More on Test centuries in different innings

We first look at this chart of leading century-makers in Tests:

Most of the leading century makers such as Tendulkar, Kallis and Ponting have scored centuries in all 4 innings, though Steve Waugh made 32 centuries without any in the 4th innings. You can see that most of those in the above table did not do too well in the 3rd and 4th innings, though there are exceptions such as Sangakkara. Let us see if there are any who did equally well in all 4 innings. One has to go quite low down the table to find someone who scored one century in each innings (1111). The only such player was the South African Alan Melville. What is more odd is that these 4 centuries were in successive innings (though World War 2 intervened between the first and the second centuries)

You can see the full details here: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282968.html

When he returned to Test cricket in 1947 he scored centuries in both innings, then one more and no other century in his career. He thus equaled the record of 4 centuries in successive innings set by JH Fingleton. Soon afterwards, Weekes surpassed this with 5 and many years later Dravid also made 4 in successive innings.

If we go to those who scored 8 centuries, there is no one with an equitable 2222. The nearest approach would be by B Mitchell (SA) with 2321, CC Hunte 2312 and at a stretch DM Bravo (1331).

For those with 12 centuries, the closest are: AI Kallicharan (3531), AR Morris (5322), Ijaz Ahmed (3522) and JG Wright (4431). Also note Hanif Mohammad and JH Edrich with 4440.

16 centuries: H Sutcliffe (6433)

20 centuries: GA Gooch (7373), ME Waugh (7922), PA de Silva (5771)

24 centuries: GS Chappell (7-11-5-1), IVA Richards (8-10-4-2)

28 centuries: HM Amla (12-6-9-1)

32 centuries: AN Cook (8-10-12-2)

36 centuries: R Dravid is the only one, with a rather asymmetric 15-15-5-1.

KL Rahul’s short-lived record

For a short time between the second and third Tests in the current series, KL Rahul shared an obscure Test record with Ravi Bopara-they were the only batsmen to make 3 Test centuries with no fifty (i.e. no score between 50 and 99). As Rahul got out on 50, the record now goes back to Bopara. More details in my earlier post: https://wordpress.com/post/abn397.wordpress.com/2052

As we see, there are numerous players who scored one century and no fifty (including Agarkar and Ratra from India in recent years). A small number made two centuries and no fifties.

No one has scored 4 or more centuries with no fifties. The least number of fifties for the 4-century men is 3, shared by several including Shikhar  Dhawan, Kambli and  current players Dean Elgar and Usman Khawaja:

There is another statistical quirk which shows up whenever someone makes 163 or more runs on his debut (including both innings). The long-term record for the most runs in an one-Test career belongs to RE Redmond who made 107 + 56 = 163 in early 1973. Since then, over 20 players had scored over 163 runs on their debut and this held the record for the most runs in an one-test career (but only until they played their second Test). Another Kiwi JD Neesham was the last to hold this record, making 33 and 137* (170) on his debut against India in early 2014. But he soon played more Tests. Before that there was Rohit Sharma with 177 and Shikhar Dhawan with 187. Here is a list of the temporary record-holders who equalled or bettered Redmond’s record since 1973:

A few of these players, notably those from Pakistan, vanished from the scene almost as quickly as the hapless Rodney Redmond did. At least he had the satisfaction of seeing his son Aaron play 8 Tests, with two fifties and a top score of 81.

Summary statistics of T20 2016 World Championship

 

For 2016 alone:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=3;filter=advanced;orderby=matches;size=200;spanmin1=24+Feb+2016;spanval1=span;template=results;trophy=89;type=allround

For all matches in this World Championship since 2007:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=3;filter=advanced;orderby=matches;size=200;template=results;trophy=89;type=allround

Those who are familiar with Statsguru should be able to extract various parameters such as total runs, batting averages, strike rates etc. from the output of these links.

Another record for Brendon McCullum (Revised in Sep 2017)

As we all know, Brendon McCullum recorded the fastest ever Test century in the Christchurch Test when he crossed 100 in 54 balls.

He also became the only Test player to score a century in the last test of his career, while captaining his country. This is what you get from Statsguru:

Naturally, Smith can be discounted as we know he has not retired. So McCullum is the only one who qualifies.

This seemed a bit odd, so I repeated this check to identify those who scored a fifty in the last test of their career, while captaining their side. We get this:

This live link may be more useful: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?captain=1;class=1;debut_or_last=2;filter=advanced;opposition=1;opposition=2;opposition=25;opposition=3;opposition=4;opposition=5;opposition=6;opposition=7;opposition=8;opposition=9;orderby=start;qualmin1=1;qualval1=fifty_plus;team=1;team=2;team=25;team=3;team=4;team=5;team=6;team=7;team=8;team=9;template=results;type=batting

As many as 34 names here. But it includes some whose Test careers are not over, essentially everyone from Mushfiqur Rahim downwards excluding McCullum and now Misbah. So we remove Mushfiqur, Kohli, Mathews, AN Cook and SPD Smith.

So we are left with 29 who scored a fifty in their last Test when they were captaining. In some cases their retirement was known in advance, in other cases they may not have known they were playing their last Test.

McCullum has scored the most runs in the match (170) among these, though a few others have crossed 100 without making a century. The WI player RK Nunes is the only one to score two fifties in this category.

We may as well see the list of all those who scored centuries in the last Test of their career, regardless of captaincy:

This live link may be more useful: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282931.html

Here we have a total of 42. We remove current players who are likely to keep playing for a while: Hafeez, Rahane, SE Marsh, Amla, SC Cook, de Kock, Burns and SPD Smith. This leaves 34 who scored centuries in their last Test (unless McCullum makes a comeback). In contrast, 100 players scored 102 centuries on debut (Remember Rowe and Yaseer Hameed).

Naturally our old friends AG Ganteaume and RE Redmond are there, as their first and last Tests were the same. Others who scored centuries on debut and last Tests are Duff (104 & 146), Ponsford (110 & 266), Greg Chappell (108 & 182) and Azharuddin (110 & 102). In case SE Marsh does not play another Test he will also join this club with 141 & 182.

Centuries in their last Test include those by Sandham (325, the first Test triple century) and double centuries by Ponsford, Nurse, Aravinda de Silva (last f-c match) and (strangest of all) night-watchman Gillespie making his only Test century.

CAG Russell is the only one to score centuries in both innings of his last Test. He was the first English player to score centuries in both innings of a Test.

Cricket odds and ends-symmetrical careers

Symmetry in wins, losses and draws:

So far we have seen lists of Test players with “unsymmetrical” careers-either the dominance or absence of wins, losses and draws. But there are a few cases where the players ended their career with exactly the same number of wins, draws and losses:

TBA May (Aus):      8 wins, 8 losses and 8 draws.

Akram Raza (Pak): 3, 3 and 3.

JM Wiener (Aus):    2, 2 and 2.

And there were some who ended up with almost similar numbers of wins, losses and draws:

NJ Astle (NZ):          81 (27 wins, 28 losses, 26 draws)

EH Hendren (Eng):  51 (16, 18, 17)

FMM Worrell (WI):   51 (18, 17, 16)

ED Weekes (WI):     48 (16, 15, 17)

N Kulashekara (SL): 21 (7,6,8)

Symmetry and asymmetry in centuries in particular innings

You would expect that all leading batsmen (say with 20 or more centuries) would have scored centuries in all 4 innings. But there are some exceptions:

SR Waugh (Aus):      32 (No 4th)

M. Yousuf (Pak):       24 (No 4th)

V Sehwag (Ind):        23 (No 4th)

IR Bell (Eng):            22 (No 4th)

MC Cowdrey (Eng):  22 (No 4th)

DC Boon (Aus):        21 (No 4th)

G Kirsten (SA):         21 (No 4th)

DC Boon (Aus):        21 (No 4th)

Some other odd cases:

H Masakadza (Zim) and A Melville (SA) each scored 4 centuries, with one in each innings.

Melville was the first to score 4 Test centuries in consecutive innings-though World War 2 came in between the first and second century.

AF Rae (WI) and Wasim Raja (Pak) each scored all their 4 centuries in the 1st innings

MJ Horne (NZ) and RT Simpson (Eng) each scored all their 4 centuries in the 2nd innings

Cricket odds and ends-1

(From 2015 and not updated)

Normal service seems to have resumed at Lord’s, complete with attritional batting by England. Here are a few odds and ends from Test cricket: (These do not include the current Test at Lord’s, or the Aus v ICC XI Test in 2005).

Most runs by a player who never scored 300:

15921 by SR Tendulkar (HS 248*)

13278 by RT Ponting (HS 257)

13265 by RS Dravid (HS 270)

Most runs by a player who never scored 200:

8463 by AJ Stewart (HS 190)

8029 by ME Waugh (HS 153*)

7728 by MA Atherton (HS 185)

Most runs by a player who never scored 100:

3142 by SK Warne (HS 99)

2084 by CPS Chauhan (HS 97)

1993 by DL Murray (HS 91)

Most runs by a player who never scored 50:

1010 by Waqar Younis (HS 45)

981 by FS Trueman (HS 39*)

940 by CS McDermott (HS 42*)

Most runs by a player who never scored double figures:

45 by BJ Arnel (HS 8*)

34 by M Mbangwa (HS 8)

31 by Arshad Khan (HS 9*)

31 by GB Studd (HS 9)

Now the converse of these:

Least runs by a player who scored a triple century:

879 by A Sandham (HS 325)

2047 by LG Rowe (HS 302)

2061 by RM Cowper (HS 307)

Least runs by a player who scored a double century:

320 by DBSP Kuruppu (HS 201*)

501 by Taslim Arif (HS 210*)

503 by BJ Hodge (HS 203*)

Least runs by a player who scored a century:

112 by AG Ganteaume (HS 112)

130 by KL Rahul (HS 110)

144 by W Place (HS 107)

Least runs by a player who scored a fifty:

51 by HM McGirr (HS 51)

52 by KL Wishart (HS 52)

54 by SG Law (HS 54*)

Least runs by a player who scored double figures:

10 by several players

More of “Make mine a double”

As we have seen, only three batsmen have made their maiden Test century a triple century. There are many more whose maiden century was a double century. Fortunately this topic was recently mentioned in Steven Lynch’s Cricinfo column. Here is the list (as of May 2015):

A long list of 35 players, indeed. But there are many subtleties involved. In some cases the double century was the only Test century the player made. And a few of these double centuries were made on debut. In two cases the double century on debut was the only century by that player. We take a further look at the above table.

When we have a list of centuries made by each player, we can further analyze how these maiden centuries were significant. The tables below give some comments for each of the above players, bringing out some relatively rare occurrences: