And have there been higher scores than Warner’s 335 without any sixes?
Steven Lynch03-Dec-2019I was surprised that David Warner’s triple-century was apparently the first at Adelaide, because I assumed Don Bradman made one! What was the previous highest score there? asked Mike Thompson from Australia
It’s true that Don Bradman never made a Test triple-century at his adopted home of Adelaide – but he couldn’t have got any closer. Against South Africa there in 1931-32 he was left stranded on 299 not out when the last man “Pud” Thurlow, playing what turned out to be his only Test, was run out when Bradman sent him back.David Warner’s unbeaten 335 in Adelaide – the highest Test score there – was just the fourth Test triple-century in Australia, behind only Matthew Hayden’s 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth in 2003-04. The others were Michael Clarke’s 329 not out against India in Sydney in 2011-12, and Bob Cowper’s 307 against England in Melbourne in 1965-66.Yasir Shah scored his maiden first-class hundred in the Adelaide Test. How rare is this? asked Nicholas Kelly from England
The feat of scoring a maiden first-class century in a Test is not terribly rare: Yasir Shah in Adelaide was the 42nd to do it overall. Only three of the previous instances were for Pakistan, though: Nasim-ul-Ghani made 101 against England at Lord’s in 1962, Azhar Mahmood 128 not out on debut against South Africa in Rawalpindi in 1997-98, and Saqlain Mushtaq made 101 not out against New Zealand in Christchurch in 2000-01.Yasir’s century came in his 55th Test innings, and he had never previously reached 50. The Australian statistician Charles Davis tells me this is a record: “Others have played more innings before their first hundred, but all of them had made at least one half-century prior.”David Warner unusually only hit one six at Adelaide. Have there been any higher Test scores without any sixes at all? asked Joel Pojas from the Philippines
There have now been 31 triple-centuries in Tests. Eight of them included no sixes at all, including Brian Lara’s 375 for West Indies against England in St John’s in 1993-94, Garry Sobers’ 365 not out for West Indies v Pakistan in Kingston in 1957-58, and Len Hutton’s 364 for England against Australia at The Oval in 1938. Mahela Jayawardene’s 374 for Sri Lanka against South Africa in Colombo in 2006 included one six, as did David Warner’s 335 not out in Adelaide the other day.At the other end of the scale, Matthew Hayden’s 380 for Australia against Zimbabwe in Perth in 2003-04 contained 11 sixes, while Wally Hammond’s unbeaten 336 for England v New Zealand in Auckland in 1932-33 included ten.Abhimanyu Mithun’s five-for saw Haryana go from 192 for 3 to 194 for 8 in the space of one over in the semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy•PTI Abhimanyu Mithun took five wickets in the last over of an Indian T20 match the other day. Has anyone else taken five wickets in a single over across formats? asked Mit Chowdhury from India
That remarkable feat by Abhimanyu Mithun came in last week’s Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 match between Karnataka and Haryana in Surat: Haryana started their last over with 192 for 3, but finished it with 194 for 8, after Mithun claimed wickets with the first four balls then, after a wide and a single, took another wicket with the final delivery.There has been one similar performance in T20 matches: for Bangladesh’s United Commerce Bank in Sylhet in 2013-14, Al-Amin Hossain took five wickets in the final over of Abahani’s innings (W2WWWW). “I wanted to make sure the batsmen didn’t know what was coming,” said Al-Amin. “I bowled different deliveries – and they kept hitting them to fielders.”The only similar performance in first-class cricket was by the New Zealand seamer Neil Wagner, who took five wickets in an over – all of them bowled – for Otago against Wellington in Queenstown in 2010-11.Clyde Walcott hit five centuries in the 1954-55 series against Australia, which I believe is the record, but he also made two fifties. Is seven 50-plus scores also a record for any Test series? asked Kevin Lashley from Barbados
Those five centuries by Clyde Walcott in West Indies’ 1954-55 home series against Australia is indeed still the record: as this table shows, there have been 19 instances of a player making four centuries in a Test series.Walcott did make two additional half-centuries, on his way to 827 runs in the series – even so, Australia still won it 3-0! But there have been eight other instances of a batsman making seven scores of 50 or more in a series, including two from just four Tests, by Patsy Hendren for England against West Indies in 1929-30, and Sunil Gavaskar for India v West Indies in 1970-71.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions
