Ask Bearders #185
Welcome to Ask Bearders, where Test Match Special statistician Bill "The Bearded Wonder" Frindall answers your questions on all things cricket.
Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.
Bill isn't able to answer all of your questions, however. BBC Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.
Q. 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, A.B. de Villiers and Javed Miandad, but I'd expect to find a couple more. Could you help at all on this?
Mike (Liverpool)
Bearders' Answer: Intriguingly no Australian and only one Englishman has qualified for this eclectic club which has a dozen members: England - J.M.Parks (2 hundreds, 1 wicket, 11 stumpings); South Africa - M.V.Boucher (5, 1, 2), A.B.de Villiers (7, 2, 1); West Indies - R.J.Christiani (1, 3, 2), C.L.Walcott (15, 11, 11); New Zealand - J.R.Reid (6, 85, 1); India - S.M.H.Kirmani (2, 1, 38), V.L.Manjrekar (7, 1, 2); Pakistan - Aamer Malik (2, 1, 1), Javed Miandad (23, 17, 1), Taslim Arif (1, 1, 3); Zimbabwe - Tatenda Taibu (1, 1, 4). Clyde Walcott is alone in reaching double figures in all three categories.
Q. Has anybody apart from Andrew Strauss been on the losing side despite scoring a century in both innings of a Test match?
Jez229
Bearders' Answer: Strauss is the eighth batsman to join this list:
H.Sutcliffe 176 127 E v A Melbourne Jan 1925
G.A.Headley 106 107 WI v E Lord's Jun 1939
V.S.Hazare 116 145 I v A Adelaide Jan 1948
C.L.Walcott 155 110 WI v A Kingston Jun 1955
S.M.Gavaskar 111 137 I v P Karachi Nov 1978
A.Flower 142 199* Z v SA Harare Sep 2001
B.C.Lara 221 130 WI v SL Colombo Nov 2001
A.J.Strauss 123 108 E v I Madras Dec 2008
Q. In Tests, what is the highest first innings total posted by a team batting first, only to go on to lose the match?
devonFRATTONiser
Bearders' Answer: Australia's 586 all out at Sydney in December 1894 remains the highest losing total for the opening innings of a Test match. England replied with 325 and, following on, scored 437 before the left-arm spin of Bobby Peel (6-67) and Johnny Briggs (3-25) snatched victory by ten runs on a 'sticky' pitch. The first Test to involve a sixth playing day, it was also the first to be won by a team following on. Spare a thought for George Giffen, Australia's champion all-rounder, who contributed 202 runs and eight wickets to a losing cause.
Q. Greetings from the US where we have one, real turf wicket! I was wondering (surprisingly hard to find) how many sides have won a Test series in Australia. If you subtract West Indies (1970-2000) and England (1877-1900), it must be only a handful?
CowCornerCathedral
Bearders' Answer: In fact it is two handfuls! Discounting the seasons you list, England have won eight series in Australia (1903-04, 1911-12, 1928-29, 1932-33, 1954-55, 1970-71, 1978-79, 1986-87), New Zealand one (1985-86) and now South Africa one (2008-09).
Presumably your turf wicket is on the Woodley Complex in Los Angeles where I had the privilege of playing for the MCC in 1991. Only last week I received an invitation from the Corinthians Cricket Club to speak at their 75th Anniversary Dinner in October and play for the Occasionals at Woodley the following day. I will look out for you at Cow Corner!
Q. I have a question about Greek Cricketers. Now I know that ex-Aussie fast bowler Jason Gillespie is half Greek and Hampshire's South African keeper, Nic Pothas, is also of Greek descent - but are these the only "Greeks" to have played international cricket? 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.
ElGrecoAthens
Bearders' Answer: No Test cricketer was actually born in Greece. Zenophon Constantine Balaskas, a thickset leg-spinner and a lower-order batsman skilled enough to score two first-class double centuries, had Greek parents. Born in Johannesburg in 1910 and known as 'Bally' or 'Saxophone', he appeared for no fewer than five first-class provincial teams as well as in nine Tests. Notably, at Lord's in 1935, he contributed nine wickets to South Africa's first victory in England.
One Test cricketer, L.J. (Leonard) Moon, died in Greece. His 96 first-class matches, mainly for Cambridge University and Middlesex, included four Tests for England in South Africa in 1905-06. An aggressive opening batsman who scored 138 against the 1899 Australians, he could also keep wicket. As a 2nd Lieutenant with the Devon Regiment during the First World War, he died of wounds near Karasouli, Salonica, in 1916.
Congratulations on acquiring your new ground in Athens. As Patron of their Cricket Board, I will advise Germany to tour there.
Q. How many times has a Test side scored 400+ runs and lost all 10 wickets in one day? I think it happened in 2005 between England and Australia. sleepingkerrps
Bearders' Answer: Your instance was in that epic match at Edgbaston when Ricky Ponting ignored the loss of key bowler Glenn McGrath through a freak training accident shortly before the start, put England in and bowled them out for 407 in 79.2 overs just before stumps. England eventually scraped to victory by two runs - the narrowest runs margin in Ashes Tests.
I have found five other instances (match day in brackets):-
South Africa 451 (2nd) v New Zealand Christchurch 1931-32
Australia 450 (1st) v South Africa Johannesburg 1921-22
Australia 448 (1st) v South Africa Manchester 1912
England 428 (1st) v South Africa Lord's 1907
Australia 407 (1st) v England Leeds 1921
Q. 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?
sirianblog
Bearders' Answer: When I compiled my Index of Test Cricketers for 'The Wisden Book of Test Cricket' series, I included their places of birth and, where appropriate, death. In researching my 'England Test Cricketers' I found that fate had dealt a surprising number with bizarre and unusual ends. My favourites include: crushed by a crane loading sugar aboard the SS Muriel (Charlie Absolom); in a mud hut after falling off a cart and being interred in a coffin made from whisky cases (Monty Bowden); as he was putting on his boots to go to work (Johnny Tyldesley); from pneumonia contracted while watching Yorkshire play at Sheffield (George Ulyett); from septicaemia after falling on a dance floor ('Dodger' Whysall).
Q. 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?
COMMONSENSECRICKET
Bearders' Answer: Only because Matthew Hoggard has played more than double the number of Tests enjoyed by James Anderson your statement is basically correct! Expressed as a percentage the difference is a mere 1.11%. England have won 31 (46.27%), lost 18 and drawn 18 of Hoggard's 67 Tests. Anderson's 31 appearances have resulted in 14 wins (45.16%), 11 defeats and six draws. Their nine joint appearances began with a sequence of six wins but ended with three defeats.
Q. Bangladesh recently 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 fourth innings score in Test and first-class cricket?
aarongeordie
Bearders' Answer: The record fourth innings score in all first-class matches is the 654-5 amassed by England in the timeless Test at Durban in March 1939. Beginning on the day I was born, it was abandoned as a draw 11 days later (when rain ended play at tea with England just 42 runs short of victory), because the tourists had to begin a two-day train journey to catch their ship in Cape Town.
Q. During a recent Australia v South Africa Test match I noticed that four 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 don't leg-byes count towards a bowler's stats?
copperspa
Bearders' Answer: Simply because neither byes nor leg-byes result from bowling errors whereas no-balls and wides do. Not until 1983-84 were penalties and runs scored off no-balls and wides debited to a bowler's analysis. Before that season, maiden overs could include no-balls and wides.
Q. Recently you have been referring 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-upon-Tyne)
Bearders' Answer: I have always referred to them by the correct nomenclature of Limited-Overs Internationals. That was their original title and it was the only one used when, in the mid-Eighties, the then ICC Secretary Jack Bailey commissioned me to compile a list of all such internationals commencing with their accidental conception at Melbourne in January 1971. They are not 'One-Day Internationals' because a substantial number have involved more than a single day's play. In these blogs I use the term 'internationals' in deference to BBC Online's instruction to avoid the abbreviation 'LOI'. Twenty-over matches are Very Limited-Overs Internationals. Their statistics are a separate entity and do not qualify for inclusion in List A records
Q. 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)
Bearders' Answer: Thank you for your question, 'Hawkeye'. I hope to see you when I am over there with the Lord's Taverners later this week.
Five others have scored hundreds in both innings for England overseas: C.A.G. 'Jack' Russell (Durban 1922-23); Herbert Sutcliffe (Melbourne 1924-25); Wally Hammond (Adelaide 1928-29); Eddie Paynter (Johannesburg 1938-39); and Alec Stewart (Bridgetown 1993-94).
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~19~RS~)
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Hi Bill.
Is Kevin Pietersen's reign as England captain the shortest in terms of test matches for a permanent captain, at only three matches?
Julian Evitts, Chester, UK
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I know you're not a dating agency but as an exile in Athens I would love to be put in touch with elgreco Athens to find out about the mighty Minotaurs. Do you think you might be able to help?
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Bearders,
I always thought that Dmitri Mascarenhas must have some Greek heritage somewhere along the line, until I did a quick bit of research to find that his family are of a Sri Lankan lineage.
Although born in Chiswick, is he the only England player in modern times (post 1900) to hold such recent Sri Lankan heritage?
Also, what is your view on the fact that the BBC cricket scoreboards do not currently show wides or no-balls in the bowler's figures?
I personally think they should be included, as even the humble village cricketer (of which I just about qualify for) has to include them. I could also mention the lack of notation surrounding captains and wicketkeepers, but am sure you will also have an opinion on these to!
Regards,
dr. nightmare, Guildford
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who is the quickest person to get 1000 test runs and ODI runs as well as taking 100 test wickets and 100 ODI wickets
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sorry as well as 1000 ODI runs
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I was watching a ODI between New Zealand and West Indies. On the stats bar that they bring up for players, showing their score, strike rate, duration of innings etc... there was a column labelled 'SS'. I spent ages trying to work out what it related to, but rather drew a blank.
Any thoughts?
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I refer to your answer to me above, please explain the following intriguing statements.
What is the story surrounding the "accidental conception" of LOI's "at Melbourne in January 1971"?
Secondly, why is it that 20-20 games "do not qualify for inclusion in List A records"?
Thank you for this most absorbing column.
Aaron, Newcastle.
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Hello Bill. Possibly a bit of an random question, but have cricket balls always been the same weight that they are now? Were they ever made from different materials?
Poppyastonvanilla, Barford, Warwick
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#7 - The very first LOI was not planned, but instead hastily scheduled to partially replace the Melbourne Test of that year, which was abandoned to to persistent rain.
The Association of Cricket Statisticians has defined a "List A" game as being one which, in addition to other criteria, is originally scheduled for 40 overs or more. There is a slight inconsistency, in that an LOI can be reduced by rain to 20 overs before play starts, making it effectively a T20, and in some competitions matches can be reduced to as few as 10 overs/side, but the definitions are reasonably clear.
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A KP-era question. A batsman takes guard as a right-hander and then switches into left-hand mode as the ball is delivered. The ball is a good length and hits him on the rear pad. The umpire judges that it would have hit the stumps. Which side counts as the off side for the purpose of deciding whether or not to give the batsman out? Has this situation arisen yet?
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Do you know the instance of the Test player who last scored a century without wearing a helmet for any part of his innings?
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Who was the last Test player to make a century without wearing a helmet for any part of his innings?
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The Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique are nestled among the cricket-mad countries of Antigua, Domnica, St Lucia, Barbados and Grenada yet, having lived in Guadeloupe for a year, I can tell you that they have barely heard of the sport because of their French colonial history. Given the contact between the islands, I would be very interested to learn if a West Indian player has ever been of Guadeloupean or Martinician origin. Can you help me, Beaders?
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In the recent Twenty 20 match between Asutralia and South Africa in Melbourne, Gibbs was given out for a duck from 3 balls. One of these balls I believe was a wide. Is it correct to record a wide delivery in balls faced. Should a no-ball also be recorded?
Peter, Dublin Ireland
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Hi Bill
A lot has been made about how the game has become easier for batsmen, due to smaller grounds, friendlier pitches, bigger bats and (perhaps) weaker bowling, than in days gone by. Are there any stats to back this up e.g. average scores per innings in tests, or seasons averages for batsmen?
Barney, London UK
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How many testmatch batsmen have been run out after playing a no ball ?
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Re Wigs666 - I believe that the SS you refer to are the 'scoring shots' of the batsman - the shots that the batsman has played that have scored runs. Hope this helps (and isn't too patronising!)
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#10 - my understanding (and this is by no means definitive) is that the off and leg side are defined by the batsman's initial stance, and so if the batsman switches to a left hand stance and the ball hits him/her outside what is now the leg side it would still count as being the off side and (other conditions prevailing) the batsman could be given out.
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Correction - PITCHES outside the new leg stump
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#1 - shortest reign as England captain
Chris Cowdrey captained England vs West Indies in 1988, "the year of four captains", at Headingley. He scored 0 and 5, and England lost by 10 wickets. He was injured before the next match and never added to his tally of 6 tests, with just this one as captain. I don't know whether there are any more one-test-captaincy wonders, excluding stand-in captains, but I wouldn't be surprised.
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Question 10 - Onirus
from law 36 - LBW - that defines on and off side
"The off side of the striker's wicket shall be determined by the striker's stance at the moment the ball comes into play for that delivery."
and the ball comes into play, from law 23 - dead ball
"..(the ball) comes into play - when the bowler starts his run up or, if he has no run up, his bowling action."
so it all depends which way the batsman has taken guard, exactly as Jon Parsons said
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#6 - the 'SS' you refer too is indeed 'scoring strokes'
#12 - probably Viv Richards, if not any number of players who've taken tons of Bangladesh's or Zimbabwe's pea-shooter attacks
#14 - wides should not be counted as a ball faced by a batsman as by definition he cannot reach it to hit. Gibbs definitely faced three legitimate balls, including the one to which he was (rather harshly I thought) adjudged out. No-balls do count as balls faced because they can be scored off.
#16 - don't know the exact answer although I remember Colin Croft being run out off a no-ball at Lords in 1980. Dean Jones was incorrectly given run out off a no-ball in the West Indies in the mid 1980's. He was bowled by a no-ball but did not hear the call and set off towards the pavilion (at extra cover). The fielder then broke the wicket again and Jones was given run out, despite the law stating that a player can only be run out from a no-ball if he is attempting a run!
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Bill,
I am trying to find the answer to the following question :
Who were England?s opponents when they compiled over 300 runs and conceded over 300 runs in the same day during a test match?
My research shows that the most runs in a single day of Test cricket is 588, on the second day of the 1936 Old Trafford Test between England v India when England, 173 for 2 overnight, declared at 571 for 8, and then India reached 190 for 0 by the close
Are you aware of a test match involving England where over 600 runs were scored ?
Charlie
Folkestone,Kent
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I too am an Expat in Athens and would love to get down to this new ground.. Where is it? Website? Matches?
Cheers
Mr. Pink
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question 1 - Jules
a full list of all test captains for only 1 test
--AUS
Massie, H H
Brown, W A
Lindwall, R R
Harvey, R N
Jarman, B N
--ENG
Smith, C A
Bowden, M P
O'Brien, T C
Stevens, G T S
Walters, C F
Cranston, K
Carr, D B
Graveney, T W
Edrich, J H
Cowdrey, C S
Butcher, M A
--IND
Adhikari, H R
Roy, P
Borde, C G
Shastri, R J
Sehwag, V
--NZ
Chapple, M E
Parker, J M
Smith, I D S
--SA
Dunell, O R
Richards, A R
Taberer, H M
Anderson, J H
Nupen, E P
Kirsten, G
Kallis, J H
--WI
Hoad, E L G
Betancourt, N
Fernandes, M P
Headley, G A
Gomez, G E
Murray, D L
Greenidge, C G
Bravo, D J J
--ZIM
Murphy, B A
i suspect that most are stand ins for injured "regular" capts, but a few, Bentancourt for example, played their only test as capt, and might have been selected for their "captaincy", others just came at the wrong time, Cowdrey for example
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Hello Bill. This week I read that Andrew Strauss was born In Johannesburg. Since his predecessor was also born in South Africa, and people like Mike Denness, Tony Greig and Ted Dexter also arrived in the world far from England, I have found myself wondering what percentage of England test captains were actually born in the old country. Any chance you can enlighten me, and perhaps a few other curious cricket fans? If so, and by way of follow-up, does any other test-playing country have a comparable percentage of captains not born in the country they captained?
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Hello Bill. Ok this is a complicated one. I know that if a ball pitches outside a batsmen's leg stump he cannot be given out lbw. However i was wondering if a bowler swings a ball into a batsmen's pads and hits them on the full outside leg stump, what's the case? If the ball looks as though it's going to hit leg stump because of the swing, can they be given out?
Thank you,
Nathan, south wales.
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Re: the post above, if the batsman is hit outside the line of the leg stump, or the off stump if they are playing a shot, then they definitively shouldn't be given out.
How many 4 test series have been drawn 2-2 Bill?
Thanks for the fascinating column,
Dominic, Bath
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I'm actually surprised that Chris Cowdrey was actually ever considered as being a potential "regular" captain for England in the disastrous series of 1988... since he hadn't played a test for several years, and clearly was not a good enough player for Test cricket.
Of course, that series started with Gatting as the regular captain. It probably shouldn't, because he should have been sacked after his on-field spat with Shakoor Rana the previous winter (for all that he was in the right, far too many umpiring decisions WERE incorrect, almost all against England, it's a matter of manners - you just don't swear at the umpire on the field): but, having kept faith with Gatting over that, there was absolutely no justification for sacking him over the entirely unrelated story of whether he did or didn't have an affair with a barmaid. (Gatting's record as captain looks poor, but one should remember he also didn't lose many: and England were in superior positions in several rain-ruined matches under him, and unlucky not to win more than two.)
Emburey, of course, was captain for two matches after that: but it was quite clear he was only ever intended as a stand-in captain until a more permanent candidate could be appointed - he was struggling for his place in the team, which he duly lost for the fourth Test, and with it the captaincy (he was the kind of guy you always wanted as vice-captain, and never as captain, anyway.)
The decision to appoint Cowdrey was a total shock to everybody - no matter whether the selectors claimed he was the real "captain", it's obvious to everybody ELSE that he was only a stand-in, and should inevitably have lost his place for the Fifth Test purely on grounds of not being good enough (what on earth do you DO with a person who is not good enough to bat higher than eight, and cannot bowl?) About the only thing the selectors got right for that match was giving a debut to Robin Smith...
Then for the fifth match, the selectors finally did what they should have done for the second, and appointed Gooch: if Gatting was out of the frame, and Gower's previous reign had not exactly been a success, Gooch was the only other genuinely credible candidate. Appointing Emburey and then Cowdrey was quite clearly a "let's keep the captaincy away from the obvious candidate, i.e. Gooch" manoeuvre because, for whatever reason, the selectors didn't like him at this time. I assume it was because of his three-year exile from Test cricket because of his participation in the South African tour: but if that were the case, why select him in the team at all?
Of course, England lost the match, but at least they put up a fight this time (getting a first innings lead, and forced Windies to score the highest total of the match to win), for the first time since Gatting's sacking: and they won Gooch's second match in charge, albeit against Sri Lanka.
Of course, then came the most ludicrous decision of all: having stuck by Gooch as captain for the winter tour, against objections from India which caused the tour's cancellation, they had no reason to dump him for Gower against Australia, although Australia had had no such "moral objections" to Gooch... hence the disaster of the 1989 Ashes, especially as this mistreatment could well have been the cause of Gooch's poor form in that series.
The amazing thing is that, when the next South African rebel tour was arranged, he didn't sign up for that one as well: but of course, he didn't, and he was finally restored to the captaincy that he should never have lost. And went about showing exactly why he should never have lost it, by getting some serious effort and better performances out of the players, and nearly drawing (or even winning) the away series against the Windies...
And we think that the modern-day shenanigans over the captaincy are daft, with people sticking to a captain who should have been sacked, then sacking him for the wrong reasons, or appointing exactly the wrong person to the job in the first place, or ignoring the obvious candidate for far too long until it's clear nobody else is available (Strauss should always have been captain during Vaughan's injury, instead of Flintoff - and who's to say that the knowledge of being unfairly snubbed even after having done a decent job in a few matches didn't affect his form, as it affected Gooch's in 1989 after his good start to the captaincy in 1988?)
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Hi Bill,
On a few occasions during the recent tours of India by Australia and England I read of Dhoni putting down "a difficult chance."
On each occasion it seemed to be a left-handed batsman that was dropped.
Does Dhoni (or any other wicket-keeper) have a left or right "side" on which they are more successful at taking catches?
Are there any statistics available at all on this matter?
Perhaps this kind of analysis might help the choice of wicket-keeper for England!
Of course, the bowler might also have an effect on the "handedness" of a wicket-keeper.
Michael Hart
(currently living in Charleston, South Carolina)
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@ 17 - You are correct, but I would make the provision that the grip must be taken as the 1st consideration. All batsman must take their ground with either a right or left handed grip, no matter what the position of their legs may be, and I believe it is this that determines off and leg for purposes of fielding and also ruling - but I could be wrong.
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@ 30 - as a goalkeeper and occasional wicketkeeper, I think I can safely say that it is always easier to dive in a reverse direction to your handedness - i.e. towards the left for a right handed keeper - it has to do with the curvature of the spine. This typically favours keepers of the same handedness of the batsman vs. seam bowling, though obviously the tactics of the bowler (my more regular profession) make a huge difference. Still, it would be interesting if there was any pattern amongst the stats.
I hope you're enjoying Charleston - it's one of my more favoured American cities :)
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Hi Bill,
What is the highest number of wickets to fall in a single day's play at a test match?
I recall being at Headingly in 1986 (England vs India) where England were bowled out for a little over 100 runs and India then lost 7 wickets (I believe) all on the first day, making it 17 (please correct me if my memory has failed me).
Incidentally, I believe that match saw the first Mexican Wave at a test match. India were batting and everyone was so amazed that play even stopped for a few minutes. The Indians then lost a wicket almost immediately upon resumption of play.
Despite the obvious interruption (not to everyone's taste) I wish I could claim to have been the person to start it all!
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question 33 - Former Fratton Ender
in a single day's test cricket there have been 11 cases of more than 20 wkts falling, the best (worst?) was the 2nd day of the 1888 test between AUS and ENG when 27 wkts fell
since the war the record is 22 on the 1st day of the 1951 test between AUS and WI, and since the new millenium its 22 on the 3rd day in the SL vs ENG test in 2001
this is also probably the place to tell Kentish Stokie (20) that he is correct, 588 is the max runs scored in one test day...maybe his teaser relates to a day between lunches (or teas)?
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question 28 - Atletico Love Aguero
surprisingly only one 4 match series has been drawn 2-2, the series between AUS and WI in 1998/99
...several 5 test series (and even one 6 test series) have ended 2-2, and several 4 test series have been drawn 1-1 (or 0-0) but 2-2 is just the one
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question 26 - Laskeyst
i make it 12 ENG captains born outside ENG, from 78 captains, or 15.4%
of these 12 four actually held a different nationality at some point:
Gubby Allen
Tony Greig
Allen Lamb
Kevin Pietersen
the other 8 were born outside UK but always held British nationality:
Lord Harris
Plum Warner
Douglas Jardine
D. Carr
Colin Cowdrey
Ted Dexter
Nassar Hussain
Andrew Strauss
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Surely Mark Boucher has more than 2 test stumpings?
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#37
Yes, a typo from Bill - he has 21 test stumpings.
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If he has only made 2 test stumpings, is he the wicketkeeper who has the worst Test Match Appearances to Stumpings ratio? If not who is?
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Re 27 and 28,
Just to back up what AtleticoLoveAguero says, Law 36 (lbw) states, "... and the point of impact, even if above the level of the bails either (i) is between wicket and wicket or (ii) is either between wicket and wicket or outside the line of the off stump, if the striker has made no genuine attempt to play the ball with his bat...", so the not-playing-shot risk only applies to balls outside of off-stump (and not the leg stump).
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Bearders: Here's a good one, although probably very easy for most posters. You should be able to give more details though...
What England bowler rarely bowled a maiden over in his England career, but saved two at Fisherman's Cove?
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edofmund 31 - I don't know if Tom Smith's expands on the interpretation of Law 36(3), but I would have thought that it must refer to the side of the wicket the batsman is standing when he is ready to face the ball. Under your suggestion you allow the batsman to abuse the law by holding the bat cross-handed when the bowler begins his run-up and changing back to a normal grip by the time of delivery, resulting in his being able now to safely pad up to any ball pitching outside what is clearly in substance his off stump. At least if he has to dance to the other side of the wicket some kind of jeopardy is involved. Also how would you decide the 'sidedness' of a one-handed batsman or someone holding the bat with one hand when the ball becomes live?
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Have there ever been any first-class innings with all dismissals catches, and all catchers different?
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A full 10 wicket innings that is
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#23 Charlie
I think I've found an answer to your conundrum - and it's a good one too!
Q: Who were England's opponents?
A: New Zealand and West Indies?
In Jan/Feb 1930, England had two teams touring at the same time. On 21 Feb, one team started a test match against NZ at Auckland, batted and scored on that day 375/6. The same day, the other team started another test against WI at Georgetown. WI batted and scored 336/2 on the first day.
Although they are on the same date, by the time WI started batting it was early on the 22nd in New Zealand.
Nick
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Dear Bearded one,
In almost every match in all the 3 forms of cricket, towards the end of each innings any surviving top order batsmen always try to 'keep the strike' by getting only an even no. of runs 2, 4 0r 6 for the first 5 balls & a single off the last ball of the over.
To my mind and observation, with limited success. So here's my question.
What is the record number of consecutive balls faced by any batsmen in the 3 forms of cricket?
Keithdon
Lagos
Nigeria
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Re 43 (cosmicayeaye)
It has probably happened quite a number of times. I cannot recall the details but I believe it once happened in a County Championship match with Devon Malcolm being the lone non-catcher. Could be wrong, of course!
The test record is 'only' nine achieved twice at Bridgetown:
E-WI, 1997-98 (non-catchers: CB Lambert, IR Bishop)
WI-NZ, 2002 (non-catchers: MH Richardson, SE Bond)
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#43, 47
I'm not so confident it has happened several times. I did a back-of-the-envelope statistical estimate, and thought that it might happen about 1 in every 2000 times that all 10 wickets were caught (there are a few ropy assumptions in that estimate). That means we would expect at least one occurrence if there were more than 2000 10-caught innings in first class cricket. I can't believe there are many more than that.
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#30
As a right handed wicket keeper myself, it is easier to take diving one handed catches at the extremities of my range with my right glove rather than my left. As most catches are outside edges, this make it easier to keep to right handed batsmen then lefties.
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Hi Bill,
In the third Test between Australia and South Africa Graeme Smith broke his hand in the first innings but returned to bat in the second to conclude a tremendously exciting finish. In this instance, was Graeme Smith the most over-qualified number 11?
Jak Soppet, Banbury XX
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#50
I would say that George Headley who batted at no 11 against England towards the end of his test career at a stage when his career average was about 66, is at least as over-qualified.
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Re 48 (Nick)
On reflection I am inclined to agree that the number of instances probably is quite limited, and think the incidence is probably somewhat less than your estimate.
In saying that I am assuming that tests are a fair reflection of all first-class matches as far as the distribution of the number of catches is concerned, and that the binomial statistical distribution can be used without modification. I am not qualified to have an opinion on how fair that assumption is.
In tests the average number of catchers in completed innings is approximately 4.07 therefore the binomial distribution (if it can be used with a probability of 0.407 over 10 trials) suggests that the full ten will occur, on average, once in approximately 8,000 completed innings (as compared to your estimate of 2,000). So, I have to agree that is hardly "several times." The real figure could be quite low indeed.
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Nick,
I am very impressed with your answer, I would never have got that, very well done !!!
How about this one then, Who is the shortest batsman to score a Test century for England ?
Charlie
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Hi Bill,
In the past, the amount of balls per over differed from time to time, and from country to country. How many Test matches and Limited Over Internationals have been played where 6 balls per over was not the norm?
I would guess that there is a very low number of 8 balls per over Limited Over Internationals, but quite a few Tests.
Many thanks,
Damien, Dublin.
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In the Second 20/20 match between Australia and South Africa in Brisbane, there was a brief period during the Australia innings when the Hussey brothers were facing the Morkel brothers. On what other occasions have brothers faced one another in international matches, and has there ever been another occasion when all four players were occupying both ends? It seems the cricketing gods were not too comfortable with the arrangement as it only lasted a few deliveries!
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Greetings Mr. Frindall, Thanks for answering my two previous questions on your column.
On this occasion I'd like to ask who in test cricket holds the record for the lowest runs scored to balls faced ratio (when facing at least 1000 balls).
Thanks for your reply.
Eric Perez, Caracas, Venezuela.
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#56, Eric
Numbers of balls faced haave not always been recorded so it's impossible to get a firm answer. But the lowest verifiable scoring rate across a career of at least 1000 balls faced is for Danny Morrison, one of NZ's great rabbits, who played 71 innings, faced 1696 balls and scored 379 runs - a scoring rate of 22.34 per hundred balls.
Chris Martin, NZ's uber-rabbit, has a lower scoring rate - but in almost as many innings as Morrison has only managed to survive 388 balls.
Nick
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Hello Bill,
Could you tell me, please, who were the - say - 5 most successful left arm "chinaman" wrist spinners in the history of test cricket - in terms of wickets taken? Do you have a view on why there seem to be so few - is it because it's a lot of stress to put your body under to basically turn the ball in the same direction as an off spinner?
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South Africa's stand-in one day captain is Johan Botha, who is not even in the test squad. He has led the Proteas on a number of occasions. Has this happened before? I don't remember another Limited-overs captain (for a test playing nation) who didn't play in the test side.
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#59 - Adam Hollioake was LOI captain of England during a period when he was, at best, on the fringes of the Test side.
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How many players have made their test debut as captain? I'm guessing that there's only one for each test side (ie in their first match).
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Re 61 - Not even Brearley debuted as captain.
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#61 - There are actually 32 players who have captained their country on Test debut. The most recent one (apart from the inaugural Tests for Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) was Tony Lewis, who skippered England against India on his debut in 1972.
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#61, 63
Actually, since Tony Lewis, Lee Germon captained NZ on his debut in 1995. Incidentally, nobody has ever done this for Pakistan - in their first test in 1953, the captain was AH Kandar who had already played for India.
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question 61 - JI March
futher to the previous answers 5 players made their Test debut as captain in their ONLY test..so first and last
CA Smith 1889 ENG (the actor)
AR Richards 1896 SA (also SA rugby player)
HM Taberer 1902 SA
JH Anderson 1902 SA
N Betancourt 1930 WI
only Smith won his test, Taberer drawing and the other 3 losing
Richards had only played 9 first class matches before his test, and it was his last 1st class match (as it was Betancourt's last of 19)
which leads me to a question, who played the least 1st class cricket before being made Test captain (was it Richards)?
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ah, no, i've found the answer to my own question
OR Dunell made his 1st class debut as captain for SA in 1889
sorry
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Hello Bill,
As a percentage how many test captains have been specialist bowlers? It's seems to me that specialist batsmen seem to be the preferred choice for captain although I'm not sure why!
Thanks!
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Re Greek cricketers, Balaskas has long been a favourite quiz question of mine viz: Who is the only Greek cricketer to take nine wickets in a Test Match at Lords? Xenophon Balaskas. He was, until recently also unique in another respect, in that he was the only Test Cricketer (I could find) whose first name began with an 'X' (per Wisden, not 'Z' as above). However, Xavier Marshall (West Indies) has now played 6 Tests, so Balaskas' unique first name is not, anymore.
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Re 53
How about Tim Ambrose ?What do you think ?
Charlie
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What is the average number of ham sandwiches consumed in Middlesex Surrey matches (At Lords) in the pre-lunch session when the bowling is over the wicket to a 5-4 field?
PS only on the first day
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#69:
Tim Ambrose is listed as 5'7". There must be shorter centurians than that ("Tich" Freeman was only 5'2", but his best score in a Test was 50*). However, the lack of a height for many players in their profile makes it hard to pick out the real shorties.
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What is your view of the scoring card as given by the BBC on Ceefax/ page 340 and following in the event of a player being "retired hurt". If the side then are dismissed, although 9 wickets have been taken, history has always shown the team as ALL OUT. The person responsible for these statistics is now persisting in showing the team as 210 for 9 as if it were a single innings match. Is this correct from a scoring statisticians viewpoint? This seems to be a new practice which may not be understood by a younger scorer who has so much one day stuff to record.
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Re 22 (in relation to question 16)
There is a misapprehension that when a No Ball has been called a batsman can only be run out if a run is being attempted.
This is incorrect as Law38.1 states:
(a) Either batsman is out Run Out if at any time while the ball is in play he is out of his ground and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing side.
(b) (a)above shall apply even though No Ball has been called and whether OR NOT (my caps) a run is being attempted.
There is further explanation in Tom Smith's saying that if no run is attempted then the wicket-keeper alone cannot effect a Run Out (as this would be classed as a stumping and a batsman cannot be stumped off a No Ball). However, a fielder could return the ball to the wicket-keeper who could break the wicket and if a batsman is out of his ground then he would be out Run Out, whether or not a run is attempted.
The example of Dean Jones incorrectly being given Run Out when he did not hear the call of No Ball was not because a batsman cannot be given Run Out whilst not attempting a run following a No Ball. The reason he should not have been given out can be found under Law27.7 which states the umpire should have called Dead Ball as soon as it became apparent that Dean Jones was walking off the ground under the misapprehension that he had been bowled because he did not realise it was a No ball.
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#12 .. i'd guess Ritchie Richardson.. but Hooper and Lara also went through spells without wearing a helmet - that is until Phil Simmons was smacked in the face in a warm up game in England (hooper at the other end i think)- in 1988 by David 'sid' Lawrence... then they all decided to wear one - apart from R B Richardson who relented until the last few months of his test career!
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Further to my question of the last Test player to score a century without having worn a helmet for all or part of his innings, who was the last Englishman to get to three figures without one?
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Are Mark and Adam Ealham the only family pair to have the same highest score in first class cricket (153)??
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At todays ODI, between Aus and SA at Melbourne, I see Duminy scored 71 runs off 93 balls and didnt hit one boundary!
What is the highest total for a batsman in ODI's and Test matches without hitting a boundary?
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After Duminy's 71 without a boundary in the limited overs match today at MCG, what is the highest individual score - in tests or limited overs matches - without a 4 or a 6 being scored?
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Hey Bill,
Greame Smith the South African captain was one of the youngest International captains ever when he took over the reigns. He also has, I believe, captained at some stage, every team he has played for. Are there any younger International captains in the history of the game, and any who have the same captaincy history as he does?
Peter
Dublin
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Re 67.
Whilst fielding the captain has many things to consider including: setting the field; motivating others; calculating run rates; considering the freshness of other bowlers; and assessing batsmen's strenths and weaknesses.
Even if there was a bowler in the side who had the mental capacity for such things; it is doubtful whether he could find the 'band width' to think about these things when he's having to worry about his bowling.
This is why most sane selectors pick a batsman as a captain. Sometimes selectors go for a half-way house and select an all-rounder; but this generally fails since the bowling gene is the dominant one in most all-rounders.
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re 80 Moby,
Clive Rice and Sir Richard Hadlee were VERY successful bowling-all-rounder captains.
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What is the highest score in both Test and LOI cricket to include a six but no fours?
(a friend reckons Paul Collingwood (the Mackem) holds both records!)
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#81
Sorry to contradict you Aaron Geordie. Richard Hadlee never captained in a test and was certainly not a regular captain in any other form of the game.
Clive Rice was of course a great captain for Nottinghamshire and Transvaal, but unfirtuately for him never managed to play test cricket.
Great test captain all-rounders - Imran, Kapil Dev, Benaud (perhaps a lesser cricket but a great captain) ...
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questions 67/80/81 and 83
surely Sobers should count as one of the best all rounders to be regular captain, certainly he was captain for longer than Benaud and Dev
Shaun Pollock must count as the best bowler to make captain, winning more than 50% of his 26 matches (the only bowler or even all rounder to do so, with more than 20 matches) Illingworth too was a good captain, with nearly 40% of his 31 matches won
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Sobers, I would say, was more of a batting all-rounder; but both his batting and his bowling were better than his captaincy.
Illingworth and Benaud were both spinners; and therefore better mentally equipped for captaincy than the, "Thick Quicks".
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Please could you tell me what is the highest 4th innings total to have achieved a 10 wicket victory and also the lowest 4th innings target that was unsuccessfully chased.
Buzz1989, Cambs
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#86, Buzz1989
The highest 4th innings total for a 10 wkt victory was 172/0 by Australia vs WI in Adelaide in Dec 1930.
The lowest 4th innings target, where the chasing team were all out was 84 set for England by Australia at the Oval in 1882. England were all out for 77. The next lowest was when Zimbabwe were all out for 63 vs WI in Port of Spain (Mar 2000) chasing 98.
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Flintoff won the Oval test in 2008 with a 6. Has this been done before by an England batsman in England?
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re 69 - Eddie Paynter?
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Regarding test cricketers of Greek descent, there is also John Traicos who played for two countries - South Africa and Zimbabwe. He was born in Egypt which I suppose starts another question- how many test cricketers were born in Egypt ? Another odd one- Ted dexter was born in Milan.
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Having watched Bangladesh reduce Sri Lanka this morning to 6 for 5, what is the most number of wicket lost by a team before they reached a double figure total score?
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question 91 - Jonathan Twite
6 wkts, in the 1888 test between AUS and ENG the australians lost their first 6 wickets for 7 runs in the second innings
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i should say the above is only for international matches, for first class the record is 8 recently
ESSEX vs SURREY 1983, when in Surrey's first innings the first 8 wkts fell for 8 before they struggled to 14 all out
and 9 in all matches (possibly) for the MCC vs SURREY in 1839, where the MCC second innings was 15 all out, the number 11 scoring 5 and 4 extras, unfortunately the fall of wkt was not recorded, but the first nine could not have got more than 10 and maybe as low as 6 (it is said that the last wkt doubled the score, but then the score would have had to be 7.5 which is extremely unlikely, but could have been 7 or 8 for 9wkts)
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question 82 - Aaron Geordie
Collingwood does indeed hold the test record with one six and no fours in his 48 vs SL in 2006 but not the ODI record with is 82 by Kallis vs SL in 2001 with 4 sixes and no fours
question 77 - Where's the next Kenny?
AC Parore for NZ scored 96 vs IND in 1994 in a ODI without a boundary
the highest Test score without a boundary is Geoff Boycott's 77 for ENG against AUS in 1978-79. His score did include one four - but it was all-run and didn't actually reach the ropes.
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Dear Bill,
In the film 'Slumdog Millionaire', which features the Indian version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?', the penultimate question asked to the protagonist is 'which cricketer has the most first-class centuries?'
The choices were Jack Hobbs, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Slater. Hobbs was of course the correct answer, but I'm sure the 'host' claimed Hobbs had 197 centuries as opposed to the 199 I thought he had scored. Is there anything in the records that would explain this disparity?
Best,
Simon, S.Wales.
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What is the Highest score recorded for a batsman in an Ashes series and who was it?
I imagine it would be Bradman
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re qu 96 its from Ben in Herts
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question 96 - Marsbend02
the AUS player with the highest score in the ashes is indeed Bradman in 1930 with 334 at Headingley
but the ENG record (and overall) for an ashes match is Len Hutton's 364 in 1938 at the Oval
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question 95 - Simon AJ 2037
the difference is accounted for by a "private" tour in Dec 1930 Hobbs went on to Ceylon when he scored 2 centuries which were, retrospectively, called first class
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Re 93 (PortoIan)
There are two different MCC v Surrey matches here.
In the 1839 one MCC did score 15, the No 11 did get 5 and the 9th wicket did go down at 6,7,8,9 or 10 (impossible to say which.)
But in was in a later 1872 match when the last wicket doubled the score - from 9-8 to 16 all out. So there is at least one, possibly at least two matches where the ninth wicket fell still in single figures. It could have been worse in 1872 - MCC lost SEVEN wickets before scoring and put on only two for the 8th. Needless to say, they lost both encounters!
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Hi Bill,Simon here from Wormsley.Just doing a late one watching the safas and the aussies from Hobart on tv. Noticed the aussies have 6 players in their team whose surname starts with the letter H. Thats got to be close to a record surely. See you soon.
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Hi Bill,
I have a question: Has any test player done worse than a golden duck (ie. given out without facing a ball) and if so how?
Cheers,
Mike, Tyndall AFB, FL, USA
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question 102 - USAF Mike
yes, more than 20 cases of a player being out without facing a ball have happened since balls faced were regularly recorded in tests
the last was in Aug 2008 when Monty Panesar was out after 2 minutes and no balls for ENG vs SA, like all the others he was run out
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to the above i should add that in 1974 GG Arnold was run out without facing a legitimate ball for 1, without further evidence one must assume he faced, and ran, a wide, then with the other batsman facing a subsequent ball he was run out
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#104
PortoIan, if Arnold ran off a wide, he wouldn't have been credited with a run. He must have taken a run off a no ball - which in those days would not have be counted as a ball faced by him. He could then have been run out going for the second, or as you say, been run out when the other batsman was facing.
I've noted before that Cricinfo Statsguru identifies three test innings where the batsman has faced zero balls but has scored runs. I can believe Arnold's instance and that of DR Parry who scored 3* off no balls for WI vs Aus in 1978. But the other instance makes me very suspicious of "balls faced" in the Statsguru database (and possibly other records) - apparently Dennis Lillee once scored 14 runs in 115 minutes, facing zero balls, including the one where he was out LBW! (Aus vs Pak, Sydney, Jan 1977)
Nick
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whoops, i meant no-ball, sorry
regarding your previous mention i think i have mentioned previously we need a forum with topics (tests/ODIs/1st class then batting/bowling/fielding/etc...) where it would be easier to see previous answers/questions and even, horror of horrors, search!
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oh and by the way see
http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=0795
for Lillee's actual innings that day, he did score 14 and was out LBW but faced 90 balls, as you suspected
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Hi Bearders, could you tell me what was the highest score a batsmen achieved without hitting a boundary? I can remember one instance when Graeme Thorpe achieved a high score without any boundries while in the sub-continent, but I can't remember how many he scored.
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#106
PortoIan, yes I agree somewhat with your plea for a forum (e.g. Post no 108 - this question yet again!), but I also think it somewhat defeats the fundamental purpose of this blog - we are supposed to ask questions, and Bill answers them.
Thanks for the link to Lillee's innings.
Nick
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re #83 Nick,
Of course, unfortunately you're right about Rice, who captained the great Transvaal 'Mean Machine' side of the 80's. and Sir Richard was not a captain. Truth is, I was too hasty in defending against Moby's assertion that bowlers do not make good captains, and, as in all hasty rushed batsmen who do not keep a cool head, was clean bowled!!
As I stomp off the ground, I still disagree with the notion...
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re #94.
Thanks for that PortoIan.
I have been told now, that Collingwoods 54* last Feb against New Zealand, was the HIGHEST no of 6's in an ODI innings not to include a 4. So his two records are not really the same qualification!!
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question 98 - Law Kun
for test and ODI innings without boundaries see post 94 above
the first class record is higher, two batsmen have been out for a score of 100 without hitting a single boundary:
Alan Hill made 103 for Orange Free State against Griqualand West in 1976/77 without a boundary
Paul Hibbert made exactly 100 without a four for Victoria against IND in 1977-78
in 1926 Bill Woodfull reached his century against Surrey at The Oval without hitting a four, but did hit one afterwards before he was out for 118
as Bill said in blog 183 thorpe scored a century with the least, only one, boundaries in test cricket
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Bearders,
Help !!
I have been desperately trying to complete a quiz, and have searched high and low to find the answer to the following question can you help please ?
Prior to Flintoff winning the 4th Test v SA with a six who was the previous England batsman to complete the feat in a home test ?
Charlie
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#26/36 PortoIan
Many thanks for the research. I've been away for a few days, so this was my first chance to reply. However, I was also thinking of England captains born in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. For example, Mike Denness and Tony Lewis. Adding these 2 alone would make it 14 captains out of 78, which is very close to 18%, an extraordinary figure to my mind. I doubt any other country would reach 3%.
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question 114 - laskeyst
i can only find 4 ENG captains from those countries
2 from Wales, Walters and Lewis, and one each from Scotland, Denness, and Ireland, O'Brien
however as it is the England and Wales team maybe the 2 welsh captains shouldn't count?
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In the Sri Lanka v Bangladesh ODI last week, Sanath Jayasuriya was run out as the non-striker on the first ball of SL's innings, and so he was out before he faced a ball.
Has anyone else managed to do this in a Test or ODI?
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How many Test All Rounders have batted right handed and bowled left handed or vice versa and who has the most significant performance.
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#114/115
Perfectly fair point about the Welsh captains. Most of us do tend to think the Wales in the England & Wales is a sop to Glamorgan, but of course this is a subtle form of English arrogance. As far as our particular discussion goes though, it still leaves us with a rather high percentage. Perhaps the stat tells us something about our perennial inconsistency.
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question 117 - Batmoball
there are three who have scored a ton and taken 5 wkts in a test innings, 2 left handed batsmen who bowled fast (or fast medium) with their right hand:
BR Taylor 105 and 5/86 (career ave. 20.4 with the bat and 26.6 with ball)
JM Gregory 100 and 7/69 (36.9 and 31.2)
and a slow left hand bowler who batted right handed (and who is my favourite cricketer as he holds so many records/notable performances, see lots of previous blogs):
Vinoo Mankad 184 and 5/196 (36.5 and 32.3)
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In the first ODI, Duminy scored 71 without a boundary. Is this the highest LOI score without a boundary?
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question 116 - P Telford
for tests see previous posts (102, 103, 104, 105 and 106)
for ODIs there are lots of batsmen who were out without facing, cricinfo lists more than 100 (but be careful with a couple..more later), the previous before Jayasuriya was in the same series this year, Siddique was out without facing a ball in 1st over of the BAN innings of the first game on 14th of Jan 2009
surprisingly none appear to have been out without facing a legimate ball but scored as has happened in tests (see 104 and 105), Murray is given as scoring one and facing 0 balls in the cricinfo stats but on further inspection of the scorecard he was bowled (by Gooch!) so it couldn't be 0 balls (in fact it was 1 ball, so he must have scored one from a no-ball, see 105, and then been bowled)
so without further study don't trust all the cricinfo statguru, i suspect it is "confused" by players scoring off no-balls and then getting out...but its still more than double figures easily
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question 120 - Bewildering Tony Pope
see post 94 above, and maybe 112
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Hi Bill,
In the recent Aus v SA series both sides contained pairs of brothers as well as Aus having the son of test cricketer! Are there any instances of more than 2 sets of brothers in one game? Or combinations of relations?
Thanks for your facinating column
Paul - Northampton
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question 123 - gunner make it
the best ever combination of families in 1st class cricket is the father and son Quaife batting against father and son Bestwick bowling
from CricInfo
"Robert Saxton Bestwick, who died in Jersey on July 3, 1980, aged 80, will be remembered for an incident which one can safely say is unique in first-class cricket. For Derbyshire against Warwickshire at Derby in 1922, for some 10 minutes he bowled at one end while his father, the much better known Bill Bestwick, bowled at the other, against W. G. Quaife and his son, B. W."
the scorecard for this delightful match can be found here
http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1920S/1922/ENG_LOCAL/CC/DERBY_WARWICKS_CC_03-05JUN1922.html
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futher to the above answer in Sept 1997 3 sets of brothers, Flower, Strang and Rennie, all played a test togther for ZIM vs NZ
this, 3 sets of brothers playing in one test, might be unique....certainly 1997 was the first example...anyone know of any others?
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Dear aarongeordie, and all other bowlers,
I apologise for asserting that bowlers are ill-equiped for captaincy. In truth I understand and acknowledge that the sole reason for the number of batting captains exceeding the numbe of bowling captains is the fact that the batting captain is unencumbered from bowling duties at the time (in the field) when most captaincy decisions are made.
Just a little Friday afternoon's wickedness on my part!
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Re. Test sides bowled out for 400+ in a day. I remember seeing WI almost doing it in 1976.
Greenidge and Fredericks put on around 120 without loss before lunch on the first day. Both went on to get hundreds, but after Viv Richards made 60 odd at no 3, the WI "collapsed" to around 430 for 9 by the close. A fantastic day's cricket!
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I was once out, in cricket practice in school, having scored some runs without facing a legitimate delivery - the bowler bowled me no less than four no-balls (three for throwing, one for overstepping), with the result of: four (landed on the running track which circled the pitch - we had decreed the inner circle to be the boundary when this guy was batting, but "that's not really fair since you're so much bigger than him, so I'm counting four instead of six, bigger kids have to clear the outside line of the track"), six (settled the issue by clearing the running track, the scorer's hut at long-on and the hedge border of the field), six (again, out of the field, this time over square leg, straight into the tennis court) and OUT, run-out going for a second run after a miscue through mid-wicket...
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Also: I can think of quite a few cricketers who batted left-handed and bowled right-handed, or the other way around, but not many are true all-rounders. However, I can think of a couple recently, particularly during the '80s.
Richard Hadlee, for example. Batted left-handed, bowled right. Two test centuries, a lot of fifties... and most of the rest must have been single figures: his average is shockingly low for someone who scored as many fifties as he did, or was ever considered an all-rounder. In fact it's lower than the batting average of Ashley Giles.
Giles, by the way, batted right-handed and bowled left-handed... although similarly, nobody ever considered him a real all-rounder, more a bowler who could bat. Possibly because his batting scores were pretty much the antithesis of Hadlee's: only rarely passed 50, never even reached 60, but was very difficult to shift, usually good for 20-30.
Ravi Ratnayeke, Sri Lanka's first international-class all-rounder (or is he, similarly, a "bowler who could bat"?) - also batted left and bowled right. His batting average is actually better than that of Giles - so is his bowling average: in fact on occasion, he opened both batting and bowling. He would have had considerably better averages in both directions had he had much support, particularly in the bowling department.
Mark Butcher, England opening batsman, batted left and bowled right: to suggest that his bowling ability was probably about equal to Giles's batting ability would probably be not too far from the truth. Not Test class, but a useful change bowler with a knack for picking up the odd one or two, and once picked up a four-wicket haul when the ball was swinging.
Much the same can be said of Sourav Ganguly - a considerably superior batsman and a slightly worse bowler, but still capable of being a useful change bowler with a knack of getting the odd wicket here and there.
Michael Clarke, currently playing for Australia, bats right-handed and bowls left-arm. At one stage it looked like his bowling would seriously take off, and he would be a genuine all-rounder - taking 6 for 9 as a spin bowler against India is nothing to be sneezed at - but he hardly bowls these days. Nobody can tell why this is, as he's clearly a better spin bowler than any of the others that Australia have been trying out recently. Does he have back problems or something?
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Re #76: who's Adam Ealham? (You mean Alan.)
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#96: if you mean the highest single-innings score see #98, but if you mean series aggregate the record does indeed belong to Bradman, with 974 in England in 1930. That was the series in which he scored his 334, and it is also the record for any Test series ever.
Second in the all-time list is England's Ashes record - Wally Hammond, with 905 in Australia in 1928/29.
Interestingly, the third highest-ever series aggregate is also by an away batsman in an Ashes series - Mark Taylor 839 in 1989. The highest Ashes aggregate made at home is Bradman's 810 in 1936/37. Highest for England at home is David Gower's 732 in 1985.
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#70: surely the answer is zero (or as close to zero as makes no difference) because nobody would be so ill-mannered as to eat a sandwich before lunch!
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#96 again: and if you mean career aggregate (most runs made in all Ashes Tests) the record is once again Bradman's, with 5028. Second overall, and the best Englishman, is Jack Hobbs with 3636. The best current player is Ricky Ponting, who has 1978 Ashes runs.
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Following earlier mention (#129) of the low batting average of Hadlee considering the number of 50s he scored; I would like to know which batsman with a career test average over 30 was or is the most consistent (i.e. with lowest variation in scores achieved?), and who was least consistent?
PS I would choose standard deviation as a measure of volatility but feel free to use another method!
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Reply to Moby.
I agree with your basic theory, nevertheless, I think the fact that there have been so many all-rounder captains would disprove that.
Now consider the fact that (according to Cricinfo) there have only been 25 Wicket keeper captains, and only 13 of them have captained more than 5 tests. There you may have a point, that having to concentrate intensely on every single delivery would disturb one's captaincy.
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Bill,
The Bowler captain theory has got me thinking... How many wicketkeepers have batted in lower order, 10 or 11 in tests and in LOI's. My theory (and possibly that of the England selectors) is that a good WK has a good eye for the ball, and therefore should be a competent batsman.
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#129/134
Re Hadlee's batting average and number of 50s
Hadlee's rate of scoring 50s is not out of line with his batting average. I've just looked at batsmen with test career averages between 25 and 30. The list of the top 10 run scorers in this category, consists of 6 wicketkeepers (Healey, Marsh, Parore, Kirmani, Moin Khan and Jacobs), 2 NZ bowler/(batsmen) (Hadlee, Vettori) and 2 Zimbabwe batsmen (G Flower, Campbell). All but the last two would generally have batted in position 7-9 through most of their careers.
50s/100s per innings ranges from 11.3% (Kirmani) to18.3% (Campbell). Hadlee at 12.7% is toward the low end. So I would think that, if anything, his average is quite HIGH for his rate of scoring fifties.
By the way, Hadlee was never a true all-rounder - as said before more a bowler who batted. He generally batted 7 or 8 - and only 7 really because NZ didn't have anyone else to fill that gap.
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The infamous 3 test 1979-80 series between England and Australia (not considered the Ashes) had at least 3 instances of a score of 99 being posted by an individual batsman--Boycott and Gooch for England, Hughes for Australia. Is this the record for the most instances in which individual scores of 99 were posted in a test series?
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question 128 - PBHA Walker
3 players scoring 99 has been equaled in ONE test
in Feb 1973 PAK played ENG in a drawn 3rd test however Majid Khan (caught) and Mushtaq Mohammed (run out, ouch) both scored 99 in the PAK 1st innings, for ENGs reply Dennis Amiss then got 99 (caught) in the match nobody made 100
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Remembering Lille caught Willey bowled Dilley.
Has there ever been a similar rhyming way to get out in a test match>
Richard
Kansas City,Missouri
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question 136 - aaron geordie
in tests a total of 86 designated keepers have batted at 10 or 11 (not always but at least once)
of these 13 have batted there for more than 10 innings, the most being H Strudwick between 1910 and 1926 batted 10 or 11 thirty one times (from a total of 42 innings)
the most recent was TL Tsolekile for SA who batted twice at number ten (from a total of 5 test innings) in 2004
for ODIs the total is 31 keepers, but only 3 with 10 or more innings
the most recent and the keeper with the most innings is J Smits of the Netherlands who has batted at 10 or 11 eleven times out of his 32 batting innings for Holland until the present (there are a couple of other keepers who bat there now)
possibly the "most well known" ENG keeper to do so regularly was BN French in the 1980s when he batted 6 times (out of 8) in ODIs at 10 and seven times (out of 21) in tests (Taylor also did this but for a smaller fraction of his matches)
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re 53
Shortest batsman to score a test century for England
what about Johnny Briggs?
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During the 1st ODI between Australia and South Africa on 16 January 2009, J-P Duminy scored 71 - which included no boundaries. What are the highest scores in all forms of the game where there were no boundaries scored?
- SlowDayInTheOffice (Sydney, Australia)
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Did anyone else notice that JP Duminy scored 71 without any boundaries?
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question 143 - Slow Day.....
please see post 112 and the second part of 94
(and maybe read the blog before asking?
lol aaron geordie)
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Hi Bill,
I read recently that Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh took 421 wickets between them in 49 test matches. I have also been told that Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne took over 1000 wickets between them in 100 odd tests. Which bowling partnership is the most successful (Most wickets), and Which has the best strike rate, and highest rate of wickets to matches?
Thanks Bill
Peter, Dublin Ireland
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Re: Post 36.
AR "Tony" Lewis an England captain was a Welshman
Mike Denness an England captain was a Scotsman
Not sure if an Irishman has ever captained England.
Cheers
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question 146 - Magical Mushroom
taking only the matches they bowled together i make the figures
Warne and McGrath played 104 Tests together capturing 1001 wickets between them at an average of 23.18 in those matches, a strike rate of a wkt every 53 balls
Walsh and Ambrose took 762 victims at 22.68 in 95 tests, a strike rate of a wkt every 56 balls
i hope thats right!
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Limited Over Internationals have changed over the years, particularly with the introduction of power plays.
It occurs to me that batting/bowling averages, batting strike rates and bowling economy rates dont necessarily give a fair picture anymore.
Has anyone tried to develop statistics that reflect the fielding restrictions when a bowler bowled, or, perhaps how late in the innings the bowler bowled, or what the required 'rate' was when a batter batted?
For example in the Aus. SA vs LOI earlier today, Nathan Bracken bowled his first 3 overs fors just 6 runs in a power play, while his mates were going all around the park. It seems to me that Bracken deserves more 'credit' in the economy here?
One could imagine staistics which factor in the number of runs scored in the previous few overs and following few overs would be 'fairer'.
Anyone seen anything like this?
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Test cricketers with Greek parentage. Did Lenny Pascoe and his family come from Greece? And did the family change their name?
Thanks
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Bill
Greetings from the always sunny Arizona desert south west. If there was ever a place where cricket should be played, weather wise, it is here. Rain; what is rain?
There are a few billion people on this earth who have no clue what the game of cricket is all about, including 300 million Americans. As a born and raised Englishman, I always do my best to promote the sport whenever I have the opportunity. Over the years, I have been asked to explain the game. I am sure that both you and your readers have been asked the same thing many times.
Things go fairly well until I start to explain the fielding positions. Then the situation usually becomes hilarious. Try explaining that a slip can be something other than an undergarment; an extra cover is more than a second blanket on a cold night; a fine leg does not necessarily go with a skirt or dress and high heels. As for short square leg or any square leg - forget it.
Some time ago during one of these party pieces, I was asked a simple question - Why? - why do these positions have such names? I had to admit that I didn't know the answer.
Some are self evident. No not self evident - easier to explain than others, such as mid wicket. But why is the off side the off side, ditto on side; why are slips called the slips, gully, point, cover, third man. And best of all silly mid off, mid on etc etc. As my buddy once said after I explained their location relative to the batsman - those guys aren't silly, they're stupid.
What are the origins and derivations for names of these fielding positions ?
Now that I'm on a role, how about: maiden over, googly, and a chinaman.
How did a 4 over the boundary become a 4; ditto for a 6.
Enough already. Thanks from Chandler, Az.
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question 150 - Shutts 66
no, he was born in AUS and he was not of Greek parentage but Yugoslav, he did however change his name, or rather his parents did, his original surname was Durtanovich
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question 151 - azgemac
most are fairly obvious, eg. on side, the side the batsman is on (if you imagine a line between stumps) and off side the other side
for all derviations you have asked for (except maiden) try
http://www.notout.com.au/terms.htm
maiden probably comes from the idea of a maiden aunt (or a maiden as a woman before marriage, a synonym for virgin and or unmarried), one that hasn't had any children, therefore an over that hasn't had any runs
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Dear Bill,
In the film Slumdog Millionaire one of the questions is: Which batsman has scored the most first class centuries? The answer was: Jack Hobbs with 197. Out of curiosity I checked my 2006 Wisden and indeed it gives 197 centuries, from 1315 innings, 61,237 runs, 106 not outs, avge 50.65, in his career from 1905-34. However the Wisden Cricinfo website lists 199 Centuries, 1325 innings, 61,760 runs, 107 not outs, avge 50.70, from the same career span. I therefore conclude that, since 2006, Jack Hobb's ghost played 10 more innings somewhere, 1 of them not out, and got 2 more centuries. Can you enlighten me as to when this happened :-)
Phil, from Bedford, UK.
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question 154 - Phil O Sofa
see post 99
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Dear Bill,
I wonder if you could help settle a disagreement I am having with a teammate.
I have always thought that the natural delivery, in the majority of cases, for a right-arm over bowler to a right-handed batsman is the away swinger. Otherwise why bother with a slip cordon. My teammate says the natural delivery in these circumstances is the in-swinger and that what most right-arm bowlers do is get seam movement off the pitch with leg-cutters and that brings the slip cordon into effect.
I know it depends a little on the bowler but what in your opinion is the more normal, the away or the in-swinger. I've been playing cricket for 25 years and have always found the away swinger the more natural and easy ball to bowl.
Hope you can help. Best
James, Trinidad & Tobago
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Hello Bill
I am confused with the run out laws. When a batsman hits the ball straight back to the bowler and hit hits the stumps at the other end and the batsman is out of his ground,
without touching another fielder then he is not out. What happens if the other batsman directs the ball onto the stumps in error? And he is out of his ground backing up
Thank you for many hours of good reading
Giblem New Zealand
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#157 - For a run out to be valid, the ball must have been touched by a fielder (including the bowler) after being hit. Therefore, if the ball hits the stumps direct, without having touched anybody, a decision of Not out is correct, as is the case if the non striker deflects the ball onto the stumps (assuming the deflection was accidental - otherwise an appeal for obstructing the field should be upheld).
If the bowler has touched the ball which then breaks the wicket with the non striker out of his ground, the non-striker should be given out.
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#129 - Michael Clarke's infrequent bowling is apparently down to a chronic back condition.
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#156 - in-swing bowlers also generate edges to the slips.
However, from personal experience and coaching courses I would advise that there is no "normal" type of swing, but in fact an individual's action may well naturally develop swing differently between bowlers, based on height, weight, body mass etc as well as the more obvious attributes such as direction of arm and body follow-through and grip on the ball.
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q147 and q26 and others.
Sir Tim O Brien was an Irishman and he captained England in one Test in South Africa (1896).
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Re 156:
Hi james,
I think the reason slip cordons are favoured, regardless of the direction of swing, is because of where the bowler intends his line to be - as a rule, players are encouraged to bowl at off-stump or (as Geoffrey Boycott once coined) down the corridor of uncertainty (it was Boycott- wasn't it? That's a question for Bill!)
If the ball is in this region, it's more likely to hit the outside edge, regardless of the direction of swing.
duckmachine
PS with a name like that I think you'll understand that I know about getting dismissed ...
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Bill,
I've always been confused by the way results are given. If a team bats first and wins by a margin of runs, it is that margin that is reported; but if they lose, it is the opposition wickets in hand that is reported.
So, for example, in a recent ODI, India (247 for 4) beat Sri Lanka (246 for 7) by *six* wickets. To my way of thinking it would be more logical for them to have won by *three* wickets, because they needed three fewer wickets to reach the required total.
Is there an explanation for this apparent inconsistency?
David (English, but exciled to Aberdeen)
(PS We don't see much international cricket in Aberdeen. It was good to see New Zealand up here last summer, and Don Bradman scored one of his last UK centuries on that same ground!)
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Re: 163 when the side batting second wins then the, "Won by 6 wickets", is short for, "Won with 6 wickets to spare", the number of wickets having fallen in the first innings being irrelevant.
When the side bowling second wins then they, "Won by 124 runs", is short for, "Won with 124 runs to spare".
In fact, both these phrases go back a long time when the notion of limited over cricket did not exist. I accept in ODIs that these phrases do not adequately describe the outcome. For example, "Won by 4 wickets" mean very little without knowing just how many overs and balls remained at the time of victory. Was it the last ball, or were there ten overs to spare?
P.S. I once heard a youngster on returning from a 3rd team match down the road, report that they had, "won by one run". We were all excited to hear the details but it transpires that the opposition scored 125-all out and we scored 126-4, with an hour to spare!
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Moby,
Thankyou.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by '124 runs to spare'.
However, I do agree that the current convention is not ideal. In practice, though, I suspect most people go straight to the scorecard for the detail, and that will tell them if it was a nail-biter in the last over or a one-sided stroll in the park.
David.
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Just a small enquirey here, we recently had the unedifying specticle of the english cricket team almost carrying thier packed suitcases onto the mohali test ground on the last session of the last day off play. The implication being, test cricket being the last things on thier minds, and the same can be said for the tms team who all could talk about was being packed checked out from thier respective hotels and thier modes of transport back to new delhi airport.We were told by the ecb that the tour under no circumstances could be extended into jan 09 as players neede to be home for the festive period.I fast forward you to the winter tour of 09/10 in south africa were we have two tests either side of the festive period i put it to you that the attitude shown by the ecb and brittish media gives sucker to the bcci and their thoughts and belief that tours to the sub continent are held with distain by england in particuular,hence the unambivilant attitude by the bcci.
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So I have an interesting incident to report from a recent game.
I was fielding at short leg. The batsman, facing our spinner, prodded and hit the ball towards me. Diving forwards I flipped the ball up trying to take the catch, the ball went back to the batsman who was surprised and jabbed at the ball with his bat. I then caught the subsequent return.
Much confusion! The batsman walked, I called him back, the umpire had no idea.
In the end the batsman walked because he felt he had hit the ball twice or at least was caught. I tend to think the ball should have been called 'dead' after I unintentionally hit the batsman.
Any ideas??
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question 167 - Tigermilk Boy
the batsman is OUT caught
from law 32 part 3 - caught
(included in "fair catches")
(d) a fielder catches the ball after it has been lawfully struck more than once by the striker, but only if the ball has not touched the ground since first being struck.
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and i should point out from law 34 hit ball twice
"2. Not out Hit the ball twice if
.....
(ii) he wilfully strikes the ball after it has touched a fielder...."
regarding the dead ball call my reading is the dismissal comes before the dead ball call, from "part 5. Ball lawfully struck more than once - action by the umpire" ... "if for any other reason the ball becomes dead before one run is completed ... all the provisions of the Laws will apply"
surely a catch renders the ball dead, and it happened before a run was completed, so the umpire should apply the laws....a fair catch
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#167 etc, the catch is only valid as the batsman hit the ball at the first attempt. If the ball had initially come off his pad to the close fielder, and had only hit the bat after being touched by the fielder, then a not out decision would have been correct.
#166 - The ECB has a long-standing arrangement with the players that only every other year will a tour span Christmas. Part of the deal for returning to India after the Mumbai attacks was a guarantee that the players would be home for Christmas, and for this to happen, they clearly had to leave shortly after the end of the final Test.
The ECB acceded to the BCCI's request for a schedule of 7 ODIs and only 2 Tests - England's preferred itinerary was 5 ODIs and 3 Tests.
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Just seen the breaking news. RIP Bill.
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How awful. Test Match cricket just won't be the same without him. How can you replace someone like that?
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Irreplaceable. TMS won't be the same without him. :-(
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