David Warner and Chris Rogers have been Australia's regular openers since August 2013. In 41 innings since then, they have posted 16 stands of 50 or more at an average of 51.32. No other opening pair has more than ?ve 50-plus opening stands in this period. In fact, no other pair apart from Dhawan/Vijay and Silva/Karunaratne have even opened together on more than 15 occasions. Warner and Rogers have posted nine 100-plus opening stands since August 2013, while opening pairs from all other countries combined only managed 15 such partnerships.
In this period, since August 2013, Australia had a total of 19 opening partnerships of 50-plus runs. To get a sense of how good that is, one may note that India (4), Pakistan (8) and Sri Lanka (7) cumulatively had only 19 fifty-plus stands.
Australia's first-wicket partnership contributed 2386 runs during this period, while every other team's opening stand contributed less than 1500 runs. Also, Australia's opening stand averages 50.76 in this period, while every other team averages less than 45.
What is the highest ODI score made by the same batsman on more than one occasion?
— Krishna Shankar, ChennaiThe highest ODI score posted by the same batsman on more than one occasion is 160, by Tillakaratne Dilshan, and coincidentally against the same team on both occasions, i.e. India, in Rajkot (2009) and Hobart (2012).
Ben Stokes recently got out obstructing the field when he allegedly stuck his hand out in order to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps. Which other batsmen have got out this way in the past 10 years?
— Jai Kapoor, New DelhiWhen Ben Stokes was recently dismissed ‘obstructing the field’ against Australia, he became the sixth batsman, and the first Englishman, to be dismissed in this manner during an ODI game. Three of the previous five instances have come in the last 10 years. The five others are Rameez Raja (v ENG, 1987), Mohinder Amarnath (v SL, 1989), Inzamam-ul-Haq (v IND, 2006), Mohammad Hafeez (v SA, 2013) and Anwar Ali (v SA, 2013). Only one batsman has ever suffered this fate in a Test match — England’s Len Hutton, against South Africa in 1951.
Pakistan are now touring Zimbabwe. I’m curious to know if this is among the rarest fixtures in international cricket? If not, which is?
— Ganesh Sangeeth, MumbaiSince Pakistan are not scheduled to play any Tests in Zimbabwe during this tour, I will first look at the ODIs. Zimbabwe started playing ODIs on a regular basis only after the 1992 World Cup. Since then, the least frequent ODI match-up has been between England against Bangladesh — 16 ODIs. Zimbabwe have actually played Pakistan as many as 51 times, with the only teams they have played more often being India (54) and Bangladesh (64). The most infrequent Test match-up is Australia versus Zimbabwe — three Tests.
I read somewhere that India have lost more Tests than they have won against South Africa at home. Is this true?
— Albin Thomas, MumbaiNot exactly. India have played 12 Tests against South Africa at home, winning five, losing five and drawing two. However, it is true that, since 1992 (when South Africa returned to international cricket), India have not lost more home Tests against any other team. Since 1992, India have not lost home Tests against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, have lost one against West Indies, three each against Pakistan and England, four against Australia and five against South Africa. South Africa are one of only two teams against whom India have not won more Tests than they have lost, since 1992, with the other team being Pakistan (3 wins, 3 losses).
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