WORLD CUP CRICKET - QUIZTION OF THE DAY - 18

WORLD CUP CRICKET QUIZ:

March 30th, 2007 : Quiztion of the day - 18

If the match between West Indies and New Zealand is any evidence then the jinx of home team not being able to lift the World Cup may not be broken in this tournament too. Another insipid batting display by West Indies for the second time in a row may very well comeback and haunt them if the couple of the semi-finalist spots are to be decided basing on net run rate. The Kiwis are a much improved side now and are peaking at the right time. They along with Australia will be the only teams that will be having four points after playing one game in Super 8s and there by improved their chances of reaching the semi finals. West Indies and Sri Lanka are the other teams that carried 2 points from group stages but they lost both their first matches. West Indies now need to win all their matches to have any chance of reaching the last four.

After Fleming won the toss and put the opted bowl first Bond and Mason did not give any room for the West Indian openers to get on with a flying start by bowling excellent opening spells during which Bond removed Chanderpaul. Then Oram recovering his lost bowling form struck three major blows in the middle of the innings to deny West Indies any chances of recovering. Bond and Vettori finished off the innings in a style and did not let any wagging by tail. McCullum’s work behind the wickets was just brilliant and one of the four catches that he took to dismiss Sarwan was an absolute stunner. Styris chipped in with all too important wicket of Brian Lara. In the end the 177 total that West Indies put up was little too easy for New Zealand who too like Australia are on a roll. In fact this is their 7th ODI win in a row and three of those wins that came before the World Cup were against Australia. New Zealand knocked of the target under 40 overs losing just 3 wickets.

Another sterling innings by Scott Styris, his third fifty in this World Cup took the Kiwis past West Indian total for a comfortable victory. Sterling’s scores in this World Cup are 87* v Eng, 63 vs. Kenya, 28 vs. Ireland and 80* vs. West Indies. Though the opening partnership is still giving headaches andLou Vincent’s exit from the World Cup not helping the cause, New Zealand’s skipper must be pleased atleast he found some batting form at the right moment with consecutive scores of 60 vs. Ken, 66 vs. Can and 45 vs. West Indies. With Shane Bond(3-31) kicking off at full throttle, Jacob Oram(3-23) too finding his wicket taking bowling skills back and the ever reliable Danielle Vettori among wickets (3-39), no doubt Stephen Fleming must be envisioning to run through the tournament till the finish line.

Today’s ‘Quiztion of the Day’ is about the three bowlers taking 3 wickets each in the same innings of a World Cup match. Here it is:

Though it is very common in test cricket to have three bowlers claiming three wickets each in the same innings, this occurrence is very rare in One Day Internationals. Especially with the stipulated number of overs for each bowler it will be really difficult for three bowlers to find form and take wickets at the same time.

Prior to the Kiwi-Caribbean encounter, the instance of three bowlers taking three wickets in an innings for the same side happened only twice in the history of World Cup. Shown below are the photographs of those bowlers in each of those instances. Name the bowlers and provide me the details of those matches.

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...