da betobet： Prolific partnerships in all forms of the game, and opening bowlers whose fathers were Test players too
da roleta： Steven Lynch18-Dec-2007The regular Tuesday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questionsabout (almost) any aspect of cricket:
Eight-thousand two-hundred and twenty-seven: that’s how many runs Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have put on together for India in ODIs © AFP
Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan now hold the record of being the mostprolific partnership for Pakistan in Tests, but which is the most prolificpair overall – in Tests and in ODIs – and, while you are at it,Twenty20s? asked Abhijit Shukla from the United States
Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf did recentlybecome Pakistan’s most prolific partnership: by the end of the seriesagainst India they had put on 3080 runs together, beating the previousrecord of 3013 by Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq. But they are quite a long waydown the overall Test list,which is headed by Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, who put on 6482 runstogether, not far ahead of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer (6081). The ODI list is headed, notsurprisingly, by Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, who have put on 8227runs together for India, well ahead of the next pair, Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya (5462). In the short history of Twenty20 internationals,the top pair are Australia’s Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, with 398runs between them. For what it’s worth, there’s a full list here.In the second Test against Sri Lanka, England’s bowling was opened by twosons of former Test cricketers. Is this a first? asked Robin fromEngland
In Sri Lanka’s innings during last week’s Test in Colombo, the new ballwas shared by StuartBroad, the son of the former England opener Chris, and Ryan Sidebottom, whosefather Arnie played once for England in 1985. This was indeed a first inTest cricket, although there was one previous instance of both new-ballbowlers having a father who played Test cricket – when Dayle and Richard Hadlee opened the bowlingfor New Zealand against Australia atAdelaide in 1973-74. Their father Walter Hadlee played 11 Tests forNew Zealand between 1937 and 1950-51. For a full list of related Testplayers, click here.Who once bowled a 17-ball over in an ODI? askedDave Burton from Reading
The unlucky bowler who sent down the longest known over in internationalcricket was Mohammad Sami ofPakistan, with the third over of the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh in Colombo in 2004. It included fourno-balls and seven wides, and the sequence of the over was:wd-4-2-nb-wd-nb1-0-wd-wd-0-wd-nb-wd-wd-nb-0-4. Ironically, Sami’s previousover had been a wicket maiden, so he came off with the bizarre figures of2-1-22-1. Pakistan officials explained that he was trying to remodel hisaction and was struggling for rhythm. The longest over in a Test is believedto be one of 15 deliveries – including nine no-balls – by Curtly Ambrose forWest Indies against Australia atPerth in 1996-97.Graeme Swann missed 175 ODIs before his recall to play for Englandrecently. Is this is a record? asked Jamie Clifton fromNewark
Rather surprisingly, GraemeSwann’s long gap is not even a record for England – Shaun Udal missed 193 matches inmore than ten years between 1995 and his recall in 2005-06. But Udal is onlyfourth on the overall list, which is headed by the New Zealander Jeff Wilson: he missed 271 matches,over a record 11 years and 331 days, between his debut series in 1992-93 anda short-lived recall in 2004-05. (In between, Wilson had been playing rugbyunion for the New Zealand All-Blacks.) For a full list, click here.Has any batsman scored two double-centuries in the same Test match?asked P Balaji from India
No one has yet managed this in a Test match. The closest was by GrahamGooch, who made 333 and 123 for England against India at Lord’s in 1990. Five other playershave managed a double and a single century in the same Test, most recentlyBrian Lara, with 221 and 130 for West Indies in Colombo in 2001-02, in a match SriLanka still won by ten wickets. For a list of the others, click here. Only one man hasscored two double-centuries in the same game in first-class cricket: Kent’sArthur Fagg, against Essex at Colchester in 1938. He scored 244 in the first innings, and 202 notout in the second. That included a century before lunch on the first day,and 98 in 90 minutes before lunch on the third.Who called his life story Mad As I Wanna Be? asked JaredChristopher from Sydney
This unusual title adorned the 1997 autobiography of the New Zealand fastbowler Danny Morrison. NewZealand players make something of a habit of giving their books peculiarnames, as readers of this column over the years may have noted!And there’s an afterthought to last week’s question about DonBradman, from Max Bonnell in Australia
“I don’t know why people keep repeating the idea that Otto Nothling was, in his only Test in 1928-29, areplacement for Don Bradman.Bradman (a specialist batsman) lost his place in the XI to Vic Richardson (aspecialist batsman). Nothling (an opening bowler and handy lower-orderbatsman) replaced Jack Gregory (an opening bowler and handy lower-orderbatsman) who broke down in Brisbane with a knee injury. The idea thatNothling took Bradman’s spot seems to be impossible to kill – it wasrepeated by Peter Roebuck on Australian radio a few weeks ago – but it justisn’t true.”