Stump The Bearded Wonder No 71

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, Scotland

Many thanks for your interesting and often amusing answers. Could you tell me which pair of opening bowlers opened the bowling in most Test matches? Would it be Messrs Walsh and Ambrose? Who holds the record for England?

Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram hold the Test record. Their opening partnership embraced 53 matches and accounted for 497 dismissals.

Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh (49 Tests, 421 wickets) are in second place ahead of Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock (43 Tests, 364 wickets).

The leading England pair, in fourth place overall, is Brian Statham and Fred Trueman (35 Tests, 284 wickets). Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough (26) and Ian Botham and Bob Willis (24) are the only other duos to have shared the new ball in 20 Tests for England.

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Kevin Hall, England

What is the most number of runs scored in a Test series by a number 11 batsman?

I don't have the answer to that one, Kevin, but I am open to offers.

I can tell you that the highest Test score by a number 11 is 68 not out by Richard Collinge for New Zealand against Pakistan at Auckland in 1972-73. He is one of only ten players batting in that position to have scored 50, England's only member of that elite band being John Snow (59 not out v West Indies at The Oval in 1966).

The highest career aggregate batting at 11 is 553, average 7.47, by Courtney Walsh in 122 innings (86 Tests) for West Indies.

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Graham McEwan, UK

What was Douglas Jardine's highest score against Australia?

Batting at the Adelaide Oval in the second innings of the Fourth Test of the 1928-29 rubber, Jardine scored 98 before being caught off the right-arm slow-medium bowling of Ron Oxenham. His stand of 262 with Wally Hammond remains England's highest for the third wicket against Australia.

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Mark Bonsall, Paris, France

I know that the first ball in Test cricket was bowled by Shaw to Bannerman. I wondered if anyone knows what happened to this ball. It couldn't have resulted in a wicket, as Bannerman got 165.

The first ball in Test cricket, bowled by Alfred Shaw at 1.05pm, was a dot ball. Charles Bannerman scored a single off the second ball and went on to complete the first hundred by an Australian against any English team.

Born in Woolwich 25 years earlier, Bannerman completed his hundred in 160 minutes and became the first batsman to retire hurt in a Test when a rising ball from George Ulyett collided with a hole in his batting glove and split the second finger of his right hand.

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Mc, USA

Why don't they ever have a day/night Test match?

It is probably only a matter of time before they do. The main problem is the ball, Test cricket being played with the traditional red one and white clothing, whereas the limited-overs form uses a white ball and coloured pyjamas.

Recently Test matches have continued under floodlights in near darkness but, while batsmen seemed to have little difficulty in sighting the red ball in artificial light, fielders found it virtually impossible to see it against a dark sky. This was certainly the case at Auckland in April 2002 when Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan ran amok against England.

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Mahesh Patil, India

Did Kapil Dev ever bowl to Sunil Gavaskar in a first-class cricket match? If so, what happened?

Their careers did not coincide in English county cricket because Gavaskar had completed his brief stint with Somerset (1980) before Kapil played for Northamptonshire (1981-83) and Worcestershire (1984-85).

In Indian domestic cricket they played against each other only during the final rounds of the Ranji Trophy and in the inter-zonal Duleep Trophy.

Gavaskar played for Bombay and West Zone from 1967-68 to 1986-87 and Kapil appeared for Haryana and North Zone from 1975-76 to 1991-92.

They first met in the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy in 1977-78 when Gavaskar scored 67 before retiring ill. Their second meeting occurred the following season at the final of the Duleep Trophy when Kapil had Gavaskar caught for 18 in the second innings.

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Ryan, Wales

Are teams allowed to declare their innings with more than a 200-run deficit to avoid having to follow-on?

If the batting captain declares his first innings in a match of five or more days' duration when his team is 200 or more runs behind then the opposition skipper still has the power to enforce the follow-on (Law 13).

It does not make any difference whether he declares or his team is bowled out. Occasionally deals are done when time has been lost and a declaration is made on the understanding that the follow-on will not be enforced.

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Mr T Shafiq, London

Can you please tell me the statistics for India v Pakistan in both Tests and LOIs?

They have met 47 times in Tests with Pakistan winning nine times, India five and 33 matches ending in stalemate. Prior to the five-match series now being played in Pakistan the scoreline after 86 limited-overs games read: Pakistan 52 wins, India 30 and four no results.

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Senthil, US

India are playing Pakistan after a gap of 14 years. What's the longest gap between Test-playing nations?

Not entirely true, Senthil, as that 14-year gap was broken in 1998-99 by a two-match series followed by an Asian Test Championship clash.

South Africa's isolation because of apartheid (1969-70 to 1991-92) produced a 31-year gap in their matches against New Zealand and a 29-year one in their sequence against England.

The longest interval not involving politicians is the 28-year hiatus between the first two Tests involving Australia and New Zealand (1945-46 to 1973-74).

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Amit, India

Has there ever been an instance in Test cricket where the bowling side has dismissed the batting side by unassisted dismissals, i.e. no catches or stumpings?

You would have to exclude run outs too, Amit, unless they were achieved solely by the bowler.

The nearest I can find is the second Test between South Africa and England on matting at Cape Town in March 1889. Dismissed for 43 in their second innings, South Africa's scorecard shows a record nine batsmen bowled (Johnny Briggs 8 for 11) and one run out.

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Prerak, USA

When did the leg bye rule come into play? I ask this question because Steve Waugh recently suggested doing away with the leg bye since it's not runs off the bat. Can you please explain the reasoning and background of this rule?

A fascinating question, Prerak. A trawl through the first four volumes of Scores and Biographies reveals that the first important match to include a leg bye in its extras was played on 6 and 7 September 1848 when Manchester hosted Burton-on-Trent.

Prior to then, leg byes appeared as byes. The only reason for them must be to keep the game moving. Without them there would be a lot of running or retrieving from the boundary without any addition to the score.

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Barjinder, England

How many visiting batsmen have scored a thousand first-class runs before the end of May?

Only two, Barjinder. Don Bradman achieved this feat twice for the Australians (1930 and 1938) and Glenn Turner did it for the New Zealanders in 1973.

All three instances included runs scored in April. In 1938 the Don scored his 1000th run on 27 May, the earliest date for completing 1000 runs, after just seven innings and in 28 days.

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