Axar Patel’s feat: 4 wickets for none

With Hardik Patel grabbing the limelight, it is good to see another Patel doing something more constructive such as helping India A to win an unofficial Test against South Africa A – even if it was a ground deep in the forests of Kerala far from any city.

Until now he has been considered more of a fringe player despite having played over 20 ODIs and T20Is without doing anything memorable, though he is remembered more for the X in his first name.

His 4 wickets for none helped reduce his opponents to 76 all out, giving India A an innings victory as well as a series victory. He had earlier taken 5-92 and scored 69 not out in the same match.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/892977.html

Four wickets for none gives him a share in the world record for the best 4-wicket record, which was also achieved by 8 others including Lala Amarnath (who was 47 years old at the time).

This was a fairly respectable South Africa A side which included 7 Test players and 2 others who had played in T20Is until then.

It is also interesting to see the best 4-wicket hauls in Tests, especially when the record is held by a relatively unknown player from one of the minor Test teams. The second and the third on the list had reasonable Test careers but are forgotten now. And Appleyard’s 4-7 was the key to New Zealand’s unwanted record of 26 all out, while Dilshan added centuries in both innings to his 4-10.

The great batting marathons

Only twice has a team innings gone into four figures-and these were both by Victoria in the 1920s. There have been several other scores above 900 including two Tests. Here we take a closer look at the top 3 innings from this list:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/135790.html

Top position goes to Victoria’s 1107 against New South Wales at Melbourne in 1926-27:

http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/12/12150.html

Note that the first four all scored centuries, and that all four (Woodfull, Ponsford, Hendry and Ryder) were Test players. There were three other Test players in the XI.

From the bowling side, Arthur Mailey recorded what is still the world first-class record for the most runs conceded in an innings:

http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/First_Class/Overall/Bowling/Most_Runs_Conceded_in_an_Innings.html

Still, 4-362 sounds more respectable than 0-259 recorded by Khan Mohammad when Sobers scored his then world Test record of 365 not out. Other Test players in the NSW team were T. Andrew, captain Kippax and Archie Jackson.

A victory by an innings and 656 runs sounds impressive, but it is not the world first-class record. That is an innings and 851 runs, where Pakistan Railways made 910/6 declared against Dera Ismail Khan making 32 and 27. The latter team was making its first-class debut. The Railways team did not include any Test players.

The second four-figure innings came earlier in the decade, with Victoria making 1059 against Tasmania at Melbourne in 1922-23. This, unlike the previous match, was not part of the Sheffield Shield.

http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/10/10684.html

Here the victory margin was slightly better at an innings and 666 runs. The centuries were by Test players Ponsford and Love who were also involved in the match mentioned above. Ponsford was yet to make his Test debut and his earlier highest F-C score was 162. His 429 was then the world record F-C innings, surpassing Archie MacLaren’s 424 in 1895. He surpassed the record with 437 against Queensland in 1927-28. This was also at his favourite MCG. It not was not until 2003-04 that Lara became the only other batsman to cross 400 twice.

The third instance was the highest Test score and ended in a draw:

http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/64/64422.html

Many familiar names here, including M. Jayawardene who made his debut with 66. He had the luxury of coming in at 790/4. There were many Test records set here, of which we mention only a few. The second-wicket partnership of 576 by Jayasuriya and Mahanama was then the world Test record for any wicket and the F-C record for the second wicket. Both records have since been surpassed.

They batted throughout the 3rd and 4th day, before both were out at 615. And spare a thought for debutant Nilesh Kulkarni who took Atapattu’s wicket with his first ball, and ended his career after two more Tests in which he took only one more wicket.

Samridh Agarwal and his world record in first-class cricket

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