Stump The Bearded Wonder No 68

Bill Frindall, aka the Bearded Wonder, is poised to solve your cricket queries and teasers.

The Test Match Special statistician will be busy answering your questions throughout the English winter.

Fill in the form on the right-hand side of the page to stump the Bearded Wonder.

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Richard Matthews, Potterne, Wiltshire

My grandfather, Thomas Gadd Matthews (1845-1932), played in some of Gloucestershire's earliest matches. Can you tell me if he scored the county's first hundred after it was accorded first-class status?

Your grandfather didn't score Gloucestershire's maiden first-class hundred. That honour went to W.G.Grace in their second match as a first-class county (v Surrey at The Oval in June 1870 when he made his 15th hundred in all first-class matches).

But Thomas Matthews did have the honour not only of registering Gloucestershire's first double-century, 201 v Surrey in August 1871 at Clifton (his birthplace) but also of making the first 200 in an inter-county first-class match. The County Championship was not officially constituted until after the 1889 season.

Curiously, Matthews, a hard-hitting right-hander, scored only another 568 runs in 46 innings spread over nine seasons and ended his 29-match career with an average of just 16.36.

Your great uncle, John Leonard Matthews (1847-1912), also represented Gloucestershire but his only appearance (1872) was almost completely rained off.

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John Ward, Harare, Zimbabwe

Before Zimbabwe lost to India at Adelaide in January, had any other team lost a limited-overs international after two of their batsmen scored centuries?

That was the 10th instance (in 2,087 matches at that point), of a side losing despite scoring two centuries - it also happened in the previous VB match at Sydney! The full list is:

India beat Pakistan at Lahore 1982-83, India beat Australia at Jaipur 1986-87, South Africa beat India at Delhi 1991-92, India beat Pakistan at Dhaka 1997-98, India beat Pakistan at Lahore 1998-99, India beat South Africa at Cochin 1999-00, South Africa beat India at Johannesburg 2001-02, India beat England at Lord's 2002, Australia beat India at Sydney 2003-04, India beat Zimbabwe at Adelaide 2003-04.

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Shahab Waheed, Pakistan

Is there an instance of a team getting out in both innings with an aggregate match score of less than 100 in a Test match?

There have been 16 instances of a Test side being dismissed for under 100 in each innings but only three of those produced a match aggregate of double figures:

81 - South Africa (36 & 45) v Australia at Melbourne, 1931-32
90 - South Africa (47 & 43) v England at Cape Town, 1888-89
96 - New Zealand (42 & 54) v Australia at Wellington, 1945-46

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Greg, UK

What is the record for the longest innings in first-class cricket?

For nearly 42 years that record belonged to Pakistan's little master, Hanif Mohammed, who batted 970 minutes (999 according to him) for his 337 against West Indies at Bridgetown in January 1958.

Then, in November 1999, Rajiv Nayyar, Himachal Pradesh's 31-year-old captain, took 1,015 minutes (16 hours 55 minutes) to score 271 against Jammu & Kashmir in a North Zone Ranji Trophy match. It was the first double-hundred in HP's history and Nayyar achieved the feat at Chamba, his birthplace, facing 728 balls and hitting a six and 26 fours.

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Jack Byrne, Australia

When was the last time spin bowlers took all 20 wickets for Australia in a Test match? I have a hunch never.

Given the almost continuous succession of outstanding fast, swing and seam bowlers which Australia has been able to draw upon I did not expect to find any instances of them failing to take a wicket in a match where 20 had fallen. Your hunch was spot on.

In fact, there has been only one instance (in 648 Tests to date) of Aussie slow bowlers sharing 19 wickets. That occurred against England at Trent Bridge in 1934 when Bill O'Reilly took 11, Clarrie Grimmett eight and opening bowler 'Tim' Wall the remaining one.

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Warks, Australia

Apart from abandoned matches (not a ball bowled) what is the shortest amount of play in a Test? My guesses are Manchester 1926 and that dangerous pitch Test at Kingston in the 1990s.

The shortest Test in which a ball has been bowled was indeed the Sabina Park fiasco of 29 January 1998. Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose achieved such erratic bounce on a relaid pitch that England's physiotherapist attended batsmen's injuries on six occasions before play was halted. The match was abandoned 75 minutes later having produced 56 minutes of play involving 62 balls including a no-ball.

I suspect your other guess actually refers to the Old Trafford Test against South Africa in 1925 when torrential rain ended play at 4.00pm on the first day (of three) after 165 minutes of play. That period encompassed the entire international career of Somerset's John Crawford William MacBryan, the only Test cricketer who never batted, bowled or dismissed anyone in the field.

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Abraham Srinivasan, USA

Can you please give me the record of Barry Richards' performances against the touring Indian Test teams in England during the 1970s when he played county cricket for Hampshire?

I suspect that a wager is behind this intriguing question. Richards scored 10 and 45 against the 1971 Indians at Bournemouth, and 49 in his only innings against their successors at Southampton in 1974. Those were his only appearances against them as he retired from English first-class cricket at the end of June 1978 having lost his zest for the three-day county game.

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Oscar Rajasooriya, Germany

Who was the first Ceylonese/Sri Lankan to play in the English County Cricket Championship?

Dr Churchill Hector Gunasekara (1894-1969), who appeared for Middlesex in 39 matches in the four seasons 1919-22, was the first.

A right-handed medium-pace bowler and lower-order batsman who was an outstanding cover fielder, he had impressed Sir Pelham Warner and an invitation to play county cricket as an amateur soon followed.

He subsequently captained All-Ceylon, became the first Ceylonese to gain MCC membership and played a key role in forming the Ceylon Cricket Association.

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Mike Bailey, Austria

You answered a question about disability/non-functioning eyes in AB#64. Am I right in thinking that Ranji also lost an eye in a shooting accident, and that Gundappa Viswanath also had only one functioning eye?

Ranji did indeed lose an eye at a shoot but this happened after he had played the last of his 15 Test matches and retired from county cricket (1895-1912). He returned in 1920 to play three final matches as research for a chapter on batting with one eye. Captaining Sussex against Yorkshire, he survived for 40 minutes against Wilfred Rhodes (8 for 39) to help save the match.

Viswanath had two perfectly good eyes when I saw him last summer - don't know where that misinformation came from.

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Nasser Khan, England

Can you explain why a batsman's score of 0 is referred to as a duck?

The original term for a score of nought was a duck's egg because of the latter's resemblance to the figure '0' in the scorebook. Similarly, the tennis equivalent 'love' is derived from the French for egg - l'oeuf.

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Charlie Ashton, USA

Referring to David Haddock's question in AB#62, I believe Charlie Macartney scored 231 between lunch and tea.

To recap, DH's question was: Ian Blackwell scored 204 runs in a session for Somerset v Derbyshire at Taunton in 2003. Has this tally ever been beaten in first-class cricket?

My reply included the following: It could well be that Blackwell's 204 from 98 balls (43 to 247 between lunch and seven overs before tea) is the record for a single session.

The next highest I have found is Ken Rutherford's 199 in the lunch-tea session for the 1986 New Zealanders against Brian Close's XI at Scarborough.

Possible contenders could be Charlie Macartney (345 in 235 minutes for the 1921 Australians v Nottinghamshire), Andy Ducat (306* in 280 minutes for Surrey v Oxford U. in 1919) and Frank Foster (305* in 260 minutes for Warwickshire v Worcestershire in 1914) but their session-by-session scores are not available from my sources.

If Macartney did score 231 then that is probably the record for a session.

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Joe Ezekiel, USA

Has a wicket-keeper ever taken a wicket in a Test match?

Short answer is yes! If you want a full list consult the career records in Vol III of the fifth edition of 'The Wisden Book of Test Cricket'.

The most dramatic bowling performance by a keeper in Test cricket was achieved by the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton for England against Australia at The Oval in 1884 when he produced a spell of 4 for 8 with lobs while W.G.Grace kept wicket and 'made a good leg-side catch to the first ball'.

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