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Australia's Shane Watson plays a shot off the bowling of England's Graeme Swann on the first day of the third cricket test match between England and Australia at Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham, England, Thursday, July 30, 2009. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth
Forget swine flu. Nervous nineties in Test cricket has become the latest pandemic. When Australian opener Shane Watson was bowled for 96 the other day in Adelaide, he became the sixth batsman to be dismissed in the 90s in five Tests played concurrently in Australia, New Zealand and India.
The last fortnight has seen six batsmen getting out in their 90s seven times: New Zealander Ross Taylor being the unfortunate one to be dismissed twice in the nineties.
Taylor scored 94 in the first Test against Pakistan at Dunedin and followed with 97 a week later in the second Test in Wellington.
In the Dunedin Test, he was joined in the Nervous 90s Club by his skipper Daniel Vettori who made 99.
Taylor started the current 90s epidemic on 24th November, followed by Vettori the next day, and Australian opener Simon Katich (92) on the 26th, the opening day of the Brisbane Test against the Windies.
The most unfortunate in the current Nervous 90s Club is Sri Lankan, Angelo Mathews, who was run out for 99 on Wednesday in the Mumbai Test against India.
On Saturday, Western Australia-born West Indies batsman Brendan Nash was the last man out in the first innings of the Adelaide Test for 92.
None of the Indian batsman fell in his 90s during this fortnight.
But the dismissal of India’s dynamic Virender “Viru” Sehwag for 293 in the Bombay Test on Friday was a cri-gedy (short for cricket tragedy) for the home spectators.
They were awaiting their six-o-maniac hero Viru to reach his triple Test ton to become the first to hit three triple centuries in Test annals.
Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Sehwag are the only ones to record two Test triple hundreds each.
Sehwag was unbeaten on 284 at stumps on Thursday, belting 40 fours and 7 sixes. Some were hoping that he would surpass Brian Lara’s 400.
But Sehwag fell for 293, much to the crowd’s agony.
Well, winning the Test by an innings, the series 2-0, India rating No 1 in Test cricket and their hero being adjudged Man of the Match and of the Series were ample compensations.
But still it rankled.
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.
Bradman was 284 when joined by no.11 batsman Hugh Thurlow in the Adelaide Test against South Africa in 1931-32. He reached 298 comfortably, but when going for the second run, Thurlow was run out and Bradman ended up with 299 not out. Ouch!
Crowe was dismissed for 299 against Sri Lanka at Wellington in 1990-91. He was so devastated that he groaned: “It’s a bit like climbing Everest and pulling a hamstring in the last stride. It would have been great to get 300. I was angry about it but then I settled down.”
In any case, Crowe’s 299 saved NZ from a certain defeat. But with only three balls remaining in the Test and just a single for his triple ton, he was caught behind.
Even the toiling Sri Lankans were sad.
Richards and Sarwan scored 291 runs each against England, Richards at The Oval in 1976 and Sarwan in Bridgetown in 2009.
To quote a cricketing philosopher: “To some a century is only a stepping stone, a mere warm-up and scores of 190s and 290s are but missed milestones.”