Cricket has caught the eye of sporting public

by A.C. de Silva

Cricket is a sport that has a lot of interest for the connoisseur of the game. There are some instances that will keep the interested parties glued to the application of the rules to various instances when the rules have to be applied.

The game of cricket is played according to rules like any other sport. There are a lot of interesting incidents that take place during a cricket match.

Any game is played according to a set of rules and for cricket there are a set of rules and there are the umpires who are deployed to see that the rules will be adhered to by the two teams that play in the match.

There are some incidents that are common to the players, but at the same team there are some incidents that are not familiar with the players.

'Bail' went 67 yards 6 inches

Take for instance the 'bail' that is kept on the wickets. It is on record that the longest recorded distance for a bail to travel from stumps after the batsman has been bowled is 67 yards 6 inches. This record occurred at Old Trafford, Manchester, on 29th June 1911 when Robert Burrows of Worcestershire bowled Williams Huddleston of Lancashire and one of the bails at the batsman's end flew as far as the boundary.

Cricket is a game where there are many records that are being established during the course of a game. The cricketers are dead keen in establishing records so that they will be remembered for many months and sometimes years to come.

It is on record that the only cricketer to score a century and take all ten wickets in an innings in a first-class match in Britain since 1869 is Dr. W.G. Grace. He was playing for the MCC against Oxford University in the Oxford Parks on June 21 and 22 in 1886. "The champion" scored 104 _ in his only innings, before taking all ten Oxford second innings wickets for 49 runs in 36.2 four-ball overs.

Six day - fourth Test

The game is played for long hours and in England there was a match that was played and finally ended in a draw - that's the Six-Day Fourth Test between England and Australia at the Oval in 1975. Actual playing time, excluding 187 minutes lost and 'breaks' between innings, totalled 32 hours 17 minutes.

Two other six-day matches have been staged in England, both Test matches against Australia at The Oval. In 1930 Australia won at 3.50 p.m. on the last day after rain had prevented play on the penultimate one. Then 42 years later, Australia repeated their victory at 2.49 p.m. on the sixth day.

High scores are the fancy of most teams, especially in Test matches. However, there have been low scores that have caught the eye of spectators too. The lowest innings total in Test cricket is 26 by New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland on 28th March 1955.

Playing the second of Two Tests against Hutton's England team which had just retained the "Ashes" in Australia, New Zealand had contained the tourists to a first innings lead of 46. a crowd of 14,000 saw the home side reduced to 14 for 5 and eventually dismissed in 27 overs by Frank Tyson (2 for 10), Brian Statham (3 for 9) Appleyard (4 for 7) and Wardle (1 for 0).

Opening batsman Best sutcliffe (11) achieved the only double - figure score of an innings which lasted 106 minutes either side of the tea - interval on the third day.

Appleyard and took 3 wickets in four balls and narrowly missed the hat-trick. It was Hutton's last.

Don Bradman - 99.94 in Test career

The highest batting average in a Test career involving more than five innings is 99.94 by Donald Bradman for Australia. In 52 Tests Bradman scored 6,996 runs from 80 innings, ten of them undefeated. He averaged a century every 2.8 innings. He needed to score just 4 runs in his final Test innings on that Saturday 14th of August 1948, in the 5th Test at the Oval, to become the second (after Hammond) to score 7,000 runs and the first to attain a career average of 100.

Given a standing ovation by the crowd throughout his progress to the middle, Bradman was then saluted by three cheers from the England team.

Shortly before Six O' Clock he took guard and safely negotiated the first ball - a ley-break from Eric Hollies. The next was pitched on a perfect length - a googly which spun past Bradman's forward defensive stroke and bowled him.

There is a story that Bradman didn't always go high-up in the batting order and there was one occasion when he went in at No.7 and it was an extraordinary performance as he scored 270. Bradman was the established number 3 batsman for his country.

Hazare - separate hundreds on successive days

Coming to the Indian Pakistan scene - It is on record that the only batsman to record hundreds on successive days is Vijay Hazare of India playing against Australia at Adelaide in 1948, Hazare scored 108 on January 26 and 102 of his second innings and then 145 on January 27.

The youngest to score a double century in Test cricket is Javed Miandad of Pakistan. He was 19 years 141 days old when he completed his innings of 206 for Pakistan against New Zealand at Karachi on 31st October 1976.

It is also a matter of great joy that the fastest hundred in Test cricket was scored in 70 minutes by Jack Gregory for Australia against South Africa at Johannesburg on 12th November 1921.

Great bowling feats

The youngest bowler to take 200 wickets in Test cricket is Kapil Dev of India. He was 24 years and 68 days on 15th March 1983 when he celebrated his 50th Test by completing the double verses the West Indies at Port-of-Spain.

Then Fred Trueman - first bowler to take 300 wickets in Test cricket. He reached the total at The Oval in his 65th Test on 15th August 1964 when he had Neil Hawke of Australia at slip by Colin Cowdrey.