WORLD CUP CRICKET - QUIZTION OF THE DAY - 16

WORLD CUP CRICKET QUIZ:

March 28th, 2007 : Quiztion of the Day - 16:

Matthew Hayden’s second consecutive century in as many world cup matches was the highlight of the rain curtailed first Super 8 match played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, St. Peter’s, and Antigua. His 143 balls blitz in hitting the highest score by an Australian in any World Cup match erasing the previous best of 143 by Andrew Symonds against Pakistan in 2003 makes only the fourth batsman in the World Cup history to have registered a back to back century behind . Rain and drizzle played the hide and seek game through out the afternoon after the Aussies made 322 for six in their allotted 50 overs sending the match to the reserve day.

This will be the first match that will be using the reserve day in a World Cup tournament since the match between New Zealand and Zimbabwe played at Headingley, Leeds in 1999. That match could not complete even on the reserve day as it was washed out completely and ended as a no result game with both Zimbabwe and New Zealand sharing the points. Australia would like avoid suffering the same feat and hopes for no more rain interruptions when West Indies starts their batting on 28th March, 2007 or at least will wish for bowling the minimum number of 20 overs to force a result by Duckworth/Lewis method.

In all, nine World Cup matches were forced to go into the reserve days including the above mentioned New Zealand and Zimbabwe encounter and one game between West Indies and Sri Lanka at The Oval in 1979 could not even get started even though 2 reserve days were allotted because of heave rains on all three days. When West Indies start their chase it will provide the 11th instance of a reserve day being used in a World Cup match.

Today’s 'Quiztion of the day' relates to the World Cup matches that spanned two days and used the reserve day allotted. Here it is:

If history is any indication, Australia should win their first Super 8 match as out of the 10 times a reserve day was used in a World Cup match 7 times the team batting first went on to win and only once when England bundled out Canada for a paltry 45 after the scheduled playing day was washed out did the team batting second registered a win. Other two games were abandoned without yielding a result.

Of the eight World Cup encounters that were actually played and used the reserve days to provide a result, only once before the current Aussie-Caribbean Clash, a complete innings of allotted overs was played on one day before the weather interrupted the day’s play and the team batting second started their innings on the following (reserve) day. Shown below is the picture of the highest scorer of that match. Identify the Player and provide the details of the match.

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

Cheers...