Plus: playing cricket and football on the same day, and oldest captains to score hundreds
Steven Lynch27-Oct-2015I remember someone playing county cricket and league football on the same day in the 1970s. Was this the only such double? asked Michael Robertson from England
The man you’re thinking of was Chris Balderstone, who played cricket for Yorkshire and Leicestershire, football for several clubs, and later became a first-class umpire. On September 15, 1975, Leicestershire clinched the County Championship – and that evening 35-year-old Balderstone raced off to play for Doncaster Rovers against Brentford in the Football League. There were no apparent ill-effects: Balderstone was 51 not out before his footballing dash, but resumed next morning and scored 116. For years I thought that his was a unique double, but I was recently told about an earlier instance. In August 1920, Jack Durston, the Middlesex fast bowler who won a Test cap against Australia the following summer, bowled 30 overs on the second day of the Championship match against Surrey at Lord’s, then made a quick getaway to keep goal in a league game for Brentford. Balderstone was allowed to play football as Leicestershire had already clinched the Championship – but Durston’s flit came in the middle of that season’s decisive match. All was well: Middlesex won the game – and the title – the following day. I recently read a suggestion that Patsy Hendren also played for Middlesex and Brentford in those matches, but that is not correct.Sean Williams scored a hundred in Zimbabwe’s total of 172 the other day. Is this the lowest completed ODI total to include a century? asked Hemant Kher from the United States
Zimbabwe’s 172 in the decider against Afghanistan in Bulawayo the other day was indeed the lowest all-out total in any one-day international to include a century – Sean Williams’ 102. The previous lowest was South Africa’s 180 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in July 2014, which featured 101 from Hashim Amla. There are five other all-out totals of less than 200 that included an individual century: Australia 191 against New Zealand in Auckland in 1999-2000 (Damien Martyn 116*); England 192 v West Indies at Trent Bridge in 2000 (Alec Stewart 100*); Sri Lanka 193 v Australia in Colombo in 2003-04 (Kumar Sangakkara 101); Australia 194 v New Zealand in Auckland in 1981-82 (Greg Chappell 108); and Zimbabwe 199 v Bangladesh in Bulawayo in 2011 (Brendan Taylor 106).Bob Simpson was nearly 42 when, as captain, he scored two hundreds against India in 1977-78•Getty ImagesIs it true that Frank Worrell was a cousin of another West Indian great, George Headley? asked Kenneth McNamara from Ireland
I wasn’t aware of any family connection, and there’s no mention of one in Frank Worrell’s 1959 autobiography Cricket Punch – the only time Headley’s name crops up seems to be in connection with a season Worrell spent in the same club team after a temporary move from Barbados to Jamaica. But Ivo Tennant’s 1987 biography of Sir Frank refers to “George Headley, a distant cousin of Worrell”, while an interview with Headley’s son Ron in the newspaper in 1998 – just before Dean Headley, the third generation of the family to play Test cricket, appeared in Jamaica for the first time – talks of his sporting connections: “Ron’s brother Lindie sprinted against Bob Hayes in the 1964 Olympics, Sir Frank Worrell was a cousin (‘Though we always kept it quiet’) and another cousin, Teddy Saunders, kept goal for Jamaica. ‘They were strapping lads on my mother’s side.'”Did Misbah-ul-Haq become the oldest captain to score a Test hundred, during the match in Dubai? asked Pascal Bounin from the Netherlands
Misbah-ul-Haq’s 102 in the second Test against England in Dubai made him the third 41-year-old to score a Test century while captain – but the others were slightly older than him. Warwick Armstrong made three centuries against England in the 1920-21 Ashes series when 41, and another Australian, Bob Simpson, was even older when he scored two tons against India in 1977-78 – the second one, a round 100 in Adelaide, came when Simpson was just six days short of his 42nd birthday. Overall, Misbah is the 11th-oldest Test centurion, but the most venerable since Simpson. The last 41-year-old to make a hundred in a Test was Geoff Boycott, with 105 for England against India in Delhi in 1981-82; he was about three months younger than Misbah, who was aged 41 years and 147 days when he reached three figures on the first day in Dubai. Jack Hobbs, who made eight hundreds once he’d passed 41, is the oldest century maker of all: when he scored 142 against Australia in Melbourne in 1928-29 he was 46.Before Shoaib Malik, Ricky Ponting held the record for the highest score, 242, to accompany a duck in a Test•Getty ImagesHas there ever been an instance in a one-day international when two centurions in the same innings never batted together? asked Anandh Ramesh from India
Well, when you asked this – and when I first sat down to answer it – there had been just two such instances, both of them earlier this year: in Johannesburg in January, when South Africa zoomed to 439 for 2 against West Indies, AB de Villiers entered in the 39th over when Rilee Rossouw was out for 128, and hurtled to 149 from 44 balls; at the other end Hashim Amla made 153 not out, the first time there had been three centuries in the same ODI innings. Then at Edgbaston in June, Jos Buttler came to the crease for England against New Zealand after Joe Root was out for 104, and made 129 himself. But it happened again at the weekend: in Mumbai, de Villiers entered when Quinton de Kock was out for 109, and hammered 119 himself. Faf du Plessis also reached three figures, as South Africa repeated their earlier feat of three centuries in the same innings.Shoaib Malik made 245 and 0 in the first Test against England in Abu Dhabi. Is that the highest score by a batsman who made a duck in the other innings? asked Andrew Shirley from England
Shoaib Malik became only the sixth batsman to make a double-century and a duck in the same Test match, and his 245 in Abu Dhabi was the highest score involved. It just pipped Ricky Ponting’s 242 and 0 against India in Adelaide in 2003-04 – a match Australia ended up losing. Ponting’s 242 remains the highest individual score by anyone who finished on the losing side in a Test – a record he retained thanks to the bad light in Abu Dhabi. The others to achieve this rather peculiar batting double are Dudley Nourse (0 and 231 for South Africa against Australia in Johannesburg in 1935-36); Imtiaz Ahmed (209 and 0 for Pakistan v New Zealand in Lahore in 1955-56); Seymour Nurse (201 and 0 for West Indies v Australia in Bridgetown in 1964-65); and Viv Richards (208 and 0 for West Indies v Australia in Melbourne in 1984-85). For the full list of batsmen who scored a century and a duck in the same Test, click here.
