One correction in my article posted yesterday.

I had written:
“Apart from Sehwag, only four batsmen have been dismissed in their 290s in Test cricket. They are Bradman, Martin Crowe of New Zealand, Viv Richards and Ramnaresh Sarwan of the West Indies.”

The reason for the modification is that Bradman had remained unbeaten and was not dismissed.

Kind regards.

Rajesh

There have been 9 instances of the first three batsmen hitting centuries in a Test. The first time was by Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe and Frank Woolley hitting centuries for England v. South Africa at Lord’s in 1924.

Mark Taylor, Michael Slater and David Boon hitting tons in the 1993 Lord’s Test was the fifth instance. The 9th instance was last month between India and Sri Lanka at Kanpur when Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid scored hundreds.

Had Mark Waugh (99) scored one more run in the 1993 Lord’s Test it would have been the first instance of the first four batsmen registering centuries (to join Taylor, Slater and Boon).

But this happened in 2007 in the Mirpur Test in 2007 when India’s K. Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar recorded centuries as India declared at 3 for 610. This is the only such instance in Test annals.

My acknowledgement to India’s noted cricket statistician Rajesh Kumar for this information.

Mark Waugh was bowled by Phil Tufnell for 99 in the 1993 Lord’s Test. Earlier, Mark Taylor was dismissed for 111 and Michael Slater for 152. David Boon was then unbeaten on 80 but went on to score 164 not out as Australia declared at 4 for 632 and won by an innings. Two days later in the same Test , England’s Mike Atherton was run out for 99.

As you say, Jez, in the Perth Test against England in February 1995, Steve Waugh was stranded on 99 not out when brother Mark, running for McDermott, was run out. I don’t know whether Steve would have become the first to score centuries on every ground but for that run-out.

The cricinfo link for “Records / Test matches / Batting records / Most runs in a career without a hundred” is

http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282905.html

Warne sits in splendid isolation at the top on 3154. Second is Chetan Chauhan on 2084.

Of active players, Harbhajan Singh is highest on 1525, followed by B Lee on 1451, then Murali on 1256.

Lee is 33 and does not have many more tests in him (if any). Murali will never get near Warne’s 3154. Harbhajan is 29 and is like Warne in so many ways: feisty, a fantastic eye, ultra-competitive, and more likely to score runs the more they are needed. He has a test century in him if he plays on long enough to get near Warne’s test aggregate.

So as I said, this is a record that is destined to be in Warne’s hands for a very long time, if not forever.

The first one was against the Poms at Lords in 1993 when he was out for 99 (again attempting a second run for the hundred)… This in itself was not as notable as the fact that his hundred would have meant that the top 4 Aussie batsmen had all made a hundred (Slater, Taylor and Boon all already having saluted). Spare a thought for the bloke who had 10 quid on the top 4 each getting hundreds at 10,000-1!!!

The other one was in Perth when after coming on as the runner for the injured number 11 (I think it was Craig McDermott), he got himself run out, thus stranding brother Steve on 99… This particularly burned as Steve was on the verge of becoming the first batsmen (or maybe the first since Bradman) to score a hundred on every Australian cricket ground.

Again, if someone could either confirm or correct either of these stories then that’d be great. Cheers

He was a joy to watch at bat I have to say. He often looked like he had no idea against the genuinely quick bowlers like Donald and Akhtar and really struggled against Walsh and Ambrose but he looked like no coach had ever even spoken to him, it was just natural what he did and while it wasn’t always pretty, it was effective, I honestly enjoyed watching him with a bat in his hands more than some of the top order (eg Steve “The Robot” Waugh), there was always something happening with him at the crease, he’d shout “oh” himself when he played and missed, he’d have a huge grin when a close LBW went his way, he never shut up and sledged as much while batting as fielding – simply great to watch.

Mark Richardson, who caught Warne in the deep on 99, is a co-host on the morning shift of RadioSport NZ, which I listen to every day. Let’s just say that there are regular reminders of this dismissal of Warne, including that it was a no-ball.

It was sad for Warne, who was definitely good enough to score a test century. But nowadays I actually think it’s nice that he’s got the record for “most test runs without a century”, because, with the way tailenders bat these days, this is one record that he probably will keep forever. I mean, we’ve even had Vaas and Kumble get test centuries in recent years, meaning that the next on the list below Warne is, if memory serves me correctly, something like 1500 runs away.

(And don’t get me wrong, I have huge admiration for the determination of Vaas and Kumble. But as batsmen they have nothing like the natural talent of Warne.)

“92.4 Sreesanth to Mathews, 1 run, OUT, Oh what has he done… got himself run out going for the second run. he had pulled a bouncer to deep square-leg and turned for the risky second. Tendulkar with the throw .. comes on top of the stumps and Dhoni breaks the stumps with Angelo just outside the crease ..It was referred upstairs.and the verdict is OUT. Well played sir but what a way to go when you are near your debut ton.. Close but no cigar.
AD Mathews run out 99 (200m 131b 15×4 0×6) SR: 75.57″

So at least it was his own fault rather than the other batsman’s.

The above rather recalls a famous 99 in NZ cricket. It actually happened before I moved here, but one still hears about it regularly. It was Dipak Patel against England in 1992 at Christchurch. He was on 97 and he played a shot to the boundary. Derek Pringle chased. He had not thrown a ball all summer, because of a bung shoulder. So Patel charged back to the non-striker’s end with his maiden test century in sight … only for Pringle to throw it right over the stumps. It was very close. These were the days before there were third umpires, and some have suggested that Patel might actually have made it. But up went the finger.

And that was as close to 100 as he ever got in test cricket.

Geeves was twice left stranded on 99 not out last season. He won the Ricky Ponting Medal as PKF Tasmanian Tigers Player of 2008-09 after scoring 343 runs at 38.11 (HS 99 not out) and taking 37 wickets at 23.86 in Sheffield Shield.

Oh for a century!

Yesterday I wanted Gayle to be out in his 90s but he would not oblige a Roar columnist to spice up his story, would he?

What a tonic to Test cricket if the Adelaide Test ends in a TIE today! There have been interesting similarities between the Brisbane tied Test of 1960 and the current Adelaide Test so far.
Bribane 1960: WI 453, Aus 505, WI 284, Aus 232.
Adelaide 2009: WI 451, Aus 439, WI 8-284.

Who will wear the mantle of Richie Benaud and Alan Davidson today? A lesson from 1960: Don’t get run out! Three were run out in the 1960 thriller; two off the last two balls.

Just curious, Vettori wasn’t dismissed to an undetected no-ball was he?? (It was Vettori who bowled what later turned out to be a no-ball to Shane Warne, when he holed out on 99 at the WACA years ago…)