Saturday, April 15, 2006

Blog-Cricket-Quiz-2



Q1, who was nicknamed as ‘Big Ship’ on account of his physique, made his Test Debut in 1901-02 Ashes. Batting at position no. 11 he made an unbeaten 45. He was involved in a last wicket century partnership with another debutant. Till today it is the only instance of debutants involving in a last wicket Century partnership. 20 years after his debut while captaining his side in a rain ruined 1921 Ashes Test played at Manchester, which had the first day’s play washed out he was involved in an argument over the laws of declaration prevailing at that time. He asked his side to stay on the field even though his opponent has declared their innings. After a twenty minute discussions and arguments, the play resumed with England batting again. But the confusion resulted in breach of another law and Q1 who completed an over before the stoppage of play bowled again thus providing a peculiar instance of bowling two consecutive overs in a test match.

30 years later in another test match , which too had the first day washed out, while playing against England at Basin Reserve in 1950-51 Q2 joined Q1 in the record books for bowling two consecutive overs in a Test Match. one before tea and the other immediately after. But Q2 is remembered much more for another bizarre incident he was involved in during the following season’s Test Series against West Indies in 1951/52. His action or lack of it in the 2nd Test at Auckland caused a big controversy. Q2 refused to take of the bails to run out the West Indian opener Q3 when he was on 10 and slipped over while trying to steal a quick single. Q2 sympathising with Q3's slipover did not run the batsman out though Q3 was yards shy of non-striker’s end, and simply walked back to his bowling mark. Q3 then added a further 89 runs to his score and fallen short of his century by 1 run and became 12th batman in Test history to have got dismissed for 99. Q3 also shared a 197 runs partnership for the 1st wicket with his opening partner Q4, with whom he formed a great opening pair. Both Q3 & Q4 along with the 3 great Ws (Worrell, Walcott, Weeks) formed the core of the batting for Great West Indian side of 1950s.

Q5 is the brother of Q4 and they both played together in one test match which incidentally was the only test match that Q5 played. In the only innings that Q5 batted in that test he fell short of recording a century on debut by just 4 runs. In the same test Q6, who too was making his debut became the 8th bowler in Test history to have taken a wicket with the first ball he bowled in test cricket ,when he clean bowled WW Keeton of England. That test match which was played at The Oval in 1939 was in fact the last test match played before the World War II. Both Q5 & Q6 never played a test again.

Q7 was the captain of the side that Q2 played and bowled two consecutive overs. This test incidentally was Q7's last. In all, Q7 played 11 tests and was never dismissed in single figures in the 19 innings he batted. He is remembered more for something that happened 3 months after his retirement in the city that’s the subject of the painting Q00000. Amazingly, that painting is not a work of any famous painter, but that of Q8.


Q8 who worked as a laborer before playing Test Cricket, became an eminent cricket writer and cartoonist after he retired from cricket. He took upon oil painting too as he grew older. Q00000 was his exceptional work at the age of 75yrs. In 21 tests he played for his country he took 99 wickets including 36 wickets in the only whitewash ever recorded in the history of Ashes. His 9 wickets haul in the 2nd innings of the Melbourne Test of that series still remains as the best by an Australian bowler against England. Outside of Test Cricket Q8’s best performance in first class cricket was 10 for 66. He took all 10 Gloucestershire’s wickets during the 1921 England tour in a first class match. He cherished that performance so much that he titled his autobiography as "Ten for 66 and all that".

In the same test that Q8 made his debut eleven other players made their debut including Q9, Q10, Q11, Q12, Q13, Q14 and Q15. I believe this test match introduced more great players to Test Cricket than any other Test. Though they did not make a spectacular entry into Test cricket, later in their careers all of them achieved certain records which are yet to be broken.

Q9 went to record the fastest century in Test Cricket in terms of minutes.

Q10 went to record more stumpings than any other wicket keeper.

Q11 went on to record highest last wicket partnership for Australia in Test Cricket with Q8.

Q12 hit a century on debut and later succeeded Q1 as captain of Australia.

Q13’s feat of registering a century in each innings of his last Test Match of his career is unparalleled in Test Cricket history.

Q14 played 51 Tests for England and ranks 2nd in the list of most number of first class centuries in a career (170) and 3rd in the list of most number of runs in first class cricket career. He can also be credited for a wearing an older and crude version of modern day helmet. In 1933, while playing against West Indian pace bowlers he wore a cap designed by his wife which had 3 peaks, two of which covered the ears and temples in order to protect his head which was stuck by a bouncer couple of seasons earlier

Q15 went on to captain the Victoria side when they made the world record 1107 against New South Wales in 1926-27 season, which still remains the highest first class score. He made 295 in that innings. Later he captained a side that toured India in 1936-37 and played 4 unofficial Tests.

Q16, who shares the highest tenth wicket partnership record in first class cricket(307), was captaining the New South Wales side in the absence of his regular captain. In that match Q8 bowled sixty four 8 ball overs without a maiden and conceded a record 352 runs. Five weeks later New South Wales did take revenge on Victoria by bowling them out for just 35 runs in their return match with Q16 hitting an unbeaten 217. Notable absentee for Victoria in that match was the other run machine in Q17.

You all know who was the obvious run machine in Q17 right? DON BRADMAN.


Both Q17 and Don Bradman holds the record for hitting maximum number of triple hundreds(4) in first class Cricket.

Identify Q1 to Q17

1 comment:

VJ said...

I would rather like you send an email to my id vjeedigunta@gmail.com or vijay@remotedba.com rather than posting the answers here, that way it would keep the interest alive for those who would like to test their skills