Not Just Cricket, Again...

In 1926 130 (about 22 overs) odd balls used to be bowled in an hours time! This was recorded in a match at The Oval between England and Australia. Today 12-14 overs (70-80 balls) are bowled per hour.

Now we get to see a 17-ball 50 and a 36-ball hundred. Contrast this with Gavaskar scoring 36 (not out) in 60 overs in the 1975 World Cup.

The average age of an international cricket player these days is 22-23. A debut at 17 is also quite common. Most cricketers start planning their retirement as they hit 30. But the scene was different in the good old days. When Indian players RJD Jamshedji and C Ramaswami made their Test debut in 1930s, they were past 40!

Rare Feat

Australian opener Reginald A Duff scored 146 in his last Test innings at The Oval, against England in 1905. In his debut Test in 1901-02, going in to bat at No.10, he had scored 104 against England at Melbourne. He had a 120-run last wicket partnership with Warwick Armstrong.

Gregory Chappel was another Australian to have scored a century in his first as well as his last Test.

Bad luck

An example of a cricketer who wasn’t sent into the world to become a cricket star, despite showing an aptitude for the game: West Indian Andrew Ganteaume eclipsed Don Bradman with a career average of 112. Bradman averaged 99.94. In his one and only Test, against England at Port-of-Spain in Trinidad in 1947-48, he scored 112, but was never picked again. Reason being the then formidable batting line-up of West Indies. It was the era of Walcott, Worrell, Weekes, Sobers, Kanhai, and Gomez.

Another cricketing career is that of Rodney Redmond of New Zealand, who scored 107 and 56 against Pakistan in 1972-73 at Eden Park, Auckland, and never played another Test.

1945-1946 New Zealand v Australia 1st Test Basin Reserve: Australian leg-break bowler William J O'Reilly finished New Zealand’s Charles G Rowe’s career when he bowled him out in both the innings of his debut Test for a duck. Also, in a total of 295 runs scored in the three innings there were no boundaries hit. Australia won the Test by an innings and 103 runs.

Freak incidents

Graham Gooch starred in an unusual dismissal at Leeds in 1986. India’s Maninder Singh edged a ball from Graham Dilley which Graham Gooch dropped. Alert wicket keeper Bruce French tried to hold the rebound, but failed. While the ball popped out of French’s gloves, Gooch kicked it up with his foot and completed the catch at the third combined attempt.

During the India Pakistan Test in 1986-87, the 80,000-strong crowd stood up to applaud local lad Arun Lal on three occasions—only to learn that Lal had run leg byes and failed to get his second fifty in the game. Lal did get his half century later, and the crowd was on its feet for a fourth time.