Also: run out twice in a Test, and a fifty and ten wickets in the same Test
Steven Lynch16-Aug-2016Who’s the only Test cricketer to receive an Olympic track and field gold medal? asked Gordon Lewcock from England
My first thought was that there wasn’t anyone who qualified, as the only Test cricketers to win Olympic gold medals are England captain Johnny Douglas (boxing in 1908), Essex fast bowler Claude Buckenham (football 1900), and Somerset batsman Jack MacBryan (hockey 1920). And then I realised that the operative word was “receive”: the question doesn’t actually say “win”. The incident in question was unearthed by David Foot, for his 1985 book Unholy Trinity, the three subjects of which included the aforementioned MacBryan, part of Great Britain’s gold-medal-winning hockey squad in Antwerp in 1920. The book reveals what was apparently an unpublicised incident at the time of publication. The South African athlete Bevil Rudd won the 400 metres on the track – but, in those more austere days, had gone home when the time came for the King of the Belgians to present the medals a day or two later. MacBryan, though, was still in Antwerp. “For some reason, probably because I also had very dark hair, I was discreetly asked to take Rudd’s place,” he told Foot. “The name was called out and up I went, a party to the subterfuge. The King shook my hand and said he was honoured to meet me because South African troops had occupied a small area of Belgium for the whole of the war which had just ended. I acknowledged with courtesy. My phoney identity was never suspected.”A consistent run scorer for Somerset in the 1920s, MacBryan played one Test for England, against South Africa at Old Trafford in 1924 – but did not bat or bowl in a rain-affected match, and rather unluckily never won another cap.Asad Shafiq scored a century at The Oval after a pair in the previous Test. How many people have done this? asked Manzoor Ahmed from Pakistan
Asad Shafiq’s quick recovery in the final Test against England at The Oval after two ducks at Edgbaston represented the 19th occasion on which a player has followed a pair with a century in his next Test (not always his country’s next match). The only other Pakistani to manage this was Wazir Mohammad, the oldest of the famous brotherhood, who followed two ducks against West Indies in the second Test at Port-of-Spain in 1957-58 with 2 and 106 in the third in Kingston. Ravi Bopara followed three successive ducks (including a pair) for England in 2007-08 with three successive hundreds against West Indies in 2009. But perhaps the most noteworthy turnaround was achieved by Sri Lanka’s Chamara Silva, against New Zealand in 2006-07: dismissed for a pair on his Test debut in Christchurch, he bounced back with 61 and 152 not out in his second match, in Wellington.How may people have scored a fifty and also taken ten wickets in the same Test? asked Saleem Ranjha from Pakistan This particular double has been achieved on 25 different occasions now, most recently by Sri Lanka’s Dilruwan Perera (64 and 10 for 99) in the second Test against Australia in Galle earlier this month. Richard Hadlee of New Zealand did it three times: no one else has managed it more than once. This number includes the three players who converted their half-century into a three-figure innings, to go with a ten-for: Ian Botham, for England against India in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1979-80; Imran Khan, for Pakistan v India in Faisalabad in 1982-83; and Shakib Al Hasan, for Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in Khulna in 2014-15.Before the recent Galle Test, the 1997 Ashes Test at The Oval was the last time no Australian batsman scored a fifty•Patrick Eagar/Getty ImagesNo Australian batsman reached 50 in the second Test in Galle. When was the last time this happened? asked Donny Ugboma from Costa Rica
Australia’s performance in the second Test in Galle – where their highest individual score was David Warner’s 42 – was only the 38th time in 790 matches that they had finished a Test with no scores of 50 or more (and this number includes some severely rain-affected games). Only 15 of those have been in the last 100 years; 23 of them came before World War I. The previous instance was at the end of the 1997 Ashes series, in the sixth Test at The Oval, a low-scoring match ultimately won by England by just 19 runs: Australia’s highest individual contribution was Greg Blewett’s 47.Who has scored the most runs and taken the most wickets in all T20 matches worldwide? asked Rajiv Karthikeyan from India
It’s not a great surprise to find Chris Gayle leading the way for batsmen in all senior T20 cricket: in all matches to date he has scored 9668 runs, so should reach 10,000 fairly soon. Quite a distance behind is the veteran Australian Brad Hodge, with 7052, not far in front of Brendon McCullum (6955) and David Warner (6868). Gayle is also way ahead on the list of six-hitters, with 707 – nearly 300 clear of second-placed Kieron Pollard, on 412. Another West Indian leads the way for the bowlers: Dwayne Bravo has 341 T20 wickets. Lasith Malinga is currently stuck on 299, with Yasir Arafat next with 280.Further to the recent question about batsmen being stumped in each innings of a Test, how many people have been run out in both innings? asked Ian Flack from England
There have now been 24 instances of a batsman being run out in both innings of a Test, the most recent by New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming, against Zimbabwe in Wellington in 2000-01. The Australian pair of Ian Healy and Mark Taylor suffered this fate twice! The first double run-out victim was another Australian, Peter McAlister, in an Ashes Test in Melbourne in 1907-08, while the unluckiest was arguably the West Indian fast bowler John Trim, who bagged a pair in this way against Australia in Melbourne in 1951-52.