Most runs conceded on debut

At the end of the Pakistan-England Test at Rawalpindi, a few new records were set for the most runs conceded.

We first look at Most runs conceded in an innings on debut:

Zahid Mahmood now holds this unwanted record, which he took over from S Randiv of Sri Lanka who had done this against India in 2010

Also the Most runs conceded in an innings:

The record still remains with LO Fleetwood-Smith of Australia against England in 1938 (which included a score of 903/7 with 364 by Hutton). Zahid Mahmood is 9th on this list.

Not sure how long he will play for Pakistan. See this:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/zahid-mahmood-433614

Now let us see about Most runs conceded in a match on debut:

Here, Zahid Mahmood is second only to JJ Krezja, who took 12-358 (8-215 and 4-143) against India in 2008. This was not an auspicious beginning as he played only one more Test after this.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/jason-krejza-6235

As for Most runs conceded in a match:

This is headed by OC Scott’s 9-374 against England in 1930. This included 5-266 (in 849) and 4-108 (in 272/9 dec).

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/tommy-scott-52925

Krezja is 2nd, and Zahid Mahmood 3rd in this overall list.

Mahmood took 4-235 (in 657) and 2-84 in (264/7 dec).

Century on debut and never again (May 2021)

Scoring a century on Test debut is not as difficult as one may think. As many as 108 players have scored 110 centuries on their Test debut, including LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed who scored centuries in both innings.

There are several who failed to score a century after their debut. The full list (up to 15/05/2021) is given below.

Players can drop off this list (as Fawad Alam did after over 11 years). Some current players (from PP Shaw downwards) can be reasonably expected to score another century sooner or later.

The most Tests played here are 25 by Yasir Hameed and 24 by L Amarnath. The latter was an useful bowler and a relatively better captain (by Indian standards of those days).

The most 50s scored after debut are 8 by Yasir Hameed and 7 by SK Raina. The latter was more successful in limited-overs matches, and was one of the first to score a century in a T20I.

Now we look at those who never crossed 50 after their debut.

Ganteaume played in only one innings. RE Redmond is not here as he scored a century and a fifty in his only Test.

The most Tests played among these players are 12 by van Zyl and 10 by DR Smith.

Fawad Alam (again!) got off this list after over 11 years.

There do not seem to be any current players here.

More about the Test debutants of 2019

Hope that you have read this:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2020/01/09/the-test-debutants-of-2019/

Another point of interest is to compare the number of debutants and the number of Tests played by a team. These are summarized below:

You can see that:

New teams (Afg, Ire) are just starting out and need to try out more players.

Australia, Bangladesh and India did not need that many new players.

Among the major teams, South Africa was the most unsettled, introducing 8 new players in 8 Tests giving  a ratio of 1.000. Next are Pakistan and West Indies each with 4 new players in 6 Tests (0.667).

Next are England (0.500), Sri Lanka (0.375), New Zealand (0.250).

The Test debutants of 2019

Good performances by those who made their Test debut in 2019:

Batting:

40 or more in an innings:

One century was made by Pakistan’s Abid Ali. He scored another century in his second Test.

The next highest was by I Zadran of Afghanistan.

DJ Mitchell did not play in the Aus-NZ series which followed his debut.

van der Dussen scored another fifty (68) in his second Test. He had also done well in the World Cup before his Test debut.

Muthusamy played only 2 Tests and does not seem to be in the running now.

80 or more in the match:

Zadran also scored over a hundred on debut. Muthusamy scored 82 without being dismissed.

Bowling:

4 or more wickets in an innings:

Embuldeniya has added a 4-for to his 5-for on debut.

Linde has not played in a Test after his debut.

Amir Hamza’s team has not played a Test after his debut. He also made 34.

6 or more wickets in a match:

While JA Richardson (with the curious forename of Jhye) did well on debut, he was not considered for Australia’s Tests later in the year. He is a regular for 20 and 50 over cricket.

Embuldeniya is now a regular, while Adair and Hamza await their side’s infrequent Tests.

Fielding:

3 dismissals in an innings:

Not much heard about them, although Klaasen had been a regular in 20 and 50 over cricket.

5 dismissals in an match:

Alikhil still awaits another Test for Afghanistan, and has played in 50-over cricket.

Patterson also scored a century in his second Test, but does not find a place in the current Australian side.

All-round:

40 runs and 4 wickets:

Only Linde, who is not in the current SA team.

30 runs and 3 dismissals:

I Zadran did well as a fielder, although Patterson may not add to his 2 Tests for a while.

The most promising of the newcomers seem to be Abid Ali, van der Dussen, Embuldeniya and Amir Hamza. Others have not done much, particularly as some teams have limited opportunities.

 

 

 

Ten wickets on Test debut

We have earlier seen that as many as 105 players have scored a century on Test debut. 40 of them never scored a century again, and 19 did not even score a fifty again.

We follow the same theme here with the feat of 10 wickets in the match on debut (Fivers on debut will be dealt with separately).

Ten-wicket hauls on debut are far rarer than centuries on debut-since there are only 15 such instances up to 30 Sep 2019.

The column “Inngs” indicates the breakup of wickets in the innings – for example F Martin took 6 wickets in each innings. Clearly it is possible to take 10 wickets with only one fiver, as in the case of Bedser (7 and 4) or Valentine (8 and 3).

Hirwani (16-136) just edged out Massie’s record of 16-137. These remain the best match figures for India and Australia. The only better Test figures are 19-90 by Laker and 17-159 by SF Barnes. The only other 16-wicket haul is by Muralitharan (16-220).

From the last three columns we can see that CS Marriott played only one Test, and Martin, Burke and Krezja only two.

The more durable ones were Bedser (51 Tests), Grimmett (37)  and Valentine (36).

And that 11 of these 15 (i.e. all except Richardson (4), Grimmett (7), Bedser (5) and Valentine (2) ) did not ever take a ten-wicket haul again. They are listed here:

The most durable among these were JK Lever (21 Tests), Hirwani (17) and Farnes (15). Farnes was one of the casualties of WW2. Lever remains the only one to take ten wickets and score a fifty on debut. He did not score a fifty again.

And these 7 players never even took a fiver after their debut:

Massie survived the longest with 6 Tests, followed by Zahid with 5.

Two fifties on debut

Centuries on debut are well documented. Here we look at those who made two fifties (between 50 and 99) on debut, and then those who scored two scores of 50+ on debut.

Fakhar Zaman with 160 runs is in joint second place here with Clive Lloyd while the list is headed by the lesser-known Bruce Laird.

Gavaskar and Dilawar represent India, while there are current and near-current players such as Tamim Iqbal, Chandimal, Henriques and Pietersen.

GC Grant is the only one with two unbeaten fifties on debut.

There are, of course, numerous cases of one fifty and one hundred on debut, and even two cases of two hundreds on debut (LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed).

Here are the complete list of those who scored two scores of 50+ on debut.

Azhar Mahmood is the only one with an unbeaten 100 and an unbeaten 50.

Alastair Cook’s career-1

In the next few days, much will be written about Alastair Cook’s career and records. Here, we look back at his Test debut which was against India in 2006:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/14681/scorecard/239025/india-vs-england-1st-test-england-tour-of-india-2005-06

Other debutants included Monty Panesar and S. Sreesanth, who remained in the headlines one way or another for a period almost as long as Cook’s career.

Cook is one of a handful of players to have scored two fifties on Test debut. This is somewhat rarer than scoring a century on debut.

While some on this list are counted among the all-time greats, others did not have much of a career and are completely forgotten.

Best innings fielding on Test debut

This is being written in the middle of the 3rd Eng v Ind Test.

These figures may have concerned the player’s first or second innings as  a fielder.

Note the only non-keeper Yajurvindra Singh, who took as many catches as Rishabh Pant.

He had a short career of 4 Tests, as did Maclean.

Emery played only one Test, as he had the misfortune to play in the Healy era.

Performances in maiden Tests of teams (June 2018)

With Ireland  and Afghanistan now in the Test arena, we look at performances in the maiden Tests for all teams. Australia and England played their maiden Tests against each other on 15 Mar 1877.

Of the 12 teams, only Australia won and only Zimbabwe drew. The 10 remaining teams lost, including West Indies, Pakistan and Afghanistan by an innings. The maiden Tests of Australia, England and Ireland were relatively closely fought.

Ireland’s 5-wicket loss is the lowest losing margin by wickets by a team playing their debut Test. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh lost by 7 and 9 wickets respectively.

In contrast, Afghanistan’s loss by an innings and 262 runs is the worst losing margin by a debutant team.

By runs alone, England lost by 45 runs and India by 158.

In contrast, Afghanistan suffered the heaviest defeat here and the only one in a 2-day Test, being dismissed twice on the second day.

The best scores in maiden tests are 165* by C Bannerman, 145 by Aminul Islam, 121 by DL Houghton and now 118 by KJ O’Brien. Only South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan failed to record a fifty on debut. AB Tancred actually scored 29 in both innings. India, Pakistan and the West Indies just scraped through with fifties.

In all cases the bowler with the best innings bowling and best match bowling are the same. The best innings bowling here is 7-55 by Kendall in the very first Test, like his compatriot Bannerman. The next best is 6-132 by Naimur Rehman. There are a few other 5-fors.

The best match bowling is also from the very first Test, 8-89 by England’s A Shaw. Kendall with 8-109 is second.

Also note the all-round performance of New Zealand’s RC Blunt who has the highest score, best innings bowling and best match bowling  in his team’s maiden Test.

Some of these Tests involved players who had already represented other countries. These are Amir Elahi (India) and AJ Traicos (South Africa) who were therefore not making their Test debuts.

In the recent maiden Test of Ireland, B Rankin was the only one from his team who had played in Tests earlier, having played once for England. Everyone mentioned in the above table other than Elahi, Traicos and Rankin were making their Test debut.

Tail piece: The best batting and bowling figures by Afghanistan were by relatively lesser known players.

 

Best debut bowling against India

The second Test at Centurion was noted for various things such as silly runouts and young Ngidi’s bowling. Here we look at the best bowling figures on debut against and for India (all figures as of 17 Jan 2018).

Best against India-innings (5wi): 

Ngidi is in 5th position here, while his compatriot Klusener leads. That was to remain Klusener’s best in Tests, as in the case of Lever. Krezja’s effort came in a defeat for his team, and he played only one Test after this. Hazlewood is another current player in this list, while B Lee, like Bedser, had a long career.

Bedser and Pollard made their debut together. BR Taylor remains the only one in all Tests to make a century and take a fiver on debut. We will come to Lever’s similar record in a moment.

Best against India-match (7wm):

The luckless Krezja tops this table. Bedser is second, and he followed with another 11-wicket haul in his second Test to start a long career for England. His partner Pollard is also here, though he had a relatively short career. Ngidi is relatively lower in this table as he took only one wicket in the first innings.

Hazlewood is the only other current player to appear here. Other famous names include B Lee and Trueman.

In an odd case of symmetry, JK Lever was the only one in all Tests to score a fifty and take a ten-for on debut. India’s S Venkataraghavan was in the Indian team on both occasions.

We also look at the corresponding figures for Indian bowlers on debut.

Best for India-innings (5wi):

Hirwani steals the show here. He had a slightly better career than RAL Massie, who also took 16 wickets on debut. Ashwin and Shami are in the current team, as is Mishra from recent times. Nissar’s effort came in India’s first-ever Test.

Best for India-match (7wm):

Hirwani again leads, with the best match figures in all Tests by a debutant. His 16-136 was just ahead of Massie’s 16-137. Shami, Ashwin and Mishra appear here as well. Doshi and Yadav had moderately successful careers.

More on Test nineties

Hope you have read the previous post about 99s.

Nineties in both innings:

Clem Hill was particularly fond of 90s as he scored 99 followed by 98 and 97 mentioned above.

Nineties on debut:

While Chipperfield and Christiani later scored centuries, Asim Kamal finished with his 99 on debut as his top score. VH Stollmeyer made 96 in his only Test innings, which was unfortunately just before WW2 broke out. His younger brother Jeff Stollmeyer had a longer run and captained the West Indies.

Another point of interest is LJ Tancred’s 97 which was the highest score on debut by a South African-until Kepler Wessels scored a century on debut  for Australia in 1982-83. The first “genuine” century on debut by a South African was 163 by AC Hudson in the comeback Test against WI in 1991-92.

A number of famous names narrowly missed a century on debut. They include Redpath, Worrell, Ponting, Dravid, SP Fleming  and FS Jackson. Many lesser names scored a century on debut and did nothing much afterwards.

PA Gibb (93 and 106) and CG Greenidge (93 and 107) scored a 90 and 100 on debut.

Several players have made two 99s. The latest addition to this club was Misbah-ul-Haq.

If you take all scores between 90 and 99, the record of 10 is shared by Dravid, Tendulkar and Steve Waugh. Next is MJ Slater with 9, with de Villiers, Inzamam and Kallicharan with 8.

Karun Nair’s Test records

You will remember the fuss about Karun Nair when he scored his triple century in his third Test at Chennai. We now look at his oddly skewed Test career after he has completed 6 Tests. This should be apparent from this sequence of scores:

He has a respectable average of 62.33. But he scored 303 of his 374 runs in one innings (81.0 %) and never made another score above 50. To be precise, his next highest score is only 26.

It is hoped that he will play at least a few more Tests and score more centuries. Until then, he holds a couple of records in all Tests. This does NOT include the highest maiden century, as Gary Sobers (365*) and Bob Simpson (311) are ahead.

Highest score by someone who scored only one century ( 150 and above):

KK Nair heads this list, ahead of England’s RE Foster who held the record for about 113 years. His 287 (on debut) was the world Test record until early 1930 when Andy Sandham made 325 (in his last Test), though Bradman crossed it with 334 later the same year.

Foster, Kuruppu, Fawad Alam, K Ibadulla, C Bannerman and A Jackson  were making their Test debuts. Gillespie made his only century in his last Test while batting as nightwatchman. There are several other current players here led by MT Renshaw with 184.

Another quirky record is the highest Test score made by someone who never made a fifty (i.e. a score between 50 and 99). This gets a bit messy due to Statsguru’s limitations, but we get these figures:

Highest score by those who scored one century and no fifty (110 and above):

Highest score by those who scored two centuries and no fifties (all cases):

And finally:

Highest score by those who scored three centuries and no fifties (all cases):

No one has scored more than three centuries without a fifty. For a short time KL Rahul shared the record with Bopara. But Rahul scored his first fifty soon after he scored his third century.

As we can see, KK Nair is the only one to score a triple century but no fifty. David Lloyd and Brendon Kuruppu are the only ones to score a double century but no fifty. And Ravi Bopara’s Test career may be over, but he also holds a record which may not be broken for a long time.

KK Nair is also the only current player with one or more centuries and no fifties.