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Most away wickets, and 11 Wisden Cricketers of the Year

The column where we answer your questions

04-Jul-2005
The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:


Shane Warne: closing in on the milestone of 100 Test wickets in England © Getty Images
I noticed that Shane Warne has 89 Test wickets in England, so has a chance of getting to 100 wickets in a country other than his home one. Has anyone else done this? asked Adam Butt from Australia
No, no-one has yet taken 100 Test wickets in a country other than their own - but, barring accidents, Shane Warne will probably manage it this summer. The record-holder at the moment is Dennis Lillee, who took 96 wickets in 16 Tests in England, followed by Malcolm Marshall who took 94 wickets in 18 matches there. Warne currently lies third, with 89 wickets in 17 Tests, ahead of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, with 88 and 87 wickets in England respectively. Then comes Terry Alderman, with 83 wickets in only 12 Tests in England. Ambrose also took 78 wickets in Australia, a record for a visiting bowler outside England.
I spotted that all 11 England players in the first Test against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1930 were (or became) Wisden Cricketers of the Year - was this unique? And what is the most to appear for both sides in a match? asked Paul Yandell from England
This isn't as rare as I had expected - it's happened 87 times now. The first instance was by England in two of the matches in the 1893 Ashes series against Australia, and the last time England managed it was in the Centenary Test at Melbourne in 1976-77. But the last three occasions are arguably the most notable - in three Tests in Australia in 1984-85 by West Indies, the only time a side other than England has been made up of 11 past or future Wisden Cricketers of the Year. The record for a match is 20, by England and Australia at Lord's in 1953. Click here for a full list of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year.
Chris Tremlett was very close to taking a hat-trick on his international debut. Has anyone ever done this, in an ODI or a Test? asked Andrew Vesey from Loughborough
Chris Tremlett certainly was agonisingly close - after taking two wickets with consecutive balls on his England debut against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge, the third ball bounced up behind Mohammad Ashraful, landed on top of the wicket, and continued without dislodging the bails. No-one has managed a hat-trick on debut in ODIs, but is has happened three times in Tests: by England's Maurice Allom, against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1929-30; by Peter Petherick for New Zealand v Pakistan a t Lahore in 1976-77; and by Damien Fleming for Australia against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 1994-95, when his third victim was Salim Malik, who had made 237. The Australian fast bowler Anthony Stuart did take a hat-trick in his last ODI, against Pakistan at Melbourne in 1996-97. It was only his third match, and he never played again. Click here for a full list of ODI hat-tricks, and click here for the Test list.
Marcus Trescothick scored a hundred in his 100th ODI - is this a first? asked Debbie Matthews from Cardiff
Marcus Trescothick was the sixth batsman to score a century in his 100th one-day international, although he was the first one to score a round 100, against Bangladesh in the first match of the recent NatWest Series at The Oval. The first to do it was Gordon Greenidge, with 102 not out for West Indies v Pakistan at Sharjah in 1988-89. Chris Cairns followed suit with 115 for New Zealand v India at Christchurch in 1998-99. Yousuf Youhana joined the club with 129 for Pakistan v Sri Lanka in the final of the 2001-02 Sharjah Cup, Kumar Sangakkara (101) did it for Sri Lanka against Australia in Colombo in 2003-04, and during last year's NatWest Series Chris Gayle hit 132 against England at Lord's in his 100th ODI for West Indies. Sourav Ganguly just missed out, with 97 for India against South Africa at Hove in the 1999 World Cup.
In Pakistan's recent Test series against West Indies, Kamran Akmal took 16 dismissals as a wicketkeeper. Is that a record for a two-Test series? asked Hasan Abbas from Pakistan
It turns out that Kamran Akmal's 16 dismissals is indeed a record for a two-Test series - the previous-best was 14, by Australia's Kevin Wright, against Pakistan at home in 1978-79. Just to fill in the gaps, the record for a three-Test series is 22, by Sri Lanka's Amal Silva against India in 1985-86; 19 in a four-Test series, by Ridley Jacobs for West Indies v Australia in 1998-99; and for one of five or more Tests, 28 by Australia's Rod Marsh in the 1982-83 Ashes series.
Mike Hussey of Australia wasn't dismissed until his sixth innings in ODIs - was this a record? asked "Cricket Tragic" from Australia
It's certainly a record for a recognised batsman - and Mike Hussey also set the record for the most runs in ODIs before being dismissed for the first time. He had made 229 one-day runs before he was finally bowled for 84 by Steve Harmison at Bristol recently. The previous record was held by his team-mate, Michael Clarke, who had made 208 runs before he was dismissed in ODIs. Australia's Glenn McGrath and Makhaya Ntini of South Africa both had mid-career sequences of 31 ODIs without being dismissed (but they didn't bat in most of them).

Steven Lynch is the deputy editor of The Wisden Group. For some of these answers he was helped by Travis Basevi, the man who built Stats Guru and the Wisden Wizard. If you want to Ask Steven a question, contact him through our feedback form. The most interesting questions will be answered each week in this column. Unfortunately, we can't usually enter into correspondence about individual queries