10 wickets on Test debut-and never again

These are the 17 players who took 10 or more wickets on their Test debut:

Of these 17, only 4 (Richardson, Grimmett, Bedser and Valentine took 10wn again. The other 13 did not.

In fact, some did not even take a 5-for again.

Summarising the performance of the 17 players listed above:

1. F Martin. Played only 2 Tests. No further 10wm or 5wi.
2. T Richardson. Took a total of 4 10wm.
3. AE Hall. No further 10wm, 2 further 5wi.
4. CV Grimmett. Took a total of 7 10wm, the best among this group of players.
5. CS Marriott. Played only 1 Test, hence no further 10wm or 5wi.
6. K Farnes. No further 10wm, 1 further 5wi
7. AV Bedser. Took a total of 5 10wms. This included 11wm in both his first and second Tests.
8. HHH Johnson. Played only 3 Tests. No further 10wm or 5wi.
9. AL Valentine. Took a total of 2 10wms.
10. SF Burke. Played only 2 Tests. Did not take any wicket after debut.
11. RAL Massie. No further 10wm or 5wi.
12. JK Lever. No further 10wm, 2 further 5wi.
13. ND Hirwani. No further 10wm, 2 further 5wi.
14. Mohammad Zahid. No further 10wm or 5wi.
15. JJ Krejza. Played only 2 Tests. Took only 1 wkt in his second Test.
16. P Jayawickrama. No further 10wm or 5wi.
17. P Jayasuriya. Played only 3 Tests so far. Took no further 10wm, but did take a total of 4 5wi.

We see that several of these players played 3 or less Tests. Marriott played only one Test.

Hirwani’s 16-135 is the best match bowling for India, just surpassing Massie’s 16-136 which is the best for Australia.

Bedser and Massie achieved this feat at Lord’s.

Also see https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/11/27/shining-on-test-debut/

Ten wickets on Test debut and never again

(Updated on 15 May 2021):

Some achievements on debut are more difficult than others.

As may as 110 centuries have been scored on debut, as well as 169 five-fors. In a few cases the player has scored two centuries or took two fivers in his debut Test.

But only 16 have taken ten wickets in their first Test:

The last entrant is Praveen Jayawickrama of Sri Lanka, who has played only one Test so far.

But the members of this exclusive club have not been fortunate. A quick overview:

We can see that:

Marriott played only one Test. Newcomer Jayawickrama has also played only one so far.

However, a total of 12 of these 16 never took a ten-for after their debut. The only ones who did so were T Richardson (total 4 times), Grimmett (7), Bedser (5) and Valentine (4)

And 7 of the 16 never even took a five-for after their debut.

Perhaps Jayawickrama will be able to overcome these odds.

Also, JK Lever is the only one to take a ten-for along with a fifty on debut. He never made another fifty, although he did add two five-fors to his 7-49 on debut.

While Ken Farnes did add one five-for to the two he took on debut, he died young in a flying accident during WW2.

Incidentally, Jayawickrama’s 11-178 is the best by a left-arm spinner on debut, surpassing the 11-204 by AL Valentine in 1950.

Four wickets in an innings on debut and never again

In earlier posts we have covered topics such as:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/09/26/century-on-debut-and-never-again/

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/10/26/50-plus-on-test-debut-and-never-again/

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/five-wickets-in-an-innings-and-never-again/

We now extend this to four (or more) wickets in an innings on debut and never again:

Four+ wickets in innings

A total of 96 players took four or more wickets in an innings on debut. Of these, 11 took four or more in each innings. Those listed here never took a four+ again.

You can see the famous cases of CS Marriott (11 wickets in his only Test) and others with a 10-for on debut (SF Burke, HHH Johnson, F Martin and Mohammad Zahid) who did not even manage a four-for later.  Also WH Ashley with a 7-for in his only innings bowled. Most had rather short careers.

The best innings performances here are 8-215 (JJ Krezja), 7-81 (M de Lange) and 7-95 (WH Ashley).

Then there was the strange case of the two unrelated players SA Banerjee and SN Banerjee who both took 4wi on debut in the 1948-49 I vs WI series and never played again.

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.

5wi in last Test innings

We have already looked at the cases of those who scored a double century in their last Test and those who took 10+ wickets in their last Test. Now we look at the cases of those who took 5+ wickets in the their last innings in Tests.

The current players such as Dananjaya and Wagner can be disregarded. We see that the best performance in these condition is the lesser-known Australian GR Hazlitt with 7-25 in the triangular series of 1912. Some famous names here are Trumble, Barnes, Caddick, Grimmett, Procter, Hadlee and Zaheer Khan.

There is also WH Ashley who took 7-95 in his only Test innings, and CS Marriott who took 11 wickets in his only Test.

This table was obtained by Statsguru’s function which gives performances in the player’s last Test. Possibly we may have missed out some cases where someone has bowled for the last time before playing his last Test. This could happen to non-regular bowlers. Or regular bowlers who were unable to bowl in their last Test.

Ten wickets in last Test

We have seen that several players including Andrew Sandham and Seymour Nurse scored triple and double centuries in their last Test. Here we look at those who took 10 or more wickets in their last Test.

Leave out MA Starc’s 2019 performance as he will play many more Tests. SF Barnes holds the record of 14-144 in the penultimate Test before the Great War. He did not play in the next Test which started on 27 Feb 1914.

The remaining 9 have taken 10 or more wickets in their last Test. In some cases they took 5+ wickets in each innings, which we will look at next.

CS Marriott was playing in his only Test. He is, obviously, the only one to take 10 wickets in his only Test. There are several others who took 5 wickets in an innings in their only Test.

Making the most of limited chances-bowling

Today we take up the cases of those who got to bowl in only one match or innings. First we consider Tests, followed by ODIs and T20Is.

5 wickets or more in their only Test:

Only one ten-for by CS Marriott, though the best innings bowling here is 7/95 by WH Ashley in the 19th century. All instances of fivers in their only Test are included above.

Also note the 1-Test careers of PJ Cummins and JP Faulkner who probably will play again. There is also CA Smith who spent most of his life in Hollywood and was known as Aubrey Smith

Also note the strange case of the two unrelated Banerjees who bowled well in the only Tests they played in the 1948-49 series against the West Indies. We will meet another 1-Test Banerjee in a moment.

3 wickets or more in their only Test innings:

WH Ashley is the only one with a five-for in this category. Hill, Lyttelton and Nazir Ali bowled in only one innings in their multi-Test careers. Lyttelton’s 4-19 is the best innings bowling by any designated wicket-keeper. A few others such as Boucher and Kirmani have taken 1 wicket in an innings.

A few more players from India here, including ST Banerjee. All 3 players with this surname played exactly one Test each, despite getting reasonable returns.

Now for ODIs:

Three or more wickets in their only ODI:

While an unknown player from PNG tops this list,the only well-known player here is BS Chandrashekhar who was one of India’s leading bowlers of the 70s. Stott played his only ODI during the 1979 World Cup. DV Lawrence played a few Tests with some success.

Three or more wickets in their only ODI innings:

The only addition is England’s veteran Test player Fred Titmus who, like Colin Cowdrey, earned a recall to the ill-starred England tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1974-75.

Now for T20Is:

2 or more wickets in their only T20I:

The best performances here are by little-known players such as Mansoor Amjad and CG Burnett. The better-known Test players here are MS Panesar and CT Tremlett.

2 or more wickets in their only T20I innings:

Here we have several instances of those who bowled only once in a relatively long T20I career (notably Younis Khan in 25 matches, Sarwan and AR White in 18 matches). There are also AC Voges and AJ Redmond (primarily  batsmen).

Next we will take up the best fielding performances by those playing in their only matches and innings.