Deep, Backward, and Square: December 2009

This post responds to a couple of letters contributed by (my favourite cricket writer) David Frith to The Cricket Statistician (journal of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians). In his first letter, Frith wondered whether any batsman has ever made such an instant impact as Neil Marks – a cricket writer, administrator and, for little more than a few weeks in 1959, New South Wales's star batsman. In particular, Frith highlighted the fact that Marks batted for a total of 644 minutes – spread across his first two innings – before being dismissed in FC cricket. Due to the paucity of minutes-batted data in the FC record, I can't answer the question of how exceptional a feat this is (though I share Frith's hunch that it must be pretty extraordinary). However, his follow-up letter raises a second – much more tractable – query: what is the greatest number of runs scored before a batsman's first FC dismissal?

In that second letter, Frith is right to identify Ray Watson-Smith as a leading candidate; indeed, it turns out that he is right at the top of the list. The 308 undefeated runs he made in his first two FC innings, for Border in 1969/70, are made all the more remarkable by the contrast with the rest of his brief career: he managed just 136 more runs in his remaining 6 innings. All in all, 22 cricketers have amassed 200 or more runs before losing their wicket in the FC game.

Table 1: Most runs before dismissal in first-class cricket

Name Team(s) Year(s) M I R Inn(s) 1. R Watson-Smith Border 1969 3 3 310 183*; 125*; 2 2. SJE Loxton Victoria 1946 2 2 305 232*; 73 3. NG Marks New South Wales 1958 2 2 283 180*; 103 4. Aftab Baloch Public Works Dept. 1969 3 3 281 77*; 100*; 104 5. JJM McMullan Otago 1918-1920 2 3 267 157*; 85*; 25 =5. GHG Doggart Cambridge U 1948 2 2 267 215*; 52 7. AA Muzumdar Bombay 1994 1 1 260 260 8. Aamer Malik Lahore City A 1980 1 2 242 132*; 110 9. WFE Marx Transvaal 1920 1 1 240 240 10. GR Viswanath Mysore 1967 1 1 230 230 11. DW Barrick Northamptonshire 1949 2 4 228 34*; 36*; 147*; 11 12. MJ Powell Glamorgan 1997 2 2 224 200*; 24 13. JS Solomon British Guiana 1956 2 2 222 114*; 108 14. Fawad Hussain Rawalpindi 2007-2008 2 2 211 103*; 108 =14. BW Malcolm Bengal 1939 2 2 211 181*; 30 16. AV Pandey Madhya Pradesh 1996 2 2 209 209*; 0 =16. CT Tyson Yorkshire 1921 2 3 209 100*; 80*; 29 18. NF Callaway New South Wales 1915 1 1 207 207 19. A Maynard Trinidad 1935 2 3 206 200*; 2*; 4 20. TR Arasu Tamil Nadu 1998-1999 5 5 203 54*; 56*; 11*; 67*; 15 21. Haroon Malik Sargodha 1999 2 2 202 67*; 135 =21. J Hallebone Victoria 1952 1 1 202 202

Just before Neil Marks comes allrounder and some-time Invincible Sam Loxton, who opened his FC account with an unbeaten double-century, and was most of the way to three figures before being dismissed in his second visit to the crease. He and Watson-Smith stand alone as batsmen whose FC tallies exceeded 300 runs before they first lost their wicket.

A related line of enquiry is to ask how many innings a batsman has had under his belt before suffering a FC dismissal. In total, nineteen cricketers made it at least as far as their seventh FC knock before their average could be calculated.

Table 2: Most innings before dismissal in first-class cricket

     Name            Team(s) 1.  KSN Karunadasa  SL Navy Sports Club 2.  JCJ Dye         Kent 3.  GE Brown        Surrey =3.  ND Kambli       Goa 5.  ESM Kentish     Jamaica; West Indies =5.  ME Collins      Eastern Province B 7.  IA Nicolson     Midlands; Zimbabwe A =7.  JE Emburey      Middlesex =7.  D Schaffter     Moors Sports Club =7.  PHL Wilson      Surrey =7.  AE Moss         Middlesex; Comb. Servs. =7.  K Treiber       N Districts; Young NZ =7.  SF Madon        Parsees =7.  MB Owens        Canterbury; NZ =7.  WG Peare        Warwickshire =7.  RS Herman       Middlesex =7.  A Sen           Himachal Pradesh =7.  LD Cooper       Queensland =7.  S Badhwar       Haryana

Year(s)     M    I    R    Inn(s) 2009        9    13   14   0*; 0*; 0*; 3*; 2*; 4*; 2*; 0*; 2*; 0*; 1*; 0*; 0 1962-1963   9    11   20   4*; 1*; 3*; 5*; 0*; 2*; 0*; 1*; 2*; 1*; 1 1986-1987   7    9    49   0*; 2*; 13*; 5*; 1*; 8*; 8*; 4*; 8 1992        5    9    22   0*; 2*; 0*; 7*; 0*; 0*; 8*; 4*; 1 1947-1953   7    8    52   15*; 2*; 1*; 1*; 8*; 13*; 10*; 2 1979-1980   5    8    47   11*; 9*; 0*; 3*; 3*; 0*; 7*; 14 2004-2005   4    7    65   17*; 5*; 11*; 0*; 1*; 5*; 26 1973-1975   9    7    58   1*; 0*; 4*; 25*; 6*; 0*; 22 1995        5    7    43   1*; 9*; 5*; 10*; 0*; 18*; 0 1978-1979   18   7    29   9*; 0*; 0*; 0*; 1*; 4*; 15 1950-1951   8    7    28   11*; 5*; 7*; 0*; 2*; 3*; 0 1979-1981   7    7    20   2*; 4*; 4*; 2*; 4*; 4*; 0 1908-1911   5    7    19   2*; 2*; 0*; 0*; 2*; 10*; 3 1992        7    7    15   5*; 1*; 5*; 0*; 4*; 0*; 0 1926        6    7    15   0*; 0*; 1*; 2*; 12*; 0*; 0 1965        9    7    10   0*; 0*; 0*; 2*; 8*; 0*; 0 1988        5    7    8    1*; 4*; 3*; 0*; 0*; 0*; 0 1959-1960   6    7    6    1*; 0*; 0*; 4*; 0*; 0*; 1 2006        5    7    6    2*; 0*; 0*; 0*; 3*; 0*; 1

The record-holder is a very recent addition to the list. Sudeera Karunadasa, a Sri Lankan off-spinner, only made his FC debut in 2nd October 2009 but, although he amassed just 14 runs along the way, he wasn't dismissed until his most recent innings, his thirteenth (all of them at number 11). One player who does not appear here is New Zealander James Burrows; he does not qualify for a list of most innings before dismissal because, throughout his nine-match, twelve-innings FC career, he was not dismissed at all. Note that Hugh Wilson did not get out until his eighteenth FC match (the record by a large margin), although he was only required to bat on seven occasions in that time.

Here's a final piece of trivia. According to one – slightly mischievous – interpretation of Frith's original question, the man with the longest interval between his first ball in FC cricket and the first time he lost his wicket is James Thomson. Thomson made his FC debut for Scotland v. Ireland in July 1962, making 1* in the first innings. He was out for a duck in his next FC knock, but that did not come until the corresponding fixture 22 years later. The total of 8,075 days between first ball and first dismissal is a record by several years (although over 500 cricketers have seen at least a year go by between FC bow and first dismissal, including some familiar names such as Mohinder Amarnath, Curtly Ambrose, Brett Lee, and both Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith).

This is a quick trivia post in response to some queries raised by MiPiL on TMSB Exiles. He wanted to know

What's the lowest completed innings to contain
— 1 individual 100
— 1 individual 200
— 2 individual 100s?

To begin with, I assumed he was talking about test cricket. Altogether, there have been a dozen occasions on which an all-out test innings of less than 200 has included one individual three-figure score; details are given in Table 1.

The top two both took place at the same ground, albeit getting on for half a century apart. It wasn't all that unusual for the New Zealand side of the late 1950s and early 1960s to rely on John Reid to salvage a little respectability from some otherwise one-sided encounters, but this was never more dramatically the case than in the match identified here. Reid had top-scored in New Zealand's first innings, but his second-innings ton was even more isolated: despite Reid's score of exactly 100, the Kiwis were able to scrape together just 159, and the skipper was the only batsman to pass 22.

Note that the entry in sixth place on the list is a very recent one: as more experienced heads were lost around him, Adrian Barath – playing in his debut test match at the age of nineteen – was the only West Indian batsman to mount any resistance to the Australian bowlers during the first test of the current series, at Brisbane. If he can repeat the success of his very well received 104 (and the rest of the team can fail to replicate their less distinguished performances), the future of West Indies cricket may appear somewhat brighter than it has been painted, of late.

Table 1: Lowest all-out test innings to feature an individual century

Total Team Centurion Match 159 New Zealand JR Reid 2nd inns -v- England at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, 1962/63 170 Sri Lanka KC Sangakkara 2nd inns -v- New Zealand at Jade Stadium, Christchurch, 2006/07 177 South Africa JH Sinclair 1st inns -v- England at Newlands, Cape Town, 1898/99 182 South Africa HW Taylor 1st inns -v- England at Lord's, Durban, 1913/14 184 Australia MJ Slater 2nd inns -v- England at Sydney Cricket Ground, 1998/99 187 West Indies A Barath 2nd inns -v- Australia at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, 2009/10 191 Australia DG Bradman 2nd inns -v- England at Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1932/33 191 England MC Cowdrey 1st inns -v- Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1954/55 193 West Indies GA Headley 1st inns -v- Australia at Exhibition Ground, Brisbane, 1930/31 194 West Indies RR Sarwan 2nd inns -v- South Africa at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, 2004/05 198 Australia GN Yallop 1st inns -v- England at Sydney Cricket Ground, 1978/79 198 Australia KJ Hughes 1st inns -v- West Indies at Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1981/82 figures correct at 27-Nov-2009

The lowest all-out test innings to feature an individual double-century is also a fairly recent one. Virender Sehwag's 201* at Galle last summer was, notably, the only three-figure score of an otherwise low-scoring match, and certainly proved to be the difference between the two sides. Interestingly, this innings is the third-highest rated innings in test history according to the ICC rankings (the highest of Sehwag's three entries in the top ten). Opinions vary about the validity of the ICC rankings (it would help me make up my mind if they ever published how the blessed things are actually calculated), but one factor they seek to reward is runscoring that stands in contrast to a lower level of achievement by team-mates and opponents. This being the case, it is unsurprising to see Sehwag's sore thumb of an innings accorded very high value. All in all, there have been ten test innings in which a double-hundred is found amongst an all-out total of fewer than 400 runs.

Table 2: Lowest all-out test innings to feature an individual double-century

Total Team Centurion Match 329 India V Sehwag 1st inns -v- Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium, 2008 344 England L Hutton 1st inns -v- West Indies at Kennington Oval, 1950 353 South Africa RG Pollock 1st inns -v- Australia at Newlands, Cape Town, 1966/67 371 Australia AR Morris 1st inns -v- England at Adelaide Oval, 1950/51 374 India AD Gaekwad 1st inns -v- Pakistan at Gandhi Stadium, Jalandhar, 1983/84 383 West Indies CL Walcott 1st inns -v- England at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, 1953/54 386 New Zealand GM Turner 1st inns -v- West Indies at Sabina Park, Kingston, 1971/72 387 India DN Sardesai 1st inns -v- West Indies at Sabina Park, Kingston, 1970/71 390 West Indies BC Lara 1st inns -v- Sri Lanka at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, 2001/02 391 Australia ML Hayden 1st inns -v- India at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, 2000/01 figures correct at 27-Nov-2009

The answer to MiPiL's third question also features a game from the last twelve months. This time, our heroes are Jesse Ryder and Daniel Vettori. Between them, they scored 220 (79%) of the 279 runs New Zealand scraped together against India at Hamilton earlier this year. After their centuries, the next-highest score in the innings was just 18. In sixth place on the list, Allan Border and Greg Matthews had cause to be even more fed up with their colleagues: Border's 152* and Matthews's 115 amounted to over 80% of Australia's innings total, as they succumbed to an innings defeat in a match which is best remembered for Richard Hadlee's tour de force performance with the ball.

Table 3: Lowest all-out test innings to feature two individual centuries

Total Team Centurions Match 279 New Zealand JD Ryder; DL Vettori 1st inns -v- India at Seddon Park, Hamilton, 2008/09 284 Australia WM Lawry; IM Chappell 1st inns -v- West Indies at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, 1968/69 313 England H Sutcliffe; GE Tyldesley 1st inns -v- South Africa at Old Wanderers, Johannesburg, 1927/28 328 Sri Lanka RP Arnold; RS Kaluwitharana 1st inns -v- Pakistan at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, 1998/99 329 West Indies RR Sarwan; S Chanderpaul 2nd inns -v- South Africa at Sahara Stadium, Kingsmead, Durban, 2003/04 333 Australia AR Border; GRJ Matthews 2nd inns -v- New Zealand at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, 1985/86 335 Australia WM Woodfull; CG Macartney 1st inns -v- England at Old Trafford, Manchester, 1926 339 Australia GN Yallop; KJ Hughes 2nd inns -v- England at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, 1978/79 344 England JH Hampshire; R Illingworth 1st inns -v- West Indies at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood, 1969 347 Australia GHS Trott; SE Gregory 2nd inns -v- England at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood, 1896 347 Sri Lanka RS Madugalle; A Ranatunga 1st inns -v- India at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, 1985 348 West Indies CH Gayle; RR Sarwan 2nd inns -v- South Africa at Centurion Park, 2003/04 349 Australia ML Hayden; AC Gilchrist 1st inns -v- India at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, 2000/01 350 Pakistan Hanif Mohammad; Saeed Ahmed 1st inns -v- India at Brabourne Stadium, Bombay, 1960/61 figures correct at 27-Nov-2009

In case MiPiL (or anyone else, for that matter) was interested in casting his net further than the test arena,
Tables 4–6, below, present analogous information to Tables 1–3 for all first-class cricket.

Table 4: Lowest all-out first-class innings to feature an individual century

Total Team Centurion Match 143 Gujranwala Rizwan Malik 1st inns -v- Bahawalpur at Bahawal Stadium, Bahawalpur, 14 Jan 2002 143 Nottinghamshire CEB Rice 1st inns -v- Hampshire at Dean Park, Bournemouth, 04 Jul 1981 144 Kent FE Woolley 2nd inns -v- Warwickshire at Cheriton Road Sports Ground, Folkestone, 24 Jun 1931 148 Parsees RP Meherhomji 2nd inns -v- Europeans at Gymkhana Ground, Bombay, 27 Aug 1907 153 Gloucestershire TW Graveney 1st inns -v- Essex at Gidea Park Sports Ground, Romford, 23 May 1956 156 Gloucestershire GM Emmett 1st inns -v- Oxford University at The University Parks, Oxford, 01 May 1948 157 Leicestershire S Jayasinghe 1st inns -v- Northamptonshire at County Ground, Northampton, 22 Aug 1964 157 Northamptonshire JE Timms 1st inns -v- Kent at Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, 15 Aug 1934 158 Kent TG Evans 1st inns -v- Leicestershire at Grace Road, Leicester, 25 Aug 1951 159 New Zealand JR Reid 2nd inns -v- England at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, 15 Mar 1963 159 United South of England WG Grace 1st inns -v- United North of England Eleven at Argyle Street, Hull, 03 Aug 1876 159 Worcestershire TW Graveney 2nd inns -v- Leicestershire at Grace Road, Leicester, 01 Jun 1968 160 Nottinghamshire KP Pietersen 1st inns -v- Worcestershire at County Ground, New Road, Worcester, 29 Jun 2001 160 Wellington JR Reid 2nd inns -v- Auckland at Eden Park, Auckland, 01 Feb 1952 figures correct at 27-Nov-2009

Table 5: Lowest all-out first-class innings to feature an individual double-century

Total Team Centurion Match 282 Namibia G Snyman 2nd inns -v- Kenya at Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, 29 Jan 2008 298 Gloucestershire TW Graveney 1st inns -v- Glamorgan at Rodney Parade, Newport, 08 Aug 1956 311 Glamorgan Javed Miandad 2nd inns -v- Essex at Castle Park Cricket Ground, Colchester, 29 Aug 1981 315 Victoria WH Ponsford 1st inns -v- South Australia at Adelaide Oval, 03 Dec 1926 321 Midlands DA Marillier 2nd inns -v- Manicaland at Kwekwe Sports Club, 12 Apr 2005 326 Sind Naoomal Jaoomal 1st inns -v- Nawanagar at Karachi Gymkhana Ground, 24 Dec 1938 328 Southern Punjab S Wazir Ali 1st inns -v- Bengal at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, 18 Feb 1939 329 India V Sehwag 1st inns -v- Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium, 31 Jul 2008 329 Middlesex EH Hendren 1st inns -v- Northamptonshire at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood, 26 Aug 1931 331 Canterbury GT Dowling 1st inns -v- Wellington at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, 29 Dec 1962 332 Hampshire CG Greenidge 1st inns -v- Yorkshire at Headingley, Leeds, 30 Jul 1977 333 Northamptonshire L Livingston 1st inns -v- Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 28 Aug 1954 337 Nottinghamshire CJ Poole 1st inns -v- Derbyshire at Rutland Recreation Ground, Ilkeston, 26 Jul 1952 338 Mysore V Subramanya 1st inns -v- Madras at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Madras, 21 Jan 1967 338 New South Wales SG Barnes 1st inns -v- Queensland at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, 23 Nov 1945 figures correct at 27-Nov-2009

Table 6: Lowest all-out first-class innings to feature two individual centuries

Total Team Centurions Match 250 Otago BE Congdon; KO Campbell 1st inns -v- Central Districts at Carisbrook, Dunedin, 28 Dec 1972 252 Marylebone Cricket Club L Hutton; MC Cowdrey 1st inns -v- New South Wales at Sydney Cricket Ground, 12 Nov 1954 258 Hampshire CL Smith; KD James 1st inns -v- Derbyshire at Queen's Park, Chesterfield, 23 Jul 1991 268 Essex N Hussain; GA Gooch 1st inns -v- Hampshire at County Ground, Chelmsford, 16 Sep 1993 268 South Australia TC Plant; CJ Ferguson 2nd inns -v- New South Wales at Sydney Cricket Ground, 02 Dec 2004 269 Karachi Port Trust Ahmer Saeed; Saad Wasim 2nd inns -v- Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited at Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad, 14 Feb 2005 271 Burgher Recreation Club DM Perumal; DN Pathirana 1st inns -v- Kurunegala Youth Cricket Club at Burgher Recreation Club Ground, Colombo, 31 Oct 2003 271 Lancashire W Place; BJ Howard 1st inns -v- Northamptonshire at Old Trafford, Manchester, 16 Jul 1947 272 Worcestershire NH Whiting; LF Outschoorn 1st inns -v- Oxford University at The University Parks, Oxford, 28 May 1952 275 Gentlemen of the South WL Murdoch; W Newham 1st inns -v- Players of the South at Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood, 17 Sep 1894 279 New Zealand JD Ryder; DL Vettori 1st inns -v- India at Seddon Park, Hamilton, 18 Mar 2009 279 Warwickshire FC Gardner; AVG Wolton 1st inns -v- Sussex at Edgbaston, Birmingham, 02 May 1956 280 New South Wales HSB Love; HL Collins 2nd inns -v- Victoria at Melbourne Cricket Ground, 24 Dec 1921 figures correct at 27-Nov-2009

Deep, Backward, and Square

27 December 2009

As he meant to go on

9 December 2009

... and the less said about the rest, the better

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