Answers to the Blog-Cricket-Quiz-5

Answer 1: Rahul Sharad Dravid as of today 05/21/2006, played 99 tests for India. Although he played 100 tests altogether, one of them was for ICC World XI. His Record as of today reads :

Answer 2: David Houghton of Zimbabwe. Houghton captained Zimbabwe in its inaugural test match played against India, at Harare, 1992/93. He made 121 & 41* in that test. In 1996 he became coach of the Zimbabwe National side and in 1997 Zimbabwe Cricket Union made the country’s national coach full-time in addition to his continued duty of being a player on the national side.

Answer 3: Manoj Prabhakar of India, opened both batting and bowling in a test match 21 times and 38 times in One Day Internationals.

Answer 4: They handed out the final decision that led to history’s only two tied test matches. Colin Hoy declared Australia’s Ian Meckiff as run out in the 1st Test of the 1960-61 series at Brisbane against West Indies whereas in the 1st test of the 1986/87 series between India and Australia at Madras, Vikram Raju raised his finger for an lbw appeal against Maninder Singh of India of the bowling of Greg Matthews.

Answer 5: Australia’s Billy Murdoch holds the record for taking the first ever catch by a substitute fielder in test cricket. The uniqueness about the catch is that he actually was the captain of the Australian side and was substituting for England to catch one of his team members HJH Scott of the bowling of AG Steel in the 2nd test of the 1884 Ashes at Lord’s.

Answer 6: Jeff Thomson and Brett Lee.

Answer 7: Duncan Fletcher of Zimbabwe. Now England's Coach.

Answer 8: Nilesh Kulkarni. He is the only Indian cricketer to have taken a wicket with the first ball he bowled in a test match. In the first test of the 1996/97 series against Sri Lanka played at R. Premadasa Stadium, Khettarama, Colombo , with the very first ever delivery he bowled in test cricket he had Marvin Atapattu caught behind by Nayan Mongia for 26 and became the 12th bowler in test history to do so. Since then only one other bowler, MKGCP Lakshita of Sri Lanka achieved that feat .

Answer 9 : Ian Healey of Australia and Alec Stewart of England. Title of their autobiographies is Playing for Keeps.

Answer 10: Douglas Jardine born at Bombay, Maharashtra, India. Colin Cowdrey at Bangalore, Karnataka,I ndia and Nasser Hussain at Madras, Tamil Nadu.

Answer 11: Shane Warne of Australia, Chetan Chauhan of India, and Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka. Their record as of today reads.

Answer 12: George W. Bush. He actually was participating in a cricket workshop held at the US Embassy Grounds with players from Islamabad College for Boys during his visit to Pakistan in March 2006.

Answer 13: Courtney Walsh of West Indies and Brett Lee of Australia.

Answer 14: St. Lawrence Ground, Cantebury, Kent County’s Home. Carl Hooper of West Indies cleared the lime tree in 1992.

Answer 15: Percey Jeeves and P.G Wodehouse. The fictional character is the Bertie Wooster's famous butler Jeeves

Answer 16: Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. See the pedestal photograph zoomed in below.

Answer 17: Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet. Who is believed to have invented the googly was describing his discovery. It is also referred as Bosie in his honor.

Answer 18: Samuel Barclay Beckett, won the Nobel rize for literature in 1969.

Answer 19: Althanasios John Traicos, perhaps the only cricketer to have born in Egypt played for South Africa before they were banned from representative cricket in 1970. Exactly after 22 years and 222 days ( hence the clue “2” test matches) he played in tests again, this time for Zimbabwe.

Answer 20: Sunil Gavaskar. The cricketer in the picture is Zaheer Abbas of Pakistan. Gavaskar dismissed Zaheer Abbas for 96 in the Faisalabad Test of 1978/79 series getting him caught by his long time opening partner Chetan Chauhan. During the same tour, in the 2nd ODI at Sialkot Gavaskar took his only ODI wicket by having him caught by Kapil Dev for 48.

Answer 21: Charles Aubrey Smith of England, Henry Melville Taberer and John Anderson of South Africa.

Answer 22: 32 yr old Robbie Williams is rumoured to have started dating 21 yr old Minki van der Westhuizen, nick named as Slinky Minki, after she and South African skipper Graeme Smith ended their love affair.

Answer 23: Rachel Flintoff. Andrew Flintoff tattoed her name as well as his two daughters’ names Holly and Corey on his left arm.

Answer 24: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Formerly known as Karnataka Cricket Association Stadium, it hosted the 1st test of the 1974-75 series between India and West Indies, in which Gordon Greenidge and Vivian Richards made their test debut. Greendge made 93 & 107 and Richards gave no indicaton of his future batting exploits by making just 4 & 3.

Sunil Gavaskar bid adieu to test cricket on the same ground in the fifth and final test of the 1986/87 series against Pakistan by hitting a classic 96 on a treacherous turning track with extras being the next highest score of 27. Azharuddin’s 26 was the next highest score in that innings as Iqbal Qasim and Tauseff Ahmed bowled India out for 204 while chasing a modest target of 221.

Answer 25: David Stuart Sheppard the Test Player and David Robert Shepherd the Test Umpire.

Answer 26 : Sachin Tendulkar on Ajith Tendulkar. Name of the book is Making of a Cricketer.

Answer 27: Shane Warne’s Ball of the century to Mike Gatting on June 4th 1993 during the first test of the 1993 Ashes at Old Trafford. Read the following description on Legends Memorabillia website which says it all. “ From the moment it commenced its flight, the ball started to drift alarmingly through the air and in towards Gatting’s pads. It then dipped suddenly, before biting into the turf. Gatting watched it closely and followed the drift, playing a defensive shot, anticipating the spin off the wicket. He could have had no idea of the prodigious amount of turn extracted after the ball bit into the turf. Completely miscalculating it, the ball shot past his bat – cannoning into the top of the off stump, neatly removing one bail as the Australians went up as one in sheer unbridled jubilation. Gatting could only look blankly at his stumps, trying to work the geometry of impossible angles in his head – but far too late. The ball, Shane Warne’s first against England, now occupies its own place in Ashes folklore.”

Answer 28: Danish Kaneria of Pakistan (156 wickets, 126 runs in 36 tests), BS Chandrashekar of India (242 wickets, 167 runs in 58 tests) and Bruce Reid of Australia(113 wickets, 93 runs in 27 tests) are currently the only bowlers to have taken 100 or more wickets in tests and to have scored fewer runs than the number of wickets they have taken. Chris Martin of New Zealand is one wicket away from joining the club. In 31 tests he played till now Martin took 99 wickets and made just 48 runs.

Answer 29: All the fielders are in the slips. Dennis Lillee is the bowler, Australia's Ian Chappell was the captain of his team and the opp0sing side was New Zealand. Peter Petherick was the batsman and NZ were 9 down when Ian Chappell placed this field setting in the 2nd Test at Eden Park in 1976/77 series. At least this is the first ever time such picture was taken if not first time all fielders were put in slip postiions.3 3 years later Steve Waugh employed the same field setting for Zimbabwe’s David Mutandera , when Zimbabwe was reeling at 98 for 9 and Damien Fleming was bowling in an One Day International on Oct 23 1999. See the pictures below.

Question 30: Brett Lee & Andrew Flintoff. Australia just lost the 2nd test of the 2005 Ashes played at Birmingham by 2 runs. With three runs needed to win Steve Harmison had Kasprowicz caught behind. Following picture captures the jubilation of England team.

Thanks to all those who responded to the quiz.

Test records : Week Ending 14th May 2006.

Test #1802 Sri Lanka in England 2006 (1st Test) at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood

In a remarkable rearguard action by the tail enders Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara in a record 105 run 9th wicket partnership, Sri Lanka scored 537-9 while following on and held on to a draw. With some resolute batting by their captain Mahela Jayawardane, who made his 2nd test century at Lord’s in as many appearances, Sri Lanka not only saved the test but in the process also registered the highest score in the 2nd innings of a test match by any side at Lord’s. Here are some of the other statistical highlights of the test:

While recording their 2nd innings total of 537/9, seven Sri Lankan batsmen scored half centuries. This provides only the 3rd such occassion in Test history. In 1934 England did the same against Australia at Manchester for the 1st time and as recently as in the 2005-06 Karachi Test, Pakistan achieved the same against India. Sri Lanka's total of more than 500 while following on also finds a place in the history of test cricket as it is only the 10th time that a team has registered a total of 500 or more while following on. India and Pakistan are the only teams to have registered a total of more than 600. With a remarkable coincidence they both have scored 657 runs. Pakistan scored 657/8 to savage a draw against West Indies at Bridgetown, 1957-58. India made same score for the loss of 7 wickets before declaring the innings and registering a historic victory by bowling out the Aussies in 2001 Calcutta Test.

Andrew Strauss became the 234th player and 46th England batsman to aggregate 2000 runs in a test career when he reached three in his 1st innings score of 48. In the same innings, when Strauss’ teammate , Kevin Pietersen touched the 110 run mark during his swashbuckling innings of 158 he took his test career aggreaget to 1000 runs and became the 422nd player and 88th Englishman to do so. This test is the 25th for Strauss and 12th for Pietersen.

Playing in his 52nd test when Matthew Hoggard caught and bowled Farveez Maharoof in the 1st innings of Sri Lanka, he took his tally of test wickets to 200. He thus becomes the 10th Englishman and 51st overall player to have taken 200 test wickets in a career.

When Geraint Jones took the 4th catch in the 2nd innings of Sri Lanka to dismiss Jayawardane of the bowling of Flintoff became the 7th English player and 31st overall to account for 100 wicket keeping dismissals in a test career. Having already completed 1000 runs in test cricket Jones has also joined the 1000 runs & 100 dismissals wicket keepers club. Except Wally Grout of Australia and Junior Murray of West Indies all WKs who claimed 100 test victims have also aggreagated 1000 runs in a test career.


In 35 tests they played together, Muralitharan and Jayawardane produced a bowler/fielder combination for 53 dismissals thus eclipsing the previous record of 51 dismissals by Shane Warne and Mark Taylor combination. Incidentally Warne & Taylor’s record too was set in 35 tests they played together.

By making their test debuts Sajid Mahmood became the 633rd player to represent England and Chamara Kapugedera became 104th Sri Lankan to play in test cricket

Blog-Cricket-Quiz-5

This quiz has been prepared for sportsquiz group on yahoo. Point system is devised in such a way that you will be able to score 100 points or more for this 30 question quiz. So its been named as " See if you can hit a century".

SINGLES (1 point for each correct answer)

Question 1: A sitter, to start with, as of today how many tests did this cricketer, one of my all-time favorites, in the picture below play for India?

Question2: Who is the only player in cricket to have held the positions of both coach and player in his country’s test team? He also holds the record for hitting a century on his test debut both as a player and as a captain in the same test.

Question 3: Who holds the record for opening the batting and bowling in the same match more times than any other cricketer in both forms of International cricket (Test matches & ODIs)

Question 4: What did Colin Hoy of Australia and Vikram Raju of India have done to get their names permanently etched in the history of test cricket.

COUPLES (2 points for each correct answer)

Question 5: Who is the first test cricketer to have taken a catch in test cricket as substitute and what is unique about this particular catch?

Question 6: Shoaib Akthar with his 161 kmph delivery bowled to New Zealand’s Craig McMillan in 2002 holds the record among the three bowlers who have officially recorded a speeds of 100mph(160.1kmph) or more. First bowler to have broken the 100mph barrier more than 25 years back and the caricature of the other bowler who did the same in 2005 is in the picture below. Identify them?

Question 7: This cricketer never played in tests, though remembered for leading his side to one of the major upsets in cricket history. His sister Anne, captained the Women’s Field Hockey team to win a gold medal at 1980 Olympics. He is also responsible for designing and implementing his country’s first auto licence plate numbering system. Identify the person and the country?

Question 8: Identify the cricketer and the unique record he holds for India in test cricket?

THREE RUNS (each correct answer carries 3 points)

Question 9 : Two of the greatest wicket keepers of all time named their autobiographies with the same title. Who are the keepers and what is the title of their books ?

Question 10: Till today only three Indian born cricketers have captained England in Test Cricket. Who are they?

Question 11: Three cricketers have accumulated more than 2000 runs in test history without ever hitting a century. Name them?

Question 12: Identify the personality whose face is blacked out in the photograph below, who seems to be giving some bowling lessons to a bunch of curious onlookers?

BOUNDARIES (each correct answer carries 4 points)

Question 13: Pictured below are the silhouettes of two famous fast bowlers’ bowling actions. The one on the left side once held the world record for most number of wickets in a test career. However he could not capture the wicket of the one on the right side, who is nicknamed as ‘Bing’. In the two test matches they played together, Bing remained not out with the scores of 62 and 41 batting once in each test and captured the wicket of the cricketer in the left silhouette once in each test. Name these cricketers?

Question 14: An English County Cricket Ground is associated with the following photographs. First photograph was taken in 2003. As you can see in the pictures below, the tree which was inside the boundary has fallen to the ground in 2005 because of highwinds. Ever since the 120 foot tree was diagonised with heartwood fungus , the county staff have been preparing for its demise and have planted another lime tree just outside the boundary to replace the original whenever the inevitable occured. The third part of the picture shows the new tree , which stands at just 20 ft as of now. When the original tree was still existing, a ball that was blocked by the tree was declared as a boundary and one had to clear the tree to hit a six. Only four cricketers have hit a six by clearing the tree. AC Watson in 1925, Sir Learie Constantine in 1928 , Jim Smith in 1939. After 53 years another West Indian cricketer in 1992, became the 4th and the last cricketer to have hit a six by clearing the tree. Name the county or ground and the West Indian Cricketer?

Question 15: This Warwickshire all rounder shown in the 1st photograph below is believed to have inspired a famous literary character. He played county cricket for 2 years in 1913 & 1914 and died tragically during the World War I. The 2nd Photgraph is that of the author who created the character. Name the cricketer, writer & the fictional character.


Question 16: This cricketer’s middle name is Ignatius. He played for MCC in10 first class games. At Lord’s in 1899 , he took 7/61 against Cambridgeshire and two years later he carried his bat in an innings against Leceistershire for 32. Shown below is the picture of his statue standing in his birthplace Edinburgh. Name the person who could never achieve even a fraction of the fame in cricket that he achieved in another field?

Question 17: The person in the picture once said “ It is merely a ball with an ordinary break produced by an extraordinary method”.Who is this cricketer and what is he talking about? That particular type of delivery bears his name too. What is it?

Question 18: Who is this person who just played two first class games in cricket for his College, Dublin Univesity in 1925 & 1926? 43 years after playing his last first class game he won a nobel prize for literature and remains the only first class cricketer to have won a nobel prize.

Question 19: The cricketer in this picture holds the record for longest gap between “2” test matches. Identify him and number of years and days he stayed away from test cricket and what country did he represent?

Question 20: Whose only wicket in both Test Cricket and One Day Internationals is this famous Pakistani batsman shown in the photograph below?

SIXERS (each correct answer carries 6 points)

Question 21: The three cricketers, first one from England and the other two from South Africa, shown in the visual are three of the only 4 cricketers to have captained their country in the sole test match they played. Identify them? Name of the other cricketer not pictured in this photagraph is Alfred Renfrew Richards.

Question 22: A Famous pop star is rumored to be dating this super model shown in the picture. She recently split from her relationship with an equally famous cricketer. Name the pop star,the cricketer and the model?

Question 23: The name of the lady in the 1st photo below is one of the three names tattooed on the body of the cricketer in the 2nd photo. Identify the lady and the cricketer?

Question 24: Shown below is the picture of the stadium which staged the first eve test match in 1974. Two all time West Indian greats made their test debut in this test. This ground also is the one where another all time great played his last test innings. Name the stadium and the cricketers in question?

Question 25: Name of the two cricketers in the picture below is pronounced the same way for both the first and last names . Their middle names are Stuart and Robert. One of them played in 22 tests and other has appeared in 92 Tests. Whats the name?

Question 26 : X said about Y “Y has always been my guiding light in cricket. He was the one who spotted my natural ability and honed that. With his help and coaching I have developed into the cricketer that I am. I am still improving and it is still X that I look to for that help". Y also wrote a book titled “Z” on “X”. Identify X,Y and Z.

Question 27: Explain what happened and why this picture is immortalized?

Question 28: The Pakistani bowler shown in the picture below holds a unique record with two other bowlers. One from India and another from Australia. Name the bowlers and the record they share. Question 29: What is so odd about the field setting in the picture below. Identify the bowler, the captain of the bowling side and the two sides playing?

Question 30:To end the quiz another sitter, photgraphically too. Identify the cricketers and the event that triggered the pose for this famous photograph?

Please mail your answers to vijay@remotedba.com.

I would also appreciate if you can let me know how you feel about this quiz and request you to send me if you have any suggestions or feedback.

I will post the answers within a week.

Test records : Week Ending 7th May 2006.

Test #1801 New Zealand in South Africa 2005/06 (3rd Test) at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg South Africa with their resounding victory by 4 wickets in the 3rd test won the series by a 2-0 margin.

Kallis joined Gary Sobers as the 2nd player in cricket history to have completed an all-rounders double of 8000 runs & 200 wickets with the 2 wickets he has taken in the 2nd innings. He still needs 2 more catches to make it an all rounders treble. Since his test tallies include a one-off test he played for ICC WORLD XI , he still needs 50 runs, 1 wicket and 6 catches to complete the same for South Africa.

Makhaya Ntini took 5 wickets in New Zealand's 1st innings which took his tally of wickets for the 3-Test series to 20 and provides 65th such occassion. George Lohmann's England holds the record for most number of wickets in a 3-Test series with 35 wcikets. Richard Hadlee of NZ, Muralitharan of SL, Harbhajan Singh of India and Abdul Qadir are the only other bowlers to have taken 30 or more wickets in a three test series.

Answers to the Blog-Cricket-Quiz-4

1. Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Mohd Azharuddin & Rahul Dravid.
2. Sanath Jayasuriya & Roshan Mahanama batted two full days in the 1st est of the 1997 series against India at R Premadasa Stadium , Colombo. They took the 2nd day’s score of 39/1 to 322/1 by the end of 3rd day and to 587/1 by the end of 4th day. Their partnership yielded 576 runs , which is still a record for any wicket in Test Cricket.
3. Bruce Reid.
4. Gary Sobers, Ian Botham, Shane Warne and Carl Hooper are the only cricketers to have achieved the all rounder’s treble of 1000runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches. Their record is also good 2000 runs+100wkts+100cts. Another 42 runs by Warne will make this record good for 3000 runs too.
5. In this test match Zimbabwe fielded a side which had three pairs of brothers. Grant & Andy Flower, John and Gavin Rennie and Paul & Bryan Strang have provided the first instance of 3 set of brothers playing in a Test Match.
6. The 5th and the last instance of this particular record of a batsman making more runs than the combined total of opponent’s two completed innings happened when Mathew Hayden of Australia made 119 in the 2nd test of the 2002/03 series against Pakistan Sharjah. Pakistan were bundled out for 59 & 53 (112). In 1888-89 R Abel made 120 for England while South Africa made 47 & 43 (90) at Cape Town. Don Bradman made 185 at Brisbane in 1947/48 and bowled out India for 58 & 98 (156). When Englad’s Len Hutton made 364 in then a record total of 903/7 , Australia wer all out for 201 & 123 in their two innings . Both Bradman and Fingleton were could not bat as they absent retired hurt.
7. Geoff Marsh of Australia was a member of the winning Australian side in 1987 World Cup and coached the Australian side to victory in 1999 World Cup.
8. It was the first and till now only time a test match ended in a draw with the scores level. England chasing a victory target of 205 runs needed 3 runs of the last ball and could score just two as NV Knight of England was runout while trying to make the winning run.
9. Rusi Surti played for Queensland in Sheffield Shield Tournament in late 60s and early 70s.
10. Lala Amarnath of India is the only bowler to have dismissed the Don , hit wicket whereas India’s Prabir Sen is the only Wicket Keepr to have stumped him in first class cricket.
11. K.S. Ranjithsinghji
12. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi about Imran Khan while doing TV commentary assignment.
13. NONE.
14. Mark Waugh of Australia, obviously.
15. Rohan Bholalal Kanhai.

ONE TEST WONDERS PART VII

In the first ever test match played between India and New Zealand, also the first ever at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium (then known by the name of Fateh Maidan Club) Hyderabad, India in 1955/56, VN Swamy of India made his only test appearance. He did do nothing to earn another test cap. On the docile Pitch, he bowled 8 overs in the 1st innings and another 10 in the 2nd going wicketless in both the innings. He did not get a chance to bat in the only innings that India batted as they declared their innings at 498 for 4 decl with Polly Umrigar‘s 223 and centuries from Kripal Singh & Manjrekar. In the 2nd test of the same series played at Brabourne stadium, Bombay in which Vinoo Mankad hit exactly 223 as did Umrigar in the previous test. Sadashiv Patil who made his lone test appearance in this test made 14* in the only innings India batted and took a wicket in each of New Zealand’s innings. Patil also took a catch in the 2nd innings.

In the 4th test match of the same series played at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, Bombay's young wicket keeper, Chandrakant Patankar got a chance to represent India in a test match mainly due to the policy of encouraging youth, by the Selection Committee Chairman Lala Amarnath. Though Patnakar put up a decent performance by all means he never got a chance to play again after the regular wicket keeper Naren Tamhane came back again into the test side. Patankar made 13 in the 1st innings adding a valuable 37 runs with JM Ghorpade for the 8th wicket after India lost 7 wickets for 88 runs to help recover to a total of 132. He remained not out with 1 in the 2nd innings as India declared their innings closed for 438 for 7 after Ramchand completed his century. Patankar’s keeping too was very impressive as he took 3 catches and affected a stumping in New Zealand’s 1st innings.

Batting at no.7 Trevor Barber of New Zealand made 12 & 5 against West Indies in the 3rd test of the 1955/56 series at Wellington. He also caught Gary Sobers, who opened the West Indian 1st innings, of the bowling of John Reid for 27. New Zealand was dismissed for an identical total of 208 in both the innings and lost the match by 9 wickets. Next test of the same series gave Alphonso Roberts of West Indies his only appearance in test cricket. He made 28 & 0 and his only memory from this match could be that New Zealand recorded their first ever Test Victory after failing to register a win for 26 years and 45 tests.

Jack Rutherford and John Wilson of Australia made their test debut in the 2nd test of their 1956/57 series against India at Bombay and quickly disappeared into oblivion. Wilson did not get a chance to bat and Rutherford made a quick 30 in the only Innings that Australia batted. They both took one wicket a piece in India’s 2nd innings. Neither of them did take a catch.

Alistair ‘ Scotch’ Taylor opened the batting with Trevor Goddard for South Africa in the absence of Jacki McGlew in the first ever test match played at New Wanderers stadium , Johannesburg in 1956/57 series against England. He made 12 runs in 106 mts in the 1st innings and consumed and stayed at the wicket for another 48 minutes to collect just 6 runs in the South Africa’s 2nd innings total of 72. He never got another chance to play in test cricket once Jackie Mcglew returned the side in the next test.

Dick Richardson joined his brother Peter to play against West Indies at Trent Bridge in 1957 in the 3rd Test and provided only the 1st instance since 1891-92 of brother representing England in the same test. He made 33 in the only innings he came to bat whereas his brother Peter hit a century. Though Peter went to play more tests for England, for Dick it remained his only test appearance.

In the 4th test of the 1957/58 series against West Indies, SF Rehman of Pakistan made his single appearance in test cricket at Georgetown in a match Gary Sobers hit a century in each innings. Rehman made 8 & 2 and caught Everton Weeks in the 1st innings. Primarily taken as a bowler he could not deliver the goods and went wicketless in the 1st innings bowling 17 overs. In the 2nd innings he however took the wicket of Conrad Hunte whom he clean bowled in the closing moments of the match for 114 as West Indies went on to win the Test match by 8 wickets.

Keith Slater of Australia, no relation to the better known Michael Slater made his entry into and exit from the test cricket in the 3rd test of the 1958/59 Ashes at Sydney. He remained not out on 1 in the only innings he batted and took the wickets of Peter May and Ted Dexter in England’s 1st innings conceding 40 runs of 14 overs. He bowled 18 more wicketless overs in the 2nd and did not take any catches.

In the 4th test of the 1958/59 test series between India and West Indies at Madras, AK Sengupta failed with scores of 1 & 8 nd did not earn another test cap in his cricketing career whish lasted another 9 seasons. Arvind Apte, younger brother of the more successful Madhav Apte, made his debut against England at Leeds in the 3rd test of the 1959 series and could not make use of the opportunity given to him after Nari Contractor was injured seriously in the previous test. He was out for 8 & 7 while opening the batting for India in his only test appearance.

Man Mohan Sood of India provided Australian fast bowling legend Alan Davidson his only victim by way of stumping in what proved out to be his lone test match appearance. Sood was dismissed for a duck in the 1st innings of the 4th test of 1959/60 test series at Madras and could make just 3 runs in the 2nd innings before getting clean bowled by Davidson giving his wicket in more conventional way than the unusual stumping by Wally Grout of the bowling a fast bowler.

In the 1st innings of the 4th test of the famous 1960-61 series between Australia and West Indies played at Adelaide, Des Hoare of Australia came into bat immediately after Lance Gibbs took his hat-trick. Hoare made 35 runs and added 85 valuable runs with Richie Benaud for the 9th wicket. Unfortunately those runs remained his only runs in test cricket as he was out for a duck in the 2nd innings and did not appear in a test match again in spite of putting up a decent performance with the ball as well. He took the wickets of Conrad Hunte and Frank Worrell for 68 runs in the 1st innings but failed to take a wicket in the 2nd. Hoare also took a catch in each of West Indian innings.

Pakistan’s Javed Akhtar made his lone test appearance in the 3rd test of their 1962 series against England at Leeds. Akthar bowled 16 wicketless overs conceding 68 runs and made 2 runs in each of Pakistan’s innings remaining notout in the 2nd. Javed Akhtar later went on to become a Test umpire and was involved in one of the major cricket controversies of late 90s when he was alleged to have given at least 8 decisions in favor of England in a close match. England won that test beating South Africa by 23 runs. Incidentally he made those dubious decisions in the same test venue, i.e. at Leeds where he made his only test appearance 36 years back. That controversy in fact brought his test officiating career also to an abrupt end and he stood as an umpire only once after that test match.

Shahid Mahmood, who is better remembered as the 1st Pakistani to take all ten wickets in an innings of a first class match 7 years after he made his single test appearance at Trent Bridge in the 4th test of the 1962 series , did not achieve much in his only outing. He made 16 & 9 and failed to take any wickets in the only innings he bowled.

Next OTW , Colin Guest of Australia made 11 runs coming in to bat no.11 position and failed to take a single wicket in either of England’s innings in the 3rd test of the 1962/63 Ashes at Sydney. He bowled 16 overs in the 1st and 2 in the 2nd and could not even bowl a single maiden over, thus really making it a guest appearance in test cricket.

Bruce Morrison of New Zealand in the 2nd test of the 1962/63 series against England at Wellington made 10 & 0 and took 2 for 129 in the only innings that England batted. He also caught Ray Illingworth. In this test Colin Cowdrey added 163 runs for the 9th wicket with Alan Smith in an unbeaten partnership which stood as the highest for that wicket till Asif Iqbal and Intikhab Alam bettered it to 190 in 1967.

Next OTW, India’s Rajinder Pal made his debut along with one of the famed members of India’s spin quartet, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. In his only test appearance in the 2nd test of the 1963/64 series against England at Bombay, Rajinder Pal made 3 runs in each of India’s innings and remained unbeaten in the 2nd. He opened the bowling for India in both the innings and bowled 13 wicketless overs, 11 of which were in the 1st.

Test records : Week Ending 30th Apr 2006.

Test #1800 New Zealand in South Africa 2005/06 (2nd Test) at Sahara Park Newlands, Cape Town

In this high scoring drwan match, these were some of the statistical highlights:

Stephen Fleming , with his monumental 262 of 423 balls became one of the 23Test Cricketers to register 3 or more double hundreds. Bradman leads this list with 12 double hundreds.

Jacques Kallis during his 71 completed 8000 runs in Test Cricket in 101 Tests. He thus became 17th batsman to record a test career aggregate of 8000 runs or more. Kallis already holds the record for highest test career aggregate by a South African. However his tally includes 83 runs he scored while playing for ICC World XI. He also took 198 wickets in these 101 tests including one wicket in the ICC World XI Vs Australia Test. His 97 Catches include 4 catches he held while playing for ICC World XI.

Kalllis' Test Career record at the end of the 2nd Test against New Zealand thus reads:

For SA: 100 Tests, 7928 runs @ 56.22 with 24 Centuries and 40 fifties with 189* being his best. 197 wickets @ 31.79 with 4 5-wkt hauls and best being 6/54. He also held 93 catches.

For ICC World XI : 1 Test, 83 runs @83.00 with 44 being his best. 1 wicket @ 38.00 an 4 catches.

Overall : 101 Tests, 8011 runs @ 56.41 , 198 wickets @31.82 and 97 catches.

Ashwell Prince , while recording his 4th test century crossed the 1000 run mark in test cricket thus becoming the 421st player in cricket history and 40th South African batsman to record 1000 runs or more in a test career. At the end of this Test he has 1042 runs in 20 Tests @37.21 with 4 hundreds and a fifty.

New Zealand's James Franklin with 122* and South Africa's Hashim Amla with 149 recorded their maiden test ceturies. It was 18th Test for Franklin and 4th for Amla.

Jeetan Patel became the 233rd Player to represent NZ in Tests and 2475th overall to play in Test Cricket. He made his test debut memorable by claiming a wicket with the 3rd ball he bowled in test cricket to dismiss Graeme Smith caught & bowled.

For Australia : 397 ( 5 players played for Eng and 1 for SA too)
For England : 632 ( 5 played for Aus, 2 for SA and 1 for India too)
For South Africa : 299 (2 for Eng, 1 for Aus and 1 for Zim )
For West Indies : 265 ( 1 played for NZ too)
For New Zealand : 233 (1 played for WI too)
For India : 255 ( 1 played for Eng and 3 for Pak too)
For Pakistan : 186 (3 played for Ind too)
For Sri Lanka : 103
For Zimbabwe : 74(1 played for SA too)
For Bangladesh : 45

There are 14 players who have played for two different countires (Amir Elahi, JJ Ferris, SC Guillen, Gul Mohammad, F Hearne, AH Kardar, WE Midwinter, F Mitchell, WL Murdoch, Nawab of Pataudi Sr, AJ Traicos, AE Trott, KC Wessels, SMJ Woods) and 11 cricketers for ICC World XI (GC Smith, V Sehwag, R Dravid, BC Lara, JH Kallis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, A Flintoff, MV Boucher, DL Vettori, SJ Harmison, M Muralitharan)