NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Statistical Highlights England v New Zealand at Birmingham (1st Test) from 1-3 July, 1999.

Mohandas Menon

• It was the 1455th Test match.

• It was England's 758th and New Zealand's 268th Test match.

• It was the 79th match between the two sides.

• The venue was hosting its 35th Test match. It was New Zealand's fourth at this venue. Has appeared here in 1958, 1965 and 1990.

• West Indian Steve Bucknor was umpiring his 45th Test match, while Englishman Peter Willey was officiating in his 15th match.

• Nasser Hussain became the 72nd English captain. He becomes the first Muslim cricketer to captain England in Tests.

• Madras born (in 1968) Hussain also become the third Indian born English captain. The others being Douglas Jardine (at Bombay in 1900) and Colin Cowdrey (at Ooty in 1932).

• Chris Read and Aftab Habib became the 594th and 595th players to appear for England in Tests.

• Chris Read at 20 years, 325 days became the 15th youngest Englishman to appear in Tests. He fell short of being the youngest English Test keeper by just one day. Gregor MacGregor was 20 years and 324 days when he appeared against Australia at Lord's in 1890.

• Read however becomes the youngest Englishman to make Test debut at this venue. The previous youngest was David Gower who was 21 years, 61 days against Pakistan in 1978.

• Aftab Habib became the third Muslim cricketer to appear for England in Tests after Iftikhar Ali Khan (Pataudi Sr) from 1932-33 to 1934 and Hussain (from 1989-90) to do so. However Habib was English born, while Pataudi Sr and Hussain were Indian born.

• New Zealander Adam Parore was appearing in his 50th Test match. He became the 10th Kiwi and the 151st Test player to do so.

• Graham Thorpe's catch of New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming in the first innings was his 50th of his career. He was appearing in his 54th match. He becomes the 21st Englishman and the 62nd fielder in Test history to do so.

• The partnership of 70 between Andy Caddick and Alex Tudor in the first innings was England's best for the 8th wicket at this venue. The previous best was the 50 run partnership between Keith Fletcher and Geoff Arnold against West Indies in 1973. The Caddick-Tudor partnership was incidentally the third highest for this wicket at this venue.

• Parore's catch of Alan Mullally was his 100th of his career in 50 matches. It was also his 100th dismissal (97ct+3st) in his 39th match as a keeper. Parore now becomes the second Kiwi keeper, after Ian Smith and the 20th keeper in Test history to take 100 or more dismissals.

• Roger Twose provided the 46th instance of a New Zealand batsman bagging a pair i.e. ducks in each innings of a match. He becomes the 41st New Zealander to do so.

• John Wright (at Lord's in 1986) and Blair Hartland (at Auckland in 1991-92) are the only other New Zealand openers to bag a pair against England in Tests.

• Debutant Chris Read's six dismissals (5ct + 1st) in New Zealand's second innings provided the 17th instance of a keeper taking six or more dismissals in Test cricket. He becomes the 15th keeper to do so in a Test innings. Fellow Englishman Jack Russell and South African Mark Boucher are the only ones to do it on two occasions.

• Read emulated Australian Wally Grout (six catches in the second innings) to achieve the feat of six dismissals in an innings on Test debut. Grout did so against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1957-58.

• Read who also claimed 8 dismissals (7ct+1st) in the match equals the best by an English keeper against New Zealand. Jim Parks had 8 dismissals (all catches) against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1965-66.

• Read once again emulated another Australian keeper Brian Taber (7ct+1st) to achieve the feat of eight dismissals on debut Test match. Taber did so against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1966-67.

• His eight dismissals are also the best by a keeper at this venue. The previous best was by Australian Rodney Marsh who had seven victims (all catches) in 1981.

• On the second day, 21 wickets fell, with Alec Stewart being dismissed twice.

• Tudor who has never scored a hundred in any class of cricket (his highest first-class score was 56 for Surrey against Leicestershire at Leicester in 1995), provided the 59th instance of a batsman missing a hundred by just one run. He becomes the 52nd batsman in Test history to do so, with seven of them doing it on two occasions.

• Tudor also became the third batsman in Tests to remain unbeaten at this score. The others being by fellow Englishman Geoff Boycott against Australia a Perth in 1979-80 and by Australian SteveWaugh against England also at Perth in 1994-95.

• Tudor's score was the fourth highest Test score by a night-watchman and the highest by an Englishman in this position.

Some of the top Test scores as a night-watchman are:

Score	Player	Country	vs	Venue	Year
105	Tony Mann(3)	Aus	Ind	Perth	1977-98
101*	Syed Kirmani(5)	Ind	Aus	Bombay	1979-80
101	Nasim ul Ghani(6)	Pak	Eng	Lord's	1962
99*	Alex Tudor(3)	Eng	NZ	Birmingham	1999
98	Harold Larwood(4)	Eng	Aus	Sydney	1932-33
95	Eddie Hemmings(3)	Eng	Aus	Sydney	1982-83
94	Jack Russell(3)	Eng	SL	Lord's	1988

Note: It was Russell's Test debut. Numbers in the parentheses indicates batting position.

• New Zealand has now lost all its four Tests at this venue.

• Interestingly, the last six English Test victories have came after it has conceded the first innings lead.

• Hussain became the first English captain to win a Test on first attempt after the previous eight captains from David Gower, Mike Gatting, John Emburey, Chris Cowdrey, Graham Gooch, Allan Lamb, Alec Stewart and Mike Atherton have all lost their first Test as captain. Bob Willis against India at Lord's in 1982 was the last one before Hussain to win his maiden Test as captain of England. Interestingly, the previous two English captains (Ian Botham and Keith Fletcher) had also lost their first Tests as captain.