And how often has a player made twin hundreds in a Test but ended up on the losing side?
Steven Lynch27-Apr-2021In a recent IPL match Steven Smith was caught by Jhye Richardson off the bowling off Riley Meredith – all three Australians. How many such dismissals, involving three overseas players from the same country, have there been? asked P Sridhat from India
The wicket you’re talking about came during the match between the Delhi Capitals and the Punjab Kings in Mumbai last week. Steven Smith, playing for Delhi, was caught at third man by Jhye Richardson off Riley Meredith, Australians all.It sent Shiva Jayaraman, of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team, delving into the darker recesses of his database, and he discovered 18 previous cases of an IPL dismissal involving three overseas players from the same country. Eleven of them also comprised three Aussies, including the first, when David Hussey was caught by Cameron White off Ashley Noffke while playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru in the very first IPL match, back in 2008.Adam Gilchrist was the unlucky batter three times, while Ryan Harris was the bowler on three other occasions. Smith also featured as a fielder, when he caught Glenn Maxwell off Kane Richardson for the Rajasthan Royals against the Kings XI Punjab in Sharjah in 2014.Getty ImagesHow many people played the last one-day international of their career in a World Cup final? asked Richard Jellicoe from England
At the moment there are 16 men who fit the bill here, including Liam Plunkett – he has been overlooked by England since the 2019 final, but has been linked with playing for the United States, where his wife is from.Plunkett is one of nine men whose ODI careers were rounded off by a World Cup win, following Rohan Kanhai (1975), Imran Khan (1992), Paul Reiffel (1999), Glenn McGrath (2007), Sreesanth (2011), and the Australian trio of Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson in 2015. The other seven tasted defeat: Ross Edwards (1975), Faoud Bacchus (1983), Javagal Srinath (2003), Russel Arnold (2007), Muttiah Muralitharan and Thilan Samaraweera (2011), and Daniel Vettori (2015).In women’s cricket, where such matches were more infrequent in the early years, there are 33 players whose final ODI appearance came in a World Cup final.RCB overhauled a target of 178 without losing a wicket the other day – was this the highest total involved in a ten-wicket win in the IPL? asked Praveen Mistry from India
The Royal Challengers Bangalore hurtled to 181 for 0 in defeating the Rajasthan Royals (177 for 9) in Mumbai the other day. It was the 15th ten-wicket win in IPL history, but only two of those involved a higher target being overhauled: the Chennai Super Kings also made 181 for 0 in defeating the Kings XI Punjab (178 for 4) in Dubai in 2020, while the Kolkata Knight Riders ran up 185 for 0 to clobber the Gujarat Lions (183 for 4) in Rajkot in 2017.Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal took RCB to the third highest ten-wicket win in the IPL, against the Rajasthan Royals•BCCIOllie Robinson took six lbws in an innings – and nine in the match – in the County Championship the other day. Was either of those a record? asked Mark Plummer from England
The answer is that the Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson’s haul of lbws against Glamorgan in Cardiff earlier this month equalled both those first-class records. There had been three previous instances of a bowler claiming six lbws in a first-class innings, by Mark Ilott on his way to 9 for 19 for Essex against Northamptonshire in Luton in 1995, Chaminda Vaas for Western Province vs Southern Province in Colombo in 2004-05, and Tabish Khan for Karachi Whites against Khan Research Laboratories in Karachi in 2011-12.Ilott finished with nine lbws in that Luton match, as did Kabir Khan for Peshawar against Karachi Blues in Peshawar in 1991-92, and Tabraiz Shamsi for Titans vs Warriors in Port Elizabeth in 2015-16.In one of last week’s answers you mentioned a Test in which Virat Kohli scored twin centuries, but ended up on the losing side. How often has this happened in Tests? asked Gordhan Valasai from Pakistan
Virat Kohli scored 115 and 141 against Australia in Adelaide in 2014-15, in his first Test as India’s captain. That was the tenth time a batter had scored two centuries in a match and ended up on the losing side: the first was England’s Herbert Sutcliffe, with 176 and 127 against Australia in Melbourne in 1924-25.Since Kohli did it there has been one further occurrence: Brendan Taylor scored 110 and 106 not out for Zimbabwe in Mirpur in 2018-19, but Bangladesh won the match. Two other Indians have managed this bittersweet feat: Vijay Hazare, against Australia in Adelaide in 1947-48 (a match in which he also bowled Don Bradman, although not before he’d made 201), and Sunil Gavaskar, against Pakistan in Karachi in 1978-79.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions
