India just marked their 100th Test victory with a thumping win against Sri Lanka. It was interesting reading the statistics of India’s Test history.
India is the nation that has taken the most number of matches (432) to reach 100 Test wins. The previous entry was Pakistan at 320 Tests. Sri Lanka have 60 wins in 191 matches and surely should make it before 300. Of course, they had a lot of help from Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but still.
The only other nation likely to ever reach 100 wins is New Zealand who have 66 wins from 354 matches and are sure to beat India’s record. Bangladesh (3 wins from 61 matches) has a loooooooong way to go!
India has made a lot of strides in this decade, with more wins abroad than in the rest of their history. Many reasons, but a few I can think of: Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy, Rahul Dravid’s form abroad, Kumble turning around his overseas form, India holding their own against Australia in Australia, the decline of the West Indies, England no longer a threat, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe.
On the other hand, India has had a few setbacks at home. They lost a series against Australia after decades. They have conceded matches against South Africa, England and Pakistan. More aggression at home would have made Win #100 come earlier. We haven’t seen a whitewash for sometime now.
Younis Khan, playing the captain’s knock of a lifetime, scored a triple century to help Pakistan avoid a follow-on against Sri Lanka and overhaul the enormous Lankan total of 644/7. While the pitch is a graveyard for bowlers, fast and spin, that should not detract from the enormous achievement of batting for over 2 days against a good opponent. There have been flat tracks before, there will be flat tracks in the future, but very few people have managed to get a three in the hundreds column. In over 1900 Tests, there have only been 23 triple centuries.
Here are the century makers (the bolded scores were the record at the time)
Andy Sandham, 325, England v WI, Kingston, 1930
Don Bradman:
334, Australia v England, Leeds, 1930
304, Australia v England, Leeds, 1934
Wally Hammond, 336*, England v NZ, 1933
Len Hutton, 364, England v Australia, The Oval, 1938
Hanif Mohammad, 337, Pakistan v WI, Bridgetown, 1958
Garfield Sobers, 365*, WI v Pakistan, Kingston, 1958
Bob Simpson, 311, Australia v England, Manchester, 1964
John Edrich, 310*, England v NZ, Leeds, 1965
Bob Cowper, 307, Australia v England, Melbourne, 1966
Lawrence Rowe, 302, WI v England, Bridgetown, 1974
Graham Gooch, 333, England v India, Lords, 1990
Brian Lara
375, WI v England, St. John’s, 1994
400*, WI v England, St. John’s, 2004
Sanath Jayasuriya, 340, Sri Lanka v India, 1997
Mark Taylor, 334*, Australia v Pakistan, Peshawar, 1998
Inzamam-ul-Haq, 329, Pakistan v NZ, Lahore, 2002
Matthew Hayden, 380, Australia v Zimbabwe, Perth, 2003
Virender Sehwag
309, India v Pakistan, Multan, 2004
319, India v South Africa, Chennai, 2008
Chris Gayle, 317, WI v South Africa, St. John’s, 2005
Mahela Jayawardene, 374, Sri Lanka v South Africa, Colombo, 374
Younis Khan, 313, Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Karachi, 2009
Only three batsmen have hit two triple centuries: Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag. Other than Lara, no one with over 10,000 runs has hit a triple century. At the other end of the spectrum, Andy Sandham scored just 875 runs in his entire career.
England leads the way with 5 triple century-makers, followed by Australia and West Indies with four each, Pakistan with three, Sri Lanka with two and India with Sehwag. New Zealand is unlucky to miss out with Crowe getting out on 299. South Africa are also yet to open their account.
St. John’s and Leeds have the most triple centuries (3 each). England has conceded the most triple centuries (7) while Australia, perhaps not surprisingly, only just one. Except for Hanif Mohammad’s rearguard match-saving effort against the West Indies, all the triple centuries were made in the first innings of the respective teams.
Graham Gooch is the only person to hit both a triple century and a ton in the same match. Virender Sehwag hit the fastest 300 off just 278 balls. He may still do it again. Wonder who the next victim will be.
In the entire recorded history of cricket, there has only been four instances of six sixes in a legitimate 6-ball over in first-class and international cricket. Here are the details about the batsmen and bowlers involved.
The first instance was in a 1968 first class match in Swansea where Sir Garfield Sobers playing for Nottinghamshire butchered Malcolm Nash of Glamorgan. Sobers almost did not make it as he was caught off the 5th ball, but the fielder fell over the rope while holding onto the ball. This feat was only one exploit in a great career as an all-rounder with 8032 runs and 235 wickets in 93 Tests. His Test record of 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958 stood for over 3 decades before Lara bested it with his 375 against England.
As for Nash, he continued playing first-class cricket till 1983, taking almost a thousand wickets at 25.87 and also 324 wickets in List A matches, in addition to being a useful batsman. He almost repeated his feat again by being hit for five sixes and one four (whew!) by Lancashire’s Frank Hayes. In an interview with the Times, he recalls the game:
The subject is never left alone. I have given talks about it several times a year for 40 years. People have said to me, ‘Why did you not give up the game after that?’ yet why should I mind? It was just another day and I moved on. Garry Sobers has a certain amount of respect for me and I have the utmost respect for him. When I go to the Caribbean, I make a point of trying to see him.
I was absolutely silly – I should have been bowling over, not round the wicket. I do not replay the over, although I might have bowled that last ball slower rather than attempt a seamer. I did not bowl slow left arm for a long time after that, but the following year we were county champions and I was to get Garry out a few times.
The second instance was Ravi Shastri taking Tilak Raj to the park in his 1985 game for Bombay against Baroda in India’s Ranji Trophy league match. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any video or photos of that game. Ranji Trophy matches were never big crowd pulling games, and this was no exception. Shastri started his career as a bowler, but graduated into a top order batsman who was asked to bowl at times.
The irony of Shastri being in this list is that the end of his career was partly brought about by his inability to score quick runs in one day internationals, at a time when cricket audience was exploding in the Indian subcontinent. India’s loss to Australia in the 1992 World Cup by a solitary run (a match where Shastri scored 25 off 67 balls) destroyed his standing among Indian cricket fans. He would retire at the age of 31 as knee injuries kept him out of cricket, and a new Indian team was shaping under Azharuddin.
As for Tilak Raj, he played 26 first-class matches scoring 936 runs and taking 5 wickets, which essentially means that he was only a part-time bowler. He was in the news recently when Gibbs replicated Shastri’s effort (see the third instance):
On Saturday, Tilak Raj sympathised with van Bunge.
“It will feel bad,” Tilak Raj told Reuters. “I felt terrible back then. All I can say is that it’s destiny.”
Tilak Raj said he had prayed to God before delivering the last ball, which Shastri still smashed for a straight six.
“I am a relieved man now, someone else has joined me after over 20 years,” he said.
Tilak Raj, now 47, an occasional spinner, was playing his first game for Baroda after moving from Delhi. Primarily a batsman, he had already scored 70 in his debut.
The third instance, as we just mentioned, was by South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbsagainst the Dutch Daan van Bunge in a ODI match in the 2007 World Cup. Gibbs has had a long Test and ODI career, though with averages of 42 and 36, he has not done enough justice to his potential. His best innings would be the incredible 175 off 111 balls in South Africa’s victory chasing Australia’s massive 434.
Daan van Bunge, being from a non-Test playing nation, had very little experience with a few ODIs under his belt before the SA match. He is an allrounder with actually a pretty good ODI bowling average (25.90). He seemed to have been very affected by the mauling, as he announced his retirement from international cricket at the tender age of 24. But he recently decided to come back and wants revenge!
“It would be great to play Herschelle again in England next year and I wouldn’t mind if he tries to repeat that feat again,” van Bunge said. “But I am sure, whatever he does, he wouldn’t be able to hit me again for 36 runs in an over,”
The fourth and latest instance was the T20 match between India and England, in which Yuvraj Singh took on Stuart Broad. Yuvraj also scored the fastest fifty in a T20 international match off just 12 balls. Yuvraj had some personal business to take care of against England, whose Dimitri Mascarenhas hit Yuvraj for 5 sixes in an ODI over a few months before. India would go on to keep their nerve in some tense matches to win the tournament under their new captain Dhoni.
Yuvraj’s success in the limited overs game helped him to break back into the Test team, where he celebrated his return with a big century against Pakistan. Unfortunately, he was in poor form in the subsequent series in Australia and was one of the factors behind their defeats in the first two matches. He was dropped, but soon found his way back, with a recent innings being a consequential unbeaten 85 to aid Sachin Tendulkar in a successful chase of a large 387 4th innings target.
Stuart Broad continues to be an important member of the English team with his all-round skills. His batting has been particularly impressive and his bowling has been improving, though perhaps not good enough for England at the Test level