7th August, 2002

Name: Anil
Question: Mr. Menon, of the three Indian batting stars: Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, who is involved in more hundred run partnerships in thier careers? Can you also give their career details for Tests (first innings and second innings seperately)?

Answer1: In Tests - Tendulkar has been involved in 44 100+ partnerships, while Ganguly and Dravid have been involved in 21 and 32 100+ partnerships respectively. Tendulkar in Tests (all records are updated upto the end of Lord's Test):

	M	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	0
1st inns		95	3	5831	217	63.38	21	24	6
2nd inns		61	12	2201	155*	44.92	8	8	4
Total	97	156	15	8032	217	56.96	29	32	10

Ganguly in Tests (all records are updated upto the end of Lord's Test):

	M	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	0
1st inns		58	0	2286	173	39.41	7	8	3
2nd inns		42	11	1390	101*	44.84	1	9	4
Total	59	100	11	3676	173	41.30	8	17	7

Dravid in Tests (all records are updated upto the end of Lord's Test):

	M	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	0
1st inns		61	4	3131	200*	54.93	7	17	1
2nd inns		44	7	1711	180	46.24	3	10	1
Total	61	105	11	4842	200*	51.51	10	27	2

Name: Anandam Mamidipudi
Question: Because of the influence of one-day cricket, today's batsmen are generally considered to be more aggressive than their predecessors. However, is it true that none of the contemporary batsmen have managed to score a Test century before lunch or in one session? How many batsmen have achieved this in the past? Are there any Indians? Correct me if I'm wrong, I think Sir Don Bradman actually scored 300 runs in one day (three sessions)!

Answer2: Only four batsmen have reached hundreds before lunch on the first day in 125 years of Test cricket, while several others have done so on other days. Pakistani Majid Khan was the last batsman to do so in 1976 on the first day. Incidentally, Aravinda deSilva during his double hundred against Bangladesh recently, scored 105 runs between lunch and tea at the P Sara Stadium, Colombo.

Though no Indians have scored a Test hundred before lunch, Azharuddin in 1990 (between lunch and tea) and VVS Laxman in 2000 (in the last session) have made hundreds in one session.

In 1930 at Leeds Bradman made 309 runs in a day during his innings of 334 runs. He made 105 before lunch, 115 between lunch and tea and made 89 in the last session. It should however be noted that during Bradman's innings England bowlers bowled 134 overs during the day. This fact would explain as to why this feat is not being acheived more often these days.

Name: Krthick Krishnan
Question: Is a 12th man eligible for Man of the Match(probably due to extraordinary fielding and great catches which won the match). If yes, are there any such instances?

Answer3: Unfortunately, the 12th man is not eligible for Man of the Match award. The players eligible are only for the 22 players for the match.

Name: B. Chandramouli
Question: This is a question related to Sudarshan Boloor's question on how to figure out the partnership if one batsman retires hurt. Batsman A and B are playing. B retires hurt. C comes along and plays for a while he retires hurt. At this time B comes back. Does the partnership between A and B now continue?

Answer4: Yes, the first and second parts of the partnerships between A and B will constitute a whole partnership.

Name: PavanKumar
Question: Dear Sir, COuld you please let us know which current indian batsmen is very good at abroad in Tests and onedays tooo? And also give us the statistics of those players

Answer5: Test records of contemporary Indian batsmen abroad.
Tendulkar has the best run aggregate but Dravid has the best average abroad:

	M	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	0
SR Tendulkar	55	88	8	4144	177	51.80	15	18	7
RS Dravid	33	57	8	2641	190	53.90	6	15	2
SC Ganguly	32	54	5	2027	147	41.37	4	9	4
VVS Laxman	20	34	5	1311	167	45.21	2	8	2
SS Das	13	24	2	703	82*	31.95	-	6	3

ODI records of contemporary Indian batsmen abroad:

	M	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	0	Sr
SR Tendulkar	199	194	18	7490	146	42.56	21	33	10	85.93
SC Ganguly	151	146	10	5656	183	41.59	14	31	6	72.91
RS Dravid	133	122	14	4160	145	38.52	4	31	2	66.49
Yuvraj Singh	33	28	4	682	98*	28.42	-	4	2	83.17
V Sehwag	28	27	3	663	100	27.63	1	3	4	95.95
AB Agarkar	63	39	13	375	30	14.42	-	-	4	75.30
VVS Laxman	23	21	2	347	87*	18.26	-	2	1	52.10

Name: Srinivas
Question: Srinath played lot of Test cricket, but can you plz tell with which fast bowler in tandom he is more successfull.

Answer6: Srianth has played 21 Test matches with Venkatesh Prasad and has taken exactly 100 wickets, while Prasad has 68 wickets in the 21 matches played between them. These figures indicate that Prasad has been the best opening new ball partner for Srinath.

Name: ravi
Question: Dear Mr menon Which Test match saw the least number of wicket fall and did not end in a draw?

Answer7: When England beat South Africa by 2 wkts at Centurion on January 18, 2000, in a Test match only 16 wickets fell. This was the infamous Test match in which both teams forfeited one of their innings.

Name: Vithal
Question: How many man of the match awards have been won by Rahul Dravid. Please give break up for home & away.

Answer8: In 177 ODI matches, Dravid has won seven MOM awards. And none of these awards have come at home

Name: Ramesh
Question: What is Sachin's highest score abroad.

Answer9: Tendulkar's highest in Tests is 177 against England at Nottingham in 1996 and in ODIs it is 146 against Kenya at Paarl in 2001.

Name: P Rathi
Question: Is it true that Wasim Jaffer has scored a triple century on debut. How many others have done this

Answer10: Wasim Jaffer did not score a triple century on debut. He scored 314 not out for Mumbai against Saurashtra at Rajkot in 1996, which was in his second first-class match although it was his only second first-class innings. As on date no batsman has ever scored a triple hundred on first-class debut.

Mail Cricket Editor