Test #1824 and #1825 Records : Visitors get blown away as Home Teams dominate the proceedings.

The last two test matches of the year 2006, which started on Boxing Day, resulted in thumping victories for the home teams. Australia inched towards their goal of whitewashing England by registering an innings victory at Melbourne and went up 4-0, only third time in Ashes history. South Africa took their revenge on India for their first test defeat by beating them with more than 100 runs margin to square the series 1-1.

Test #1824 England in Australia Ashes 2006-07(4th Test) at MCG, Melbourne.

Both Warne and McGrath who announced their retirements before the fourth test played their part in their last test match appearance on the oldest ground in test cricket and made sure Australia is on their course towards a 5-0 series win. What appeared as an even contest till the end of first session on the second day of the test became one-sided as Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds plundered big centuries.

Here are some of the statistical highlights of this test match:

Shane Warne became the first bowler in test history to claim 700 test victims. Following is the list of all bowlers who have claimed 500 or more wickets in their test careers.

Player	Country	Career	Tests	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Avg	Best	5w	10w
Warne, S K*	Australia	1992-	144	6755.3	1759	17903	706	25.35	8/71	37	10
Muralitharan, M*	Sri Lanka	1992-	110	6117.3	1585	14649	674	21.73	9/51	57	19
McGrath, G D*	Australia	1993-	123	4824.4	1451	12081	557	21.68	8/24	29	3
Kumble, A *	India	1990-	112	5881.3	1424	15484	542	28.57	10/74	33	8
Walsh, C A	West Indies	1984-2001	132	5003.1	1144	12684	519	24.44	7/37	22	3

Andrew Strauss & Alastair Cook have both aggregated 1000 runs for the calendar year 2006. Incidentally Alastair Cook becomes only the second player in test history to have scored 1000 or more runs during the first calendar year. Australia’s Mark Taylor during his first year in test cricket in 1989 scored 1219 runs in 11 tests @64.16 including 4 hundreds and 5 fifties. Following is the list of all batsmen who aggregated 1000 or more runs during the calendar year 2006.

Player	Country	Year	Tests	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg
Mohammad Yousuf*	Pakistan	2006	11	19	1	1788	202	9	3	99.33
Pietersen, K P *	England	2006	14	26	1	1343	158	4	6	53.72
Ponting, R T*	Australia	2006	10	18	3	1333	196	7	4	88.87
Sangakkara, K C*	Sri Lanka	2006	11	20	2	1242	287	4	4	69.00
Younis Khan*	Pakistan	2006	11	20	2	1179	199	3	6	65.50
Collingwood, P D*	England	2006	14	26	4	1121	206	3	2	50.95
Dravid, R *	India	2006	12	22	4	1095	146	3	7	60.83
Strauss, A J*	England	2006	14	26	0	1031	128	3	3	39.65
Cook, A N *	England	2006	13	24	2	1013	127	4	3	46.05

Kevin Pietersen completed 2000 runs in test cricket during his first innings knock of 20. He is 47^th Englishman and 238th cricketer to do so. His career aggregate at the end of 4^th test is 2017 runs from 22 tests @ 50.42 including 6 hundreds and 9 fifties.

For	M	I	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	St.Rate	Ct
Eng	22	42	2	2017	158	50.42	6	9	66.72	13

Chris Read for the second time in his test career took 6 catches in an innings. Following list provides all the instances of a wicket keeper dismissing six or more batsmen in an innings of a test match.

Player	Country	Ca	St	Test	Ground
Wasim Bari	Pakistan	7	0	1978-1979 NZL v PAK	Eden Park
Taylor, R W	England	7	0	1979-1980 IND v ENG	Wankhede Stadium
Smith, I D S	New Zealand	7	0	1990-1991 NZL v SRL	Westpac Park
Jacobs, R D	West Indies	7	0	2000-2001 AUS v WIN	Melbourne Cricket Gr
Grout, A T W	Australia	6	0	1957-1958 SAF v AUS	New Wanderers Stad
Lindsay, D T	South Africa	6	0	1966-1967 SAF v AUS	New Wanderers Stad
Murray, J T	England	6	0	1967 ENG v IND	Lord's
Kirmani, S M H	India	5	1	1975-1976 NZL v IND	Jade Stadium
Marsh, R W	Australia	6	0	1982-1983 AUS v ENG	Brisbane Cricket Gr
Silva, S A R	Sri Lanka	6	0	1985-1986 SRL v IND	Sinhalese Sports Gr
Russell, R C	England	6	0	1990-1991 AUS v ENG	Melbourne Cricket Gr
Russell, R C	England	6	0	1995-1996 SAF v ENG	New Wanderers Stad
Healy, I A	Australia	6	0	1997 ENG v AUS	Edgbaston
Stewart, A J	England	6	0	1997 ENG v AUS	Old Trafford
Boucher, M V*	South Africa	6	0	1997-1998 SAF v PAK	St George's Park
Boucher, M V*	South Africa	6	0	1997-1998 SAF v SRL	Newlands
Rashid Latif	Pakistan	6	0	1997-1998 ZIM v PAK	Queens Sports Club
Read, C M W*	England	5	1	1999 ENG v NZL	Edgbaston
Boucher, M V*	South Africa	6	0	2004-2005 SAF v ZIM	Supersport Park
Jones, G O *	England	6	0	2005 ENG v BAN	Riverside Ground
Read, C M W*	England	6	0	2006-2007 AUS v ENG	Melbourne Cricket Gr

Australia’s first innings total of 419 included two scores of 150 or more and represents the 4th lowest total in test cricket to have included two scores of more 150 or more. Their total also provided the 14^th instance of two batsman scoring 150 or more but no other batsman crossing fifty and 9^th instance of a side not being able to register a total of 500 or more in spite two innings of 150plus. Following table lists all instances of a test innings with two scores of 150 plus and no other fifty except one instance (494 by Eng Vs Aus in which Tom Graveney hit a 63 ) which is included in the list because it is one of the only nine instances wherein a team failed to score 500 plus score in spite of two 150s in the innings.

Total

For

Vs

Player1

Score

Player2

Score

Player3

Score

Venue

Series

Res

701

Aus

Eng

WH Ponsford

266

DG Bradman

244

WM Woodfull

49

The Oval

1934

W

595

SA

Aus

EJ Barlow

201

RG Pollock

175

DT Lindsay

41

Adelaide

1963-64

W

584

Aus

Eng

WH Ponsford

181

DG Bradman

304

SJ McCabe

27

Leeds

1934

D

570

Pak

Ind

Younis Khan

267

Inzamam-ul-Haq

184

Mohammad Yousuf

37

Bangalore

2004-05

W

561

Pak

NZ

Waqar Hassan

189

Imtiaz Ahmed

209

Maqsood Ahmed

33

Lahore

1955-56

W

538

Pak

Eng

Younis Khan

173

Mohammad Yousuf

192

D Kaneria

29

Leeds

2006

L

498

WI

Aus

RB Richardson

154

IVA Richards

178

CH Lloyd

38

St John's

1983-84

W

494

Eng

Aus

JH Edrich

164

BL D'Oliveira

158

TW Graveney

63

The Oval

1968

W

479

Eng

Aus

JB Hobbs

154

H Sutcliffe

176

MW Tate

34

Melbourne(2nd)

1924-25

L

471

Pak

WI

Aamir Sohail

160

Inzamam-ul-Haq

177

Mohammad Wasim

26

Rawalpindi

1997-98

W

464

Eng

Aus

GA Gooch

196

DI Gower

157

PR Downton

16

The Oval

1985

w

419

Aus

Eng

ML Hayden

153

Symonds

156

SK Warne

40*

Melbourne(2nd)

2006-07

W

417

Pak

NZ

Javed Miandad

163

Asif Iqbal

166

Imran Khan

29

Lahore

1976-77

W

417

Pak

WI

Aamir Sohail

160

Ijaz Ahmed

151

Azhar

26*

Karachi

1997-98

W

414

WI

Eng

RB Kanhai

150

GS Sobers

152

CH Lloyd

31

Georgetown

1967-68

D

Test #1825 India in South Africa 2006/07 (2nd Test) at Sahara Stadium, Kingsmead, Durban.

The test match between India and South Africa which resulted in a 174 run victory for South Africa at last saw a fifty plus score from Sachin Tendulkar for the first time during the year 2006, which proved out to be one of his worst years in test cricket. His batting woes continued though as he was out for a duck in the second innings. Following is the list of how Sachin Tendulkar accumulated runs over the years.

Year	M	Inns	NO	50s	100s	HS	Runs	Avg	Ca	St
1989	4	6	0	2	0	59	215	35.83	1	0
1990	7	10	1	2	1	*119	373	41.44	4	0
1991	2	4	0	0	0	40	78	19.50	2	0
1992	7	11	1	0	3	*148	419	41.90	6	0
1993	8	9	2	5	2	165	640	91.43	8	0
1994	7	11	1	3	2	179	700	70.00	7	0
1995	3	4	2	1	0	*52	58	29.00	3	0
1996	8	15	0	2	2	177	623	41.53	5	0
1997	12	17	1	3	4	169	1000	62.50	9	0
1998	5	9	1	1	3	177	647	80.88	3	0
1999	10	19	3	4	5	217	1088	68.00	2	0
2000	6	10	1	1	2	*201	575	63.89	5	0
2001	10	18	2	6	3	155	1003	62.69	5	0
2002	16	26	1	5	4	193	1392	55.68	8	0
2003	5	9	0	1	0	55	153	17.00	2	0
2004	10	15	5	2	3	*248	915	91.50	5	0
2005	6	10	0	3	1	109	444	44.40	2	0
2006	8	12	1	1	0	63	267	24.27	8	0
Overall (19)	134	215	23	42	35	*248	10590	55.15	85	0

There weren’t many test records to speak about in this test apart from AB de Villiers’ continuation of his test career without a duck.

Here are some of the statistical highlights of this test match:

AB de Villiers has now played 44 innings in his test career without ever registering a duck. He thus shares the record of playing more innings in a test career without a duck with JW Burke of Australia. He also holds the record for aggregating more runs in a test career without ever registering a duck. Following table lists all those players who have scored 1000 or more runs in a test career without ever registering a duck.

Player	Country	Tests	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg	S/R
de Villiers, A B *	South Africa	25	44	1	1686	178	3	10	39.21	53.17
Hussey, M E K*	Australia	16	25	6	1560	182	5	8	82.11	53.26
Clarke, M J *	Australia	27	40	5	1501	151	4	5	42.89	56.58
Houghton, D L	Zimbabwe	22	36	2	1464	266	4	4	43.06	45.45
Collingwood, P D*	England	20	37	5	1441	206	3	4	45.03	42.21
Collins, H L	Australia	19	31	1	1352	203	4	6	45.07
Duff, R A	Australia	22	40	3	1317	146	2	6	35.59
Burke, J W	Australia	24	44	7	1280	189	3	5	34.59
Yasir Hameed*	Pakistan	17	33	3	1168	170	2	7	38.93	58.75
Waqar Hassan	Pakistan	21	35	1	1071	189	1	6	31.50

Following table lists all those cricketers whose test career spanned for 30 or more innings and did not have any scores of zeroes.

Player	Country	Debut	Inns	1st Duck	Versus	Ground	Ducks
Burke, J W	Australia	02/02/1951	44	No Ducks in Career			0
de Villiers, A B *	South Africa	17/12/2004	44	No Ducks in Career			0
Clarke, M J *	Australia	06/10/2004	40	No Ducks in Career			0
Duff, R A	Australia	01/01/1902	40	No Ducks in Career			0
Patel, B P	India	06/06/1974	38	No Ducks in Career			0
Christiani, R J	West Indies	21/01/1948	37	No Ducks in Career			0
Collingwood, P D*	England	02/12/2003	36	No Ducks in Career			0
Houghton, D L	Zimbabwe	18/10/1992	36	No Ducks in Career			0
Waqar Hassan	Pakistan	16/10/1952	35	No Ducks in Career			0
Julien, B D	West Indies	26/07/1973	34	No Ducks in Career			0
Yasir Hameed*	Pakistan	20/08/2003	33	No Ducks in Career			0
Zulch, J W	South Africa	01/01/1910	32	No Ducks in Career			0
Collins, H L	Australia	17/12/1920	31	No Ducks in Career			0

For the record, following table lists all the Players who have played more innings than AB de Villiers before registering their first duck.

Player	Country	Debut	Inns	1st Duck	Versus	Ground	Ducks
De Silva, P A	Sri Lanka	23/08/1984	75	20/10/1994	Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	7
Lloyd, C H	West Indies	13/12/1966	58	02/02/1974	England	Queen's Park	4
Davidson, A K	Australia	11/06/1953	51	27/07/1961	England	Old Trafford	1
Jones, G O *	England	10/04/2004	51	14/12/2006	Australia	W.A.C.A. Ground	2
Butcher, B F	West Indies	28/11/1958	46	13/01/1967	India	Chidambaram Stadium	3

Ashwell Prince followed his hundred in the first innings with a duck in the second thus providing 126^th such instance and 73^rd time a batsman following his first innings century with a second innings duck.