Is it true that Rahul Dravid has faced more deliveries than any other player in Tests?
It is true: Rahul Dravid passed the 30,000-ball mark during his superb rearguard 146 not out against England at The Oval in August. He has now faced 30,090 deliveries in Test cricket. In second place is Sachin Tendulkar, who has faced around 27,700 balls. I have to say "around" because although we know he has faced 27,665 deliveries, there remains one Sachin innings for which we don't have full details - his 11 in 92 minutes against Sri Lanka in Chandigarh in November 1990 (if anyone knows where the scorebook is, please let us know!). Allan Border is known to have faced 27,002 deliveries in Tests, not including four innings (in which he scored 78 runs) for which we don't know the balls-faced details.
It is true - although Flintoff's father, Colin, was not on the field at the time. The incident came as Flintoff was hurtling towards his highest Test score, 167, against West Indies at Edgbaston in 2004, and he smashed a ball from fast bowler Jermaine Lawson into the upper tier of one of the stands. Wisden takes up the tale: "In one act of glorious bravado, he lofted Lawson high into the top tier of the Ryder Stand. A powerfully built middle-aged man stood up to take the catch. From a crowd of 20,000, Flintoff had somehow picked out his father, who muffed it: the only false move from a Flintoff in the entire Test."
Watch it on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZQU-EGT50
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