Twin Tons

In the Test that just finished between Pakistan, debutant Pakistani batsman Yasir Hameed made a century in each innings, coming in at first drop. Yasir scored 170 and 105. Scoring “twin tons” is a rare event in itself, but to do it on debut is very special. The only other player to achieve that feat was Lawrence Rowe (214 and 100*). Now the Bangladesh bashers may say that it doesn’t count – but think about it – how often do top batsmen actually get to complete two innings against Bangladesh?

There are several items that a batsmen could want on his CV, come the end of his career. Here are a few:

A century
A double century
A triple century
Bat the entire day of a Test match
Carry the bat (if you are an opener)
Centuries against all other nations
A century in each innings of a Test match

Throw in all sorts of partnership records and a batsman can retire happily.

Many of the items on the above list, aside from the century and double century elude many of even the great batsmen.

Mark Taylor achieved them all except for the twin tons and when he retired, he had scored centuries against all nations that Australia had played against. “Tubby” narrowly missed the twin ton in the same match that he got his triple, scoring 91 in the second dig.

Steve Waugh can check them all off, except the triple century – he could have done with a really big score at some stage in his career. And carrying the bat is obviously not applicable. And he has scores of 150+, no less, against all other nations.

Here are some other interesting points:

1. Only one player has scored twin tons on three occasions: Sunil Gavaskar. Our own Allan Border has achieved the feat twice and narrowly missed a third when he made 98* and 100* against the West Indies.

2. Not many have achieved the feat twice. Just 6 in addition to Gavaskar.

3. Bradman achieved the feat just once (132 & 127 against India in 1947/48) – which might surprise a few. He scored a century in test cricket, on average, every 2.75 innings. So statistically, he was the player most likely to achieve the feat of multiple times. However, he played only 80 innings in 52 Tests – which means he batted twice in just 54% of the Tests that he played. His first innings scores were often so colossal that there was often no need to bat again. I believe that another factor was the pitches. Pitches were uncovered when Bradman played and the chances were that often enough, at some stage in the match, the batsman would be subjected to a rain affected, difficult (unplayable even) pitch.

4. Most of the players in the list (attached) are truly great names – see for yourselves. For Australia, these include: Bardsley, Morris, Bradman, Simpson, Walters, Greg Chappell (twice), Ian Chappell, Border (twice), Dean Jones (great? Hmmm), Steve Waugh and Hayden. Only Jack Moroney is a player of lesser note.

5. Five players have made twin tons and scored doubles or triples in the first dig. Gooch made 333 & 123 – the highest individual aggregate for a Test. Gavaskar is the only player to turn his second century for the match into a double.

6. Allan Border is the only player to have topped 150 in both innings. (150* and 153 in Pakistan in 1979/80).

7. Two sets of brothers have achieved the feat. The Chappells and Andy and Grant Flower of Zimbabwe. Ian and Greg achieved the feat in the same match in Wellington in 1973/74. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

8. The great West Indian, Clyde Walcott achieved the feat twice in the one series, against Australia in 1954/55.

9. Duleep Mendis of Sri Lanka is the only one to make true twins – with the same score in both innings. He made a pair of 105′s in India in 1982/83.

The pain of 99

In England, South Africa is very well placed to go 2-1 up in the series, with one match to go. They require just five wickets or England needs another 236 runs on the final day.

It was Andrew Hall who set the platform for South Africa to set a large target – he made a hard-hitting 99 not out coming at number 8. Which prompted cricinfo to publish the list of all scores of 99 in Test cricket.

Which prompted me to do some analysis.

There have been 71 scores of 99 in Test cricket.

Of those:

5 were not out (7.04%)

13 were run out (18.31%), which would be way higher than the overall percentage of dismissals by run out (I can’t find what that actual percentage is). Obviously indicates extra anxiety which clouds the judgement.

8 were lbw (9.86%), which I suspect would be less than the overall percentage for lbw dismissals. Perhaps the old ump is reticent to raise the finger when the poor bugger is on 99. Of course, that statement only applies post neutral umpires. Prior to that, it would depend on which team the batsman belonged.

Breakdown of scores of 99

Prior to 1900 – 0
1900 – 1959 (60 years) – 18 – 0.30/year – or 0.030 per Test
1960 – 1989 (30 years) – 25 – 0.83/year – or 0.053 per Test
1990 – 2003 (13 years) – 28 – 2.15/year – or 0.057 per Test

I guess 99′s per year is irrelevant – as the number of Tests per year has increased over the years. The ratio per Test has risen since 1990 – perhaps this indicates a harder edge to the game. When cricket was a gentler game, I wonder if there was ever a tendency to allow a gallant batsman an easy single to post his century.

Of course, that is a thing of the past. Even in the dullest of encounters, the intensity of the fielding side lifts when a batsman reaches 99.

In my memory, the only time I can recall a batsman being presented with the opportunity to make a century was in 1982-83 when Greg Chappell was batting, facing Ian Botham. Australia needed 4 to win and Chappell was on 94. Botham bowled a slow, juicy long hop. Very decent. Chappell duly smashed the ball but it made the fence on the full – which would be six these days but back then was just 4. So no century for GS Chappell on that occasion.

Perhaps Border was allowed some easy runs at the end of a drawn Test in the mid eighties in the Caribbean. But that may have been to put the match out of it’s misery and to give Border a deserved reward. I think Gus Logie was bowling. The instant Border reached 100 (to compliment his first innings 98 not out), the match was ended.

My favourite 99′s? Boycott, of course. Any run out. And of course, SK Warne.

The most ridiculous? Mark Waugh padding up to Tufnell way outside of leg stump at Lords in 1993 and deflecting the ball between his legs, onto his stumps.

The most amusing? Steve Waugh being stranded on 99 against England in Perth back in 1994-95 as the last three of his partners were run out. Last of those was brother Mark, running for McDermott (who had that idea considering the twins’ infamous running? AB was a bit of a sadist). I wonder what Steve thought when brother Mark walked out the gate with McDermott?

And some notes from Cricinfo:

Notes: AG Chipperfield and RJ Christiani scored 99 on debut

NWD Yardley, JEF Beck, Maqsood Ahmed, RF Surti, MD Moxon, DN Patel, AJ Tudor and SK Warne never scored a Test 100

[dongles: not sure if Warnie, the unretired all-rounder would like the tone of the above statement]

Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad and DL Amiss all scored 99 in the same Test

MJK Smith, G Boycott, RB Richardson, JG Wright, MA Atherton, Saleem Malik, GS Blewett and SC Ganguly have all scored two 99s

C Hill followed his 99 with scores of 98 and 97 in his next Test