The following comments have been entered by Kieren Whittock, renowned expert on the geology of cricket. In requesting this entry I asked Kieren the question “What kind of rock was Dizzy?” In response Kieren discusses the formative processes that Dizzy Gillespie went through during and after his epic 6000 ball innings of 24 in the 2nd test:

Dizzy was not just a rock. A rock cannot be viewed as something static, it is dynamic, always changing, over millions of years of geological time. In this way, Dizzy was a geological process, subject to changes due to heat and pressure, and weathering process.

I decided he was most certainly an Ultramafic, volcanic rock.

His batting with Marto represented his solid state. He had reached chemical equilibrium at that point, all his elements had settled out into their solid form. His magma had reached its solidus. He was iron rich. Basaltic. Mafic.

Yet prone to weathering.

During his innings he was prone to high heat and pressure. He metamorphosed, he became Meta-Basalt. He became more prone to weathering. His iron rich solid minerals became iron rich clays, tending towards Kaolinites. He was losing parts of himself, becoming part of the orange (probably due to iron content) dust in Chennai. He was suffering intense weathering, returning his parts to the rock cycle.

Until finally there was nothing of him left. His wicket fell. He became clay. Dust. His iron spread all about the ground.

That vortex again. Millions of years of geological time had passed.

The rock cycle continues in time for Dizzy to reach his liquid form again at some point in the series, when he is handed the ball, and bowls, letting off his volatile elements. Millions of years pass.