In 1999, India lost a Test match to Pakistan by 12 runs in Chennai. There were some startling parallels between that match and the one dayer on November 5, 2009 where India lost to Australia by 3 runs in Hyderabad. On both occasions, Sachin Tendulkar got a big hundred and India lost.

In Chennai, Tendulkar added 136 runs with Nayan Mongia to revive India’s chances.
In Hyderabad, he added 137 with Suresh Raina to again revive India – one run more than Chennai.

In Chennai, Mongia perished to a pull shot when India needed 53 to win.
In Hyderabad, Raina also perished to a pull shot when India needed 52 to win in Hyderabad — one run less than Chennai.

In Chennai, 136+53 = 189, the number of runs India needed to win when Mongia joined Tendulkar at the crease.
In Hyderabad, 137+52 = 189, runs India needed when Raina joined Tendulkar at the crease.

In Chennai, Mongia reached his fifty by hitting a six over deep midwicket off Saqlain Mushtaq. He was dismissed soon after.
In Hyderabad, Raina reached his fifty by hitting a six over deep midwicket off Clint McKay. He was also dismissed soon after.

Saqlain dismissed Tendulkar in Chennai. McKay dismissed Tendulkar in Hyderabad. On both occasions, Tendulkar was out caught trying to go over the top.

Before Chennai, India had never lost a Test match in which Mongia scored fifty or more (five fifties and a hundred).
Before Hyderabad, India had never lost an ODI in which Raina score fifty or more (11 fifties, two hundreds).

On both occasions when he got out, Tendulkar was batting with the No. 8 batsman — Sunil Joshi in 1999, Ravindra Jadeja in 2009.
Both Joshi and Jadeja are slow left-arm spinners, and their second names begin with the same letter.

In 1999, Tendulkar was the seventh out with India needing 17 for a win.
In 2009, Tendulkar was the seventh out with India needing 19 for a win.

In Chennai, Wasim Akram won the toss and elected to bat.
In Hyderabad, Ricky Ponting also batted after winning the toss.

India lost their last five wickets for 40 runs in Chennai.
On Nov 5, they lost their last five wickets for 47 runs.

In 1999, Pakistan opener Shahid Afridi got a hundred, his first in Tests.
In 2009, Australia opener Shaun Marsh got a hundred, his first in ODIs.

India followed up the loss in Chennai with a thumping win in New Delhi where Anil Kumble took 10-74. What will they do in Guwahati?

Vinoo Mankad of India, England’s Wilfred Rhodes, Australian Syd Gregory (unique among this quartet in being an out-and-out batsman), and the Pakistani allrounder Nasim-ul-Ghani. are the only four players who have gone in at every position in the batting order (counting opening as both No. 1 and 2, as we’re not always sure who faced the first ball).

In case of a tie in an IPL game, Super Over comes into play.

Each team gets one over to bat and the team which scores the most wins. Each team picks 3 batsmen and a bowler to play in the super over, rest of the players just field. If it’s a tie then the team which scores the most sixes in the match wins.

Jeff Thomson in an interview “On a rest day during the Indian tour in 1977-78, Don Bradman was around in the nets. I was bowling only legspin to him, but he had a couple of young blokes trying to get him out. With no pads, no nothing … for a 68-year-old, he belted the hell out of them on a turf wicket. And he hadn’t batted for 20 years. I went back in and said, ‘Why isn’t this bastard playing with us tomorrow?’ That’s how good I thought he was.”

Geoff and Shaun Marsh are the first father and son to play for Australia in ODIs. Shaun Marsh followed up his success as the leading run-scorer in the Indian Premier League by scoring 81 – and taking the Man of the Match award – on his one-day international debut for Australia against West Indies in St Vincent last week. Shaun’s father, Geoff Marsh, played 117 ODIs between 1985-86 and the 1991-92 World Cup. 

There have only been nine other father-and-son combinations in ODIs: 

Chris and Stuart Broad (England) 

Lance and Chris Cairns (New Zealand)

Colin and Chris Cowdrey (England)

Sunil and Rohan Gavaskar (India)

Ron and Dean Headley (Ron for West Indies, Dean for England)

Majid and Bazid Khan (Pakistan)

David and Graham Lloyd (England)

Don and Derek Pringle (Don for East Africa, Derek for England)

Yograj and Yuvraj Singh (India)

There have been more father son combinations in Test Cricket, but since ODI’s started only in 1970s the numbers are lesser here.

The great Garry Sobers was only 17 years and 245 days old when he made his Test debut for West Indies, against England in Kingston in 1953-54 (he was really selected as a left-arm spinner, doing well with four wickets in the first innings, and batted at No. 9). The only younger man to play in a Test for West Indies was another Barbadian, Derek Sealy, who was only 17 years and 122 days old when he made his debut, against England in Bridgetown in 1929-30. Sealy was a student at Combermere School at the time and later taught there himself. He remains the youngest Test cricketer from outside the Indian subcontinent.

Sachin Tendulkar has played the most consecutive one-day internationals for his country without missing one, he played 185 successive one-day internationals for India between April 1990 and April 1998. Second on the list is Andy Flower, who played 172 consecutive matches for Zimbabwe from his debut in 1991-92 until finally missing one in 2001. South Africa’s Hansie Cronje, with 162 in a row between September 1993 and March 2000, is the only other man with a run of more than 150 successive matches: eight further players have managed more than 100.

The highest score by anyone whose side ended up losing a Test is 242, by Ricky Ponting, for Australia against India in Adelaide in 2003-04. Overall there have been 15 double-centuries (but no triples) for the losing side in Tests, three of them by Brian Lara. In county cricket Essex’s Percy Perrin, who later became a Test selector although he never actually played for England, scored 343 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1904, but ended up losing.