Who played the slowest innings in Test cricket?

The cricketer with the dubious distinction of playing the slowest innings in the history of Test cricket is former New Zealand fast bowler Geoffery Allot. On March 2, 1999, which was the fourth day of the first Test of the South Africa tour of New Zealand, played at Eden Park, Auckland, Allot came to the crease, at No. 11, with New Zealand on 320-9, in response to South Africa’s impressive first innings total of 621-5 declared. With his side still needing 102 runs to avoid the follow-on, Allot was involved in a 32-run last-wicket stand with Chris Harris, who had come in a No. 5 and went on to score a respectable 68 not out.

However, despite batting for 101 minutes and facing 77 deliveries, Allot was eventually caught by Shaun Pollock off the bowling of Jacques Kallis without troubling the scorer. In so doing, he broke the uwanted record, previously held by former England wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans, for the slowest innings in Test history. Although his strike rate was 0.00, Allot did, at least, occupy the crease for over an hour-and-a-half. New Zealand followed on, reaching 244-3 at close of play on the fifth and final day and the match was drawn. For the record, the second Test at Lancaster Park, Christchurch was also drawn and South Africa won the third Test at basin Reserve, Wellington by eight wickets, thereby winning the Test series 1-0.

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Who scored the slowest century in test cricket history?

In the history of test cricket, several English batsmen, notably Geoff Boycott, Chris Tavare and, before them, Trevor ‘Barnacle’ Bailey, have garnered a reputation for snail-paced scoring, so there is a certain irony in the fact that the slowest century in test cricket history was scored against England. In the first test of a three-match series between Pakistan and England, staged at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in December, 1977, England won the toss and elected to bowl. Twenty-one-year-old Mudassar Nazar opened the batting for Pakistan and, with the home side reduced to 49-2 on a difficult wicket, effectively ‘dropped anchor’. At stumps on the first day, Mudassar was 52 not out and he continued in similar vein when play resumed the following morning.

Indeed, even as his hundred approached, Mudassar showed no urgency in his batting and, if anything, became even more defensive. Just one short of his century, the increasingly fractious crowd invaded the pitch, resulting in running fights with the police. The players took an early tea and play resumed, albeit 25 minutes late, with Mudassar still ‘poised’ on 99 not out. Finally, after facing 419 deliveries and spending 557 minutes, or the best part of nine-and-a-half hours, at the crease, Mudassar reached a hundred. When he was finally caught and bowled by off-spin bowler Geoff Miller, he had scored 114 off 449 balls in 591 minutes, at a strike rate of 25.38.

Which bowlers have taken 600 wickets in Test cricket?

On August 25, 2020, on the rain-affected fifth day of the third, and final, Test against Pakistan at the Rose Bowl, Southampton, England fast bowler James ‘Jimmy’ Anderson had Pakistani captain Azhar Ali caught at first slip; in so doing, Anderson made history by becoming the first bowler of his kind to reach 600 Test wickets.

Anderson was already the most successful fast bowler in Test history, having beaten the previous record for wickets taken, 563, set by Australian Glenn McGrath, when dismissing Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami at the Oval in September, 2018. He showed the level of skill that many online casino australia fans are keen to harness! Nevertheless, Anderson, who made his Test debut in 2003, joined an elite band of just three bowlers – interestingly, all of them exponents of the ‘dark art’ of wrist spin – to have previously reached the 600-wicket milestone in Test cricket.

Top of the all-time list of Test wicket-takers, by some way, is Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, with 800 wickets in 133 matches. Next best is Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne who, in 2006, became the first bowler to take 700 Test wickets and finished his career with 708 wickets in 145 matches. Third comes Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble with 619 wickets in 132 Test matches. All are talented individuals, who balanced commitment to their craft with their downtime. I have the latter part of that equation sorted when I’m chilling on www.leroijohnny.com/fr. The former aspect though is a work in progress! Muralitharan played his final Test against India at the Galle International Stadium, Sri Lanka in July, 2010. Immediately beforehand, Kumble, who had retired from cricket in November, 2008, said of him, ‘When you see that Murali has played exactly the same number of Tests as me and taken 173 wickets more, you begin to understand the magnitude of his achievement.’

Who was the first batsman to hit six sixes offer an over?

Even in modern limited-overs cricket, notably Twenty20, which is notoriously biased in favour of batsmen, six sixes off an over is hardly an everday occurrence. It is all the more remarkable, then, that the first batsman to achieve the ‘perfect’ score of thirty-six runs off six legal deliveries in first class cricket was West Indian all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers on August 31, 1968. On that occasion, Sobers was captaining Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in a County Championship at St. Helen’s, Swansea, and faced fellow all-rounder Malcolm Nash.

Typically, Nash was a medium-pace bowler but, at the time, was experimenting with slow, left-arm spin. Having been hit for four consecutive sixes, Nash gave his fifth delivery ‘a little bit more air’ and, briefly, his tactics appeared to have paid off; Sobers thrashed the ball as far as the long-off boundary, where it was caught by Roger Davis. However, having taken the catch, Davis overbalanced and came down on his backside on the boundary fence. Sobers started to walk, but after a momentary consultation, umpire Eddie Philipson signalled six, and Sobers returned to the crease.

On the final ball of the over, Nash attempted to deceive Sobers by bowling a quicker, seam-up delivery, round the wicket, off a short run-up. However, he only succeeded in producing what was, by his own admission, ‘the worst ball of the day, never mind the over’, which Sobers duly dispatched out of the ground over mid-wicket.

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