Godfrey Evans of England good behind stumps but failed with bat

by A.C. de Silva

In the game of cricket, at times it is a wise policy to 'duck' to balls pitched short of length but always unfortunate to all just those 'round' thing to your score. Godfrey Evans of England, who had as uncanny a sight behind the stumps as anyone could possibly have, generally failed to follow the line of the ball correctly when standing at the crease, with heavier of the two gloves off his hands.

Godbey Evans – the former England and Kent cricketer leaving Buckingham Palace after receiving insignia of Commander of the British Empire at the Investiture held by Prince Philip, acting for her Majesty The Queen. Evans received the award for his services to sport. During his playing days Evans ‘kept’ wickets for England in 91 Test matches.

He collected the highest number of 'ducks' in career-19. But he also played in most Tests-91. Roy (India) and Ramadhin (West Indies) filled their lap with 14 in as few as 38 and 43 Tests respectively. Roy's haul included the record 5 in a Test series and 4 in-a-row, during his tour of England in 1952. he shares the latter honour with Miller of New Zealand, who also made the mark away from home, in South Africa in 1953-54.

The 'pair' has been the misfortune of many but only Darling and Benaud (Australia), Hazare (India), Worrell (West Indies) and Imitiaz Ahmed (Pakistan) were its victims as skippers. Those who began their Test career with it are Wimble, Willoughby, Jonas, Lewis and McCarthy of South Africa, James, Badcock, Butterfield and Row of New Zealand; G.F. Grace of England; Ramchand of India, and Valentine of West Indies. They are topped by Peel of England who is the only player to bag it thrice.

Wesley - run out first ball

Yet a king will be a being anywhere. The South African, Wesley, was run out to first ball in each innings of the some Test, at Trent Bridge in 1960. The bowler was Statham. Mike Smith (England) missed the coveted "King pair", just by one ball, at Kanpur in 1961-62.

Beyond the "pair", the Australians recorded three consecutive ducks in both their innings at Leeds in 1899.

In the outfield, the pride of place must belong to Pelleus who performed altogether a different sort of hat-trick. He floored catches off three successive balls at Lord's in 1921. He was fielding at slip where a slip is most conspicuous!

Apart from batsmen who have hit a century on their first appearance in Tests, there have also been two who got out at 99 on debut - the Australian, Chipperfield, in the first Test against England at Nottingham in 1934 and the West Indian - Christiani, also in the Test against England, in Barbadosi in 1948.

The spingoboks met with really hard work at Birmingham in 1924. None of the eleven reached double figures and, as if to atone for their loss, the extras piled into 11.

Kiwis lowest total 26

The Kiwis, even when they tumbled for the lowest-ever total of 26 in the second innings of the second Test against England at Auckland in 1954-55, had Bert Sutchiffe with 11 bagged to his name. To think that they needed only 46 to avoid defeat by an innings!

That is nothing in comparison to what happened to rival teams of Newenden in 1925, where five of Sussex were pitted against five of Kent. Neither side opened the account, and there were no extras, Clarke, the wicket-keeper, with somerset in 1930, played in five matches and nine innings without ever scoring a single.

There have been only two instances in all cricket when a side lost the match without capturing any wicket of their opponents in either of the two innings, Leicestershire lost to Lancashire in the 1956 county fixture and Jammu and Kashmir lost to Railways in the 1960-61 Ranji Trophy in such an ignoble manner. The openers, who remained not out in both the innings of the match, were Wharton and Dyson for Lancashrie and Mehra and Kunderam for Railways. Australia and Pakistan share the record for the lowest score in a full day's play. Only 95 runs came off (Australia 80, Pakistan 15 for two) on the first day of the only Test in 1956-57, at Karachi.

For just one side plodding through the whole day's play, none beat the Pakistanis who made 104 on the fourth day of the third Test against the very same Australia on the very same Karachi ground in 1959-60.

India 0 for 4 wkts in 1952

Getting on to low scores, which has been the worst collapse?

India's 0 for 4 wickets at Leeds in 1952 or India's 6 for 5 wickets at the Oval in 1952?or Australia's 7 for six wickets at Manchester in 1888? No. The worst collapse was at Kingston in 1953-54 when England slumped from 277 for two to 285 for 9!

The lost seven wickets for 8 runs!

Four wickets went down without addition to the score, five for a single, six for just 3 runs, and seven for 8. In first-class matches, Northamptonshire, after being 96 for no loss, lost all ten wickets for the addition of 10 runs, against Essex at Brentwood in 1946.

Then coming back to the Asia region, Khan Mohammad of Pakistan is the only bowler to have conceded over 200 runs without taking a wicket. His actual analysis in the third Test against the West Indies at Kingston in 1957-58 was: 54 overs, 5 maidens, 259 runs, no wickets.