Cricket Trivia: 7 amazing records you may have missed

Cricket is a funny game. We need to just scratch deeper beneath the surface to find records which have been lost through the ages.I bring to you 8 of these records which are contemporary, yet forgotten. I hope you have fun reading them.

#1 Most runs in a match

Brian Lara holds the record of scoring the highest number of runs in a Test innings – a glorious 400 not out against England. Lara broke the world record in 1994 by overtaking Gary Sobers’s 365 not out and went on to better his record in 2004, pushing past Matthew Hayden on his way to the first quadruple century in Test cricket.

But is this the highest a batsman ever scored in a test match – both innings put together?

Surprisingly, Lara stands at 4th position in the list of highest runs scored by a batsman in a Test match. Leading the way is Graham Gooch.

Graham Gooch scored 456 runs against India at Lord’s in 1990. Gooch scored his career best 333 in the first innings only to return to make 123 in the second innings, helping England to win by 247 runs.

Mark Taylor and Kumar Sangakkara come in at 2nd and 3rd position with 426 and 424 runs to their name in a test match. Interestingly, all three batsmen scored a triple century in the first innings.

#2 Most runs for a losing cause

Brian Lara was once in a generation batsman. There probaly wasn’t anyone like him nor will the world witness the finesse of Lara anytime soon in the future. Lara’s sole contributions underpinned with Chanderpaul’s low-profile high-impact innings’ has been the highlight of what West Indies did in 2000s.

Lara holds the record of scoring most runs in a Test match for a losing side. Assert a guess? Lara scored 351 runs against Sri Lanka in 2001 in the 3^rd Test match of a three-match series between the two nations. Remarkably, West Indies lost the Test match by 10 wickets. Lara scored 221 runs out of West Indies’ first innings total of 390. Sri Lanka managed to gain a lead of 237 runs in the first innings. The southpaw scored 130 in the second innings to take his team to 262 to setup a meagre target of 26 runs.

Sri Lanka made no errors and won the match by 10 wickets.

#3 Most ducks in a series

Remember Ajit Agarkar – The Bombay Duck? Well, no. He doesn’t hold the record of most ducks in a Test series.

Alan Hurst, an Australian right-arm fast bowler of 1970’s holds the record of most ducks in a Test series – 6. Agarkar missed the mark by 1 duck. Agarkar scored 5 ducks in 6 innings against Australia in 1999/00. However, he managed to score 19 runs in the 6th innings and ended with a series batting average of 3.16.

Can there be anyone who has done worst than Agarkar with 5 ducks in a test series? Yes, 7 batsmen have lower batting average in a Test series after being dismissed for a duck 5 times. Worst of all is no other than our 1983 world cup hero – Mohinder Amarnath. Soon after the world cup triumph, West Indies toured India for a 5-Test series. Amarnath played 3 Test matches, batted in 6 innings, was dismissed for a duck in 5 innings and scored ‘1’ run in the 6th innings, ending the series with a record low batting average of 0.16

#4 Most consecutive innings without a duck

Speaking about ducks, cricket has witnessed batsmen who refuse to be dismissed for a duck.

David Gower played a record 119 innings between two ducks. Gower played 117 Test matches and 204 innings. Gower was dismissed for a duck 7 times in his career. Yet, he managed a record 119 innings without being dismissed without troubling the scorers.

#5 Most runs conceded in a career

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This is very logical yet looks like a paradox. The top three bowlers to concede most runs in Test history are:

1. Anil Kumble – 18355 runs

2. Muttiah Muralitharan – 18180 runs

3. Shane Warne – 17995 runs

And they rank 3,1 and 2 respectively in terms of most wickets taken by a bowler in Test history.

#6 The bunny batsman

Micheal Atherton was a classical English opening batsman who set out to redefine defensive batting in Test matches. Atherton, generally fearless and unassuming to intimidating bowlers of his era, became the bowlers’ bunny. A bunny not one but to three bowlers.

Glenn McGrath dismissed Atherton 19 times in 17 matches while Cultry Ambrose and Courtney Walsh dismissed Atherton 17 times each in 26/27 Test matches. In fact, Atherton takes 3 out of the top 4 places in the list of bowlers’ biggest bunnies.

Arthur Morris of Australia was dismissed 18 times by Alec Bedser of England in 21 Test matches and occupies the second spot.

#7 Only 2 bowlers used in a completed Test innings

It usually takes more than two bowlers to bowl out a team in a Test match. However, though the instances are rare, the Test history is fraught with examples of team using only two bowlers in a Test innings to bowl out the opposition.

The tradition started way back in the 1882, in only the 6th Test match. Australia used only two bowlers – Edwin Evans and Joey Palmer to bowl out England for 133 runs in their first innings. Evans and Palmer bowled an uninteruppted spell of 115 overs. However, only 4 balls were bowled in an over during that era.

There have been 25 such instances in the history of Test cricket. The most recent one happened in 2013 when England bowled out New Zealand for 68 runs in the 4th innings of the match to win the match by 170 runs. It took James Anderson and Stuart Broad 22 overs to wrap up the Kiwis.