646 (34.00) - 29 (27.75)
C White
1990/91 - Victoria - 2 - 28 (14.00) - 2 (35.00)
DJ Spencer
1993/94 - W Aust - 8 - 75 (10.71) - 20 (37.50)
DJ Millns
1994/95 - Tasmania - 6 - 76 (76.00) - 18 (44.72)

The recent test in Dunedin between New Zealand and the West Indies was predictably curtailed by bad weather. I cannot understand why the tests in Dunedin are not held later in the summer. I would be interested to know which test grounds in New Zealand have the best and worst records in terms of time lost due to bad weather. Also, which month has proved to be the best for holding tests in Dunedin and which has been the worst.

raycov, Auckland, New Zealand

MOST TEST OPENING PARTNERS

SM Gavaskar (19)
- S Abid Ali, M Amarnath, Arun Lal, RMH Binny, CPS Chauhan, FM Engineer, AD Gaekwad, HS Kanitkar, AV Mankad, SS Naik, GA Parkar, RD Parkar, M Prabhakar, Pranab Roy, P Sharma, RJ Shastri, ED Solkar, K Srikkanth, DB Vengsarkar.

GA Gooch (18)
- MA Atherton, CWJ Athey, MR Benson, G Boycott, JM Brearley, BC Broad, G Cook, TS Curtis, DI Gower, W Larkins, H Morris, MD Moxon, RT Robinson, BC Rose, WN Slack, JP Stephenson, AJ Stewart, CJ Tavaré.

L Hutton (18)
- TE Bailey, CJ Barnett, JG Dewes, WJ Edrich, AE Fagg, PA Gibb, H Gimblett, TW Graveney, JT Ikin, WW Keeton, D Kenyon, FA Lowson, JH Parks, JDB Robertson, DS Sheppard, RT Simpson, C Washbrook, W Watson.

Saeed Anwar (18)
- Aamir Sohail, Abdur Razzaq, Ali Naqvi, Azhar Mahmood, Basit Ali, Ijaz Ahmed, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Wasim, Naved Ashraf, Salim Elahi, Shadab Kabir, Shahid Afridi, Shakeel Ahmed, Shoaib Mohammad, Taufaaq Umar, Wajahatullah Wasti, Zahid Fazal, Zahoor Elahi.

G Boycott (16)
- DL Amiss, RW Barber, KF Barrington, JM Brearley, AR Butcher, MC Cowdrey, JH Edrich, GA Gooch, W Larkins, BW Luckhurst, C Milburn, JT Murray, DW Randall, BC Rose, WE Russell, FJ Titmus.

RC Fredericks (15)
- L Baichan, GS Camacho, MC Carew, TM Findlay, MLC Foster, CG Greenidge, GA Greenidge, RGA Headley, BD Julian, AI Kallicharran, RB Kanhai, DM Lewis, DL Murray, IVA Richards, LG Rowe.

JH Edrich (14)
- DL Amiss, RW Barber, KF Barrington, JB Bolus, G Boycott, JM Brearley, DB Close, ER Dexter, KWR Fletcher, BW Luckhurst, C Milburn, RM Prideaux, MJ Stewart. B Wood.

MA Atherton (13)
- MA Butcher, JP Crawley, JER Gallian, GA Gooch, SP James, NV Knight, W Larkins, MN Lathwell, DL Maddy, MR Ramprakash, RA Smith, AJ Stewart, ME Trescothick.

Hi Bill,

How many times has a Test side scored 400+ runs and lost all 10 wickets in one day.

I think it happen in 2005 between Eng and Aus

Thanks!

Hi Bill.
Recently you have been refering to ODI's as "internationals", where you used to call them LOI's. Is there any reason for this? Do you include 20-20 games in this classification?
Aaron, Newcastle-U-T.

I know the question am going to ask is conterversial, my question is that when sri lanka offered to tour pakistan in replace for india's tour, then why did ICC intrupt the discussion by sayin that their should be security check for upmires. and also is icc now below the ranking of indian cricket board.

Hi Beaders, I was wondering if you (or anyone reading this) could answer my query: We all know about batsmen becoming a bowlers 'bunny' during test series, I was wondering if a batsman has ever been dismissed by the same bowler in every innings played in a test series, if not, what is the most times one bowler has dismissed the same batsman in a series?

Hope this makes sense...

Bill,

I know David Gower famously hit his first ball in test cricket for four but has anyone ever gone one better and hit their first ball in test cricket for six?

Andy

Thanks for all the comments back on the Dravid question and the slowest run rate. I wonder, with his 5 runs off 66 balls and 16 runs off 114 balls, does he have the slowest for both innings combined? i.e. the slowest run rate over the course of two innings.

Monty Panesar recently took his 100'th test wicket and it was noted that he had done it in a similar number of tests to certain other well-known bowlers like Bob Willis.

I was wondering a) where Monty fits in after 100 wickets compared with others at the same point in their careers - in terms of averages, runs conceded etc; and b) how they all developed afterwards - is the first 100 usually better, worse or the same as the next 100?

BTW congratulations on the beard award Mr Frindall.

question 46 - The Drinks Carrier

it took Monty (ave after innings achieving 100/career ave 31.65/33.05) and Willis (26.44/25.20) 28 tests to reach 100 wkts, many have reached 100 quicker, examples of players who went on to take a lot more are (with ave at inns of 100 and career ave):

Murali - 27 (31.5/21.85)
Imran Khan - 26 (31.45/22.81)
M Marshall - 26 (25.66/20.95)
Trueman - 25 (22.18/21.58)
Warne - 23 (24.20/25.42)
McGrath - 23 (24.69/21.64)
Botham - 19 (18.97/28.40)
Grimmet - 17 (28.07/24.22)

make of that what you will

question 43 - Short Spin

yes, although maybe not the answer you want

there have been numerous one test series and so, for example:

in ZIM vs IND 1992 Kapil Dev took ADR Campbell's wkt in both innings
or the 1982 1 game series between ENG and SL DS da Silva was dismissed in both innings by Underwood, as was G Cook by ALF De Mel

(both being first tests for SL and ZIM)

Q)Which batsman has been adjudged out the most number of times to a debutant (both in Tests and ODIs)?

My guess :Sachin Tendulkar.

Dale Steyn has just reached 150 wickets taken and seems to have an incredible strike rate and pretty good average too

Has anyone reached 150 wickets faster than him in terms of balls bowled? Also who has got to this landmark first in terms of fewest matches and who has got there while conceding the fewest runs

Who was quickest to 100 200 300 etc in each of these three criteria?

Answer to number 3 from coolinterstar


West Indies beat Australia in Dec 1979 to Jan 1980 (series was won at 3rd test in Jan 1980) and then beat England in June 1980

(i'll thank cricinfo for those stats)

Greetings from the US where we have one, real turf wicket!

I was wondering (surprisingly hard to find) how many sides have one a Test series in Australia, full stop. If you subtract out Windies (1970-2000) and England (1870-1900), it must be only a handful! So what's the answer?

Regarding #26, WWI would skew that data, no?

With the recent introduction of the "Super Over" in the 20-20s do you record the figures for the batsmen/bowlers in your statistics in any way?

Mr Bearder,
I know many Cricketers have been awarded medals in the World Wars, Has any won a Victoria Cross? I also seem to recall during the Second War, Bill Edrich went out to bat wearing his DFC ribbon. Anybody else did that?

Brian
North Vancouver BC
Canada

Re 40 (sleepingkerrps)

Yes, it did happen in 2005 as you say, and also on six other occasions -

428 - SA-E, Lord's, 1907, Day 1, whole innings
448 - SA-A, Manchester, 1912, Day 1, whole innings
407 - E-A, Leeds, 1921, Day 1, whole innings
450 - SA-A, Johannesburg, 1921-22, Day 1, whole innings
451 - SA-NZ, Christchurch, 1931-32, Day 2, whole innings
423 - NZ-E, Christchurch, 2001-02, Day 3, from 28-0 to 451 all out
407 - A-E, Birmingham, 2005, Day 1, whole innings

Re 52 (CowCorner Cathedral)

South Africa are the fourth visiting side to win a series in Australia, and only two (England and West Indies) have done so more than once. South Africa's achievement ends a run of 27 series not lost by Australia. Visiting winners -

E - 1884/85, 1886/87, 1894/95, 1903/04, 1911/12, 1928/29, 1932/33, 1954/55, 1970/71, 1978/79
WI - 1979/80, 1984/85
NZ - 1985/86
E - 1986/87
WI - 1988/89, 1992/93

Who holds the unfortunate record for the most test match innings played as an opener, without ever reaching 50? Who holds this record for England?

Andrew
Hong Kong

DISMISSED BY THE SAME BOWLER IN BOTH INNINGS, THREE TIMES IN A SERIES

x = other dismissal

1894-95 - ES Gregory (A) by T Richardson (E) in A
(1) x, x (2) ct, b (3) ct, b (4) x (5) ct, b

1956 - KR Miller (A) by JC Laker (E) in E
(1) lbw, lbw (2) x, x (3) b, ct (4) ct, b (5) x, not out

1956 - RN Harvey (A) by GAR Lock (E) in E
(1) lbw, b (2) x, x (3) ct, c/b (4) x, x (5) ct, ct

1960 - TL Goddard (SA) by JB Statham (E) in E
(1) ct, ct (2) b, ct (3) x, x (4) ct, not out (5) ct, ct - TOTAL of 7

1985-86 - GRJ Matthews (A) by RJ Hadlee (NZ) in A
(1) b, ct (2) ct, lbw (3) b, lbw

1998-99 - D Ganga (WI) by SM Pollock (SA) in SA
(1) did not play (2) did not play (3) debut b, ct (4) ct, lbw (5) ct, ct

2005 - AJ Strauss (E) by SK Warne (A) in E
(1) x, x (2) b, b (3) x, x (4) ct, ct (5) ct, ct

2005-06 - ML Hayden (A) by M Ntini (SA) in SA
(1) ct, ct (2) ct, ct (3) ct, ct

Re 57 (PattersHK)

The player who opened most often without getting a fifty is WA Shalders of South Africa whose 18 such innings commenced in 1899. The Brit with the most unenviable record for fifty-less opening innings is Tim Curtis with 9, followed by Bob Woolmer and Brian Close with 8 each.

The most opening innings not to include a 100 is 67 by CPS Chauhan of India, and the most for England is 41 by Jim Brearley.

Has a test match number 11 ever top scored for his team in an innings and or a match?

Did Jim Laker toy with becoming a professional cyclist before deciding to take up cricket?

question 60 - Midmorning Warning

a number 11 has top scored in a test innings 7 times:

FR Spofforth 50 AUS v ENG 1885
TR McKibbin 16 AUS v ENG 1896
AEE Vogler 62* SA v ENG 1906
Asif Masood 30* PAK v WI 1975
AMJG Amerasinghe 34 SLv NZ 1984
Talha Jubair 31 BAN v IND 2004
SJ Harmison 42 ENG v SA 2005

of these (there may be others who didn't top score in 1 innings but their combined total was the highest) only 2 top scored for their side in the match:

Vogler as SA only needed one innings to win
Spofforth, who only scored 1 in 2nd innings (at number 10) but his total of 51 is higher than the next (W Bruce 15+35=50)

In Tests has a team ever won and lost by an innings to the same team in consecutive matches? If not, what is the biggest difference between a victory and defeat in consecutive matches?

buzz1989
Cambridgeshire

Thanks portoian, im suprised its happened 7 times and i really didnt expect someone to have tams highest scorer for a match.

Bill

A question that is not necessarily statistical but have either Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting ever been dropped from their national teams?

UCCMAN

Re 63 (buzz1989)

There are seven instances in all where one side has won and lost consecutive tests by an innings margin to the same other team, three times in the one series and four times involving different series -

E-A - Oval, 1938, E, I+579r - Brisbane, 1946-47, A, I+332r
I-P - Delhi, 1952-53, I, I+70r - Lucknow, 1952-53, P, I+43r
A-E - Sydney, 1965-66, E, I+93r - Adelaide, 1965-66, A, I+9r
E-WI, Leeds, 1966, WI, I+55r - The Oval, 1966, E, I+34r
A-E - Melbourne, 1974-75, E, I+4r - Birmingham, 1975, A, I+85r
I-A - Mumbai, 1979-80, I, I+100r - Sydney, 1980-81, A, I+4r
NZ-P - Hamilton, 2000-01, NZ, I+185r - Lahore, 2001-02, P, I+324r

question 63 - Buzz1989

you have to go back a long way

in 1966 WI won the 4th test against ENG by an innings and 55 runs, in the next, 5th, test ENG reversed this by winning by an innings and 34 runs

WI only changed one player, McMorris for Lashey at number 2, ENG, however, made 5, including changing their captain, Cowdrey out for Close

I think England win more tests when Hoggard plays and lose more tests when Anderson plays.
How many of Hoggard's 67 tests have England won?
How many of Anderson's 31 tests have England lost? (We will ignore the fact that Anderson never faced a proper test team like Australia).

ah! i was just looking in the same series..davidcw has a much more complete answer (across series)

for the other two in the same series
in 1965/66 ENG made no changes across the two games whilst AUS made 4
in 1952/53 IND made 5 and PAK 2 changes

question 68 - Commonsense Cricket

of Hoggards 67 tests the breakdown is:

won - 30 - 45%
lost - 18 - 27%
drew - 19 - 28%

of Andersons 31:

won - 14 - 45%
lost - 11 - 35%
drew - 6 - 20%

(all % rounded to make 100)

Re 31 (steepyp)

In tests the last five wickets (or rather those from 6th onwards) have outstcored the first five wickets in a single side’s innings 1353 times and equalled it 20 times. Doubtless it must also have happened over both innings quite a few times but that is another story, another day! In terms of percentages, here are the top ten:

India v England, The Oval, 1952,
From 6-5 and 6-6 to 98. Tail (last 5 wkts) scored 93.87% of total
1st innings in reply to 326-6d. No further play. Drawn.

Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Sialkot, 1995-96
From 13-5 to 212. Tail: 92.92%
Last innings. Lost. Moin Khan at No 7 made 117* (>50% of total)

Bangladesh v Zimbabwe, Harare, 2003-04
From 14-5 and 14-6 to 169. Tail: 91.71%
Last innings. Lost. Khaled Mashud 61 at 8 outscored top 6

England v West Indies, Port of Spain, 1934-35
From 23-5 to 258. Tail: 91.08%
1st innings reply. Lost. J Iddon 73 at 7 outscored top 6

Zimbabwe v India, Bulawayo, 2005-06
From 16-5 to 185. Tail: 90.27%
2nd innings reply. Lost by inns.

Australia v England, Melbourne, 1897-98
From 32-5 to 323. Tail: 90.09%
First day. Lost.

Australia v England, Manchester, 1888
From 7-5 and 7-6 to 70-9 and 70 all out. Tail: 90.00%
2nd innings reply. Lost by inns. Top 4 made ducks. 7th wkt 48

Pakistan v England, The Oval, 1967
From 26-5 to 255. Tail: 89.80%
2nd innings reply. Lost. Asif Iqbal 146 at 9 (> 50% of total)

Australia v West Indies, Kingston, 2008
From 18-5 to 167. Tail: 89.22%
2nd innings reply. Won. A Symonds 79 at 7 outscored top 6

West Indies v Australia, Perth, 2000-01
From 22-5 to 196. Tail: 88.77%
First day. Lost by inns. RD Jacobs 96* at 7 outscored top 6

Re 31 (steepyp)

I hadn’t heard of a generally accepted method for determining the evenness of spread of batsmen’s scores so. for better of worse, I came up with this which makes sense to me even if may not to anyone else!

1. Add up all the batsmen’s scores including 0 for those who did not bat, and divide by 11 to find the average batting score.
2. For each batsman calculate the difference between his score and the average score.
3. Add up all these differences and divide by 11 to find the average difference.
4. Divide the average difference by the average score.
The lower the result, the more even the scoring spread.

For what it's worth, here is the top ten produced by this method with scores in descending order:

SA-A, 1st inns, Cape Town, 2005-06 --- 31,24,19,18,18,17,17,16,10,8,6
SA-NZ, 1st, Wellington, 1963-64 --- 44,40,31,30,30,27,24,24,22,7,2
A-E, 1st, Perth, 2002-03 --- 71,68,53,42,41,38,35,30,27,19,8
B-P, 1st, Multan, 2001-02 --- 19,18,14,13,13,12,12,10,8,4,0
I-E. 1st. Delhi, 1984-85 --- 60,42,30,28,28,27,25,25,24,2,1
J-NZ, 1st, Kanpur, 1976-77 --- 70,68,66,64,50,50,43,37,27,13,10
NZ-A, 1st, Wellington, 1989-90 --- 36,28,23,19,18,18,16,12,12,9,1
WI-A, 2nd, Brisbane, 1930-31 --- 28,17,16,15,13,12,11,10,7,7,1
P-E, 1st, Nottingham, 1954 --- 28,19,18,16,14,13,11,10,7,6,4
A-E, 2nd, Melbourne, 1882-83 --- 34,19,17,15,14,14,13,10,6,6,4

Bangladesh scored 413 in the fourth innings in their attempt to score 521 to beat Sri Lanka. Aside from the fact that this shows they can make a big score, what is the highest ever 4th innings score in test and 1st class cricket?

another one.
Has competitive cricket ever been played over more than two innings?
Happy 2009!
Aaron from up North

Final one from me for 2008, in a lighthearted vein.
Who has the best statistics for Test, 1st class and one day cricket, among all the current (and past) commentators, summarisers and scorers etc. on TMS?

question 73 - Aaron Geordie

the top 5 fourth innings test scores are:

England 654/5 drew v SA 1939
New Zealand 451 lost v ENG 2002
India 445 lost v AUS 1978
New Zealand 440 lost v ENG 1973
New Zealand 431 lost v ENG 2008

the top 5 first class matches:

654-5 England v South Africa 1938
604 Maharashtra v Bombay Poona 1948
576-8 Trinidad v Barbados 1945
572 NS Wales v South Australia 1907
529-9 Combined XI v South Africans 1963

the highest win in 1st class cricket (we all know in tests) is:
513-9 Central Province v S Province 2003

(i should point out that all years are start of season, so for example, 1938 is in fact 38/39)

question 74 - Aaron Geordie

if you mean 1st class cricket then no, 2 innings per side has always been the maximum

however, if you mean all cricket then any amount of innings have been played, as for example, the 24 hour game played at Cambridge in 1973 between Such's XI and Langley's XI which went on through 5 innings each, 367 overs and 89 wkts

i've just spotted that, in fact, the very first high scoring 4th innings should be 1938 (for the 38/39 season) not 1939 (when the match actually took place)

In the 2nd Aus-SA test match at Melbourne there was an amazing number of three run hits. Where does this match rank in the highest proportion of runs scored in threes, I wonder?

To Bearders
1 When did the touring England team first start to wear the MCC colours, and when did this practice stop ?

2 Which test team where the first to wear kit with numbers under the badge, I'm aware this practice has been going on in the last 5 years, notably in the 2005 Ashes series where both teams sported numbers under the badge ?

... and do all test sides wear these numbers?

Happy new year to one and all!
From waking-up-Geordieland

I was wondering who has faced the most balls in international matches in one calendar year?

When Andrew Strauss scored two hundreds in the Chennai Test, he finished on the losing side. 1. How many times before has a player scoring a hundred in both innings of a Test finished on the losing side and 2. Which England players have scored a hundred in both innings of a Test on tour apart from Strauss and Compton in Adelaide in 1947. Paul Hawkins Dubai

Re 83

For the answer to Q1, see 12 & 13 above

question 83 - Captain's Choice

for part 1 look up at post 13

part 2- 11 ENG batsmen have scored 100+ in each innings of a test match, 7 on tour, the seven are:
Compton 1947 Adelaide Oval 147 and 103*
Hammond 1929 Adelaide Oval 119* and 177
Paynter 1938 Old Wanderers 117 and 100
Russell 1923 Kingsmead 140 and 111
Stewart 1994 Kensington Oval 118 and 143
Strauss 2008 Chidambara 123 and 108
Sutcliffe 1925 Melbourne 176 and 127

the other four, in ENG, are Gooch, Sutcliffe (again), Trescothick and Vaughan

Has any player, in the history of international cricket (and domestic, if you find the time) had the name "A. Bowler, A. Batsman, A. Spinner, A. Captain" or something similar, and performed for his side the role described in his name? Thanks, your articles are fantastic, a joy to read. Ben, Somerset, ENG (but currently in the USA).

question 86 - SCC Honcricket

in first class cricket there has never been any player named Batsman or Spinner and never A Bowler, only PD Bowler, or an A Captain only H Captain (indian) although serveral military captains have played

however a few years ago Tim Rice wrote in his book "Quick Singles" a chapter called "The Epithets", a team he had chosen of suitably named English 1st class cricketers, so without all the padding he gave it here is his team in batting order (i'm sure there would be others but...)

Green (Lancs 1960s)
Close (Eng 1970s)
Studd (Eng 1880s)
Legge (Eng 1930s)
Bowling (Lancs 1954)
Box (Sussex/Surrey 1860s)
Bale (Leics 1920s)
Ball (Northants 1920s)
Major (cpt) (Somerset 1903)
Fielder (Eng 1900s)
Boot (wk) (Derbys 1895)
Remnant (12th man) (Kent 1890s)
Judge (umpire) (Midds 1930s)
Scorer (scorer) (Warks 1920s)

How do you record partnerships when a player retires hurt and returns later in the innings to resume batting?

Re 88 (Ozslippy)

The simple answer is that each time there is a change in batsmen then a new partnership begins. It does not matter whether the change comes about because one of the batsmen is dismissed or because one of them is unable to continue. The partnership is treated as unfinished and earns an asterisk in the same way that a not out individual innings would. When the next batsman comes in a second partnership begins for the wicket still standing.

If the retiring batsman is able to resume later in the innings he starts another partnership with the other batsman who is then in. It is possible for more than one batsman to retire and return. In fact at Sydney in 1975-76 three of the West Indians retired and resumed later in the same innings, so there were a total of 13 partnerships for 10 wickets. Bill's scorecard for that innings (if he did one) would surely have looked rather cluttered!

Given the fact that in tests there have been 171 cases of batsmen retiring and resuming there must be many cases of the same two batsmen finding themselves together again after wickets have fallen in the meantime. It is therefore possible for the same pair to have two partnerships in the same innings but for different wickets. Who says cricket is an easy game?

#150

Dale Steyn got to 150 test wickets in 941.4 overs in 29 matches. The best I've found in terms of balls bowled is Waqar Younis who after 27 matches had 154 wickets from 920.1 overs. My guess is that the best in terms of number of matches and number of runs conceded would be SF Barnes, but I haven't got the full data to prove it.

Re 90 (Nick6591)

Yes, you're absolutely right. To fill out the data -

The fewest matches taken by a bowler to amass 150 wickets is 24 and that was indeed achieved by SF Barnes. Next on the list are Waqar Younis (27), CV Grimmett (28) and IT Botham, DW Steyn and HJ Tayfield (29).

The best average on taking 150 wickets is 17.83 by SF Barnes, approx 18.42 by Waqar Younis, and IT Botham approx 19.35.

Only Waqar Younis and DW Steyn have needed less than 1000 overs (or 6-ball equivalents) - Waqar about 900-902 overs, and Steyn 941.4. (Barnes is about 150 overs behind.)

Recently Martin Bodenham, already a football referee at the highest level, was added to the ECB's Full List of cricket umpires. Is he unique in being qualified to officiate at the highest level in two different sports including cricket?

During the match SA Aus match i noticed that 4 leg byes were scored in an over yet no other runs. When they showed the bowling stats later, that over was considered a maiden, why dont leg byes count towards the bowlers stats?

Leg byes (and byes) don't count to a bowlers stats, I guess because they don't necessarily reflect a mistake on the part of the bowler, or the batsman's ability to hit runs off the bowler.

But it raises a follow-up question for Bill:

Previously, no-balls and wides did not count against a bowler's statistics, but this was changed (sometime in the 1980s/1990s?). When did this change occur and to what extent have bowlers' statistics prior to the change been changed to bring them in line with the new policy? I'm sure that would be next to impossible for older matches, and so we are left with a slight discrepancy in comparing bowlers statistics across history.

Nick, London

Hat Trick Victims

Has an international batsman figured twice in the same hat-trick?

Bill just a quick yet sad story for you and all the regulars to read. This is the school i went to. I was wondering if you had any record of notable players who ever attended there, given it used to be a boarding school.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7813238.stm

re 72 davidcw

The statistical variance (or standard deviation) of the 11 scores (12 if you want to include extras as well!) would be a good candidate to measure evenness of the spread of scores in this way.

The lower the variance (or standard deviation) the more even the spread.

Not sure if the method (see e.g. wikipedia for details) would give different results from your method which looks perfectly reasonable.

question 95 - Hainba

no, in fact only 3 test hat-tricks have been over 2 innings (and so had a chance of being the same player) but they were all different players

the closest, i suppose, was TA Ward who was involved in the only case of a player taking two hat-tricks in the same test, one in each innings, and both including TA Ward (TJ Mathews for AUS vs SA in 1912)

# 95/98

Yes PortoIan, it is quite easy to establish that it hasn't happened in test cricket (a single batsman being out twice within the same hat-trick).

But has it ever happened in first class cricket? It would seem to be an obvious interesting fact to be written up somewhere, but I can't find anything.

Paul Collingwood has hit seven test centuries. Three of those matches were drawn:

India in Nagpur, 2006 (134*)
Pakistan at Lord?s, 2006 (186)
West Indies at Lord?s, 2007 (111)

Three were lost:
Australia in Adelaide, 2006 (206)
South Africa at Edgbaston, 2008 (135)
India in Chennai, 2008 (108)

Only one was won:
West Indies in Chester-le-Street, 2007 (128)

Has any other test player with more than 5 Test centuries scored such a low proportion in a winning cause?