Also: how many players have scored a hundred and taken a hat-trick on the same day in first-class cricket?
Steven Lynch25-Apr-2023Gloucestershire’s Tom Price just scored a century and took a hat-trick – on the same day. Has anyone done this before in first-class cricket? asked Quentin Holt from England
Playing for Gloucestershire against Worcestershire at New Road last week, Tom Price followed a century – after coming at No. 9 with the score 45 for 7 – with a hat-trick (all caught by wicketkeeper James Bracey). This was the 17th time this particular double had been achieved in the same first-class match, but the first time both achievements came entirely on the same day.William Burns (Worcestershire against Gloucestershire in Worcester in 1913), Bob Wyatt (MCC vs Ceylon in Colombo in 1926-27), Learie Constantine (West Indians vs Northamptonshire in Northampton in 1928) and Mike Procter (Gloucestershire vs Essex in Westcliff-on-Sea in 1972) all completed centuries in innings they had started the previous evening, and then took a hat-trick that day. Playing for Bangladesh’s Central Zone in Savar in 2013-14, Mahmudullah ended North Zone’s innings with two wickets in two balls, then next day scored a century and completed his hat-trick when he bowled again in North’s second innings (he took four wickets in four balls in all).Procter and Sohag Gazi both did this double twice – Sohag’s second remains the only instance to date in a Test match, for Bangladesh against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2013-14.Kent’s Joe Denly scored 102 and then took a hat-trick in a T20 Blast match against Surrey at The Oval in July 2018. A month later, Andre Russell followed a hat-trick with 121 not out (from 49 balls, with 13 sixes, having come in at 41 for 5) in a CPL match for Jamaica Tallawahs against Trinbago Knight Riders in Port-of-Spain.I noticed that Taijul Islam has now played Tests against 11 different countries. Has anyone else done this? asked Mithun Mukhtar from Bangladesh
Playing in Bangladesh’s Test against Ireland in Mirpur earlier this month did mean that left-arm spinner Taijul Islam had faced all 11 possible current opponents. He completed the set in his 41st Test. But four of his team-mates were also playing against their 11th opponent, and one of them was quicker to the mark: Mushfiqur Rahim (85 Tests), Shakib Al Hasan (66), Mominul Haque (56) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (38).In ODIs, the Scotland pair of Richie Berrington and Kyle Coetzer have played against 20 different opponents. In T20I, Ireland’s Paul Stirling has chalked up an impressive 26 different oppositions; the UAE pair of Ahmed Raza and Rohan Mustafa have faced 25 (both have played fewer than 60 such matches).Someone else noticed that in the match at Mirpur, Taijul dismissed Peter Moor, who was playing for Ireland, having already done so when Moor played for Zimbabwe. They asked whether anyone else had dismissed the same batter for two different countries, and there had been two previous cases: Alec Bedser dismissed Abdul Hafeez Kardar, who played for India and Pakistan, and Courtney Walsh accounted for Kepler Wessels while he was playing for Australia and South Africa.Ireland used four different wicketkeepers in their first four Tests – has any other country done this? asked Chris O’Donnell from Ireland
Ireland’s wicketkeeper in their inaugural Test, against Pakistan in Malahide in May 2018, was Niall O’Brien, who retired almost immediately afterwards. Stuart Poynter took the gloves for their next match, against Afghanistan in Dehradun in March 2019, but he hasn’t played again; Gary Wilson took over for the match against England at Lord’s three months later, bagged a pair (as did England’s keeper Jonny Bairstow), and retired not long afterwards. Ireland didn’t play a Test for more than three years, but earlier this month Lorcan Tucker made his debut against Bangladesh in Mirpur and scored a century, which ensured he kept the gloves for the ongoing series in Sri Lanka.No other country has fielded four different wicketkeepers in their first four Tests, but India (twice, in 1952-53 and from 1952-53 to 1954-55), West Indies (1961-62 to 1963) and Zimbabwe (2011-12 to 2012-13) also chose four different keepers in the space of four consecutive matches. In the 1952-53 home series against Pakistan, India tried Khokan Sen, Nana Joshi, Vijay Rajindernath and Ebrahim Maka, before reverting to Sen for the final Test. The unfortunate Rajindernath made four stumpings, and was never selected again.But Sri Lanka lead the way here. In five successive Tests between April 1987 and December 1989, their wicketkeepers were Brendon Kuruppu (against New Zealand in Colombo), Guy de Alwis (vs Australia in Perth), Amal Silva (vs England at Lord’s), Gamini Wickremasinghe (vs Australia in Brisbane) and Hashan Tillakaratne (vs Australia in Hobart). Note that all these statistics refer to the designated wicketkeeper for the match, and exclude any temporary replacements.Dinesh Karthik is tied with Mandeep Singh and Sunil Narine for the most ducks in IPL history•BCCIDinesh Karthik has bagged two ducks in this season’s IPL already, and I heard he had 15 overall in his IPL career. Is this the most? asked Mahesh Bhasin from India
Dinesh Karthik’s two ducks for RCB so far this season – against Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals – have taken him up to share the top spot on this particular list. Also on 15 as I write are Sunil Narine and Mandeep Singh, from less than half the number of innings Karthik has had. Rohit Sharma is close behind with 14 ducks.I know Jim Laker did it, but how many others have taken the wicket of all 11 batters in a Test? asked Tim Westcott from England
During the course of his record-breaking 19 for 90 at Old Trafford in 1956, the England offspinner Jim Laker did indeed dismiss all 11 Australians he came up against. Laker was the first to do this in a Test – but it has now been done five more times.The next to achieve it was another offspinner, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, for India against New Zealand in Delhi in 1964-65. He has been followed by Geoff Dymock (Australia vs India in Kanpur in 1979-80), Abdul Qadir (Pakistan vs England in Lahore in 1987-88), Waqar Younis (Pakistan vs New Zealand in Faisalabad in 1990-91), and Muthiah Muralidaran (Sri Lanka vs South Africa in Galle in 2000). Venkat, Dymock and Waqar took only 12 wickets in the match overall, the others 13.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions
