WORLD CUP CRICKET : QUIZTION OF THE DAY - 10

WORLD CUP CRICKET QUIZ :

March 22nd 2007: Quiztion of the Day-10:

At last Pakistan found their batting form and plundered 349 runs against Zimbabwe in Inzamam's farewell ODI match. Inzamam ul Haq who started his ODI career in 1991 was first announced his arrival on big stage with a murderous assault on the hapless Kiwis with a 37 ball 60 and took the game away from them in the 1992 World Cup Semi final match. He already confirmed his plans to retire from One Day Cricket after this World Cup match. Though Inzamam played in five World Cups including the triumphant 1992 edition, he did not perform what he was capable of and aggregated just 680 runs from 34 matches at an average of 23.44 without ever scoring a hundred. Inzamam retires from ODI cricket as one of the only six players to have amassed more than 10000 runs in ODI cricket. He played 378 matches and amassed 11739 runs @ 39.52 including 10 hundreds. His 11739 runs are second only to Sachin Tendulkar's record of 14847 runs and his 83 fifties are most by any player in ODI cricket.

Inzy did play a short and sweet innings and went out in glory by making 37 of 32 balls with 2 fours and 3 sixes, but it was Imran Nazir who stole the show and helped his captain dedicate the match to the deceased Coach with a big victory. Imran top scored for Pakistan with a big hundred of 160 in what proved out to be a record shattering day for him. His tally of eight sixes during the innings puts him on par with Ricky Ponting's record achieved against India in 2003 World Cup final.

Imran Nazir also provided the ninth instance of a batsman recording a score of 150+ score in a World Cup match. Except on three of those occasions the opposition was bundled out for fewer runs than these top scorers of the innings in all these matches. But to balance it out there were three other occasions on which the opposition was bowled out for a lower score than their top scorer of the innings even though there was no 150+ score in their innings. In fact in one of those matches there were three batsmen on one side who had registered a higher score than the opponent's total.

Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka on the same day in another group match failed to match Imran Nazir's record by holding out on the boundary after hitting a scintillating hundred. Had he hit a six of that delivery instead of getting out, Jayasuriya too could have equaled Ponting's record tally of eight sixes and his score alone would have been enough for Bangladesh. Jayasuriya scored 109 runs in their second group match of this World Cup as Bangladesh could not live up to the hype they have generated by upsetting India and were bowled out for a paltry sum of 112.

Today's 'Quiztion of the Day' is very simple and straight forward and relates to a batsman's score beating the opponent's total in a World Cup match. Here it is:

Identify the World Cup matches in which three 150+ individual scores were lower than the opponent's totals and also the matches in which non 150+ individual scores which were higher than the opponent's totals.

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).

Cheers.