Sport Today

Who was the last person to hit a century before lunch in
tests ?  Majid Khan ?

I seem to remember that Gavaskar got his 29th (or was it 30th ?)
century against the West Indies at New Delhi before lunch but
it wasn't on the first day of the test.

When they talk of `century before lunch', are only first-day pre-lunch
sessions considered ?

-- Abhijit

  Bradman's score consisted of 100+ in the 1st 2 sessions and then
85 between luch and tea. The ground was Headingly, Leeds - Bradman's
favourite hunting ground on tours of England. Now that we're onto
Bradman - do people agree that he is the greatest cricketer of all
time?

Bar-Ilan University
Israel.

Ciao,
     Ali

For the records, Majid Khan I beleive was the last to do it. Farooq Engineer
was 97 not out at lunch on opening day once ( I believe enroute to his
maiden hundred ), but close doesn't count, right ?

A century in a session is quite an achievement and has not been done too
often. To be considered so, the innings must have begun in the same session,
in which the century was completed. A "Century before lunch" is a special
case of this.

I remember the great Doug Walters scoring a century in the last session
once, hitting a six off the last ball of the day from Willis to get his
hundred. Do any of the Aussies remember the details ? This was against
England in Australia in the 70s. Of course, Don Bradman scored 307 in a
day against England, which is more than 100 per session !!

Rajeev Menon

Department of Electrical Engineering
North Dakota State University, Fargo

On the subject of 100 in a session, I recall that Gary Cosier almost got
100 before lunch in his great 168 against Pakistan in Melbourne, 1976-77.
He only needed a few runs off the last over, but as I recall either couldn't
get the or just couldn't force the runs.  A great test all round, that one...
also included one of the all-time most atmospheric Lillee spells, as he was
knocking down wicket after wicket in the afternoon -- the "Lillee, Lillee..."
chant when he was on his hat-trick was incredible (though he didn't get the
hat-trick).

The only other cricketer who'd stand a chance of competing with Bradman for
the honour might be Gary Sobers.  Over 8000 runs and over 230 wickets is
pretty decent.  His batting alone would easily have got him into a World XI
of his period, and then add the fact that he was also a world-class bowler...
By a mile the best all-rounder of all time, no-one else is even close.

--

Concepts and Cognition, Indiana University.
"It is not the least charm of a theory that it is refutable"

The reverse happenned about 10 years ago - Botham had started the day
vs. India at (approx 7 n.o.). When the last over before lunch began he
was 104 n.o. (he certainly munched on the Indian bowling), and
promptly put down the shutters - actually Botham playing defense was
for my money more likely to get out. The BBC commentators noted that
he was unaware that he needed a mere 3(+-1) runs for his 100, and
wished they could tell him.

-Bharat
R.Bharat Rao, AI Group, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

USMail: 2053 Beckman Institute, 405 N Matthews, Urbana, IL61801

- Sandeep.