Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Test #1833 & #1834 Records : Thumping Victories for India & England

A victory by an innings and 239 runs by India against Bangladesh at Mirpur and another thumping win by an innings and 283 runs by England against West Indies at Leeds with both matches concluding in less than nine sessions should give an indication of how vast a gulf that existed between the two sides in each of these two tests which started on the same day. Both these victories or defeats depending on from whose side are you looking at figure among the top sixteen test margins by which a result was decided.

Test #1833 India in Bangladesh 2007(2nd Test) at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

It was clearly evident at Mirpur that Bangladesh is still miles behind to be able to put up a descent show in a test match on all five days and need to work a lot to become a really competitive and consistent test side. Their young talent can always come up on top of any side in the world on a day or two but to sustain the fight in a test match for a longer duration they certainly need a lot more than the youthful exuberance and flamboyance. No doubt they have good bowlers, excellent fielders and exciting batsmen, but they keep falling in packs quite frequently. Hardly can two or three of their batsmen bat longer than a couple of sessions and very rarely a batsman stays longer at the wicket to accumulate a century or let the batsman at the other end hit a century. Till such time at least two or three of their batsmen shows some consistency and staying power at the wicket, the brilliance of the likes of Ashrafuls, Rafiques and Mortazas will inevitably be wasted.

Just consider the fact that there have been just twelve centuries hit by their batmen in their seven years of test history during which they played 46 tests. In its 46 test match history only Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful with three centuries apiece have hit more than one century in a test career. Except for once never in an innings two batsmen could reach a hundred run mark. I strongly believe till two of their batsmen can hit a hundred in the same test innings more frequently, at least on flat batting tracks like the one at Mirpur, Bangladesh need not be considered as a worthy opponent by any team. Even though they put up a great show on one day of a test match any current test playing nation can come back and win from any situation like Australia did at Fatullah last year. The last time two of their batmen hit a hundred in the same innings they ended up claiming a first innings lead against a full fledged West Indian team that was captained by Lara and included Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul and Ridley Jacobs in their batting lineup. Bangladesh ended up setting up a target and forced West Indies to play out for a draw at Gros Islet in 2004.

It seems to me that Bangladesh will need to contend with some consolation victories and an occasional upset in ODIs against major teams till they change their psyche and realize that they need to approach different forms of the game in different ways to register a victory or for that matter even a creditable draw in the five day game against any test playing nation without having any intervention from rain gods.

Currently they look capable of beating a test side just from Zimbabwe and as if to prove that point their only test victory till date out of the 46 tests they played since attaining the test status in 2000, was achieved against a depleted Zimbabwe test side in 2004-05 at Chittagong. Of course, the fortunes of Zimbabwe cricket were just started to go downhill very fast at that time and within eight months they were stripped of their test status. In remaining 45 tests Bangladesh could draw just five tests including the first test of the current series. Rain played a major role on more than one occasion in all those matches.

With Whatmore leaving the Bangladesh’s national team, Captain Habibul Bashar’ position too being in jeopardy and their most experienced batsman Javed Omar registering a very rare King Pair, Bangladesh needs to find ways to achieve mental toughness to stay and fight with a strong will to succeed to keep up their test status, otherwise ICC might give them a break from test cricket like they did to Zimbabwe.

Their performance against their neighbors within a couple of months of being on top of the world with two remarkable wins in ICC World Cup was not only a very disappointing one for their home crowds but also a wake up call for the ICC while considering to grant test status to other teams like Ireland. The kind of pathetic displays they put up in both forms of the game against the same team that they embarrassed, humiliated and sent packing prior to the second round in the World Cup leaves more doubts in the minds of those who thought at last the Tigers have come out of their wilderness.

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

By hitting a century each Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in a mammoth India’s first innings total of 610/3 decl have provided the first instance of top four batsmen(no.1,no.2, no.3 & no.4) hitting a century in an innings of a test match. There are only five other instances of top three batsmen (no.1,no.2 & no.3) hitting a hundred in a test innings, the first of which occurred in 1924 in the 2nd test between England and South Africa at Lord’s. Following is the list that provides the details of all those occasions along with the latest record.

Top Order Batsmen with Hundreds

Team Total

For

Vs

Venue

Series

Test Seq

JB Hobbs(211),H Sutcliffe(122) & FE Woolley(134*

531/2 decl

Eng

SA

Lord's

1924

T0154

CC McDonald(110),AR Morris(111) & RN Harvey(133)

600/9 decl

Aus

WI

Port of Spain

1954/55

T0404

WM Lawry(210),RB Simpson(201) & RM Cowper(102)

650/6 decl

Aus

WI

Bridgetown

1964/65

T0589

SM Gavaskar(172),K Srikkanth(116) & M Amarnath(138)

600/4 decl

Ind

Aus

Sydney

1985/86

T1034

MA Taylor(111),MJ Slater(152) & DC Boon(164*)

632/4 decl

Aus

Eng

Lord's

1993

T1224

HH Gibbs(147),G Kirsten(220) & JH Kallis(157*)

600/3 decl

SA

Zim

Harare

2001/02

T1562

MH Richardson(145),L Vincent(106) & SB Styris(119)

630/6 decl

NZ

Ind

Mohali

2003/04

T1662

KD Karthik(129),W Jaffer(138+), R Dravid(129) & SR Tendulkar(122*)

610/3 decl

Ind

BD

Mirpur

2007

T1833


Rahul Dravid with his 65th century stand in 109 tests eclipsed Steve Waugh’s record for most number of century stands in test cricket. Following is the list of all batsmen who have figured in at least 50 century stands in a test career

No of Century Stands

Batsman

For

Tests

Inns

Frequency of Partnership

65

R Dravid

Ind

109

232

1.67

64

SR Waugh

Aus

168

260

2.62

63

AR Border

Aus

156

265

2.47

62

BC Lara

WI

131

232

2.11

61

RT Ponting

Aus

110

183

1.8

60

SR Tendulkar

Ind

137

220

2.28

58

SM Gavaskar

Ind

125

214

2.15

50

Javed Miandad

Pak

124

189

2.48


Javed Omar with a first ball duck in both innings joined eleven other cricketers to have registered a ‘King Pair’. By all probabilities Zaheer Khan may have became the first bowler in test history to have claimed a wicket with the first ball he bowled in each innings of a test match. It will be really a painstaking exercise to research those details, but we can safely say that he definitely is the first bowler to have taken the wicket of the same batsman with the first delivery of each innings. Following is the list of all instances of a ‘King Pair’ achieved in Test cricket:

Player

For

Test Series

Venue

Season

Test Seq

W Attewell

Eng

Lord Sheffield's XI in Australia 1891/92 (2nd Test)

Sydney Cricket Ground

1891/92

t0036

EG Hayes

Eng

Marylebone Cricket Club in South Africa 1905/06 (4th Test)

Newlands, Cape Town

1905/06

t0091

AEE Vogler

SA

South Africa in Australia 1910/11 (1st Test)

Sydney Cricket Ground

1910/11

t0111

Tommy Ward

SA

South Africa v Australia Triangular Tournament 1912 (1st Match)

Old Trafford, Manchester

1912

t0121

RJ Crisp

SA

Australia in South Africa 1935/36 (5th Test)

Kingsmead, Durban

1935/36

t0251

Colin Wesley

SA

South Africa in England 1960 (3rd Test)

Trent Bridge, Nottingham

1960

t0494

Gary Troup

NZ

India in New Zealand 1980/81 (1st Test)

Basin Reserve, Wellington

1980/81

t0897

Dave Richardson

SA

Pakistan in South Africa 1994/95 (Only Test)

New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

1994/95

t1283

Adam Huckle

Zim

Pakistan in Zimbabwe 1997/98 (2nd Test)

Harare Sports Club

1997/98

t1412

AB Agarkar

Ind

India in Australia 1999/00 (2nd Test)

Melbourne Cricket Ground

1999/00

t1479

AC Gilchrist

Aus

Australia in India 2000/01 (2nd Test)

Eden Gardens, Calcutta

2000/01

t1535

Javed Omar

BD

India in Bangladesh 2007 (2nd Test)

Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

2007

T1833


Note: Agarkar had a first ball duck in the innings he played in the test matches that preceded and succeeded the King Pair where as RJ Crisp may have registered a King Pair in the previous test that he played. Crisp had a first ball duck in the first innings of the 3rd test of the same series at Newlands, Cape town and the information about number of balls received in his second innings duck which lasted for just one minute is not available. Both Dave Richardson and Adam Gilchrist had hit a hundred in the test they played prior to registering the 'King Pair'.

During his second innings knock of 67 of 41 balls in 46 minutes Mohammad Ashraful raced to his fifty in just 27 minutes of 26 deliveries thus becoming the new record holder of scoring the fastest test fifty in terms of number of minutes taken in recorded history. However he missed an opportunity to eclipse the record for fastest fifty in terms of number of balls received by just 3 deliveries. Jacques Kallis’ 50 of 24 balls scored against Zimbabwe at Cape Town in 2004-05 still stands as the fastest fifty in test cricket for taking fewest deliveries.

It is to be noted that many test matches prior to record keeping of a batsman’s scores in terms of minutes and deliveries faced has become a norm may have had instances which might find a place among the list shown below. For example , Australia's Victor Trumper supposed to have taken just 22 mts for his fifty during his innings of 63 against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1902-03 which may have taken no less than 45 minutes but there is no substantial evidence for it and hence is not figured in the list of fastest fifties.

Fastest Fifties in terms of No. of Minutes batted


27 mts

Mohammad Ashraful

Bangladesh v India

Dhaka (SBNS)

2007

28 mts

JT Brown

England v Australia

Melbourne

1894-95

29 mts

SA Durani

India v England

Kanpur

1963-64

30 mts

EAV Williams

West Indies v England

Bridgetown

1947-48

30 mts

BR Taylor

New Zealand v West Indies

Auckland

1968-69

Fastest Fifties in terms of No. of balls faced



24 balls

JH Kallis

South Africa v Zimbabwe

Cape Town

2004-05

26 balls

IT Botham

England v India

Delhi

1981-82

26 balls

Shahid Afridi

Pakistan v India

Bangalore

2004-05

26 Balls

Mohammad Ashraful

Bangladesh v India

Dhaka (SBNS)

2007

27 balls

Yousuf Youhana

Pakistan v South Africa

Cape Town

2002-03

30 balls

Kapil Dev

India v Pakistan

Karachi

1982-83

NOTE : The number of deliveries that Ian Botham took for his has been has been now revised to 28. Wisden 2006 adds a note in the list of fastest 50s (p.223) - Botham was previously said to have reached his 50 v India in 26 balls but recent research suggests that this omits two no balls.

India's first-innings lead of 492 and its margin of victory by an innings and 239 runs are both their highest ever in Tests erasing the previous best of 400 run first innings lead and an innings and 219 run victory attained in the same test match, against Australia Kolkata in 1997-98.

Anil Kumble’s 549th victim was also his 138th lbw victim. When he dismissed Mohammad Sharif in Bangladesh’s first innings, he equaled Shane Warne’s record for most number of lbw victims in a Test career. Kumble did not get another lbw victim in the match though he took 3 more wickets to take his tally of wickets in test cricket to 552 from 115 tests @ 28.58. He now becomes the fourth bowler in test history to reach the 550 wicket milestone.

Player

Country

Career

Tests

Overs

Mdns

Runs

Wkts

Avg

Best

5w

10w

Warne, S K

Australia

1992-2007

145

6784.1

1762

17995

708

25.42

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

1993-2007

124

4874.4

1470

12186

563

21.64

8/24

29

3

Kumble, A *

India

1990-

115

5973.2

1438

15779

552

28.59

10/74

33

8


Indian batsmen survived the first day of the test match without losing a single wicket though four of their batsmen came to the crease as both the openers Karthik and Jaffer retired ill. This provides the 16th occasion of same side batting a completed day’s play without losing a wicket. And only 4th time it happened on the first day of a test match.

Last year Virendra Sewhag and Rahul Dravid batted out entire fourth day against Pakistan at Lahore. They added 258runs on the fourth day in a 410-run opening stand on a day ended 15 overs short of allotted 90 overs because of bad light . So that can not strictly figure among the instances of same pair batting through out a completed day’s play like the one that Dravid shared in a partnership with VVS Laxman in that famous 2001-02 test at Kolkata, during which the pair batted out the entire on fourth day adding 335.

There are three more instances of an unrestricted day's play (except for couple of overs for bad light at the end of the day) end without a singe wicket falling that included more than two batsmen.

1. Against WI in 1978/79 series at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, Gavaskar and Vengsarkar have started the 4th day at 70/1 and took it to 361/1 before declaring the innings. Then SFA Bacchus & David Murray opened the batting for WI and ended the day at 15/0.

2. On the second against Australia in 1998/99 series at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica Brian Lara & Pedro Collins have started the day at 37/4(14.3 Overs). Pedro Collins was retired hurt when the score reached 56/4 (23.1Overs). JC Adams then came into bat and both he and Lara took the score to 377/4 (105 overs).

3. On the 5th and final day of 3rd test between India and Australia in 1986/87 series , Ravi Shastri & Dilip Vengsarkar started the day at 291/5 and took the score to 517/5 before India declared the innings closed. Australia started their innings with Geoff Marsh (2*) & David Boon (5*) and batted till the end of the day without losing a wicket (9/0).

Following is the list of all instances of same pair batting through an entire day’s play:

Player 1

Player 1

For

Vs

Venue

Series

Day

Score Progress

Test Seq#

JB Hobbs

H Sutcliffe

Eng

Aus

Melbourne

1924/25

3rd

283/0

t0159

*DS Atkinson

+CC Depeiaza

WI

Aus

Bridgetown

1954/55

4th

187/6 to 494/6

t0406

MH Mankad

P Roy

Ind

NZ

Madras

1955/56

1st

234/0

t0420

CC Hunte

GS Sobers

WI

Pak

Kingston

1957/58

3rd

147/1 to 504/1

t0450

GS Sobers

FMM Worrell

WI

Eng

Bridgetown

1959/60

5th

279/3 to 486/3

t0485

WM Lawry

*RB Simpson

Aus

WI

Bridgetown

1964/65

1st

263/0

t0589

GR Viswanath

Yashpal Sharma

Ind

Eng

Madras

1981/82

2nd

178/2 to 395/2

t0918

AP Gurusinha

A Ranatunga

SL

Pak

Colombo(PSS)

1985/86

5th

83/3 t 323/3

t1043

GR Marsh

MA Taylor

Aus

Eng

Trent Bridge

1989

1st

301/0

t1125

ST Jayasuriya

RS Mahanama

SL

Ind

Colombo(RPS)

1997

3rd

39/1 to 322/1

t1374

ST Jayasuriya

RS Mahanama

SL

Ind

Colnmbo(RPS)

1997

4th

322/1 to 587/1

t1374

VVS Laxman

RS Dravid

Ind

Aus

Calcutta

2000/01

4th

254/4 to 589/4

t1535

JA Rudolph

HH Dippenaar

SA

BD

Chittagong

2003

2nd

84/2 to 364/2

t1640

+KC Sangakkara

*DPMD Jayawardene

SL

SA

Colombo(SSC)

2006

2nd

128/2 to 485/2

t1810


Less than a week after West Indies saw England snatch the initiative by scoring 553/5 decl after put into to bat by Ramnaresh Sarwan, Habibul Bashar suffered even worse fate at the hands of Indian top order by inviting India to bat first after winning the toss. His bowlers could not even take a single wicket on the opening day as India lost just three wickets on their way to a mammoth total of 610/3 decl. This provides the ninth instance of a team piling up a total of 600 or more runs after being put into bat first by the Toss winning Captain. Following is the list of all such occasions.

Totals

Toss Winning Captain

For

Vs

Venue

Series

Result

Test Seq

735-6d

HH Streak

Zim

Aus

Perth

2003-04

Aus by Inns & 175 runs

T1661

653-4d

M Azharuddin

Ind

Eng

Lord's

1990

Eng by 247 runs

T1148

621-5d

DJ Nash

NZ

SA

Auckland

1998-99

Match Drawn

T1446

619

GS Sobers

WI

Aus

Sydney

1968-69

Aus by 382 runs

T0646

610/3 d

Habibul Bashar

BD

Ind

Mirpur

2007

Ind by Inns & 239 runs

T1833

605-9d

BC Lara

WI

Aus

Bridgetown

2002-03

Aus by 9 wkts

T1643

604-6d

BC Lara

WI

SA

Pretoria

2003-04

SA by 10 wkts

T1682

601-7d

DI Gower

Eng

Aus

Leeds

1989

Aus by 210 runs

T1121

601-8d

L Hutton

Eng

Aus

Brisbane

1954-55

Aus by Inns & 154 runs

T0391


Last but not least, though Sachin Tendulkar while reaching his 37th hundred did not produce the flourish and flamboyance that fetched him most of his previous centuries, he did extend the record for most number of centuries in a test career and will continue to do so till Ricky Ponting catches him, which I reckon will not happen at least this year.


Test #1834 West Indies in England 2007 (2nd Test) at Headingley, Leeds.

What a difference the absence of two of the side’s best and consistent batsmen makes? West Indies’ batting woes resurfaced within a week of salvaging a well earned draw at Lord’s in the first test. Shivnarine Chanderpaul had to miss the second test at Leeds and skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan suffered a tour ending injury after crashing to the fence and injuring his shoulder while fielding. Added to that Michael Vaughan playing his first test in eighteen months played a superb innings and announced his return to test cricket with a scintillating hundred. Both Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior resumed their batting form from where they left off in the first test. On top of those sterling batting deeds Ryan Sidebottom, recalled to the test side after a long gap of six years and missing 78 tests during the period delivered crushing blows in both innings to leave West Indies innings in an utter misery. And as a bonus Steve Harmison too recovered some of his lost confidence and bowling rhythm with a late burst of three wickets to mop up the West Indian tail in the second innings to finish the test match.

It was really an awful batting display by West Indies in both innings on a flat batting track on which England piled up a massive total of 570/7 decl during the first two days of the test match. Their batsmen all combined failed to reach Pietersen’s majestic 226 in either of the innings falling short of 80 runs in the first and 85 runs in the second. Their combined total of 287 in two innings (146 & 141) was still 42 runs in arrears of combined total of 329 by Michael Vaughan(103) and Kevin Pietersen(226) in just one innings. Barring Bravo who remained not out with the only fifty scored by a West Indian player none of the their batsmen could score more than 26 runs in either of the innings.

It puts into contest how big Pietersen’s double hundred was. It was one of the biggest and best aggressive innings played by an English batsman in recent times. At last he past his previous highest score of 158 in tests and has broken the hoodoo of getting dismissed on that score which he did thrice. Pietersen after 25 tests now has 2448 runs @ 54.40 with 8 hundreds. He has already aggregated more runs and hundreds than any of the illustrious batting triumvirate of Tendulkar, Lara and Ponting did at that stage of their career. Looking at the following table one thing is very clear that we need to predict only when he will be surpassing the records set by the three batting greats and need not worry about whether he will do it.

Name

Tests

Inns

NO

Runs

HS

Avg

100s

50s

0s

Kevin Pietersen

25

47

2

2448

226

54.40

8

9

2

Ricky Ponting

25

40

3

1473

127

39.81

3

8

0

Sachin Tendulkar

25

37

3

1522

165

44.76

5

8

3

Brian Lara

25

41

1

2283

375

57.07

4

13

2


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

No wonder the absence of captain in both innings of a test match resulted in a heavy defeat for West Indies. Historically no side could win or draw a test match when a batsman was absent hurt/ absent ill in both the innings of a test match.

Batsman Absent

For

Vs

Venue

Series

Test Seq

WH Lockwood

Eng

Aus

Sydney(4th)

1894-95

t0045

GL Jessop

Eng

Aus

Leeds

1909

t0103

JW Hearne

Eng

Aus

Melbourne(2nd)

1920-21

t0136

JB Hobbs

Eng

Aus

Leeds

1921

t0142

JM Gregory

Aus

Eng

Brisbane

1928-29

t0176

EL Bartlett

WI

Aus

Sydney(2nd)

1930-31

t0201

DG Bradman

Aus

Eng

The Oval

1938

t0266

JWH Fingleton

Aus

Eng

The Oval

1938

t0266

JA Hayes

NZ

Ind

Madras

1955-56

t0420

JDC Goddard

WI

Eng

The Oval

1957

t0443

NC O'Neill

Aus

Ind

Bombay

1964-65

t0567

LG Rowe

WI

Aus

Port-of-Spain(3rd)

1972-73

t0718

D Ganga

WI

NZ

Wellington

1999-00

t1478

SP Jones

Eng

Aus

Brisbane

2002-03

t1623

RR Sarwan

WI

Eng

Leeds

2007

t1834


This statistic becomes far more worse when the captain himself fails to appear for batting in both the innings. The three tests that had the captains absent hurt resulted in thumping wins for the opposition. The 1938 Oval test which had the skipper Don Bradman along with another main batsman Jack Fingleton absent hurt resulted in the biggest victory margin in test cricket, innings and 579 runs for England. Jon Goddard’s absence in 1957 at the same venue resulted in an innings and 237 runs defeat for West Indies whereas Sarwan’s inability to bat in both the innings of the recently concluded Leeds test resulted in another crushing defeat for the Caribbeans by an innings and 283 runs. All three of these results figure among the top 34 innings defeats margins (200 runs or more) as shown in the list below.

Win

Margin

Los

Venue

Series

Inn1



Inn2


Inn3


Eng

Inn. & 579 runs

Aus

The Oval

1938

Eng

903

7

Aus

201

Aus

123

Aus

Inn. & 360 runs

SA

Wanderers

2001-02

Aus

652

7

SA

159

SA

133

WI

Inn. & 336 runs

Ind

Calcutta

1958-59

WI

614

5

Ind

124

Ind

154

Aus

Inn. & 332 runs

Eng

Brisbane

1946-47

Aus

645


Eng

141

Eng

172

Pak

Inn. & 324 runs

NZ

Lahore (Gaddafi)

2001-02

Pak

643


NZ

73

NZ

246

WI

Inn. & 322 runs

NZ

Wellington

1994-95

WI

660

5

NZ

216

NZ

122

WI

Inn. & 310 runs

Ban

Dhaka

2002-03

Ban

139


WI

536

Ban

87

NZ

Inn. & 294 runs

Zim

Harare

2005

NZ

452

9

Zim

59

Zim

99

Eng

Inn. & 285 runs

Ind

Lord's

1974

Eng

629


Ind

302

Ind

42

Eng

Inn. & 283 runs

WI

Headingley

2007

Eng

570

7

WI

146

WI

141

Pak

Inn. & 264 runs

Ban

Multan (CS)

2001-02

Ban

134


Pak

546

Ban

148

Eng

Inn. & 261 runs

Ban

Lord's

2005

Ban

108


Eng

528

Ban

159

Aus

Inn. & 259 runs

SA

Port Elizabeth

1949-50

Aus

549

7

SA

158

SA

132

SL

Inn. & 254 runs

Zim

Bulawayo (QSC)

2003-04

Zim

228


SL

713

Zim

231

SL

Inn. & 240 runs

Zim

Harare

2003-04

Zim

199


SL

541

Zim

102

Ind

Inn. & 239 runs

Ban

Mirpur

2007

Ind

610

3

Ban

118

Ban

253

Eng

Inn. & 237 runs

WI

The Oval

1957

Eng

412


WI

89

WI

86

Eng

Inn. & 230 runs

Aus

Adelaide

1891-92

Eng

499


Aus

100

Aus

169

SA

Inn. & 229 runs

SL

Cape Town

2000-01

SL

95


SA

504

SL

180

Aus

Inn. & 226 runs

Ind

Brisbane

1947-48

Aus

382

8

Ind

58

Ind

98

WI

Inn. & 226 runs

Eng

Lord's

1973

WI

652

8

Eng

233

Eng

193

Eng

Inn. & 225 runs

Aus

Melbourne

1911-12

Aus

191


Eng

589

Aus

173

Aus

Inn. & 222 runs

NZ

Hobart

1993-94

Aus

544

6

NZ

161

NZ

161

SA

Inn. & 219 runs

Zim

Harare

1999-00

Zim

102


SA

462

Zim

141

Ind

Inn. & 219 runs

Aus

Calcutta

1997-98

Aus

233


Ind

633

Aus

181

Aus

Inn. & 217 runs

WI

Brisbane (Ex)

1930-31

Aus

558


WI

193

WI

148

Eng

Inn. & 217 runs

Aus

The Oval

1886

Eng

434


Aus

68

Aus

149

SL

Inn. & 215 runs

Eng

Colombo (SSC)

2003-04

Eng

265


SL

628

Eng

148

Eng

Inn. & 215 runs

NZ

Auckland

1962-63

Eng

562

7

NZ

258

NZ

89

Eng

Inn. & 209 runs

Zim

Lord's

2000

Zim

83


Eng

415

Zim

123

SA

Inn. & 208 runs

SL

Colombo (SSC)

1993-94

SL

168


SA

495

SL

119

Eng

Inn. & 207 runs

Ind

Old Trafford

1952

Eng

347

9

Ind

58

Ind

82

Eng

Inn. & 202 runs

SA

Cape Town

1888-89

Eng

292


SA

47

SA

43

Aus

Inn. & 200 runs

Eng

Melbourne

1936-37

Aus

604


Eng

239

Eng

165


England’s Ryan Sidebottom after making his test debut against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2001 made his second test appearance thus moving out of the One Test Wonders Club after a gap of six years during which England played 78 tests. It is the third longest gap of a player appearing in a test after his maiden test appearance in terms of test matches missed. Brad Hogg of Australia too had similar kind of hiatus between his first two test appearances. Having made his debut against India at Delhi 1996-97, he waited for six long years before he could make his second appearance in tests against West Indies at Georgetown 2002-03.

The top two longest gaps between first and second test appearances belong to two players from England who ended their test careers with just two of those appearances. HL Jackson missed 96 tests in a twelve year gap between his debut at Manchester in 1949 against New Zealand and his final test at Leeds against Australia in 1961 whereas KV Andrew missed 79 tests between his first test at Brisbane in 1954-55 against Australia and his last test at Manchester in 1963 against West Indies.

West Indies now has more than ten days to recoup themselves and digest the fact that their captain is lost for the rest of the series. However they can expect Chanderpaul to return to the side in time for the 3rd test which will be starting at Manchester on June 7th. They also need to use their tour game against MCC at Durham in between or else the promise they have shown in the first test will not be materialized during this test series.


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