Two Double Hundreds in a Test Innings: Rare Record

When VVS Laxman completed his double century in the ongoing 3rd Test against Australia in Delhi, a little after Gambhir had completed his, the duo joined a rare club of 'twin double centurions in a single Test Innings'. Here is a compilation of the other instances of this record - I have manually compiling this list, and is not yet complete. Should be a finished product in a day or two.

1. Pakistan vs West Indies, Venue: Jamaica, 26 Feb - 4 Mar 1958 ( 6 day test )

Chasing Pakistan's 1st innings total of 328, West Indies piled up a score of 790. Opener Conrad Hunte scored 260 and Gary Sobers scored his famous 365 not out.

2. Sri Lanka vs South Africa, Venue: Colombo, 27 - 31 July 2005

After dismissing the tourists for a sub 200 score, Sri Lanka went on to make 756/5 declared. This included a triple hundred from captain Mahela Jayawardene who fell 1 short of Lara's mark of 375. Kumar Sangakkara narrowly missed his triple hundred falling for 287, else a record of two triple hundreds in an innings would have been one massive one, and unlikely to be ever overtaken.

3. Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe, Venue: Bulawayo, 14 - 17 May 2004

Sri Lanka's 1st Innings total of 713 for 3 included two double centuries, one each by Kumar Sangakkara and Marvan Attapattu. Both double hundreds came at good pace - Sangakkara's 270 came at a strike rate of 74 while Attapattu's knock of 249 was even better at 76.85

4. Australia vs England, Venue: Kennington Oval, 18,20,21, 22 Aug 1934 (Timeless Test Match)

Australia lost a quick 1st wicket when opener Brown fell with the total at 21. His opening partner Ponsford was joined by the Don and by the time the second wicket fell, the score card read 472. Bradman got out for 244 - if Sangakkara and Attapattu were quick, this was a lightning knock. Comprising 32 boundaries and 1 six, Bradman's 244 came at a strike rate of over 90. Ponsford's 266 was more sedate at 63.33

5. Australia vs England, 13-19 December 1946 (six day test), Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground

Both Sid Barnes and Don Bradman compiled identical scores of 234 in the 1st Innings of this Ashes Tes. What were not identical were the scoring rates - the Don himself scored a slow double by his standards, at a strike rate of 59.09 but it was Barnes' knock which was a specially laborious one. In his 649 minutes vigil at the crease, he faced no fewer than 667 balls - the innings was spread over 3 days!

6. England vs India, 13-18 January 1985, Venue: Chepauk, Chennai

Opener Fowler and Mike Gatting, both got double centuries for England in the 1st Innings of the test. While Fowler scored 201, Gatting got 207.

7. Australia vs West Indies, 5 - 11 May 1965 (6 day test), Venue: Bridgetown Barbados

Both the Australian openers, Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson scored double hundreds as Australia declared their 1st Innings at 650/6. Simpson's brave second innings declaration made it a very interesting test but he was fortunate in being saved from the blushes as time ran out on West Indies when they were just 11 short of the target, with 5 wickets remaining.

Narrow Misses:
India vs Pakistan Multan Test: Rahul Dravid declared when Tendulkar was on 194. Sehwag had scored a triple hundred in the same innings.

In the 1984 Faisalabad Test against India, Qasim Umar got a double hundred in the 1st Innings but the record was missed by the narrowest margin when Mudassar Nazar was unlucky to be dismissed on 199.

In Independent India's 1st test series against Australia in January 1948, Don Bradman scored a double hundred in the 1st Innings of the Adelaide Test. But this unique rare test record of two hundreds in an innings was missed as Allan Hasset was left stranded on 194 when the last Aussie wicket fell.

During the 1st Test of the 1981 New Zealand - Sri Lanka series a most unique record was narrowly missed - 'twin double hundreds in the second innings of a test match'. Andrew Jones missed his double hundred by 14 runs. The one who did go on to get his double hundred was more unfortunate though - Martin Crowe got out for 299.

Another chance to get this unique record came India's way in the famous Kolkata Test against Australia. That opportunity was lost in a very similar way as in the above Test - while one batsman (VVS Laxman) narrowly missed his triple hundred, his partner Dravid was unfortunately run out when his score was 180.

99 and more

The man with an average in excess of 99 would have been 99 today.

Generally acknowledged as the greatest batsman ever in the game of cricket, Don Bradman was born on 27th August 1908 at Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia. His records are legendary: 117 first-class hundreds, 12 Test double centuries, two Test triple hundreds, 6996 runs at the famous average of 99.94.

Bradman practised batting incessantly during his youth. He invented his own solo cricket game, using a stump and a golf ball. A water tank stood on a curved brick stand behind the Bradman home on paved area and when hit into this stand, the ball would rebound at high speed and varying angles. This form of practice helped him to develop his timing and reactions. At the age of 12, he hit his first century, playing for the Bowral Public School against Mittagong High School.

In 1996 the Bradman Museum located on Glebe Park adjacent to the Bradman Oval, Bowral was opened by John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, on the Don's 88th birthday. A commerartive gateway was built to honour Sir Donal Bradman on his 90th birthday just near the gateway that the original clubhouse for the Bowral Cricket Club stood. Honouring Sir Bradman, the Prime Minister called him the "greatest living Australian".

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The BCCI, much criticized for its inability to find a coach for the Indian cricket team may find comfort in Sir Don's words.

" I was never coached; I was never told how to hold a bat. "

If you liked this article, you may like this too - Today in Cricket History

400 aint enough at the Oval

It’s 2:40 in the afternoon in London and the players are back in the dressing room for tea on the first day of the 3rd Test at the Oval. Michael Vaughan must surely be enjoying his tea unlike the lunch which was taken with India at 113/1, both Karthik and Dravid looking good and solid. In a space of 10 runs, half an hour before tea, the game changed. Both the batters unbeaten at tea, one nearing his century and the other having just completed his half-century, were dismissed leaving two new batsmen at the crease. India are still at a very healthy 211/3, but Oval is unlike many other grounds in the world.

As recently as 2003, South Africa lost the test after piling up a mammoth 484 in the first innings, batting first. On 25 occasions have teams batting first scored 400 or more in their first innings and yet lost the match on as many as 7 occasions. The last 5 times a team scored 400+ in the first innings of the match, twice the match was lost. So even if India reaches 400, it’s not a guarantee of security and coupled with India’s habit of frittering away their 1-0 leads in test series abroad, things don’t look the brightest. Yet, Sachin Tendulkar is still at the crease and so is Saurav Ganguly and if they bat like they did in the last test at Trent Bridge, Michael Vaughan’s blemishless record in 11 series at home may be under some serious threat.

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The Kennington Oval Trivia:

Trivia 1: Did you know that the stadium’s tapered crescent shaped Vauxhall stand end was so designed to amplify the crowd noise within the stadium!

Trivia 2: The first cricket test on English soil was played at the Oval. (September 1880)

Cricinfo describes the Oval as the world's most important general sport venue in the world.

India's Overseas Test Cricket Victories - Part 1

It's sad enough - the scope of this post, the fact that it's possible to discuss every single of India's overseas test wins in a series of a few posts. Did you know that in the 75 years since India played their first cricket test, we have won just 28 tests out of home! And yes, that includes our wins against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Did you know that the current test, the 2nd India-England match being played at Trent Bridge is India's 200th test-match overseas? Fortunately enough, it looks like this 2nd centenary will end on a happy note.

India's overseas Test Cricket Record (until the beginning of the Trent Bridge Test)

Played: 199, Won: 28, Lost: 84, Drawn: 87

Yet, and probably that's why, each one of this wins was special. Here's the 1st part on this series on Indian Cricket's glorious moments abroad.

1. The 1st away win took a decade and a half to come. It was in the 1st test of the1967/68 tour to New Zealand that India recorded its maiden test victory. Nawab of Pataudi Jr., widely believed to be India's best ever captain had been captain for almost 7 years then, when the historic moment came at Carisbrook, Dunedin.

Batting first, New Zealand piled up 350 only to be overtaken by India, though by just 9 runs. It was India's bowling and fielding in the 2nd innings that proved decisive. Prasanna scalped 6 wickets and there were 2 run-outs including that of NZ captain Barry Sinclair, who may not have then realized that his test career was fast drawing to a close. Prasanna's stars on the other hand, were on the ascendancy - he was to return to this country eight years later to record his best bowling figures of 8 for 76. That match, as you will see later, was to be the maiden test victory for yet another Indian captain.

NZ: 350 & 208, India: 359 & 200/5. Ground: Carisbrook, Dunedin. 15-20 Feb 1968

2. Unlike the first win which took 15 years, the second one came quicker - in 15 days. The series was level at 1-1, New Zealand having won the second test. Prasanna came to the party again, taking 9 wickets in the match. He was ably supported by Bapu Nadkarni (of the maiden overs record fame) who dismissed 6 NZ batsmen in the 2nd innings. Ajit Wadekar scored a match winning 143 and India went up 2-1.

NZ: 186 & 199, India: 327 & 59/2. Ground: Basin Reserve, Wellington, 29 Feb - 4 Mar

3. This was to be Rusi Surti's match, whose all-round skills helped India record its first back-to-back test wins outside of home and more importantly it sealed the series in India's favour - India's first test series win overseas. Surti scored a total of 127 runs in the match, with a 99 in the second innings - a score he could never improve upon in his short test career. The all-rounder also took 4 wickets and alongwith Prasanna, Bedi and Nadkarni dismissed NZ for sub-150 scores twice.

India: 252 & 261/5, NZ: 101 & 140. Ground: Eden Park, Auckland. 7-12 Mar 1968

On this tour of Australia & NZ, Rusi Surti scored more runs than anyone else - a total of 967 runs and he also took 42 wickets. Unfortunately for India, Surti didn't play for long for India, prefering instead to provide his services to Queensland.

4. Sunil Manohar Gavaskar made his test debut on 6th March 1971 at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and didn't take long to stamp his class. His pair of fifties in his debut match, a century by Dileep Sardesai and the wizardry of Prasanna, Venkatraghavan and Bedi helped India chalk up a rather easy win - India's first test victory in the West Indies, and 4th overseas.

West Indies: 214 & 261, India: 261 & 125/3. Ground: Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad. 6th Mar - 10th March 1971

5. India's 5th overseas success can also be described as India's first come-from-behind win outside home. Having conceded a 74 run lead, India bounced back led by Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, arguably India's biggest match winner overseas. (42 wickets in 5 tests) The English batters were bamboozled into submission by Chandra who returned with 2nd innings figures of 6-38. England were bowled out for a meagre 101, giving India a chase of 174. Gavaskar got out for a duck, but skipper Ajit Wadekar saw to it that India reach home safely. His unbeaten 45 was supported by Sardesai's 40 and useful innings from Vishy and Engineer.

24 years and 9 days since achieving its freedom from England, India had turned the tables on its masters in the imperialist's favourite sport. It took a long time coming, but it had - and the speed of the rise of India's fortunes and England's decline in the game would only gain momentum in the next couple of decades. The shakcles had been truly broken and what better venue to do it than London.

England: 355 & 101, India: 281 & 174/6. Ground: Kennington Oval, London. 19-24 August 1971

6. Eight years after leading India's efforts at their first overseas win, Prasanna returned to the land of his former exploits. Sunil Gavaskar was now the captain of India, and in the 1st test of this 1976 series debuted 2 men who were to play long and important innings for Indian cricket: Dilip Vengsarkar and Syed Kirmani. Both had rather forgettable debuts; wicket-keeper Kirmani not being a part of even a single dismissal (Only 9 more times would that happen in a career spanning 10 years). It was however the 3rd debutant who made a stronger impact on the immediate proceedings. Surinder Amarnath, coming in first down and Gavaskar compiled a match winning 204 run partnership. Both scored fine centuries and India took a lead of 148 runs.

Prasanna rocked the Kiwi boat in the 2nd innings, taking 8 for 76, his career best. Eight years back, Prasanna's wiles had turned the match decisively in India's favour. Eight years later, the master's wizardry sealed the match for India again. For captain Gavaskar, this success must have been the sweetest - it was his maiden win as captain of India.

Newzealand: 266 & 215, India: 414 & 71/2. Ground: Eden Park, Auckland. 24-28 January 1976

For Part 2 of India's Overseas Test Cricket Victories, click here.

Today in Cricket History

Poonam and I were sipping our Assam chais* at the Cha-Bar inside the Oxford Book Store inside the Statesman House today evening when A Book of Cricket grabbed my attention. Now if you are a regular to this store or have been there even a few times, you must have already got thinking by now. Light, unlike sound travels in a straight line, and without bending this basic principle of science, it would be utterly impossible to have a dekko* of the sports section from any of the tables in the cha-bar. Well, i did have a dekko and i have not managed to create any flutters in the world of sciene either. It just happened that Bakhtiar Dadabhoy's efforts had been carelessly abandoned by my predecessor on the cha-table and it was lying under the table somewhere in between mine and Poonam's feet. Now i would have never known a thing but she gets tickled and ruffled if the faintest of foreign particles manage to contact her body or any part covering her body, which in this case was her left shoe. Well, her tickling cost me six hundred rupees but it looks like money well spent.

A Book of Cricket Days is no novel concept. You must have sometime or the other read a column in some newspaper titled "Today in History". It's a surprise the author picked up on this much beaten idea. Who the hell wants to know what happened in the world of cricket on 20th November 1936 or 1956 or any other year for that matter. But that's not how Dadabhoy saw it, as i realised only a little later. You may not be curious to know what happened on 20th November 1987, but that's just because you don't know what happened on that fateful Friday, that too in the life of a god fearing Muslim cricket player. The ex-Pakistan captain Rameez Raja became the first victim of cricket's Law 37-1. To add to Raja's displeasure, when he became the first batsman to be given out for obstructing the field in one-day internationals, he was on exactly one short of hundred, on 99. But that's not what the higest point of the book is, for a mere rattling off of such facts and figure would have converted it into a most insipid affair. Raj Singh Dungarpur very correctly point it out in his foreword: "This book with its emphasis on bare facts and records could easily have become a dry catalogue of dreary statistics but the author has avoided this pitfall with diligent and resourceful research and a discerning eye for the colourful detail of anecdote". Dadabhoy had a tough task on hand, yet he has managed to make every single day exciting for the lovers of that beautiful game called cricket. Pick it up for those moments when you come home early to catch an exciting contest of bat and ball only to find the rain-gods playing foul with your plans. So what if that day's cricket is a non-affair. Long, long back, exactly ten or twenty or thirty years back, it was an exciting day of cricket, says Dadabhoy. Let's re-live the joy.

* chai - hindi for tea

dekko - to catch a glimpse