Agarkar and the ducks

Following Surya Yadav’s saga of 3 ducks in 3 balls in an ODI series, we can look at another famous feat of duck-making, set by Ajit Agarkar in the 1999-2000 Test series against Australia.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/ajit-agarkar-26184

In the first test, he made 19 and 0 (1 ball) thus including a golden duck.

In the second, he made 0(1) and 0(1)-a golden pair.

In the third, he went on to 0(1) and 0(2)-a golden duck followed by a silver duck.

This means he was dismissed 5 times in 6 balls, and recorded 5 successive 0s.

However, he was not that incompetent as a batsman. He had a first-class average of 28.75 with 4 centuries and a top score of 145. His Test average was 16.79.

He crossed 50 only once in Tests. That was when he made 109* at Lord’s in 2002.

This gives a nice quiz question-What batting feat was achieved by Agarkar but not by Gavaskar and Tendulkar ?

Pairs in Tests-Updated Nov 2019

Correct as on 20 Nov 2019

You would know a King Pair or Golden Pair-when a batsman is dismissed first ball in each innings.

A Queen Pair or Silver Pair is when it is second ball in each innings.

A Jack Pair or Bronze Pair for three balls.

We also look at pairs involving 4, 5 and 6 balls in each innings.

Note that for many Tests before 2000, balls in an innings were not always recorded.

Here is the updated list of King Pairs:

The 21 cases include a number of recognized batsmen (Richardson, Gilchrist, Javed Omar and Sehwag). Maybe even Agarkar, who made a Test century at Lord’s. Interestingly there is no King Pair at Lord’s.

Now for Queen Pairs:

22 cases here, including two by McGrath in successive Tests in 1998-99.

Dawson and Broad achieved this at Lord’s. The two of them and Mohammad Abbas deserve their own little board at Lord’s.

Recognized batsmen here include OG Smith, Mudassar, Samuels, de Villiers, Babar Azam and Markram. AL Mann and Broad have also made centuries.

While no captain has made a King Pair, Bedi and de Villiers are here.

Now for Jack Pairs:

Vettori, Griffith and Powell are the recognized batsmen here.

Finally we come to 4-, 5- and 6-ball pairs which are much rarer.

One may invent new terms such as Ruby pairs or Sapphire pairs here.

Here, even Ireland’s bowlers inflict these ducks on recognized batsmen.

Gibbs, DS Smith and Bairstow are the recognized batsmen here.