Saleem Altaf has been appointed Pakistan’s director of cricket. He is a former Test player, mostly unnoteworthy, but he did set a “record” of sorts. In Melbourne in 1976/77, he made a pair of ducks and took 0 wickets for 145 (including 21 off one over), arguably the worst all-round performance by any player in a Test. He didn’t take any catches either.
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Adam Gilchrist has scored his eleven Test centuries at eleven different grounds. His slowest Test century took only 143 balls.
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In contrast to the 382 run last day in the Port Elizabethh Test, Bangladesh scored only 187 on their last day of the drawn Test against Zimbabwe, including just 37 runs off 30 overs in the pre-lunch session.
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IN 1948 in Adelaide, Neil Harvey went from 95 to 100 (his 1st Test century) with an all-run five, without overthrows. In 1976 at Leeds, Allan Knott reached 100 with a hit for seven.
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In Tests that they have played together, Stuart MacGill (44 at 23.6) has more wickets at a lower average than Shane Warne (38 at 31.9).
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Bangladesh’s 262 v New Zealand in October 2004 was the lowest total ever to conatin two “bowler’s centuries” (Vettori 6/100 and Wiseman 2/106).
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The first day crowd of over 37,000 in Sydney was the highest for any Australia/Pakistan Test at that ground.
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In the Melbourne Test of 2004, Australia’s first eight batsmen hailed from seven different states and territories.
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Bangladesh bowled no wides or no-balls in 526 runs against India, the highest score without such extras since Pakistan scored 708 in 1987.
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In 32 consecutive Tests from January 2000 to December 2002, Australia introduced only one debutant to Test cricket (Martin Love).
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Back in 1881-82, George Giffen took more than 60 balls (55 minutes) to get of the mark on his Test debut.
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Andrew Hall’s century for South Africa v India at Kanpur took 325 balls, the slowest for South Africa since Hansie Cronje took 339 balls in 1992-93 (v India at Port Elizabeth).
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Glenn McGrath took 102 Test to score his first Test 50, far and away the record for Test semi-centurions (previously: Muralitharan, 63 Tests)
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Michael Clarke still hasn’t been given a bowl since taking 6 for 9 at Mumbai. This has no precedent in Tests.
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The McGrath/Gillespie last wicket stand in Brisbane outscored the entire Kiwi team’s 71 all out. This has happened only a handful of times, inlcuding:
Edgbaston 1902, when Australia was bowled out for 36 after England’s tailenders put on 81 and,
Durban 1996, where McMillan and Donald put on 74 and India were bowled out for 66.
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The late great Keith Miller bowled more than 10,000 balls and took 170 wickets in Test cricket, yet he was never hit for six by any batsman.
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In their last 44 Tests, the Australians have lost six times, but only one of these losses has come while a series still up for grabs. That was at Adelaide in 2003-04.