Also: who has scored the most runs in T20 cricket without ever playing a T20I?
Steven Lynch15-Jun-2021Dawid Malan was out for 199 the other day, the second time this has happened to him. Has anyone else been out on 199 more often? asked Jeremy Watson from England
Dawid Malan, who seems to have been forgotten by the England Test selectors, made 199 earlier this month for Yorkshire against Sussex at Headingley, before being bowled by the promising Ireland-born offspinner Jack Carson. Malan was also out for 199 in June 2019, playing for Middlesex in Derby. He did at least escape the nervous 190s in 2020, with 219 for Yorkshire against Derbyshire at Headingley.The only other man to be out twice for 199 in first-class cricket was also an England Test player, Jason Gallian. Both his near-misses came for Nottinghamshire during 2005, against Sussex at Trent Bridge in April, and against Kent in Canterbury in September. To compound poor Gallian’s misery, he was run out both times. Nine years earlier, while playing for Lancashire in 1996, Gallian had had no such trouble in passing the bogey number, going on to score 312 against Derbyshire at Old Trafford.In one of the more curious statistics in Test cricket, almost 1000 matches were played before anyone was dismissed for 199 – Mudassar Nazar, for Pakistan against India in Faisalabad in 1984-85. Since then, there have been ten further instances.Jayden Seales made his Test debut for West Indies after just one first-class match. Was this a record? asked Allan Alexander from the United States
The Trinidadian fast bowler Jayden Seales made his Test debut against South Africa in St Lucia last week after just one previous first-class match – and that wasn’t even in the Caribbean, as it came for West Indies A v New Zealand A in Nelson in December 2020. Seales took the wicket of fellow debutant Keegan Petersen in his first over in Tests.There is quite a long list of players who made their first-class debut in a Test: 34 in all, but only six since 1899, and none at all from the West Indies. So Seales just misses that distinction, but he is the fifth man to play a Test for West Indies after one solitary previous first-class appearance. Two of them were Barbadian (very) fast bowlers: Charlie Griffith in 1959-60 and Fidel Edwards in 2003. And many thanks to Andrew Samson for discovering that, much earlier, in West Indies’ first home Test series in 1929-30, the Jamaican pair of Charles Passailaigue and George Gladstone Morais made their Test debuts against England in Kingston, after just one previous first-class match apiece.Some other big West Indian names made their debuts after a handful of games. They include Garry Sobers, whose third first-class match was a Test, against England in Kingston in 1953-54, when he was 17. Malcolm Marshall was selected for the 1978-79 tour of India after only one first-class game, and made his Test debut there in his fifth match. Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine, the spinners who famously mesmerised England on West Indies’ 1950 tour, had both appeared in just two first-class games before being selected for that trip (but they did play a few more on the tour before their Test debuts).I read that Jimmy Anderson had played alongside 95 different players in Tests. Is this a record? asked Keith McKenzie from England
Actually Jimmy Anderson has now had 96 different team-mates: in his record-breaking 162nd match for England, against New Zealand at Edgbaston, he played alongside Olly Stone for the first time.That puts him joint-ninth on the overall list, level with Denis Compton, who also had 96 team-mates in his 78 Tests for England. Top of the pile is Graham Gooch, who played alongside 113 others in his 20-year Test career (118 matches). Next comes an earlier England stalwart, Frank Woolley, who played only 64 Tests but had 111 team-mates, one more than Sachin Tendulkar amassed in his 200 matches. Also ahead of Anderson are Wally Hammond (106 team-mates in 85 Tests), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (105 in 164), Len Hutton (98 in 79), Colin Cowdrey (97 in 114) and Alec Stewart (97 in 133).Cameron Delport has appeared in 249 T20 matches so far, scoring 5782 runs, but hasn’t yet been called up for South Africa•PCB/PSLWho has scored the most runs in T20 cricket without ever playing a T20I? asked Clog Wolf from Nepal
The leading uncapped run scorer in T20 cricket is Cameron Delport of South Africa, who has so far amassed 5782 for a multitude of sides, but has not yet got the nod from his country’s selectors. Riki Wessels is next, with 5398. For the list of the leading T20 scorers, click here. We should perhaps mention Michael Klinger, who piled up 5960 runs in T20s but did not play for Australia until the fag end of his career: his three T20Is (which produced 143 of his runs) came when he was in his 37th year.Leading the way for the bowlers is Azhar Mahmood, who I was surprised to realise had not played in a T20I: he took 258 wickets in other T20 games (he did play 21 Tests and 143 ODIs for Pakistan, but T20Is came a little late for him). Next comes the Trinidadian seamer Kevon Cooper, with 195. The South African Alfonso Thomas took 263 wickets, with three of them coming in his one and only T20I, against Pakistan in Johannesburg in February 2007. For that list, click here.A while ago you answered a question about Tim Southee not improving the score he made on debut for another 70-80 Tests. Who holds the equivalent record for bowlers? asked Nik Boon and Raju Soradi on Facebook
The man who played the most Tests without improving the bowling figures from his debut is a famous name not normally associated with bowling, although actually he was a very handy allrounder. England’s Wally Hammond took 5 for 36 on his Test debut, after opening the bowling against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1927-28 – and never improved on this in 84 further Tests, although he came close nearly ten years later, with 5 for 57 against Australia in Adelaide. Hammond finished with 83 Test wickets.South Africa’s Lance Klusener took 8 for 64 on his debut, against India in Kolkata in 1996-97, and never improved on that in 48 further Tests; Mahmudullah has so far played 49 Tests for Bangladesh but his best figures remain 5 for 51, from his debut against West Indies in Kingstown in 2009.For those who want to see the original question, about the batting record Tim Southee took from Darren Gough (but may yet give back to him), it was in this column exactly a year ago.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions