The regular Monday column in which our editor answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket
Steven Lynch07-Jun-2004The regular Monday column in which our editor answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:
A familiar feeling for Hannan Sarkar© Getty Images
I swear I can remember an instance of both openers being stumped in the same Test innings, but I couldn’t find it in the records. Has this ever happened? asked James Scambler from Birchip in Australia
It’s actually happened four times – but the one you can probably remember was the final Ashes Test at Sydney in January 1999, when in the last innings Mark Butcher and Alec Stewart were both stumped by Ian Healy. The only previous instance in the 20th century was at Lord’s in 1950, when Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook were both bamboozled by West Indies’ spinners and stumped by Clyde Walcott. It also happened twice in the early days of Test cricket: first at Melbourne in 1881-82 England’s openers Dick Barlow and George Ulyett were both stumped by Jack Blackham, and then at Old Trafford in 1896 Drewy Stoddart and WG Grace were both stumped by Jim Kelly off Harry Trott.The West Indian Pedro Collins has twice dismissed Bangladesh’s opener Hannan Sarkar with the very first ball of a Test – is this unique? asked Solaiman Palash from Dhaka
It turns out that it is: Hannan Sarkar is one of only two players to have been dismissed by the first ball of a Test more than once. It happened to him against West Indies at Dhaka in 2002-03, and again in the recent first Test in St Lucia. Since then he had added a third to this list. In the second Test he was again dismissed off the first ball. Remarkably, Pedro Collins was the bowler on all occasions. Sarkar is in distinguished company: Sunil Gavaskar was out to the first ball of a Test three times, but the bowler was different on each occasion – Geoff Arnold of England, Pakistan’s Imran Khan, and Malcolm Marshall of West Indies. Arnold, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee are the only bowlers apart from Collins to have twice struck with the first ball of a Test. For a full list click here.What are the best figures by a bowler whose team lost a Test by an innings? asked Manas Winfield
That’s an interesting one: it turns out that two unlucky bowlers have managed an eight-wicket haul in a Test their side lost by an innings. Top of this list is England’s Neil Foster, who took 8 for 107 against Pakistan at Headingley, but Pakistan still won by an innings and 18 runs. Before that, Max Walker took 8 for 143 for Australia in the final Ashes Test of 1974-75, at Sydney, where England made hay in the absence of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson and won by an innings and four runs. There are also seven instances of a bowler taking seven wickets but losing by an innings, the most recent by Bruce Yardley of Australia (7 for 187) in 1981-82.In St Lucia Bangladesh finally managed to declare, for the first time in 29 Tests. Did any other country have to wait so long to declare an innings? asked Abdullah Rauf
This turns out to be rather a surprising list, as the only two countries which waited longer to declare an innings closed in a Test were England (39 Tests) and Australia (52). There are two main reasons for that, though – in the early days of Test cricket declarations weren’t permitted (in any case innings totals were generally lower), and also most Tests in Australia were played to a finish without a time limit, so there wasn’t often much point in declaring even if you were allowed to. The first declaration in Test history came at Lord’s in 1893, when Drewy Stoddart closed England’s second innings against Australia at 234 for 8. Top of this list, with a declaration in only their second Test, are New Zealand; Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe did it in their third Tests, Pakistan in their fifth, West Indies in both innings of their 12th, India in 13, and South Africa in 14.In May 2002 I attended the drawn first Test between England and Sri Lanka at Lord’s, in which no-one was out bowled. Ever since then I have wondered how rare an occurrence that is – was it a Test record? asked Justin Horton from Brixton, London
It’s quite near the top of the list, at seventh – 24 wickets fell in that match, and none of them was bowled – but there has actually only been one Test in which all 40 wickets fell and none of them was bowled. It was the fourth Test between West Indies and England at Georgetown in 1997-98 – there were 29 catches and 10 lbws, but the only time the stumps were hit for a dismissal was when Shivnarine Chanderpaul was run out. There were 38 wickets, none of them bowled, in the nailbiting decider of the amazing 2000-01 series between India and Australia at Chennai, which India won by two wickets to clinch the series. There was even a rare handled-ball dismissal in that one (Steve Waugh).Recently you answered a question about people scoring a century in their first and last Tests. I think Saeed Anwar scored a century in both his last Test and his last one-day international – has anyone else done this? asked Zeeshan Shah from Sydney
Well, the short answer is that nobody has done this – Saeed Anwar actually only managed 40 not out in his last one-dayer, against Zimbabwe in the 2003 World Cup, after scoring the last of his 20 one-day hundreds in the previous match. Lowering the qualification level a little, it’s surprising to discover that only two players have managed half-centuries in both their last Test and last one-dayer – and naming them correctly would win you many a pub quiz. The first one is England’s Clive Radley, who made 77 in his last Test and 117 not out in his last one-dayer, both against New Zealand in 1978; and the other is Julien Wiener, the Australian opener, who made his highest score of 93 in what turned out to be his last Test, and 50 – another career-best – in his last one-dayer, both in 1979-80.Steven Lynch is editor of Wisden Cricinfo. For some of these answers he was helped by Travis Basevi, the man who built Stats Guru and the Wisden Wizard. If you want to Ask Steven a question, e-mail him at [email protected]. The most interesting questions will be answered each week in this column. Unfortunately, we can’t usually enter into correspondence about individual queries.