Cricket has provided satisfying moments for fans

A. C. de Silva

CRICKET: The game of cricket has produced many interesting moments and there has been some startling performances and incidents as the world's top cricketers have come up with outstanding feats.

Test cricket has been the calls of the day and upto the end of the 1986 season only one of the 1,051 Test matches played has been won off the last possible ball. At Kingsmead in Durban on 20th December 1948, England;s ninth wicket pair Alex Bedser and Cliff Gladwin, needed 8 runs from the final eight-ball over from Lindsay Tuckett. Before Bedser brought the scores level off the sixth ball, all four results were possible.

Gladwin missed the seventh ball. He also missed the last ball. It bounced off his thigh and the batsman managed to scamper a leg-bye.

There is also an interesting story that the only Test team to be dismissed twice in a day is India. This happened at Old Trafford, Manchester, on 19th July 1952. The Indian team were bowled out by England for 58 and 82 in a total batting time 3 1/4 hours, 22 wickets falling in the day.

There is also of the story that only eight uninterrupted days of Test cricket have failed to produce the fall of a wicket; five of them have occurred in the West indies, one in Australia, one in India, one in Sri Lanka and none in England.

Batting - the showpiece

As any cricketer would promptly say that batting is the showpiece of cricket. There are many stories about the great cricketers of the past doing various marvellous things on the field of play.

However, if the recorded facts are correct, the only pair of batsman to bat throughout two consecutive days of Test cricket are: Garfield Sobers (now Sir) and the late Sir Frank Worrell. Garfield Sobers (226) and Frank Worrell (197 not out) on 9 and 10 January - the fourth and fifth days of the First Test between West Indies and England at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados did bat. The final hour of the fourth day was lost to rain and a rest day intervened. Their fourth-wicket partnership of 399 occupied 9 hours 39 minutes the longest stand in Test cricket.

Scoring a century gives immense pleasure to the individual and brings great joy to the team. But when five players from one team score centuries in the one innings, there naturally will be immense satisfaction to that particular team. Did this happen in June 1955.

The West Indies made a total of 357 and then it was the turn of Australia and the Aussies took up the Challenge and ran up the huge score of 758 for 8 wickets and then declared. For the Aussies, Colin McDonald (127), Neil Harvey (204), Keith Miller (109), Ron Archer (128) and Richie Benaud (121) made centuries. Benaud reached his hundred in 78 minutes - the third fastest in Tests then.

While the majority of cricket lovers will beat the drums and shout out their joy when a batsman slams a quick-fire century, their is also some people who would talk about the slowest Test hundred in teams of both minutes and balls faced. In Pakistan there was Test cricketer Mudassar Nazar who opened the side's batting against England at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on December 14-15 in 1977 opening the innings on a dead mud-pitch, scored 52 in 330 minutes on the first day.

Ten minutes after tea on the second day (25 minutes of play having been lost to a minor riot when he reached 99), he took his score to 100 out of 306 for 3. It was the slowest hundreds in all first class cricket then. Mudassar Nazar's innings of 114 lasted 514 minutes.

Don Bradman - fastest double century

We have dealt with the slowest Test century, then at the same time it is nothing but right that we should think about the fastest scoring rate. There was that master-batsman Sir Donald Bradman. The fastest double century in Tests was recorded by Donald Bradman during his 334 for Australia against England at Headingley, Leeds on 11 July 1930. Bradman reached his 200 in 214 minutes, his century having taken 99 minutes.

There was also that attacking batsman. Ian Botham of England. He reached his double century off only 220 balls (268 minutes) during his innings of 208 for England against India at the Oval on 8th and 9th July 1982 - the fastest recorded 200 in Test cricket in relation to the number of balls he faced.

While talking about the fastest scoring rate, it is also interesting to note about the slow scoring. The longest that any batsman has taken to score his first run in a first-class innings has been recorded as 97 minutes. The batsman in this instance is Godfrey Evans of England. Playing against Australia at Adelaide on February 5 to 6, 1947, Godfrey Evans joined Dennis Compton (40 not out) with England's second innings total 255 for 8 wickets. Evans survived 20 balls that evening, while Compton scored 19 runs off 60 deliveries.

When play started the next day, Evans scored his first run off the 61st ball and allowed Compton to reach his second century of the match.

When England were sage from defeat and Hammond declared, Evans had scored 10 runs off 98 balls, and Compton 63 out of his 103 not out off 179 balls in a partnership of 85 in 133 minutes. Five years later, Evans amassed 98 runs before lunch off India's bowlers in a Test at Lord's.

West Indies - glamour team

The West Indies, have more often that not, been the glamour team of after the Australian dominated period of Sir Donald Bradman.

It is on record that West Indian star Clyde Walcott was out for nought only once during his Test career. He played 74 innings for the West Indies between January 1948 and March 1960, scoring 3,798 runs (average 56.68) and making 15 centuries. His solitary 'duck' came about at Brisbane on 9th November 1951 when Ray Lindwall had him LBW in his first Test innings in Australia.

It is also on record, but not a very happy occasion that a Sri Lankan had a career record bowling average of 284.00 that's Roger Wijesuriya in four matches between 1982 and 1985. He bowled 586 balls - the most by any bowler taking only one wicket in Tests.

The highest number of overs bowled in any first class innings is 598 by Sonny Ramadhin for West Indies during England's second innings at Edgbaston, Birmingham in June 1957. The 5ft 4 inch wrist-soinner took 2 for 178 in 98 overs as Peter May (285 not out) and Colin Cowdrey (154) batted England to safety, adding 411 in England's highest-ever partnership. Ramadhin's total of 174 balls bowled in that match remained as a Test record for a long time.

Well, Sanath Jayasuriya - the star left-hander in Sri Lanka has left the Test scene, but cricket fans will not forget the glorious innings of 340 he made against India at the R. Premadasa Stadium will remain in memory for a long, long time. Sri Lanka made the massive world record score of 952 for 6 wickets. India made 537 for 8 wickets declared when they batted first.

Mahela and Sangakkara - 624 runs

When Sri Lanka batted, Sanath Jayasuriya made 340 and Roshan Mahanama made 225 and Aravinda de Silva 126, Arjuna Ranatunga 86, Mahela Jayawardena 66. That massive score of 952 for 6 wickets is Test cricket's highest score.

The second-wicket partnership between Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama realised 576 runs.

The record partnership of 576 runs was surpassed in July 2006 as the largest partnership in Test match history by fellow Sri Lankans

Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena who put on 624 runs against South Africa.

	Sri Lanka 952 for 6 wickets at Premadasa Stadium
		
SCORE BOARD
		
	India 1st Innings: 537 for 8 wts dec 

Sri Lanka 1st Innings 

S.T. Jayasuriya c Ganguly b Chauhan 	       340
M.S. Atapattu c Mongia b Kulkarni 	 	26
R.S. Mahanama lbw b Kumble 		       225
P.A. de Silva c Prasad b Ganguly 	       126
A. Ranatunga run out 	 			86
D.P.M. Jayawardena c Kulkarni b Ganguly 	66
R. S. Kaluwitharana not out 	 		14	
U.C.J. Vaas not out	 			11
Extras (B-27, LB-10, W-7, NB-14)	 	58
Total (for 6 wikts at stumps) 		       952

Fall of wickets:  1-39, 2-615, 3-615, 4-790, 5-921, 6-924.
Bowling:  Prasad 24-1-88-0 (W-4),
	  Kuruvila 14-2-74-0 (NB-4),
	  Chauhan 78-8-276-1 (W-3, NB-5),
	  Kumble 72-7-223-1 (NB-5),
	  Kulkarni 70-10-195-1,
	  Ganguly 9-0-53-2,
	  Tendulkar 2-1-2-0,
	  Dravid 2-0-4-0.
Man of the Match :  S.T. Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)