Who has played the most Tests in their home country?
Stuart Broad completed the double by scoring his 1000th run against Australia at Old Trafford during the fourth Ashes Test.
During the Ashes, Stuart Broad scored 1,000 runs and took 100 wickets against Australia. In Tests, how many people have done this double against another country? Laura Tennison of England
Stuart Broad completed the double by scoring his 1000th run against Australia at Old Trafford during the fourth Ashes Test. Broad took his 150th wicket against Australia in the final Test at The Oval, dismissing Usman Khawaja in the first innings. His previous victim had moved him above Ian Botham (148) as England’s greatest wicket-taker in Tests against Australia; Shane Warne (195), Dennis Lillee (167), and Glenn McGrath (157) all took more for Australia against England.
Broad became the first player in Test history to complete the 1000-run/100-wicket double against a specific country. Only five other players have done it, four of them during the Ashes series: Wilfred Rhodes and Ian Botham for England, and George Giffen and Monty Noble for Australia. The only other West Indian on this list is Garry Sobers, who scored 3214 runs and grabbed 102 wickets in Tests against England.
Ben Stokes’ 18th match as captain resulted in his first tie. Has anyone ever captained their team in more Tests before a draw? Rajiv Radhakrishnan of England
Ben Stokes had won 12 and lost five of his previous 17 Tests as captain before the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford.
Waqar Younis captained Pakistan in 17 Tests and never presided over a tie; 10 were won and seven were lost. However, in 19 Tests as Bangladesh captain, Shakib Al Hasan has yet to draw a match, with four wins and 15 losses.
South Africa’s Dean Elgar won nine and lost seven of his first 16 Tests as captain before drawing the 17th (in Sydney in January 2023), while Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor captained in 16 Tests, winning three and losing 13.
During the Ashes, I heard Joe Root score 6,000 runs in Tests in England. Who else in England has done this, and who has done the most in any country? Derek Mitchell of England
During his first innings of the final Test at The Oval, Joe Root scored 6000 runs in Tests in England; by the end of the Ashes, he had scored 6092 Test runs in England. Alastair Cook is the only man with more, with 6568 home runs.
Ricky Ponting of Australia has the most, with 7578; Sachin Tendulkar of India has 7216; Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka has 7176; and Jacques Kallis of South Africa has 7035. Brian Lara has the most Tests in the West Indies with 6217, followed by Javed Miandad in Pakistan, Kane Williamson in New Zealand, Mushfiqur Rahim in Bangladesh, and Andy Flower in Zimbabwe. Root, Williamson, and Mushfiqur are all expected to add to their totals. Here is a list of players who have scored 4000 Test runs in one country (for these purposes, the West Indies are treated as one country).
During a recent County Championship match versus Somerset, two Surrey hitters were out for 99 runs in an inning. How frequently does this happen in first-class cricket? among others, Daniel George, from Wales
Surrey’s two unfortunate dismissals in last week’s Championship encounter against Somerset in Taunton were New Zealander Tom Latham and England’s Will Jacks. This was the seventh such occurrence, and I was shocked to learn that the first occurred as recently as 1972–73, when Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad both fell for 99 against England in Karachi. This is the only instance in a Test match; Dennis Amiss was also dismissed for 99 later in the game.
Twin 99s had thus never occurred in more than 150 years of first-class cricket, but a repetition occurred a few months later, in 1973. Mike Smith and Clive Radley both fell for 99 runs when playing for Middlesex against Yorkshire at Lord’s. There was only one other case in England before the recent one: Azhar Khan and Parvez Mir for Pakistan Universities against Punjab B in Lahore in 1974–75 (Parvez finished with 99 not out); Manu Nayyar and Rajiv Vinayak for Delhi vs Jammu & Kashmir in Delhi in 1989–90; Kavaljit Singh and Shammy Salaria for Jammu & Kashmir vs Maharashtra in Pune in 2002–03; and Tishan Maraj and Is
All four Warwickshire bowlers conceded 49 runs in the first innings of their recent Championship match against Middlesex. Is this something that has happened before? questioned Sandesh Acharekar of India, among others.
The astonishing scorecard you’re referring to occurred during Middlesex’s first innings against Warwickshire last week at Edgbaston: Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Mir Hamza, and Ed Barnard all got 3 for 49, while Henry Brookes finished with 1 for 49.
The Association of Cricket Statisticians has found 25 other instances of four bowlers allowing the same number of runs in a first-class innings, three of which occurred in women’s cricket. Only one of those had four bowlers, as at Edgbaston: in Karachi Blues’ second innings of 0 for 0 in a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match in Gujranwala in 2000-01, four of the home side’s bowlers each put down a maiden over.
The Warwickshire quartet conceded the most runs in all of these situations, beating four 43s for North West versus Free State in a domestic match in South Africa in Potchefstroom in 2015-16. One of the four occurred during a Test match: at The Oval in 1959, Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Ted Dexter, and Ken Barrington all conceded 24 runs during India’s 140-run first innings.
There is one instance of five bowlers surrendering the same number of runs in a first-class innings: during a Ranji Trophy match at Nagpur in 1999-2000, five Vidarbha spinners conceded six runs each during Railways’ quick second innings of 76 for 3.
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