Pop Quiz #4: Who am I?

(Note: Every so often I shall have a pop quiz on my blog with questions about people, places, things, events, and any other thing that comes to mind. Please take the quiz without peeking at the answers, which will be included at the end, and let me know how you did. Previous quizzes can be seen by clicking here.)

Today's quiz is about sports personalities.

1)  In a Test match in 2007, I was involved in a 408 run partnership for the first wicket. I was the first wicket to fall at a personal score of just 129 runs.  At that time my partner was batting on 49.  Yes, you read that right, he had scored 49 runs and I had scored 129.  Who am I?  Actually, more importantly, how was this 408 run partnership possible, especially considering that the opposition had give up just 10 extras?

2)  I am the only batsman to have been involved in two partnerships of over 400 runs for the first wicket.  Both times, the partnership ended within one scoring stroke of setting the world record. Yet, I have scored more runs (than anyone else in Test history, in fact) at a different position - #3. 

3)  On my Test debut I opened the bowling for India along with my fellow debutant Tinu Yohanan.  My solitary wicket was of Graham Thorpe.  In the second inning I even made the winning runs.  In fact, I scored 100% of the runs made by India in that second inning.  I am one of the few genuinely fast bowlers who have opened the batting and bowling in their debut Test.  Unfortunately, I never played another Test match for India.


4)  I am the only player in the history of tennis to have won at least 10 tournament on every surface that the sport is played on - clay, grass, hard court, and indoor.


5) The Sportsmanship award in tennis is voted on by the players.  I won it so many times that, after I retired, the award was renamed in my honor!  I am the only man to have won all four Grand Slams tournaments in the same year, as a junior.  I would have completed a career Slam on the senior circuit if a 17 year-old had not caught fire and won his only major after I was leading him 2 sets to one and was even up a break in the 5th set.


Answers after the jump:

Pop Quiz #3: Entertainment

Questions 1-3 are about information in the Harry Potter books, not the movies.

1) To start off, a very simple one - what is Ginny Weasley's proper first name?

2) Spoiler alert: If you didn't know by now, Voldemort split his soul into multiple pieces and "hid" them in various objects. In all, how many pieces did Voldemort's soul split into?

3) How many Quidditch championships did Harry Potter win in his 7 years at Hogwarts (well, technically six, but still...)? Hint: Gryffindor won the championship three times in that 7 year period.

4) Which TV sitcom character's phone number is 555-2390 (KL5-2390)? The area code, I presume, is 212 (Manhattan).

5) Which actress has received the most Filmfare nominations (16) for Hindi movies - 8 times for Best Actress and 8 times for Best Supporting actress? Hint: She has acted as Amitabh Bachchan's lover, sister-in-law, and mother in movies.

6) Which comic book superhero resides at 344 Clinton Street, Apt 3D? Hint: He died in 1992.


Answers after the jump:

Pop Quiz #2: Who am I?

(Note: Every so often I shall have a pop quiz on my blog with questions about people, places, things, events, and any other thing that comes to mind. Please take the quiz without peeking at the answers, which will be included at the end, and let me know how you did.

Click here for an earlier set of questions.)

This set of questions are fairly easy to answer.

1) Of the 65 66 ODI matches I have played for India, no less than 40 have been abroad. I played in the Under-19 World Cup final where my team, chasing 110 to win, lost by 38 runs! Five of my team-mates were out for 0 that day. In hindsight, the 4 runs I scored batting at #3 were a big deal. In the 4 editions of the IPL, I have won a championship and scored over 350 runs in each season. When people talk about me the words talented and lazy often get mentioned in the same sentence.

2) Jimmy Connons once said about me, "In an era of specialists, you're either a clay court specialist, a grass court specialist, or a hard court specialist...or you're ______ ________." I have played in at least 5 finals at each of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. The only man to ever do so.

3) My first 8 scores in Test cricket were 16, 18*, 59, 224, 227, 125, 4, 120. Less than 20 months later, aged 23, I played my last Test match for India, finishing with a career average of 54+. However, the enduring memory of my time in India colors isof me shedding tears as the world burned around me.

4) In a classic case of not letting facts get in the way of a good story, my contributions in a World Cup-winning campaign were 0, 26, 33, 8, 0, 6 - a total of just 75 runs in 6 matches @ 12.5 runs per inning. Yet the perception that has built up over time is that I was as instrumental as some of my more formidable colleagues in bringing us the win. On my Test debut, I scored an unbeaten century as my team took a 291 run lead in the first inning at home. Three of us scored centuries while none of the visiting batsmen scored a single one. Yet, we lost the Test match!

5) During the Under-19 cricket tour of England in 2002, in the third One Day International, I opened the batting and scored 177, helping chase down England's total of 305. (A few days later this feat was forgotten as the senior team chased down 326 in the NatWest final at Lord's). I then went on to captain the India Under-19 team in the 2003/2004 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, where we won 5 of 6 group matches before losing to the eventual champions Pakistan in the semi-finals. While my fellow-mates (Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, Shikar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, RP Singh, and VRV Singh) have played for the senior squad I have never had the honor of doing so.

Answers after the jump:

Pop Quiz #1: Who am I?

(Note: Every so often I shall have a pop quiz on my blog with questions about people, places, things, events, and any other thing that comes to mind. Please take the quiz without peeking at the answers, which will be included at the end, and let me know how you did.)

Today's quiz is about cricketers.

a) My first four wickets in Test cricket were of Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, and Ricky Ponting. I was the Man of the Match when my team defeated Australia for the first time at Perth. I was also the Man of the Match when we won a World Cup. I have scored over a 1000 runs and taken at least 100 wickets in both ODIs and Tests. I have scored a Test century and once took a hat-trick in the first over of a Test match. Even though I am only 26, its been almost two years since I played for my country in any form of the game.