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The other Tied Test
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 23, 2002

Sunday, February 24, 2002 The column in which our database director answers your queries, large or small, about the history of the game

  • The other tied Test
  • Players who have been out to the first ball of an ODI
  • Was Neil Burns's six-year break the longest gap in a first-class career?
  • Bradman's sixless triple-century
  • The first quadruple-century: Archie MacLaren's 424
  • "Has anyone gone through their Test career without doing anything at all?"

    I enjoyed Wisden.com's presentation of the Tied Test between Australia and West Indies in 1960-61. I believe there has been another tied Test since then – can you give more details of that one? asks Sayeed Rahman

    The second tie in Test history came at Madras (now Chennai) in September 1986. Australia batted first, and ran up an imposing 574 for 7 declared. Dean Jones made a memorable 210, despite suffering from dehydration which led to him spending a night in hospital on an intravenous drip. India replied with 397 (Kapil Dev 119), and when Allan Border declared Australia's second innings at 170 for 5 at the close of the fourth day India needed to make 348 to win on the fifth. Sunil Gavaskar led the way with 90, but wickets went down at regular intervals. With the scores level Greg Matthews trapped the last man Maninder Singh lbw, and the match was tied. Amazingly, like the 1960-61 Brisbane tie, the match ended from the last-but-one ball of the last possible over. Bob Simpson, who played in the Brisbane tie, was present again as Australia's coach for this one. Click here for the Wisden Almanack report and scorecard of this match.

    How many people have been out to the first ball of the match – and first ball of the second innings – in one-day internationals? asks David from India

    There have been quite a few instances of this. In total, a wicket has fallen to the first ball of an ODI on 31 occasions, and to the first ball of the second innings a further 23 times. Four players – Ramiz Raja, Roshan Mahanama, Philo Wallace and Sherwin Campbell – have twice been dismissed by the first ball of the match. Campbell's unwanted double was in successive games against New Zealand in 1999-2000, and Chris Cairns was the bowler both times. In the match at Cape Town in 1992-93 Ramiz Raja was dismissed by the first ball of Pakistan's innings, and Desmond Haynes by the first ball of West Indies' reply. Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka has taken a wicket with the very first ball of an ODI on a record four occasions.

    My son Neil Burns made a comeback to first-class cricket with Leicestershire in 2000, after a six-year spell out of the sidelines. Is this a record? asks Edmund Burns

    Neil Burns's successful comeback is pretty unusual these days, but I'm afraid it's not a record ... it falls short by about 26 years! One of the strangest first-class careers of them all belonged to the Reverend Reginald Heber Moss. Born in 1868, he was a hard-hitting right-hander and a fast bowler. He played a few matches for his native Lancashire in 1886 and 1887, then went to Oxford University, where he won a Blue in 1889. The following year he played a few matches but didn't win selection in the Varsity Match – possibly because he was concentrating on athletics, in which he finished third against Cambridge in the shot putt. He turned out for Liverpool & District against the touring Australians in 1893, and that seemed to round off his first-class career ... until 32 years later he suddenly popped up for Worcestershire against Gloucestershire in May 1925. Not surprisingly, he didn't do very well – he was 57 by then – making 0 and 2. He also bowled three overs, at a rather more sedate pace than in his youth, and took a wicket – Gloucester's top-scorer Captain MA Green (54), who later managed England on tour overseas. The Wisden Almanack, surprisingly, doesn't comment on Moss's remarkable (and brief) return to the limelight.

    When Don Bradman hit 300 runs in a day in a Test, how many sixes did he hit? asks R Sivasubramaniam from Singapore

    Don Bradman wasn't a great six-hitter – he preferred to keep the ball on the ground, to minimise the chances of getting out. At Headingley in 1930, when he made what remained his highest Test score, he didn't actually hit any sixes at all. BJ Wakley's monumental statistical tome Bradman the Great reveals that The Don went in at 11.38 on the first morning, and had zoomed to 105 at lunch (out of 136 for 1). He was only the third batsman to score a century before lunch on the first day of a Test (and only one person has done it since). Bradman reached his double-century at 4pm, and had 220 by tea. He completed his triple-century in five hours 36 minutes, and by the close had made 309 out of Australia's 458 for 3. Next morning he batted on to 11.39, when he was out for 334. In all he had cracked 46 fours – but no sixes. Actually, Bradman only hit six sixes in his entire Test career – five against England, and one against India.

    Can you give any details of the match in 1895, when Archie MacLaren scored the first quadruple-century in first-class cricket? asks Shekhar Gupta from Singapore

    The game was played at Taunton in July 1895. Lancashire batted first and ran up the little matter of 801. Belfast-born Arthur Paul made 177, and put on 363 in 190 minutes with MacLaren. The Wisden Almanack reports that "The match was made memorable for all time by the wonderful innings of 424 by AC MacLaren, who thus surpassed all previous scores in first-class matches ... his score comprised one six, 62 fours, 11 threes, 37 twos and 63 singles." Sammy Woods, a Somerset legend, recalled ruefully: "I thought that day would never end. I must have run miles." Somerset were bowled out for 143 and 206, so Lancashire won by an innings and 452 runs. The innings remained by far the largest in MacLaren's long career, which continued until 1922-23, when he was 51. He scored 1931 runs (33.87) in 35 Tests, with five centuries, and captained England in 22 matches against Australia, which is still a record (Mike Brearley is next with 18).

    Has anyone ever gone through his Test career without doing anything at all? asks Dominic Bromige

    I think the unluckiest Test cricketer of them all was Jack MacBryan of Somerset, who played for England against South Africa at Old Trafford in 1924. Only 66.5 overs were possible on the first day, during which South Africa crawled to 116 for 4. Then it rained ... and rained. No more play was possible, so MacBryan didn't get a chance to bat, and he was rather unkindly dropped from the next match, and was never chosen again. Poor MacBryan is the only Test cricketer who never batted, bowled or made a catch. I suppose he must at least have touched the ball occasionally in the field. As some compensation, he did play hockey for Great Britain at the Olympics.

  • If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week

    More Ask Steven columns
    February 17, 2002
    February 2, 2002
    January 2002
    November 2001
    October 2001

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