Blog-Cricket-Quiz-4

1. Who are these Test cricketers who are photographed when they were kids? All of them went on to captain their country in Test Cricket.
2. Which test batting pair holds the record for batting two full day’s of play in a Test match?
3. Who is the only cricketer who took more than 100 wickets in his test career but aggregated less than 100 Test runs?
4. Gary Sobers, Ian Botham, Carl Hooper & Shane Warne – What is common to these cricketers? In other words what unique record these cricketers share?
5. It happened for the first time in test cricket , in the first test match played between New Zealand & Zimbabwe in Harare,1996/97. What is it?
6. First instance of this record took place in 1888-89 between England and South Africa at Cape Town, 2nd instance took place between Australia and England at The Oval 1938, 3rd instance between Australia and India at Bisbane in 1947-48. 4th in 2001-02 between Pakistan and New Zealand at Lahore. What is it?
7. Who is the only cricketer to have won the Cricket World Cup both as a player and as a coach?
8. The inaugural test match between England and Zimbabwe played at Bulawayo in 1996/97 ended in a draw . what unique occurrence took place in this test match ?
9. Who is the only Indian Test cricketer to have played in Sheffield Shield Cricket in Australia.?
10. Don Bradman was dismissed hit wicket only once in his test career , can you name the bowler? Also who is the only Indian wicket keeper to have stumped Don Bradman in first class cricket?
11. He was the first test cricketer to hit hundred runs in a session before lunch. He also scored two separate centuries in one day in first class cricket. After he retired from cricket he spent the rest of his life secluded with his pet, a blind parrot named popsey. Whom am I talking about?
12. Who said about whom: "Because of him, there are more jealous husbands in the stands than frightened batsmen in the stadium"
13. How many 90s did Bradman make in test cricket? It is also the same number of times that Kapil Dev was runout in Tests.
14. Who is the only cricketer to have scored Test and one-day centuries at all six major Australian cricket grounds?
15. Which great test cricketer’s middle name is Bholalal?

Mail your answers to vijay@remotedba.com.
Let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback.
I will post the answers within a week.

ONE TEST WONDERS PART VI

The first Test match played after the War involved Australia and New Zealand and was played at Wellington from 29th -30th March 1946. New Zealand introduced six players to Test Cricket in this test which was their first ever Test match against Australia. More Australians, seven in all, which included the great Australian fast bowling pair Ray Lindwall & Keith Miller made their Test debut as well in this Test. Of these 13 debutantes, 5 Kiwis and one Australian became OTWs. New Zealand could not even score 100 runs in both their innings put together getting bowled out for 42 & 54 and lost the match by an innings 103 runs. None of the New Zealand OTWs WM Anderson (4&1), C Burke (1&3), LA Butterfield (0&0), Dan McRae (0&8), and CG Rowe (0&0) could even reach double figures in either of the innings. Australia’s KD Meuleman of Australia was out for a duck and became an OTW. C Burke took 2 wickets whereas Anderson held a catch for New Zealand. Anderson’s son RW Anderson bettered his father’s record by playing 9 Tests for NZ in between 1976 and 1878. Australia’s Meuleman held one catch. Butterfield & Rowe are two of the only 10 players of an exclusive club who registered a pair in their only Test appearance (GF Grace was the 1st and Gavin Hamilton was the last).

In the 1st Test of the 1946 England vs India Test Series, at Lord’s TF Smailes made his debut and made 25 in the only innings he batted in a Test match. He also took 3 wickets that Mankad, Modi & Lala Amarnath in India’s 2nd innings

In the 2nd Test of the 1946/47 Ashes played at Sydney, FW Freer made his entry and exit from test cricket. He remained unbeaten on 28 on the only innings that Australia batted. Freer took one wicket in the 1s innings and 2 in the 2nd. In the 4th Test of the same series played at Adelaide, Merv Harvey, brother of Neil Harvey made his only Test appearance. He made 12 & 31 and shared a hundred run opening stand with Arthur Morris, who made his second hundred of the test match.

In the One-off test between New Zealand and England played at Christchurch in 1946/47, New Zealand’s CA Snedden and RH Scott made their Solo appearance in Test Cricket. In a rain ruined Test match only two innings was possible. Scott made 18 runs and also took the wicket of Bill Edrich. Snedden did not make a single run and did not take any wicket. Neither of them took a catch.

England’s Cecil ‘Sam’ Cook and Jack Martin recorded their single test appearance when they played for England against South Africa in the 1st Test of the 1947 series. Cook 0 & 4 and did not take any wicket or any catch. Martin took 1 for 111 in South Africa’s 1st Innings and was involved in a last wicket partnership of 51 runs with Eric Hollies which in the end proved out to be a match saving partnership as South Africa could not reach the victory target of 227 runs and were 166 for 1 when the match ended. In the next test at Lord’s GH Pope replaced Cook but he too did not put up any noteworthy performance and became an OTW. Pope made 8* in the only innings he batted and took a single wicket in South Africa’s 1st innings, that of no.11 batsman VI Smith.

In the 3rd Test of the 1947 series played at Old Trafford , Jack Plimsoll of South Africa made 8 & 8* and took 3 wickets in England’s 1st innings, which remained his only Test outing.

Amir Elahi made his only Test appearance for India in the 2nd Test at Sydney during the 1947/48 series. He made 1 batting at no.10 in the 1st innings but opened the 2nd innings with Vinoo Mankad and made 13. Though this was his only appearance for India, Amir Elahi later went on to play 5 more tests for Pakistan, so he cannot be termed as an OTW in its real sense. But in the next test, the 3rd test of the series, at Melbourne Kanwar Rai Singh who made his first and last test appearance for India became the next OTW without having any strings attached. He made 2 & 24 and did not either bowl or take a catch. In the 5th Test of the same series at the same venue Len Johnson of Australia made 25*. In this innings Australia’s all eleven batsmen reached double figures and was one of ten such instances in Test Cricket. Johnson in addition to his unbeaten 25 also took 3 wickets in each of India’s two innings. His 2nd innings bowling figures read as 5.2-2-8-3. Johnson also took a catch in India’s 2nd innings to dismiss India’s captain Lala Amarnath as India was bowled out for 67.

Dennis Brookes of England made 10 &7 in his only test match representation in the 1st Test of the 1947/48 Series against West Indies at Bridgetown. He also took a catch, but broke his finger while fielding and never made a test appearance again. Next OTW Andy Ganteaume of West Indies provides only instance in test cricket to have scored a century in the only test innings he ever batted. In the 2nd Test of the same series against England though Ganteaume made a century, West Indies captain Gerry Gomez was so much upset with Ganteaume’s slow batting and in fact did not even give him a chance to bat in the 2nd innings when West Indies was chasing a victory target of 141 runs and fell short by 69 runs. Ganteaume ended his career with just one test innings of 112 runs and holds the dubious distinction of being the only batsman in the history of Test cricket to have scored a Test century and have an higher average than Don Bradman.

Lance Pierre of West Indies, in the 3rd Test of the same series at Georgetown, made an insignificant entry and exit from Test Cricket. In a rain ruined Test, Pierre did not get a chance to bat in either of West Indian innings and bowled just 2 overs in the 1st and 5 overs in the 2nd without capturing a wicket.

2nd Test of the 1948 Ashes played at Lord’s has witnessed Alec Coxon of England making his solo test appearance. He made 19 & 0 and took 2 wickets in the 1st innings and one in 2nd. In the next test played at Manchester England’s George Emmett, perhaps only England Test Cricketer to have born in the land of Taj Mahal, Agra, India made 10 & 0 and failed to impress the selectors to choose him for another test match.

Keki Tarapore of India, who had more success as the manager of Indian teams that toured England in 1967 and West Indies in 1971, where India registered their first ever Test Series win against West Indies and also their 1st series victory outside India, made his test debut at Delhi against West Indies in the 1st Test of the 1948/49 series. He made just 2 runs in the only innings he batted and bowled 19 wicketless overs conceding 72 runs. In the 3rd test of the same series, played at Calcutta India’s SA ‘ Mantu’ Banerjee made his only test appearance on his home ground and took 4/124 & 1/61. He also took a catch each of West Indian innings but failed to score in the only innings he batted.

In the 3rd test of the 1948/49 series against England played at Johannesburg, South Africa’s Martin Hanley made his single test appearance. He took his only wicket in test cricket by having England’s captain FG Mann caught by Mitchell. He was run out for a duck in the only innings he came to the crease.

In the same series, Madhusudhan Rege of India became the next OTW when he made his solitary test appearance in the 4th Test at Madras. He made 15 & 0 while opening the batting for India with Mushtaq Ali. He also a took a catch to dismiss Alan Rae in West Indies’ 1st innings.

The next Indian to have earned a test debut, Shute Banerjee, incidentally, was the next OTW. Making his debut in the 5th and final test of the same series at Bombay, at an age of 35, Shute Banerjee took 1/73 & 4/54. His 2nd innings spell wrapped the West Indian innings for 267 setting up a 361 run target for India. India came within 6 runs of victory with Shut Banerjee hitting a six in the closing stages, but had to contend with a draw in the end. Banerjee made 5 & 8 in the test match and never got an opportunity to play in a test match again.

Though Shute Banerjee had put up an impressive performance in this test match, he is remembered mostly not for his single test appearance but for a last wicket partnership he put up some two years earlier with Chandu Sarwate against Surrey during India’s 1946 tour of England. They have put up a record 249 run partnership which is 2nd highest in all first class cricket. During the process Sarwate made 124* and Shute Banerjee made 121. Till today this remains the only occasion on which the no.10 and no.11 batsmen hit a century in all first class cricket. Coming into bat with Indian placed at a precarious 205/9 Shute Banerjee plundered Surrey’s bowlers which included Alec Bedser, along with Sarwate for 3hrs and 10 minutes and took India’s total to 454. India bowled out Surrey cheaply in their 1st essay for 135 and then for 338 after enforcing the follow on. India went on to win the match by 9 wickets, but its Banerjee and Sarwate whose unbelievable partnership for the last wicket which is still talked about more than the victory.

Lawrence ‘Fish’ Markham of South Africa in the 4th Test of the 1948/49 series against England at Ellis Park, Johannesburg made his only Test appearance. He made 20 runs in the only innings he came in to bat, bowled 5 wicketless overs in England’s 1st innings and took Denis Compton’s wicket in the 2nd innings in an 8 over spell conceding 34 runs.

In the 1st test of the 1949 series against New Zealand, played at Headingly, making his debut along with one of the all time great all rounders produced by England, Alan Wharton of England made just 7 & 13 and had to contend with that solo test appearance as he had to miss the next test because of injury and was never selected to play in a Test match again.

The next OTW, George Thoms of Australia too like Alan Wharton, made his debut along with one of the cricket’s all time greats Richie Benaud, in 5th and final test of the 1951/52 Series against West Indies at Sydney. He made 16 & 28 more than Benaud’s 3 & 19, but did not play in a test match again more because of his interest in medicine. He perhaps is the only Test Cricketer to have been a gynecologist by profession. He retired from cricket at the age of 27 for the fear of injuring his hand which would have jeopardized his career as doctor. He may not have regretted his decision as he became a noted surgeon and is known for introducing laser surgery to Australia.

Hiralal Gaekwad and Shah Nyalchand made their debut against Pakistan in the 2nd test of the 1952/53 series at Lucknow. Gaekwad made 14 & 8 and Nyalchand 6* & 1. Nyalchand bowled a marathon spell of 64 overs in the only innings that Pakistan batted, of which 33 were maidens. He took 3 wickets for 97 runs. Gaekwad too bowled a tidy spell of 37overs with 21 maidens, but went wicketless for 47 runs. Both Gaekwad and Nyalchand never played in tests again thus ending their careers as OTWs.

In the next test at Bombay India’s HT ‘Bal’ Dani and Rajindernath made their one test appearances. None of them could get a chance to bat as India declared their innings at 387/4 wickets. Dani, who achieved enormous success in domestic cricket as an all rounder did open the bowling for India with Lala Amarnath, but had to contend with short spells of 4 overs in the 1st innings and 6 overs in the 2nd during which he took Nazar Mohammed’s wicket for a duck. Dani also took a superb catch to dismiss to Pakistan captain AH Kardar of the bowling of Amarnath in the 1st innings. Rajindernath affected couple of stumpings in each of Pakistan’s innings.

When South Africa toured New Zealand in 1952/53, in the 1st test at Wellington New Zealand’s Eric Fisher and Ted Meuli made their only test appearance. Meuli made 15 & 23 and did not bowl or taken any catch. Fisher made 9 & 14 and took one wicket in the only innings that South Africa batted.

Roy Miller and Leslie Wight of West Indies made their test debut in the 4th test of the 1952/53 series against India at Georgetown. Miller made 23 in the only innings that West Indies batted and bowled 16 wicketless overs of which 8 were maidens. Wight made a 21 runs in a snail-paced innings with his first 12 runs taking 2 hours. Both Miller and Wight never played in Test Cricket again.

Alfred Scott of West Indies made his solitary test appearance at Kingston in the next test and made 5 runs in the only innings he batted. He did not have good match with the ball either bowling 31 wicketless overs in India’s 1st innings and another 13 in the 2nd.

In the 3rd Test of the 1953/54 series between New Zealand and South Africa, New Zealand’s Ian Leggat made his entry and exit in Test Cricket at Newlands, Cape Town by failing to either score or take a wicket. But he took couple of catches in the only innings that South Africa batted.

Michael Frederick of West Indies started his test career with a duck in the 1st innings and ended with a 30 in the 2nd innings in his lone test appearance against England in the 1st Test of the 1953/54 series at Kingston. This proved out to be not only his last test appearance but also his last first class cricket appearance which was of a very short six matches. Next Test at Bridgetown has witnessed Charles Palmer of England, who also played in India earlier for the Europeans team in India , made 22 & 0 and did not take any wickets in 5 overs he bowled in West Indies’ 2nd innings. It needs to be mentioned that Palmer later went to record an amazing spell of bowling in first class cricket Bowling for Leiceistershire against Surrey , he brought himself on to let his main bowlers change their end,, he took 8 for 7. At one point his bowling analysis read an unbelievable : 12-12-0-8

In the 2nd test of their 1954 tour of England at Trent Bridge, three Pakistanis made their debuts. Though Mohd. Ebbu Ghazali extended his test career by playing one more test match, both Khalid Hasan and Mohammad Aslam had to end their with that solitary test appearance. Mohammad Aslam made 16 & 18 and Khalid Hasan made 10 & 7 *. Khalid Hasan also took two wickets by clean bowling both the century makers Reg Simpson for 101 & Denis Compton for 278 in the only innings that England batted. Khalid Hasan was just 16 yrs 351 days on the day he made his test debut and five days later made it as his last test, thus easily becoming the youngest OTW.

Les Watt of New Zealand joined the One-Test-Club in the first ever test match played at Dunedin, which was his home ground, during the 1954/55 series. Unfortunately he did not make any impact by getting out for 0 & 2 in his only test appearance.

Glendon Gibbs of West Indies, no relation to Lance Gibbs , has appeared in a test match for the 1st and last time when he played in the 1st test of the 1954/55 series against Australia at Kingston. He did not do much to cheer about by making just 2 runs in the 1st innings and getting bowled for a duck in the 2nd. He bowled 3 wicketless overs in the 1st and another one in the 2nd. The only catch that Gibbs took in Australia’s 2nd innings, if not remembered by him Everton Weeks may never have forgotten as Gibbs caught Arthur Morris of the bowling of Weeks giving him his only wicket in Test Cricket. In the next test at Port of Spain, Lennox Butler of West Indies joined Gibbs as the next entrant to the OTW club. He made 16 and took 2 wickets for 151 runs on a batting paradise as Australia piled up a massive total of 600. Third test of the same series played at Georgetown provided the solitary test appearance for Norman Marshall who made 0 & 8 and took a wicket in each of Australia’s innings.

Agha Sadat Ali of Pakistan, who won his test match debut primarily because of his excellent fielding against the visiting New Zealanders in a tour match, made 8* in the only innings that Pakistan batted in the rain ruined 3rd and final test match of the 1955/56 Series played at Dhaka, then part of East Pakistan. However, he did not disappoint the selectors’ faith in his fielding by holding 3 catches in the field.

Test records : Week Ending 23rd Apr 2006.

Test # 1799 Bangladesh v Australia at Chittagong Divisionl Stadium, Chittagong 12nd Test 2005/2006

Jason Gillespie with his astonishing knock of 201* in 562 minutes of 425 balls with 26 4s and two 6s tops the list of records for the week ending 23rd April 2006. In the process he broke several records as listed hereunder.

• Fifth batsman to hit a century coming in as night watchman.
• First night watchman to have involved in a triple hundred partnership
• First batsman to have hit a double century after coming in as night watchman.
• Provides 35th instance of batsman making his maiden test century a double hundred.
• 2nd batsman in cricket history to have hit a maiden first-class century as double hundred in Test cricket after Brendon Kuruppu.

Michael Hussey becomes 85th Australian and 420th cricketer to complete 1000 runs in a Test Career. In 11 tests he now has 1139 runs in 11 tests at an average of 75.93. His average is next only to Bradman among those cricketers who have scored atleast 1000 test runs.

Michael Hussey also broke Andrew Strauss record for fastest to compete 1000 runs in test cricket in terms of time (228 days) by scoring his runs in just 166 days. However in terms of number of test innings played to register 1000 runs he occupies 18th position. Here too Hussey pushed Strauss to 19th position.

Needless to say Shane Warne extends his Test bowling record to 685 wickets. He also moved to 2nd place for most 5wkt in innings haul and joined RJ Hadlee. They both have recorded 5-wicket hauls 36 times in their test career. Warne stands 2nd in the list of 10-wkt hauls (10) in a test career. Muralitharan with 51 5-fors and 14 10-fors leads both the lists and way ahead of Warne’s tallies.

Test #1798 South Africa v New Zealand at SuperSport Park, Centurion 1st Test 2005/2006

Daniel Vettori of New Zealand during his knock of 81 completed 2000 runs in test cricket and became the 233 batsman to do so. By completing 2000 runs he also became the 12th member of the elite club of all rounders who have completed 2000 runs and 200 wickets in Test Cricket.

Three players made their 100th Test appearance in the same Test. Though Kallis’s 100 tests include on appearance for ICC World XI, Both Shaun Pollock &Stephen Fleming made their 100th appearance in the same Test for their respective countries. This provides an unique instance of more than two players making 100th appearance in the same Test. The other insance involved two players Alec Stewart & Michael Atherton making their 100th Test appearance in the same test was in the test# 1506 for England against West Indies in the 3rd Test of the 2000 Series at Old Trafford.

New Zealand in their test against South Africa at Centurion has provided a unique instance of 7 bowlers claiming a wicket in one test innings. Theirs is the fourth instance of atleast seven bowlers claiming a wicket in the same test innings. The last such instance happened way back in 1966/67 when 7 Australian bowlers took a wicket in South Africa’s 2nd innings of the 1st Test at New Wanderers, Johannesburg. Before that England against Australia in 1897/98 at Melbourne and South Africa against England at Durban in 1922/23 were the only two teams to have recorded this unique instance.

Answers to Blog-Cricket-Quiz-3

LIST 1. Haseeb Ahsan, IAR Peebles, Kapil Dev, MH Mankad, PA Strang, OC Scott & BS Bedi.
Common Record : These are the only cricketers in test cricket two have taken 5 or more wickets in an innings while conceding 200 or more runs in an innings of a Test match.

Odd man Out : Kapil Dev’s feat is unique from others as he is the only bowler to have taken 7 or more wickets in doing so. His bowling analysis in the 3rd Test of the 1982/83 series, against Pakistan at Faisalabad read 38.4-3-220-7.

• In all there are 21 instances of a bowler conceding 200+ runs in an innings. Only the seven bowlers mentioned in the LIST 1 have taken 5 or more wickets. Kapil Dev also holds the record for conceding 200+ runs in fewer number of overs than any other bowler.
• Vinood Mankad is the only bowler to have done it twice.
• Fleetwood-Smith of Australia holds the record for conceding maximum runs (87-11-298-1) whereas Khan Mohammad holds the record for not being a able to take a wicket (54-5-259-0).
• There are only two instance of two bowlers conceding 200+ runs in the same innings. Khan Mohammad & Fazal Mohammad for Pak Vs WI in 1957-58 Kingston Test, in which Gary Sobers hit that 365* & and Anil Kumble & Rajesh Chauhan for Ind Vs SL at Colombo in 1997-98 in which Jayasuriya hit 340.

LIST 2: Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Gary Kirsten, Marvan Atapattu, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara & Steve Waugh.
Common Record : All the batsmen in the list have hit a century against all test playing nations..
Odd Man Out : Rahul Dravid is the only cricketer to have hit a century in every test playing nation.

LIST 3: Syed Kirmani, Jason Gillespie, Nasim Ul Ghani, Tony Mann & Mark Boucher.
Common Record : All the cricketers in the list have scored a century coming in as nightwatchman.
Odd Man Out : Mark Boucher hit a century twice coming in as night watchman.

• When I prepared the quiz , Gillespie was on 102*. So his double hundred was not the distinction I was looking for. However with his double hundred Jason Gillespie distinguished himslef as the only nightwatchman to have ever scored a double century and also the first night watchman to have involved in a triple century partnershipin Test Cricket.

LIST 4: Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Mohammad Yousuf,Younis Khan, Rashid Latif & Shahid Afridi.
Common Record : These are the only cricketers to have hit a test century in a non-test playing nation. They all hit a test century while playing at Sharjah.
Odd Man Out : Steve Waugh is the only batsman to have remained unbeaten after hitting that hundred.

LIST 5: Steve Waugh,Younis Khan, Andy Flower, Mathew Elliot, Mudassar Nazar, Mohd Azharuddin & Sanath Jayasuriya.
Common Record : These are the only batsmen to have registered a score of 199 in a test innings.
Odd Man Out : Andrew Flower is the only batsman to have remained unbeaten while doing so.

• Younis Khan is the only batsman to have got runout while going for his 200th run. I did not qualify this for distinction as another batsman Mudassar Nazar whose mode of dismissal, though the most common in Test cricket, was the only batsman to have got dismissed caught for a score of 199. Azharuddin & Steve Waugh were out lbw whereas Elliot and Jayasuriya were clean bowled.

LIST 6: Gordon Greenidge, Javed Miandad, Alec Stewart, Inzamam Ul Haq,Ricky Ponting & Colin Cowdrey. Common Record : These are the only cricketers to have hit a century in their hundredth test match.
Odd Man Out : Ricky Ponting’s feat of making a cetury in each innings makes his feat unique.

LIST 7: Asif Masood, Talha Jubair, Steve Harmison, AMJG Amersinghe, AEE Vogler,TR McKibbin & FR Spofforth.
Common Record : These are the only players who provides an instance of top scoring for their side while coming in to bat at no. 11 position.
Odd Man Out : AMGJ Amerasinghe of Sri Lanka achieved this feat on his Test Debut.

LIST 8: Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch, Greg Chappell, Doug Walters & Lawrence Rowe.
Common Record : These are the only batsmen in Test cricket to have scored a century and double century in each innings of a Test match.
Odd Man Out : Graham Gooch’s feat of making it a century and a triple century in the same test makes him unique.

• Lawrence Rowe’s feat of achieving this feat on debut too distinguishes him from the other players in the List.

LIST 9: Jim Laker, Waqar Younis, Geoff Dymock, Muthiah Muralitharan, S Venkatraghavan & Abdul Qadir.
Common Record : These are the only bowlers to have dismissed every batsman in the opponent’s team in a Test match.
Odd Man Out : Geoff Dymock is the only left arm bowler and also the only bowler to have achieved this feat while playing away from his home country

LIST 10: JJ Ferris,Billy Murdoch,Billy Midwinter, Sammy Woods & AE Trott.
Common Record : These are the only cricketers in the history of Test cricket to have played for both Australia and England.
Odd Man Out : Billy Midwinter is the only player to have played both for and against two different countries. He also is the only cricketer to have played Test cricket for a country non-consecutively as his 4 appearences for England were sandwiched between 2 and 6 appearances for Australia.Except Midwinter everybody else first played for Australia against England and then for England against South Africa.

LIST 11: Mohd Azharddin, Yajuvendra Singh, K Srikkanth, Stephen Fleming & Victor Richardson.
Common Record : These are the only cricketers to have caught 5 batsmen in an innings of a Test match.

Odd Man Out : Yajuvendra Singh’s feat is unique as it came in on his debut. He also is the only fielder to have achieved this feat while playing at home.

• Only Yajuvendra Singh and Fleming made it 7 catches in the match to share the record for most catches in a Test match with Greg Chappell, Mathew Hayden and Hasan Tilakaratne. Tilakaratne was not playing as a wicket keeper when he achieved this record.

LIST 12: Syed Kirmani, Godfrey Evans, Adam Parore, Hashan Tilakaratne, Ridly Jocobs & Tatenda Tabu.
Common Record : All these wicket keepers hold the record for not conceding a single bye while the opponents have scored 600 or more runs.

Odd Man Out : Tatenda Tabu provides the only instance of a wickete keeper not conceding a bye in a total of 700 or more.

LIST 13: Shane Warne, Imran Khan, Sydney Barnes, Jim Laker,Rodney Hogg, Terry Alderman & Clarrie Grimmet.
Common Record : These are the only bowlers in the history of cricket to have taken 40 or more wickets in a Test Series.

Odd Man Out : Terry Alderman provides the unique record of doing it twice.

LIST 14: Imtiaz Ahmed, Ricky Ponting, Arthur 'Dudley' Nouse, Seymour Nourse & Viv Richards.
Common Record : These are the only five batsmen in the history of cricket to have made a double century and a duck in the same test match.

Odd Man Out : AD Nourse of South Africa provides the only instance of a batsman following his 1st innings duck with a double century in the 2nd innings of a Test Match. All the others scored a double century in the 1st innings and a duck in the 2nd.

LIST 15: Bill Attwell, Bert Vogler, Tommy Ward , Colin Wesley , BS Chandrasekhar , Gary Troup, Dave Richardson, Adam Huckle, Ajit Agarkar & Adam Gilchrist .
Common Record : These are the only batsmen to have got dismissed for a king pair i.e., out first ball in both the innings of a Test Match.

Odd Man Out : Tommy Ward is the only cricketer to have registered a golden duck in each innings of a Test match while making his debut.

Blog-Cricket-Quiz-3

This Quiz has 15 questions. Each Question is related to a test record which was achieved by all the cricketers in the list. Yet there is one cricketer in each of the lists who is an odd man out and his record is distinct from others in the list. Identify the test record associated with each List and give me the odd man out and tell me why he is distinct from others in the list . For example if I give a list of all triple century makers which might include Brian Lara. Brian Lara is odd man out as he is the only batsman to make it quadruple century. Both Bradman and Lara have hit two triple hundreds. Bradman can not be an odd man out.

1. Haseeb Ahsan, IAR Peebles, Kapil Dev, MH Mankad, PA Strang, OC Scott & BS Bedi.

2. Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Gary Kirsten, Marvan Atapattu, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara & Steve Waugh.

3. Syed Kirmani, Jason Gillespie, Nasim Ul Ghani, Tony Mann & Mark Boucher

4. Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Mohammad Yousuf,Younis Khan, Rashid Latif & Shahid Afridi.

5. Steve Waugh,Younis Khan, Andy Flower, Mathew Elliot, Mudassar Nazar, Mohd Azharuddin & Sanath Jayasuriya.

6. Gordon Greenidge, Javed Miandad, Alec Stewart, Inzamam Ul Haq,Ricky Ponting & Colin Cowdrey.

7. Asif Masood, Talha Jubair, Steve Harmison, AMJG Amersinghe, AEE Vogler,TR McKibbin & FR Spofforth.

8. Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch, Greg Chappell, Doug Walters & Lawrence Rowe.

9. Jim Laker, Waqar Younis, Geoff Dymock, Muthiah Muralitharan, S Venkatraghavan & Abdul Qadir.

10. JJ Ferris,Billy Murdoch,Billy Midwinter, Sammy Woods & AE Trott.

11. Mohd Azharddin, Yajuvendra Singh, K Srikkanth, Stephen Fleming & Victor Richardson.

12. Syed Kirmani, Godfrey Evans, Adam Parore, Hashan Tilakaratne, Ridly Jocobs & Tatenda Tabu.

13. Shane Warne, Imran Khan, Sydney Barnes, Jim Laker,Rodney Hogg, Terry Alderman & Clarrie Grimmet.

14. Imtiaz Ahmed, Ricky Ponting, Arthur 'Dudley' Nouse, Seymour Nourse & Viv Richards.

15. Bill Attwell, Bert Vogler, Tommy Ward , Colin Wesley , BS Chandrasekhar , Gary Troup, Dave Richardson, Adam Huckle, Ajit Agarkar & Adam Gilchrist

Mail your answers to vijay@remotedba.com.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback.

I will post the answers within a week.

Answers to Blog-Cricket-Quiz-2

Q1 - Warwick Armstrong
Q2 – Alex Moir
Q3 – Allan Rae
Q4 - Jeff Stollmeyer
Q5 – Victor Stollmeyer
Q6 – Tyrell Johnson
Q7 – Walter Hadlee
Q8 – Arthur Mailey
Q9 – Jack Gregory
Q10- Bert Oldfield
Q11- Johnny Taylor
Q12- Herbie Collins
Q13- Jack Russell
Q14- Patsy Hendren
Q15- Jack Ryder
Q16- Alan Kippax
Q17- Bill Ponsford

ONE TEST WONDERS PART V

Otto Ernest Nothling of Australia, who made 8 & 44 in the 2nd Test at Sydney during the 1928/29 Ashes failed to take any wicket in his only appearance in Test Cricket. But he did see something that happened only once in Test Cricket, DG Bradman, after making 18 & 1 on his debut in the previous test was dropped from the playing XI 1st and last time and for the only time in his career played as 12th man.

Henrey Foley and Matt Anderson of New Zealand became New Zealand’s first OTWs in their inaugural Test match played at Lancaster Park, Christchurch. In the 1st Test of their four test series against England, which was won by England by 8 wickets, Foley made 2 runs in each innings and became the first Kiwi batsman to have got dismissed in Test Cricket. His teammate Henderson, who too was making his only appearance in test cricket, took a wicket with the 1st ball he bowled in Test Cricket. He also took a catch to dismiss Duleepsinhji. Those 2 wickets remained his only Test Victims, as he did not make another appearance in Tests. He also made 6 & 2*.

In the 1st Test of the 1929/20 series between West Indies and England played at Bridgetown, Leslie Walcott became the 1st OTW for West Indies. He made 24 & 16* and took George Gunn’s wicket in England’s 2nd innings. England were playing in two test series simultaneously during the season one being lead by Hon FSG Calthorpe in West Indies and other by Arthur Gilligan in New Zealand, who were playing Test Cricket for the first time.

Eddie McLeod of New Zealand made 16 & 2 * and did not take any wicket or catch in his only Test appearance in the 2nd Test of the 1929/30 series played at Wellington.

Nelson Betancourt & Mervyn Grell of West Indies were the next OTWs who joined the club in the 2nd Test of the 1929/30 Series played against England at Port of Spain. Nelson Betancourt became one of the very few players to have captained his country in the only test he played. He made 39 & 13. Mervyn Grell who was playing on his home ground made 17 & 13 and could not take a wicket in either of England’s innings. He did take one catch in England’s 1st innings. In the 4th Test of the same Series played at Kingston, England’s Andy Sandham made 1st Triple Century in Test Cricket. In the same George Gladstone who took a wicket and remained unbeaten 12 made his only Test appearance. Clarence Passailaigu who was playing just his 2nd first class match after having hit 183 for Jamaica against the touring MCC team made 44 & 2 in his only Test appearance in his career. He also took a catch in England’s 1st innings and two in 2nd.

John Cochran of SA made just 4 runs and could not take a single wicket though he opened the bowling for South Africa in the 5th and final test of the 1930/31 series against England played at Durban.

In the 1st Test of the 1931 Series against New Zealand, played at Lord’s England’s John Arnold made 0 & 34 opening the batting for England in the absence of Hobbs & Sutcliffe. Though he represented England in Soccer later never got an opportunity again to play in Test cricket.

Bill Hunt and Pud Thurlow who made their debut along with one of the all time great bowlers in history of Cricket, Bill O’Reilly, did not make any runs or took any wickets in their only Test appearance at Adelaide during the 4th Test of the 1931/32 series against South Africa. Thurlow may hot have forgotten his maiden test appearance as he was runout for a duck after giving company to Bardman who added 14 runs and was within a run shy of what would have been a triple Century. So Bradman was left high and dry on 299*.

Lall Singh of India became the 1st OTW from India when he made his test debut against England at Lord’s when India played their inaugural Test match. He was the only player from the 1st Indian Test eleven not to have appeared in another Test. Regarded as one of the best fielders of his time, he took one catch and made 15 & 29.
Lisle Nagel of Australia made his debut for Australia after claiming 8 for 32 for An Australian XI team against MCC in 1932/33 helping them to dismiss MCC team for 60. However he could not repeat the magic in the 1st Test of that famous bodyline series played at Sydney. He was out first ball in Australia’s 1st innings and made an unbeaten 21 in the 2nd. His two wickets had cost him 110 runs and he was never chosen to play for Australia in a Test match again. His two wickets of England’s 1st innings were that of their century makers, Wally Hammond and Nawab of Pataudi Sr, who too was making his Test debut did make a century on debut.

Hammy Love of Australia became the next OTW when he made his only Test appearance in the 4th Test of the same series at Brisbane. He made 5 & 3 and took 3 catches in England’s 1st innings while keeping wickets. The 5th and final test of the Bodyline series played at Sydney became the first and last Test appearance for Harry Alexander. He made 17* in the 1st innings and was dismissed for a first ball duck in the 2nd. His bowling too was not impressive as his 1 wicket in the 1st innings cost him 129 runs and in the 2nd innings he went for 0 for 25 as England attained the victory target 168 runs for the loss of just 2 wickets, thus winning the series by 4-1 margin.

HD ‘Dennis’ Smith of New Zealand while making his Test debut at Christchurch in the 1st Test of the 1932/33 series against England, took a wicket with the very first ball he bowled in Test cricket by clean bowling Eddie Paynter , becoming the 10th bowler in Test history to do so. Unfortunately that remained his only Test wicket as he did not make any more Test appearances. In this match England lost both openers with the first ball they faced. Earlier, Dennis’s bowling partner, Ted Badcock dismissed Herbert Sutcliffe with the first ball of the Test match. Smith also made 4 runs in the only innings he batted.

In the 2nd Test of the 1933 Series between England and West Indies played at Manchester Archie Wiles of West Indies made his only Test appearance and became one of the very few cricketers to have made their Test debut in their 40s. He made 0 & 2 while making his debut at an age of 40yrs and 346 days. He neither bowled in the test match nor took a catch.

Ben Sealey of West Indies and Charles Marriot of England became the next OTWs when they made their only Test appearances in the 3rd Test of the 1933 Series at The Oval. Chalres Marriot, though dismissed for a duck, took 5 for 37 and 6 for 59 as England won by an innings and 17 runs thus making it a memorable debut. Ben Sealey made 29 and 12 top scoring in West Indies’ 1st innings total of 100. Sealey also took the wicket of England’s Century maker AH Bakewell. Marriot later toured India in 1933/34 and took a hat-trick for MCC against Madras but did not play Test Cricket again.

In the first ever Test match played in India, the 1st test of the 1933-34 series again England played at Bombay India’s LP Jai, RJD Jamshedji and Ladha Ramji joined the OTW club making their only Test appearance. Laxmidas Jai made 19 & 0 and did not bowl or take a catch. Jamshedji who at the age of 41 yrs and 27days is still the oldest Indian player to make a Test debut, made 4* and 1* and took 3 wickets for 137 runs including England’s century maker BH Valentine. His was the only noteworthy performance among the 3 OTWs as other OTW Ramji, playing along with his elder brother Amar Singh did not make a run or take a wicket though took a catch of the bowling of Mohd Nissar to dismiss Hedley Verity in England’s 1st Innings.

In the next test played at Calcutta, India’s MJ Gopalan & England’s WHV Levett joined the OTW club with their single test appearance. MJ Gopalan, who became the only Indian cricketer to have represented India both in Tests and Hockey, could very well have participated in Berlin Olympics and won a gold medal but chose to tour England as part of the Indian team and did not play a single test match there. He made 11 * & 7 with the bat and took wicket and couple of catches in England’s 1st innings. Levett who kept wickets for England made 5 & 2* hitting the winning runs for England. He also held 3 catches in India’s 2nd innings.

Yuvraj of Patiala, who made his test debut at Madras in the 3rd test of the same Series made 24 & 60 and took a catch. Though he was selected to tour England in 1936, his commitments did not give him a chance to do so and he never played in tests again. He later became an ambassador to Holland in 1971 and remained so till his death. The following season, his father, Maharaja of Patiala who had a great passion for the game and known for his philanthropic acts, has donated the Ranji Trophy to the game of cricket to honor the 1st Indian cricketer to play in Tests, RanjithSinhji.

Hans Irvine Ebeling of Australia, who is very well remembered for conceiving the idea of 1977 centenary test match and carrying it out successfully, made his solo test appearance during the 1934 Ashes. In the final Test at The Oval he made 2 and 41. With his run-a-ball 41 he added 55 runs for the last wicket with Bill O’Reilly. He also took 3 wickets for 74 runs in England’s 1st innings including that of Wally Hammond. Australia who made 701 runs in their 1st innings, won this test match with a huge margin of 562 runs. Bradman & Ponsford were involved in a record 2nd wicket partnership of 451 runs remained highest for any wicket in Test Cricket till Jones and Martin Crowe broke it with a 3rd wicket partnership of 467 against Sri Lanka in 1990/91, which in turn was broken by Jayasuria & Mahanama of Sri Lanka at Colombo against India when they added 576 runs for the 2nd wicket, which still remains highest in Test Cricket for any wicket. Its just 1 run short of highest partnership in first class cricket for any wicket, which still belongs to Vijay Hazare and Gul Mohammed who added 577 runs for the 4th wicket playing for Baroda against Holkar at Baroda in 1946-47 season.

James Neblett & KL Wishart of West Indies in the 3rd test of the 1934/35 series at Georgetown made their entry and exit to test cricket in the same test match. Neblett made 11* and 5 and took a wicket in England’s 2nd innings. Wishart who opened batting for West Indies made 52 before getting runout in the 1st innings. In the 2nd innings he was out for a duck.

In the 4th and final test of the same series played at Kingston George Mudie and Dickie Fuller made their debuts as well as farewells to Test cricket. Fuller made 1 and Mudie 5 in the only innings West Indies batted. Fuller went wicketless in both the innings of England whereas Mudie took 2 wickets in the 1st and one in the 2nd.

In the drawn 1st encounter at Trent Bridge of the 1935 series between England and South Africa, Mandy Mitchell-Innes of England and Denis Tomlinson of South Africa made their only test appearance. Mitchell-Innes made 5 runs in the only innings he batted. Tomlinson made 9 and bowled 10 wicketless overs. John Clay and Hopper Read of England became the next OTWs when they both they made only test appearances at The Oval in the 5th and final Test match of the same series. Both of them did not bat as England declared their innings closed at 534/6. Clay took one catch and bowled 14 overs in the 1st and 18 in the second, but failed to claim any wicket. Read took four wickets in the 1st and two in the 2nd.

EG Bock of South Africa in the 1935/36 series, playing in the 2nd test at Johannesburg against Australia remained unbeaten with 9 and 2 in each of South Africa’s innings. Bock bowled 14 wicketless overs in Australia’s 1st innings and 9 overs in the 2nd which too resulted in no wickets. Bock did not get a chance to take any catch.

Khershed Meherhomji of India toured England in 1936 as the 2nd wicketkeeper and got a chance to play in the 2nd test at Manchester, which remained his only test appearance. He did not make a single run and remained unbeaten on zero in the only innings he batted. He just took one catch to dismiss England’s captain Gubby Allen of the bowling of Amar Singh. In the next test at The Oval, Baqa Jilani, in his sole Test appearance mad 4* and 12. Though he was primarily a bowler, he did not get a chance to bowl in that Test. He died at an young age of 29 years and 347 days and is still remembered as the first bowler to get a hat-trick in the Ranji Trophy, In the inaugural season of the Ranji Tropy in 1934-35, he took the wickets of Lall Singh, Joginder Singh and Yuvraj of Patiala as Southern was bowled out for 22 runs while chasing a tiny target of 114 runs. Baqa Jilani had a dram figures if 4.1-1-7-5.

Ray Robinson of Australia at Brisbane, in the 1st Test of the 1936/37 Series made just 2 and 3 in his only outing in Test Cricket. Australia was bowled out for 58 runs in just 12.3 8-ball overs in their 2nd innings with one batsman EL McCormick not available to bat.

In the 1st test of the 1937 series against New Zealand at Lord’s, Jim Parks of England made his test debut along with one of the greatest cricketers of All-time Sir Len Hutton. He opened the batting with Hutton and made 22 & 7 whereas his illustrious partner was out for a duck in the 1st innings and could make just one run in the 2nd.Parks also took 2 wickets in the 1st and 1 wicket in the 2nd. Parks record of 3000 runs and 100 wickets in one season is one of the very few first class records that would be almost impossible to be overtaken. Though Parks put up a reasonable performance in this test, it remained his only Test appearance. whereas Hutton who could not make any impression with the bat went onto play 69 tests and broke several test records. In the 2nd Test of the same series at Manchester Norman Gallichan of New Zealand who made his test debut against England made 30 & 2 and took 3 wickets in England’s 1st innings including that of Wally Hammond. It remained his only Test appearance. In the 3rd and final test of the same series ADG Matthews of England remained unbeaten on 2 in the only innings he batted and took the wicket of Walter Hadlee (father of Richard Hadlle) in each of the New Zealand’s Innings. They remained his only wickets in Test Cricket. He also took a catch in England’s 1st innings.

Reg Sinfield of England who made his only appearance in Test cricket when he made his test debut at Trent Bridge in the 1938 Ashes. He made 6 runs in the only innings he batted and took a wicket in each of Australia’s innings. He dismissed Bradman in the 1st innings in a very peculiar way. In a way he dismissed the great Bradman twice with the same ball. Though the scorecard shows Bradman was caught, he was infact caught first by Ames and then also got stumped. William ‘Fred’ Price of England became the next OTW when he made his only test appearance at Leeds in the 4th Test of same Ashes series. He kept wickets for England and made 0 & 6. He did not have good match with gloves either as he took just two catches in Australia’s 1st innings.

Gerald Bond of South Africa joined the OTW club when he played his only test match in the 1938/39 series against England at Johannesburg in the 2nd test of that series. He was out first ball in the only innings he batted and bowled 2 wicketless overs for 16 runs in England’s 1st innings.

Norman ‘Buddy’ Oldfield of England and Victor Stollmeyer & Tyrell Johnson of West Indies made their debut at The Oval during the 1939 Test series between England and West Indies. Oldfield made 80 runs in the 1st innings and added 131 runs for the 2nd wicket with Len Hutton. He made another 19 runs in the 2nd. He did not bowl and did not get a chance to hold a catch. For West Indies, Victor Stollmeyer fell 4 runs short of his century in the only innings he batted and Tyrell Johnson took a wicket with the first ball bowled in Test cricket by clean bowling WW Keeton of England in the 1st innings. He also took a wicket in the 2nd innings by having the other OTW Oldfield caught by JED Sealy behind the wickets.

Though all of these OTWs put up great show the did not play another test and had to end their test careers with just that one Test appearance as immediately after this test match World War II broke out and halted the Test Cricket for 8 long years. This test match was the last test match played before the Great War.

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

ONE TEST WONDERS PART IV

Its been scripted in Cricket history that the entire Test batting career of the 1st OTW after the World War II, Dr. Roy Park of Australia, was missed by his wife when she bent down to pickup her fallen knitting while her husband was clean bowled the first and only ball he has faced in his test career in the 2nd test of the 1920/21 Ashes played at Melbourne.

At the same venue in 4th Test of that series, Arthur Dolphin, who kept wickets for England in his only Test match appearance, became the 100th OTW. He made just 1 & 0 and held just one catch behind the wickets. In the 5th and final test match of the same series played at Sydney, next OTW Eric Wilson of England was dismissed for 5 runs in both the innings. He took 2 wickets in the first innings that of
Charles Kelleway and Arthur Mailey. Incidentally Kelleway and Mailey dismissed Eric Wilson by having him stumped and caught in each of the innings. Wilson took the only wicket to fall in Australia’s 2nd innings that of Herbie Collins as Australia cruised to victory by 9 wickets and completed a whitewash of Ashes by winning the 5 test series by 5-0 margin. Never before or never after, was a 5 test Ashes series decided by that margin.

In the 1st Test of the 1921 Ashes played at Trent Bridge, which Australia won by 10 wickets, out of the seven debutants, only Tom Richmond started and ended his test career in the same match. He made 4 & 2 took the wickets of Herbie Collins and Jack Gregory in the only innings that Australia lost wickets.
In the 2nd test at Lord’s AE Dipper, FJ Durston and AJ Evans joined the OTW club. Dipper made 11 & 40 and Durston 6* & 2. Durston also had figures of 4/58 and 1/34. John Evans who made 4 & 14 achieved more fame with his book 'The Escaping Club' about his escape from a Prisoner of War camp during the First World War, than with his batting exploits in the only Test he ever played.

The next OTW Andy Ducat, who appeared for England in his only Test at Leeds in the 3rd Test of the same series, made just 3 & 2. Ducat also played football in the FA Cup. When he was 56, while playing for Surrey Home Guard Team against Sussex Home Guard at Lord’s in 1942, he suddenly collapsed and died of stroke while still batting at 29. Wally Hardinge, who too debuted along with Ducat in this test bid adieu to test cricket in the same match with scores of 25 & 5.

Charlie Parker of England became the next OTW in the 4th Test of the same series played at Manchester. He took two wickets in the only innings that Australia batted and remained unbeaten on 3 when he batted in the 2nd innings in this rain ruined drawn encounter.

Neville Lindsay of SA recorded scores of 6 & 29 playing against Australia in the 2nd Test of the 1921/22 Series at Johannesburg and became the next OTW. His nephew JD Lindsay and great nephew Denis Lindsay both kept wickets for South Africa later and had longer careers than Neville. In the next test played at Cape Town, Norman Reid was capped as the 100th Test player for South Africa and little did he know that it would be his only Test appearance. He scored 11 & 6 and took 2 wickets.

One year later in the following season Izak Buys of South Africa , who made his test debut along with 4 other springboks and 5 Englishmen in the 1st Test of the 1922/23 series played at Johannesburg, scored 0 & 4* and did not take any wicket in his only outing in Test Cricket. George Street who kept wickets for England in the 3rd test of the same series played at Durban made just 4 runs and affected one stumping in his only Test appearance. In the 5th and final Test of the same series played at Durban, South Africa’s Dalton Conyngham who became next OTW, remained unbeaten with 3 in both the innings and took a wicket in each of Australia’s innings.

Jack MacBryan of England became the ultimate OTW in the 4th Test of the 1924 Ashes as in the rain curtailed match in which only 66 overs of play was possible. MacBryan’s place in Test history is secured as the only player to have played in a test and did nothing. He neither bowled nor took a catch in SA’s innings and England never got a chance to bat.

Albert Hartkopf of Australia in the 2nd test of the 1924/25 Ashes at Melbourne made 80 & 0 in his only test appearance. He shared in a 6th wicket stand with Victor Richardson (Grandfather of Chappell brothers), who hit his only test century of his career in this test. Hartkopf also took a wicket conceding 120 runs in England’s 1st innings.

AW Palm of South Africa joined the OTW club 2 years later when he made his single test appearance in the 2nd Test of the 1927/28 series against England. He scored 2 & 13 and took one catch to dismiss Wally Hammond.

In West Indies’ inaugural test match played at Lord’s in 1928, though all of the eleven West Indian players were making their test debut, it was England’s Harry Smith, who became an OTW. Harry Smith kept wickets for England and took just one catch. He did not make any significant contribution with the bat as he was clean bowled by Learie Constantine for 7 runs in the only innings England batted.

Answers to Blog-Cricket-Quiz-1

Answer for the Question-1 : James Southerton, He holds the record for oldest Test debutant . He was 49yrs and 119days when he made his debut along with other 21 players in that first ever test match played at Melbourne from March 15th-19th, 1877

Answer for the Question-2 : Aminul Islam of Bangladesh, Dave Houghton of Zimbabwe and Charles Bannerman of Australia. They all hit a century on debut in the first ever Test played by their respecitve countries.

Answer for the Question-3 : ML Jaisimha , who was the first to achieve the feat of batting on all five days of a Test match in the 5th and final Test of the 1959/60 series against Australia, played at Eden Gardens, Calcutta. Andrew Flintoff achieved the same feat in the 2nd Test of the recently concluded series against India at Mohali. In between Geoff Boycott of England, Kim Hughes of Australia, Allan Lamb of England and Ravi Shasthri of India too achieved the feat. Only Jaisimha and Flintoff did not hit a century in the test match though they batted on all 5 days.

Answer for the Question-4 : Sachin Tendulkar. I guess this is the sitter of the quiz.

Answer for the Question-5 : Bill Voce was the only player other than Bradman and Hammond to have played in the last and 1st Test matches in Australia before and after the World War II. He is well known to the cricketing world as the bowling partner of Harold Larwood during the (in)famous Bodyline Series.Immediately after the War Australia introduced a new law which requires a limit on the duration of a Test Match. Till then all the Test matches played in Australia were timeless tests and required to be played till the match produced a result. Though there were couple of drawn matches they were ended with an agreement between the two sides.

Blog-Cricket-Quiz-1

Question 1:
This person is the first Test cricketer to die. One of his records created in the very first test match is very unlikely to be surpassed. Name the cricketer and the record he holds.

Question 2:
Who are these palyers and what Unique record they hold/share in Test Cricket. If you know the record it would be easier to identify the players.

Question 3:
Picture shows a Test cricketer who was the first to achieve a certain feat and Andrew Flintoff was the last. What is this feat and who else did this in between.

Question 4:
In 1992, Playing in a Test match against South Africa,this player when he was on 11 tried stealing a quick single by pushing the ball to all the people Jonty Rhodes, at backward point. In a flash, Rhodes stopped the ball and threw to the stumps where Andrew Hudson moved in to break the wicket. Unable to judge conclusively, Square leg umpire Cyril Mitchley signaled for a replay, which showed that the batsman, was infact out thus becoming the first ever Test batsman to have been given out via the evidence of a television action replay. who is this player.. shown in the picture is his autograph.

Question 5:
The last Test match played in Australia before the World War II at Meloborune from Feb 26th to Mar 3rd 1937. After the worldwar II the 1st test match in Australia was played at Brisbane from Nov 29th to Dec 4th 1946 . Though the umpires GE Borwick and JD Scott were the same in both the tests, only 3 cricketers played in both matches. Don Bradman & Wally Hammond were both captaining their respecitve sides. Picture shows the other cricketer who was part of these two tests. Who is this cricketer and what is he famous for? Also with the same Test Australia introduced a new rule to the Test Cricket played in Australia, though it did not have any affect on the outcome of this match. What rule?

Records on 2nd & 3rd day of Ongoing Aus Vs BD Test

By hitting six sixes in his century, Adam Gilchrist now became the sole reocord holder of hitting most sixers in a Test Career. Before the start of this Test he had hit 87 sixers and was sharing the record with Chris Cairns of NZ. During his innings of 144 , he added 6 more and he now has 93 sixers.

Also by scoring 53.53 % of Australia's runs Gilchrist has provided 137th instance of a Player recording 50 or more percetage of a Team's completed innings total. Gilchrist also completed 5000 runs in Test Cricket and became only the 2nd Wicket Keeper in Test history to do so after Alec Stewart of England.

Both Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie joined the 1000 runs + 100 wkts and also 1000 runs + 200 wickets All rounders club. They became the 45th and 46th Players in Test history to record 100 runs and 100 wickets during their innings of 15 & 26 while supporting Gilchrist to avoid the follow on. Since they have already taken more than 200 wickets in their Test Careers , they also joined the 1000 runs + 200 Wickets All rounders club as its 22nd and 23rd members. At the end of 3rd day of this Test Brett Lee has 1004 runs and 210 wickets in 53 Tests wherease Jason Gillespie has 1013 runs and 254 wickets in 70 Tests.

Stuart MacGill's bowling figures of 8/108 in Bangladesh's 1st innings , now represents the best bowling figures ever recorded against Bangladesh in a Test Innings. It eclipses the previous best of 7/53 recorded by Chris Cairns in the 1st test of the 2001-2002 series played at Westpac Trust Park, Hamilton,NZ.

In a remarkable coincidence all the players except Brett Lee, mentioned in these records have 'Gil' as part of their last name and all the records bettered the records held by Chris Cairns. Chris Cairns must be feeling happy atleast Lee and Gillespie did not better his allrounder's double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets , which he completed in 21 tests though Brett Lee did better the other double of 1000 runs + 200 wickets. Chris Cairns took 58 Test matches to reach that double whereas Brett Lee has done it in just 53 Tests.

350+ Runs on Opening Day of a Test Match

Less than 24 hours after Ricky Ponting issued a statement doing a damage control of his previous statement, which resulted in Cricket Australia issuing a statement in support of Bangladesh playing Test cricket, Bangladesh proved they really did improve a lot and deserve to be a part of Test Cricket. The statement he made to London’s Daily Telegraph in February ‘What I would not have is the minnow nations in the World Cup and the Champions Trophy, and I would not have Bangladesh and Zimbabwe playing Tests at present" were somewhat taken back by Ponting on Thrusday. ‘Bangladesh is improving gradually and they deserve their Test status. Looking back, I think I was wrong with what I said," said Ponting, addressing a press conference at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka on the eve of the first of the two Tests against Bangladesh.

Like the centurion Shahriar Nafees, who spearheaded Bangladesh's 350+ runs, said, scoring 350 in a day is not a joke. His Captain Habibul Bashar concurred saying "But it was never on our mind that we would score 350 runs on a day against a team like Australia. I want to say that it is a clear message that we are improving. If you consider the previous record, definitely it is the best day in our history and the most significant thing is not many teams in the world score 350 runs on a single day."

Ponting must be feeling glad and thanking himself for digressing from his earlier stance and doing some damage control, after the 1st day of their Test encounter with Bangladesh. Australian bowling attack , which was in its full strength and included Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill, were taken for a leatherhunt by Bangladesh and they have certainly shown Ponting how much they have improved.

Infact Bangladesh provided only the 4th instance of amassing 350plus runs on the opening day of a Test match against Australia since New Zealand hit 372 runs for the loss of 4 wickets at Basin Reserve in 1973-74 series. England had hit 350+ runs on the opening day of the Test against the Aussies twice. They made 376/3 at the Oval in 1985 and 407 all out at Edgbaston in 2005. West Indies scored 352 runs on the opening day of the 3rd and final test of the 2005-06 series played at Adelaide.

Overall, Bangladesh provided the 100th instance of a team piling up 350+ runs on the opening day of a Test .

Bangladesh scored 355 runs for the loss of 5 wickets on the the opening day of their Test against Australia at the new Test Venue Fatullah. By the end of second day's play Australia were reeling at 145/6 and trailing Bangladesh by 282 runs. But for Gilchrist's fighting innings they would have been in even worse situation as they lost 6 wickets for 93 runs. Ponting may be already thinking why he made his comments to Daily Telegraph.

Follwing list provides all the instances when a side batting on the opening day had scored 350 or more runs with the Test#, Home Country, Scores of Home Country, Visiting Team, Scores of Visiting Team, Season, Venue and runs scored on the opening day by one team along with the no of wickets lost. If two team have combined to score more than 350+ on opening day , those occassions are not included.

1. Test #0004 ENG 420 & 5/57 AUS 149 & 327 1880 The Oval 410 8wkts
2. Test #0016 ENG 346 & 2/85 AUS 551 1884 The Oval 363 2wkts
3. Test #0040 ENG 483 AUS 91 & 349 1893 The Oval 378 5wkts
4. Test #0048 RSA 151 & 134 ENG 482 1895-96 Old Wanderers 355 7wkts
5. Test #0051 ENG 231 & 305 AUS 412 & 7/125 1896 Old Trafford 366 8wkts
6. Test #0063 ENG 372 & 3/94 AUS 196 & 7/346 1899 Old Trafford 372
7. Test #0064 ENG 576 AUS 352 & 5/254 1899 The Oval 435 4wkts
8. Test #0070 ENG 9/376 AUS 36 & 2/46 1902 Edgbaston 351 9wkts
9. Test #0075 RSA 454 & 4/101 AUS 296 & 7/372 1902-03 Old Wanderers 428 7wkts
10. Test #0080 AUS 388 & 351 ENG 245 & 278 1903-04 Adelaide Oval 355 6wkts
11. Test #0086 ENG 446 AUS 197 & 169 1905 Old Trafford 352 6wkts
12. Test #0087 ENG 430 & 6/261 AUS 363 & 4/124 1905 The Oval 381 7wkts
13. Test #0093 ENG 428 RSA 140 & 3/185 1907 Lord's 428
14. Test #0110 RSA 103 & 327 ENG 417 & 1/16 1909-10 Newlands 406 7wkts
15. Test #0111 AUS 528 RSA 174 & 240 1910-11 Sydney Cricket Ground 494 6wkts
16. Test #0121 AUS 448 RSA 265 & 95 1912 Old Trafford 448
17. Test #0142 ENG 259 & 202 AUS 407 & 7/273 1921 Headingley 407
18. Test #0143 ENG 4/362 & 1/44 AUS 175 1921 Old Trafford 362 4wkts
19. Test #0146 RSA 243 & 8/472 AUS 450 & 0/7 1921-22 Old Wanderers 450
20. Test #0153 ENG 438 RSA 30 & 390 1924 Edgbaston 398 7wkts
21. Test #0155 ENG 396 & 1/60 RSA 132 & 323 1924 Headingley 396
22. Test #0165 ENG 294 & 3/254 AUS 494 1926 Headingley 366 3wkts
23. Test #0173 ENG 401 WI 177 & 166 1928 Lord's 382 8wkts
24. Test #0184 ENG 7/427 RSA 130 & 265 1929 Old Trafford 427 7wkts
25. Test #0191 NZ 387 ENG 540 & 3/22 1929-30 Eden Park 375 6wkts
26. Test #0195 ENG 425 & 375 AUS 6/729 & 3/72 1930 Lord's 405 9wkts
27. Test #0196 ENG 391 & 3/95 AUS 566 1930 Headingley 458 3wkts
28. Test #0203 AUS 558 WI 193 & 148 1930-31 Exhibition Ground 428 3wkts
29. Test #0218 NZ 364 & 193 RSA 410 & 2/150 1931-32 Basin Reserve 364
30. Test #0225 NZ 223 & 0/35 ENG 8/560 1932-33 Lancaster Park 418 5wkts
31. Test #0235 ENG 9/627 & 0/123 AUS 491 & 1/66 1934 Old Trafford 355 5 wkts
32. Test #0237 ENG 321 & 145 AUS 701 & 327 1934 The Oval 475 2wkts
33. Test #0242 ENG 7/384 RSA 220 & 1/17 1935 Trent Bridge 384 7wkts
34. Test #0245 ENG 357 & 6/231 RSA 318 & 2/169 1935 Old Trafford 357
35. Test #0249 RSA 102 & 182 AUS 8/362 1935-36 Newlands 362 8 wkts
36. Test #0254 ENG 8/471 & 1/64 IND 222 & 312 1936 The Oval 471 8wkts
37. Test #0260 ENG 424 & 4/226 NZ 295 & 8/175 1937 Lord's 370 7wkts
38. Test #0261 ENG 9/358 & 187 NZ 281 & 134 1937 Old Trafford 358 9wkts
39. Test #0263 ENG 8/658 AUS 411 & 6/427 1938 Trent Bridge 422 4wkts
40. Test #0264 ENG 494 & 8/242 AUS 422 & 6/204 1938 Lord's 409 5wkts
41. Test #0269 RSA 103 & 353 ENG 4/469 1938-39 Kingsmead 373 2wkts
42. Test #0274 ENG 352 & 3/366 WI 498 1939 The Oval 352
43. Test #0285 ENG 208 & 551 RSA 533 & 1/166 1947 Trent Bridge 376 3wkts
44. Test #0292 AUS 394 & 4/255 IND 9/291 & 125 1947-48 Melbourne Cricket Ground 355 8wkts
45. Test #0294 AUS 674 IND 381 & 277 1947-48 Adelaide Oval 370 3wkts
46. Test #0307 RSA 315 & 2/270 ENG 608 1948-49 Ellis Park 387 2wkts
47. Test #0322 RSA 158 & 132 AUS 7/549 1949-50 St. Georges’s Park 380 4wkts
48. Test #0423 NZ 208 & 208 WI 404 & 1/13 1955-56 Basin Reserve 361 6wkts
49. Test #0441 ENG 6/619 & 1/64 WI 372 & 367 1957 Trent Bridge 360 2wkts
50. Test #0463 IND 124 & 154 WI 5/614 1958-59 Eden Gardens 359 3wkts
51. Test #0474 ENG 422 IND 206 & 157 1959 Trent Bridge 358 6wkts
52. Test #0498 AUS 505 & 232 WI 453 & 284 1960-61 Woolloongabba 359 7wkts
53. Test #0530 ENG 5/544 PAK 246 & 274 1962 Edgbaston 386 4wkts
54. Test #0534 ENG 5/480 & 0/27 PAK 183 & 323 1962 The Oval 406 2wkts
55. Test #0593 ENG 4/546 NZ 193 & 166 1965 Headingly 366 1wkt
56. Test #0671 RSA 9/622 AUS 157 & 336 1969-70 Kingmead 386 5 wkts
57. Test #0692 ENG 355 & 101 IND 284 & 6/174 1971 The Oval 355
58. Test #0733 NZ 484 AUS 6/511 & 8/460 1973-74 Basin Reserve 372 4wkts
59. Test #0780 ENG 387 & 204 WI 450 & 196 1976 Headingley 437 9wkts
60. Test #0781 ENG 435 & 203 WI 8/687 & 0/182 1976 The Oval 373 3wkts
61. Test #0816 AUS 505 & 256 IND 269 & 445 1977-78 Adelaide Oval 353 5wkts
62. Test #0960 ENG 420 & 297 NZ 207 & 345 1983 Trent Bridge 362 7wkts
63. Test #0970 AUS 465 & 7/310 PAK 624 1983-84 Adelaide Oval 376 5wkts
64. Test #1022 ENG 464 AUS 241 & 129 1985 The Oval 376 3wkts
65. Test #1139 NZ 391 & 5/483 IND 482 & 0/149 1989-90 Eden Park 387 9wkts
66. Test #1148 ENG 4/653 & 4/272 IND 454 & 224 1990 Lord’s 359 2wkts
67. Test #1170 WI 214 & 297 AUS 403 & 265 1990-91 Antigua Recreation Ground 355 5wkts
68. Test #1191 ENG 390 PAK 9/505 & 5/239 1992 Old Trafford 388 3wkts
69. Test #1221 WI 455 & 0/29 PAK 221 & 262 1992-93 Kensington Oval 351 4wkts
70. Test #1231 ENG 380 & 313 AUS 303 & 229 1993 The Oval 353 7wkts
71. Test #1283 RSA 460 & 7/259 PAK 230 & 165 1994-95 New Wanderers Stadium 354 7wkts
72. Test #1289 NZ 216 & 122 WI 5/660 1994-95 Basin Reserve 356 3wkts
73. Test #1445 SL 485 IND 7/518 & 5/306 1998-99 Sinhalese Sports Club Ground 351 3wkts
74. Test #1529 RSA 378 SL 119 & 252 2000-01 Centurion Park 375 9wkts
75. Test #1547 ENG 357 & 261 PAK 403 & 323 2001 Old Trafford 370 8wkts
76. Test #1562 ZIM 286 & 391 RSA 3/600 2001-02 Harare Sports Club 414 1wkt
77. Test #1564 RSA 563 & 1/54 IND 379 & 237 2001-02 Goodyear Park 372 7wkts
78. Test #1571 AUS 8/558 NZ 7/243 2001-02 Bellerive Oval 411 6wkts
79. Test #1600 PAK 643 NZ 73 & 246 2002 Gaddafi Stadium 355 4wkts
80. Test #1619 RSA 4/529 BAN 170 & 252 2002-03 Buffalo Park 369 2wkts
81. Test #1623 AUS 492 & 5/296 ENG 325 & 79 2002-03 Woolloongabba 364 2wkts
82. Test #1634 AUS 6/551 & 5/107 ENG 270 & 387 2002-03 Melbourne Cricket Ground 356 3wkts
83. Test #1637 RSA 7/620 PAK 252 & 226 2002-03 Newlands 445 wkts
84. Test #1639 WI 408 & 288 AUS 4/576 & 3/238 2002-03 Queen's Park Oval 391 3wkts
85. Test #1651 ENG 408 & 1/110 RSA 5/594 & 4/134 2003 Edgbaston 398 1wkt
86. Test #1659 RSA 9/604 & 1/110 ENG 484 & 229 2003 The Oval 362 4wkts
87. Test #1661 AUS 6/735 ZIM 239 & 321 2003-04 W.A.C.A Ground Perth 368 3wkts
88. Test #1673 AUS 556 & 196 IND 523 & 6/233 2003-04 Adelaide Oval 400 5wkts
89. Test #1674 RSA 561 & 6/226 WI 410 & 188 2003-04 New Wanderers Stadium 368 3wkts
90. Test #1693 PAK 407 & 216 IND 5/675 2003-04 Multan Cricket Stadium 356 2wkts
91. Test #1706 AUS 517 & 9/292 SL 455 & 8/183 2004 Bundaberg Rum Stadium 370 2wkts
92. Test #1707 ENG 568 & 5/325 WI 416 & 267 2004 Lord's 391 2wkts
93. Test #1718 IND 185 & 200 AUS 398 & 5/329 2004-05 Vidarbha C.A. Ground 362 7wkts
94. Test #1726 AUS 381 & 5/361 PAK 179 & 72 2004-05 W.A.C.A. Ground 357 8wkts
95. Test #1758 ENG 407 & 182 AUS 308 & 279 2005 Edgbaston 407
96. Test #1759 NZ 9/452 ZIM 59 & 99 2005-06 P.Saravanamuttu Stadium , Colombo 449 7wkts
97. Test #1766 SL 9/457 BAN 191 & 197 2005-06 Harare Sports Club 454 9wkts
98. Test #1773 AUS 428 & 3/182 WI 405 & 204 2005-06 Adelaide Oval 352 7wkts
99. Test #1782 PAK 588 & 8/490 IND 603 & 0/21 2005-06 Iqbal Stadium 379 4wkts
100. Test #1797 BAN 427 & 148 AUS 269 & 7/307 2005-06 Narayanganj Osmani Stadium (Fatullah) 355 5wkts

Some Interesting Facts about the 350+ runs on the opening day of a test match.

• Highest score on opening day of a test match ever recorded by either one team or both teams combined was recorded by Australia in Test # 111 at Sydney against South Africa, when they hit 494 runs for the loss of 6 wickets.
• The record for most no of runs (588) scored in on day of a test match, though not on opening day belongs to England and India together. On the 2nd day of the 2nd test of the 1936 series against India played at Old Trafford, England took their overnight score of 173/2 to 571/8 before declaring their innings . India then went onto score 190 runs without losing any wicket. Vijay Merchant and Muhstaq Ali remained unbeaten on 79 & 105 respectively.
• No team has touched the 500 mark and Australia’s 494 runs is the highest in a day of Test match which involved only one team on the opening day. But there are two occasions on which a team could plunder 500+ runs in a Test Match on a single day.
• In the 1st Test of their 2002-03 series at P.Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo , Sri Lanka smashed Bangladesh for 509 runs taking their overnight score of 32 for no wicket to 541 for 9. This remains the highest number of runs ever recorded by one team on any day of test match. Though England 12 years earlier, on the 2nd day of the 2nd Test played at Lord’s took their overnight total from 28/0 to 531/2 and declared their innings , thus scoring 503 runs in a day. South Africa relied with 19 for no wicket. So altogether a recod 522 runs were scored on that day.
• Don Bradman’s unbeaten 309 on the 1st day of the 3rd Test played at Leeds during the 1930 Ashes is the highest score ever recorded by a batsman on the opening day of Test Match. This incidentally is also the record for most number of runs hit by a batsman and only triple hundred ever scored by a batsman on a single day of a Test match.
• Don Bradman also figures in the highest partnership for any wicket on the opening day of a Test match. He scored 266 runs on the opening ay of the 5th and final Test of the 1934 Ashes. Along with Bill Ponsford, who remained unbeaten on 205 at the end of the 1st day, Bradman added a record 451 runs for the 2nd wicket while Australia amassed 475 runs for the loss of 2 wickets.
• Graeme Smith (151) & Herschel Gibbs (228) of South Africa hold the record for highest partnership for 1st wicket on an opening day of a Test match in which 350 or more runs were scored. They added 368 runs for the 1st wicket in the 2nd Test of the 2002-2003 series against Pakistan at Newlands, while South Africa recorded 445/3 on the Opening day of the Test Match. In the process they eclipsed previously held record of 359 runs for the 1st wicket by Len Hutton (158) and Cyril Washbrook (195), which they established against South Africa at Ellis Park, Johannesburg in the 2nd Test of the 1948/49 series, while England recorded 387 runs for the loss of just 2 wickets on the 1st day of that Test.
• Home team clearly had an advantage over the visiting team when compiling 350+ runs on the Opening day of the Test match. As many as 66 times the home team have scored 350 or more whereas the visiting team could hit 350+ only 34 times.
• Though no team batting on the opening day in a test match could pile up 500 or more runs, there are 27 instances when a team touched or passed the 400 mark. England leads the pack with 12 times followed by Australia with 9 times and South Africa 3 times. Sri Lanka, New Zealand & West Indies have all crossed the 400 mark once on the Opening day of a Test match.
• Though England holds the record for scoring 400+ runs, they could touch the 450 mark only once. Australia passed the 450 mark 4 times out of the 9 times they touched 400 mark and holds the record for scoring 450+ most times on the opening day of a Test .New Zealand is the only other team that had touched the 450 mark.