Bill Frindall, aka the Bearded Wonder, answers your latest batch of queries.
Remember, the Test Match Special statistician is always on hand to help you out with your questions. And if you think you can catch him out, have a go!
Fill in the form on the right-hand side of the page to stump the Bearded Wonder.
Andrew Deacon, UK
We hear a lot about Bangladesh's poor record since their entry into Test cricket in 2000. What are the records of other Test nations over their first five years?
Excellent question, Andrew, but a comparison over their first five years of Test cricket will not reveal much. In that time Bangladesh played 40 matches, their only win coming in their 35th game and against Zimbabwe. In a similar initial period from March 1877, Australia (4 wins) and England (2 wins) played each other just eight times.
More revealing is a comparison of their results after a similar number of Tests, so I have compiled a table covering each team's first 40 matches. Bangladesh have certainly fared better than New Zealand, who had to wait more than 26 years before celebrating their first victory in their 45th match, but they have lost 35 of those 40 games.
FIRST WON
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Team | Debut | Won | Lost | Drawn | Match
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Australia | 15.03.1877 | 12 | 22 | 6 | 1st
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Bangladesh | 10.11.2000 | 1 | 35 | 4 | 35th
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England | 15.03.1877 | 23 | 12 | 5 | 2nd
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India | 25.06.1932 | 3 | 17 | 20 | 25th
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New Zealand | 10.01.1930 | 0 | 18 | 22 | 45th
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Pakistan | 16.10.1952 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 2nd
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South Africa | 12.03.1989 | 8 | 27 | 5 | 12th
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Sri Lanka | 17.02.1982 | 2 | 20 | 18 | 14th
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West Indies | 23.06.1928 | 11 | 17 | 12 | 6th
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Zimbabwe | 18.10.1992 | 3 | 20 | 17 | 11th
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Martin Judge, UK
What is the highest limited-overs international chase where no wickets were lost, and has it happened that often when chasing scores over 200?
The highest is 221 by West Indies against Pakistan at Melbourne in the 1992-93 World Cup. There have been six 10-wicket victories involving totals of 190 and over but the only other one exceeding 199 was 200, also by West Indies, against India at Bridgetown in May 1997.
Tim Gill, UK
In order to qualify for the hat-trick, does a bowler have to take three wickets with consecutive deliveries in the same over? Or the same innings - or even the same match?
A hat-trick is confined to three wickets with consecutive balls within the same match. It can encompass two or even three overs, not necessarily consecutive if it involves two bowling spells, and both innings. It cannot be carried over into a bowler's next match.
Jon, England
Why the use of the word 'plum' to describe someone who has been given out lbw? Where does its use stem from?
'Plumb' stems from a builder's plumb line, a lump of lead (plumbum in Latin) suspended from a piece of string to check vertical straightness of brickwork. A plumb lbw is where the ball would have knocked over all three stumps and the batsman should have walked!
Imran Moonna, Bangladesh
How many batsmen batting at number nine have scored a Test hundred? How many batsmen have scored a century batting in a position lower than nine?
A total of 14 number nines have scored hundreds in Test cricket, the highest being 173 by New Zealand's Ian Smith against India at Auckland in 1989-90. The highest for England is G O B ('Gubby') Allen's 122 against New Zealand at Lord's in 1931.
Three batsmen, Walter Read (117 for England), Pat Symcox (108 for South Africa) and Reggie Duff (104 for Australia) have scored Test hundreds batting at number 10. The highest by a number 11 is Zaheer Khan's 75 for India v Bangladesh at Dhaka in 2004-05.
Harvey Wiles, England
Who was the last batsman to score a century in both his first Test innings on home soil and in his first Test innings overseas? I was hoping that Alastair Cook was going to do it, but he just failed.
You don't have to search very far back, Harvey. Andrew Strauss was the last to achieve this feat by scoring 112 on debut v New Zealand at Lord's in 2004 and 126 against South Africa at Port Elizabeth the following winter in his first Test overseas. In between he scored 137 at Lord's in his first match against West Indies.
Nikhil Kotnis, UK
My great uncle, Kandu Rangneker, played one Test for India in Australia in the 1930s (I think). He didn't get a great score then, but I gather he was fairly prolific in domestic cricket. Do you have any info?
Your great uncle, Khanderao Moreshwar ('Kandu) Rangnekar (1917-1984) was indeed a prolific scorer in Indian domestic cricket for Holkar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bombay.
A left-handed batsman and right-arm medium-paced bowler, he appeared in 85 first-class matches (1939-64), scoring 4605 runs, averaging 41.83, taking 21 wickets (best 5-112) and holding 42 catches.
He celebrated his first-class debut in 1939-40 by scoring the first of his 15 centuries, 102 for Maharashtra v Western India at Poona. The highest of his three double-centuries was 217 for Holkar v Hyderabad in 1950-51. He appeared in three Tests in Australia in 1947-48 scoring 33 runs at 5.50 (1, 0, 6, 18, 8 and 0).
A vice-president of the Indian Board of Control, he became president of the Bombay Cricket Association.
Jem Lloyd, England
I was under the impression that the English counties were restricted to two overseas players per match, yet Kent have frequently included three South African players this season, Andrew Hall, Martin van Jaarsveld and Justin Kemp. Unlike Lancashire's Australian, Stuart Law, none of those three are now eligible for English status, so how have Kent managed this?
Kent are by no means the worst offenders in playing more than two players unqualified to appear for England and the influx of foreign mercenaries has assumed laughable proportions. In Kent's case their overseas players were Hall and Kemp. Van Jaarsveld was employed as a 'Kolpak' player.
From 2008 counties will be allowed to field only one overseas player. This regulation was agreed in an effort to compensate for the 'Kolpak' invaders and numerous others with Anglo-Saxon grandmothers.
Gabby, St Lucia
Which West Indian cricketer scored 99 runs against England in 1948?
He was R J (Bob) Christiani who was trapped lbw by Ken Cranston in the first Test at Bridgetown in January 1948.
Stephen Bain, England
Why is it that when a wide goes for four it is registered as five wides? This annoys me, as if this happens twice, it appears as 10 wides, when in fact there have been only 2 wides and you cannot work out how may extra deliveries the fielding team has actually had to bowl.
Any runs (byes) that are scored from a wide are added to the penalty run awarded for a wide. Thus a wide that goes to the boundary scores five runs, all of which are classed as wides, added to extras and debited to the bowler's analysis. I take your point about calculating the number of wides actually called. However, these are recorded against the bowling figures on several websites for first-class matches.
David Powell, England
What is the highest individual Test score that was not the highest score in an innings? My best guess is Roshan Mahanama's 225 for Sri Lanka v India in 1997-98 (behind Sanath Jayasuriya's 340).
The record is now Kumar Sangakkara's 287 for Sri Lanka against South Africa at Colombo's Sinhalese Sports Club in July 2006 when he shared the world record first-class partnership for any wicket of 624 with Mahela Jayawardena who scored 374.
Derek Wilton, UK
I've heard that Dennis Lillie used an aluminium bat in the late '70s. Can you tell me how this came about?
Lillee used it in the first innings of the Perth Test against England at the start of the second day's play, on Saturday 15 December 1979.
Not out overnight with 11 off 17 balls, he faced just four balls from Ian Botham with his all-metal 'Dennis Lillee Combat'. The first hit his pad. He blocked the second, a yorker and left the third. He off drove the fourth for three runs to long-off with a resounding bonk.
England's captain examined the ball and complained to the umpire, Max O'Connell, that the metal bat had damaged the leather. The umpires upheld the appeal but Lillee initially refused to change his bat and flung it away.
It was an appallingly misjudged promotion of his bat which not only defied his captain's instructions but also showed utter contempt for his opponents and for the umpires' authority. By the time he was persuaded to resume his innings with a wooden bat, 10 minutes had been lost.
Law six was subsequently amended to decree that 'the blade of the bat shall be made solely of wood.'
I interviewed the manufacturer for BFBS and was given one of these bats. Years later I lent it to Terry Wogan who deafened a sizeable crowd at Reading School by scoring 40 with it in a Lord's Taverners match.
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