Test #1831 & #1832 Records : Rain plays the major role in two drawn tests

Test #1831 West Indies in England 2007 (1^st Test) at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood.

With a magnificent hundred on his test debut, Matt Prior of England, who stole the show at Lord’s in their test series opener against the West Indies and may have very well ended the England selector’s long time search for a wicket keeper batsman. At 25 years and with a dream debut in test cricket, by all probabilities Prior may have cemented his place as the wicketkeeper/batsman in England’s test side for a very long time to come. Prior also became the 635th Englishmen and 2,483rd cricketer to play in a test match. In a rain ruined test five English batsmen hit a century, four of them coming in one innings. Monty Panesar exhibited his art more skillfully than any other left arm spinner would have done on the flat batting track. However, after the West Indian tail wagged for long enough to ensure the first innings lead was reduced to 116 runs a result was never looked like a possibility. With just 20 overs of play on the final day just ten overs bowled on either side of a 4 hour interruption and the match petered out into a tame draw

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

Matt Prior’s hundred on debut makes him the 81^st cricketer and 17^th Englishmen to have hit a century on debut. He also became just the third wicket keeper to have achieved the feat and the first from England. Only two wicket keepers in the history of test cricket have started their careers with a century on debut and they are both from Sri Lanka. Brendon Kuruppu (201 not out against New Zealand in 1986-87) and Romesh Kaluwitharana (132 not out against Australia in 1992). Matt Prior also became the fifth batsman to score a hundred on debut at Lord's - after Harry Graham, John Hampshire, Sourav Ganguly and Andrew Strauss. His century is 196^th three figure innings at Mecca of cricket and puts his name on the Board of Honors at Lord’s.

To complement Matt Prior’s batting feats, Monty Panesar too entered the Lord’s Hall of Fame Wall by claiming a five-for. His 6 for 129 haul is 151^st time a bowler took five or more wickets in an innings at Lord’s. . His bowling figures are also the best since Bishan Singh Bedi took 6 for 226 in 1974. However having five his victims dismissed for lbw is a very rare occurrence. It happened only four times before and on all occasions the bowler was not a spinner. Terry Alderman against Pakistan at Melbourne, 1989-90, Curtly Ambrose against England at Barbados, 1989-90, Richard Johnson against England at Chester-le-Street, 2003 and Mohammad Zahid of Pakistan against New Zealand at Rawalpindi, 1996-97 are the only others to have nailed five lbws in a single innings prior to Monty Panesar’s five lbw victims at Lord's, 2007 .

Five hundreds from English batsmen in the first test at Lord's (four in the first and one in the second) provides the only the third instance in Test history of one team notching up five centuries in a test match. Unlike in Lord’s test in the other two matches, all five centuries were hit in the same innings in the Pakistan-Bangladesh test match at Multan in 2000-01 and in the Kingston Test between West Indies and Australia in 1955. However there are 8 other instances a side notching up 4 hundreds in an innings as shown in the table below prior to the occurrence in Lord’s Test between West Indies and England.

Team	100	Result	Opposition	Ground	Series	Test Seq#
Australia	5	won	v West Indies	Kingston	1954-55	Test 408
Pakistan	5	won	v Bangladesh	Multan	2001-02	Test 1560
Pakistan	4	Drawn	V India	Faisalabad	2005-06	Test 1781
South Africa	4	Drawn	V West Indies	St. John’s	2004-05	Test 1750
West Indies	4	Drawn	V South Africa	St. John’s	2004-05	Test 1750
England	4	drawn	v Australia	Nottingham	1938	Test 263
West Indies	4	drawn	v India	Delhi	1947-48	Test 304
Pakistan	4	won	v India	Faisalabad	1982-83	Test 945
West Indies	4	drawn	v India	St John's	1982-83	Test 956
Pakistan	4	won	v Sri Lanka	Galle	1999-00	Test 1501
Sri Lanka	4	won	v India	Colombo (SSC)	2000-01	Test 1559
New Zealand	4	drawn	v Australia	Perth	2001-02	Test 1573
New Zealand	4	drawn	v India	Mohali	2003-04	Test 1662
England	4	Drawn	V West Indies	Lord’s	2007	Test 1831

Daren Ganga became the 239^th cricketer and 31^st West Indian to aggregate 2000 test runs. He achieved this milestone when he passed the 13 run mark during his second innings knock 31*. Following is the list of all West Indian Cricketers who have 2000 or more runs in a test career.

Player	Country	Tests	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg	S/R
Lara, B C	West Indies	131	232	6	11953	*400	34	48	52.89	60.52
Richards, I V A	West Indies	121	182	12	8540	291	24	45	50.24
Sobers, G S A	West Indies	93	160	21	8032	*365	26	30	57.78
Greenidge, C G	West Indies	108	185	16	7558	226	19	34	44.72
Lloyd, C H	West Indies	110	175	14	7515	*242	19	39	46.68
Haynes, D L	West Indies	116	202	25	7487	184	18	39	42.30
Chanderpaul, S*	West Indies	102	174	22	6810	*203	14	41	44.80	43.03
Kanhai, R B	West Indies	79	137	6	6227	256	15	28	47.53
Richardson, R B	West Indies	86	146	12	5949	194	16	27	44.40
Hooper, C L	West Indies	102	173	15	5762	233	13	27	36.47	50.27
Weekes, E D C	West Indies	48	81	5	4455	207	15	19	58.62
Kallicharran, A I	West Indies	66	109	10	4399	187	12	21	44.43
Gayle, C H*	West Indies	65	115	4	4336	317	7	26	39.06	55.99
Fredericks, R C	West Indies	59	109	7	4334	169	8	26	42.49
Sarwan, R R*	West Indies	66	119	8	4303	*261	9	26	38.77	44.98
Worrell, F M M	West Indies	51	87	9	3860	261	9	22	49.49
Walcott, C L	West Indies	44	74	7	3798	220	15	14	56.69
Dujon, P J L	West Indies	81	115	11	3322	139	5	16	31.94
Hunte, C C	West Indies	44	78	6	3245	260	8	13	45.07
Gomes, H A	West Indies	60	91	11	3171	143	9	13	39.64
Butcher, B F	West Indies	44	78	6	3104	*209	7	16	43.11
Adams, J C	West Indies	54	90	17	3012	*208	6	14	41.26	37.57
Campbell, S L	West Indies	52	93	4	2882	208	4	18	32.38	40.26
Hinds, W W*	West Indies	45	80	1	2608	213	5	14	33.01	47.77
Jacobs, R D	West Indies	65	112	21	2577	118	3	14	28.32	47.79
Nurse, S M	West Indies	29	54	1	2523	258	6	10	47.60
Logie, A L	West Indies	52	78	9	2470	130	2	16	35.80
Headley, G A	West Indies	22	40	4	2190	*270	10	5	60.83
Stollmeyer, J B	West Indies	32	56	5	2159	160	4	12	42.33
Rowe, L G	West Indies	30	49	2	2047	302	7	7	43.55
Ganga, D*	West Indies	42	74	2	2018	135	3	9	28.03	39.50

West Indies managed to score 437 in the first innings of the Lord's test without any batsman scoring a hundred. There are 36 instances in test history when a team scored more runs than West Indies’ 437 against England which had no individual hundred the highest total being that of India's 524 for 9 against New Zealand at Kanpur in 1976. Mohinder Amarnath top scored with 70 in that innings while five others got past fifty. In test cricket history, 92 times a team could amass a total of 400 or more without including a single centurion in the batting order, but only thrice did the total reach the 500 mark as shown in the list below.

Team	Score	Result	Opposition	Ground	Series	Test Seq#
India	524/9d	drawn	v New Zealand	Kanpur	1975-76	Test 786
South Africa	517	drawn	v Australia	Adelaide	1997-98	Test 1397
Pakistan	500/8d	won	v Australia	Melbourne	1981-82	Test 913

During West Indies’ 1^st innings total of 437 all out, everyone except their no.11 batsman Corey Collymore reached double figures. Thus they very narrowly missed the chance of becoming the eleventh team in history of test cricket to have had all the 11 batsmen in an innings reaching double figures. Their record of ten batsmen reaching double figures in a test innings provides the 79^th such occasion. Following is the list of all instances in which eleven batsmen reached double figures in an innings.

For	vs	Inn	Test	Series	venue	score	wkts	Test Seq#
Eng	Aus	1st	2nd	1928-29	Sydney	636	10	Test 177
SA	Aus	1st	3rd	1931-32	Melbourne	358	10	Test 214
Eng	Aus	2nd	2nd	1894-95	Melbourne	475	10	Test 43
SA	Eng	1st	3rd	1905-06	Old Wanderers	385	10	Test 90
Aus	Ind	1st	5th	1947-48	Melbourne	575	8	Test 295
Ind	NZ	1st	2nd	1976-77	Kanpur	524	9	Test 786
Aus	SL	2nd	1st	1992-93	Colombo (SSC)	471	10	Test 1194
Ind	Pak	1st	5th	1952-53	Calcutta	397	10	Test 360
Ind	NZ	1st	1st	1967-68	Dunedin	359	10	Test 630
Eng	WI	1st	4th	2004	The Oval	470	10	Test 1712

Overall, Ramnresh Sarwan’s first outing as captain proved out to be a good one for the West Indies. At last they have shown some signs of stability with batting and were averted a follow-on situation with relative ease . But their bowling and fielding still needs to improve a lot in order to attain even an iota of their past glory. England seems to be the best place and side that they can ask for to begin that long and arduous journey. By avoiding the follow-on and drawing the first test, even though the weather played a major supporting role, and keeping the series is still wide open West Indies has already taken the first baby step. I won’t be surprised if with a little bit of luck and return of form to Chris Gayle they clinch the John Wisden Trophy by the end of the test series.

Test #1832 India in Bangladesh 2007 (1^st Test) at Bir Shrestha Shahid Ruhul Amin Stadium, Chittagong.

Bangladesh wasted a great opportunity of winning a test match against a real test nation to the utter disappointment of the great crowd gathered and barged on trees and building surrounding the Chittagong Stadium. An Indian win was never on cards after rain and bad light played a spoilsport and almost 8 sessions of play was lost. It was a real brave and bold decision by Rahul Dravid that put life into the test match and his sportive declaration set a target of 250 runs in 43 overs. His decision would have easily boomeranged had the Bangladeshi batsmen, especially their captain Habibul Bashar, realized what a rare opportunity it was. He and Javed Omar played two of the most boring innings ever considering the circumstances, they could have at least attempted to take singles, twos and occasional boundaries and could have put India under tremendous pressure. On a flat batting track against an Indian bowling attack depleted by Anil Kumble’s absence on the field was a real gift by Dravid which the Bangladeshi skipper did not even choose to unwrap. Both Tendulkar and Ganguly used the opportunity to plunder the Bangladeshi bowlers on a batting paradise with individual hundreds whereas Dravid and Dinesh Karthik helped themselves with fifties in India’s first innings. RP Singh and VRV Singh took three wickets each in Bangladesh’s innings and Mashrafe Mortaza played the innings of the match and took four wickets after starting the test match in a sensational manner by clean bowling Wasim Jaffer with the first ball of the test. His efforts did not go in vain as he was rightly awarded the Man of the Match honor. But the main statistic of the match remained the interruption of play because of rain and bad weather on every day of the test match

Following are some of the other statistical highlights of this test match:

Wasim Jaffer’s first ball dismissal provides the 26^th instance of a wicket falling with the first legitimate ball of the test match. Following is the list of all such instances.

Opener	For	Vs	Venue	Mode	Fielder	Bowler	Series	Test Seq
MacLaren, AC	Eng	Aus	Melbourne	caught	Trott, GHS	Coningham, A	1894-95	43
Hayward, TW	Eng	SA	The Oval	lbw		Vogler, AEE	1907	95
Bardsley, W	Aus	Eng	Headingley	caught	Sutcliffe, H	Tate, MW	1926	165
Sutcliffe, H	Eng	NZ	Christchurch	caught	James, KC	Badcock, FT	1932-33	225
Worthington, TS	Eng	Aus	Brisbane	caught	Oldfield, WAS	McCormick, EL	1936-37	255
Hunte, CC	WI	Pak	Port-of-Spain	caught	Hanif Mohammad	Fazal Mahmood	1957-58	453
Barlow, EJ	SA	Aus	Kingsmead	c and b		McKenzie, GD	1966-67	615
Fredericks, RC	WI	Ind	Port-of-Spain	bowled		Abid Ali, S	1970-71	683
Stackpole, KR	Aus	NZ	Auckland	caught	Parker, JM	Hadlee, RJ	1973-74	736
Gavaskar, SM	Ind	Eng	Edgbaston	caught	Knott, APE	Arnold, GG	1974	741
Naik, SS	Ind	WI	Calcutta	caught	Murray, DL	Roberts, AME	1974-75	750
Morrison, JFM	NZ	Eng	Christchurch	caught	Hendrick, M	Arnold, GG	1974-75	758
Mohsin Khan	Pak	Ind	Jullundur	lbw		Kapil Dev	1983-84	962
Gavaskar, SM	Ind	WI	Calcutta	caught	Dujon, PJL	Marshall, MD	1983-84	971
Gavaskar, SM	Ind	Pak	Jaipur	caught	Javed Miandad	Imran Khan	1986-87	1069
Raman, WV	Ind	NZ	Napier	lbw		Hadlee, RJ	1989-90	1138
Cook, SJ	SA	Ind	Kingsmead	caught	Tendulkar, SR	Kapil Dev, N	1992-93	1200
Kirsten, G	SA	WI	Cape Town	caught	Jacobs, RD	Ambrose, CEL	1998-99	1440
Jayasuriya, ST	SL	Aus	Galle	caught	Waugh, ME	McGrath, GD	1999	1460
Garrick, LV	WI	SA	Kingston	caught	Pollock, SM	Donald, AA	2000-01	1544
Das, SS	Ind	WI	Bridgetown	bowled		Dillon, M	2001-02	1601
Hannan Sarkar	BD	WI	Dhaka	bowled		Collins, PT	2002-03	1630
Hannan Sarkar	BD	WI	Gros Islet	lbw		Collins, PT	2004	1701
Hannan Sarkar	BD	WI	Kingston	lbw		Collins, PT	2004	1703
Wasim Jaffer	Ind	BD	Chittagong	bowled		Mortaza, M	2007	1832

Jaffer’s dismissal of the third ball he faced in the second innings saved him from the ignominy of recording a king pair. His double ducks in the match provides the 446^th occasion of a batsman recording a pair.a

Making their maiden test appearances Saqibul Hasan became the 47th cricketer to represent Bangladesh and Ramesh Powar became the 257th cricketer to represent India. As many as 2,485 cricketers have now played in test cricket in 1,832 matches.