Funny Old Game Cricket

One of the great things about cricket - at least for the mathematically minded - is the ease with which an unending list of statistics can be generated. This Ashes match in Brisbane is certainly no exception. First an Australian bowler takes 6 for 54, including a hat-trick. Do you know how many bowlers have achieved a hat-trick in Ashes tests? No? In fact in modern times there have been only two; Shane Warne [inevitably] and Darren Gough [surprisingly - I didn't think he was that good - and I am not disparaging a Yorkshireman]. Before them you have go to back to 1904, when the Australian Hugh Trumble did the deed for the second time - he achieved a hat-trick in 1902 on the same Melbourne cricket ground. To this day, he remains the only player to have achieved two hat-tricks in Ashes tests.

Moving on to the batting, Hussey and Haddin hammered England to score 307 for the sixth wicket - the highest score for any wicket ever in Brisbane. This record survived for only 24 hours before Cook and Trott achieved 329 [undefeated] for the 2nd wicket. Before this Strauss and Cook moved to a joint partnership total of 3,415, which [incredibly] betters the 3,249 achieved by Hobbs & Sutcliffe - an opening pair who have near mythical status.

This all interesting stuff for any cricket anorak but the most important thing is still the spectacle of Australia only managing to take one wicket after nearly 2 days of play. That will be keeping Ricky Ponting awake at nights - and that, surely, cannot help his batting.

As I meandered through the pages of cricketing statistics I came across a remarkable bowling and batting performance. At the First Test between new Zealand and England in the winter 1932-33 series, Dennis Smith of New Zealand bowled Eddie Paynter of England for a duck with the first ball of the second over, reducing England to 4 for 2. England recovered to 568 for 8 with Wally Hammond scoring 227. Dennis Smith finished with 1 for 113, was dropped for the next test and never played for New Zealand ever again. So, he achieved the ridiculous record of taking a wicket with the first ball of his first over in test cricket and never took another. As Jimmy Greaves may have said, "Funny old game is cricket!"

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