And how often have Sri Lanka been whitewashed at home in a Test series?
Steven Lynch27-Nov-2018How often have Sri Lanka been whitewashed at home in a Test series? asked Chandra de Silva from Sri Lanka
England’s 3-0 victory, which they completed yesterday by winning at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, was only the third time Sri Lanka had been on the wrong end of a whitewash at home.The first such setback was in March 2004, when Australia won 3-0 even though Sri Lanka claimed a first-innings lead in all three matches. Then India repeated the dose in 2017, winning 3-0 on a tour in which they won all nine international matches played.Sri Lanka have pulled off four whitewashes at home themselves. They beat West Indies 3-0 in 2001-02, despite Brian Lara piling up 688 runs, and had similar results against Zimbabwe shortly afterwards, also in 2001-02, Bangladesh in 2007 (three innings victories), and most impressively, against Australia in 2016, again despite conceding first-innings leads in two of the Tests.Kieran Powell was stumped first ball against Bangladesh. Was this a first for an opener in a Test? asked Mike Walker from England
Kieran Powell’s dismissal in the second innings in Chittagong last week was indeed a first for a Test. There had been three other instances of an opener being stumped for a duck, but none of them went first ball. Remarkably, two of those involved the same man, South Africa’s Louis Tancred, who was stumped for 0 on his 16th ball against England at Headingley in 1907, and repeated the feat – fourth ball this time – at The Oval in 1912.The first opener to be stumped for a duck in a Test was the England captain AN “Monkey” Hornby, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1884. He fell to the third ball he received, which was the 15th delivery of the match: this remains the earliest stumping in any Test.Two other openers have been dismissed in the first over, though not in the first innings of the match. England’s Archie MacLaren was stumped for 1 in Sydney in 1894-95, while Alastair Cook fell, also for 1, to the fifth ball of England’s second innings in Kolkata in 2012-13 (he had scored 190 in the first, and England needed only 41 to win).Was Nayeem Hasan the youngest man to take a five-for in a Test? asked Mithun Ahmed from Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s new offspinner Nayeem Hasan, who turns 18 next week, became the youngest from his country to take five wickets in an innings in a Test, in the course of claiming 5 for 61 against West Indies in Chittagong a few days ago. Nayeem beat, by about a month, the record of Enamul Haque Jr, who was just past 18 when he took 6 for 45 against Zimbabwe in Bangladesh’s first Test victory, at a different ground in Chittagong in 2004-05.But there are two Pakistanis on the list who took five-fors at a younger age. Mohammad Amir was 17 when he took 5 for 79 against Australia in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in 2009-10, but Nasim-ul-Ghani was just 16 when he claimed 5 for 116 against West Indies in Georgetown in 1957-58. A slow left-armer, Nasim took 6 for 67 a fortnight later in Port-of-Spain – and never managed another five-for in a Test career that stretched to 1972-73.Nayeem Hasan bagged five wickets in an innings on his debut, becoming the youngest Bangladeshi to take a five-for in a Test•Getty ImagesI noticed that six England bowlers took wickets in both innings of the final Test against India at The Oval. Has this happened before? asked Kurshid Patel from India
That’s a good spot, because that achievement by England’s bowlers at The Oval in September – James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid all took at least one wicket in both innings – is unique in Test history.Overall there have been more than 100 Test innings in which six bowlers took at least one wicket – but only four cases of seven. These were by England against Australia in Melbourne in 1897-98; by South Africa against England in Durban in 1922-23 (six of them took a wicket in the second innings as well); by Australia against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1966-67 (a regular bowler, offspinner Tom Veivers, also bowled 18 wicketless overs); and by New Zealand against South Africa in Centurion in 2005-06.Is it true that in an official ODI, a batsman was given out lbw by his own father, who was the umpire? (Must have led to an awkward conversation at dinner that evening!) asked Taimur Mirza from Australia
Yes, rather surprisingly it is true. The umpire in question was Kenya’s Subhash Modi, who stood in 22 one-day internationals between 2001 and 2010. Three of those featured his son, Hitesh Modi, an obdurate left-hander who had a spell as Kenya’s captain. Against Bangladesh in Nairobi in August 2006, Hitesh was rapped on the pad by Mashrafe Mortaza – but having his father at the other end didn’t save him: Modi Sr raised the finger to end his son’s innings (and, as it happened, his ODI career, after 63 matches). Subhash proudly admitted: “Yes, I gave my son out – and I gave him out in the first match too, bat and pad.”
