How often has a wicket fallen off the very first ball of an IPL match?

How many Indian players have appeared in just one Test match? And among them who has appeared in maximum first-class matches and has the best record? Ajay Kamat on Twitter

As on date, as many as 51 players have appeared in just one Test match for India. This list includes Shardul Thakur and Shahbaz Nadeem, who as current players, could appear in another Test match in the near future. For the record, the first Indian player to do so was Malaya (now Malaysia) born Lal Singh, who played in India’s inaugural Test match at Lord’s in 1932 and then never played in a Test match. In India’s second Test match, which was also their first at home came at the Bombay Gymkhana grounds in December 1933, when Lala Amarnath became the first Indian to record a Test century. In that Test match, as many as three Indian players (LP Jai, R Jamshedji and L Ramji) made their solitary Test appearances. This incidentally was the only time when three players in their solitary Test match appeared in the same Test for India. Since then in only two other Test matches (in October & November 1952 against Pakistan), two players each had the misfortune of playing their only Test in the same match. 

To answer, the second part of your question, Ramesh Saxena who appeared in one Test match for India in the Headingley Test match in 1967, remains the most experienced in terms of his 149 first-class matches played from 1960/61 to 1981/82, mostly for Bihar and Delhi in the Ranji Trophy. Following him are Madhya Pradesh wicket-keeper Naman Ojha (146 matches) and Karnataka pacer bowler R Vinay Kumar (139 matches). Delhi batsman Ajay Sharma is the only one among this lot to register over 10000 first-class runs – 10120. Incidentally, his career batting average of 67.46 is only surpassed by Don Bradman (95.14) and Vijay Merchant (71.64) among batsmen with 10000 career runs in first-class cricket. 

Only two bowlers in this list of 51 players have aggregated over 500 first-class wickets – leggie Amir Elahi, then aged 39 at Sydney in December 1947) and Vinay Kumar. However, the former went on to play five more Test matches for Pakistan in 1952. 

How often has a wicket fallen off the very first ball of an IPL match? Sunil Karan on Twitter

Since the first instance that occurred during the first season of the IPL, when CSK’s Parthiv Patel was dismissed off the first ball of their match against RR at Jaipur as many as 22 instances have taken place in the IPL. Interestingly four batsmen have the dubious honour of being involved on two occasions each – Brendon McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Jacques Kallis and Mayank Agarwal, while bowlers Dirk Nannes, Lasith Malinga and Umesh Yadav have the unique distinction of dismissing batsmen on two occasions off the very first ball of the match.

Two players Manoj Tiwary (for KKR) and Delhi’s Unmukt Chand have the special distinction of being dismissed off the very first ball of the tournament in 2010 and 2013 respectively. There is also one player for Kings XI Punjab, non-striker Karan Goel who was dismissed run out of the very first ball of the match without facing a single ball at Cape Town in 2009. 

Praveen Kumar for KXIP in 2011 and RCB’s Umesh Yadav in 2018 are the only bowlers to claim wickets off their first-two balls of the match.

Interestingly, wicket of the first ball of the match occurred on six occasions during the second edition of the IPL in South Africa in 2009.       

How many players have appeared in over 150 matches for an IPL side? Anand Kumar on Twitter

Recently Rohit Sharma appeared in his 150th IPL match for Mumbai Indians at Abu Dhabi, thus making him the only fifth player to play 150 or more matches for one particular side in IPL cricket.  The table below lists the details.

+ Appeared for other sides during the 2016 & 2017 editions.

Both Kohli’s and Pollard’s entire IPL careers were for RCB and MI respectively

Nicholas Pooran in Dubai made nearly 60% of his side’s runs while making 77 out of 132. Is this some sort of a record in IPL? Sreejit R on Facebook

Nicholas Pooran’s 77 in the KXIP’s innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Dubai represents 58.3% of his team’s total of 132. Though this ranks quite high in IPL cricket, his teammate Manan Vohra also against the same opponents at Hyderabad in 2017 had made 95 out of a total of 154, which is 61.7% of his side’s total. Therefore, Pooran’s effort is the second-best in IPL cricket in matches where the sides have been dismissed.   

All records mentioned above are correct and updated as on 13 October 2020

If you have any cricket-related questions, then ask them using the #AskMohan and #StatsBurst hashtags on our social media channels. Reputed statistician, Mohandas Menon will be answering the selected questions.