Tuesday, July 18, 2006

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.

ScoresPlayerFor v AgainstVenueSeriesTest SeqResult
0 & 153*WL Murdoch Aus v Eng The Oval 1880t0004LOST
0 & 143 GHS Trott Aus v Eng Lord's 1896t0050LOST
109 & 50*AC MacLaren Eng v Aus Sydney(1) 1897-98t0053WON
133 & 22MA Noble Aus v Eng Sydney(1) 1903-04t0078LOST
191 & dnbC Hill Aus v SAf Sydney(1) 1910-11t0111WON
109 & 8 HW Taylor SAf v Eng Durban(1) 1913-14t0130LOST
12 & 158 WW Armstrong Aus v Eng Sydney(1) 1920-21t0135WON
112 & dnb AL Hassett Aus v SAf Johannesburg(1)1949-50t0318WON
164* & dnbVS Hazare Ind v Eng Delhi 1951-52t0339DRAW
10 & 104 JB Stollmeyer WI v Aus Sydney(5) 1951-52t0347LOST
107 & 68GO Rabone NZ v SAf Durban 1953-54t0377LOST
104* & 48DJ McGlew SAf v Eng Manchester 1955t0410WON
239 & 5GT Dowling NZ v Ind Christchurch 1967-68t0631WON
126 & dnb BE Congdon NZ v WI Bridgetown 1971-72t0695DRAW
30 & 163 CH Lloyd WI v Ind Bangalore 1974-75t0745WON
123 & 109*GS Chappell Aus v WI Brisbane 1975-76t0764WON
116 & 35* SM Gavaskar Ind v NZ Auckland 1975-76t0769WON
7 & 102 GN Yallop Aus v Eng Brisbane 1978-79t0834LOST
120* & dnbJJ Crowe NZ v SL Colombo(CCC) 1986-87t1074DRAW
10 & 102 DB Vengsarkar Ind v WI Delhi 1987-88t1080LOST
119 & 10 AJ Lamb Eng v WI Bridgetown 1989-90t1143LOST
121 & 41* DL Houghton Zim v Ind Harare 1992-93t1197DRAW
203* & dnbS ChanderpaulWI v SafGeorgetown2004-05t1745DRAW
30 *& 128AJ StraussEng v PakLord's 2006t1809DRAW

**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.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

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

CountryTestsInnsnoRunsHS100s50sAvg
Lara, B C* West Indies128227611505400*324752.06
Border, A R Australia1562654411174205276350.56
Waugh, S R Australia1682604610927200325051.06
Tendulkar, S R* India1322112210469248*354155.39
Gavaskar, S M India1252141610122236*344551.12
Dravid, R * India1041762290492702346

58.76






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

PlayerCountryTestsRunsNORunsHS100s50sAvg
Bradman, D G Australia5280106996334291399.94
Pollock, R G South Africa23414225627471160.97
Headley, G A West indies224042190270*10560.83
Sutcliffe, H England548494555194162360.73
Paynter, E England2031515402434759.23
Dravid, R * India104176229049270234658.76









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

CountryTestsRunsHS100sAvgWktsAvgCts
Kallis, J H* South Africa1028033189*2455.7820031.7198
Sobers, G S A West Indies938032365*2657.7823534.04109
Kapil Dev India1315248163831.0543429.6564
Botham, I T England10252002081433.5538328.40120
Imran Khan Pakistan883807136637.6936222.8129
Pollock, S M* South Africa1013444111231.6039423.2068
Cairns, C L New Zealand623320158533.5421829.4014
Hadlee, R J New Zealand863124151*227.1743122.3039
Warne, S K* Australia140295899016.6268525.25120
Wasim Akram Pakistan1042898257*322.6441423.6244
Vaas, W P U* Sri Lanka93243574*022.5530629.1328
Benaud, R Australia632201122324.4624827.0365
Vettori, D L* New Zealand712136137*224.8421934.9535
Kumble, A * India110202588017.9253328.7650