Funkerstation » highest partnership in Tests by the last two

How do you go about solving a puzzle like Virat Kohli? Such will have been the question taxing Englands management on the flight from Visakhapatnam to Mohali, where this intriguing Test series rumbles, already, into its third act.While Virats Vizag contributions - utterly imperious in first wresting the initiative and then snuffing out the light as England sought an unlikely route back into the game - ensured the plot played out to pre-series expectations, he probably hadnt imagined hed spend the final session in Rajkot in survival mode. Nevertheless, he rose to and embraced the challenge, displaying the timeless virtues of batting on capricious, turning pitches: quick to judge length, light on his feet, poised, balanced, judicious and pragmatic in shot selection, and, as always with Kohli, doing everything he can to cow the bowler with that strutting body language.Two Tests, then, and two masterclasses of technical brilliance and adaptability. Kohlis transitions from defensive resolve to relentless, single-minded orthodoxy to counterattacking flair as the differing match situation and pitches have demanded have served to remind of crickets endless variety and richness, its ceaselessly modulating challenges.While Visakhapatnam kept relatively low and (eventually) offered sharp, red-earth sidespin, the bounce and overspin in Rajkot presented a different examination, of both the Indian captains defensive game and of Englands trio of spinners. Picking Adil Rashid from the hand and, frankly, toying with Zafar Ansari, Kohlis biggest threat - in line with Duncan Fletchers theory that the ball spinning in is more dangerous when its spinning miles - was Moeen Ali, who bowled perfectly respectably (no worse than the standout fingerspinner in county cricket the last five years, Jeetan Patel, recently pawed like a ball of twine in Kolkata), yet could find no way through. Kohlis relentless excellence squeezed Moeens margins down to the finest calibrations: above a certain pace to challenge the footwork, on an ultra-precise length and exact line (the absence of left-arm seamers, or scarcity of left-handers in the India line-up that would justify the heavy-footed seamers going round the wicket to create rough magnifies this), and then hoping the pitch obliged by having the ball spit.The varying degrees of bounce and spin have brought a subtly different geometry to the game - angle of attack, alignment at the crease, arrangement of fielders - to which Englands itinerant spin-bowling coach, Saqlain Mushtaq, has helped his charges adapt. Most noticeably, Moeen has regularly eschewed the standard long-on in favour of a deep straight midwicket (cow corner, if you prefer), which serves both to prevent the easy bunt down the ground (making the batsman play slightly more across the ball for an easy single), while also covering, from an offspinners attacking line, the natural arc of the slog sweep. Its a canny move, yet there was another aspect of this absorbing Rajkot cat-and-mouse that even Saqlains voodoo couldnt overcome.With one of the more likely modes of dismissal being the gloved catch round the corner, Moeen was unable to attack Kohli exactly as he would have liked, all because of an archaic law devised over 80 years ago in the aftermath of the Bodyline Ashes series. Once the initial furore over the leg-theory line of attack had abated, in 1935 umpires were given explicit powers - and the moral responsibility - to intervene if they felt the bowler was deliberately trying to injure the batsman. Then, in 1960, a new clause was added to Law 44 (today, Law 41.5), since which time, as every daydreaming young square-leg fielder knows, only two fielders are permitted behind square on the leg-side. For an offspinner bowling to a right-hand batsman (or slow left-armer to a leftie) on a surface offering bounce as well as turn, the leg slip is de rigueur (and even then this area still feels undermanned from a close-catching perspective). But where to put the other man permitted behind square? If hes at deep-backward square, then anything marginally short can be nudged, fairly safely, into that area for a single. Bring him up, on that same angle, and the hard sweep almost certainly goes for four. Either way, a well controlled lap-sweep would run away through short fine-leg, with a top edge falling safe - unless, that is, you move your backward square-leg finer, in which case...Its all part of crickets cat and mouse, of course, but theres always an escape route for the batsman, always an in-built restriction for the bowler. This is especially true at those times when the pitch is really spitting, or when youre really pushing for wickets - times such as in Rajkot - and two close catchers behind square on the leg side - a fine leg slip and a leg gully - is optimal. Doing this, though, means that any hard sweep will go for a certain four, and, save for a freak rebound-off-the-body dismissal, any poorly played lap-sweep will arc unfailingly to safety. In these conditions, the Bodyline Law means there is no way for the bowler simultaneously to stop the batsman scoring with impunity in this area and attack him as he would like (with more than that of-necessity lone catcher).And therein lies the quandary for our trusty fingerspinner: always, in some sense, at a disadvantage. Why should a fast outswing bowler presented with ideal conditions for his craft be able to fill his preferred quadrant with five or six catchers when the same possibility is denied the fingerspinner? Is it time, therefore, to consider repealing the Bodyline Law - or at least modifying it slightly?One objection is that such a change could pave the way for tediously negative leg-side bowling at the back end of a Test match (We flippin murdered em territory), or perhaps for tediously intimidatory bowling at any stage - not that the West Indies teams of the 1980s saw rules preventing four leg gullies as any sort of disincentive for a rib-rattling attack. Besides, there is already ample provision in the current Laws for umpires to nip this in the bud.Rather than doing away with the Law entirely, it could simply be tweaked to allow one extra fielder behind square. And if a team wishes to assign three fielders there for a quick bowler, despite the restrictions on the number of bouncers bowled per over, then so be it. (Theres a legitimate gripe that allowing even three fielders behind square enables a pace bowler to pound away at the ribs with both a leg gully and two men back for the hook, thus covering both the attacking and defensive options, but the amendment could stipulate that the wicketkeeper has to be stood up to the wicket for the third fielder to be allowed.)It seems that, regarding the games variety, the pitch giveth but the Law taketh away. Allowing three fielders behind square - on the rare occasions it is expedient and desirable to have them - wouldnt close off all scoring options in that area, nor stack everything in favour of the bowler, especially with most contemporary batsman having the field-mangling reverse sweep in their locker. It would merely bring a new dimension to the bat-versus-ball problematic, enhancing the cat-and-mouse struggle of a batsman attempting to manoeuvre the spinners field, among the most compelling the game has to offer.Shaquille ONeal Magic Jersey . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. Jerian Grant Jersey . Jane Virtanen scored two, and Alex Roach and Elliott Peterson rounded out the offence for the Hitmen (40-15-6). Brady Brassart chipped in with three assists. 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It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005.How often has a captain declared on the first day of a Test, as Faf du Plessis did in Adelaide? asked Nick Battcock from England South Africas opportunistic closure in Adelaide last week - which came after Faf du Plessis overheard the umpires telling David Warner he couldnt bat straight away - was only the fourth time in Test history that a captain had declared on the opening day. The first instance was as late as 1949… and wasnt actually legal under the regulations in force at the time. Englands captain George Mann was forced to apologise after declaring at 313 for 9 late on the first day against New Zealand at Lords. The regulations in England had, since 1946, allowed a first-day declaration if the total was past 300 - but that was only for county cricket and not for international matches, even though those New Zealand Tests lasted only three days (they were all drawn, after which all Tests in England were scheduled for five). The New Zealanders were not too bothered, as they didnt lose a wicket in the last 15 minutes of the day. Since then Intikhab Alam closed Pakistans first innings at 130 for 9 on a rain-affected pitch at Lords in 1974 (England lost one wicket before the close), and Michael Clarke called his side in at 237 for 9 near the end of the first day against India in Hyderabad in 2012-13. Clarke and du Plessis ended up losing, while Intikhab and Mann drew the Tests.Parthiv Patel made a Test comeback against England after around eight years - and more than 80 Tests - out of the side. Was this a record? asked Chandra Nagarajah from IndiaParthiv Patel, who returned to Indias side in Mohali after an injury to Wriddhaman Saha, had missed 83 matches since his previous Test, against Sri Lanka in Colombo in August 2008. It meant that Parthiv reclaimed a record he had held once before: he had already missed 43 Tests between October 2004 and his recall for that match in Sri Lanka in 2008. That was the Indian record until Piyush Chawla missed 49 matches between 2007-08 and 2012-13. Parthivs gap is not an Indian record in terms of time, as Lala Amarnath went more than 12 years between Test appearances in 1933-34 and 1946.New Zealands new opener Jeet Raval was born in India. How many other overseas players have they had? asked Khanwakar David from India The Auckland opener Jeet Raval became the 25th person born outside New Zealand to be capped by them in a Test, when he made his debut against Pakistan in Christchurch earlier this month. Hes the fourth from India after Ted Badcock - whos theoretically New Zealand Test player No. 1, being the earliest in alphabetical order from their inaugural Test against England in Christchurch in 1929-30) - 1960s offspinner Tom Puna (who, like Raval, was born in Gujarat), and legspinner Ish Sodhi (born in Ludhiana), who played in the recent series in India. Three of Ravals team-mates in the recent Test in Hamilton were also born overseas: BJ Watling and Neil Wagner in South Africa, and Colin de Grandhomme in nearby Zimbabwe. Badcock was born in Abbottabad, which is now part of Pakistan. Six New Zealand Test players were born in England (Roger Blunt, Roy Harford, Mark Haslam, Vic Pollard, Roger Twoose and Justin Vaughan) and six in Australia (Dean Brownlie, Doug Freeman, Ken Hough, Mathew Sinclair, Dennis Smith and Scott Styris).dddddddddddd Grant Elliott, Colin Munro and Kruger van Wyk were also born in South Africa; the other countries involved are Kenya (Dipak Patel), Scotland (Charles Rowe) and Trinidad (Sam Guillen).Whats the lowest Test total by a team who won by an innings? asked Vamsi M from India The lowest total that was sufficient to win a Test by an innings is 153, by Australia in Melbourne in 1931-32. On a vicious pitch affected by rain, they bowled South Africa out for 36 and 45, with the venerable slow left-armer Bert Dainty Ironmonger - he was two months short of his 50th birthday - taking 5 for 6 in the first innings and 6 for 18 in the second. Australia, for whom Don Bradman was unable to bat after injuring himself in the dressing room, thus won by an innings and 72 runs. That 153 is actually the fewest required to win a Test by any margin, although it was threatened by Englands 156 runs - 81 for 7 declared and 75 for 6 - to defeat West Indies (102 and 51 for 6 dec) on another sticky wicket in Bridgetown in 1934-35. I noticed that England won ten consecutive ODIs in 2012. Was this a record? asked George Robinson from England That successful sequence started in February 2012 in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where England won four one-day internationals in a row against Pakistan. They then beat West Indies in two matches at home in June 2012, before taking all four completed games of a series against Australia. The run - Englands best in ODIs - came to an end when South Africa won by 80 runs in Southampton in August. The sequence included two abandoned games and a no-result. The best run of all is Australias 21 successive wins between January and May 2003, a period that included that years World Cup in South Africa. Pakistan (2007-08) and South Africa (2005) come next, with 12 wins in a row.Whats the highest partnership in Tests between Nos. 10 and 11 in the batting order? asked Harry Johnston from England The highest partnership in Tests by the last two batsmen in the order is 128, by the England fast bowlers Ken Higgs (63) and John Snow (59 not out) against West Indies at The Oval in 1966. It completed a remarkable revival by England, who reached 527 after being 166 for 7. The stand - two short of the tenth-wicket record in Tests at the time - is recalled in the recent book The Conquests of 1966 by Brian Scovell, a journalist who covered that memorable Test series as well as Englands victory in the football World Cup. Finally David Holford threw up a flighted ball, and Higgs drove it nicely back at him to catch just off his bootlaces, he wrote. The history-making last stand was over. There have now been eight higher tenth-wicket partnerships in Tests, but all of them featured a higher-ranked batsman alongside the No. 11. The biggest of all is 198, between Joe Root (Englands No. 5) and last man Jimmy Anderson, against India at Trent Bridge in 2014.Post your questions in the comments below ' ' '