Devon Conway misses century by 20 runs !!

Well played, Devon Conway - 80 runs from 143 balls including 12 fours. .. .. and how would you describe this shot ?

At tea, he was unbeaten on 79 as I collated some statistics thinking that he would create another record ! – after tea, he hit one straight to the throat of Crawley at deep square of Broad  ..  .. prior to tea, Mark Wood kept banging with 6 men on the leg and he hooked relentlessly, a treat to watch.  He has missed another ton by a score !  - after his 200 on debut, this would have been a quite achievement! 

Do you know or remember that in a Tour match at Ahmedabad in Nov 1984, a full England team led by David Gower was rattled by Rajinder Singh Ghai, Gopal Sharma and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan in a 3 day match.  India U25 led by Ravi Shastri handed them an innings defeat.  Krish Srikkanth made 92, Mohd Azharuddin made 151 (that catapulted him to a debut at Calcutta); Rangachari Madhavan who could bowl left-arm spin too, remained unbeaten with a 100 but never played for India, though he got another chance to play against England representing South Zone !

I also remember that Pongal Test in Jan 1979, when West Indies led by Alvin Kalicharran were beaten by heroics of Kapil DEv.  Though it was a depleted WI – Sylvester Clarke and Norbert Phillip bowled fast and furious.   The bounce at Chepauk provided WI a great advantage and players like Gavaskar, Vengsarkar failed.  It was sadly the match when the great Indian spinners Bedi, Chandra & Prasanna did not play – a left-arm spinner (could bowl fast too) Dhiraj Parsana made his debut.  Had seen him play at Marina ground few times, touring for Mafatlal under Ashok Mankad.   

Devon Conway debuted with a bang double hundred in the previous test and today he was on the verge of making history becoming the 10^th player to score a century on debut and follow it in the next match too – it was not to be (theoretically there is another innings though !)

For a cricketer to score a century (100 runs or more) on his Test match debut is considered a notable achievement,  so far it has been made  111 times by 109 players.  Two of those players, Lawrence Rowe and Yasir Hameed, have scored centuries in both innings of their debut match. Players representing 11 of the Test-playing nations (all except Afghanistan) have scored centuries on Test debut.

In the very  first Test match played, between Australia and England in March 1877, Charles Bannerman became the first player to score a century in Test cricket. In a match in which no other player scored more than 20 runs in either innings for Australia, Bannerman scored 165 not out. That score remained the highest on debut until R. E. Foster scored 287 for England against Australia in 1903. Foster's innings was the highest score in Test cricket until 1930, and remains the highest score amongst Test debutants.  His double-century is one of seven made on Test debut, the other six were scored by Lawrence Rowe, Brendon Kuruppu, Mathew Sinclair, Jacques Rudolph, Kyle Mayers and Devon Conway.  Nine players (Bill Ponsford, Doug Walters, Alvin Kallicharran, Mohammad Azharuddin, Greg Blewett, Sourav Ganguly, Rohit Sharma, James Neesham, and Abid Ali (Pak)) went on to make centuries in the second test as well.  Mohammad Azharuddin is the only player to score centuries in his first three tests.[5] [6]

Azharuddin scored  110 runs  in the very first Test Innings of his career against England.  In the next he scored 122 and followed up with another.    Alvin Kalicharran made his debut in the 4^th Test, at Georgetown, in Apr 1972 against visiting  New Zealand.  His co-debutants were Geoff Greenidge (not the famous opener Gordon Greenidge) and Tony Howard (who played in that test only). Kallicharan made a century on debut.   He was to make another ton in the 5^th test at Port of Spain against New Zealand.

Today Devon C0nway missed the opportunity to match these nine batsmen.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
11^th June 2021 @ 21.00 hrs.