Name: Madhav
Country: Canada
Email: madhav@teanteas.com
Question: How exactly does the role of a Super Sub play out on stats. For Example, in the last few games, Gambhir has opened the innings for India as one of the bowlers had been replaced. Let's say, hypothetically, he had gone on to score a century. Would that be added in his career stats even though he was a Super Sub?

Rajneesh Gupta: The performances of both the players will be added to their respective career records in the example cited by you.

All the 11 players named in the team at the time of the toss are credited with an appearance. When a replacement is subsequently made, then the replacement also gets a cap. This is different from an unused replacement -- who does not get a cap.

An unused replacement is one who the team does not even say, "We replace A with B".

A "used" replacement is one who the team has said, "We replace A with B."

Once the replacement has been made it should not matter whether B takes active part in the match or not. The point is that A is no longer available to take any part in the match, so B is now part of the '11'.

In simple terms, it means that a Super Sub will not get a cap if his team does not announce his replacement. On the other hand, he will get a cap even if he does not take any active part in the game, provided his team has announced that a player has been replaced with the Super Sub.

Confusing it may seem, but this is what the ruling is -- at least for the time being!

Name: Sourabh
Country: India
Email: sourabhbkb@aol.com
Question: Counting out the centuries Sachin Tendulkar has scored, could you tell me how often he was instrumental in winning matches for India? It would be great if you could break it on a year-by-year basis.

Rajneesh Gupta: Hi Sourabh, out of Tendulkar's 34 Test hundreds (before the Delhi Test), 11 have been in matches won by India and 8 in matches lost by India. Here is the year-wise break-up:

Name: Vamy
Country: India
Email: vamy_ind@yahoo.co.in
Question: Which bowler is the fastest to get 100, 200, 300, 400 wickets respectively in Test matches?

Rajneesh Gupta:
100 wickets – England's George Lohmann, in 16 Tests (1895-96)

200 wickets – Australia's Clarrie Grimmett, in 36 Tests (1935-36)

300 wickets – Australia's Dennis Lillee, in 56 Tests (1981-82)

400 wickets – Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, in 72 Tests (2001-02)

Country: Bansal
Email: anishfzr@rediffmail.com
Question: I am die-hard fan of Ajay Jadeja. I want to know how many runs he scored in the much-remembered quarter-final. And in how many balls? I am talking about the World Cup in which he smashed Waqar. I need to know about fours and sixes too. Thanks.

Rajneesh Gupta: Jadeja scored 45 runs off 25 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes in that 1996 World Cup quarter-final match at Bangalore. He became Waqar Younis' 200th scalp in ODIs but not before carting him for 22 runs in his ninth over, which included three fours and a towering six.

Name: Shrikant
Country: USA
Email: shrikant_dharap@usairways.com
Question: Please compare captaincy records of Azhar, Sachin and Sourav. Only include Australia, New Zealand, England, West Indies, Pakistan and South Africa as opponents. Thanks

Rajneesh Gupta:

Here are the statistics, confined only to Test cricket:

Name: Kashyap
Country: USA
Email: kashyapdn@gmail.com
Question: A situation. The chasing team requires 1 run to win with 1 wicket in hand. Scores tied. The bowler bowls a no-ball and before it is realized by the batsmen, one of them is run-out; probably the straight drive was flicked by the bowler to the non-striker's stumps, catching him off the crease. So, my question is: Did the chasing team win the match by 0 wickets? What is the final result?

Rajneesh Gupta: The team batting second will win by one wicket in the given situation.

As soon as the no-ball is signalled by the umpire, the team batting second will achieve the winning target by virtue of the extra run added to its total. Whatever happens thereafter in the match is of no significance.

Name: Asif
Country: USA
Email: asifnzaidi@gmail.com
Question: A bowler bowls the last over for the day. 1) Next day, can he bowl the first over ? 2) Following the above scenario, if bowler bowls last on day 1 and if he took 2 wkts with the last 2 balls and on day 2 he takes a wicket with his first ball, will this be considered a hat-trick?

Rajneesh Gupta:
1)  A bowler is not allowed to bowl two successive overs in the same innings. Therefore, he cannot bowl the first over on day 2 of a match after bowling the last over on day 1.

2)  Yes, it will be a hat-trick. The hat-trick means three wickets off three consecutive balls in the same match. It does not matter if it is completed in two overs. In fact, there are quite a few instances when a hat-trick was spread over two innings! Such a hat-trick is called as a 'broken' hat-trick.

Country: USA
Email: scnzzz@yahoo.com
Question: Who holds the (dubious) record of running out his partner the most often in Tests and ODI's?

Rajneesh Gupta: Australia's Steve Waugh holds this dubious distinction in both forms of cricket. Though Steve Waugh was involved in 27 run-outs during his Test career, only four times he got himself run-out. On all the remaining 23 occasions his partners had to cool their heels in the dressing room.

Steve Waugh had a much longer tally of run-out dismissals in one-day internationals -- 27 to be precise. But even this figure fades in comparison with the number of partners who got run-out -- 51.

Name: Ashish
Country: India
Email: ashis_vicky@yahoo.com
Question: Who has the record of scoring the slowest century in terms of balls in ODIs?

Rajneesh Gupta: Australia's David Boon is believed to have scored the slowest century in ODIs. In a Benson & Hedges World Series Cup match against India, at Hobart in 1991-92, Boon reached the three-figure mark off 166 balls during his unbeaten innings of 102.

New Zealand's Glenn Turner (114* off 177 balls v India at Manchester in 1975) and West Indies Gordon Greenidge (106* off 173 balls v India at Birmingham in 1979) may have a strong case, but no authentic information is available about the exact number of balls taken by these two to complete their centuries.

Email: rakkumar74@yahoo.com
Question: What is this new 'Power play' concept? How and when can you replace a player with a 'Super Sub' ?

Name: Satish
Country: Jamaica
Email: satishgarimalla@yahoo.com
Question: Explain Powerplay for me please.

Rajneesh Gupta: Powerplay is nothing but a revised ruling on the fielding restrictions. Earlier only two players were allowed outside the fielding circle for first 15 overs.

This is what the new ruling is:

In a 50 overs game, the Fielding Restriction Overs shall apply for 20 overs per innings, to be taken as follows:

a)     10 of the Fielding Restriction Overs shall be the first 10 overs of the innings.

b)     b) The remaining 10 overs shall be taken at the discretion of the fielding captain in 2 blocks of 5 at any time in the innings thereafter. The fielding captain shall advise the on-field umpires accordingly.

Should the fielding captain choose not to exercise his discretion, the remaining blocks of Fielding Restriction Overs will automatically commence at the latest available point in the innings (i.e. in an uninterrupted innings, at the start of the 41^st and the 46^th overs).

• Ask Rajneesh Gupta