Stump The Bearded Wonder No 15

Bill Frindall, aka the Bearded Wonder, is poised to answer you cricket queries and teasers.

As England's preparations get underway in India, Test Match Special's resident cricket guru has opted for the warmth of his own home.

Fill in the form to stump The Bearded Wonder.

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Here's a selection of the latest answers

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Matthew Oliver, England

Who has been the most successful overseas batsman within the UK during the last six years?

Slightly ambiguous question, Matthew. Do you want it measured by the highest aggregate or average? Is it the highest in one of those categories in a single season or taken over all six? Do you mean all overseas batsmen (including members of visiting teams) or just those playing county cricket? Is it a cunningly disguised multi-faceted question?

Most runs in a season: 2055 MEK Hussey (Northamptonshire) 2001.
Highest average in a season: 104.66 DR Martyn (Australians) 2001; County player - 83.29 DS Lehmann (Yorkshire) 2001.
Most runs 1996-2001 inc: 8538 (avge 58.88) SG Law (Essex) the only overseas player who appeared in each of those six seasons.

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Arun Kumar, India

I would like to know how scorers would record the following incident:

Batsman glances the ball off his legs and it hits the helmet behind the wicket keeper. Under the new law (2000 Code), will it be recorded as five penalty runs (Under Law 42) or will it be five runs to the batsman?

Also, what would the case be if it hits the helmet without hitting the striker's bat?

Whether or not the batsman has hit it, if the ball comes into contact with a fielder's helmet parked behind the wicket-keeper it becomes dead and a penalty of five runs is awarded to the batting side. No penalty is awarded if the ball has touched the batsman's clothing (other than his glove) when he was not playing a stroke or trying to avoid the ball.

Penalties are a form of extras - not credited to the batsman nor debited to the bowler. In my linear scoring system I would put a 'P' above the dot recording that ball with an explanation in the 'NOTES' column.

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Will, UK

I remember that Glenn Turner, the very successful NZ batsman, had a very unorthodox grip, which virtually prevented him from being caught in the outfield. Why have no other batsmen tried to emulate him?

How do we know they haven't? Most batsmen experiment with different grips and stances during their careers. John Wright, the left-handed New Zealand opening batsman and captain currently coaching India, actually super-glued one of his gloves to the bat handle to stop his hand slipping!

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Ranjit Garcha, England

Who was the official Man of the Match, in the 1976 Benson & Hedges Cup Final at Lord's, between Kent and Worcestershire?

Graham Johnson won the gold award for making 78, the highest score of the match, and holding four catches - three at deep square-leg and one at cover. Kent (236-7 off 55 overs) beat Worcestershire, the first B & H finalists to insert the opposition, (193 off 52.4 overs) by 43 runs.

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Kester Ford, UK

Can you please explain to me the circumstances that led to Andy Flower bowling a single ball so far in his Test career? Who was keeping wicket and why only one ball?

It was at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium on 21 December 1993 during the final day of a 'dead' match. Pakistan had won the first two Tests and this final one had lost 120 overs to seasonal fog and mist.

Zimbabwe dismissed Pakistan for 147 and replied with 230. On that fifth day, after another delayed start, Pakistan took their overnight score of 37-0 to 174-1, Shoaib Mohammad crawling to 53 not out in 325 minutes, before the dismal contest was abandoned as a draw.

In its dying stages, Guy Whittall was unable to bowl the final ball of his 11th over. Andy Flower, Zimbabwe's captain for that series and who describes his mode of delivery as ' right-arm swing', completed that over, probably with his pads on and with Alistair Campbell behind the stumps.

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Dave Whitely, UK

I once sat in the Lillee-Marsh Stand at the WACA ground in Perth and watched Curtly Ambrose bowl an 18 ball over versus Australia. Is this the longest over bowled in Test Cricket?

Ambrose played in three Perth Tests and I eventually tracked down the over you witnessed. According to the excellent Allan's Australian Cricket Annual it was a 15-ball over (not 18) containing 9 no-balls and it took 12 minutes to bowl. Allan Miller describes it as 'perhaps the longest over in Test cricket'.

In terms of balls bowled I have no record of a longer one but such things have not always been noted in match reports and only a detailed examination of the score sheets of all Test innings would produce a definitive table. The closest I have on record is the 13-ball over (3 wides, 4 no-balls) delivered by GOB 'Gubby' Allen v Australia at Old Trafford in 1934.

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