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Ed Smith did indeed go through Spring training with the NY Mets in 2001 but there is no record of him ever having played in MLB

the only player i can verify who has done both (played MLB and 1st class cricket) was George Wright (1847-1937)

however he didn't play ENG 1st class cricket, so i suspect nobody has played ML baseball and 1st class ENG cricket

About the run-out/stumping question...

What if the non-striker was backing up so that the batsmen cross before the wicketkeeper removes the bails? No interference from other fielders, but is the striker out stumped or, as I suspect, the non-striker out run out?

How much does Ricky Ponting earn?

Curious about those games where all 11 batsmen bowled, I looked up the last instance (South Africa in Antigua in 2005) and saw that Mark Boucher actually took the last West Indian wicket (Dwayne Bravo's). On how many occasions has a keeper taken a test scalp and was Boucher the last?

Regarding the no-ball question, I remember an under 17's match I was playing in where the umpire did the same thing when our opening bowler clean bowled the opening batsman. The umpire was the batsman's dad and he was their only decent batsman. He went on to score 79* and win them the game!

I remember news articles about Ian Pont, the Essex bowler in the 80s (and brother of Keith Pont) having proper trials with an MLB team, I think also the NY Mets, in the mid 80s with no success, so I would imagine he would be the nearest in recent times.

In reality the two games are very different. Not only in how the ball is delivered, but also in how the ball is hit, (a fair hit in baseball is hit through a relatively narrow channel, whereas in cricket the 'hitting zone' is through 360 degrees.)

Surely the wicket-keepers for the last England team to be whitewashed in Australia were Geraint Jones and Chris Read?!

Sure I remember as a wee lad that former Essex player Keith Pont went off to join the baseball league.

Can't remember if he made anything of it though...

Re 4 BazOfTheBoleyn

Wicketkeepers turned bowler have taken 13 wickets in 10 innings - and yes, Mark Boucher is the most recent:

4 victims:
A Lyttelton, England v Australia, Oval, 1884 - WE Midwinter (c WG Grace, behind the stumps), JM Blackham (lbw), FR Spofforth (bowled), HF Boyle (c Harris)

2 victims:
W Storer, England v Australia, Melbourne (2nd test), 1897-98 - CE McLeod (bowled); Same series Melbourne (4th test) - H Trumble (c Mason)

1 victim each:
AFA Lilley, England v Australia, Manchester, 1896 - GHS Trott (ct JT Brown, behind the stumps)
CA McWatt, West Indies v England, Port-of-Spain, 1953-54 - PBH May (c Worrell)
JM Parks, England v India, Kanpur, 1963-64 - DN Sardesai (c Edrich)
Taslim Arif, Pakistan v Australia, Lahore, 1979-80 - GR Beard (c sub (Sultana Rana))
SMH Kirmani, India v Pakistan, Nagpur, 1983-84 - Azeem Hafeez (bowled)
T Taibu, Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka, Harare, 2003-04 - ST Jayasuriya (c Hondo)
MW Boucher, South Africa v West Indies, St John's, 2004-05 - DJ Bravo (c Prince)

What is the maximum number of tests in a series ? How many Test series of 6 or more matches have taken place ? When was the last 6 match Test series ?

Ajay Baluja, Canada

Strictly and pedantically speaking Ian Chappell played first class cricket in England for Australia. What he didn't do is play County Cricket.

Mark, France

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

10 Ajay

There has been 17 series of six tests where play took place including the 1970/71 Australia v England series where a test was also abandoned without play --

England v Australia - 1981, 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997
England v West Indies - 1995
Australia v England - 1970/71, 1974/75, 1978/79
Australia v West Indies - 1975/76
West Indies v England - 1997/98 (most recent)
India v England - 1981/82
India v Australia - 1979/80
India v West Indies - 1978/79, 1983/84
India v Pakistan - 1979/80
Pakistan v India - 1983/84

In the current series vs Australia, Sachin Tendulkar was the first test victim for 2 of the Australian bowlers.

I know he was also the first victim for Monty Panesar; but my question is which test batsman has been the first wicket for opposition bowlers the most times?

Colin Gerrard
(now in NZ)

The school in which I work counts one Francis Alexander MacKinnon amongst its alumni. In fact one of their houses is named after him. They claim he has the distinction of being the longest lived test-cricketer in history, reaching the age of 98. This would mean obviously that no one who has played test cricket has ever 'reached 100'. Is this true, and if so is there anyone currently threatening the record?

arthurfoxache, London

comment 6 and 8 - Saintly Mark and Wry Tar Mover

Ian Pont did try out for several baseball teams, and even played a professional game, recieving 2000 dollars, but not in the MLB

for his comments on this see:



about 3 quarters of the way down the comments section

question 15 - Arther Fox Ache

you are indeed correct, FA MacKinnon was the longest lived test cricket at 98 years 324 days

there have only been 4 more over the age of 95 (not including living players):

JL Kerr (NZ) 96y 150d
W Rhodes (Eng) 95y 252d
WA Brown (Aus) 95y 229d
GL Weir (NZ) 95y 151d

at present the oldest living test player is EWT Tindill (NZ) at 97y 312d, followed by the only other over 95, N Gordon (SA) 97y 80d

re 15 and 17

How many deceased test players are there? And is the fact that none have yet made 100 statistically unusual? In other words is playing test cricket bad for youir health?

Who would you put money on reaching the landmark?

question 18 - Sir Ian Blog

unfortunately it would depend on when you lived and died

before the 1940s living to 100 was extremely rare, with less than 100 men in England and Wales living to reach 100 every year, data from the 10 yearly UK census

from the 1950s to the 1970s this increased from approx 100 to 200 living at the times of the censuses (censi?)

and in the last 30 years this has increased again to approx 700

in the last century the population of Eng and Wales increased from 32million in 1901 through 44 million in 1951 to 53 million in 2001 (approx divide by 2 to get males)

this would indicate a (rough) expectation of less than 0.001% in 1901, more or less the same in 1951 but 0.002% in 2001

in all tests there have been around 2500 players, even just using the 2001 data you'd only have an expectation of 5% of finding a centurian...you'd need 25,000 players (10 times the amount today) of even having a 50/50 chance of one reaching 100

i'd like to point out that all of this is approx., i've assumed Eng and Wales figures to be good for all test players, and this is for actual living centurians at each census, not life expectancy (all figures from the national census statistics including, but not only, )

Q2.

If the batsman is attempting a run, then he is run out, even if dismissed by the wicket keeper. To be stumped the batsman must be put of his ground and not attempting a run.

B K Kunderan, in addition to batting number 11, opened the innings on a number of occasions and scored two centuries against England in 1963/4 batting at number 2. I am glad to say he also batted at number 1 on two occasions against Australia in Jan 1960 and against West Indies in Jan 1967.

This gives rise to the question "how many players batted at both 1 and 11 in their test careers?" Please rule out those who batted at 11 due to injury.

Kind regards,

Simon Broughton, London

Who has the highest test average without having made a century?

Scott, Mitcham

Following on from the stumping question.

I don't keep much but in one game I was keeping and the ball glanced off the batsmans pad with me standing back. They called for a single immediatly without waiting to see if I had stopped it..

I rolled and got up and threw the wicket down.

Runout or Stumping? ( was ruled a runout in the game much to my annoyance ).

On a different note I had a very purple season with the ball this year. Taking 15 wickets off just 28 overs bowled at 7.33 a piece bowling in 10 matches (wickets in 9 of them) and taking the wicket of the top scorer 4 times. (I also got the top scorer and a 16th wicket in a game where I guested for the opposition)

Does anyone know of a 1st class bowler getting similarly crazy figures?

Comment 23
"On a different note I had a very purple season with the ball this year. Taking 15 wickets off just 28 overs bowled at 7.33 a piece bowling in 10 matches (wickets in 9 of them) and taking the wicket of the top scorer 4 times. .....
Does anyone know of a 1st class bowler getting similarly crazy figures?"

How about this:
Eng v SA 1895/6 George Lohmann bowled 520 balls, and took 35 wickets at 5.8 in 3 tests.

or Eng v SA 1912 S F Barnes bowled 128 overs, and took 34 wickets at 8.29 in 3 Tests?

I expect they took a lot of top scorers wickets as they each took over half the total wickets available (60), but I haven't looked that up.

@24

Wow that's some haul of wickets although both where higher strike rates and much less games. What I found interesting was the number of games I bowled ( lot of short spells ) which usually doesn't see a good haul of wickets.

RE: 19

Actually even if you take the likelihood of reaching 100 to be 0.002%, you would only have an evens chance of someone reaching that age with a group of around 37,000. I haven't done any research to verify the 0.002% figure, though it seems suspiciously low to me. Even if the figure isn't underestimated, then an adjustment would have to be made to factor in the average age of a test cricketer (after all no test cricketers die in their infancy). My guess is that the odds of a centurion are much higher in fact.

Re: 19 and 26

The figures taken from the census are warped slightly. Since the census takes into account male and female we have another statiscal problem.
Females have a longer life expectancy than males and are also 50.5% of the population. Further the ratio of male to female over 65 is 0.75 to 1.0. So males have less chance of reaching 100 years old.
Jamgar you are quite correct to point out that no test cricketers died in infancy too. So what we have a statistical pea soup right now. Finding the average life span of test cricketers also gives us a problem, since we cannot include those still living! It would be interesting to discover if test bowlers, batsmen, all-rounders or wicketkeepers had a longer life-span. One would imagine batsmen fair better than bowlers-as a medium/fast bowler I have been flogged to death a few times in my career.

Re 21 (straightsix)

62 players have opened the batting (at 1 or 2), including 29 Australians and 16 wicketkeepers, and also batted at 11.

Taking the ten players with the highest first-class batting average in sequence, the first nine played at No 11 only once at test level -

WW Armstrong (first class av 46.83), Australia v England (Melbourne) 1901/02 (2nd test), 120 with RA Duff
VT Trumper (44.57), Australia v England (Adelaide) 1911/12
NR Mongia (38.48), India v South Africa (Mumbai), 1999/00
Talat Ali (38.40), Pakistan v Australia (Adelaide) 1972/73
G Pullar (35.34), England v South Africa (Birmingham) 1960
WE Russell (34.87), England v Australia (Brisbane) 1965/66
MH Mankad (34.60), India v West Indies (Bridgetown) 1952/53
VL Mehra (34.44), India v England (Mumbai) 1961/62
LV Maddocks (32.84), Australia v England (Manchester) 1956

The tenth player is Wilfred Rhodes (30.81). He batted at No 11 eight times in his first 18 innings without opening. He opened in his very next innings and never went in at No 11 again going on to open 43 times in al (5 at 1, 38 at 2). A career of two halves!

Re 22 (jockylaw)

Taking a minimum of 20 innings as the qualification, the highest test average for a career without a century is that of Asim Kamal whose figures are 12-20-1-717-99-37.74.

The highest average reached by a player who went on to score a century later in his career was reached by Shivnarine Chanderpaul at the end of his first innings v Australia (Melbourne) 1996/97. At that point his figures were 14(in play)-21-4-940-82-55.29.

Further to a question in "Ask Bearders 180" about stumpings and run-outs:

Some years ago, playing as a wicket keeper a delivery came down, which i didn't take cleanly. The batsmen attempted to run a bye, but, before they could complete the run, I was able to retrieve the ball and throw down the stumps. Both batsmen were in the middle of the pitch, and there was much debate as to whether or not they had crossed. Eventually, one of them was given out 'run-out'.
I can't remember now whether it was the facing or non-striking batsman who was out, but, IF it was the man on strike who was out (meaning they hadn't crossed) then, am I right in deducting, from your previous answer, that it should have gone down as a stumping, even though the batsman was upto 9 or 10 yards "outside his crease" at the time?

RE; 30. I am posting from Cyprus, but the match in question was when I lived in Plymouth

posts 2, 23, 30, 31, ....

mw keeper has already addressed all of these in post 20 - if the striker is attempting a run he is run out not stumped, he can only be stumped if he is NOT attempting a run

see laws of cricket 39:

a) The striker is out Stumped if
(i) he is out of his ground
...
AND (iii) he is NOT attempting a run

this is where Bill's answer fits in, IF not attempting a run THEN stumped by the keeper, run out by others

Thank you PortoIan,

As a keeper I have in excess of 170 stumpings and a handful of run outs, so I speak from experience!

Today the MCC has recommended the ICC overturn its awarding of a draw instead of a forfeiture for the England-Pakistan Test at The Oval in 2006.

Who you think is correct and who really has the final say in the matter under the rules? Rather like that World vs Australia "Test" how will statisticians regard this match, as the difference would surely have affected the world Test rankings at that time and also a captains career win/lose/draw statistics?

re 18 19 26 27

Thanks for all those comments. I had not realised that I had asked an impossible question.

Tigermilkboy. I guess what you are saying is that we would need an actuarial appoach. Cricket scorers deal in stats ie we do not generally bother about who was the most successful batsman having already reached 10 or 20 or 30 etc. But I believe this is how life expectancy is calculated - from a composite table of this sort of info.

I read a very good book by David Frith a few years ago about Cricketers who committed suicide. Lots of interesting and tragic stories. But I can't remember if he actually established that cricketers kill themselves more often than the population at large.

Anyway I'm sure there are occupation related stats so there must be a way of calculating them. So to come back to my simpler question:

Does cricket seriously damage your health? In other words do cricketers live longer or shorter than those with other occupations?

(Forinstance footballers or farmers or university dons or asbestos factory workers etc etc?)

Re BASEBALL.

It is much rumored that Adam Gilchrist may switch to MLB once his Cricket career is over.

His brother is a trainer with a MLB team, NY Yankees. The rumor is that Gilchrist may join up with them.

Dear Bill,

Do living test match cricketers outnumber the dead?

Also, if there was a match between a representative team of living test cricketers and a representative team of dead ones who would win?

Dave, Surrey

question 35 - Sir Ian Blog

an abstract from the Bristish Journal for Sports Medicine states:

Survival analysis of players born between 1827 and 1941 (349 dead, 69 alive) showed a significant relation between mortality and year of birth , amateur/professional status and the number of test matches played. Captaining England was not related to survival.
Conclusion: The link between longevity and both social background and occupational success is supported among test-match cricketers. Amateur, or ‘gentlemen’, cricketers from more privileged social backgrounds survived longer than professionals, or ‘players’. The most successful cricketers who played in a larger number of tests lived longer than those who played in a smaller number of tests. Captaining England, which could be regarded as a form of occupational ‘control’, was not associated with longevity.

i don't have access to the full report, sorry

question 37 - Moby

selected on averages only

5 batsmen (best average in 10+ innings)
1 all-rounder (best bat - bowling ave after 1000runs and 100 wkts)
1 keeper (bat ave after 1000 runs and 100 dismissals)
4 bowlers (best bowling ave after 50 wkts)

notice the bowlers (and to an extent the all rounder) were not picked for their batting ave.

the batting (ave) for the deseased team is

bradman (99.94)
dempster (65.73)
barnes (63.06)
t. arif (62.63)
headley (60.83)
hammond (58.46)
oldfield [wk] (22.65)
lohmann (8.88)
ferris (8.77)
w barnes (23.39)
bates (27.33)

assuming they all score their average this makes 501 per innings

for the living side

hussey (67.29)
pollock (60.97)
weekes (58.62)
ponting (57.89)
sobers (57.78)
kallis (55.46)
sangakkar [wk] (54.79)
tyson (10.95)
davidson (24.59)
higgs (11.56)
marshall (18.85)

giving an innings ave. of 479

from this it appears that the deceased team would win, but how about the bowling aves. (notice here i'm only counting the 4 bowlers and the one all-rounder, so sobers doesn't get a bowl!)

lohmann (10.76)
ferris (12.70)
w barnes (15.55)
bates (16.42)
hammond (37.81)

giving a simple average of 18.65, meaning 10 wkts for 187 runs

tyson (18.57)
davidson (20.53)
higgs (20.75)
marshall (20.95)
kallis (31.23)

equals 22.41 meaning 224 runs per 10 wkts

so the living players lose this too

PortoIan, I look forward to your series. I'd rather watch them playing tiddlywinks, then a thousand T20 stanford matches.
Now, how are you going to wake up those deceased fellows, and the late great Malcolm Marshall, (April 18, 1958 - November 4, 1999).

Regarding post no.11

Ian Chappell played 1 first-class game for Lancashire on 26 June 1963, against Cambridge University. He scored 3, & one of his student opponents was a certain JM Brearley. Not quite "county cricket" perhaps, but "first class in England" none the less.

On the basis of players' best-ever ratings at www.iccreliancerankings.com --

The 'living' team (including retired players)
942 Ponting
938 Richards (Viv)
938 Sangakkara (wkt)
938 Sobers
935 Hayden
935 Kallis
933 Mohammad Yousuf
922 Imran Khan
920 Muralitharan
914 McGrath
912 Ambrose
Average = 929.7 (replacing retired players with still-playing one brings the average down to 909.1)

The 'dead' team
961 Bradman
945 Hutton
942 Hobbs
941 May
938 Walcott (wkt)
922 Nourse (AD)
915 Headley
932 Barnes
931 Lohmann
912 Lock
910 Marshall
Average = 931.7 (reducing to 930.1 if Hammond is included as the all-rounder and omitting Headley)

I too think the deceased team would win but it could be very close!!

rats! how did i miss that?

sorry, of course Marshall is in the wrong team, he should be replaced in the living team by Garner, 20.98 bwl and 12.44 batting, making the living team even worse, bowling only a little but batting by 6 runs

i have to say David CW's approach is much better than mine, in that it balances overall performance over time than my averages...but at least we got the same result

Do we know, in international cricket (Tests, Limited Overs Internationals, 20/20), which batsman has been most often at the OTHER end when his partner has been run out?

I'd guess that strong candidates for this position would be Geoff Boycott, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mike Gatting...

A couple of years ago I was playing for my local 2nd XI. I'd had a predictably terrible year with the bat and gloves and in the final over of the final game of the season the captain threw me the ball after much pestering, not only throughout the game, but throughout the season to turn my arm over.

I duly took a hat-trick with the final three balls of the over meaning I had bowled 1 over all season and took a hat-trick.

So my question is, has any player ever taken a first class hat-trick with their only over of the game? As an extra question; has any first class player taken a hat-trick with their only over of the season?

A previous question about 6 match test series got me reminiscing about the Ashes series in England in 1985, probably the first test series that got me so interested in cricket as a boy. That and being a five minute bus journey from Ilford cricket ground where I could watch probably the greatest Essex side play for very little cost. In those days Essex v Somerset would mean the opportunity to see Gooch, Border, Botham, Richards and Garner battling in out. Heady times. Anyway, I digress. Back to the Ashes series in 1985….magnificent hundreds from Robinson, Gower, Border and most satisfying of all back to back innings by England in, I think, the last two tests, which brings me to my question..

What are the most consecutive innings victories by a test team?

During a Sunday game a number of years ago, a slow left arm bowler bowled to me (right hand batsmen) with a '9-0' field - all fielders on the leg side! Has anyone every had this before or seen it in the 1st class game?

What is the highest percentage of runs a player has been involved in during a test match (i.e., runs scored whilst he was batting, runs conceded whilst he was bowling)?

Similarly, what's the most runs a player has scored with the bat during a test match which failed to recoup all the runs he conceded whilst bowling?

I'm aware this is a very simplistic way of looking at runs conceded whilst bowling, but who cares.

Dear Bearders

As a 'keeper I raed with interest your answer to the question regarding a stumping or a runout.

Does this mean that a non striking batsman can be out stumped if the kepper collects the ball and effects a direct hit on the non strikers stumps whilst he is out of his ground?

Dear Bearders

As a 'keeper I read with interest your answer to the question regarding a stumping or a runout.

Does this mean that a non striking batsman can be out stumped if the keeper collects the ball and effects a direct hit on the non strikers stumps whilst he is out of his ground?

Also I fear I have been robbed of a number of dismissals, having dismissed a number of batsmen that have been recorded as run out!

50 - Only the striker can be stumped. If the non-striker is out of his ground, he is deemed to be running, even if in fact he is only backing up.

question 46 - Buzz 1989

well apart from the 3 in the series you are talking about SA managed 3 consecutive innings victories in 2002 (2 against BANG and 1 against SL) and then 3 again in 2003 (1 against PAK and 2 more vs BANG)

in fact this was the (nearly) the start and finsinh of 9 consecutive victories spanning Marrch 2002 to May 2003, but the other 3 were not by an innings

question 48 - the Man from Wirral

well i don't know if this is the absolute record but you'd have to go some to beat it, for batsmen scoring a century

PA Strang scored 106 not out in ZIM first innings vs PAK in 1996, he then took 5 wkts for 212 runs before batting again, and saving the game, for 13 runs not out

this gives him match figures of 119 (never out) runs off the bat vs 212 with the ball

davidson of AUS can beat this but not with a century or a not out (44+80 with bat, 135+87 with ball)

in single innings a couple of notable examples are:

in 1952 vs ENG at lords Mankad (of the famous non striker run outs) took 5 for 196 in ENGs first innings before scoring 184 in INDs 2nd

okay overall he scored 72+184 and bowled 196 and 35, so over the match he did better than even but for one innings he was down

likewise Tony Grieg scored 148 vs WI in ENG first innings in 1974 before going for 164 runs when he bowled, again he ruined this by batting again for 25

question 47 - Trix in Black

i've never heard of 9 leg side fielders in tests, but 9 on side fielders has happened a few times, here is a photo of one such with Lillee bowling vs NZ in 1977

for some reason that link broke at "Image:", don't just click on it but copy and paste it, including the ":Nine_slips.jpg" part

here it is again, remmber you need it all

damn i'm having a bad day!

post 54 should read "off" side not "on"

PortoIan - sorry, i meant all 9 fielders on the on side, yes really!! He did this for about 3 or 4 overs or so.

The bowler fired the ball well down leg side - all i could do was pretty much left leg down right leg on one knee and try to smash it! Or a few times my style of reverse sweep which worked a few times.

He was an obnoxious bowler who nobody liked!

#54-56

Takes me back ... I remember watching watching the nine slips live on TV (shows my age!). The picture shows Lillee bowling to 11th man Ewan Chatfield in the 3rd innings with NZ only leading by about 20 with two days to go. Chatfield unsurprisingly scored a boundary (can't remember whether it was through the slips!), but Lillee got the other batsman in his next over.

Nick, London

Re 40 (TheManfromWirral)

The record you are seeking is 202 set by the first of nine men who have both scored and conceded 150 runs in the same test --

G Giffen, Australia v Sydney, Sydney, 1894-95
Scored 202 (161, 41) - Conceded 239 (4-75, 4-164)
GA Faulkner, South Africa v England, Johannesburg, 1909-10
201 (78, 123) - 160 (5-120, 3-40)
WJ Edrich, England v South Africa, Manchester, 1947
213 (191, 22*) - 172 (4-95, 4-77)
MH Mankad, India v England, Lord's, 1952
256 (72, 174) - 231 (5-106, 0-35)
DS Atkinson, West Indies v Australia, Bridgetown, 1954-55
239 (219, 20*) - 164 (2-108, 5-56)
RB Simpson, Australia v South Africa, Cape Town, 1966-67
171 (153, 18) - 158 (2-59, 2-99)
GS Sobers, West Indies v Australia, Adelaide, 1968-69
162 (110, 52) - 213 (1-106, 1-107)
AW Greig, England v West Indies, Bridgetown, 1973-74
173 (148, 25) - 164 (6-164)
CL Cairns, New Zealand v Australia, Wellington, 1999-00
178 (109, 69) - 155 (3-110, 1-45)

Re 44 (Jonathan Ellis)

At the 'other end' the most times his partner run out -- (the figure in brackets is the number of times the batsman himself was the one run out) --

TESTS
23 - SR Waugh (4)
17 - AR Border (12)
14 - S Chanderpaul (3)
13 - SC Ganguly (4), G Boycott (7), RS Dravid (9)
12 - IVA Richards (4), SR Tendulkar (6)
11 - Asif Iqbal (2), RB Kanhai (5)
10 - DPMD Jayawardene (2), ST Jayasuriya (5), Salim Malik (5), RD Jacobs (7), Javed Miandad (8)

LIMITED OVERS INTERNATIONALS
49 - SR Waugh (26)
45 - Ijaz Ahmed sr (14)
41 - PA de Silva (25)
39 - MG Bevan (16)
37 - CZ Harris (15)
36 - A Ranatunga (27)
35 - ST Jayasuriya (26)
34 - AD Jadeja (17), Javed Miandad (23), Mohammad Yousuf (34)
32 - SR Tendulkar (29)
31 - Salim Malik (22), SC Ganguly (23), Inzamam-ul-Haq (39)
30 - BC Lara (18)
29 - HP Tillakaratne (15)
27 - Moin Khan (13), Saeed Anwar (17), IA Healy (21)
26 - DR Martyn (15), GW Flower (20), A Flower (22)
25 - Imran Khan (12), CL Hooper (13), S Chanderpaul (17), DM Jones (17), Wasim Akram (34)

INTERNATIONAL TWENTY20
4 - Nazimuddin
3 - A Symonds, LRPL Taylor
2 - Twelve players

re 60 etc

We really need some way of comparing these players - tests played or runs scored or partnerships batted in. Perhaps balls faced is the best?

Then we could see who were the most lethal players to run with

re 60 etc

Also

Is it significant (except in so far as more tests are played nowadays) that all the culprits are recent (Boycott excepted)?

MC Cowdrey played a lot of tests yet does not appear. How come?

Are there any significant (not sure what the definition of this would be) batsmen who NEVER ran anyone out?

"To run out the local hero" is surely worth double points. I was there that day at Trent Bridge and there was a communal scream followed by a silence followed by a buzzing around the ground like a huge swarm of bees as DW Randall sloped back into the pavillion

Bill,

Gambhir and VVS are (I think) the first two Indians to score double tons in the same innings, I have searched Crickinfo and not found another occasion when two batsmen have scored double tons in the same innings against the Baggy Greens. Is this a first in all test cricket?

Hi Bill

Just wondering about the amazing acheivement of Gambhir and Laxman to score double centuries against Australia. I was trying to work out how many times two batsman had scored double hundreds in a test match innings before and I remember Sri Lanka have done it twice with Jayasuriya and Mahanama and then Sangakarra and Jayawardene. How many times has it been done? Also has anyone ever done it against Australia before?

Thanks

Tom B (Suffolk)

#63/64

Two double centuries in the same test innings has been done 13 times (including Gambhir/Laxman). This is the first time for India, and the first time against Australia.

Nick

Good afternoon Bill,

VVS Laxman has just completed his second Test double century against Australia. How many other players have passed 200 aganist Australia more than once. I know Lara has past the milestone three times, and Hammond four, but are there any others. T thought maybe Hutton or Tendulkar, but they have each only done it once.

Rgds

Theo, Hove

#66

Theo, other than those you mentioned, only Graeme Pollock has scored two double centuries against Australia.

Nick

Bill
India now boast the top six in their batting line up who have scored a test double hundred. Is this the first time it has happened? My other question is barring injury VVS Laxman will win his hundredth test cap next week. That means India will have 5 players with over a hundred test caps in their line up. Is this also a first?

Re 61, 62 (sirianblog)

Yes, I agree the raw figures are not the most helpful, so I have compiled details of the numbers of run outs which involve all players (214 of them) who have taken part in 150 partnerships or more - rather too much to post here in its entirety!

The most lethal of those players in terms of in terms of partners run out per 100 partnerships are --
6.29 Asif Iqbal
4.95 WW Armstrong
4.42 RD Jacobs
4.38 FM Engineer
4.23 RB Kanhai
4.17 Younis Khan
3.98 ED Weekes
3.88 JC Adams
3.87 SR Waugh
3.83 DG Bradman
3.74 C Hill
3.74 SC Ganguly
3.59 GR Marsh
3.57 MOhammad Ashraful
3.43 KR Miller
3.39 IVA Richards
3.36 A Flower
3.33 DW Randall
3.28 KD Walters
3.27 PR Umrigar
Geoff Boycott at 2.91 is 31st
Colin Cowdrey at 0.77 is 180th (8 run outs - 3 self, 5 partner)

Completely 'safe', no partners run out --
ME Trescothick (260 partnerships)
WJ Cronje (235)
GC Smith (226)
Habibul Bashar (195)
D Ganga (170)
B Sutcliffe (165)
WW Hinds (158)
Waqar Younis (150)

Re 69 etc

Thanks for this

Re 60. I guess the correct number of run outs in tests is none. But is this true in ODIs? To use a football analogy "if you're never offside you're playing too deep".

It would be interesting to know who has been run out least in ODIs of those players who have played a lot of them. Perhaps they missed out on a lot of runs?

Re 63 (rustic_cricketer)

Two double centuries in the same innings
WH Ponsford (266), DG Bradman (244): A-E, The Oval, 1934
SG Barnes (234), DG Bradman (234): A-E, Sydney, 1946-47
CC Hunte (260), GS Sobers (365*): WI-P, Kingston, 1957-58
WM Lawry (210), RB Simpson (201): A-WI, Bridgetown, 1964-65
Mudassar Nazar (231), Javed Miandad (280*): P-I, Hyderabad, 1982-83
G Fowler (201), MW Gatting (207): E-I, Chennai, 1984-85
Qasim Omar (206), Javed Miandad (203*): P-SL, Faisalabad, 1985-86
ST Jayasuriya (340), RS Mahanama (225), SL-I, Colombo RPS, 1997-98
Ijaz Ahmed (211), Inzamam-ul-Haq (200*), P-SL, Dhaka, 1998-99
MS Atapattu (249), KC Sangakkara (270), SL-Z, Bulawayo, 2003-04
WW Hinds (213), S Chanderpaul (203*): WI-SA, Georgetown, 2004-05
KC Sangakkara (287), DPMD Jayawardene (374): SL-SA, Colombo SSC, 2006
ND McKenzie (226), GC Smith (232): SA-B, Chittagong, 2007-08
G Gambhir (206), VVS Laxman (200*): I-A, Delhi, 2008-09

Re 70 (sirianblog)

I don’t really know how to answer your question but some more figures may interest (or confuse!) Make of it what you will!

Taking 1000 runs or 100 innings as a qualification - Runs scored per run out (as victim) -

2822 - KP Pietersen (2822/1)
2055 - WU Tharanga (2055/1)
1639 - A Flintoff (3277/2)
1344 - IVA Richards (6721/5)
1330 - RS Morton (1330/1)
1286 - Zaheer Abbas (2572/2)
1284 - CG Greenidge (5134/4)
1262 - GC Smith (5046/4)
1166 - N Hussain (2332/2)
937 - Aftab Ahmed (1874/2)
876 - ML Hayden (6133/7)
874 - AC Gilchrist (9619/11)
.......................................................
103 - M Prabhakar (1858/18)
98 - Wasim Akram (3717/38)
96 - SP O'Donnell (1242/13)
94 - HDPK Dharmasena (1222/13)
84 - IA Healy (1764/16)
79 - AB Agarkar (1268/16)
75 - WPUJC Vaas (2025/27)
75 - Waqar Younis (969/13)
64 - SK Warne (1018/16)
59 - J Srinath (883/15)
49 - M Muralitharan (542/11)
45 - A Kumble (938/21)

Three players have scored over 1000 runs without being run out - GM Turner (1598), MO Odumbe (1409) and Misbah-ul-Haq (1085)

I want to know if Michael atherton, Alec Stewart, Nasser Hussain, Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash ever played for england together in the same test match?if so..agaisnt who and what was the result..??id imagine with that batting lineup it must have been a good game!

Re 73 (Sporting-Allrounder)

Your quintet played together in nine tests.

The first was v Australia, Oval, 1993 (won 161 runs, 380/313 v 303/229)
1 A-2-50, Hi-3-80, Hu 5-30. R-7-6, S-6-76.
2 A-2-42. Hi-3-36. Hu 5-0. R-7-64, S-6-35.
Not again until twice v South Africa, 1998
4th test. Trent Bridge (won 8 wkts, 336/247-2 v 374/208
1 A-2-58, Hi-7-6, Hu-3-22, R-5-67*. S-4-19
2 A-2-98*, Hu-3-58. S-4-45* (A/Hu 152 for 2nd)
5th test, Headingley (won 34 runs, 230/240 v 252/195
1 A-2-16, Hi-6-2. Hu-3-9. R-5-21, S-4-15
2 A-2-1, Hi-7-1, Hu-3-94, R-5-25, S-4-35
Three times in Australia, 1998-99
2nd test, Perth (lost 7 wkts, 112/191 v 240/64-3
1 A-2-1, Hi-7-0, Hu-3-6, R-5-26, S-4-38
2 A-2-35, Hi 7-68, Hu-3-1, R-5-47*, S-4-0
3rd test, Adelaide (lost 205 runs, 227/237 v 391/278-5d
1 A-2-41. Hi-7-8, Hu-3-89*, R-5-61, S-4-0
2 A-2-5, Hi-8-0, Hu-3-41, R-4-57, S-6-63* (Hu/R 103 for 4th)
4th test, Melbourne (won 12 runs, 270/244 v 340/162
1 A-1-0, Hi-6-39, Hu-4-19, R-5-63, S-2-107
2 A-2-0. Hi-7-60, Hu-5-50, R-6-14, S-2-52 (S/R 119 for 4th)
Three times in 2000
1st test v Zimbabwe, Lord's (won inns/209, 415 v 83/123
1 A-1-55, Hi-4-101, Hu-3-10, R-2-15, S-5-124* (Hi/S 149 for 4th)
2nd test v Zimbabwe, Trent Bridge (drawn, 374/147 v 285-4d/25-1
1 A-1-136. Hi-4-5, Hu-3-21, R-2-56, S-5-9 (A/R 121 for 1st)
2 A-7-34, Hi-4-30, Hu-3-0, R-2-4, S-5-15
1st test v West Indies, Edgbaston (lost inns/93, 179/125 v 397
1 A-1-20, Hi-4-0, Hu-3-15, R-2-18, S-5-6
2 A-1-19, Hi 4-0, Hu-3-8, R-2-0, S-5-8

Hello Bill,

I see that Peter Marron has decided to retire as Head Groundsman at Old Trafford. That got me to thinking: do you know how many Test Matches Marron's been in charge of? And which Groundsman (or Curator, for the Aussies) has taken charge of most Test matches.

Of course, I realise that this might not be within your normal remit, but if you do have an answer, I;d be interested to read it.

Regards,
Phil Fenerty
(Lancashire CCC Life Member)

I would say cricket especially now with IND v AUS rivalry has been turned into big battle grounds.

e.g. checkout this blog:

Hi Bill
Test match number 1050 England v New Zealand 1986. The winning boundary scored by Martin Crowe was scored off David Gowers only ball which was a no ball due to it being a throw. Your scorecard does not include any noballs. Can you please explain.

Many thanks Barrie Henton

question 77 - Ta For Now

i don't want to speak for Bill but...

the last ball of the test was indeed called a no-ball for throwing but the Secretary of the TCCB (at the time) D Carr ruled after the match that the boundary should count, before the no ball, and so finish the game...at the time scorecards counted the 1 run from the no-ball as the winning run, but D Carr's decision made it necesary to change them all. In Gower's figures the no-ball still stands

btw...a new blog started a long time ago

/blogs/tms/ask_bearders/