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Showing posts from August, 2020

The unknown record of Younis Khan as a substitute fielder

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We all know Younis Khan as a great batsman for Pakistan. He has scored over 10,000 runs in Tests and 7000 runs in ODIs. He also has a triple hundred in Tests to his name. But he also holds the record for the most number of catches taken by a substitute fielder in a Test innings. It happened during the 1st Test of the Asian Test Championship in 2001 against Bangladesh. Batting first, Bangladesh were all out for 134 in the first innings. Danish Kaneria who picked 6 wickets for 42 runs was the pick among bowlers for Pakistan. Pakistani batsmen capitalised on the hopeless bowling unit of Bangladesh and 5 out of 6 Pakistani batsmen who came out to bat scored centuries. Saeed Anwar (101), Taufeeq Umar (104), Inzamam-ul-Haq (105), Mohammad Yousuf (102) and Abdul Razzaq (110) were the centurions. Pakistan declared the innings at 546. Bangladesh who came out to bat were ripped apart again by Danish Kaneria, as he picked another 6-fer. But the highlight was, Younis Khan who came out to field as

The only instance of 4 century-partnerships being born in an ODI match

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There has been only one instance in the history of ODI cricket where four hundred-run partnerships were formed in a match. Let us look at what happened that day. It was the first ODI of Sri Lanka's tour of India in 2009. Batting first, India got a dream start as Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar (69) made a terrific partnership of 153 in just 19 overs. MS Dhoni (72)who came in at No. 3 also started hitting the bowlers mercilessly and India crossed 300 in 35 overs. They added 156 runs for the 3rd wicket and India eventually finished at a mammoth score of 414. Sehwag scored a scintillating 146 off just 102 balls. The Sri Lankan batsmen started from where India left. Openers Upul Tharanga (67) along with Tillakaratne Dilshan (160) stitched 188 runs off just 24 overs. Kumar Sangakkara who came in at 3, was in a destructive mood and he made 90 runs from just 43 balls. Their partnership added 128 runs from the next 12 overs and Sri Lanka were inching towards victory. But they lost San

Most extras conceded in an ODI match

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The record for the most number of extras bowled in a match belongs to the 1999 World Cup match between Pakistan and Scotland. Batting first, Pakistan scored 261 runs from 50 overs. Mohammad Yousuf top-scored with 81 runs and the second-best score was 59 which came as extra runs. All the Scotland bowlers gave away extras at will. John Blain bowled 6 wides and 6 no-balls. Asim Butt & Gavin Hamilton bowled 8 wides and 3 no-balls each. James Brinkley gave away 6 wides and Ian Stanger bowled 1 wide and 3 no-balls. Scotland were fined 1 over for a slow over-rate in this match. Even the Pakistan bowlers didn't seem to be disciplined, as they gave away 37 extras within the 39 overs they bowled. When Wasim Akram gave away 6 wides, Azhar Mahmood gave 3 and Saqlain Mushtaq bowled 2 wides. Shoib Akhtar ended up bowling 2 wides and a no-ball, Adul Razzaq gave away 1 wide and 5 no-balls, and Shahid Afridi delivered 2 no-balls. The overall extras added up to 96 runs ! (6 byes, 17 leg-byes, 50

Players who remained not out on 99, 199 and 299 in Tests

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 Let us look at the unlucky cricketers who had to remain not out on 99, 199 or 299 runs in test cricket. 1. Don Bradman  (Australia) - 299 not out vs South Africa in 1932 2. Kumar Sangakkara  (Sri Lanka) - 199 not out vs Pakistan in 2012 3. Andy Flower (Zimbabwe) - 199 not out vs South Africa in 2001 4. Geoffrey Boycott (England) -  99 not out vs Australia in 1979 5. Steve Waugh (Australia) - 99 not out vs England in 1995 6. Alex Tudor (England) - 99 not out vs New Zealand in 1999 7. Shaun Pollock (South Africa) - 99 not out vs Sri Lanka in 2002 8. Andrew Hall (South Africa) - 99 not out vs England in 2003

3 players who converted their maiden test century into a triple ton

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There are only three players who converted their first Test century into a triple hundred. Let us look who they are. 1. Sir Garry Sobers The legendary West Indian all-rounder Garry Sobers scored a record-breaking 365* against Pakistan in 1958, at the age of 21. This was his first three-figure score and he broke the record for the highest individual score too with this innings. 2. Bob Simpson Simpson was predominantly a balling-allrounder for Australia until his 30th Test, where he scored a magnificent 311, batting for more than 12 hours. This was his first century and he went on to score 9 more during his illustrious career. 3 . Karun Nair Karun Nair had played just 6 Test matches for India. But he became the first and only Indian to convert a maiden Test century into triple hundred. He scored a brisk 303 against England in 2016, from just 381 balls.

Players with the highest strike-rates in a Test innings

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Test cricket is known to be the purest form of cricket which tests a batsman's patience. Most of the batsmen won't even mind scoring at a strike rate of below 50 in Tests. But there are players who broke the conventional style of Test cricket. Let us look some of the players with the highest strike rate in a Test Innings. 1. Umesh Yadav: The Indian pacer Umesh Yadav torn apart the South African bowlers during the 2019 series in India. He scored a 10-ball 31 including 5 huge sixes. Skipper Virat Kohli gave him the license to flex his muscles as India were already in a comfortable position. This is the only instance of a batsman scoring in excess of 300 strike rate in Tests! 2. Stephen Fleming: The New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming scored a 11-ball 31 against South Africa in 2004. Chasing a small target of 51 in the fourth innings, Fleming scored 6 fours and a Six which helped New Zealand chase it down in 11 overs. It was also the first-ever Test win for New Zealand against S

Players with most runs in Tests, without a century

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 Let us have a look at the players who scored most runs in Test cricket without having a century to their name. 1. Shane Warne: The legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne tops the list with 3154 runs from 145 matches. Over a 15-year long career, he scored 12 half-centuries, but none of them got converted into a ton. His highest score was 99. 2. Chetan Chauhan: Chauhan was a successful batsman who opened for India alongside Sunil Gavaskar. He played 40 matches and scored 2084 runs at a healthy average of 31.57. He scored 16 half-centuries, but the three-figure mark remained an unfulfilled achievement. His highest score was 97. 3. Derryck Murray: The West Indian wicket-keeper batsman Derryck Murray scored 1993 runs from 60 matches. His highest score was 91. 4. Niroshan Dickwella: The swashbuckling wicket-keeper batsman from Sri Lanka has scored 1921 runs from 31 matches till now. Even though he scored 15  half-centuries, he couldn't convert any of them into the milestone number. Hi

The cricket player who took 17 years to score his first Test century

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  It took   17 years and 118 Matches  for Anil Kumble to register the first Test century. The legendary leg-spinner went on to score his first ton against England in 2007, finishing unbeaten on 110 off 193 balls. The score was 508/7 when India lost the last recognized batsman, MS Dhoni. But Kumble made handy partnerships with Zaheer Khan, RP Singh and Sreesanth, thereby helping India to post a total of 664 onboard. The match was drawn and India won the 3 match series 1–0. It was after 21 years, India managed to win a Test series in England. Despite having many batting heavyweights like Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and Dhoni in the side,  Anil Kumble was the only Indian to have made a hundred in the entire series.