Cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team (the striker and nonstriker) stand in front of either wicket holding bats, with one player from the fielding team (the bowler) bowling the ball towards the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each exchange. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches or crosses the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally.
Donald Tallon (17 February 1916 – 7 September 1984) was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season. During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50 catches and 8 stumpings.
His early cricket was played in Bundaberg where he was selected to represent Queensland Country against the England cricket team during the infamous Bodyline tour. Aged 17, he made his first-class cricket debut for Queensland against Victoria in December 1933. By the 1935–36 season, Tallon was an established player and he topped the Queensland batting averages for the season, however he was a surprise non-inclusion for the 1938 Australian team to tour England. Following the Second World War and the retirement or unavailability of other candidates, he was finally given an opportunity to play Test cricket, making his debut against New Zealand in 1946 aged 30. (Full article...)
Imran Khan, a retired Pakistanicricketer and former Prime Minister of Pakistan, took 24 five-wicket hauls during his career in international cricket. In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and as of 2014 fewer than 45 bowlers have taken more than 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers. A right-armfast bowler who represented his country between 1971 and 1992, Khan was described by the BBC as "one of the finest fast bowlers cricket has ever seen", while ESPNcricinfo declared him as "the greatest cricketer to emerge from Pakistan, and arguably the world's second-best allrounder after Garry Sobers". In 1983 he was named as one of the five Cricketers of the Year by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in January 2009.
Khan made his Test debut in 1971 against England at Edgbaston Cricket Ground. His first Test five-wicket haul came in 1977 against Australia in a match at Melbourne Cricket Ground which Pakistan lost. In the same year, he took his first pair of five-wicket hauls in a single match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. By the end of his career, he had claimed five-wickets hauls in both innings of a match on three occasions. His career-best figures for an innings were 8 wickets for 58 runs against Sri Lanka at Gaddafi Stadium, in March 1982. He took ten or more wickets in a match on six occasions. (Full article...)
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The captains of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
This is a list of the squads picked for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. This was the ninth Cricket World Cup tournament and was held between 14 March and 28 April 2007. The sixteen teams asked to announce their final squads by 13 February 2007. Changes were allowed after this deadline at the discretion of the ICCs Technical Committee in necessary cases, such as due to player injury. In order to aid the teams to select the final 15, teams were given the option to announce a 30-man squad by mid-January, with the understanding that the final squad would be picked from these 30 players. However, this was not strictly adhered to – several of England's final 15 came from outside the initial 30, for example. The oldest player at the 2007 Cricket World Cup was Desmond Chumney (39) of Canada while the youngest was Alexei Kervezee of the Netherlands. (Full article...)
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Virender Sehwag scored 23 centuries in Test matches and 15 in One Day Internationals for India.
In Tests, Sehwag has scored centuries against all the Test-cricket playing nations except Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and is fifth on the list of leading Test century makers for India. In 2001, he became the eleventh Indian player to score a century on Test debut, with 105 runs against South Africa. His centuries have been scored at fourteen cricket grounds, eight of which were outside India. He has made six scores of 200 runs or more, of which a record three have come against Pakistan. One such innings, the 254 in Lahore, had him involved in a 410-run partnership with Rahul Dravid, which came within 3 runs of breaking the record for the highest first-wicket partnership in Tests, set by Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad. The innings took only 247 balls and was the highest score at faster than a run a ball. Sehwag is the first Indian to score a triple century (300 or more runs), and has done so twice—309 against Pakistan in Multan in 2004 and 319 against South Africa in Chennai in 2008. The latter is the fastest triple century in Test cricket, the 300 coming up off just 278 balls, and is also the highest score with a strike rate over 100. It was also rated as one of the top 10 Test innings of all time by the ICC rankings, and received special mention along with his 201* in Galle, in which he carried his bat as he was named the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 2008. He is one of the only four batsmen to score two triple centuries, alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Brian Lara and Chris Gayle. He scored 12 centuries that have been converted to scores of 150 or greater, a record for the most consecutive hundreds of over 150. He has been dismissed five times in the nineties. (Full article...)
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The Kensington Oval, where Marshall took four of his five-wicket hauls, the most by any player at the ground Malcolm Marshall, a former right-arm fast bowler, represented the West Indies cricket team in 81 Tests between 1978 and 1992. In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and only 41 bowlers have taken at least 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers. In Test cricket, Marshall took 376 wickets, including 22 five-wicket hauls. The cricket almanack Wisden described him as "one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time", and named him one of their Cricketers of the Year in 1983. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame as an inaugural member in January 2009. Mark Nicholas, a cricket commentator, once wrote that former Pakistancaptain, Imran Khan, "calls Malcolm the greatest of all fast bowlers".
Marshall made his Test debut in December 1978 against India at the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium, Bangalore. His first five-wicket haul came in March 1983 against the same team at the Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain; he took 5 wickets for 37 runs. In December 1984, against Australia at the Adelaide Oval, he took a five-wicket haul in both innings of a Test match for the first time. He repeated this feat once more in his career, against India at the Queen's Park Oval in April 1989. Marshall's career-best bowling figures for an innings were 7 wickets for 22 runs against England at Old Trafford, Manchester, in June 1988. He took 9 wickets for 41 runs in the match; West Indies won the match by an innings and 156 runs, and he was awarded man of the match for his performance. Marshall was most successful against Australia taking seven five-wicket hauls. He took ten or more wickets in a match on four occasions. (Full article...)
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Tom Horan was the first bowler to take a wicket with his first delivery in Test cricket. 84 bowlers have taken a wicket with the first ball they bowled in one of the three formats of international cricket.
Bardsley c.1909 In cricket, a player is said to have scored a century when he scores 100 or more runs in a single innings. Test cricket, the longest version of the game, involves two innings per side in a match. An individual scoring centuries in each innings of a Test match is considered a "milestone" by critics. Players from all teams that are full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) except Ireland and Afghanistan have scored centuries in both innings of a Test.
The first player to score centuries in both innings of a Test match was Warren Bardsley of Australia, who made 136 and 130 against England in August 1909. Since then, the feat has been accomplished by 77 players on 94 occasions . India'sSunil Gavaskar and Australians Ricky Ponting and David Warner are the only cricketers who have scored two centuries in a match on three occasions, while 11 players have achieved the feat twice. England's Graham Gooch has the highest aggregate in a match while scoring centuries in both the innings; his combined tally of 456 runs in the match—333 in the first and 123 in the second innings—was entered into The Guinness Book of Records as "Most runs scored by a player in a Test match (male)". His feat of scoring a triple century and a century was subsequently equalled, though with lower scores, by Kumar Sangakkara: while six other players have scored a double century and a single century in the match. Allan Border is the only player to have scored 150 (or more) in each innings. Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva is the only player to remain not out in both innings. (Full article...)
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Steve Smith has scored 44 international centuries for Australia.
Smith made his Test debut against Pakistan in July 2010 at Lord's. His first Test century came during the fifth match of the 2013 Ashes series when he scored 138 not out. His highest score of 239 came against the same team during the 2017–18 series at the WACA Ground, Perth. Smith has scored Test centuries at eighteen different cricket grounds, including thirteen at venues outside Australia. In terms of centuries, he has been most successful against England (12) and India(9). , he ranks equal-second in the list of most centuries by an Australian in Tests. He topped the ICC Test Rankings for the best batsman in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017; on 30 December 2017 he achieved a rating of 947, the second highest of all time after Don Bradman. As a result of his involvement in the 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal, Smith was subsequently banned from all forms of cricket, except club level, for a year in March 2018. (Full article...)
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Leicestershire(pictured celebrating their semi-final win in 2011) have won the joint-most English Twenty20 titles, winning on three occasions. The English Twenty20 cricket champions are the winners of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Twenty20 competition for first-class cricket counties, most recently the Friends Life t20, although from 2014 this has been replaced with the NatWest t20 Blast. The competition culminates with 'Finals Day': a single day on which both semi-finals and the final are contested at the same ground. Somerset are the current champions, claiming their second title in the 2023 season.
Twenty20 cricket was developed by the ECB to attract new, younger audiences to cricket. Replacing the 50 overs-per-side 'Benson & Hedges Cup', the 'Twenty20 Cup' was introduced in 2003, and was over two hours shorter than its predecessor, and matches also featured greater entertainment off the field, such as live music, barbecues, fancy dress and karaoke. The competition was rebranded as the 'Friends Provident t20' in 2010, and a season later as the 'Friends Life t20'. In 2014, the competition became known as the NatWest t20 Blast. For the first seven years of the competition, teams were allowed one overseas player, as in the other domestic tournaments, but from the 2010 season, each team was allowed two. The finalists in both 2009 and 2011 qualified for the Champions League Twenty20, an international competition between the leading domestic teams from the major cricketing nations. (Full article...)
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Gooch has scored 28 international centuries for England. Graham Gooch is a former cricketer who captainedEssex and England. He has scored centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) in Test and One Day International (ODI) matches on twenty and eight occasions respectively, in an international career spanning nearly two decades. He is one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation; through a first-class career spanning from 1973 until 2000, he became the most prolific run scorer of all time with 67,057. With 8,900 runs, Gooch was the leading Test run-scorer for England until overtaken by Alastair Cook in 2015. Gooch is one of 25 players in history to have scored over 100 first-class centuries. Having coached at Essex, he was full-time test batting coach for the England cricket team 2012–2014.
Five years after Gooch's Test debut where he made a pair of ducks against Australia at Edgbaston in July 1975, he scored his first Test century with 123 against the West Indies at Lord's in June 1980. Gooch's highest Test score is 333, which he made in the first innings against India in 1990. As of August 2022, this is the third-highest Test score by an Englishman (after Len Hutton's 364 and Wally Hammond's 336 not out), and is the equal thirteenth-highest score in Test history. He went on to score 123 in the second innings of the same Test match, becoming the sixth Englishman at that time to have scored a century in both innings of a Test match, and the first for over 40 years. Gooch is one of fewer than 60 batsmen to carry his bat in a Test innings when, in 1991 against the West Indies, he remained not out at the end of the England innings with a score of 154. He is also one of only seven cricketers in Test history, and the only on a score of 100 or greater, to have been dismissed by handling the ball, when he flicked the ball away from the stumps against Australia in 1993. (Full article...)
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Clarke scored 36 centuries for Australia in international cricket. Michael Clarke is an Australian former cricketer and captain of the Australia national cricket team. He scored centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) in Test matches and One Day International (ODI) matches on 28 and 8 occasions respectively during his international career. He played 115 Tests and 238 ODIs for Australia, scoring 8,643 and 7,981 runs, respectively. Journalist Peter English wrote that "Clarke could do anything with the bat, but he has matured into one of the game's most professional, reliable and focussed players". He was named by Wisden as one of their Cricketers of the Year in 2010. Cricket Australia awarded him with the Allan Border Medal in 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2013.
Sri Lanka recorded the highest team total in T20I cricket on 14 September 2007, in a group stage match at the inaugural edition of the ICC World Twenty20, scoring 260 runs for 6 wickets against Kenya and winning the match by 172 run which is the highest winning margin in T20Is (till date). (Full article...)
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Donald's (pictured in 2012) average of 22.25 in Tests is the fourth-best among his countrymen as of August 2013. Allan Donald is a former Test and One Day International (ODI) cricketer who represented the South African cricket team between 1991, when the team's suspension from international cricket was lifted following the end of the apartheid regime, and 2003. A right-arm fast bowler, Donald was described by ESPNcricinfo writer Peter Robinson as "South Africa's greatest fast bowler". Donald took 330 wickets in Test cricket and 272 in ODIs, and remains the second highest wicket-taker of his country in ODIs as of 2013. The Wisden Cricketers' Almanack named him one of their cricketers of the year in 1992 and rated him the second best ODI bowler in 2003. During his international career, Donald took 22 five-wicket hauls. A five-wicket haul—also known as a five-for or fifer—refers to the feat of a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and only 41 bowlers have at least 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers.
Donald took a five-wicket haul in his ODI debut against India at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in November 1991, taking 5 wickets for 29 runs, the fifth best performance by any bowler on ODI debut. Despite this South Africa lost the match, however, Donald secured a Man of the match award. He picked up another five-wicket haul in October 1996, against Kenya when he claimed 6 wickets for 23 runs at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club. The bowling figures are the second best by a South African as of 2013. (Full article...)
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In cricket, a batsman reaches a triple century if they score 300 or more runs in a single innings. The Ranji Trophy is the premier first-class cricket championship played in India. Conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, it was founded in 1934 as "The Cricket Championship of India". , a triple century has been scored on 46 occasions by 41 different batsmen in the Ranji Trophy.
Myrtle Maclagan took seven wickets for 10 runs on her Test debut in 1934, achieving both the best figures on debut, and the first five-wicket haul in women's Tests. Women's Test cricket has been played since 1934, when England faced Australia in a three-match series. Since that first match, over 130 Tests have been competed. The advent of Twenty20 cricket in the early part of the 21st century has all but eliminated Test cricket from the woman's game. Thirteen players have claimed five-wicket hauls (five or more wickets in an innings) on their debut in women's Test cricket.
The only occasion on which more than one player has taken a five-wicket haul on debut in the same match was during the first women's Test match in December 1934. During this match, three players achieved the feat; Myrtle Maclagan and Mary Spear for England, and Anne Palmer for Australia. Maclagan's bowling figures of seven wickets for 10 runs are the best by any woman on Test debut, and is one of three occasions on which a player has claimed seven wickets on their women's Test debut, along with Palmer and Lesley Johnston. Betty Wilson, who was the fourth player to take five wickets in an innings on debut, is the only woman to have taken ten wickets in a match on debut. Spear's five wickets for 51 runs was the most economical bowling when taking five wickets, conceding just 0.44 runs per over. Conversely, Shubhangi Kulkarni was the most expensive, allowing 4.11 runs per over. Isobel Joyce bowled the least overs in her innings when taking a five-wicket haul, six wickets for 21 runs from 11.1 overs. (Full article...)
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Steve Waugh has scored the third-highest number of centuries .
Steve Waugh is a former cricketer and captain of the Australia cricket team. He is a right-handed middle order batsman and a right-arm medium bowler. Described as one of the most consistent batsmen, and by Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid as "a gritty player who did not throw away his wicket easily and is someone who valued his wicket", Waugh scored centuries (scores of 100 or more) in both Test and One Day International (ODI) matches organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). During his career in international cricket he scored centuries on 35 occasions and half centuries on 95 occasions. Considered to be one of the greatest modern day cricket captains, Waugh led Australia to 41 wins out of the 57 Test matches under his captaincy. "He was named Cricketer of the Year in 1988 by Indian Cricket, and a year later by Wisden. In January 2010, the ICC inducted him into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Waugh made his Test debut against India in December 1985, and scored a century for the first time in a match against England in 1989 which Australia won. In Test matches, Waugh has scored centuries against all Test cricket playing nations, the second player to do so. He has scored a century in at least one cricket ground of all Test cricket playing nations, except Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He has made scores of 150-plus in an innings on 14 occasions. His career best score of 200—his only double century—came against West Indies in April 1995. Waugh has been most successful against England, scoring ten centuries against them, the first in 1989 and the last one in 2003. On 25 July 2003 he became the first player to score 150 runs in an innings against all Test-playing nations, a world record. He has been dismissed eight times between scores of 90 and 99, with a further two innings not out in the 90s. As of August 2015, Waugh is ninth in the list of leading century makers in Test cricket. (Full article...)
The following are images from various cricket-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 First Grand Match of Cricket Played by Members of the Royal Amateur Society on Hampton Court Green, August 3rd, 1836 (from History of cricket)
Image 2A wicket consists of three stumps, upright wooden poles that are hammered into the ground, topped with two wooden crosspieces, known as the bails. (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 5A Game of Cricket at The Royal Academy Club in Marylebone Fields, now Regent's Park, depiction by unknown artist, c. 1790–1799 (from History of cricket)
Image 6Broadhalfpenny Down, the location of the first First Class match in 1772 is still played on today (from History of cricket)
Image 8New articles of the game of cricket, 25 February 1774 (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 9In men's cricket the ball must weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces (155.9 and 163 g) and measure between 8.81 and 9 in (22.4 and 22.9 cm) in circumference. (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 10Photograph of Miss Lily Poulett-Harris, founding mother of women's cricket in Australia. (from History of women's cricket)
Did you know
... that Richard Newland is cricket's earliest-known left-handed batter?
... that the Kīlauea lava cricket disappears from a lava field as soon as any plants start to grow there?
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the international governing body of cricket, and produces team rankings for the various forms of cricket played internationally.
Test cricket is the longest form of cricket, played up to a maximum of five days with two innings per side.
Matches is the number of matches played in the 12–24 months since the May before last, plus half the number in the 24 months before that. See points calculations for more details.