Friday, March 16, 2007

WORLD CUP CRICKET : QUIZTION OF THE DAY - 5

WORLD CUP CRICKET QUIZ :

March 17th 2007: Quiztion of the Day-5 :

By now, every cricket lover in the world knows that Herschelle Gibbs’ onslaught of six hits over the fence of the bowling of Daan van Bunge of Netherlands is first time ever a batsman had hit six sixes in an over in any type of international match. In 1968 playing for Nottinghamshire Gary Sobers hit six sixers of Malcolm Nash of Glamargon and in 1984-85 season Ravi Shastri of Bombay smashed six sixes in an over bowled by Tilak Raj of Baroda. However both those instances took place in first class and domestic cricket.


Just three months back on 20th December 2006 Mumbai’s 15 year old boy wonder and an ardent fan of England's Kevin Pietersen, Shardul Thakur, while playing for Swami Vivekananda School slammed six consecutive sixes in an over of Vishal Dhruva of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan school in the plate division of the Harris Shield, the prestigious schools cricket tournament of India. I believe these are the only three recorded occassions of 6 sixes in a six-ball over prior to Gibbs’ sixes of every delivery of Daan Van Bunge’s over in any official cricket match.


Needless to say that Gibbs’ 36 runs in an over are most in a World Cup match as they are the most by any batsman in any ODI match. His record erases previous most in over in any ODI match held by Sanath Jayasuria of Sri Lanka, who had scored 30 runs in an over of the bowling of Chris Harris of New Zealand at Sharjah in 2000-01. On another occasion Jayasuria hit 29 runs of Aamir Sohail’s over and a no ball in the same over made it the 30 runs in a Singer Cup encounter in 1995-96 at Pedang, Singapore.


Having carted four consecutive 6s in each of those overs on both occasions, Jayasuria also held the record for most consecutive sixes in an ODI over prior to Gibbs’s record. Besides Gibbs & Jayasuria, Shaun Pollock of South Africa is the only batsman to have belted 4 consecutive sixes in an ODI over. Pollock’s four hits in a row that cleared the boundary came in New Zealand’s James Franklin’s bowling in 2001-02 at Perth when he made 27 runs in an over.


In 130 years of Test Cricket only Kapil Dev and Brian Lara could clear a boundary in four successive deliveries in an over. Kapil’s 24 runs of Eddie Hemmings’ last four deliveries of an over when exactly 24 runs were required to avoid a follow on whereas Lara’s four consecutive sixes came of Robin Peterson’s over when recorded most number of runs in an over in test cricket.


Anyway, enough of a Cricket Statistician’s ranting….. and here is the Quiztion of the Day that has three parts:

1. Whose record did Herschelle Gibbs erase for most number of runs scored in an over in a World Cup match?

2. Name the unfortunate bowler, whose picture is shown below who took the beating when previously held record was achieved.

3. This cricketer holds a unique place in sports history which I believe would be almost impossible to emulate. What is it?



Remember to email your answers for each quiz individually to vijay@dreamcricket.com with the the subject line "Quiztion of the Day - X", (X being the Question number) through out the tournament duration. Results will be first posted on dreamcricket.com website within a week of the World Cup Final.


Do not forget that the top scorer of the quiz will have a chance to win a fabulous World Cup 7-DVD Pack of World Cup Highlights (courtesy : http://www.dreamcricket.com/ and the runner up has a chance to grab a 3-DVD Pack consisting of India's Victorious 1983 campaign and Australia's unbeaten run of victories in 2003 (courtesty : http://www.pavilionshop.com).


Come on..... Join the fun.....




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