21st March, 2002

Name: Sreekanth
Question: Menon, Any non striking batsman walked away to protest the decision of umpire? I heard that Gavaskar walked off the field with Chetan Chauhan? Can you breif us on that incident? Was that match official? Did Gavaskar get punished?

Answer: The Test match was the final one against Australia at Melbourne on 10 Feb 1981 - the fourth day of the match. India almost came close to forfeiting the match. Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar, who was in poor form before this innings managed to reach 70 (Ind were then 165 for no loss) when he vehemently disagreed with the umpire the lbw decision against himself off the bowling of Dennis Lillee, Gavaskar then urged his partner Chetan Chauhan to leave the field with him. However, Indian team manager Wing Cdr. SK Durrani, met the players at the gate and ordered Chauhan to continue his innings. This Test match is considered as an official Test match and no action was taken against Gavaskar.

Name: Anujay
Question: Dear Mr.Menon: Could you please tell me how many times India crossed 300 in a ODI matches both in India and abroad.

Answer: India has achieved 300-plus scores on 19 occasions - 11 at home and 8 away

Name: Utpal Desai
Question: A bowler bowls a no-ball (a bouncer) which is hit in the air and caught. In the meantime, the batsman cross over for 2 runs. How do you score this?
a) One run for no-ball plus two additional runs for a total of three runs.
b) Just the one run for the no-ball.

Answer: The team gets three runs - 2 runs for the batsman and 1 run to extras for the no-ball.

Name: Sunil Shinde
Question: Who are the top five batsman to be out the most number of time in the nervous nineties?

Answer: Most scores in the 90s in Tests - Steve Waugh (Aus) - 10, Michael Slater (Aus) - 9, Alvin Kallicharran (WI) - 8, Clem Hill (Aus), Rohan Kanhai (WI), Geoff Boycott (Eng), Gordon Greenidge and Inzamam-ul Haq (Pak) - all six each.

Name: Jagdish Nair
Question: I have read about the 8 ball overs being bowled in International matches. Can you tell me the period that this practice was in play for?

Answer: 8-ball overs have been bowled in Tests: in England (in 1939), in Australia (1924-25, 1936-37 to 1978-79), in South Africa (from 1938-39 to 1957-58), in New Zealand (in 1968-69 to 1978-79) and in Pakistan (from 1974-75 to 1977-78)

Name: Amjath
Question: Who is the first batsmen got out by obstructing the field in Tests and ODI's? Kindly give the date,venue and the opponent team and explain how he got out.

Answer: In Tests the only player dismissed "obstructing the field" remains as England's Len Hutton (27 runs) against South Africa at the Oval in August 1951. A ball from South African off-spinner Athol Rowan ballooned up from Hutton's bat top edge and the batsman tried to fend it off his wicket with his bat, thus preventing wicket-keeeper Russell Endean from making a catch.

In ODIs, it has happened twice against Pakistani Rameez Raja (99) against England on 20-11-1987 at Karachi and Indian Mohinder Amarnath (28) against Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad on 22-10-1989.

Raja (then 98) after facing the last ball of the match set off for the two runs he needed for his century. However while completing his second run he deliberately stopped the ball with his bat, thus preventing wicket-keeper Bruce French, who had rolled the ball in an attempt to break the wicket at the bowler's end, from running him out.

Amarnath after playing defensively to Sri Lankan pace bowler Kapila Wijegunawardene, stepped out of the crease to take a run but seeing the bowler charging down the track, kicked the ball in order to prevent the bowler from running him out. He was given out by Pakistani umpire Khizer Hayat.

Name: Ashwin
Question: Who are the top 5 players who have won the maximum number of "man of the match" awards in Tests and also one day Internationals.

Answer: In ODIs - maximum man of the match awards in ODIs were won by - Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) - 43, Viv Richards (WI) - 31, Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) - 28, Saeed Anwar (Pak) - 27 and Desmond Haynes (WI), Aravinda deSilva (SL), Sourav Ganguly (Ind) - 26 each.

In Test matches such awards began sometime in the mid eighties. Pakistani Wasim Akram (17) and West Indian Curtly Ambrose (14) have won the maximum awards in Tests.

Name: Devendra
Question: The recent one-day games between India and South Africa provided the unusual instance of the rival captains facing each other on the first ball of an innings, with Pollock opening his side's bowling and Ganguly taking strike for India. One remembers Gavaskar and Imran facing each other in similar fashion when India toured Pakistan in 1982-83. Have there been any other similar instances in Test cricket ?

Answer: I could locate these instances too. 1.England captain Arthur Gilligan opened the bowling attack, with South African captain & opening batsman Herbie Taylor facing at Birmingham in June 1924 and at Lord's in June 1924 - the first ball of the match 2.England captain Gubby Allen opened the bowling attack, with West Indian captain & opening batsman John Goddard facing at Kingston in March 1948.

Name: Vasudha
Question: Nathan Astle's breath-taking fastest Test double century last week came off 153 balls. His first hundred took 114 balls and the second took just 39 balls. Had this got reversed (first 100 off 39 balls and second off 114 balls), would that have broken the fastest Test century record held by Viv Richards?

Answer: Yes! he would have. Since the fastest 100 in terms of balls is 56 - by West Indian Viv Richards against England at St John's in 1985-86.

Name: Amit
Question: In the recent England-NZ Test match where Astle scored the fastest double century, he scored his second 100 in just 39 balls. Would this be recorded as the fastest century in Test history? Were these the fastest 100 runs (not necessarily from 0 to 100) in Test history? If not, who has scored the fastest 100 runs? Thanks

Answer: According to newspaper reports, Wally Hammond during his triple hundred against New Zealand at Auckland in 1933, need just 47 balls to go from 200 to 300. So it seems Astle's second 100 in 39 balls is the fastest ever.

Mail Cricket Editor