Cricket Carnage: Test 2522 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cape Town, South Africa

This was the second of a two-test series in which India was visiting South Africa. The Proteas (South Africa) won the first test, played at Centurion Park in Pretoria, by an innings and 35 runs in less than three days - a resounding victory in their quest to retain the Freedom Trophy for which these two nations compete. Since they were the current holders of the trophy, they only needed a tied series to retain it, so that was guaranteed no matter what the result of the second test should prove to be.

The second test, played at Newlands in Cape Town, proved to be even shorter, finishing in less than two of the five days scheduled for play.

Answer: True

This test lasted for a total of 642 balls, exactly 107 overs. To put this in perspective, a standard day's play is considered to be 90 overs, so a five-day test would be expected to involve something in the vicinity of 400 overs, around 2500 balls. The match finished shortly after the lunch break on Day 2. The previous record for the shortest match with a result (ignoring draws when play was limited because of the weather, so fizzled out) was played between Australia and South Africa in Melbourne, back in 1932. It lasted for 656 balls.

Answer: 55

The number 15 does figure into things. Kyle Verreynne's 15 was the highest score for any South African player, and Mohammed Siraj only conceded 15 runs while taking 6 wickets in the innings. David Bedingham, with 12 runs, was the only other South African batsman to reach double figures.

Answer: True

Since each team only loses 10 wickets in an innings, this means that three South Africans suffered the experience of being out twice in a single day. They were Dean Elgar (acting captain, playing in his last Test), Tony de Zorzi and Tristan Stubbs (playing in his first Test match). Tristan Stubbs was the first person since Harry Butt (in 1896) to be dismissed twice on the first day of his Test debut.

South Africa were dismissed for 55 runs in 23.2 overs. (I reluctantly use the convention of a decimal point to separate the number of overs and the number of additional balls, even though the maximum number that can follow that dot is 5. 1.5 overs is followed one ball later by 2.0 overs.) India then managed to score 153 runs before being all out after 34.5 overs. South Africa batted again, ending the day with a score of 62 runs after losing three wickets in 17.0 overs.

Answer: Virat Kohli, 46

This was only the second time ever that India won a Test without any of their batters scoring at least 50 runs. It was the third time in any of the 2522 Tests played to this point that the winning side did not have any individual with a fifty-plus score AND the losing team had someone who scored a century (100 plus). The two previous instances of this unusual combination happened in 1963 (New Zealand vs England in Christchurch) and in 2000 (West Indies vs Zimbabwe in Port of Spain).

Virat Kohli's 46 in his first innings was the highest score for any Indian player in the match. Yashasvi Jaiswal's 28 in his second innings (following a duck in the first) was the highest second-innings score.

Answer: True

India were looking good with a score of 153 and only 4 men out at the end of the 33rd over of their innings. Then it all fell apart. On the first ball of over 34, bowled by Lungi Ngidi, KL Rahul was out for the 8 runs he had scored to that point. Two balls later Ravindra Jadeja was out for 0; Jasprit Bumrah followed suit on the second ball he faced. Virat Kohli was then dismissed on the second ball of the next over. Mohammed Suraj was run out without scoring after two balls, and Prasidh Krishna was out to the next ball.

India were all out for 153 after 34.5 overs.

Answer: True

Aiden Markram, out for 2 runs in the first innings, scored 106 off 103 balls in the second innings. Kyle Verreynne's 15 (South Africa's high scorer in the first innings) was the next best score from any of the Proteas in either innings. This was the first time in Test history that a batter scored a century in a match in which none of his teammates reached a score of 20.

This score also set a record in terms of individual contribution to a team total. As a percentage on the team's score in the second innings, it was 60.23% - the highest proportional contribution in a completed Test innings for any South African. The record had previously been held by Herbie Taylor, who scored 59.89% of his teams runs (109 out of 182) in a 1913 Test against England played in Durban.

Answer: Jasprit Bumrah

Bumrah took the wicket of Tristan Stubbs (for 1 run), one of the three to fall when South Africa's second innings started on the first day. The next day he added the scalps of Bedingham (11), Verreyne (9), Jansen (11) and Maharaj (3) before wrapping up the innings at 176 by getting Ngidi out for 8 runs.

This was the third time Bumrah had taken 6 wickets in an innings, and gave him a total of 8 for the match. Siraj, who took 6 wickets in the first innings, only took one in the second innings, but it was Markram.

Answer: 79

The second innings score of 176 for South Africa was the highest innings for the match, but since they had finished the first innings 98 runs behind India, the lead was only 78 runs. This means that the Indians were only set a target 79 runs in their final innings. The Indians lost Yashasvi Jaiswal (28 runs scored), Shubman Gill (10) and Virat Kohli (12 runs) in the first 12 overs. With the score on 76, Shreyas Iyer hit a four to give his team the win, with a score of 80 runs being one more than the minimum needed. Rohit Sharma was not out on 16, and there were 10 Extras.

This victory was India's first Test win at Newlands, as well as their first Test win while batting second in South Africa. All four of their previous wins in South Africa had been achieved when they batted first.

Answer: Mohammed Siraj

Player of the Match is most commonly awarded to a batter, but it is also usually given to a player on the winning side (if there is one). Markram scored the only century, but was on the losing side. Besides, this was clearly a bowler-dominated game, so the choice seemed to lie between the two Indians who had each taken 6 wickets in an innings. Siraj not only gave up fewer runs in the process than Bumrah (6 for 15 as compared to 6 for 61), he also was the one who got Markram out on a score of 106 in the second innings.

Jasprit Bumrah was named Indian Player of the Series, and Dean Elgar South African Player of the Series.