Cricket Trivia - which was the first Q & A : Luke Jongwe, who ??

A post only for Cricket lovers ~ others may not find this interesting ! – some Qs and many statistics embedded !!! –- IPL 2021 is proving to be a great entertainer  and a tweet he made reportedly in 2017 that he would one day play IPL is going rounds – the man, Luke Jongwe, who ??

Is there a demon in the pitch at Chepauk – last IPL at Sharjah saw huge sixers in smaller grounds – yesterday at Chepauk, it didn’t look like a T20 but was still exciting as Punjab Kings gasped for breathe but eventually won chasing a below par total.   The match was eventually over with 14 balls to go with a partnership between Universal boss and KL Rahul whose 50 paled by the dot balls. Yet a grand win.

Elsewhere at Harare, Zimbabwe beat Pakistan for the first time in a T20I match in their 16th attempt, ending a nine-match losing streak in the process.  The hero was Luke Jongwe   who made his comeback to the Zimbabwean team in this series after a five-year absence because of eye and head injuries.  His haul read : 3.5-0-18-4, quite impressive indeed.   

Now moving on to some Cricket Question and Answers :

Who bowled the first ball of IPL and to whom ?   :

The first ever IPL match was played at Bengaluru on , Apr 18 2008 – Prince Sourav Ganguly and Brendon McCullum opened for Kolkata Knight Riders- McCullum blasted an unbeaten 158 from a mere 73 deliveries taking the total to a gigantic 222/3 and Royal Challengers Bangalore lost by 140 runs.  The first ball was bowled by Praveen Kumar to Sourav Ganguly – and was a leg-bye.  

 

Who bowled the first ball of Men’s Cricket World Cup ?

Specifically Men’s because Women’s WC had occurred earlier.  On June 7^th 1975, 8 Nations played matches – India Vs England at Lords;  New Zealand Vs East Africa at Birmingham;  Australia played Pakistan at Leeds and at Manchester Srilanka played West Indies.   .. .. the match involving hosts and India had the honour to be the first match.  S Madanlal bowled the first ball of the tournament to Dennis Amiss, who became the first to score a century also. 

This has been a featured Q in many many Quiz .. who bowled the first delivery in Test Cricket to whom ?

Way back on 15^th March 1877 (yes, 144 years ago)   around  1500 spectators were inside the MCG when, shortly after one o'clock on a sunny afternoon, the first ball in Test cricket was bowled by Alfred Shaw to Charles Bannerman. The first run came off the next delivery, and the first wicket in the fourth over, when Allen Hill bowled Nat Thompson. The ignominy of the first duck fell to Edward Gregory later in the day.    Charles Bannerman, went on to become the first Test centurion. Hill had both the first Test wicket and the first catch. Midwinter picked up the first 5 wicket haul, and Blackham had the first stumping.

How many debutants were there in the first Test of Pakistan ? – generally, there would be min  of 11 debutants when a Nation plays their first ever test and there could be some more additions in the other team.

On Oct 16, 1952 at Delhi – the first test between the partition torn Nations India and Pakistan was played.   India won by an innings and 70 runs.  There were 9 debutants only : 1. Anwar Hussain; 2. Fazal Mahmood; 3. Hanif Mohammad; 4.      Imtiaz Ahmed; 5.  Israr Ali; 6.          Khan Mohammad; 7.       Maqsood Ahmed; 8.        Nazar Mohammad & 9.    Waqar Hasan

-      Because their Captain Abdul Kardar had earlier debuted playing for India against England at London in 1946 .. .. .. and Amir Elahi, a fast bowler, had played for India at Sydney against Australia in Dec 1947 ie., after the Nations parted !!

Who was the first batsman to play the first delivery for India ?  

In June 1932 India, at Lords India played their first ever test and the debutants were : Amar Singh; C.K.Nayudu; Jahangir Khan; Janardan Navle; Lall Singh; Mohammad Nissar; Naoomal Jeoomal; Nazir Ali; Phiroze Palia; Sorabji Colah; Syed Wazir Ali and .. .. .. Bill Bowes for England. Janardan Gyanoba Navle was India’s first ever Test wicketkeeper who  faced the first ball for India.  Navle represented India in two tests and played 65 first-class matches.

Something on the bowlers to take a wicket with their first ball in Test Cricket (no doubt a great achievement and they should have had a happy career or at least fond memories of that match – yet at least one of them would not !)

Nathan Lyon joined an illustrious list consisting of A Coningham, WW Bradley, EG Arnold, GG Macaulay, MW Tate, M Henderson, HD Smith, TF Johnson, R Howorth (all prior to 1950), Intikhab Alam, RK Illingworth,  NM Kulkarni, Lakshitha.   Lyon the debutant pouched Kumara Sangakkara with his first ball in his career – joining the only Australian who had achieved it more than 100 years ago – Arthur Coningham in 1894.  He is still languishing at 399 while Ravichandran Ashwin much lower at that time, has overtaken and has 409 test wickets now.    

If you had observed the list of the bowlers, it featured one Indian.    It is the tall lanky Bombay lad -  Nilesh Moreshwar Kulkarni.  In Aug 1997 Test No. 1374 at Colombo, chasing a tall Indian score in the twilight, Kulkarni came on to bowl and had Maravan Atapattu caught behind by Nayan Mongia off his very first ball in his career.  He should have felt very happy and should have dreamt of bundling Lankans perhaps forcing a follow-on et al.  Alas fate was cruel.  Lankans went on to make the highest in Test Cricket 952/6 with Sanath Jayasuriya making 340; Mahanama 225, Arvinda Desilva 126 and Nilesh’s figures in the end read 70-12-195-1.  The spinner played only 3 tests -  bowled 738 balls, gave away 332 runs and could add just one more to that of Atapattu.  He last played for India in Test no. 1539 at Chepauk where India beat Australia by 2 wickets in March 2001.   

Imran Tahir created history in ICC WC 2021.  In 1975 it was Madan Lal; 1979 - Andy Roberts; 1983 - Richard Hadlee ; 1987 Vinodhan John; 1992 Craig McDermoot; 1996 Dominic Cork; 1999 Darren Gough; 2003 Shaun Pollock; 2007 Umar Gul ; 2011 Shaiful islam & 2015 Nuwan Kulasekara all fast bowlers but in 2011 it was Imran Tahir a spinner who opened the bowling and took a wicket in the first over too.  

I am sure couple of my friends are going to write, sheer waste of time, compiling these information while avid Cricket fans might enjoy this !! 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
24.04.2021.