And not a wicket fell all day...

Anant Gaundalkar

For cricket fans it is a treat to watch the scoreboard ticking at a run-a-minute with over 300 runs scored in a day's play and not one wicket falling all day.

In the contemporary era, this happens but rarely. The latest instance occurred on the third day of the opening Test between Australia and South Africa at the Wanderers, Johannesburg, which the Aussies won by a huge margin.

The Australian middle-order pair of Steve Waugh and Greg Blewett took the overnight score from 191 for four to 479 for four at the end of the day, adding 288 runs without being separated.

In Test history, spanning over 120 years, there have been only 11 such instances when two batsmen have occupied the crease throughout a day . Also, there have been two other occasions when two pairs of batsmen from different countries stayed at the wicket without losing a single wicket, after the first country had declared their innings.

India has the honor of accomplishing this feat twice, the more noteworthy being the first day unbroken stand of 234 by Vinod Mankad and Pankaj Roy at Madras in 1955-56 which ultimately resulted in a world record opening wicket stand of 413.

Following are the complete details of instances when two batsmen occupied the crease throughout a day in Test cricket:

Runs    Country   Batsmen       Oppenents   Venue      Season



283     England  J B Hobbs      Australia   Melbourne  1924-25

        (283-0)  & H Sutcliffe



307    W.Indies  D St E Alkinson Australia Bridgetown  1954-55

      (187-6     & C C Depiza

      to 494-6)



234    India     M H Mankad     New Zealand  Madras    1955-56

      (234-0)    & Pankaj Roy



357   W.Indies   C G Hunte      Pakistan     Kingston  1957-58

      (147-1     & G St A Sobers

      to 504-1)



207  W.Indies    G St A Sobers  England   Bridgetown   1959-60

      (279-3     & F M M Worrell

       to 486-3)



263  Australia   W M Lawry     West Indies  Bridgetown 1964-65

      (263-0)    & R B Simpson



217  India      G R Viswanath   England    Madras      1981-82

      (178-2    & Yashpal Sharma

      to 395-2)



240  Sri Lanka  A Gurusinghe    Pakistan   Colombo     1985-86

      (83-3     & A Ranatunga

      to 323-3)



192  New Zealand J J Crowe     Sri Lanka   Colombo     1986-87

      (214-5     & R J Hadlee

      to 406-5)



301 Australia    G R Marsh     England    Notingham    1989

      (301-0)    & M Taylor



288 Australia   S Waugh   South Africa   Johannesburg  1996-97

     (191-4     & G Blewett

     to 479-4)

Following are instances of two pairs of batsmen from different countries staying at the crease after the first country declared their innings:

218 West Indies (310-7 to 365 -7d) A I Kalicharran & T M Findlay New Zealand 

(163-0) Georgetown 1971-72 G M Turner & J W Jarris  



306 India (70-1 to 361-1d) S M Gavaskar & D B Vengsarkar West Indies 

(15-0) Calcutta 1978-79 A B Williams & S F A F Bacchus