New Zealand's Daniel Vettori reacts to a delivery against Australia. AAP Image/NZPA, Ross Setford
In the Hamilton Test against Australia starting on Saturday, New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori will become the 50th cricketer, and second New Zealander, to play 100 Tests.
England’s Colin Cowdrey was the first to make 100 Test appearances (Vs Australia, Birmingham, July 1968) and celebrated the occasion by scoring a century.
Others to score centuries in their 100th Test are Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq from Pakistan, West Indian Gordon Greenidge, England’s Alec Stewart, and Australia’s Ricky Ponting.
Ponting is the only one to score centuries in both innings in his 100th Test, 120 and 143 not out against South Africa on the SCG in January 2006. Inzamam made the highest score when playing his hundredth Test, 184 against India at Bangalore in March 2005.
Allan Border was the first Australian in the 100 Test Club, but it was a Test to forget for him as he made a duck and 20 (Vs West Indies, MCG, 1988). Since then, ten Australians have played over 100 Tests each.
They are David Boon, Steve and Mark Waugh, Ian Healy, Mark Taylor, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden.
Steve Waugh is the only Australian batsman to fare well in his 100th, hitting a splendid 85 against South Africa on the SCG in 1998.
Warne, the first spinner in the Club, had a sensational 100th as he captured 2-70 and 6-161, and scored 63 and an unbeaten 15 against South Africa at Cape Town in 2002.
“There are few fairy tales, this is as close as it gets”, he said, after Australia won the thriller by four wickets.
Since then only two bowlers – both spinners – have taken 5 wickets in an innings in their 100th Tests. They are India’s Anil Kumble (2-87 and 5-89 Vs Sri Lanka in the 2005 Ahmedabad Test) and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (3-87 and 6-54 Vs Bangladesh in the 2006 Chittagong Test).
The first Kiwi to play 100 Tests was Stephen Fleming. It was at Centurion against South Africa in April 2006.
But like Border’s, it was a forgettable landmark as he made 0 and 6, and his country lost by 128 runs. Fittingly for a Test played in Centurion, three players played their 100th Tests simultaneously, a unique occurrence.
Apart from Fleming, South Africa’s Jaques Kallis (38 and 62 runs, 1-41) and Shaun Pollock (24 and 10, 2-45) also made their 100th Test appearance in this Test.
How will Vettori, a bowling all-rounder, go in his 100th Test in Hamilton?
The more pertinent question is this: is playing 100 Tests a big deal today? The first time a cricketer achieved this was Cowdrey in 1968, 91 years after the inaugural Test in 1877. In 42 years since then, 48 have made hundred Test appearances because of the mushrooming of Test cricket since 1970s.
But with Twenty20 threatening to restrict Test cricket in years to come, will a landmark of playing 100 Tests regain its rarity?
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