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Facts and Figures – Follow them with HRG

DPMD Jayawardene with four catches in the third test against India at Sara Oval {two in each innings}  has pouched 101 catches on home soil. He earned the distinction of becoming the first fieldsman to pouch 100 plus catches on home soil. Prior to this test he was on par with MA Taylor who has pouched 97 catches.  His claimed his 100^th catch when he caught V Sehwag of S Randiv for zero in India’s second innings. {Statistics as of 06.08.10 - the fourth day of the test}

Asia Cup 2010 : Hat tricks in one day games

MF Mahroof’s hat trick in this game provides the 26^th occasion of a bowler performing in the history of one day games. The following table lists out all the 26 occasions

His hat trick also provide the fourth occasion of a Sri Lankan bowler capturing three-in-three in one day games.

MF Maharoof became the fourth bowler to perform the hat trick against India in one day games.

Number Crunch

The most runs scored in a losing cause in a test match is 351. Brian Lara of West Indies scored these runs against Sri Lanka at Colombo-SSC in Nov 2001 with the help of hundreds in both innings. He scored 221 and 130 in this test. Despite the twin hundreds by BC Lara, Sri Lanka won the test by ten wickets.

West Indies vs Zimbabwe one day series : Hosts win the third one day game by 141 runs

West Indies vs Zimbabwe : Third one day at Kingstown on 10.03.10 : West Indies won by 141 runs and lead the series 2-1

Zimbabwe won the toss in this game and inserted the opposition providing the seventh occasion of Zimbabwe doing so against West Indies.

Zimbabwe has lost six of these seven occasion and the loss in this game by 141 runs represents its highest margin of loss in terms of runs.

Zimbabwe was all out for 104 runs represents the third occasion of it being dismissed all out when it had inserted West Indies. The other two occasions were – 150 all out at Kingston on 01.04.00 and 176 all out at Harare on 02.12.07.

Zimbabwe’s total of 104 all out in this game represents its lowest total against West Indies when it has inserted the opposition

This game was DJ Bravo was 100^th one day game. He became the 25^th West Indian cricketer to appear in 100 plus one day games

SC Chanderpaul scored 58 in this game which was his 57^th one day half century and 67^th one day fifty.

SC Chanderpaul was dismissed run out after scoring 58 in this game providing the 36^th occasion of a West Indian batsman dismissed run out with a fifty against various oppositions in one day games.

SC Chanderpaul was dismissed run out after scoring 58 in this game providing the fifth occasion of a West Indian batsman dismissed run out with a fifty against Zimbabwe in one day games. The other four are – DL Haynes for 75 at Hyderabad-India on 21.11.93, SL Campbell for 103 at Kingston on 01.04.00, JC Adams for 60 at Kingston on 01.04.00 and BC Lara for 113 at Bulawayo on 22.11.03.

SC Chanderpaul has been dismissed run out after scoring a fifty on four occasions including the one in this game. The other three occasions are – against England for 76 at Sharjah on 19.12.97, against South Africa for 60 at St John’s on 02.05.01 and against Australia for 58 at Adelaide on 26.01.05

SC Chanderpaul is the second West Indian batsman to be dismissed run out on four or more occasions after scoring a fifty. BC Lara is the other batsman who has been dismissed on six occasions with a fifty to his credit.

SC Chanderpaul’s run out for 58 in this game provides the 18^th occasion of his being dismissed run out in one day games. BC Lara is the other West Indian batsman who has been dismissed run out on more occasions than SC Chanderpaul. Lara has been dismissed run out on 19 occasions and holds the record for most run outs for West Indian batsman.

DJ Sammy returned with figures of 4 for 26 in this game providing the 135^th occasion of a West Indies bowler capturing four or more wickets in one day games.

DJ Sammy returned with figures of 4 for 26 in this game providing the 96th occasion of a West Indies bowler capturing exact four in one day games.

DJ Sammy returned with figures of 4 for 26 in this game providing the ninth occasion of a West Indies bowler capturing four or more wickets in one day games against Zimbabwe. The other eight occasions are -  4 for 24 by CE Cuffy at Sydney on 23.01.01, 4 for 32 by MV Nagamotoo at Adelaide on 25.01.01, 6 for 22 by FH Edwards at Harare on 29.11.03, 4 for 24 by CH Gayle at Harare on 30.11.03, 4 for 24 by JE Taylor at St John’s on 30.04.06, 4 for 29 by DR Smith at Port of Spain on 14.05.06, 5 for 48 by JE Taylor at Bulawayo on 07.12.07 and 4 for 43 by NO Milller at Providence on 06.03.10

DJ Sammy returned with figures of 4 for 26 in this game which not only represents his first four wickets haul in one day games but also his best bowling figures in one day games. His previous best was 2 for 2 against Netherlands at Dublin on 10.07.07.

West Indies won this game by 141 runs providing the fourth occasion of West Indies winning a game by 100 plus runs margin against Zimbabwe in one day games. The other three are – by 134 runs at Hyderabad-India on 21.11.93, by 110 runs at Harare on 02.12.07 and by 104 runs at Trinidad on 14.05.06

West Indies won this game by 141 runs providing the West Indian victory by highest runs margin against Zimbabwe in one day games. The previous best was by 134 runs at Hyderabad-India on 21.11.93.

Bharat Raj – an young enterprising writer

It is with great pleasure that we wish to inform our visitors an young MBA - Bharat Raj - will start writing for our portal www.crickick.com on various facets of cricket.

Shri Bharath Raj is an MBA from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Marshall University, Bangalore. He has passed the Examination in 2009. He is cricket enthusiast and contributes to/administers the portal cricket-match-special.com. He has an excellent communication skill and writes with confidence. He is a self motivator. His objective remains as "Work with sense of responsibility, commitment, and vision to fulfill organizational goals. He believes and says that life is action and not mere contemplation". During his student days, he has won prizes in quizzes, elocution competition and also participated in Cricket Quizzes. Being an MBA, his other areas of interest are Marketing, Sales and writing about sports. He has undergone specialization in Marketing and completed various projects with distinction.

Bharat Raj was born on 22.06.1984 and is 24 years old. He can be contacted on his mobile 09741635453 and his email address is mig884@yahoo.co.in

Ranji Trophy inagural match was completed in a day

Sri C Keshavamurthy, Champion Statistician on Indian Domestic Cricket, pens a special article for crickick.com visitors on the first ever Ranji Trophy match between Madras and Mysore which was played on 04.11.34. This match was completed on a single day. Read on CKM's thoughts on this historic match

Madras (now Chennai) is not new to cricket.  It is learnt that cricket was played here as early as 1855 on military grounds as a sort of recreation of the soldiers.  Matches were played by the Cricket Clubs as early as 1932/33 and 1933/34 for the Raja of Palayampatti Shield and Bishop Waller Shields. Even test cricket had its birth in India way back in 1933/34 and Madras had staged a test at Chepauk ground from 10th to 13th Februry 1934. As time took its toll,  Madras had the distinction of becoming the first centre to boast of India’s inaugural victory in 25 tests over a span of 20 years when it beat England at the Chepauk ground on 10th February 1952. It has also the rare privilege of hosting a tied test match (only the 2nd instance in the history of test cricket) between India and Australia in September 1986.

The idea of having a Premier National championship - the Ranji Trophy (named after KS Ranjitsinhji, popularly known throughout the cricket world as the great Ranji) was mooted in the summer of 1934 when the BCCI at its meeting at Simla decided to conduct a cricket tournament on an yearly basis to keep cricket at the highest level on the lines of County matches in England and Sheffield Shield matches in Australia. And when the question of selecting the first ever venue for the National Championship came up, Madras was chosen and  what better place could there have been  for the inaugural match of the prestigious tournament than Madras which had earlier hosted a test match. Madras has the prevelege of hosting the first ever Duleep Trophy match too in 1961-62

On November 3, 1934 – Madras city had witnessed heavy rain and many in cricket circles thought it may well interfere the inaugural match of the tournament. Some others – perhaps those who were curious to peep in and have a look at the match presumed that rain was a good augury for the first ever match in Ranji Trophy. And so it proved to be as the historic match took place on November 4, 1934 without any hurdles.

The inaugural match itself proved to be a great hit in that it was played between the traditional rivals – Madras (now Tamilnadu) and Mysore (now Karnataka) – just as the Ashes series is played between England and Australia.  Since it was the first ever match in Ranji Trophy and perhaps nobody had visualized that this tournament would be a huge success in the coming years, not much importance was given to statistics – which has acquired a major role now. Fall of wickets do not indicate the name of the outgoing batsmen.  The cricketing fraternity should be thankful to Sri SK Gurunathan for recording this match in his “Twelve Years of Ranji Trophy”. Sri SK Gurunathan was the first Honorary Official Statistician of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Despite the overnight rain and the faint morning drizzle on the opening day which resulted for a late start in the match, the two teams were keen to play and enthusiasm was writ large on the faces of the players. It was quite natural because this was the first big game to have come their way and everyone was keen to perform. When play commenced on November 4, 1934 at 11.00 am, two Englishmen, CP Johnstone (Madras) and Major MS Teversham (Mysore) captained the rival teams. Johnstone, left hand opening batsman and an excellent slip fielder,  won the first toss in the championship and invited Mysore to bat. The same could not have been said of the Mysore Captain as he had not played cricket with the Mysoreans earlier. In fact, Mysore had lacked match practice.

Mysore batsmen were clueless on the wet wicket and it was no surprise that it  was in deep trouble at the beginning itself when its openers N Curtis and  P McCosh went in to bat. Morapakkam Joysam Gopalan – the Madras fast medium bowler  and the lone  test cricketer from among the two teams (he had made his debut for India against England at Calcutta in January 1934; he had also the distinction of playing Hockey at international level – he was selected in the Indian Team for Berlin Olympics) entered the record books as the first bowler to deliver the first ball in the history of the premier tournament to N Curtis who took the first strike. Although Gopalan bowled the first over (and could not capture a wicket in the first innings), the havoc was done by AG Ram Singh, the left arm spinner (his two sons AG Kripal Singh and AG Milkha Singh represented India), who partnered Gopalan at the other end. Mysore players with no exceptions had virtually no answer to the guile of Ram Singh who fully exploited the rain affected pitch.  Coupled with his Captain CP Johnstone (a Burmah Shell Executive and who played for Kent in Eng), both sliced through the Mysore batting line up. Curtis top scored the innings with 15 while the only other player to reach double figures was Renshaw Nailer (he had earned a name as a powerful hitter in the Presidency matches in Madras), who made 14. Five players were dismissed for ducks. The only notable partnership of a meagre 24 runs came between Curtis and Nailer for the 4th wicket. MS Teversham – the Mysore skipper (a major in the Army) achieved the rare distinction of becoming the first Captain in the championship to be dismissed for a duck. Wreckers in chief – Ramsingh took 6/19 in 13.2 overs (the first five wicket haul in the national championship) and Johnstone bowling off-cutters,  had figures of 4/10 in 6 overs. Mysore players whose batting performance gave a feeling as though they were afraid of the devil in the pitch, eventually were responsible for their team to be dismissed for a paltry 48 – the first double digit score in the history of the national championship. SVT Chari kept wickets brilliantly for Madras and effected 4 stumpings, while C Ramaswamy held 5 catches in the match.

Madras, although rejoiced at keeping the opposition at bay,  too did not fare better but the home team batsmen were not as timid as those of the opposition and could muster 130 in 43 overs, for a lead of 82 runs – a shade better than the performance of the visitors. The restricted total of Madras was mainly due to the devastating spell of 6/23 in 8 overs by MG Vijayasarathy  who bowled medium off breaks. (he later rose to the level of an international umpire and who was also the first player treasurer of the Mysore State Cricket Association (now KSCA). he also served as its Vice President and President.) and excellent bowling (3/29) by Safi Darashah (who later took to broadcasting as a commentator). Cotah Ramaswami (who also represented India in the Davis Cup in 1922), top scoed with 26 for Madras.   NN Swarna (22) and  MJ Gopalan (23) were the other  leading scorers for Madras. Many felt that if Vijayasarathy had opened the bowling with Nagaraja Rao, the home team could have been dismissed for a lesser score as Vijayasarathy coming as a third change bowler caused the lower order collapse – all the dismissals, being in a row. .

When Mysore switched to batting for a second time, everyone thought it would put up a decent performance. However, this was not to be as once again wickets fell at regular intervals. Mysore batsmen refused to learn from the first innings debacle and paid a heavy price for the inept batting performance for the second time in the match. Ram Singh was in his elements again demolishing the Mysore innings with his tantalizing spinners and accounting for another five wicket haul (5/16in 14.3 overs). With this he scripted his name into the record books as the first player to take 10 or more wickets in a match. Gopalan with 3/20 and Johnstone with 2/10 ably assisted him. T Murari (one of the founders of the MSCA) and Teversham with 11 runs each were the joint top scorers as batsmen for the visitors. Darashah was the only other player to reach the double figure (10). The irony was that Mr Extras top scored for the innings with 13. Mysore, in the end, folded up for a niggardly 59. BR Nagaraja Rao – a fast bowler of repute, also went into the record books as the first player to be dismissed for a ‘pair’ (duck in each innings).

Madras thus emerged victors by an innings and 23 runs. The inaugural match was over in a single day – a record that still stands today as till date no other match in the national championship has been completed in a single day. The whole match lasted for a total of 100.5 overs. Bowlers had a sway in the entire match and this match is still known as Ram Singh’s match for his magnificent bowling performance of 11/35 (6/19 and 5/16).

This match is also known for a humorous anecdote if you can call it like that. It is learnt that some of the supporters of the  Mysore team who were excited to get a first hand knowledge of the inaugural day’s play, had  gone to the Railway Station on the morning of  the next day to purchase the news paper (in those days it is learnt that Bangalore did not have any reputed news paper and the news papers used to come from Madras by train) but were taken aback when they saw the team members alighting from the train, remarking that they would narrate the match event in detail instead of the news paper.

And what about those press people who covered this unforgettable match. The stalwarts N.S. Ramaswami, KN Prabhu and PN Sunderesan also find themselves in the record books as the famous trio of cricket writers to have witnessed and reported this historic match. The trio is no more as they have breathed their last.

PS: In case any readers/viewers to the site are having any other connected information or anecdotes relating to the above match, they are requested to post the comments at www.crickick.com so that an improved version of the article could be prepared. Views are most welcome.

The score card of the first Ranji Trophy match is reproduced below

Ranji Trophy, 1934/35 : Madras v Mysore : MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai : 4 November 1934 (3-day match) : Result: Madras won by an innings and 23 runs : Toss: Madras : Captains :  MS Teversham {Mysore} :  CP Johnstone {Madras}