Kersi hits a Four and a Six in SMH Column 8!
Kersi Meher-Homji with Premier Mike Baird
Kersi Meher-Homji, TIDU’s celebrated Sport writer, cricket specialist and statistician has hit a four in the recent Sydney Morning Herald’s Column 8 on a question he put on Friday March 9, 2015:
Friday March 6. The deeply statistical Kersi Meher-Homji, of St Ives, has come up with a poser that will keep pub arguments going for days. “As the Cricket World Cup approaches the quarter-finals,” Kersi writes, “I have a question for cricket-tragics. ‘How many maximum runs can a batsman score in a 50-over match? No no-balls, wides, byes, leg-byes or overthrows are to be counted.’ ”
Says Kersi, “Whenever I meet people, they either ask me one of two questions: “You write for The Indian Down Under, don’t you?” or “Saw you in Column 8 of the SMH recently.” And no one mentions my research in Virology at Sydney Uni and Red Cross Blood Service or my dozen plus books on cricket!
“In May 2013 I completed my “century” of Column 8 appearances. As there were three Column 8 appearances in three days, you may call it a “hat-trick”! See below a tongue-in-cheek comment in the SMH of 3 May 2013:
”Thank you for making my Column 8 ‘century’ a national event!” writes an ecstatic Kersi Meher-Homji. ”So many phone calls and emails of congratulations. I humbly raise my bat. If there is a mention in today’s Herald, it will be my hat-trick of Col8 appearances (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) as well. Only seven cricketers have scored a century and taken a hat-trick in their Test career, the latest being England’s Stuart Broad, who will bowl to Australians in England in July. No Australian has achieved this dual honour.” Not on the cricket field perhaps, but you’ve just made history in print, Kersi. Well played, that man!
So far Kersi has contributed/been mentioned 117 times in Column 8 (four times in a row in March 2015).
Adds Kersi, “My thanks to Column 8 editors, especially George Richards in 1980s and 1990s and currently Pat Sheil.”
Kersi’ question has wracked many a brain of the column 8 readers as they send in their inputs trying to answer: What is the maximum possible batting score in a one-day game?, Column 8, Friday :
Saturday March 7, 2015. Kersi Meher-Homji’s question (what is the maximum possible batting score in a one-day game?, Column 8, Friday) elicited many numbers from readers, none of them the same. “If a batsman scores six runs off each of five balls per over, and three runs off the last ball of each over (in order to retain the strike),” calculates Peter Ross, of West Ryde, “he will score 1650 runs over 50 overs. Not so, asserts Charles Maskell-Knight, of Phillip, ACT. “The batsman would hit everyball of the 50th over for six, making a total of 1653.”
Monday March 9, 2015. Speaking of imbeciles, “With sufficiently inept fielding, there is in theory no limit to the number of runs a batsman can score off one ball, let alone in an entire match,” points out David Angell C8PhD, of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW (Column 8, Friday), “and this without even violating Kersi’s prohibition on overthrows.”
Tuesday March 10, 2015. The “maximum possible one day cricket score” debate rages on (Column 8, since Thursday). “I wonder at what point the umpires would call it a day if every ball bowled was a no-ball hit for six, followed by a free hit that also goes for six,” muses Douglas Agar, of Randwick. “This would technically result in the innings never progressing from the first ball, even though the score was constantly increasing. Highly unlikely, I admit, but worthy of consideration.” Ah, but Kersi didn’t allow no-balls when he posed the question. Still, many readers have suggested circumstances whereby a game could last until the heat death of the universe. Most Americans believe that they all do.
Thus goes on the debate started by Kersi Meher-Homji”¦
Short URL: https://indiandownunder.com.au/?p=4535