• In a first-class match at the SCG in 1956/57, both teams passed 400 in the first innings, yet no batsman from either side scored a century. Playing for the R.R. Lindwall XI against the R.N. Harvey XI, Ken “Slasher” Mackay hit 99. The match – a testimonial – contained 12 scores between 40 and 49, a record number in a first-class match.
• During the Matabeleland Tuskers first innings against Mid West Rhinos at Kweke in 2014/15, three of its batsmen fell in the nineties. For the first time in first-class cricket, three batsmen – Bornaparte Mujuru (96), Sean Williams (96) and Brian Chari (99) – had scores of between 95 and 99 in the same innings.
• Coming into a match at Multan in 2014/15, two bowlers with a combined total of ten first-class appearances between them demolished Islamabad with one taking eight wickets on the opening day. In his seventh match, Multan spinner Mohammad Asif (8-19) claimed a maiden five-for, while pace bowler Sadaif Mehdi chipped in with 2-24 to send Islamabad crashing to an all-out total of 54, with just one batsman reaching double figures. After dismissing Multan for 121, they then bounced back in spectacular fashion with the bat following the 54 with 575 which contained a 323-run sixth-wicket stand between Faizan Riaz (158) and Imad Wasim (207).
While both of the Multan opening bowlers conceded less than 25 runs in the first innings, both went for more than 150 in the second, with Mohammad taking 4-151 and Sadaif 5-158. Islamabad’s Zohaib Ahmed claimed ten wickets in the match with six in the second innings en route to a famous 303-run victory.
• After piling up 756/5 declared in a first-class match at Savar in Bangladesh in 2013/14, Dhaka Division gained a first-innings lead of 578 over Rajshahi, but decided against enforcing the follow-on. A new record high in first-class cricket for a team not imposing the follow-on, Dhaka’s innings contained four centuries with its first three in the order all posting three figures.
Two matches later, Rajshahi made 675/9 declared against Chitta-gong in the same competition after being 77/6. Batting first, Rajshahi lost its first three batsmen for single-digit scores, while numbers seven to nine all passed 150, a first in first-class cricket. Farhad Reza scored 259, Sanjamul Islam made 172 while Mukhtar Ali hit 168, an innings that contained 16 sixes. Farhad took part in two double-century partnerships for consecutive wickets – 347 with Sanjamul for the seventh and 224 with Mukhtar for the eighth.
It was only the second time in first-class cricket that numbers seven to nine had passed 100 after Lee Germon (114), Mark Priest (102) and Gary Stead (113*) did so for Canterbury against Central Districts at Christchurch in a semi-final of the 1993/94 Shell Trophy. The 598 runs scored by Rajshahi after the fall of its sixth wicket beat the all-time first-class record of 535 by the Australians against Canterbury at Christchurch 100 years previously.
• Scotland attained a world-record win in a one-day international in 2014/15 with Afghanistan losing all ten wickets within 25 runs. Chasing 214 for victory at Abu Dhabi, the openers reached 38 inside seven overs but both lost their wicket in the space of five deliveries, with the rest falling in quick succession. All out for 63 in 18.3 overs, Josh Davey was named man of the match after a double of 53 not out and 6/28. The previous biggest collapse in ODI cricket had been by Zimbabwe which lost its ten in 30 runs (5/0 to 35) against Sri Lanka at Harare in 2004.
• When Australia knocked over England at Perth in 2002/03, the best bowling figures came from Brett Lee with a first-innings haul of 3-78. Australia needed just 16 wickets to wrap up the match, with Lee’s contribution the most modest best-bowling performance for the country in Test history.
During the summer of 1967/68, England (404 and 215-3) defeated the West Indies (526/7d and 92/2d) by seven wickets at Port-of-Spain with the best bowling figures being 3-107 from David Brown.
• On their way to a near-600-run total at Kochi in 2013/14, two North Zone batsmen scored centuries after both had retired hurt on 95. Ian Dev Singh went on to 145 in the match against East Zone, while Rajat Paliwal progressed to 106 not out.
• One of the biggest floggings of all time took place in Sri Lanka in 2010 with the Bandarawela Central under-13s scoring 553/3 and their opponents three. Damitha Prabatha scored 222 and Themiya Patabendi 103, while Isuru Dhananjaya took 7-2. The Pussellakanda Vidyalaya XI fared slightly better second time around, falling for 31 to lose the match by an innings and 519.
• In the wake of a players’ boycott in 2009, a West Indies Test XI containing seven debutants, and led by a captain who hadn’t surfaced for a decade, took to the field against Bangladesh. Floyd Reifer, who had played four Tests in the late 1990s, earned a reprieve replacing Chris Gayle, with the entire West Indies squad withdrawing their services in a dispute over contracts. The seven new faces who made their Test debuts against the Bangladeshis at Kingstown were Ryan Austin, Travis Dowlin, Nikita Miller, Omar Phillips, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach and Chadwick Walton.
The Tigers went on to defeat the hosts by 95 runs, recording just their second Test victory – in 60 attempts – and their first overseas. With a 2-0 win in the Test series, Bangladesh then wrapped up the one-day international series 3-0.
• Australia beat Sri Lanka at Darwin in 2004 with none of its batsmen scoring a century. Adam Gilchrist’s 80 was the highest individual score in the 149-run victory, signalling an end to a run of 17 consecutive Tests by Australia that contained a century. The record run began in 2002/03, with the first ten of the 17 matches establishing a record for most Tests that contained at least two batsmen scoring a century.
• Faced with just 11 runs for a ten-wicket Test win against Bangladesh in 2001/02, Zimbabwe lost two of its number for a duck. While Mashrafe Mortaza removed Dion Ebrahim and Stuart Carlisle for nought at Chittagong, opener Trevor Gripper remained calm, making all 11 runs needed on his own.
• The West Indies began the 2011/12 Frank Worrell Trophy series with a 400-run total which included all 11 batsmen reaching double figures for the first time in their history. Australia used as many as eight bowlers as they ran up 449/9 declared, with the best return of 2-45 coming from opening batsman David Warner, his first two wickets at Test level.
In reply, Australia also declared its first innings after passing 400, with nine of its batsmen reaching double figures, including an unbeaten 68 from their No. 9 Ryan Harris and 40 not out from the No. 11, Nathan Lyon. It represented only the second occasion in history of at least 20 double-figure scores coming from the first innings of both teams in a Test, after Australia (10) and South Africa (10) at Melbourne in 1952/53.
Setting aside a Test in South Africa in 1999/2000 which saw a 0/0 declaration, and a forfeiture, Australia (406/9d and 192/7) became just the second country to win a Test after declaring with a first-innings deficit. In 1934/35, England had declared at 81/7 in Bridgetown, 21 runs behind the West Indies’ first-innings total, and went on to win the match by four wickets.
• Bangladesh overcame the worst start to the fourth innings in the history of Test cricket in 2014/15 to beat Zimbabwe at Mirpur. Chasing a relatively small target for victory, Bangladesh lost their first three batsmen without a run on the board, and surrendered another four to finish at 101/7, securing a three-wicket win. With the third-best figures by a left-arm spinner in Test history, Taijul Islam (8-39) became just the second player – after Harbhajan Singh (8-84) against Australia at Chennai in 2000/01 – to take eight wickets in an innings and hit the winning run in the same Test.
• When Tim McIntosh and Brendon McCullum put on a first-wicket stand of 125 at Hyderabad in 2010/11, it gave New Zealand their first hundred-run opening partnership in six years. Forty-seven Tests, 87 innings and 19 different opening combinations had gone by since Mark Richardson and Stephen Fleming put on 163 against England at Trent Bridge in 2004.
India’s openers also established a century partnership for the first wicket at Hyderabad, with another 100 runs added for the tenth. Two such stands – one at the top and one at the bottom of the same innings – had only occurred once previously in Test match cricket, by New Zealand against Pakistan at Auckland in 1972/73.
• Of the ten players who made their Test debuts at Melbourne in 1881/82, three would also end their careers in the same match five seasons later. The England trio of Dick Barlow, Billy Bates and William Scotton appeared in 17, 15 and 15 Tests respectively with each ending their careers in the second Ashes Test at Sydney in 1886/87.
• When India and New Zealand met at Dambulla on 10 August in 2010 it meant that a one-day international had been played on every day in the calendar year since the first ODI in 1970/71. The Kiwis (288) dispensed with India for just 88, which, at the time, was India’s fifth-lowest score in a one-day international.
• Despite plummeting to a score of 32/8 against the Warriors at Bloemfontein in 2014/15, the Knights fought back to gain a first-innings lead and a win. After five ducks, numbers nine and ten – Corné Dry and Quinton Friend – each scored 51 to take the final score to 140, with the Warriors then dismissed for 137. In all first-class cricket, it was the second-lowest total at the fall of the eighth wicket by a side batting first that went on to a secure a first-innings lead – 28/8 by Otago versus Auckland at Dunedin 1889/90 and 32/8 by the same team against Canterbury, also in Dunedin, in 1863/64, New Zealand’s inaugural first-class match.
• During Pakistan’s first innings against Australia at Dubai in 2014/15, their wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed fell to the last ball before tea, while the not-out batsman retired hurt. Zulfiqar Babar failed to resume his innings after the break, which resulted in the presence of two new batsmen – Rahat Ali and debutant Imran Khan – at the crease.
This had happened just once before in the history of Test cricket, at Hamilton in 1995/96. Marking his 21st birthday on his Test debut, New Zealand’s Greg Loveridge suffered a season-ending injury while batting against Zimbabwe, but stuck around until his batting partner Dipak Patel was dismissed. The match then saw debutants Robert Kennedy and Geoff Allott making their entry on to the Test match arena together, while Loveridge never got to bowl, or play for New Zealand again.
• Sri Lanka and India combined for a record-breaking one-day international in Hobart in 2011/12, with India reaching 321 with more than 13 overs to spare. Needing to reach its target by the 40th over to gain a bonus point and stay alive in the tri-series, India mauled Sri Lanka with Virat Kohli scoring an unbeaten 133 off 86 balls. India became only the second country – after Sri Lanka at Headingley in 2006 – to hunt down a 300-run total in under 40 overs, hitting 33 fours, equalling the highest number in a ODI innings in Australia. Lasith Malinga was a target, conceding a record 15 fours and 12.52 runs off his 7.4 overs.
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan scored an unbeaten 160 – then the highest one-day score by a visiting batsman in Australia – sharing the first double-century stand in a ODI at Hobart with Kumar Sangakkara, who made 105.
• When England trounced Australia 3-1 in 2010/11, they became the first country in 75 years to achieve three innings victories in an away Test series. The previous example had been by Australia in five matches against South Africa in 1935/36. The England tourists had warmed up for the Ashes by beating Western Australia in a three-day match in Perth. It was the first time England had won their opening first-class tour match in Australia since 1965/66, when they also beat Western Australia.
A fan all dressed up for the MCG Boxing Day Test in 2010/11, which England (513) won by an innings and 157 runs
• Appearing on his Test debut for Zimbabwe in 2003/04, Stuart Matsikenyeri scored a half-century in a team total that traversed the 500-run mark. Batting at No. 6 against the West Indies at Harare, Matsikenyeri’s 57 was followed by another three consecutive fifties, only the second occasion numbers six to nine had done so in the same Test innings. The first such instance was also achieved by Zimbabwe, against Bangladesh at Dhaka in 2001/02.
• When England played India at Lord’s at 2007, a Test first took place with as many as nine different bowlers claiming a wicket lbw. Ryan Sidebottom (4), James Anderson (1), Monty Panesar (1) and Chris Tremlett (1) took at least one lbw for the home side, while Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (3), Zaheer Khan (1) Sourav Ganguly (1), Anil Kumble (1) and Robin Singh (1) did so for India. Previously, four Tests had featured eight bowlers taking a wicket lbw.
• Papua New Guinea made history in 2014/15 by becoming the first country to win its first two one-day internationals. The 26th nation to appear in ODI cricket, PNG defeated Hong Kong 2-0 in a two-match series played in Townsville, with Lega Siaka (109) scoring their maiden one-day international century in the second game.
Prior to PNG’s first win, the only others countries to have won their maiden ODI had been Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Bermuda and Afghanistan.
• Despite not enforcing the follow-on in a first-class match in Hyderabad in 1977/78, the Muslim Commercial Bank XI pulled off a stunning 609-run victory. In reply to MCB’s first-innings total of 575, the Water and Power Development Authority was dismissed for just 98, with Anjum Nasir taking 6-22. MCB decided not to enforce the follow-on and piled on another 282 runs without loss, thanks to 105 from Qasim Umar and 161 from Azmat Rana. Set 760 to win, the WPDA fell for 150, with Anjum taking another five-for and 11 wickets in the match.
• During 1921, England used as many as 11 openers in 16 Test innings, a record they matched in 1935. They also used 11 in 26 innings throughout 1930. The greatest number of openers employed in a year by a country other than England is nine by Australia, in 25 innings in 1977, and across 28 innings in 1979.
• When Tasmania staged their inaugural first-class match in Hobart, none of their batsmen reached double figures in either innings, a unique occurrence in Australian first-class cricket. Taking on Victoria (78 and 67) in 1857/58, Tasmania (51 and 25) were bowled out for a record-low aggregate of 76, with Gideon Elliott (3-19 and 3-6) and Tom Wills (6-25 and 6-10) bowling unchanged throughout both innings.
In the only first-class match played at the Lower Domain Ground in Hobart, Tasmania’s captain William Brown took a record 15 wickets in his only first-class match.
• When India lined up against New Zealand at Nagpur in 2010/11, they became the first country to go into a Test match with a combined 50,000 runs. Leading the 11 with most runs was the redoubtable Sachin Tendulkar with 14,366.
• Between 1931 and 1948, England played a record 75 Tests in a row without fielding the same XI in consecutive matches. They won 24 of the matches, lost 14 and drew 37. England later equalled their own record with another sequence of 75 between 1966 and 1974. The results were remarkably similar with another 24 wins, plus 13 losses and 38 draws.
• The Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club exacted a memorable two-run win over Badureliya Sports in Sri Lanka in 2014/15 with both teams almost matching each other’s runs in both innings. After Bloomfield were bowled out for excactly 100 in the first innings, Badureliya fell for 98. Batting a second time, Bloomfield made 175 with their opponents also out for 175 to lose by two runs.
• The Indian side Saurashtra passed the 600-run total for the third time in their history in 2008/09, with all three coming in consecutive innings in Rajkot during the Ranji Trophy. They beat Orissa (302 and 234), after declaring at 620/4, which included a world-record fifth-wicket stand of 520 between Cheteshwar Pujara (302*) and Ravi Jadeja (232*), who also claimed bowling figures of 5-44. A few days later, Saurashtra raised its second 600-run total with 679/8 in a drawn match against Punjab with 189 from Pujara. They made it a hat-trick in their next outing with 643/4 declared against Mumbai, with yet another big hundred from Pujara, his 176 being his third score of 150-plus in consecutive innings. A 21-year-old Chirag Pathak scored 170 on his first-class debut, sharing an opening stand of 275 with Bhushan Chauhan (104).
• A first-class match in Sri Lanka in 1999/2000 saw Kurunegala Youth make a total of 41 off 40.1 overs. Only one batsman – Darshike Jayakody (10) – reached double figures, while Sebastianites spinner Dinesh Perera took 5-5.
• In 2009/10, the North Sydney third-graders were bowled out for a record-low total of eight by Parramatta at suburban Merrylands, with eight of their number out for a duck. Anthony Karam was the destroyer with figures of 9.4-7-3-7, including two hat-tricks. His second hat-trick consisted of the last three balls of North’s first innings, and with his first ball in the second innings took another wicket, making it four in four.
It was a history-making summer for Karam, who followed his pair of hat-tricks with an unbeaten double-century in a semi-final against Manly. Karam and Madushanka Vithanage shared an unbroken tenth-wicket stand of 200 – the highest last-wicket partnership in any grade since the competition began in 1893.
Anthony Karam (at front, right) leads the charge after his record-breaking second hat-trick for Parramatta against North Sydney in 2009/10
• Vying for a well-earned spot in the West Indies first-class domestic final in 2012/13, Jamaica were beaten by Trinidad and Tobago in a semi, ending a 15-match winning streak. Jamaica had not lost since 2009/10, going 25 consecutive first-class matches without defeat.
• After Trevor Barsby and Matthew Hayden had put on a double-century stand against an England XI at Toowoomba in 1994/95, Queensland were quickly dismissed for 314. It became the lowest total in a first-class match in Australia in which both openers had scored a century, Barsby hitting 101 and Hayden 119. The lowest total in all first-class cricket to include centuries by their openers is 284 by Yorkshire against Surrey at The Oval in 1869.
• In consecutive Tests against England in 2002, Sri Lanka ended three consecutive centuries on the same score. In the first innings of the second Test at Edgbaston, Graham Thorpe was last man out for 123. In the first innings of the following Test, at Old Trafford, Mark Butcher and Alec Stewart were also dismissed for 123.
• To celebrate the opening of a brand new cricket ground in the Indian city of Hubli in 2012/13, Haryana passed 500 in the first innings with one of the biggest partnerships of all time. Surviving a shaky start of 168/7, they made it to 587/9 declared with an eighth-wicket stand of 392. On a ground that previously housed a toilet block, Amit Mishra (202*) and Jayant Yadav (211) both scored maiden first-class centuries, going on to doubles, while Kunal Kapoor (106 and 100*) scored the first two first-class hundreds of his career for Karnataka.
• Chasing a one-day international target of 360 at Jaipur in 2013/14, India smashed their way into the record books by passing the total with nine wickets and six overs to spare. After Australia posted a total which contained the first instance of the first five batsmen all scoring half-centuries, India responded with the first example of the first three in the order all passing 90.
Rohit Sharma, with 141 not out, and Shikhar Dhawan, 95, raised an opening stand of 176, while Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 100. India’s 362/1 contained the first instance of two partnerships in excess of 175 in the same ODI innings, with Rohit and Kohli adding 186 – unbroken – for the second wicket. Their 362 became the first 350-plus total for the loss of just one wicket in a ODI, beating Sri Lanka’s 348 at Kingston earlier in the year.
Four days later, India became the first team to chase down a 350-run total twice when they thumped the Australians in game six of the seven-match series at Nagpur. Shane Watson (102) and George Bailey (156) scored tons for Australia (350/6) – the first instance of an Australian number three and four posting centuries in the same one-day international – while Dhawan (100) and Kohli (115*) did so for India (351/4).
With two matches ruined due to rain, both teams, with two wins each, went to Bangalore for the decider which turned out to be another record-buster. Batting first, India rampaged its way to 383/6, with Sharma hitting the third double-century in one-day internationals. With 209, he became the first batsman to exceed 15 sixes in an innings (16) completing the series with 491 runs, a new record for the most runs in a bilateral series. The next best at the time also came in this series – 478 by Bailey.
Australia responded with 326, the ninth time 300 had been topped in the series, the most in a bilateral series, beating the previous record of six by Sri Lanka and India in 2009/10. With 60 at No. 6, Glenn Maxwell’s half-century came off 18 balls, the equal-fastest 50 by an Australian in a ODI, while James Faulkner (116) hit a maiden century at No. 7, reaching three figures in 57 balls, then the fastest hundred by an Australian.
Nine centuries were scored in the series – the most in a bilateral contest – while 38 sixes were struck at Bangalore – 19 by each side – beating 31 by India and New Zealand at Christchurch in 2008/09. A total of 107 sixes was seen over the six matches played, obliterating the previous mark of 62 in a series between two countries.
• As many as 423 sixes were struck in Test matches in 2014, the first time 400 had been reached in a calendar year. The previous best was 375 in 2004.
• Having begun with the calendar year of 2013 by blowing away New Zealand for 45 in a Test match, South Africa then dismissed Pakistan for under 50, both instances coming within a month. Celebrating his 100th Test as captain, Graeme Smith scored 52 in the second innings of the first Test at Johannesburg, after Pakistan had been dismissed for 49, their lowest-ever Test score. Dale Steyn was the wrecker, with figures of 8.1-6-8-6, and 11-60 for the match.
After pouching half-a-dozen catches in the innings, A.B. de Villiers took another five in the second to equal the world record of 11, established by England’s Jack Russell, achieved at the same ground in 1995/96. With a score of 103 not out, de Villiers became the first wicketkeeper to achieve the double of a century and ten dismissals in the same Test.
• During the three-match Test series against the West Indies in 2009/10, Australia scored a record 15 fifties without a century. While Australia took out the series 2-0, the West Indies registered four hundreds, with two coming off the bat of skipper Chris Gayle. Australia made 520/7 declared in the third Test at Perth, only the fourth time that any team had reached 500 in a Test innings without the aid of an individual century. Five batsmen passed 50, with the top score, a 99, from opener Simon Katich.
• Jamaica began a first-class match against Barbados in 2012/13 in disarray, losing their first three batsmen for ducks. Barbados also lost both of their openers for nought, the first time all four openers had been dismissed for a duck in the first innings of a first-class match in the West Indies.
• A Queensland club team staged a monumental record-breaking comeback in a match in 2007/08 with its last pair putting on a triple-century partnership. After slumping to 136/9 against Maleny, Tewantin’s last pair – that included debutant Dean Carlyle – took the score to 471 with the partnership unbroken at 335. Carlyle scored an unbeaten 132, while his partner, the No. 11 Tony Morgan, contributed 169.
• Despite posting two individual centuries and a record double-century partnership in Nairobi in 2006/07, Ireland went down to Kenya with one wicket and one over to spare. Ireland reached 284/4 off its 50 overs, with hundreds from William Porterfield (104*) and Kevin O’Brien (142) and a record-breaking fourth-wicket partnership of 227. Such feats proved not enough for victory though, with Kenya squeaking home after fifties from Nehemiah Odhiambo (66) and Thomas Odoyo (61*).
• The Australia-South Africa clash at Perth in 2012/13 featured the first-ever instance of fielders, other than wicketkeepers, from each side taking four catches in a Test innings. Mitchell Johnson took four for Australia – with two caught and bowled – while Graeme Smith took five in Australia’s second-innings 322.
• After wobbling at two down for 12 on the first day of their match against Goa at Panaji in 1988/89, Tamil Nadu clocked up a record 912/6 declared. The unprecedented fightback included the first example of two triple-centuries in the same first-class innings – 313 from Venkat Raman and 302 not out from Arjan Kripal Singh, who posted the first 300 from a No. 7 in first-class cricket in just his third first-class match. Tamil Nadu added 652 runs after the fall of the fifth wicket, a record in first-class cricket that stood until 2014/15 when Karnataka played them in the Ranji Trophy Final at Mumbai. After being 84/5, Karnataka added 678 runs to finish at 762, including 328 by Karun Nair, the first first-class triple-century by a No. 6 batsman.
• In a first-class match against Kenya at Dubai in 2013/14, one of the six Afghanistan debutants took a wicket with his first ball while another hit his first ball for six. Opening the bowling, Sayed Shirzad bowled Dominic Wesonga for a duck, finishing with figures of 2-28. Opening the batting, Fazal Niazai struck the first ball of his first-class career for six, finishing with a score of 15.
• In a first-class tour match in the lead-up to the 2013 Ashes, Somerset reached 320 in the first innings after losing their last eight wickets for 16. With five batsmen out for a duck, six wickets fell with the score on 310. As many as seven wickets have fallen on the same score in first-class cricket, a record shared by MCC and Gauteng. After being nine down for eight against Surrey at Lord’s in 1872, MCC’s last wicket doubled their total, with their first seven wickets falling on nought. At Johannesburg in 1997/98, Gauteng lost their first seven wickets on 12 in the second innings against Northerns.
• New Zealand celebrated a rainy New Year’s Day in 2014 with a remarkable record-breaking one-day international total against the West Indies in Queenstown. Played at a cricket ground nestled below the Remarkables mountain range, the Kiwis blasted their way to a massive 283/4 in a match reduced to 21 overs per side.
Corey Anderson and Jesse Ryder shared a 191-run stand off 75 deliveries, with both scoring centuries off fewer than 50 balls, a first in one-day international cricket. Anderson, with a maiden ODI century, hit 131 not out reaching his hundred off 36 balls, breaking Shahid Afridi’s long-standing world record of a ton off 37. Ryder scored 104, getting to the three-figure mark off 46 balls, which, at the time, was the sixth-fastest century in one-day international cricket.
The Kiwis hit 22 sixes, the first time 20 had been seen in a ODI innings, with the West Indies providing the first instance of five or more bowlers having an economy rate of ten or more in a ODI innings.
• Despite being dismissed for just 65 in a first-class match at Centurion in 2000/01, the Northerns innings contained a half-century partnership. In the Super Sport Series game against Western Province, the only two batsmen in the innings to reach double figures combined for a fourth-wicket stand of 52. Finley Brooker scored 28 and Dirk de Vos 17, while Western Province’s Claude Henderson took 5-6.
• When Saurashtra and Mumbai met at Rajkot in the 1996/97 Ranji Trophy limited-over tournament, four individual centuries were scored in a List A match for the first time anywhere in the world. Opener Shitanshu Kotak (122*) and No. 3 Bimal Jadeja (104) shared a double-century partnership for Saurashtra, while openers Sanjay Manjrekar (127*) and Rajesh Sutar (108) opened the Mumbai innings with a match-winning 154-run stand.
• In India’s second innings against the West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983/84, more than half of the team was dismissed for the same single-digit score. Six of them went for a score of one, a record number of identical non-zero dismissals in a Test innings.
• Despite a history-making middle-order slump at Lord’s in 2010, England bounced back with Test cricket’s biggest-ever eighth-wicket partnership. Batting first against Pakistan, England suffered a Test first when numbers four, five and six – Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan – were each dismissed for a duck, but recovered with a match-winning stand of 332 between Jonathan Trott (184) and Stuart Broad (169). Their partnership accounted for 49.78 per cent of England’s runs (446), beating a 429-run stand between South Africa’s Jacques Rudolph (222*) and Boeta Dippenaar (177*) at Chittagong in 2002/03 (48.75 per cent).
In a match tarnished by allegations of a form of match-fixing – claims that were later proven in court – Pakistan (74 and 147) were consigned to their biggest-ever Test defeat, going down by an innings and 225 runs.
• When South Africa A hosted Australia A in a four-day match at Pretoria in 2013, two batsmen from each side passed 150 in the first innings. David Warner hit 193 and Glenn Maxwell 155 not out for the Australians, while opener Dean Elgar made 268 and wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile 159 for the hosts. Elgar’s knock was a record-equalling high in unofficial Tests, while Tsolekile’s was the best to date by a No. 7.
• The opening Test of the Bangladesh-New Zealand series at Chittagong in 2013/14 included the first instance of at least ten batsmen from one side hitting a six in the same match. Improving on, at least, six previous instances of seven, the Kiwis’ No. 11 Trent Boult and opener Peter Fulton led the way with three each, while Hamish Rutherford (2), Ross Taylor (1), B.J. Watling (2), Ish Sodhi (2), Kane Williamson (1), Brendon McCullum (1), Corey Anderson (1) and Doug Bracewell (1) were the others. Only Bruce Martin missed out, while five Bangladeshi batsmen also hit at least one six.
• Trailing by 234 runs in a 2013/14 Sheffield Shield match at the SCG, Victoria went to stumps on day two with three wickets down and not a single run on the board. In a calamitous half hour before stumps, both openers went for ducks as did the No. 4. With the No. 3 out for nought the following morning, Victoria provided the first instance of the first four batsmen out for a duck in a first-class innings in Australia.
None of the first seven batsmen in the order reached double figures, with their wicketkeeping captain Matthew Wade also out for a duck at six wickets down for nine. Glenn Maxwell then came out blazing with 127 at No. 8 in Victoria’s all-out total of 186. With 14 fours and seven sixes off 102 balls, Maxwell set a new record for dominance in a Sheffield Shield innings with 68.27 per cent of the total. Only ten runs were scored by the first seven in Victoria’s innings, a record low number in all first-class cricket in which the No. 8 went on to a century.
• The second one-day international between Australia and the West Indies at Perth in 2012/13 was history-making with the top four in the visitors’ batting order all dismissed leg before wicket. Mitchell Starc claimed all four of the dismissals, and finished the match with 5-32, his second five-wicket haul (5-20) in three days, against the same opposition, at the same ground.
Australia smashed the West Indies 5-0 in the series, becoming the first country to win 500 one-day internationals, reaching the milestone in game five at the MCG. Filling in for an injured Michael Clarke, Shane Watson became the first Australian captain to lose his wicket to the first ball of a one-day international, while West Indies opener Johnson Charles (100) scored his maiden century in any form of first-class, domestic or international cricket. Charles then quickly made it two in a row, pumping out 130 in his next ODI innings, against Zimbabwe at St George’s.
• With a total of just 167, the West Indies side Combined Campuses and Colleges pulled off a major innings victory over the Leeward Islands in 2011/12 with off-spinner Ryan Austin claiming the second ten-wicket haul of his first-class career. Leeward collapsed in both innings for totals of 39 and 113, with Austin taking 5-19 and 5-52.
• On their way to a finals berth in the 2013 Champions Trophy, India won three consecutive matches by the same margin of eight wickets. In 2003, England won four one-day internationals in a row by seven wickets.
• When Pakistan fell for 170 against the West Indies in a 2013 Champions Trophy match, their innings, including extras, was composed entirely of even-numbered scores. After 3,363 one-day internationals, Pakistan’s innings at The Oval became the first in which all 12 scores (2, 50, 4, 0, 96*, 0, 2, 6, 2, 0, 2, 6) were even numbers.
• A first-class match in Sri Lanka in 2013/14 featured three batsmen from the same side who each made the same score of 103. Representing Sri Lanka A against New Zealand A at Pallekele, Kaushal Silva hit 103 in the first innings, while Ashan Priyanjan made 103 and Chaturanga de Silva 103 not out in their second. New Zealand opener Carl Cachopa spoilt the party with a score of 104.
• When Australia beat Sri Lanka at Brisbane in 2007/08, five bowlers were used with each taking the same number of wickets in each innings. The first time as many as five had done so in a Test, Brett Lee took 4-26 and 4-86, Mitchell Johnson 2-49 and 2-47, Stuart MacGill 1-79 and 1-64, Stuart Clark 2-46 and 2-75 and Andrew Symonds 1-10 and 1-21.
• A cricket club in north-west England sent out an SOS to a number of former Test cricketers in 2014 after being bowled out for a total of three in the Cheshire League. Chasing a victory total of 109 set by Haslington, Wirral managed just one run off the bat – from their No. 11. Describing it as a “bad day at the office”, the club sought some coaching from the likes of Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan.
A few weeks later, the Pak Pakhtoon cricket club also fell for a total of three, by the Pioneers A’s in the Birmingham Cricket League. A record-low total since the competition began in 1893, the match was over in 40 minutes and 13 overs. A 45-year-old Khalid Sadiq, nursing a calf injury, was the destroyer, taking 7-2 in seven overs.
• India controversially conceded a one-day international in 1978/79 when 23 runs away from victory and two wickets down. Bishan Bedi pulled out of the match at Sahiwal after a barrage of short-pitched bowling from Pakistan’s Sarfraz Nawaz.
• Australia were humbled at Cape Town in 2008/09 when the South Africans did them in by an innings, their first such defeat in more than a decade. Australia had played a world-record 127 Tests devoid of an innings defeat since going down by an innings and 219 runs at the hands of India in Kolkata in 1997/98.
• The Adelaide Test of the 2013/14 Ashes contained 12 half-centuries, all of which were scored by a different batsman. A record number in a Test match, seven Australians scored a fifty – Chris Rogers (72), Shane Watson (51), Michael Clarke (148), George Bailey (53), Brad Haddin (118), Ryan Harris (55*) and David Warner (83*) – while five England batsmen did so – Michael Carberry (60), Ian Bell (72*), Joe Root (87), Kevin Pietersen (53) and Matthew Prior (69).
The Australians’ first-innings total of 570/9 declared contained an Ashes-record 12 sixes, including five from Haddin and one from the No. 11, Nathan Lyon. In all, 20 sixes were seen for the first time in an Ashes Test with a total of 21 – 13 by Australia (12/1) and eight by England (4/4).
Australia made history again in the following Test at Perth, becoming the first team to set a victory target of more than 500 runs in three successive Tests against the same opposition – 561 at Brisbane, 531 at Adelaide and 504 at the WACA.
• During their match-winning total of 600 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 2003/04, India put on two consecutive identical century partnerships. A first in Test match cricket, Rahul Dravid featured in both during his Test-record high of 270 – 131 for the fourth wicket with V.V.S. Laxman (71) and 131 for the fifth with Sourav Ganguly (77). Dravid also added 129 for the second wicket with the wicketkeeping opener Parthiv Patel (69) and 98 for the sixth with Yuvraj Singh (47).
• Despite four ducks, the West Indies went past 500 in a Test at Georgetown in 2002. Carl Hooper (233) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (140) scored most of the runs, with ducks from Brian Lara, Junior Murray, Mervyn Dillon and Cameron Cuffy in its first-innings 501 against India.
• Karnataka began a quarter-final match in the Ranji Trophy in 2013/14 with consecutive individual scores of 100, 0, 0, 0, 100 and 100. The three noughts and three exact scores of 100 formed part of a first-innings 349 against Uttar Pradesh at Bangalore, the lowest all-out total in first-class cricket to contain three individual centuries. With a 92-run victory, Karnataka became the first Ranji Trophy team to achieve six consecutive outright wins in the same season.
• When Oxford University hosted a first-class match at The Parks in 1984 only three Somerset batsmen made it to the crease in the first innings and all scored a century. At the time, Somerset’s 365/1 declared was the lowest first-class total to include three centuries – 152 not out by Peter Roebuck, 103 by Julian Wyatt and 100 not out from Martin Crowe.
• When Bangladesh hosted India at Dhaka in 2014, all 20 wickets fell for less than 200 runs, a first in one-day international cricket. Chasing India’s 105, Bangladesh was routed for 58, with the aggregate of 163 beating the previous record of 203 by Kenya (134) and Zimbabwe (69) in Harare in 2005/06.
One bowler from each side took five wickets in an innings in the Dhaka match. With 5-28, Taskin Ahmed became the first Bangladesh bowler to claim a five-for on his ODI debut, and, at 19, the first teenager to do so, while Stuart Binny’s 6-4 represented the cheapest six-wicket haul in a one-day international to date. Both claimed their first five-wicket haul in List A cricket, with Binny, in just his third one-day international, taking his first three wickets against the Bangladeshis without conceding a run.
• After following-on at Georgetown in 2014/15, Barbados successfully defended a total of 69 to win the match by two runs. Guyana were dismissed for 66 in 29.1 overs, with three middle-order batsmen going for a duck and Dwayne Smith (5-17) achieving a maiden five-wicket haul after 13 years of first-class cricket.
Earlier, Guyana spinner Veerasammy Permaul had taken a career-best 8-26, dismissing three consecutive batsmen lbw for nought. The previous lowest-defended first-class total in the West Indies was 73 by Demerara against Trinidad at Port-of-Spain in 1868/69.
• When Australia compiled 435 in the fifth Ashes Test at Sydney in 1932/33, the first six in the order made progressively higher scores, while the remaining five made progressively lower ones. In the first innings, Australia’s individual scores in batting order were 0, 14, 48, 61, 73, 85, 52, 42, 19, 17 (not out) and 1.
• In the ninth match of the 2011 World Cup, both of the first wickets to fall in each innings was a stumping. A first in one-day international cricket, Bangladesh’s Imrul Kayes was stumped for 12, while Ireland’s Paul Stirling went the same way for nine in the match at Mirpur.
• Two New Zealand batsmen crafted one of Test cricket’s masterpieces in 2014/15 with a world-record stand of 365 against Sri Lanka. In the second Test at Wellington, Kane Williamson (242*) – with a maiden Test match double-century – and B.J. Watling (142*) posted the highest-ever stand for the sixth wicket, which beat the previous best set just a year before which also involved the South African-born Watling. In doing so, Watling became the first player to feature in the top two stands for any wicket in the history of Test match cricket.
At the same ground in 2013/14, Brendon McCullum – a wicketkeeper turned batsman – and Watling – a batsman turned wicketkeeper – had put on 352 for the sixth wicket, with the former producing the first Test match triple-century by a New Zealander. After a double-century in the first Test, McCullum scored 302 over 775 minutes and 559 deliveries, both records for a New Zealand batsman.
New Zealand’s sixth and seventh wickets added a record 531 runs in the second innings, beating 414 runs by Australia against England at the MCG in 1936/37. After a duck in the first innings, Watling achieved the double of a century (124) and five dismissals in an innings, while Jimmy Neesham scored 33 and 137 not out, batting at No. 8, on his Test debut. New Zealand declared at 680/8, the highest total in the second innings of a Test, overtaking its own 671/4 against Sri Lanka, at the same venue, in 1990/91.
• Of a total of ten ducks in the second Ashes Test at the MCG in 1901/02, eight came on the opening day. Victor Trumper, Monty Noble and Syd Gregory each made nought in Australia’s first-innings total of 112; Tom Hayward, Willie Quaife, John Gunn and Arthur Jones then made ducks in England’s 61, and by the time Australia stumbled to 48/5 in their second innings by stumps, Bill Howell had become the eighth duck of the day. The second, and final, day’s play at Manchester in 1888 featured ten batsmen who failed to score, with eight dismissed for a duck.
• A day after copping a bruising defeat in the Clydesdale Bank 40-over competition in 2011, the Netherlands regrouped to thrash Yorkshire. In matches played at the Dutch venue of Amstelveen, centuries from the Sussex pair of Chris Nash (116*) and Lou Vincent (102) dashed any hopes for the home side which was bundled out for just 123 in a 148-run defeat. But the next day, it was Yorkshire dismissed for the same score of 123, as the Netherlands romped home with 75 balls remaining. The Pakistan-born Mudassar Bukhari took 3-28, while his opening new-ball partner Shane Mott, a grade cricketer from Sydney, took 2-18.
• After defeating England by 281 runs in the fifth Test at Sydney in 2013/14, Australia won their following Test by exactly the same margin. South Africa lost the first Test at Centurion by 281 runs, during which Mitchell Johnson took 12 wickets, and Alex Doolan became the first batsman to score 89 on his Test debut.
The tables were turned for the following Test at Port Elizabeth with South Africa winning by 231 runs after a spectacular batting collapse by the Australians. Following a century opening stand in the second innings from Chris Rogers and David Warner, the nine batsmen to follow scored a total of 22 runs, the second-lowest for Australia in a Test innings, following 13 against England at Edgbaston in 1902. Australia’s Nos. 3-7 scored a total of seven runs, with Doolan making five, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin one each and Shaun Marsh and Steve Smith first-ball ducks. It represented the second-lowest aggregate for numbers three to seven for any team in a Test, with the lowest (5) also by Australia against South Africa, at Cape Town in 2011/12.
When A.B. de Villiers (116) passed fifty in the first innings, he became the first batsman to score a half-century in 12 consecutive Tests, beating 11 by the West Indies’ Viv Richards and the Indian pair of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag.
• When Victoria hosted Tasmania at Melbourne in 1951/52, their mammoth first-innings total of 647 was devoid of any extras. Jeff Hallebone scored 202 on his first-class debut, while Richard Maddocks achieved his maiden first-class century, going on to 271. Both Hallebone and Maddocks were late replacements for the match, and neither was selected for Victoria’s following game.
There was no play on the final day of the drawn match at the MCG to mark the death of King George VI. The second day of the fifth Test between England and India at Madras was also called off to note his passing.
• After losing the toss and being asked to bat in two consecutive Tests against New Zealand in 2001/02, Australia responded both times with a double-century opening partnership. Unique in Test match cricket, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden added 224 at Brisbane and then 223 at Hobart, with both games drawn.
In 2014, the West Indies celebrated their 500th Test with only the second instance of a team putting on a century stand after being sent in in two consecutive matches of a series. At Kingstown, Chris Gayle and Kraigg Brathwaite added 116 runs in a ten-wicket win against Bangladesh, while Brathwaite and debutant Leon Johnson put on a 143-run stand in a 296-run win in the second game at Gros Islet.
• In 2014, Ian Bell appeared in his 100th Test match with England going down by a margin of 100 runs. The Sri Lanka win at Leeds was just the third instance of a team winning a Test by exactly 100 runs, after England beat South Africa at Birmingham in 1960 and India’s defeat of the West Indies at Chennai in 1974/75.
As many as 11 ducks were seen in the Headingley match, including one by Stuart Broad who became just the ninth player to collect one on his birthday. With a hat-trick earlier in the match, two of Broad’s team-mates hit maiden centuries after both had made their debuts in the previous Test of the series. Sporting the biggest beard by an England batsman since W.G. Grace, Moeen Ali batted for nigh on 385 minutes in scoring an unbeaten 108, the longest time spent at the crease by a batsman at No. 7 or lower in the fourth innings of a Test. Sam Robson was the other to raise his bat, hitting a first-innings 127.
After a 55-ball duck in England’s second innings, James Anderson then made the highest score by an England No. 11 in his next outing in the following Test – against India – at Trent Bridge. Anderson scored his maiden first-class fifty, going on to 81, sharing a world-record last-wicket partnership of 198 with Joe Root (154*). The two soaked up 320 deliveries – the most by a last-wicket pair – with the match providing the first instance of two tenth-wicket 100-run partnerships in the same Test, after Bhuvneshwar Kumar (58) and the No. 11 Mohammed Shami (51*) put on 111 in India’s first-innings total of 457. It was also the first Test in which a No. 11 batsman hit a fifty for each side. Anderson slogged it out for 130 balls over 230 minutes, the longest-known innings by a No. 11 in Tests.
While Anderson broke the world record for most innings – 130 – before a maiden Test 50, Alastair Cook broke the record for playing most Tests – 105 – before claiming his first Test wicket.
• When Leicestershire gained a 101-run first-innings lead over North-amptonshire at Grace Road in 1977, they did so with nine single-figure scores, a century from the No. 8 and a 98 from their No. 11. Leicestershire’s captain Ray Illingworth made an unbeaten 119, while Ken Higgs was run out two runs shy of a century in their all-out total of 273.
• There was chaos in a club match in New Zealand in 2011 when four batsmen were dismissed in two balls. Representing Napier Old Boys Marist, Indika Senarathne dismissed the Technical Old Boys’ No. 7 batsman, stumped off a wide, and then bowled the next batsman. He followed it up with a wicket off his next ball to claim a hat-trick, his three wickets coming off two legal deliveries. The next batsman – who was also the scorer for the innings – got caught up in the excitement, and failed to make it to the wicket and was dismissed timed out.
• Coming in at 26/5 against the West Indies at Napier in the 2015 World Cup, UAE pace bowler Amjad Javed struck a maiden half-century and took part in their first hundred-run partnership against a Test nation. With their first six batsmen back in the shed with single-figure scores, Amjad (56), at No. 7, and Nasir Aziz (60), at eight, both peeled off a fifty and a 107-run seventh-wicket stand, equalling the World Cup record UAE had set at Brisbane just three weeks before. At the Gabba, Amjad (42) and Shaiman Anwar (106) had made the first-ever century stand for the seventh wicket in World Cup cricket, adding 107 against Ireland.
• When the West Indies beat Pakistan in a 2015 World Cup match at Christchurch, their numbers three to eight all scored 30 or more, a first in ODI cricket. Chasing 311 for victory, Pakistan fell to 4/1, the fewest number of runs accumulated by a top four in any one-day international. The match also contained the first instance of both number five batsmen being dismissed for exactly 50.
• After losing its first two batsmen for single-figure scores by Australia at Dubai in 2014/15, Pakistan’s next five all scored half-centuries. Spluttering at 7/2, Azhar Ali then hit 53, Younis Khan 106, Misbahul-Haq 69, Asad Shafiq 89 and Sarfraz Ahmed 109, lifting Pakistan to a match-winning total of 454.
Opener David Warner also scored a century (133) at Dubai, his sixth consecutive 50-plus score in Tests. After a pair of centuries in his previous Test – at Cape Town – Warner became the first Australian batsman to score over 130 in three consecutive innings. For the seventh consecutive Test, one of Australia’s openers scored a century, a world-record sequence, beating a run of six by India between 2008/09 and 2009/10.
• Pakistan scored nine centuries against Australia in the UAE in 2014/15, a record number by one team in a two-Test series. Younis Khan scored three, Misbah-ul-Haq and Azhar Ali two each, with one from Sarfraz Ahmed and Ahmed Shehzad. Australia scored just one. After a 221-run win in the first Test at Dubai, Pakistan flogged the Australians by 356 in the second Test at Abu Dhabi, their biggest victory by a runs margin to date.
Pakistan’s appetite for big runs continued a week later against New Zealand posting a first-innings total of 566/3 declared at Abu Dhabi, with the first instance in Test cricket of the first five batsmen passing 80. Three passed the hundred mark, with Misbah (102*) becoming the first player in Test history to hit three consecutive tons when over the age of 40 and the first to do so at the same ground. Younis (100*) hit his fourth century in five innings, while Ahmed Shehzad (176), at the age of 22, became the youngest Pakistan opener to score 150-plus in a Test overtaking a 23-year-old Hanif Mohammad and his famous knock of 337 against the West Indies at Bridgetown in 1957/58.
New Zealand ended day two at 15/0 with Tom Latham and Brendon McCullum leaving the field with scores of five not out and nine not out respectively. The following day, Pakistan also went to stumps at 15/0, with both batsmen – Mohammad Hafeez (5*) and Azhar Ali (9*) – scoring the same number of runs as the two New Zealanders, the first time this had happened in a Test match. With a 248-run victory, Pakistan became the first country to achieve three consecutive Test wins by a margin of more than 200 runs.
After a drawn second Test, the third match of the series at Sharjah saw New Zealand take control with a first-innings 690, their highest total to date that surpassed 680/8 declared against India at Wellington earlier in the year. McCullum (202) led the charge, reaching 100 in 78 balls and then 200 off 186, the fastest double-century by a Test captain.
The first New Zealander to score four Test match double-centuries, McCullum also became just the fourth batsman to attain three in a calendar year, after Michael Clarke (4) in 2012, Don Bradman in 1930 and Ricky Ponting in 2003. Batting with Kane Williamson, who made 192, the pair produced a 297-run stand for the second wicket, New Zealand’s first double-century partnership against Pakistan. Three batsmen – Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson and Tim Southee – were dismissed for exactly 50 in the innings, a first in Test match cricket.
The match began with Mohammad Hafeez dismissed for 197, signalling just the second time two batsmen had been dismissed in the 190s in the same Test. The first instance also involved Mohammad (196), and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (192) at the SSC ground in Colombo in 2012.
A total of 35 sixes – 22 by New Zealand and 13 by Pakistan – was struck in the match, another record that busted the previous best of 27 by Pakistan and India at Faisalabad in 2005/06 and by Bangladesh and New Zealand at Chittagong in 2013/14. The 22 struck by New Zealand in its only innings beat Australia’s 17 against Zimbabwe at Perth in 2003/04, while 59 in the series bettered by ten the previous best in a three-Test rubber by Pakistan and India in 2005/06.
• Led by a former South African one-day international captain, South Australia lost a Sheffield Shield match by an innings in 2014/15 after scoring 431. Johan Botha declared the first innings at eight wickets down and watched as Victoria piled on 607. The Redbacks then fell for 130, sustaining a loss of an innings and 46.
It was only the second occasion in Sheffield Shield history that a team had lost by an innings after scoring 400-plus, but the first following a declaration. At the MCG in 1924/25, Victoria were dismissed for 413, whereupon New South Wales responded with 705 and then bowled out the Vics for 130 gaining an innings-and-162-run win.
• When Namibia played the Netherlands at Bloemfontein at the 2003 World Cup, their openers were both caught by the same substitute fielder for the same score of 41. Their numbers three and four both scored 52 while two Dutch bowlers returned the same figures of 4-24.
• Despite a 500-run total in a match during the 1995 County Championship, Nottinghamshire went on to lose by an innings. Batting first at Northampton, Notts piled on 527 with a double-century from Tim Robinson (209) and a century from Graeme Archer (158), the pair combining for a 294-run second-wicket partnership. But it wasn’t enough, as Northamptonshire raced to 781, then declaring with seven wickets down after centuries from Alan Fordham (130), Allan Lamb (115), Russell Warren (154) and David Capel (114*).
After taking 4-118 in the first innings, Anil Kumble took 5-43 in the second as Nottinghamshire crashed to an all-out total of 157 and an innings-and-97-run defeat. It represented the first occasion that a team had passed 500 in a first-class match and gone down by an innings.
• When Michael Clarke closed Australia’s first innings against India at Adelaide in 2014/15, it was the 300th instance of a declaration of 500 or more in a Test. The hosts’ 517/7 included three centuries – all by New South Wales batsmen – with each dedicating their innings to former Blues team-mate Phillip Hughes who had died two weeks before.
David Warner scored 145 – the first of two centuries he made in the match – while Steve Smith (162*) passed 150 for the first time in a Test. After retiring hurt with a sore back, Clarke became the first Australian to resume his innings and go on to score a hundred. During his 128 – his 28th Test-match hundred – he also became the first batsman to take part in a century stand before and after leaving the field with an injury.
With a century in his 40th Test as captain, his opposite number, Virat Kohli (115 and 141), scored two in his first, becoming only the second to do so after Australia’s Greg Chappell (123 and 109*) against the West Indies at Brisbane in 1975/76.
Australia went into Adelaide having nominated Phillip Hughes as their honourary 13th man and on the final day when they won the match, Hughes’s brother Jason scored 63 in a grade match for Sydney club Mosman, the same score Phillip had made for South Australia in his final appearance at the crease. In the second Test at Brisbane, India was dismissed in its first innings for 408 – Hughes was Australia’s 408th Test cricketer.
With Clarke out of the Gabba match with a hamstring injury, a 25-year-old Smith became Australia’s 45th Test captain, and in his 45th Test innings marked his elevation with a century (133). With Kohli having done so at Adelaide, this became the first-ever Test series in which two players made a century in their first match as captain. Chris Rogers celebrated his 500th innings in first-class cricket with 55 – and backed it up with another score of 55 – while both teams bowled exactly the same number of overs – 109.4 – in the first innings.
The third Test at the MCG saw Smith become the first Australian captain – and the fifth overall – to score a century in his first two matches in charge, clubbing 192 the day after New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was dismissed for 195 against Sri Lanka in Christchurch. With 117 at Sydney, Smith then became the first player to score a hundred in his first three Tests as captain and the first batsman to score a century in the first innings of each match of a four-Test series.
Kohli and Smith also provided the first instance of two batsmen making four centuries in a single Test series. With four hundreds and a further two fifties, Smith scored a total of 769 runs at 128.16 overtaking Don Bradman’s long-standing record against India of 715 in five Tests in 1947/48. Kohli established a new benchmark for an Indian batsman in Australia with 692 runs at 86.50.
The series contained a total of 16 half-centuries by openers, the most for a four-match series, beating 13 by England and New Zealand in 1949, with Rogers hitting six in a row. Total runs in the series numbered 5,870, the most in a four-Test series overtaking an aggregate of 5,651 by the same two sides in 2003/04. On the bowling side, 25 instances of 100 runs in an innings were seen in the series, beating the previous record of 23 in five Tests between Australia and England in 1924/25. Nathan Lyon topped the list with six, a world record that equalled India’s Subhash Gupte who conceded over 100 runs in an innings six times in a five-Test series against the West Indies in 1958/59.
For the first time in Test cricket, both teams passed 400 in the first innings of all four matches of a series, with Australia exceeding 500 on each occasion, another first in their history.
• A score of 101 not out by South Africa’s Stiaan van Zyl in 2014/15 became the 100th century by anyone on his Test debut. It formed part of a formidable 552/5 declared against the West Indies at Centurion, which contained their first instance of numbers four through six all scoring centuries in the same innings. Hashim Amla, with 208, became the first South African captain to score a double-century in a Test on home soil, while A.B. de Villiers struck 152.
South Africa became the first team to reach 500 in a Test innings after losing their first three wickets on the same score (57), while the West Indies first innings of 201 saw the top four batsmen in the order dismissed between 30 and 35, another first in Test match cricket. When Marlon Samuels (33) hit a single off Kyle Abbott, he brought up the two-millionth run off the bat in Test match cricket.
In the ensuing one-day international series between the two sides, South Africa mauled the tourists in game two at Johannesburg with three batsmen scoring centuries in the innings, a first in ODI cricket. Amla scored 153 not out, Rilee Rossouw 128 and de Villiers 149 in a total of 439/2. De Villiers scored his runs off just 44 balls, with nine fours and 16 sixes, reaching his 50 off 16 balls, and his hundred off 31, both records in one-day international cricket.
With the 200th century by a captain in ODIs, de Villiers became the first batsman to score a hundred with a 300-plus strike rate (338.63), while the West Indies provided the first instance of opening bowlers – Jerome Taylor (95) and Jason Holder (91) – conceding 90-plus runs in an innings.
• After losing a wicket to the first ball of a one-day international against Sri Lanka at Dunedin in 2014/15, New Zealand went on to compile a match-winning 360/5. The highest ODI total after a team had lost a wicket to the opening ball, it featured a record-breaking innings from Luke Ronchi, who made 170 not out off 99 balls, the highest undefeated score by a wicketkeeper in one-day internationals and the highest innings by a No. 7 batsman in List A cricket. A 35-year-old Grant Elliott scored 104 not out with the pair becoming the first to reach 200 for the sixth wicket in a one-day international between Test-playing countries, finishing unconquered on 267. Their record sixth-wicket stand came in the same month as team-mates Kane Williamson and B.J. Watling made the highest sixth-wicket partnership in Tests – 365* – against the same team in Wellington.
With 116, Tillakaratne Dilshan scored his 20th ODI ton for Sri Lanka, while a one-day international on the same day between Australia and England at Hobart contained a century from Ian Bell (141) and one from Steve Smith (102*), who became the first batsman to score a hundred on his debut as captain in both Tests and ODIs.
• After batting first and falling for 31 in a first-class match at Panagoda in 2014/15, the Galle Cricket Club went on to achieve a headline-making victory. With as many as eight debutants in their ranks, Galle regrouped to dismiss the Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club for 107 after being set a victory target of 112. While no batsman reached double figures in their first innings, Galle made 295 in their second which contained a century from 17-year-old Charith Asalanka (114) on his first-class debut. Asalanka (4-34) then combined with fellow debutant Malith de Silva (6-46), sharing all ten wickets in the demolition of their opponents.
• In the first Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan at Khulna in 2015, two of the opening batsmen scored a double-century. A first in Test match cricket, Mohammad Hafeez made 224 – the highest innings by a Pakistan opener who had faced the first ball of his team’s first innings – while Tamim Iqbal scored 206, Bangladesh’s second double-century at the highest level. The top seven for both sides all went past 20 in the first innings – another first in Test match cricket – while Pakistan’s batsmen made a 50-run partnership for the first six wickets, only the second this had happened, after Australia had done so in the tied Test against the West Indies at Brisbane in 1960/61.
Tamim and Imrul Kayes (150) then stunned the Pakistanis in the second innings with a match-changing world-record opening partnership. Their monster stand of 312 beat the previous second-innings best of 290 between England’s Colin Cowdrey and Geoff Pullar against South Africa at The Oval in 1960. While Imrul (51 and 150) became the first Bangladesh batsman to score a 150 and a fifty in the same Test, Tamim became the first from his country to score a century in three consecutive Tests. In his previous two, Tamim had produced identical innings of 109, both against Zimbabwe, at Khulna and Chittagong, in 2014/15.
For only the second time in history – after Australia (533) versus the West Indies (616) at Adelaide in 1968/69 – the Khulna Test saw totals of over 500 (628 and 555/6) in the match’s second and third innings.