CRICKET QUOTIENT— 4

Geniuses redefine the boundary of human endeavour. Who ever thought that one day we’ll get to watch a batsman score 15,000 runs in Test cricket. It’s almost like discovering a summit higher than Mt Everest when the mankind believed there existed none. What’s delightfully scary is that Sachin Tendulkar is not done yet. We are incredibly lucky to be living in the time of one such genius.

As a tribute to the maestro, I open this week’s quiz with a question on Sachin’s epoch-making innings of 76 against the West Indies in Delhi’s Ferozshah Kotla stadium.

#1 — Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,000 Test run came against the West Indies at Kotla on Nov. 8. Who was the bowler against whom the 15000^th run came?

#2 — In contemporary cricket, who is the only batsman to have scored a century against each of the Test-playing nation?

#3 — He started his career as a left-arm medium pacer and took four years to score his first Test century, which was a triple century. It came when he was only 21. When he finished his Test career in 1974, his batting average was 57.78. Who is he?

#4 — Who is the only Indian cricketer who later went on to become the High Commissioner to Australia?

#5 — As an upcoming left-handed batsman and a slow left-arm bowler he managed quite a tribute in Wisden and was expected to play for England for long. However, he lost his right arm in the World War-I. Later, he took to umpiring and became one of the finest umpires of all time. Name him.

Answers to the last week quiz…

#1 — It was Sir George Oswald Browning Allen, also popularly known as Gubby Allen, who had refused his captain, Douglas Jardine’s, order of using the Bodyline tactics against the Australian batsmen during the infamous 1932-33 series. Another player who had declined to follow Jardine’s order was Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, who refused to field on the leg side when his captain asked him to.

#2 — Leslie Ames is considered to be the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman the game has ever seen. He had scored 102 centuries in 593 first-class matches, which included 8 tons in Test cricket. He had 703 catches and 418 stumpings to his credit. Incidentally, he was the keeper of England in the Bodyline series.

#3 — Baloo Palwankar, one of the greatest Indian spinners (left-arm orthodox) of all time, had attended the Second Round Table Conference in London as a representative of the Depressed Classes in India. In his 33 first-class matches, he had taken a staggering 179 wickets at a stunning average of 15.21. He played for the Hindu team in the Quadrangular Tournament. He was part of the All-India team to England in 1911, where he had picked up 114 wickets in the tour.

#4 — Lall Singh was born and brought up in Malaysia but played his only Test for India in the country’s inaugural Test in Lord’s in 1932. The Indian community of Malaysia had funded his trip to India for the trials at Patiala in 1931. Though he was not an Indian citizen, the Imperial Cricket Conference had decided to wave off the rule as a ‘one-off’ instance.

#5 — Don Bradman was bowled for a duck by leg-spinner Eric Hollies in his final innings at The Oval in 1948.