Test Records - Week Ending 16th July 2006

Test #1809 Pakistan in England 2006 (1st Test) at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood

A superb double century by Mohammed Yousuf , a century in his captaincy debut by Andrew Strauss and a record 9th consecutive half century against England by Inzamam-ul-Haq were the main highlights of the drawn encounter between England and Pakistan.

Mohammed Yousuf with his 4th double century became only the 13th player to record a double hundred at Lord's and 2nd pakistani batsman after Mohsin Khan. Following is the list of all double century makers at Lord's in test cricket.

211 JB Hobbs England v South Africa Lord's1924
254 DG Bradman Australia v England Lord's 1930
240 WR Hammond England v Australia Lord's 1938
206* WA Brown Australia v England Lord's1938

205* J Hardstaff jnr England v India Lord's1946
208 DCS Compton England v South Africa Lord's1947

206 MP Donnelly New Zealand v England Lord's1949
200 Mohsin Khan Pakistan v England Lord's1982

214* CG Greenidge West Indies v England Lord's1984
333 GA Gooch England v India Lord's1990
259 GC Smith South Africa v England Lord's 2003
221 RWT Key England v West Indies Lord's 2004
202 Mohammad Yousuf Pakistan v England Lord's 2006

England's Andrew Strauss became only the 3rd player for England and 24 th overall to have scored a century in his first test as captain. He also becomes only the 3rd player in history of test cricket to have scored a century on debut both as a player and as a captain having already scored a century on debut (112 & 83) against NZ at the same venue in 2004. Following table lists all the instances of a century in maiden test as captain.

Scores	Player	For v Against	Venue	Series	Test Seq	Result
0 & 153*	WL Murdoch	Aus v Eng	The Oval	1880	t0004	LOST
0 & 143	GHS Trott	Aus v Eng	Lord's	1896	t0050	LOST
109 & 50*	AC MacLaren	Eng v Aus	Sydney(1)	1897-98	t0053	WON
133 & 22	MA Noble	Aus v Eng	Sydney(1)	1903-04	t0078	LOST
191 & dnb	C Hill	Aus v SAf	Sydney(1)	1910-11	t0111	WON
109 & 8	HW Taylor	SAf v Eng	Durban(1)	1913-14	t0130	LOST
12 & 158	WW Armstrong	Aus v Eng	Sydney(1)	1920-21	t0135	WON
112 & dnb	AL Hassett	Aus v SAf	Johannesburg(1)	1949-50	t0318	WON
164* & dnb	VS Hazare	Ind v Eng	Delhi	1951-52	t0339	DRAW
10 & 104	JB Stollmeyer	WI v Aus	Sydney(5)	1951-52	t0347	LOST
107 & 68	GO Rabone	NZ v SAf	Durban	1953-54	t0377	LOST
104* & 48	DJ McGlew	SAf v Eng	Manchester	1955	t0410	WON
239 & 5	GT Dowling	NZ v Ind	Christchurch	1967-68	t0631	WON
126 & dnb	BE Congdon	NZ v WI	Bridgetown	1971-72	t0695	DRAW
30 & 163	CH Lloyd	WI v Ind	Bangalore	1974-75	t0745	WON
123 & 109*	GS Chappell	Aus v WI	Brisbane	1975-76	t0764	WON
116 & 35*	SM Gavaskar	Ind v NZ	Auckland	1975-76	t0769	WON
7 & 102	GN Yallop	Aus v Eng	Brisbane	1978-79	t0834	LOST
120* & dnb	JJ Crowe	NZ v SL	Colombo(CCC)	1986-87	t1074	DRAW
10 & 102	DB Vengsarkar	Ind v WI	Delhi	1987-88	t1080	LOST
119 & 10	AJ Lamb	Eng v WI	Bridgetown	1989-90	t1143	LOST
121 & 41*	DL Houghton	Zim v Ind	Harare	1992-93	t1197	DRAW
203* & dnb	S Chanderpaul	WI v Saf	Georgetown	2004-05	t1745	DRAW
30 *& 128	AJ Strauss	Eng v Pak	Lord's	2006	t1809	DRAW

**Greg Chappel is the only cricketer to have recorded a century in each innings of a test he lead for the first time. Chappell along with Strauss and Zimbabwe's David Houghton shares another unique record of hitting a century on debut both as a player and as a captain. Houghton's record was achieved in the same test as he was leading the side while making his test debut in Zimbabwe's inaugural test match.


During his 2nd innings knock of 48 , Mohammed Yousuf also completed 1000 runs against England in just 9 tests and became the 7th pakistani batsman to do so as shown in the list below. He thus becomes the 99th cricketer to have aggregated 1000 runs against England. As many as 47 Australians, 18 West Indians, 12 Springboks, 10 Indians, 4 Kiwis and one Sri Lankan have done this before Mohammed Yousuf with the inimitable Bradman heading the list with 5028 runs in 37 tests.

Mushtaq Mohammad	Pakistan	23	41	4	1554	157	3	11	42.00
Inzamam-Ul-Haq*	Pakistan	16	27	3	1477	148	5	10	61.54
Salim Malik	Pakistan	19	28	5	1396	165	4	9	60.70
Javed Miandad	Pakistan	22	32	6	1329	260	2	9	51.12
Zaheer Abbas	Pakistan	14	24	3	1086	274	2	4	51.71
Hanif Mohammad	Pakistan	18	33	2	1039	*187	3	3	33.52
Mohammad Yousuf*	Pakistan	9	15	0	1019	223	4	2	67.93

Ian Bell, during his unbeaten century knock in the first innings completed 1000 runs in test cricket to become the 89th cricketer from England and 424th player overall to achieve the milestone.

By avoiding a duck in 46 innings that he batted in 30 tests so far , Geraint Jones of England now holds the record of playing most innings in a test career without ever getting dismissed for a duck. He surpasses Australia's Jim Burke's record of 44 innings test career without a duck. Jones will continue to climb up the ladder in the list of most innings before first duck as long as he does't get out for a zero. Aravinda de Silva of Sri Lanka currently holds the record with 75 innings, followed by Clive Lloyd of West Indies with 58 and Alan Davidson of Australia with 51. Jones is joint fourth in the list with Basil Butcher of West Indies , who too played 46 innings before registering a duck in test cricket. David Gower with 119 consecutive test innings holds the record for palying most number of innings between two ducks.

Finally a trivia fact : Inzamam-ul-Haq now had hit a half century against England in each of his last 9 innings against them. This may or may not be a record (will do some research on this and come out with another post) , but definitely England would like to get rid of his wicket early when they meet again in the 2nd test of this series at Manchester on 27th July.

Test Records - Week Ending 2nd July 2006

Test #1808 India in West Indies 2006 (4thTest) at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica

Finally , a test series win for India in West Indies, as mentioned in my last post, it took India more than 35 years to register it. Infact none of the current team members except Anil Kumble (who was just a six months old baby) , the chief architect of Indian victory at Kingston, Jamaica were even born when India won their last test series in West Indies back in 1970/71.

Here are some of the statistical highlights of this historic win for India :

With his twin half centuries, Dravid not only completed 9000 test runs and became the sixth cricketer to do so, but also climbed to the sixth position in the list of batting averages who played atleast 20 tests. It is a testimony to his consistency that he is the only cricketer to figure among the top six cricketers in both the number of runs accumulated and at the average they are gathered.

Dravid during his 2nd innings knock of 68 reached the 1000 run milestone for the calendar year 2006. In 10 tests this year Dravid has scored 1046 runs at an average of 74.71 with 3 hundreds and 7 fifties. This is the 2nd time Dravid has scored 1000+ runs in a calendar year. In 2002 he aggregated 1357 runs in 16 tests @59.00 with 5 centuries and 5 half centuries. Brian Lara of West Indies and Matthew Hayden of Australia holds the record for scoring 1000+ test runs in a calendar year most number of times in a career.They both recorded the feat five times in their career. Hayden's feat is unique that he has done it in five consecutive years starting from 2001. For India , little masters Gavaskar and Tendulakar holds the record with 4 times.

Dravid also achieved an unique record of registering two top scores in both the innings of a test match in which all 40 wickets fell, from either team while captaining his side. His scores of 81 & 68 were the highest in both the innings either for India or West Indies. There are eight occassions in test cricket in which the same player top scored in both the innings of a test match in which all 40 dismissals have occured. Inzamam-ul-Haq done it twice and Dravid is the only cricketer to have done it while captaining his side.

The three tables below lists (1) the top six cricketers of all time in terms of number of runs scored (2) the top six cricketers of all time in terms of batting averages and (3) list of players who top scored in both the innings of a test match in which all 40 wickets fell.

List of highest run scorers in test cricket:

Player	Country	Tests	Inns	no	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg
Lara, B C*	West Indies	128	227	6	11505	400*	32	47	52.06
Border, A R	Australia	156	265	44	11174	205	27	63	50.56
Waugh, S R	Australia	168	260	46	10927	200	32	50	51.06
Tendulkar, S R*	India	132	211	22	10469	248*	35	41	55.39
Gavaskar, S M	India	125	214	16	10122	236*	34	45	51.12
Dravid, R *	India	104	176	22	9049	270	23	46	58.76

List of batsmen who played 20+ tests with highest batting averages:

Player	Country	Tests	Runs	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg
Bradman, D G	Australia	52	80	10	6996	334	29	13	99.94
Pollock, R G	South Africa	23	41	4	2256	274	7	11	60.97
Headley, G A	West indies	22	40	4	2190	270*	10	5	60.83
Sutcliffe, H	England	54	84	9	4555	194	16	23	60.73
Paynter, E	England	20	31	5	1540	243	4	7	59.23
Dravid, R *	India	104	176	22	9049	270	23	46	58.76

List of all instances when a player has top scored in both the innings of a test in which all 40 wickets fell:

Chris Gayle was dismissed for a duck in both the innings, thus achieving a pair in test cricket for the 2nd time in his career. He now becomes the 66th player to have dismissed for a pair in a test match on more than one occassion. Courtney Walsh, Merv Dillon of West Indies, BS Chandrasekhar of India and Marvin Atapattu of Sri Lanka shares the record with 4 pairs where as there ar 14 other players who were dismissed for a pair in test cricket 3 times.

Anil Kumble, during his first innings knock of 45 added an invaluable 91 runs with Rahul Dravid, which proved out to be a macth winning partnership. During this knock he also completed 2000 runs in test cricket and having already taken 200+ wickets he now becomes the 14th member of the elite all rounder's club who have all taken 2000 runs and 200 wickets.

Following is the list of all rounders with 2000 runs & 200 wickets:

*indicates that the players are still active in test cricket.

Player	Country	Tests	Runs	HS	100s	Avg	Wkts	Avg	Cts
Kallis, J H*	South Africa	102	8033	189*	24	55.78	200	31.71	98
Sobers, G S A	West Indies	93	8032	365*	26	57.78	235	34.04	109
Kapil Dev	India	131	5248	163	8	31.05	434	29.65	64
Botham, I T	England	102	5200	208	14	33.55	383	28.40	120
Imran Khan	Pakistan	88	3807	136	6	37.69	362	22.81	29
Pollock, S M*	South Africa	101	3444	111	2	31.60	394	23.20	68
Cairns, C L	New Zealand	62	3320	158	5	33.54	218	29.40	14
Hadlee, R J	New Zealand	86	3124	151*	2	27.17	431	22.30	39
Warne, S K*	Australia	140	2958	99	0	16.62	685	25.25	120
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	104	2898	257*	3	22.64	414	23.62	44
Vaas, W P U*	Sri Lanka	93	2435	74*	0	22.55	306	29.13	28
Benaud, R	Australia	63	2201	122	3	24.46	248	27.03	65
Vettori, D L*	New Zealand	71	2136	137*	2	24.84	219	34.95	35
Kumble, A *	India	110	2025	88	0	17.92	533	28.76	50