This is a post for fans who love to read Cricket trivia ! - Back in Sept 1986, Australia toured India and the 3rd ODI at Hyderabad was washed out with Australia scoring 242/6 and India at 41/1 in 10.4 overs !!
The recent test at Old Trafford
Manchester (Aug 21-24,2o24) between England and Sri Lanka was quite
interesting. The scorecard reads : England 358 (Smith 111, Brook 56, Asitha
4-102) and 205 for 5 (Root 62*) beat Sri Lanka 236 (Dhananjaya 74, Rathnayake
72) and 326 (Kamindu 113, Chandimal 79) by five wickets.
Joe Root provided the calm head for a crisis, while Jamie Smith capped a Player-of-the-Match-winning performance with a vital late injection of impetus, as England overcame a spirited Sri Lanka display with bat and ball to seal a five-wicket win in the first Test, late on the fourth afternoon at Emirates Old Trafford. For Lanka, Rathnayake Mudiyanselage Milan Priyanath Rathnayake – made his debut – this post is about a substitute fielder.
In good olden days when teams toured, the touring party would be less in no. and especially towards the end of the tour, it could be tough to find fit players and so there would be local substitutes. Have seen some TN Players entering the field as fielding-substitutes turning out of touring teams like, England, Pakistan, New Zealand.
Lancashire batter Harry Singh took a step
closer towards his England debut on Day 1 of the first Test against Sri Lanka
at Old Trafford. Harry, was one of three substitutes England introduced on the
opening day of the clash. The 20-year-old came on as a substitute soon after
England chose to bowl first. He then returned during the post-lunch session,
substituting Harry Brook temporarily after he left the field in the 37th over.
Harry is a right-hand batter and can also operate as a right arm off-break bowler. He is the son of former India pacer Rudra Pratap Singh Senior, who has represented India in the 1980s, during which he played two ODIs against Australia. Apart from his international appearances, RP Singh Senior got decent exposure in the domestic circuit, featuring in 59 first-class matches, where he registered 150 scalps and scored 1413 runs. After his retirement RP Singh Senior moved to UK and took up coaching assignments with Lancashire County Club and the England Cricket Board (ECB) and alongside provided Harry with a supportive environment to develop his skills.
While his father gained fame as part of India's 1986 ODI matches against Australia, Harry's cricketing journey took a different course. He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 2004, and slowly followed his father's footsteps. Harry has made steady progress in his cricketing career in the UK. He made his List A debut earlier this year, and has played a total of seven matches so far.
In that match at Hyderabad Deccan, a lanky RP Singh got the opportunity to share the new ball with legend Kapil Dev. One of several new ball bowlers who were tried out in the mid 1980s when it became almost mandatory to have four seam bowlers in the one-day team, RP Singh was a mainstay of the Uttar Pradesh side in the Ranji Trophy almost throughout the decade. In 1984-85, he picked up 25 wickets, an achievement that brought him closer to national recognition. This included his career-best bowling match figures of eleven for 146 (including seven for 67 in the first innings) against Railways.
In that match RP Singh bowled just 4 overs, others being Kapil Dev (10); Madanlal (10), Ravi Shastri (10), Maninder Singh (7), Gopal Sharma (7). Australian wicket keeper Greg Dyer made his debut too. Greg Dyer had a short career, but his most famous moment was one of the greatest in Australian cricket. The catch he took off Mike Gatting's infamous reverse sweep during the 1987 World Cup final at Calcutta was the wicket that tilted the match towards Australia.
Rudra Pratap Singh played just another match – this time at Rajkot, where Kapil Dev could not bowl due to an injury but scored the fastest 50. Raman Lamba scored a ton, yet India lost. RP Singh took the wicket of Dean Jones, his only International wicket !!
A decade and few years later, came another RP Singh and hence this man became RP Singh (Sr.). The younger, left arm quick Rudra Pratap Singh first made the headlines in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004, taking eight wickets at 24.75 apiece and bowling well in the slog overs at the end of the innings. Three years later, he was in South Africa toasting India's first World Cup title win since 1983. And a year after that, he led an inspired bowling effort to beat Australia in Perth - a venue where the hosts hadn't lost to any team besides the world-beating West Indies since 1985.
RP Singh (Jr.) had the ability to move
the new ball both ways and reverse the old one. It was that potential that
tempted India to pull him out of a holiday and hand him his first Test in three
years at The Oval in 2011. He bowled 34 overs, picked no wickets, and after
that summer, did not play for India again. He was Man of the Match on his Test debut for
some persistent bowling on a shirtfront in Faisalabad in 2006, where Pakistan
ran up 588. He drifted out of contention after that, returned for his most
prolific season in 2007-08, but began fading away soon after. The IPL gave him
another stage to show his ware. In all
he played 14 tests, 58 ODIs, and 10 T20I – taking 40, 69 & 15 wickets
respectively.
27.8.2024
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