Q called the first test between Pakistan and Srilanka in Galle, A more than happening test match.
True it is. And he also had 3 Q's & A's about the match.
One of them was that debutants shared 16 wickets between them. He said he wouldn't be surprised if these (3 he had mentioned) had happened in the Galle test for the first time in history.
You would be surprised, of course...
It happened during 1988 in the Madras test between the Westindies and India. There was a young leggie called Narendra Hirwani who made his debut in that match. He took all of 16 Westindian wickets.
That was not all, there was another leftarm spinner who was also a capable lower order batsman (It was ironic that this leftarm spinner forgot bowling to become a opening bat soon...) called WV Raman who also made his debut. He took 1 wicket.
So I remember an instance when 2 debutants shared 17 between them. It was another story that the (in)famous Ajay Sharma and Phil Simmons also debuted in the same match.
But here comes a twist in the tale...
There is another instance when 40 wickets fell in a match and all 40 were captured by debutants. How ??
It was 1887 and that was the first test (called the first official test) between a combined Australian team and the visiting English team. Australia batted first Charles Bannerman scored the first runs of test history. And in the end Australia won the test by 45 runs.
Another trivia to close this post...
This was probably the only instance when 24 people who made their debut were there in the middle.
Yes 22 players belonging to the two sides and the 2 umpires. Add the scorers the number swells !!
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3 comments:
Thanx for reminding me of the Hirwani feat.. did not know that Raman also debuted in the same game and as a spinner!
Did Simmons pick any wickets in that game?
@ Q: Raman started his career as a spinner who can manage to bat, he actually was a very successful spinner. But then he scored a couple of dogged hundreds in the Ranji trophy (some important hundreds) and eventually turned a batsman. The irony is that he never bowled afterwards (or was he not bowled ??)
Simmons made his debut in both forms of cricket during that tour. His ODI debut came during the '87 world cup incidentally against Pakistan in Lahore. And he made a 50.
Coming back to the Madras test, Simmons was never required to bowl as the Windies had 5 bowlers and Sir Viv Richards, their part-time spinner
The first test twist I like. Funny isn't it, Simmons Jr is playing now.
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