Trivial Facts of Cricket

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It's amazing sometimes, when you look back into the history of cricket and discover some uncanny facts, statistics, comments, etc, etc, about this great game of cricket. Below are just some of these remarkable (or insubstantial) facts and statistics.

Trivial Facts

• Sir Len Hutton (England) is the only batsman to have been given out obstructing the field.

• The first ever test match was held between England and Australia, at Melbourne, from the 15th to the 19th of March, 1877. Australia won by 45 runs. Exactly 100 years later (15th-19th March, 1977) a match between England and Australia was held at Melbourne to commemorate the 100 years of test cricket. Remarkably Australia won....... by 45 runs!!!

• The first one-day international was also held between England and Australia at Melbourne in 1971. Actually the first four days of a test match had been rained out, so on the final day the first ever one-day international was organized. Australia won the match.

• The first two twins to play in the same test match were not Steve and Mark Waugh of Australia, but Rosemary and Elizabeth Signal of New Zealand, versus England in 1984; in women's cricket!!

• There are 10 ways in which a batsman can get out in cricket:
  
  1. Caught
  2. Bowled
  3. Leg Before Wicket
  4. Run Out
  5. Stumped
  6. Handling the ball
  7. Obstructing the field
  8. Hit the ball twice
  9. Hit Wicket
  10. Timed Out

• The shortest ever test was between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo, in 1996. All but 50 minutes of the match was rained out.

• Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the youngest ever test captain, and a very fine batsman played for a long time with a glass eye.

• India played her first test match in 1932. New Zealand played their first in 1930.

• The first cricketer to be knighted was Sir Pelham Warner of England. Sir Neville Cardus was the first cricket writer to be knighted.

• Charles Bannermann ..... name ring a bell?? Well the Australian is the man who faced the first ball in test cricket. He also scored the first test century, in the same innings (168*). He also holds the distinction along with David Houghton of Zimbabwe to have scored a century on his country's debut in test cricket. .

• Bhagwat Chandrashekhar is the only cricketer to have scored fewer runs in his test career than the number of wickets he took. (242 wickets and 177 runs).
• Wilfred Rhodes (England) has batted at all 11 positions in test cricket. His feat was emulated by Vinod Mankad (India).

• Mohammed Azharuddin (India) is the only batsman to have scored three centuries in his first three test matches.

• Hanif Mohammed once batted for 16 hours and 10 minutes - nearly 3 full days - against the West Indies, scoring 337*.

• Brian Lara (West Indies) today is the world record holder for the highest individual test innings, 400, versus England (10 Apr 2004). He also holds the world record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, 501* for Warwickshire, versus Durham (6th June, 1994). The only other person to have held both these records was Sir Donald Bradman (339* in test cricket, and 452* in first-class cricket).

• Bhausaheb Nimbalkar (India) was on 443* (Highest in Indian 1st Class Cricket) against Kathiawar (now saurashtra) in a Ranji Trophy match at Pune in 1948-49, with one day to go in a first-class match, just 9 short of the then world record 452* held by Bradman, but the opposition left the field when Nimbalkar was 443, did not come back and conceded the match. Bradman sent Nimbalkar a greeting note congratulating him on his innings.

• Marvan Attapatu (Sri Lanka) had scores of 0,0,1,0,0,0 in his first three test matches. No prizes for guessing what he scored in his first one-dayer..... yes 0 !!!!

• In 1952, versus England at Leeds, India were reduced to 0 for 4.

• Sir Donald Bradman retired from test cricket having scored 6,996 runs at an average of 99.94. In his last test innings he needed 4 runs to have an average of 100. He scored 0.

• Sri Lanka once scored 951 for 6 versus India, in 1997 - the highest ever team-total in test cricket.

• Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) scored 340 against India, in India, in 1997. Sri Lanka scored a world record 951 for 6 in that innings. In the next match Jayasuriya was dismissed for 199.

• New Zealand have the dubious distinction of having scored the lowest ever team test score – 26, against England in 1954-55

• According to Sir Donald Bradman (Australia), the best innings he has ever seen was his compatriot Stan Mcabe scoring 232* against England, in England in 1938.

• Sir Garfield Sobers (West Indies) first test century was a then world record 365*. Brian Lara's (West Indies) first test century was 277. He later went on to break Sir Garfield's record, scoring 375.

• Against England, at Lord's in 1990, India needed 24 runs to avoid the follow-on, with 1-wicket in hand. After playing the first 2 balls of the over defensively Kapil Dev hit off-spinner Eddie Hemmings for 4 consecutive sixes (the only time this has ever been done), to avoid the follow-on.

• The contemporary batsman who Sir Donald Bradman (Australia) thinks bats a bit like he did is Sachin Tendulkar of India.

• Jim Laker (England) has the best bowling figures in a test match. Against Australia he took 9 for 37 in the first innings, and 10 for 53 in the second innings giving him match figures of 19 for 90. The only other wicket, that of Burke, was taken by Tony Lock.

• The best test bowling figures on debut are those of Narendra Hirwani (India). He took 16 for 136 versus the West Indies. He broke Bob Massie's record of 16 for 137.

• West Indian fast bowler Andersson Cummins, playing for the first time on South African soil (against Pakistan in a one-day international) took two wickets with his first two balls.

• In his 20th test match Anil Kumble (India) needed 5 wickets to complete 100 test wickets, and thus tie Erapalli Prasana for the record fewest test matches taken by an Indian bowler to complete 100 wickets. In the 1st innings he took 4 wickets. In the second innings two catches were dropped off his bowling, but he never got that elusive wicket

• When India hosted Sri Lanka, and Kapil Dev was nearing Sir Richard Hadlee's world record 431 wickets in test cricket, the Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin asked Kumble to intentionally bowl outside the off stump so as to avoid taking too many wickets, and thus denying Kapil Dev the shot at the record in that match. Eventually Kapil succeeded in having Hashan Tilekratne (Sri Lanka) caught at forward short leg by Sanjay Manjrekar to secure his 432nd test victim.

• The only bowler to have got Sir Donald Bradman (Australia) out hit wicket was the Indian, Lala Amarnath.

• In the 1932-33 'Bodyline' series, Harold Larwood (England) was not the only bowler bowling 'Bodyline'. Bill Voce (England) also did the same.

• The only wicket keeper to have stumped Sir Donald Bradman (Australia) was Prabir Sen of India.

• Sri Lanka hosted India for a 3-test series in 1994. They used different keepers in each match - Ashley de Silva, Pubudu Dassanayake and Romesh Kaluwitharna.

• The only declaration in limited overs cricket was when Natal scored 361 for 2 in 54 overs against a South African XI at Kingsmead on 25/Oct/1975. Alan Barrow, 202 not out, and Henry Fotheringham, 128 not out, pasted the opposition to all parts of Kingsmead and scored a mammoth 303 unbroken for the third wicket.

• In a women's league match in Denmark the new batswoman was several months pregnant. She tired while batting and asked permission for a runner - the umpire declined on the grounds that the incapacity had not occurred during the course of the match !

• In a Trophy Final in Karachi in 1958 the scorecard read:
  1st Innings : Abdul Aziz, retired hurt, 0
  2nd Innings : Abdul Aziz, did not bat, dead, 0