One change to side that lost in Visakhapatnam, with Rehan visa issue resolved

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Feb-2024Mark Wood has been recalled to England’s attack at the expense of the offspinner Shoaib Bashir, as England confirmed their team for the third Test against India, which gets underway in Rajkot on Thursday.Wood played as a lone seamer in England’s victory in the first Test at Hyderabad but went wicketless on a surface that did not suit his express pace. However, he has been recalled to partner James Anderson, who impressed with five wickets at Visakhapatnam last week, on a surface that had been more green-tinged in the lead-up to the match.He is the only change to the starting XI, with Bashir sitting out after claiming four wickets on debut in the second Test. It means that England will be playing two seamers for the first time in the series, after fielding a spin-dominant attack in each of the last two matches.Related

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Rehan Ahmed’s participation in this match had been in some doubt after he encountered visa issues on his return to India, following the team’s mid-series break in Abu Dhabi. However, that issue has been resolved.Stokes confirmed England were under no doubt that Rehan’s paperwork would be authorised in time for the third Test, and has backed the 19-year-old legspinner to pick up where he left off from the first two.Rehan Ahmed’s visa issue has been resolved•Associated Press

“It’s always an anxious period but thankfully we’ve got it through this morning. First of all, the guys at the airport did a great job at giving him his visa initially to get through and then everyone at the BCCI and the government to get the visa through quickly. We don’t have to worry about any more of those issues.”We were very confident we would get the visa for Rehan before the game started. There was no thoughts around not playing him this week. The great thing about youth is they just take everything in their stride and I thought he handled a situation that could have affected quite a lot of people in a different way very, very well for such a young kid.”The Test matches he’s played so far, he’s done very, very well and everything we’ve asked of him he’s gone out and tried to deliver. I’m looking forward to him getting another game this week.”Having gone into Wednesday with 12 names, Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum decided on the extra seamer in Wood after one last look at the pitch. They were swayed by cracks in the pitch which they believe will lead to uneven bounce as the Test goes on.Otherwise, they anticipate a surface not too dissimilar to the one that resulted in a high-scoring draw in the 2016 series.”I know it was a very long time ago when we played here, but it looks a good wicket,” Stokes said. “Yesterday it actually looked quite English. It’s a little bit different today. We weren’t quite sure what we were going to do with the team but today made us realise that we are definitely going to go with two seamers.”It just looks a good wicket. It’s a bit platey. Over the five days, those plates might become a little but uneven. There might be some reverse swing which brings Woody into the game – and Jimmy as well.”England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Ben Foakes (wk), 8 Rehan Ahmed, 9 Tom Hartley, 10 Mark Wood, 11 James Anderson

Royal Challengers Bengaluru slumped to their fourth defeat in four games in IPL 2024

Sreshth Shah06-Apr-20242:01

Moody: Kohli played well but didn’t have enough support

Jos Buttler celebrated his 100th IPL match with a 58-ball century to return to form and lead Rajasthan Royals to their fourth win in four games in IPL 2024. Buttler got to the mark in style by hitting the winning runs – a six over midwicket – to finish unbeaten on 100, and his 148-run stand with Sanju Samson (69 in 42) for the second wicket set up the chase.Their partnership was also the season’s highest, breaking the record set by Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis earlier in the day. Kohli led from the front to smack 113 in the first innings – his eighth IPL century and third in his last seven IPL innings – but it was also his slowest century, getting to the mark in 67 balls.With no batter apart from du Plessis contributing, the onus was on Kohli to lift the Royal Challengers Bengaluru innings. And he did so successfully, carrying the bat till the end, but their total of 183 proved insufficient, sending them to their fourth defeat in five games.Buttler leads, Samson followsWith scores of 11, 11, and 13, Buttler came into the game needing to change his fortunes. More so after he saw Yashasvi Jaiswal fall for a duck to Reece Topley. Then came a trademark Buttler scoop over wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik in the fourth over, his first boundary of the night.Having got that one away, Buttler survived a tough catching chance on 6 the next delivery. That, however, did now slow him down. He launched into Yash Dayal and then hit left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar for three fours and a six in a 20-run sixth over. With Samson also matching him shot for shot, Buttler reached his first fifty of the season in the tenth over.Buttler was especially strong against the inexperienced spinners Dagar and Himanshu Sharma. They often erred with their lengths, and he pounced on short balls by pulling over the leg side. He also pierced boundaries through the covers and ran down the pitch to hit both spin and pace down the ground.Jos Buttler and Shimron Hetmyer celebrate the century and the victory•AFP/Getty Images

His connections got better as the innings progressed, on display when he picked Dayal’s slower ball in the 13th over, had to wait ages for it to arrive where he stood and still flat-batted him for six. With one to win at the start of the 20th over, Buttler had a fairytale end to his evening when he pulled a six to reach his ton and seal the deal.Kohli’s ton ends in defeatPut in to bat, RCB needed their opening pair to get some runs, but it was meant to be a challenge against the team that was averaging three powerplay wickets per game. However, Trent Boult and Nandre Burger could not get the early breakthrough, and the Kohli-du Plessis pair put on 53 in the powerplay.The start was promising for RCB since du Plessis survived the powerplay for the first time this season and Kohli looked fluid at his worst IPL venue (he averaged 21.90 in Jaipur before this game). Kohli was the majority contributor in their 125-run opening stand, scoring 72 compared to du Plessis’ 44 before the latter fell in the 14th over.As he peppered boundaries off the pacers through the leg side, in particular by flicking off his toes through midwicket, Kohli also used his feet against Yuzvendra Chahal, the best Royals bowler, hitting him for two sixes. He saved his best for Avesh Khan, whom he struck for three fours through the off side in the 16th. Kohli then reached his ninth T20 century and eighth in IPL in the 19th over off Burger, before launching into Avesh again with two fours in the 20th to finish with a career-best IPL score of 113. He contributed 61.70% of runs for RCB and was one of two players batters in the innings to reach double-digits in a total of 183 for 3.Chahal, Ashwin outbowl RCB’s spinnersIt was an unusual bowling effort from Royals. They did not take a powerplay wicket, and Boult’s ineffectiveness up top meant it was the first game where he did not bowl a third over in the powerplay.It was then that Samson turned to Ashwin and Chahal consecutively. Together, they went for 62 in eight overs – economy of 7.75. Their array of tricks kept a well-set Kohli, and others like du Plessis, Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell fairly quiet.On the other hand, take RCB’s two spinners: rookies Dagar and Himanshu. Dagar was traded in from Sunrisers for Shahbaz Ahmed and Himanshu is a product of RCB’s scouting system. In only four overs (two apiece) they conceded one more than the total given away by Ashwin and Chahal in eight.They missed their lengths too many times, and when they got it wrong, Samson and Buttler did not spare them. In all, 11 of their 24 balls went for either four or six, a clear determinant in Royals’ win with five balls to spare.

Grace Scrivens anchors chase with unbeaten 63 as Sunrisers start campaign with victory

ECB Reporters Network20-Apr-2024Jodi Grewcock and Nicola Hancock claimed three wickets apiece as Sunrisers launched their Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign with a comprehensive eight-wicket victory over Western Storm at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.Seamer Hancock took 3 for 15 in 5.4 overs and teenager Grewcock bowled unchanged for 10 overs to return impressive figures of 3 for 28 with her legbreaks as Storm were dismissed for a wholly inadequate 114 in 30.4 overs.Offspinner Mady Villiers weighed in with 2 for 36, while Esmae MacGregor took a wicket and contributed a run out as Sunrisers produced a disciplined performance in the field after winning the toss. Only Nat Wraith offered meaningful resistance with the bat, top-scoring with 42 as Storm opened this campaign as they finished the last, by suffering heavy defeat.Sunrisers skipper Grace Scrivens then led by example, compiling a composed innings of 63 and sharing in a reassuring partnership of 59 with Cordelia Griffith for the second wicket as the visitors comfortably overhauled their target with 16.2 overs to spare.Victorious in their final four matches of last season, Sunrisers have picked up where they left off and will go into their next match against Thunder at Sale in confident mood. For their part, Storm have now been beaten in their last five outings in the 50-over competition and will need to find improvement ahead of their trip to play Northern Diamonds at Headingley on Wednesday.Put into bat, Storm were unable to recover from the loss of early wickets and were shot out inside 31 overs, only three batters managing double-figures in an innings which the home side will no doubt want to forget in a hurry.Hancock produced a probing new-ball spell to remove Alex Griffiths for 2, but fellow opener Sophia Smale responded in positive fashion, helping herself to three leg-side boundaries to advance her score to 16. Calamity then struck, Smale clipping Villiers behind point and setting off for a quick single, only to collide with partner Sophie Luff halfway down the track and be run out by MacGregor while getting back to her feet.That unfortunate mishap sparked a dramatic collapse which saw five wickets fall in just 8.1 overs as Storm subsided to 64 for 6, their top and middle-order batting undermined by spin. Luff played and missed at a delivery from Grewcock that nipped back and was adjudged lbw for 7, while Dani Gibson was also undone by the England Under-19 legspinner, playing back to a ball that struck her on the pad and departing for 3.Plying her offbreaks at the other end, Villiers trapped Katie Jones in the crease and then struck a telling blow, inducing former England international Fran Wilson to drive straight to Jo Gardner at mid-on. Wilson had made 18 and with her went Storm’s best chance of posting a competitive total.Fearing she might run out of partners before she was able to do anything to remedy a parlous situation, Wraith adopted a forthright approach and dominated stands of 24 and 26 with Niamh Holland and Amanda-Jade Wellington for the seventh and eighth wickets respectively. But Holland eventually offered a return catch to MacGregor and Wellington miscued a drive to extra cover as Grewcock continued to deploy clever variation in flight to strike again in her final over.Attempting to take matters into her own hands, Wraith plundered half a dozen boundaries in carrying the fight to the Sunrisers bowlers, her luck finally running out when she hoisted a ball from the returning Hancock to deep midwicket. Her combative innings of 42 spanned 52 balls and at least enabled embattled Storm to realise three figures.Hancock required just four deliveries to wrap-up the innings, having Chloe Skelton caught at the wicket, the seventh Storm player to perish either in single figures or without scoring.Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Storm’s bowlers did their utmost to build pressure and new overseas recruit Wellington provided a silver lining when gaining an lbw decision to remove Ariana Dowse with the score on 21 in the eighth over. Making a good first impression on her debut, the Australian international spinner finished with 1 for 24 from nine overs and discomfited the top-order batters sufficiently to suggest she is going to make a positive impact in Storm colours this season.But the implacable Scrivens overcame all attempts to unseat her, playing a captain’s innings to ensure her team reached their target without enduring any undue dramas. She found the perfect partner in Griffith, who adopted the role of chief support in an innings of 28 that spanned 48 balls and included a quartet of fours before she holed out to Holland in the deep off the bowling of Skelton.Unperturbed by that setback, Scrivens went to 50 via 65 balls with her ninth four, a fluent cover drive plundered at the expense of Griffiths. Perhaps fittingly given her performance with the ball earlier, Grewcock hit the winning runs as she finished unbeaten on 15.

Wrexham have been warned they may be "caught out" in the Championship, with co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac facing a "massive shock".

• Wrexham promoted to Championship
• Warned they face a "massive shock"
• Told they could get caught out

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Former Manchester United star Gary Pallister believes that the Welsh outfit are in for their toughest test yet as they prepare for life in the Championship. Despite securing three promotions in as many years, the ex-Middlesbrough man feels reaching the Premier League in 2026 may be a long shot.

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• WHAT PALLISTER SAID

  He told Betvictor: "Wrexham are in for a massive shock in the Championship. I've always thought that between League One, League Two and National League, there's not a great deal in terms of quality as you go up the ladder there. I think when you go from League One to the Championship, it's a step up. Obviously the Championship to the Premier League is an even bigger step. But first to the championship, I think it can catch a lot of people out. I've not seen what they've done in terms of transfers and bringing people in with the experience of Championship football, but they've certainly got momentum behind them. Everybody's talking about Wrexham. I went to a game there last year. The atmosphere was terrific. I think a lot of people are loving Wrexham because of the guys who are in charge, the documentary that we've seen and the way they seem to be embracing it all. They're getting the fans on the journey, they're creating a great feeling about the place and I think it's exciting. I've got Mickey Thomas telling me how good they are and what a place Wrexham is at the moment and they're only going to go onwards and upwards. I'm loving the story. I'm loving the owners. Wrexham back in the day were a big club and it'd be great to see them getting back somewhere near to that."

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Wrexham created history when they secured a record third-straight promotion earlier this year but this next hurdle could be their toughest one yet. The Red Dragons will no longer have one of the biggest budgets in the division; they need to get their signings spot on, and manager Phil Parkinson's tactics will be severely tested this campaign. But they are riding the crest of a wave, and momentum can certainly help a team kick on.

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  WHAT NEXT?

  Parkinson's Wrexham side begin their Championship campaign away to recently relegated Premier League side Southampton at St Mary's on August 9. That may be a good barometer to see where they are at for the upcoming season.

David Frith reviews In Quest of the Ashes by Douglas Jardine

David Frith13-Oct-2005

Publishers’ preferences continue to perplex. Of the many books on the notorious 1932-33 Bodyline Ashes series, this one, by England’s captain, first published in 1933, had already been reissued in 1984, by Orbis, with a foreword by John Arlott. Now a foreword by Mike Brearley and a tender afterword by Douglas Jardine’s daughter Fianach come with a fresh edition for those who missed the earlier ones, that they might sample for themselves this battlefield account written in lawyers’ language.It is predictably prejudiced. Jardine was scornful of his Australian adversaries, whose ranks swelled during this stormiest of cricket tours. From his insistence on referring throughout to the provocative fast attack as “leg theory” to his contempt for Don Bradman and most things Australian, this account is limited by, or, as his supporters might insist, fortified by the bias.But then all the contemporary accounts of Bodyline – bar perhaps the books by Mailey, Hobbs and Wilmot – were one-eyed. It was not until Jack Fingleton’s Cricket Crisis (1946) that visibility around the dispute began to clear. Probably we should forgive Jardine his prejudices, for his obstinacy reflects the very quality that brought England success on those steamy Australian cricket fields almost three-quarters of a century ago.
Much of the informed detail here, of course, could have come only from Jardine’s pen, such as his tactical thinking, his opinion of the jeering crowds, his perception of Bradman’s weaknesses, and the insistence that this mega-runmaker was not intended as the sole target of Harold Larwood and Bill Voce’s attack. Jardine’s conviction was that if South Australia’s Tim Wall could take all 10 in an innings of a Shield match, then surely none of Australia’s top batsmen in the early 1930s could be competent against pace.Wherever possible Jardine summons support from Australians. Arthur Mailey and Jack Ryder were two who didn’t mind England’s “leg theory”, and his concise match descriptions incorporate sympathy of a sort for both Bill Woodfull and Bert Oldfield after their serious injuries at Larwood’s hands in the tumultuous Adelaide showdown. The author also displays the sense of humour so familiar to his close friends. Gleefully recalled is the barracker’s cry of “Let the ——- [not batsman!] die of thirst!” when Australia’s captain was about to offer England’s leader a drink. But Jardine expresses contempt for the mobs who tried to make his life a misery from Adelaide across to Brisbane as his menacing Notts fast men bowled their fast “long hops” (no alarming nouns such as “bouncers” or “bumpers” here).He would have preferred to have played his cricket on empty grounds. The “unsportsmanlike” charge outraged him more than anything else. Brearley, who knows about personal targeting by Australian crowds, sees Jardine’s self-defence as disingenuous, and craves more detail on a number of issues merely touched upon in this volume. A significant book, it still leaves so very much unsaid.

Such was the draw of WG Grace that after a public spat with Gloucestershire, who he had captained since its formation in 1870, he was able to move to London and help establish a side that within a year had been given first-class status

Martin Williamson27-Jan-200682 pp, hb

Much has been written about WG Grace – perhaps more than any other cricketer with the exception of Don Bradman. But while his 19th-century exploits are well documented, less is known about the twilight of his career, and in some ways that is one of the most interesting periods. Such was the draw of the man that after a public spat with Gloucestershire, who he had captained since its formation in 1870, he was able to move to London and help establish a side that within a year had been given first-class status.Brian Pearce’s Cricket At The Crystal Palace helps to fill in the gaps about the brief history of the London County Cricket Club (by 1905 it had lost its first-class status, a victim of financial troubles and poor attendances). But in those five seasons, it was jazz-hat cricket at its best. Led by Grace (he only missed one of their first-class matches), LCCC attracted some of the best players of the era and also took on a quasi-MCC role of nurturing and encouraging the best young cricketers. The club was dominated by the Old Man, and Pearce manages to convey the sense of what it must have been like to play with and under him.This book is not just about WG. It gives the story of the Crystal Palace, which dominated the whole enterprise and ultimately led to its demise, and of the LCCC. Pearce injects colour and life into the narrative, and the illustrations are copious and interesting.This is clearly a labour of love but Pearce has managed to produce a book well worth buying. It’s not long – 82 pages in all – and if there is a criticism it is the rather slapdash and poorly formatted statistics. But that is one minor gripe which does not really tarnish the overall product.

Memories of India’s 1952-53 tour of the Caribbean from GS Ramchand

20-Apr-2006India’s 1952-53 tour of West Indies was their first to that part of the world. The team left by flight for London from where we took a boat to Barbados. It was a banana boat, a small cargo vessel that carried bananas from Barbados to the UK. Most of the players were sick because of the high seas and the rough weather.The matches in those days were restricted to four centres – Trinidad, British Guiana (now Guyana), Barbados and Jamaica. We had two or three weeks in each place during which we played a colony game and a Test. The tour itself lasted about two-and-a-half months.Only Barbados, Jamaica and British Guiana had turf wickets. Trinidad had jute matting, on which we played the first and third Tests. Barring a few players, most of our touring party had little experience playing on matting, which is a completely different ball-game as opposed to playing on turf. Fortunately for us, West Indies had only one genuine quick bowler in Frank King.It was imperative for us to post big totals if we had to match the might of the Three Ws – Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott. We ended up with honourable draws in four of the five Tests. In fact, I believe that the only one we lost – the second Test in Barbados – was perfectly winnable. Set a target of 272, we were 54 for 2 at close of play on the fourth day with [opener] Pankaj Roy unbeaten on 9 – I was with him, on 31. The next morning we took the score to 70 when [slow left-arm bowler] Alf Valentine dismissed Roy. The overnight cracks on the wicket had got much wider and Sonny Ramadhin exploited it with his mixture of off- and legspin. He dropped his pace but pushed the odd delivery to hit the batsmen at ankle-height. India collapsed to 129 all out and Ramadhin ended with 5 for 26 in 24.5 overs. He was sorted out later in the series, and was in fact dropped for the final Test, though he and Valentine were the main bowlers for West Indies.In contrast to Ramadhin, our legspinner Subhash Gupte did very well on that tour. He got 27 of the 62 wickets that we picked up in the series. What made Gupte so effective was that he deceived batsmen with his flight, and had a good wrong’un. He got fine support at the other end from Vinoo Mankad, and the two of them were backed up by brilliant fielding. It was said that the 1952-53 team was the best Indian fielding side to visit the West Indies, with JM Ghorpade, CV Gadkari, Polly Umrigar, DK Gaekwad, Madhav Apte and myself.If there was anything we lacked, it was strong and aggressive captaincy. Vijay Hazare was a great batsman and an unassuming person, but his personality did not infuse confidence in the side. There was no planning, no team meetings or discussions of tactics. He did everything in a mechanical fashion and had confidence in only two bowlers – Gupte and Mankad. There was no fixed batting order. There was no planning, no thought as to which bowler should bowl to which batsmen. Someone like Dattu Phadkar, the allrounder, could have made a difference had he led the team. He had the courage, the will and the stomach to take chances and his body language reflected that.Bowling to the Three Ws was no joke. They were merciless. You got one out and another W emerged. Our only hope was to keep them relatively quiet. Gupte and Mankad both bowled their hearts out; Gupte bowled 65 overs and Mankad 82 in the first innings of the final Test, in which all the Three Ws got hundreds.It was a terrific series for Weekes. He got 207 in the first Test, and followed that up with scores of 47, 15, 161, 55 not out, 86, 109 and 36. Weekes did not spare us in the colony game against Barbados: he got 253. Walcott got 98 in the second Test, 125 in the fourth and 118 in the final Test. Worrell was grace personified, he would bat superbly for 30 or 40 runs and invariably got out to a marvellous catch. We used to tell Frank: “The other two Ws are murdering us, why don’t you get some runs?”He would reply: “Don’t worry, it will come soon.” And it did, in the final Test, where he got 237.Gupte commanded greater respect than Vinoo. To this generation, I would say that Gupte was as good as Shane Warne. Of the Indian batsmen, Polly Umrigar got 130 in the first Test and 117 in the fifth. Polly was a great hitter who could send the ball high over the boundary, but he was put to shade by the brilliance of the Three Ws. Madhav Apte got an unbeaten 163 in the third Test, but it was a laboured and chancy innings lasting over two days.This was the tour in which we had our first glimpse of a talented youngster. He got three wickets and 30-odd runs when we played against Barbados. His name: Garry Sobers.

Edgbaston, as everyone in the cricket-playing world now knows, is England’s lucky ground

Andrew Miller04-Aug-2005

Andrew Strauss falls to Shane Warne as lunch approaches © Getty Images
Edgbaston, as everyone in the cricket-playing world knows, is England’s lucky ground, a reputation largely based on their one glimmer of glory in two decades of Ashes misery – in 1997, when Australia were squashed by nine wickets after slipping to 54 for 8 on the first morning of the series.Four years on from that match, however, in 2001, Australia gained their vengeance in no uncertain terms, rampaging to victory by an innings and 118 runs, to set up a 4-1 series win. And, until Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen turned England’s fortunes around with today’s century stand, the 2005 Test seemed to be following an ominously familiar pattern.Admittedly, Marcus Trescothick did rather better on this occasion than the first-ball duck that he managed against Jason Gillespie back then, but his failure in 2001 was amply glossed over by Michael Atherton and Mark Butcher, who responded with a partnership of 104 in 23 overs for the second wicket. In fact, they batted with the same ease and poise that England’s openers, 112 in 25.3 overs, managed today. But, on the stroke of lunch, both then and now, Shane Warne struck.Admittedly, Warne’s impact was more seismic then than now – he needed just two balls to remove Butcher, brilliantly caught by Ricky Ponting at silly point (although that was twice as many deliveries than he had needed on his first Ashes tour in 1993). But the impact was similar on both occasions, as England continued to lose wickets in the second session (136 for 4 then, 187 for 4 now).The big difference, however, was the absence of Warne’s partner-in-crime. Glenn McGrath would doubtless have scented blood today, as he did with his three middle-order breakthroughs back in 2001. But this time he was holed up in the dressing-room with an ice-pack on his ankle, and England managed to wriggle off the hook. For the moment, at least.

Stats highlights from the second day of The Oval Test

S Rajesh10-Aug-2007

Anil Kumble had to wait 151 innings to finally get his first Test century © Getty Images
The story of the day was Anil Kumble’s unbeaten 110. In 117 previous Tests, his highest had been 88, against South Africa at Kolkata in 1996-97. In his 118th match, and his 151st innings, he wasn’t to be denied, though. It’s the most number of Tests any batsman has played to get to his first century. Chaminda Vaas held the earlier record – his unbeaten 100 against Bangladesh in Colombo earlier this year came in his 97th Test, while Jason Gillespie was playing in his 71st Test when he struck that memorable 201 not out against Bangladesh, again, at Chittagong in 2005-06. Kumble had only scored 79 runs in his 11 previous innings, and his innings is also his first 50-plus score overseas. (Click here for Kumble’s innings-by-innings list.) India’s total of 664 is their highest against England, and their fourth-highest against all teams. It’s also only the 11th time – and the fourth for India – that all 11 batsmen made double-digit scores. As at Trent Bridge, India’s top-order batting was characterised by contributions from every batsman. In all there were six 50-plus scores in the innings. Only twice previously have so many Indian batsmen scored so many in a single innings: at Kanpur against New Zealand in 1976-77, India managed 524 for 9 declared with six half-centuries but no hundreds – a total which remains, thanks to Kumble’s hundred, the highest without a century; against Australia at Kolkata in 1997-98, India scored 633 for 5 declared, with the top six all going past 50, and Mohammad Azharuddin scoring an unbeaten 163. So many significant scores from the batsmen meant there were partnerships for almost every wicket. In all India put together an astonishing eight 50-plus stands, which is a record in Test cricket. There are 25 instances of six 50-plus stands, but no team had managed seven in a single innings. The last-wicket stand between Kumble and Sreesanth yielded 73 at a rate of 5.47 per over. It’s the fourth-highest tenth-wicket partnership for India, and their highest against England. The 133 that Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan added against Bangladesh at Dhaka in 2004-05 remains the highest. Not only did the lower contribute handily, they did so at a brisk pace: India’s last five wickets scored 310 runs in 68.4 overs, a scoring rate of 4.51. Much of that scoring rate was due to the 81-ball blitz by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. His 92 is now the highest by an Indian wicketkeeper in England, going past Farokh Engineer’s 87 at Headingley in 1967. In fact, Dhoni and Engineer share the top five scores by an Indian wicketkeeper in England: Engineer also scored 86 at Lord’s and 64 not out at Edgbaston in 1974, while Dhoni contributed a match-saving unbeaten 76 in the first Test of this series at Lord’s. England had a forgettable day in the field, and it’s hardly surprising that a few of them entered the record books for all the wrong reasons. Matt Prior had a terrible time behind the stumps, dropping a couple of catches and letting through 33 byes, which is the second-highest in a single Test innings. England leaked 37 against Australia at the same ground way back in 1934, but there was a good reason for that: Les Ames, the regular wicketkeeper, was forced to retire hurt while batting in England’s first innings, which forced frank Woolley to keep wicket in Australia second innings. Whereas Ames had conceded four byes in Australia’s first-innings score of 701, Woolley allowed 37 in the second-innings score of 327. Prior joins two other wicketkeepers who have conceded 33 byes: John Murray, against India at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in 1960-61, and Jim Parks against West Indies at Kingston in 1968. In fact, the five highest number of byes conceded in an innings have all been by England. James Anderson and Monty Panesar became only the second and third England bowlers to concede more than 150 runs in an innings against India. Andrew Caddick was the first, going for exactly 150 in 40.1 overs at Headingley in 2002.

The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions
about (almost) any aspect of cricket. This week it’s a World Cup
special

Steven Lynch26-Mar-2007The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

Jeremy Bray carried his bat through Ireland’s 50-over innings against Zimbabwe. How many times has this happened in the World Cup? asked Rae Clarke from Galway
That fine effort from Ireland’s Jeremy Bray at Kingston was the 10th time someone had batted through his country’s allocation of overs in the World Cup. The first instance was on the opening day of World Cup matches, in 1975: after England made 334 for 4 in their 60 overs at Lord’s, Sunil Gavaskar occupied 174 balls for 36 not out as India crawled to 132 for 3 and a 202-run defeat. For a full list, click here. The only man to carry his bat through a completed innings in the World Cup is Ridley Jacobs, for West Indies against Australia at Old Trafford in 1999.What is the highest partnership in the World Cup? asked Satyender Singh from Delhi
By the end of the qualifying matches in the current World Cup the highest partnership remained the 318 of Sourav Ganguly (who made 183) and Rahul Dravid (145) for India against Sri Lanka at Taunton in 1999. For a full and updated list of the best partnerships for each wicket in the World Cup, click here.Who was the first Test captain to bag a pair? asked Reuben Johnson from Stoke
The unfortunate holder of this record is Australia’s Joe Darling, who was out without scoring in both innings of the only Test ever played at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, in 1902. Despite Darling’s problems Australia still won the match by 143 runs. For a full list of the 19 captains who have bagged a pair in Tests, click here.I enjoyed watching Bermuda during this World Cup. Have any of their players made a century? asked Kevin McNamara from the United States
None of the Bermudian players managed a century in this World Cup – their highest score was David Hemp’s 76 not out against India at Port-of-Spain. But they do have one century to their credit in one-day internationals: Irvine Romaine, their World Cup captain, made 101 against Canada at Toronto in August 2006.I seem to recall that David Boon kept wicket for Australia in a couple of one-day games. When was this? asked Andy Haensel from Australia
David Boon only started one match as Australia’s designated wicketkeeper – appropriately enough, it was during the World Cup, in 1991-92, after Ian Healy injured his hamstring in the previous match, against South Africa at Sydney (Boon kept wicket in that game, too, as Healy was unfit). The next match was against India, at Brisbane, and Australia ended up winning by one run after Boon collected Steve Waugh’s throw from the boundary to run out India’s last man, Venkatapathy Raju. Boon might have deputised behind the stumps in the odd other game – the records don’t always mention stand-ins – but that was the only one of his 181 one-day internationals which he started as wicketkeeper.Which player is known as “Baby Boof”? asked Ryan Berriman from Brisbane
This is Mark Cosgrove, the South Australian left-hander who was close to a place in the Australian World Cup squad, and it comes from his resemblance to his SA skipper Darren Lehmann – another comfortably built left-hand batsman – whose usual nickname is “Boof”.