The diamond ducks represent the quickest ducks, where the batsmen did not get to face a single ball. Here we look at the slowest ducks both by balls faced and by batting time.
Slowest ducks by balls faced:
GI Allott’s 77-ball duck was in the first innings when New Zealand was facing a large score of 621/5 dec by South Africa. Allott helped CZ Harris put on 32 for the last wicket. New Zealand had to follow on but saved the match easily.
JM Anderson’s 55-ball duck was more tragic. He was known to be a stubborn batsman and it was not surprising that he hung on for 55 balls and 81 minutes, putting on 21 for the last wicket with MM Ali (who made a century in his second Test). However, Anderson was dismissed with one ball left:
Sri Lanka thus won the 2-Test series 1-0. What was more ironic was that they had drawn the first Test with the last pair at the wicket, although the last man N Pradeep only needed to survive 5 balls.
From recent times we have ML Cummins (45 balls) vs India in 2019.
Slowest ducks by minutes batted:
Allott and Anderson head this list as well. Here we have a couple of older instances where the number of balls faced is not known.
From recent times we have India’s JJ Bumrah (52 minutes, 14 balls). and WI’s AS Joseph (51 min, 22 balls). It appears that most tailenders are capable of such innings once in a while, even if they do not score runs.
To round this off we have these tables which include unbeaten zeroes:
Slowest zeroes and unbeaten zeroes by balls faced:
Slowest zeroes and unbeaten zeroes by minutes batted:
The slowest unbeaten zero is by AP Sheahan (52 minutes, 44 balls). This came in a follow-on after Australia had been dismissed for 78 in a rare collapse. Sheahan was a regular batsman unlike the tailenders mentioned above.
Australia saved this match while the series was drawn. Like most Ashes series of the 1960s, it was marked by slow batting.
There are no long-drawn out unbeaten zeroes in recent years.
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