WORLD CUP CRICKET : QUIZTION OF THE DAY - 23

WORLD CUP CRICKET QUIZ:

April 4th, 2007 : Quiztion of the Day - 23

Like Bangladesh against New Zealand a day earlier, in their super 8s match up against the same team, Ireland too could not repeat their sterling performance of the warm up game against South Africa in which they reduced South Africa to 91 for 8 after putting them into bat.

In a rain interrupted stop and go match which was reduced to 35 overs a side Ireland could not post a substantial total though many of their batsmen got settled and then lost wickets at regular intervals. They ended up scoring just 152 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini bowled superbly with the new ball and did not allow the Irish batsmen to settle in the beginning of the innings whereas Hall and Langeveldt stuck to their line and length not giving any liberties to the Irish captain Trent Johnson in the slog overs.

The revised target of 160 in 35 overs courtesy D/L method did not pose any problems for the star studded South African side. Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis steadied the innings by putting up a 70 run second wicket partnership after Boyd Rankin dismissed AB de Villiers of the fourth ball of the innings with Porterfield taking a juggling catch at the backward point. Any signs of Irish bowlers getting on top of the game, when Smith and Gibbs wickets fell in quick succession with the scorecard reading 85 for 3 in 17th over, have quickly vanished along with two dropped catches. Ashwell Prince played an innings that he was not known for making 47 of 44 balls and finishing the match with a towering six. The "Man of Batting Averages", Jacques Kallis anchored the innings beautifully and remained unbeaten again with another half century to his credit. Kallis’ 66* now puts him on top of batting averages for this 2007 World Cup tournament. His five innings with 2 not outs yielded 328 runs putting his batting average at an astronomical figure of 164.00.

Today’s ‘Quiztion of the Day’ relates to the batting averages in World Cup matches. Here it is:

As of today, Vivian Richards and Rahul Dravid are the only batsmen with 60+ batting average in a World Cup career that included at least 20 innings at the crease. But there are two cricketers who could finish their World Cup career with a batting average of 100 plus regardless of number of innings they have batted. Name them.

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...