Cricket trivia

Was kinda jobless when I got enthu to do some queries on Statsguru at Cricinfo and I have come up with the following interesting facts -
1. How many of VVS Laxman's 48 test match scores of 50 or above (35 fifties and 13 hundreds) as on 30th Oct 2008 contain a sixer?
None! His highest score that contains a six is 44
2. Sticking to VVS - How many of his top 4 scores in Test cricket have come against Australia?
All four! and 5 of his top 6 scores are also against the Aussies.
3. From 2001, How many boxing day test match hundreds has Mathew Hayden scored?
Six! The only year he missed out was 2004, when his top score in the test against Pak was 56. He averages 102.4 in the MCG from 2001.
4. Hayden has scored 17 of his 30 hundreds to date in just 4 grounds.
MCG - 6, SCG, Gabba - 4, Adelaide - 3. This I consider as quite staggering. And in Australian venues - he has 100s in all venues but Darwin.
5. A strange coincidence is that Ponting too has scored 17 of his 36 test hundreds in the same 4 grounds :P (Adelaide, SCG - 5, Gabba - 4, MCG - 3). No wonder they are so strong at home.
6. Sticking to Ponting - 24 of his 36 hundreds have been scored in 4 calendar years (year wise split 2002-5, 2003-6, 2005-6, 2006-7). Quite amazing runs of form in those years.
7. When a similar analyis was performed for Hayden, it was found that he too has scored 21 of his 30 hundreds in 4 calendar years. But what is really striking is the fact that, Hayden and Ponting together have scored 11 hundreds in each of 2002, 2003, 2005 (2002 - Hayden 6, Ponting 5; 2003 - Hayden 5, Ponting 6; 2005 - Hayden 5, Ponting 6). This was and still is truly a pair of devastating batsmen, much like McGrath and Warne.

Will post more as I find interesting stuff...

Madras Male - the quest

There has always been this huge love I have had for the Chennai city. I remember fondly peeking out of the Bus window when I came to Chennai from Hyderabad during 2003-04. I used to be so fond of the city n the people here that I used to rush home twice a month from Hyd. And once the bus hit Mount Road, I absoulutely had to peep out and check out the latest hoardings - Who's Pothy's new model? Which tamil movie has occupied the pride of place in those mammoth hoardings close to the Thousand Lights signal? (I still remember this amazing 'Ulle Veliye' cutout that was put up by the creative genius Parthiban in this spot). What is the latest Amul hoarding near Spencer's signal? What is the latest Chennai Silk hoarding? Who is the new Prince Jewellery model? All these questions may have been of trivial importance to others, but I absolutely had to know it.
Similarly, I still always stop my bike whenever I see a major movie's poster to see the theaters it is running and quickly do an analysis of how it is distributed. Whether it is a good movie for the distributor could be figured out from that actually. These were all things that I absolutely had to do each time I hit Chennai.
Now that I spent the summer of 2006 and 2007 here, and seem to be destined to stay here for some more time, I am using every opportunity to live the city to the maximum. BK and myself went on this crazy drive from Sterling road to Ega all the way to Sangam, and from there to Pantheon Road, Mount Road and then to Satyam, all in the quest to know our city better. And that's where I got the enthu to blog on this topic. I embarked on a similar trip, once I finished watching HP 5 in Devi.
The rear exit from Devi leads to this really crowded street - I wanted to see where this goes, since it seemed to run parallel to Mount Road. I thus decided to persist with it till it reached Pycrofts Road, where I took a turn and took this real long drive there, to see fond memories of Chepauk return - when I saw the Bell's Road, Pycrofts Road junction. How the 'D Stand' used to be in Bells Road, and the Victoria Garden Road used to be the road to take for the costly Pavilion and Terrace stands. I was instantly nostalgic and decided to circle Chepauk, and then hit the Marina Beach Road. I was reminded of how I used to get down at the Station opposite the Marina beach -and relegiously follow Dad's instructions to reach Chepauk. Now that I understand the city better - these past memories seem even more amazing. I then braved heavy rain to drive all the way to Santhome and then figured out intuitively that Teynampet had to come in that direction and finally hit home through Pondy Bazaar. One big joyride it was. My clothes were dripping wet at the end of it, but it seemed more than worth it.
The quest to be the quintessential Madras Male is well on. And I am more than happy about it.