Low on excitement, high on statistics
Staff Reporter - 15 May 2002
Unfortunate, but largely true - a high-scoring, tamely drawn Test
match sometimes produces the most glittering of statistical nuggets.
Antigua, after the fourth Test between the West Indies and India, will
now be in the record books for much more than Brian Lara's 375 against
England.
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Ajay Ratra, Man of the Match possibly for disproving Geoffrey
Boycott's assessment of his batting skills, had a hand in both of the
more unique records set during the course of the Test. His century in
the first innings - one, incidentally, that made the 20-and-a-half-
year-old the youngest wicket-keeper to score a century - was followed
by Ridley Jacobs' hundred, making the Antigua match the only one in
which the regular wicket-keepers of both sides reached three figures.
The fact, no doubt, will come as a surprise to many, especially
considering the calibre of wicket-keepers who have played in the same
Test. Alec Stewart and Adam Gilchrist, Andy Flower and Kumara
Sangakkara, Alan Knott and Rod Marsh, Farokh Engineer and Imtiaz Ahmed
are just some names that instantly emerge from cricket's rich trove of
stumpers.
There was, however, another occasion on which men who kept wicket also
scored hundreds - double hundreds, in fact. When Australia played
Pakistan at Faisalabad in 1979/80, Greg Chappell slaughtered the
attack to the tune of 235 runs, and his side was bowled out for a
mammoth 617.
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That happened only on the fourth day, and a draw loomed decisively in
the offing. Taslim Arif, Pakistan's wicket-keeper and opening bat,
took the opportunity to hit 210 not out. With any result absolutely
out of the question, Australia decided to have some fun. Chappell
donned the wicket-keeping pads himself and let Marsh bowl 10 overs for
51 runs.
Australia, thus, used 11 bowlers in that innings, but in this unique
feat, they were pre-empted by the old enemy, England, who did so
against the visiting Australians at the Oval in 1884. The Hon. Alfred
Lyttleton, England's wicket-keeper for the match, was actually the
highest wicket-taker in the first innings, taking four for 19.
Ratra, thus, was instrumental in creating another notable highlight
when he bowled the penultimate over of the Test. He may not have had
Lyttleton's stunning success, but India became the third side to use
11 bowlers in an innings.
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