Plus: individual scores yet to be made in Tests and ODIs, and the fastest to 1000 T20 runs
Steven Lynch06-Oct-2015Is Rohit Sharma the first player to finish on the losing side after scoring a hundred in a Twenty20 international? asked Ian Hugo from Nigeria
Rohit Sharma’s 106 for India against South Africa in Dharamsala last week was the 15th century in T20 internationals, the second for India after Suresh Raina’s 101 against South Africa at Gros Islet in 2010. It was actually the third by a player who ended up on the losing side: Chris Gayle made 117 for West Indies in the opening match of the inaugural World T20 in Johannesburg in September 2007, but South Africa still won; then also in Johannesburg in January 2015, the boot was on the other foot as Faf du Plessis made 119 for South Africa, who still lost to West Indies, with Gayle smashing 90 in 41 balls.How many batsmen have been left stranded in the nineties in an unsuccessful one-day international run-chase, as Shoaib Malik was in Harare? asked Daan Korneef from Australia
Shoaib Malik, who scored 96 not out for Pakistan as Zimbabwe won last week in Harare, was the unlucky 13th batsman to be marooned in the nineties in an ODI his team ended up losing. He was the second this year, after England’s James Taylor (98 not out) against Australia in Melbourne in the World Cup. Unluckiest of all, perhaps, was the UAE’s Swapnil Patil – stranded on 99 not out on at the end of the game against Scotland in Lincoln in 2013-14, and still without a century in ODIs. The first to suffer this fate was Australia’s Bruce Laird, with 91 not out against Pakistan in Lahore in 1982-83. He has been followed by Sunil Gavaskar (92 not out for India v Australia in Sydney in 1985-86), Hansie Cronje (98 not out for South Africa v Australia in Lahore in 1994-95), Aravinda de Silva (97 not out for Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe in Harare in 1994-95), Samir Dighe (94 not out for India v West Indies in Harare in 2001), Paul Collingwood (91 not out for England v India at Headingley in 2007), Thilina Kandamby (93 not out for Sri Lanka v India in Colombo in 2008-09), Alex Obanda (96 not out for Kenya v Zimbabwe in Nairobi in 2008-09), Ashish Bagai (91 not out for Canada v Afghanistan in Sharjah in 2009-10), and Collins Obuya (98 not out for Kenya v Australia in Bangalore during the 2011 World Cup). This remained the highest score in ODIs for Dighe, Kandamby, Obanda and Obuya, as well as Patil.Virat Kohli reached 1000 runs in Twenty20 internationals recently. Was he the fastest to get there? asked Jamie Stewart from Canada
Virat Kohli reached 1000 runs in T20Is during his 43 against South Africa in Dharamsala last week. This was his 27th innings, in his 29th match, and no one else had done it faster than that: the England pair of Alex Hales and Kevin Pietersen both reached thousand in their 32nd matches, and Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle in 35. All of them apart from Gayle (34 innings) batted in each match. Hales was easily the quickest to 1000 in terms of time, doing so in 993 days – almost a year faster than David Warner (1347).I noticed that the lowest individual score not yet made in Twenty20 internationals is 82. What’s the record for Tests and ODIs? asked Faraz Ahmed from Pakistan
You’re right about T20Is: the lowest individual score that no one has yet ended an innings on in one is 82; all the other scores between 0 and 100 have been made, apart from 92, 93, 95 and 97. The lowest in a Test match is 229 (it used to be 228, until South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs was out for that against Pakistan in Cape Town in 2002-03). The next scores that have not yet been recorded are 238, 245 and 252. And the lowest score not yet made in a one-day international is 155 – rather oddly there have been three 154s and five 156s.Sussex batsman Ken Suttle made a record 423 successive County Championship appearances between 1954 and 1969•PA PhotosI read that Glamorgan’s Mark Wallace played 230 successive County Championship matches. Is this a record? asked Saurav Jain from India
The Glamorgan wicketkeeper (and former captain) Mark Wallace missed the last match of the 2015 season through injury, bringing to an end an unbroken run of County Championship appearances that stretched back to 2001. It’s a notable run given the reduced amount of Championship cricket played these days – no one has approached such a number for more than 40 years. The record, though, dates from the time when counties often played 32 matches a season: the Sussex batsman Ken Suttle made 423 successive County Championship appearances between 1954 and 1969. Next comes the Yorkshire wicketkeeper Jimmy Binks, who made his debut in 1955 and played 412 successive Championship appearances before retiring at the end of the 1969 season. Wallace lies 17th on the overall list. Two people above him both had unbroken runs that came to an end in 1972: Brian Taylor played 301 successive Championship games for Essex, and Ronald Nicholls 276 for Gloucestershire.Was Frank Tyson the last survivor of the 1954-55 Ashes series? asked Kenneth Carroll from England
The recent death of Frank Tyson in Australia, at the age of 85, leaves only one English survivor from the team that toured Australia in 1954-55 – and, thanks in no small measure to Tyson’s electrically fast bowling, won the Ashes 3-1. The last man standing is Tom Graveney, who played in two of the Tests and is now 88. Five of the Australians who played in that series are still with us as I write: Len Maddocks, now Australia’s oldest surviving Test player at 89; Neil Harvey, who played in all five Tests, Alan Davidson (who played in three) and Colin McDonald (two), all 86; and Bill Watson (84), who won the first of his four caps in the final Test at Sydney.
