Mayank Agarwal became the 4th Indian Test player whose maiden Test century was a double. Shikhar Dhawan’s 187 is the highest by an Indian on debut, followed by RG Sharma’s 177.
Note the tragic case of Karun Nair. Perhaps he will soon get a chance to redress matters.
Also see this link for all Test players whose maiden century was 200 or more:
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/230132.html
The honors board at Lord’s are well known-anyone who scores a century or takes a fiver or a tenner gets his name on them, even if it is a neutral Test not involving England. If you need to brush up, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_honours_boards
and for Indian players featured there, full details are here:
However, note this extract from the Wikipedia article:
“A number of very distinguished players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Curtly Ambrose and Brian Lara are not named on the honours boards.”
It may be recalled that there was much heartbreak when Sachin failed to score a century in 2011, which was then generally understood to be his last Test there.
We now look at the aspect of prominent players failing to reach a board-worthy performance at Lord’s despite several opportunities. And there are some visitors who simply did not get to play enough at Lord’s.
Many English players whose career lasted about 5 years would have played 10+ Tests at Lord’s. Visiting players with long careers usually manage 4 Tests, unless they miss one Test or series. So we begin by identifying those who batted in at least 8 innings there. A further stipulation is that their batting position is 1 to 8, to eliminate tailenders without much batting ability.
So we have this for Most innings/matches at Lord’s without a century:
Atherton, Thorpe and Gatting played the most innings there without a century-particularly odd as Gatting played for Middlesex. Atherton did score 99 there and has the most fifties (7).
Visitors are led by Gavaskar and Tendulkar, followed by Azhar Ali, Faulkner, AW Nourse, Ponting and R Taylor. Lara played in only 3 Tests and 6 innings. The highest averages here are by Dexter (51.62) and FS Jackson (47.71).
Apart from Atherton’s 99, there are 90s by TE Bailey, JM Parks and FS Jackson.
Most innings/matches at Lord’s without a fifty:
While most of the batsmen here scored at least one fifty, some did not. They include Ramprakash (HS 40 in 13 innings), bowling all-rounder Emburey, Brearley, wicketkeeper Downton, Tendulkar, Faulkner and Ponting. The lowest average here is 10.38 by Ramprakash who was a specialist batsman, unlike some of the others. Then comes all-rounder Pringle (16.11) and another famous batsman Ponting (16.87). Tendulkar at least got into the 20s.
Next, we take up bowlers who bowled at least 1000 balls (while bowling at no 1 to 5) and never took a five-for:
Hoggard has the most Tests (11) and innings (20) here with a best of 4-27. However Edmonds has the best bowling figures of 4-6 followed by Laker with 4-13, while Hoggard has the most wickets (37).
Titmus is the only one who did not even take a 3-for.
Lillee (17 wkts), Kumble and Gibbs are the only visitors here.
Ambrose and Warne did not bowl enough balls here.
The best bowling average here is Laker’s 24.43, followed by Wardle’s 26.78.
And one gets similar results if we look for those who made the same effort and never took a ten-for:
Here, Anderson has the most wickets (110) with a best of 9-43. He may, of course, play a few more Tests at Lord’s. He also has the most 5-fors (7). CM Old has 9-88. Oddly enough Anderson has more than twice the wickets of the next bowler Willis with 47. Bedi, Kapil and Kumble represent India. The best bowling average is by Willis with 18.76 followed by Illingworth with 19.85.
Sir Richard Hadlee has the most wickets by a visitor (26).
This time it is true-he did pass away on 11th August. We review some highlights of his career. There is of course Cricinfo for an overview.
Hanif made his debut in Pakistan’s very first Test in 1952, remembered more for Mankad’s 13-wicket haul. Here he made 51 and 1, and was also the designated wicket-keeper. That didn’t go too well, as he conceded 28 byes in India’s only innings besides taking one catch. He played his first 3 Tests (all against India in 1952-53) as a wicket-keeper but never kept in Tests later.
He is remembered for his 337 against the West Indies, which occurred in the very first test between Pakistan and the West Indies: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62835.html
Note that his 337 came in a follow-on, and the 4 successive century partnerships with Imtiaz, Alimuddin, Saeed Ahmed and brother Wazir. Ultimately Pakistan lost the series 3-1, running into Sobers and his 365 not out along the way. And the 970-minute innings is a record in all Tests, though not in first-class cricket now.
Hanif’s innings was a record for all first-class cricket for over 40 years, until it was broken in a Ranji Trophy match between two weak sides: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283145.html
In Tests, only Gary Kirsten has come close.
Then there was the first-class record which stood for over three decades. It came about a year after the Test mentioned above.
http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/Firstclass/Overall/Highest_Player_Scores.html
And this was the match scorecard:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/engine/match/308265.html
While most of the Karachi team had played or would play for Pakistan, the Bahawalpur team did not have any Test players.
The Parsi Institute Ground has since sunk into obscurity, hosting its last first-class match in 1976-77.
Finally, here is a souvenir from the birthplace of the Mohammad brothers (taken in 2013):
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.
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:
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.
First, my thanks to whoever is reading this. According to alexa.com, this blog now ranks among the top million in the world and among the top 50,000 in India-not too bad in 8 months.
This is a follow-up to:
https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/cricket-odds-and-ends-1/ and
https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/cricket-odds-and-ends-2/
We now explore some other odds and ends. Today we look at the worst career averages by those who scored triple centuries and so on, and the best career averages by those who never got into double figures.
These figures do not include the current Test at Galle and the ICC XI-Aus Test in 2005.
Batting averages are listed only for those who batted for a minimum of 20 innings.
Highest averages for those who never made a triple century:
60.97 RG Pollock (highest 274)
60.83 GA Headley (270*)
60.73 H Sutclife (194)
Highest averages for those who never made a double century:
60.73 H Sutcliffe (194)
56.00 Mominul Haque (181)-current player
55.00 GE Tyldesley (122)
Highest averages for those who never made a century:
37.73 Asim Kamal (99)-which he scored on debut
35.28 BM Laird (92)-also on debut
33.48 KD Mackay (89)
Highest averages for those who never made a fifty:
18.38 JC White (29)
17.66 Tauseef Ahmed (35*)
17.65 MN Hart (45)
Highest averages for those who never got into double figures:
3.11 CN McCarthy (5)
2.00 M Mbangwa (8)
(No one else has played 20 or more innings without getting into double figures.)
Now for the converse cases:
Lowest averages for those who scored triple centuries:
38.76 BB McCullum (302)-current player
40.07 S Jayasuriya (340)
42.18 CH Gayle (333)-current (?) player
Lowest averages for those who scored double centuries:
18.73 JN Gillespie (201*)-his only century came as a night watchman in his last Test.
22.64 Wasim Akram (257*)
24.53 SE Gregory (201)
Lowest averages for those who scored centuries:
13.64 JE Taylor (106)-current player
14.48 Saqlain Mushtaq (101*)
16.60 Nasim-ul-Ghani (101)
Lowest averages for those who scored fifties
6.75 RW Blair (64*)
7.51 GD McGrath (61)
8.72 Ghulam Ahmed (50)
Lowest averages for those who got into double figures
2.29 JV Saunders (11*)
2.36 CS Martin (12*)
2.62 H Ironmonger (12)
In the next instalment, we take up a similar study of bowling averages.
Explanatory notes:
1) This article was primarily written for a readership of alumni of the Doon School, Dehradun who refer to themselves as Doscos.
2) I have had limited personal contact with Mr Samridh Agarwal, though most of the information in this article is available in the public domain.
THE DOSCO WHO HOLDS A WORLD CRICKET RECORD
There are a fair number of Old Boys as well as staff who have played first-class cricket with varying degrees of success. Until recently, Mr R. L. Holdsworth and Michael Dalvi could be said to have the most distinguished records. There were a few who had scored double centuries. But somehow Doscos did not shine as bowlers or all-rounders, and until recently Anand Bhatia’s 4-36 was the best return by an Old Boy in FC matches.
The rewriting of record books began in earnest with Samridh Sunil Agarwal (160-J, 2009). He moved to Millfield after ICSE and then joined Queen’s College at Oxford University. While still at our school he had played for UP’s Under-17 team in the Vijay Merchant Trophy, with present Test player Bhuvneswar Kumar among his team-mates in 2006-07. Later his name appears in the records of Millfield’s inter-school matches in 2009-10. He played primarily as a batsman, though his off-spin was frequently called upon.
His records can be seen under S.S. Agarwal and Sam Agarwal (as an England player) in Cricinfo, though the non first-class matches in India and England are covered better in www.cricketarchive.com . (Note that this site is now behind a paywall).He made an unobtrusive first-class debut for Oxford vs Northamptonshire in April 2010, scoring 1 not out. He did make the headlines in the University Match against Cambridge on Jul 6-9, 2010 in which he scored 117 and 5-78. This is one of the few instances of a century plus five-for in the University matches. And he became the first Dosco to take a five–for as well as the only one to complete the all-rounder’s double of a century and five-for in the same match. The scorecard can be seen here:
http://www.cricketarchive.com/archive/scorecards/275/275963.html
He wrote himself firmly into the record books in another University Match, the Oxford v Cambridge match on Jul 2-4, 2013. By then he had been awarded his Blue (in 2012) and was captaining Oxford. He made 313 not out, the highest ever score in the University match. He also found enough energy to bowl 32 overs for 97 runs in the match, taking the wicket of Cambridge’s top-scorer in the second innings. Oxford won this match by an innings and 186 runs. The scorecard can be seen here:
http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/495/495498.html
Now, you may say, he holds the record for Oxford and is also the only Dosco to score a triple century in first-class cricket. But that doesn’t qualify as a world record. That was yet to come. He played in some matches for Surrey Second XI later in 2013, but has not so far played another first class match. We hope that he soon gets back into regular cricket.
As of today, his first class career record is:
Batting (2010-13): 13 matches, 21 innings, 3 not out, 899 runs, highest 313 not out, Average 49.94, strike rate 61.61, 3 centuries, 3 fifties, 4 catches.
Bowling (2010-13): 13 matches, 2000 balls, 998 runs, 20 wickets, best 5-78, Average 49.90, economy 2.99, strike rate 100.00, one 5wi.
Numerologists may wonder that he has a neat figure of 2000 balls bowled and a strike rate of exactly 100.00. Also his batting average is virtually the same as his bowling average.
(This can be seen from the Wikipedia link at the bottom).
The world record is that he is now the only person to have scored a triple century in his final first-class match-although we should sincerely wish that he soon loses this record once he resumes his cricketing career.
The key here is this link:
http://stats.acscricket.com/Records/First_Class/Overall/Batting/Hundred_in_Last_Match.html
Here we have a list of all those who achieved this in their last matches in 2016 or earlier. (There are also some active players who have achieved this in 2016-17 or later, but are not included below since they are likely to play in the future.) As you will see, this list includes some well-known international players.
200 OR MORE IN LAST FIRST-CLASS MATCH AS ON 15 DEC 2014 (In descending order)
Score Name Year
313* S. S. Agarwal 2013
241* A. H.Bakewell 1936
220 N. F. Mitchell 1926-27
217 R. C. Fredericks 1982-83
207 N. F. Callaway 1914-15
207 I. J. Siedle 1936-37
206 P. A. De Silva 2002
200* A. C. MacLaren 1922-23
200* Moin Khan 2005-06
While we may be glad to note that a Dosco holds this unusual world record, I think you will all join me in hoping that he soon loses it!
See this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Agarwal
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