News on cricket has been hard to find in recent weeks, with NRL, AFL, tennis, Olympic previews and Tour de France highlights dominating the sports reports.
Australia’s recent poor performance in England has also not added sparkle to the cricket scene down under.
Will the Test tussle between two strong cricket teams, South Africa and England, keep Australian viewers glued to their TV sets?
A milestone was reached in The Oval Test which started yesterday. South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith became the 52nd cricketer and sixth South African to play 100 Tests.
How will he fare during these five days?
England’s classy batsman Colin Cowdrey was the first to make 100 Test appearances. It was against Australia at Birmingham in 1968 and he celebrated the occasion by scoring a century.
Others to hit 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, scoring 120 and 143 not out against South Africa in Sydney in 2006. Inzamam made the highest score when playing his hundredth Test, 184 against India at Bangalore in 2005.
Australia’s legendary Shane Warne became the first spinner in the ‘100 Test Club’. He had a sensational hundredth Test 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 five wickets in an innings in their 100th Test appearances. They are India’s Anil Kumble (2-87 and 5-89 v. Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad in 2005) and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (3-87 and 6-54 v. Bangladesh in the 2006 Chittagong Test).
Among successful 100-Test players, India’s all-rounder Kapil Dev made 55 and took 4-69 and 3-82 in his 100th Test against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989-90. Sourav Ganguly’s 100th Test coincided with Melbourne’s 100th Test in 2007.
Fittingly for the Centurion Test between South Africa and New Zealand in April 2006, three cricketers played their 100th Tests simultaneously, a unique occurrence. They were Jaques Kallis and Shaun Pollock from South Africa and Stephen Fleming from New Zealand, the first Kiwi to play 100 Tests.
All three performed poorly in their landmark Tests.
But none performed as poorly as Australia’s Allan Border. The first Australian to play 100 Tests, against the West Indies on the MCG in December 1988, he was bowled by Curtly Ambrose for a duck.
Next day’s headlines make interesting reading: Border’s day is Curtly curtailed, Duck of the century and AB Duck is a bitter pill to swallow.
Rod Nicholson wrote in the next day’s Daily Telegraph, ‘Oh Allan! What a celebratory catastrophe at the MCG yesterday!’
By a coincidence, Border had also scored a duck in his Test debut.
India’s Sachin Tendulkar has played most number of Tests, 188, followed by two Australians, Steve Waugh 168 and Ponting 165. Of the 52 players who have played 100 or more Tests, Australia leads with 11, followed by England, the West Indies and India eight each, South Africa six, Sri Lanka five, Pakistan four and New Zealand two.
How will Graeme Smith go in his 100th Test at The Oval in the next four days? Will he do a Ponting or a Border?
The more pertinent question: Is playing 100 Tests a big deal today? The first time a cricketer achieved this milestone was Cowdrey in 1968, which was 91 years after the inaugural Test in 1877. In 44 years since then, 51 have made a hundred Test appearances because of the increase in Test cricket since 1970s.
But with ODIs and Twenty20 reducing the number of Test matches, will the landmark of playing 100 Tests regain its rarity?
7andabit
Guest
Hayden, Gilchrist, Kirsten, Hayens, Smith, Astle, Hudson, Gibbs, Jayasuriya, Kali, some of my favorite openers. Who ever said Wessels should have his head examined
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Few similarities between England's Colin Cowdrey, the first one to play 100 Tests and S Africa's Graeme Smith, the 52nd and last one so far, to play 100 Tests. Both were on the podgy side, Both captained their country when playing their 100th. Both played their 100th Test in England.. After his 100th Test, Cowdrey had scored 7046 runs with 21 centuries. After his 100th Test, G Smith has scored 8173 runs with 25 centuries.
Johnno
Guest
Yes Kersi perfect , a great list you have compiled. So manta elegant and talented batsman on your list , thank you very classy batsman there.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Johnno, Among the most elegant batsmen I have watched are Neil Harvey, David Gower, Graeme Pollock, Mohammad Azharuddin and Mark Waugh.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Johnno,
Johnno
Guest
Kersi i always loved David gower too so classical , and Alan Lamba nd robin smith were very tough players as was Wayne Larkins.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards are my favourite batsmen too, Sheek. They had class, talent and technique. But less luck.
sheek
Guest
Kersi, Now that Amla has become SA's first test triple centurion, I couldn't help but think of two other great SA batsmen denied a longer opportunity of test matches (& perhaps scoring a triple ton) because of sporting isolation due apartheid policies. Those two were Graeme Pollock & Barry Richards. At least Pollock got to 23 tests averaging a whopping 60.97! Had he played 50 or 70 tests, would he have hit a triple ton? Possibly, but I think not. Not because he didn't possess the ability, of course he did. But Pollock had a little bit of Victor Trumper (the great Aussie bat of a century ago) in him. Like Trumper, once Pollock had steered his team into a commanding position, or saved his team with a considerable score, he would then hit out against the bowlers. If say he got to 100 batting sensibly, then he would unleash the shoulders. Any more runs after 100 were a bonus. That's the way he played. He did score two double centuries among his 7 tons (HS 274) & there's no doubt he would have hit a few more 200s had he played more tests, but I don't think he was the kind of guy to grind onto 300. Richards played just 4 tests, & did everything he could have to the max, averaging 72.57 with two centuries. Richards was also a bit like Pollock & Trumper - once the team was safe or saved, he would go after the bowling. As an opener, Richards could concentrate harder & longer than Pollock perhaps. In one fabulous summer playing for South Australia in 1970/71, Richards scored 356 against WA, which had an all-test attack (past, present & future) in Dennis Lillee, Graham McKenzie, Laurie Mayne & Englishman Tony Lock. He also hit 224 & 146 in separate matches against the touring Englishmen. So I reckon had he played more tests, say 50 to 70, he would very likely had got a triple ton at some stage. But well done to Hashim Amla, the first SA batsman to actuallly reach the magical 300 runs milestone.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Wow SA gone off.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you, biltongbek. Amla became the first South African to hit a Test triple ton. Before him the highest Test score by a South African was by 278 not out by AB de Villiers, against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi in November 2010. Of 26 Test triple centuries, Amla's is the 20th highest.
Yes Kersi, he is devout Muslim and has the approval from SA Breweries that he doesn't have to advertise their brand on his person. His team mates and management respects his religion and also had no issue with it.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Have you noticed that Hashim Amla is the only South African cricketer in the modern era not wearing a shirt with the sponsor's name Castle?
They had an interview with him afterwards, what a humble guy.
Lolly
Guest
Wasn't Hashim Amla wonderful? I think I've just found my favourite non-Aussie batsmen now that Dravid has retired. Amla is quite brilliant to watch.
smith eventually out for 131, Amla on 150*
Lolly
Guest
Same here. Kallis never seems to get his **** together with the bat when he plays Aus, plus I think Smith is more bloody-minded and I always like to see that in a test player. It's what our current lot seem to be missing.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Graeme Smith has become the seventh cricketer, and the first South African, to score his century in his 100th Test. The others are: Cowdrey (Eng), Miandad (Pak), Greenidge (WI), Stewart (Eng), Inzamam (Pak) and Ponting (Aus). Ponting is the only one to hit centuries in both innings in his 100th, against South Africa on the SCG in 2006. Will Graeme Smith emulate Ponting in this Test by also scoring a century in the second innings of this Test? Also if Smith scores 185 in this innings, he will go past Inzamam's record of most runs in an innings in his 100th Test.
Jason
Guest
Indeed. As an Aust supporter, I've always feared Smith more than Kallis.
Lolly
Guest
He's doing alright so far! Excellent innings.
Well done Graeme Smith, 100 up in 203 balls.