Ending the day on the verge

If you were in the nineties approaching the end of the day in a Test, what would you do? Hit a boundary off the last ball like Steve Waugh did against England at Sydney in 2003? Or bide your time and wait for the next morning? This week we look at batsmen who've ended the day on the absolute threshold, on 99 or 199.

Glenn Turner v Australia, Christchurch, 1974
New Zealand backed up disciplined bowling with outstanding fielding and dismissed Australia for 223 in the first innings. How they fared with the bat largely depended on Turner, who wasn't at his most fluent just then. He played and missed regularly against Max Walker and Geoff Dymock but hung around to end the second day on 99. He struggled to reach his fourth Test hundred the next morning and played out 34 deliveries in all on 99, which contributed to his overall strike-rate of 38. Turner was out soon after his century but his 101 had given New Zealand a 32-run lead. Australia set a target of 228 and it was due to another gritty Turner hundred in the second innings - 110 not out off 355 balls - that New Zealand notched up their first Test win against Australia, by five wickets.

Greg Chappell v England, Melbourne, 1980
Graham Gooch was approaching a hundred with the tea interval looming. In the final over before the break he was run out, attempting a single that would have taken him into tea on a hundred. England proceeded to collapse from 170 for 1 to 306 all out, their highest total of the series. Australia made a strong reply and were 399 for 5 at stumps on the third day. Greg Chappell ended the day on 99 not out, which made him the first, and only, person in Tests to wait through the whole of a rest day for his century. He reached his hundred off the third ball of the fourth day and finished with 114 in 288 minutes during which he struggled with a stomach upset and a leg injury. Ian Botham's rearguard century in the second innings helped set a target of 103 but it was never going to challenge Australia. The Chappell brothers were in the middle when the winning runs were scored, with Greg making 40 off 43 balls.

Gerry Gomez v India, Delhi, 1948
West Indies were in early trouble after deciding to bat. They had lost three wickets for 27 runs before Clyde Walcott and Gomez began the recovery. Walcott powered to his hundred and ended the day on 152, while Gomez remained unbeaten on 99. He reached his hundred the next day but didn't convert it into a big one: he was stumped minutes after Walcott was run out. The pair, however, had added 267, a West Indies record for any wicket. Gomez's century was his maiden Test hundred, and since then only Turner (in a different Test to the one above) and Graeme Hick have been not out overnight on 99 during their first Test centuries. The pitch had become easier to bat on and Everton Weekes and Robert Christiani scored tons as well. West Indies piled up 631 in the first innings but two days was not enough time for them to bowl India out twice. The match was drawn with India 220 for 6 in the follow on.

Javed Miandad v England, Edgbaston, 1992
Miandad was in the nineties at the end of the day on a record six occasions and he went on to score a century five times, including two double-hundreds. Only once did he end the day on 99 - at Edgbaston in 1992. The first day had been washed out and England managed to bowl only two balls after choosing to field in damp conditions on the second before the light was offered to the batsmen. Pakistan made a solid start on the third day but the run glut began when Miandad and Salim Malik got together. They added 322 for the fourth wicket and Miandad extended his overnight 99 to 153 on the fourth day before declaring on 446 for 4. England's batsmen also cashed in, and once the follow-on was avoided a draw was the only possible conclusion.

Rahul Dravid v Australia, Adelaide, 2003
The game seemed up for India after Australia had scored 556 by the second afternoon and even more so after India were reduced to 85 for 4 in reply. Then Dravid and VVS Laxman began to consolidate, and once they had settled in, raked in the runs. They became only the third pair in Test cricket - after Don Bradman and Bill Ponsford, and Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs - to share two triple-century stands. In Kolkata in 2001, Laxman had scored the double and it was Dravid's turn in Adelaide. He ended the third day on 199 - only the second batsman to do so after Marvan Atapattu - and hit a boundary off the first ball of the fourth to reach his double-hundred. Dravid's 233 helped keep Australia's lead down to 33, and a remarkable bowling performance by Ajit Agarkar set up a four-wicket win for India.

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