CricTrivia

Marvan Atapattu bagged a pair in his first Test. How many people have had this misfortune?

As I write 37 men have bagged a pair on their Test debut, the most recent being the New Zealander Mark Gillespie, against South Africa in Centurion in November 2007 (he did take a five-for when he bowled, which presumably cheered him up a little). Atapattu bagged his pair against India in Chandigarh in November 1990: it was part of a nightmare start to his Test career in which he made only one run in his first six innings. He didn't do too badly after that, though, finishing with 5502 Test runs in 90 matches. Other notable batsmen who started their Test careers with a pair include Graham Gooch, Saeed Anwar and Ken Rutherford. The most spectacular debut pair was the one acquired by the South African wicketkeeperTommy Ward against Australia at Old Trafford in 1912: he was dismissed first ball in both innings, each time being the third victim in legspinner Jimmy Matthews's unique haul of two hat-tricks in the same Test match.

Who has made the most ducks in one-day internationals? 

There's rather a surprising name on top of this list: it's Sanath Jayasuriya, who has been dismissed for 0 on 34 occasions in one-day internationals now. He took the record from Wasim Akram of Pakistan (28). There are four men bracketed together with 25 ducks, three of them Sri Lankans: Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan. Shahid Afridi also has 25 one-day zeroes to his name. In Tests the leader remains Courtney Walsh, with 43, some way ahead of Glenn McGrath (35) and Shane Warne (34). Chris Martin of New Zealand is coming up on the rails with 28 so far.