Richardson close to breaking New Zealand record
Mark Richardson is 148 runs and two innings away from becoming the fastest New Zealand Test batsman to reach 2000 runs
Lynn McConnell
09-May-2003
Mark Richardson is 148 runs and two innings away from becoming the fastest New Zealand Test batsman to reach 2000 runs.
Richardson ended the tour of Sri Lanka on 1852 runs scored in his 24 Tests and 41 innings.
The fastest New Zealander to the mark might surprise many, but the honour belongs to Andrew Jones who took 44 innings to score his 2000th run during the first Test against Zimbabwe played in 1992/93.
Jones, an outstanding No 3 batsman who made a belated appearance in international cricket, scored six Test centuries and seven half-centuries in his first 2000 runs. This compares with the two centuries and 16 half-centuries that have been scored to date by Richardson.
So well did he adapt to his role after being selected first for the abandoned tour of Sri Lanka in 1986/87, that Jones found himself included in the New Zealand Living Legends side selected as part of the Millennium celebrations.
It was recognition of his often under-rated, and under-appreciated, performances for the side. When his career ended, he had scored 2922 runs at 44.27. During his career he achieved a highest score of 186, his share in the world-record stand of 467 for the third wicket with Martin Crowe against Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in 1990/91.
So well did Jones adapt to Test cricket, this despite being called an ugly duckling by Australians during his first Test there at Brisbane, that he beat Bert Sutcliffe's record for reaching 2000 runs in the fastest time.
Sutcliffe took 26 Tests and 46 innings, one less innings than Glenn Turner. There is a significant gap then to the fourth fastest to the mark, Craig McMillan. He took 31 Tests and 52 innings.
Be comparison, no one comes anywhere near Australian Don Bradman who took 22 innings to reach 2000 runs and his average when he achieved the mark was the neat 100.00.
West Indian George Headley was second with 32 innings and England's Herbert Sutcliffe third with 33 while Australian Doug Walters and West Indian Brian Lara shared 35 innings.
One concern that Richardson does have is his conversion rate from half-centuries to centuries. At the moment his two centuries and 16 half-centuries has him fourth equal with Farokh Engineer as the poorest conversion rate among those who have scored more than one Test century.
At the moment Pakistan batsman Rameez Raja has the worst rate having scored a century once in every 12 times past 50. Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga is second with one every 10.5 times, Alistair Campbell of Zimbabwe has one in 10.
(Statistics compiled by Duane Pettet)
Fastest New Zealanders to 2000 runs (ordered by innings):
Tests Innings Andrew Jones 24 44 Bert Sutcliffe 26 46 Glenn Turner 26 47 Craig McMillan 31 52 Martin Crowe 34 56 Nathan Astle 34 60 Stephen Fleming 35 60 Graham Dowling 32 62 Geoff Howarth 34 62 Mark Burgess 36 64 Jeremy Coney 39 65 Bryan Young 34 66 Bevan Congdon 35 67 John Wright 39 67 Mark Greatbatch 40 69 John R Reid 38 70 Chris Cairns 43 73 Ken Rutherford 45 79 Adam Parore 48 83 Richard Hadlee 54 91
All countries:
Tests Innings Don Bradman 15 22 George Headley 17 32 Herbert Sutcliffe 22 33 Brian Lara 22 35 Doug Walters 22 35 Viv Richards 21 36 Frank Worrell 22 36 Arthur Morris 23 36 Everton Weekes 23 36 Graeme Pollock 21 37 Neil Harvey 22 37 Denis Compton 23 37 Walter Hammond 23 39 Garry Sobers 23 39 Michael Slater 23 40 Rahul Dravid 25 40 Alvin Kallicharran 25 40 Dudley Nourse 22 41 Jack Hobbs 23 41 Ken Barrington 25 41 Adam Gilchrist 30 41