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Ask Steven

Does Virat Kohli have the most ODI hundreds against a single opponent?

And are Geoff and Mitch Marsh the only father and son to win World Cups?

Steven Lynch
Steven Lynch
28-Nov-2023
Virat Kohli scored his maiden ODI hundred against Sri Lanka and followed it up with nine more, the most by any batter against one side  •  Deshakalyan showdhury/AFP/Getty Images

Virat Kohli scored his maiden ODI hundred against Sri Lanka and followed it up with nine more, the most by any batter against one side  •  Deshakalyan showdhury/AFP/Getty Images

I noticed that ten of Virat Kohli's 50 ODI centuries have come against Sri Lanka. Is this the most by anyone against one opponent? asked Malcolm Anderson from England
That's a good spot, as it is indeed the record: apart from Virat Kohli against the long-suffering Sri Lankans, no one has scored as many as ten centuries against the same opposition in one-day internationals. Kohli has also scored nine against West Indies, and the previous overall record-holder Sachin Tendulkar made nine against Australia. Tendulkar also hit eight hundreds against Sri Lanka, while Kohli and Rohit Sharma currently have eight against Australia.
The Test record is held by Don Bradman, with 19 centuries against England. Sunil Gavaskar made 13 against West Indies, and Jack Hobbs 12 against Australia; Steve Smith currently has 12 against England.
In women's ODIs, Australia's Meg Lanning scored six centuries against New Zealand, while the England pair of Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver-Brunt have made four against South Africa and Australia respectively.
I noticed that Shadab Kabir played three ODIs for Pakistan and was out for a duck each time. Has anyone else done this (or done even worse? asked Riaz Siddique from Pakistan
The unfortunate Shadab Kabir played three ODIs in September 1996, bagging a duck against England at Trent Bridge and two more against India in Canada. He didn't bowl, and held only one catch - but he did finish up with a Man-of-the-Match award. Perhaps we should really say that he shared an award, as the entire Pakistan team was given the award for a good all-round display in his debut match at Trent Bridge!
Two other men started their ODI careers with three ducks - Nicholas de Groot of Canada during the 2003 World Cup, and Ireland's Peter Gillespie in 2006. De Groot made 11 in his fourth match, and Gillespie (who had been dismissed third ball, second and first) finally got off the mark with two in his fifth and last game, after not batting in the fourth.
A left-hander, Kabir did score some runs in Tests. He won five caps, and his 148 runs included 55 against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2001-02. In first-class cricket, Kabir made 11 centuries, the highest his 176 for Karachi Port Trust against Sui Northern Gas in a Patron's Trophy match in Peshawar in 2003-04.
Are Geoff and Mitchell Marsh the only father and son to win the World Cup?asked Kelly Livingstone from Australia
Geoff Marsh was part of the Australian side which caused something of an upset by winning the 1987 World Cup. Marsh scored 24 as they beat England by just seven runs in the final in Kolkata.
Geoff's son Mitchell Marsh was out for 15 as his side made a hesitant start to their chase in the recent World Cup final in Ahmedabad, but it all came out right in the end for the Australians, enabling Marsh to complete this unique family double. Actually he already had a winners' medal, as he was part of the squad that won at home in 2015, although he didn't play in the final against New Zealand after appearing in three of the group games.
His brother Shaun Marsh played two matches in the 2019 World Cup, before a ball from Pat Cummins broke his forearm in the nets. For the full list of related ODI players, click here.
India beat England by 100 runs in the World Cup even though they scored only 229 themselves. Was this some sort of record? asked Mohan Chowdhury from India
India's 229 for 9 against England in Lucknow was the second-lowest total to result in a win by 100 runs or more in a World Cup match: South Africa (225 for 7) beat England (103) by 122 runs at The Oval in 1999. The lowest total in any one-day international that resulted in a win by 100 runs or more remains England's 171 at Edgbaston in 1977 - they then bowled Australia out for 70. That was the match in which both Greg Chappell (5 for 20) and Gary Cosier (5 for 18) took five wickets for Australia, still the only time this has happened in an ODI.
Don Bradman took two wickets in his Test career. Is it true that he dismissed the same batter both times? asked Mustafa Al Sharif from the United Arab Emirates
I've answered loads of questions on here about Don Bradman's batting - see above for a start - but I can't remember very many about his bowling! Bradman very occasionally sent down some optimistic legbreaks. He bowled in only nine Test innings, his most famous spell arguably coming at The Oval in 1938, when he badly injured his ankle during his brief spell and couldn't bat. It's said that England's captain Wally Hammond only called a halt at 903 for 7 after he'd been assured the Don would not be able to go in.
Bradman did take two wickets in Tests, as you said, but they weren't the same person. In Adelaide in 1930-31 , he trapped the West Indies wicketkeeper Ivan Barrow lbw for 27. Bradman's second victim, two seasons later in Adelaide again, was none other than the aforementioned Hammond, who missed a full toss and was bowled for 85. It didn't matter much overall - England went on to a 338-run win and took a 2-1 lead in the Bodyline series - but Hammond was furious at getting out to his rival, who had supplanted him as the leading batter in the world.
In all first-class cricket Bradman took 36 wickets, with a best performance of 3 for 35 for the Australian tourists against Cambridge University at Fenner's in 1930. He took three more wickets in the second innings, finishing with match figures of 6 for 103.
Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.
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Steven Lynch is the editor of the updated edition of Wisden on the Ashes