Fun Facts – 3

Interesting facts of Cricket world :

Allen Hill took the first wicket in test cricket when he dismissed Nat Thomson for 1.

Charles Bannerman, Dave Houghton (Zimbabwe) and Aminul Islam (Bangladesh) are the only cricketers to score centuries on their own and their country’s test debut.Only thrice in the history of test

In March 2005 India made 407 and 407/9 dec in a test against Pakistan. This is the highest “duplicate” score by a team in a test match.

At an individual level, 1982 Duleep Mendis of Sri Lanka scored 105 in both innings against India. He is the only batsman to hit identical hundreds in both innings of a test match.

The second day of the Lord’s test match between England and West Indies in 2000 is the only time in the history of test cricket that a part of all 4 innings have been played on the same day.

Makhaya Ntini is the first black man to play test cricket for South Africa. Henry Olonga was the first black Zimbabwean test cricketer.

The first one-day international was held between England and Australia at Melbourne in 1971. Actually the first four days of a test match had been rained out, so on the final day the first ever one-day international was organized. Australia won the match.

No one has ever scored 4 successive one-day centuries. Herschelle Gibbs scored 3 successive centuries, and was on 97* when South Africa needed 4 to win. Alok Kapali bowled a wide which went for 4, and Gibbs was denied the record by the tiniest of margins!

Anthony Stuart took 5 wickets including a hat trick in his third ODI for Australia. Strangely enough he was never picked for Australia again.

Sourav Ganguly is the only cricketer to have won four successive Man of the Match awards in One-day Internationals.

Paul Collingwood of England is the only man to score a century and take 6 wickets in an ODI. Against Bangaldesh in 2005 he scored 112* and took 6/31 in 10 overs

In the entire history of recorded Cricket, only four players have played on all ten batting positions for a team; names include Lance Klusener, Abdur Razzaq, Shoaib Malik and Hashan Tillakaratne.

The first laws of cricket were written in 1774. Since then they have been changed on numerous occasions. Pretty much everything has changed since then. The early cricket bats were long curved pieces of wood resembling a thick hockey stick. The stumps consisted of two wickets and one bail in between. The only law of the game that has remained constant is the length of the pitch at 22 yards.

Speaking of the stumps, initially the afore-mentioned shepherds would bat in-front of a tree stump, hence the term “stumps”. As the game progressed it was at times played in front of a wicket-gate – which led to the term “wickets”.

Early bowlers would bowl the ball underarm – and cricket records tell stories of great underarm lob bowlers. Overarm bowling was initially illegal. It was introduced to cricket by a Kent cricketer, John Willes. He actually learnt it from his sister, Christina Willes who found her skirt was getting in the way when she tried to bowl underarm!

There are 10 ways in which a batsman can get out in cricket: Caught, Bowled, Leg Before Wicket, Run Out, Stumped, Handling the ball, Obstructing the field, Hit the ball twice, Hit Wicket, Timed out.

Charles Bannerman of Australia set a number of records in that match. He faced the first ball in test cricket, scored the first run, the first four and the first century. He scored 165 not out in Australia’s 245 all out. Of all the records he set in that match one record still holds – his 165 constituted 67.34% of Australia’s total (245) – the highest percentage by a batsman in a completed test innings.

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