November 19, 2002

Name: Neeraj Desai
Question: Can you list out all the international matches which have ended as TIE in both forms?

Answer 1: Two Test matches and 18 ODIs have ended in a tie. The matches are listed below:

Tied Test Matches:

West Indies (453 & 284)	Australia (505 & 232)	Brisbane 1960/61
Australia (574-7d & 170-5d)	India (397 & 347)	Madras 1986/87

Tied ODI Matches:

West Indies (222-5)	Australia (222-9)	Melbourne 1983/84
England (226-5)	Australia (226-8)	Nottingham 1989
West Indies (186-5)	Pakistan (186-9)	Lahore 1991/92
India (126)	West Indies (126)	Perth 1991/92
Australia (228-7)	Pakistan (228-9)	Hobart 1992/93
Pakistan (244-6)	West Indies (244-5)	Georgetown 1992/93
India (248-5)	Zimbabwe (248)	Indore 1993/94
Pakistan (161-9)	New Zealand (161)	Auckland 1993/94
Zimbabwe (219-9)	Pakistan (219)	Harare 1994/95
New Zealand (169-8)	Sri Lanka (169)	Sharjah 1996/97
Zimbabwe (236-8)	India (236)	Paarl 1996/97
New Zealand (237)	England (237-8)	Napier 1996/97
Zimbabwe (233-8)	New Zealand (233-9)	Bulawayo 1997/98
West Indies (173-5)	Australia (173-7)	Georgetown 1998/99
Australia (213)	South Africa (213)	Birmingham 1999
Pakistan (196)	Sri Lanka (196)	Sharjah 1999/00
South Africa (226-8)	Australia (226-9)	Melbourne (CS) 2000/01
South Africa (259-7)	Australia (259-9)	Potchefstroom 2001/02

Name: Nozy
Question: Hi, I have a question about no-balls and bouncers. What happens if a ball is a no-ball due to over-stepping and it also happens to be a regulatory bouncer, is it counted as one of the two bouncers per over allowed?? Or, since it is a no-ball, and that action preceded the part where the ball was a bouncer, the bowler still gets 2 bouncers for that over??

Answer 3: No, despite the no-ball for overstepping, the umpire will still treat this as the first bouncer for the over, by indicating it to the bowler.

Name: Mike King
Question: How many runs have been scored in the history of Test cricket? Who scored the millionth run (if it has been scored yet)?

Answer 4: Upto the end of the Harare Test match (between Pakistan and Zimbabwe on 12-11-2002 & Test no 1625) - a total of 1,551,660 runs have been scored in Test cricket history.

The 1,000,000 run is believed to have been scored on 19 October 1986 by either Allan Border or Dean Jones for Australia against India at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. At the end of this Test match the total runs scored in 1054 Test matches was 1,000,010.

Name: Apurva
Question: Hello Mr. Menon, can you tell me what is the highest number of runs scored in the first 15 overs of a one-day game since the 15-over restriction rule came into effect?

Answer 5: West Indies' 160-1 after 15 overs against Bangladesh at Dhaka on 9-10-1999, is the highest ever. West Indies went on to make 314-6 in 50 overs.

Name: Karthik Sundaresan
Question: Has any player in his career batted in all positions - 1 through 11 in Test/ODIs?

Answer 6: In Tests - Syd Gregory (Australia) Wilfred Rhodes (England) and Vinoo Mankad (India) and in ODIs - Abdul Razzaq (Pakistan).

Name: Rajeev
Question: Mr Menon , has there ever been any instance where a record was erased from a Test match, One day match or first class match? For example , a batsman ABC scored a century but later it was discarded by ICC for any reason while team's score was kept in score books?? Did it ever happen?

Answer 7: Thankfully, such instances in Tests and ODIs have not occurred as yet.

However there are several instances in first-class cricket and domestic one-dayers where matches have been erased after it has been played.

In fact one such match took place in the Ranji Trophy tournament in December 1946, when Kathiawar played Gujarat at Rajkot.

When the former won this Ranji Trophy encounter by 6 runs. Gujarat, the losing team appealled to the BCCI, that G Kishenchand, who in the previous season appeared for Sind, was ineligible to play for Kathiawar.

The BCCI upheld this appeal and ordered a replay while removing the match from all the Ranji Trophy records. Interestingly in the replay (without Kishenchand) Gujarat won the match (in January 1947) by an innings and 32 runs! Though the first match is not considered for Ranji Trophy records, its been given a status of a first-class match.

Name: Vipul Chhabra
Question: I have not been able to resolve this question fully even though I have looked at the rule books - hoping you can help me. My question is regarding the following scenario: a bowler bowls a full toss that passes the batsmen well above his waist and hits the wicket. Is the batsman out, even though the ball could be a no-ball? Does the fact that the ball hitting the wicket affect the leg umpire's decision about calling it no-ball? Put another way - lets assume that it is surely a no ball. Will then the umpire change his decision of giving it a no-ball, just because the ball hit the wicket? hope I didnt confuse you a lot!

Answer 8: If the ball is declared a no-ball by the umpire, the batsman is NOT-OUT!

Name: Neeraj Desai
Question: What is the highest score achieved by a nightwatchman in ODI's?

Answer 2: There is no role for a nightwatchman in the one-day format of the game. However in ODIs, a "pinch-hitter" is used, where a lower order batsman is sent in at number three or four positions for quick runs. The highest such score in ODIs is the 129 (in 114 balls) by South African Nicky Boje against New Zealand at Centurion on 25-10-2000, while batting at number three.

Name: Rajiv
Question: The highest runs scored in an over is by Andrew flintoff who scored 38 off an 8 ball over off Alex Tudor, but I heard a story saying that a batsman Named Fry (i think england) scored 67 runs off 1 delivery by hitting it in a tree and I beleive he ran those runs. Is this story true or what? If true, shouldnt he hold the world record of most runs in an over. Please give details about this.

Answer 9: The incident you mentioned supposedly took place in a minor village match, where the batsman was reported to have ran 86 runs before the ball was found.

However in a first-class match at Christchurch in New Zealand in 1989-90, Wellington's Robert Vance, acting on the instructions of his captain, deliberately conceded 77 runs in an over of full tosses, which contained 17 no-balls and, owing to the umpire's understandable miscalculation, only five legitimate deliveries. The lucky batsmen involved in this run feast were Canterbury's Lee Germon and Richard Petrie.

However this has not been considered a record, since it was achieved under contrived circumstances.

Name: Rajan Das
Question: Has any team crossed 1000 runs?

Answer 10: If you mean in Test matches - no team have crossed 1000 runs as yet. The highest is 952-6 by Sri Lanka against India at Colombo in August 1997. However in first-class cricket the 1000-plus run score have been achieved on two occassions - both by Victoria - 1107 against New South Wales at Melbourne in 1926-27 and 1059 against Tasmania at Melbourne in 1922-23.