Debutant centurions who then had to wait

Two 19-year old debutants, Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath, made their first splash in Test cricket last week, scoring terrific centuries in Dunedin and Brisbane. Here's hoping those two talents don't have to wait as long as this next lot for their second hundreds.

Some claimed it was the day before his 17th birthday, others said he had turned 17 a couple of months before. Either way Mohammad Ashraful, on debut, beat Mushtaq Mohammad's 40-year-old record to become the youngest batsman to score a Test century. His 114 against Sri Lanka in 2001 was the only saving grace for Bangladesh during a three-day innings defeat at the SSC. However, more than three years passed before Ashraful celebrated his next century, in his 23rd Test, against India in Chittagong. That effort, too, was in a match that Bangladesh lost by an innings. Between his first and second hundreds, the closest Ashraful got to three figures was when he scored 98 against Zimbabwe in Harare in February 2004.

Reggie Duff's century on debut, against England in 1902, was perhaps the most surprising of all centuries on debut, for he was held back to No. 10 because of a sticky wicket at the MCG. Duff was only the third Australian to score a hundred in his first Test and he added 120 with Warwick Armstrong, a record partnership for the last wicket at the time. Surprisingly, he wasn't the first No. 10 to score a hundred - Walter Read had done it in 1884. Duff only hit one more century in his career - in his 22nd, and last, Test for Australia, at The Oval in 1905. Duff was only 27 at the time but he soon gave up first-class cricket owing to alcohol-related problems and eventually died at the age of 33.

Longest wait for second Test century after scoring one on debut

Player		Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard		Mat	Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard
Mohammad Ashraful (Bang)		26	114	v SL	Sep 6, 2001		23	158*	3	v India	Dec 17, 2004
RA Duff (Aus)		32	104	v Eng	Jan 1, 1902		22	146	DNB	v Eng	Aug 14, 1905
MJ Prior (Eng)		126*	21	v WI	May 17, 2007		16	131*	61	v WI	Mar 6, 2009
GR Viswanath (India)		0	137	v Aus	Nov 15, 1969		15	113	48	v Eng	Feb 6, 1973
GP Thorpe (Eng)		6	114*	v Aus	Jul 1, 1993		15	123	0	v Aus	Feb 3, 1995
JW Burke (Aus)		12	101*	v Eng	Feb 2, 1951		13	161	-	v India	Oct 26, 1956
BR Taylor (NZ)		105	0*	v India	Mar 5, 1965		13	124	9	v WI	Feb 27, 1969
AC Hudson (SA)		163	0	v WI	Apr 18, 1992		13	102	49	v Aus	Mar 17, 1994
L Vincent (NZ)		104	54	v Aus	Nov 30, 2001		13	106	-	v India	Oct 16, 2003
PBH May (Eng)		138	-	v SA	Jul 26, 1951		12	135	16	v WI	Mar 17, 1954
CG Greenidge (WI)		93	107	v India	Nov 22, 1974		10	134	101	v Eng	Jul 8, 1976
Mohammad Wasim (Pak)		0	109*	v NZ	Nov 21, 1996		10	192	8	v Zim	Mar 21, 1998
Taufeeq Umar (Pak)		104	-	v Bang	Aug 29, 2001		10	75	111	v Zim	Nov 9, 2002
JA Rudolph (SA)		222*	-	v Bang	Apr 24, 2003		10	101	0	v WI	Jan 2, 2004

There are 11 batsmen who've played at least 10 Tests and never scored a second century after making one on debut. England's Plum Warner was the first, scoring 132 against South Africa in 1899, while West Indian Dwayne Smith is the most recent, having made a run-a-ball 105 at Newlands in 2004 and not getting more than 42 in his next 12 innings.

The record Ashraful beat to become the youngest debutant to score a century belonged to Zimbabwe's Hamilton Masakadza, who at the age of 17 years and 352 days made 119 against West Indies in Harare . Masakadza played 14 more Tests and had a best of 85 before Zimbabwe suspended themselves from the format in 2005.

Adam Parore, the New Zealand wicketkeeper, scored only two hundreds and they were separated by 57 Tests, the largest gap between a batsman's maiden and second century. The first hundred was in Parore's 16th Test, in Christchurch in 1995, and it stemmed a top-order wobble against West Indies. Parore was the first Maori to score a Test hundred, and fittingly he did it on Waitangi Day. A couple of eighties were the closest he got to a hundred in his next 94 innings, until New Zealand played Australia at the WACA in 2001. Parore's 110 there was New Zealand's fourth century in the innings, the first time they had scored that many in a Test innings.

Longest wait for second Test century after first century

Player		Mat	Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard		Mat	Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard		Diff
AC Parore (NZ)		16	100*	DNB	v WI	Feb 3, 1995		73	110	16*	v Aus	Nov 30, 2001		57
SMH Kirmani (India)		35	101*	-	v Aus	Nov 3, 1979		81	102	DNB	v Eng	Nov 28, 1984		46
RR Lindwall (Aus)		3	9	100	v Eng	Jan 1, 1947		46	118	10	v WI	May 14, 1955		43
RJ Hadlee (NZ)		28	103	-	v WI	Feb 22, 1980		70	151*	-	v SL	Apr 16, 1987		42
RC Russell (Eng)		5	1	128*	v Aus	Jul 27, 1989		46	124	38	v India	Jun 20, 1996		41
IDS Smith (NZ)		12	113*	DNB	v Eng	Feb 10, 1984		52	173	DNB	v India	Feb 22, 1990		40
Wasim Akram (Pak)		31	52	123	v Aus	Jan 19, 1990		71	257*	-	v Zim	Oct 17, 1996		40
MS Dhoni (India)		5	148	DNB	v Pak	Jan 21, 2006		38	110	DNB	v SL	Nov 16, 2009		33
N Kapil Dev (India)		8	126*	-	v WI	Jan 24, 1979		38	116	-	v Eng	Jan 30, 1982		30
JN Rhodes (SA)		5	8	101*	v SL	Aug 25, 1993		33	117	DNB	v Eng	Jun 18, 1998		28
RES Wyatt (Eng)		6	113	-	v SA	Jul 27, 1929		33	149	-	v SA	Jun 15, 1935		27
FM Engineer (India)		12	109	24	v WI	Jan 13, 1967		38	121	66	v Eng	Feb 6, 1973		26
FE Woolley (Eng)		11	133*	11	v Aus	Feb 23, 1912		36	15	115*	v SA	Feb 9, 1923		25
MR Ramprakash (Eng)		22	154	DNB	v WI	Mar 12, 1998		46	133	19	v Aus	Aug 23, 2001		24
TW Graveney (Eng)		2	175	25*	v India	Dec 14, 1951		24	111	-	v Aus	Feb 25, 1955		22
BE Congdon (NZ)		11	104	4	v Eng	Feb 25, 1966		33	166*	82	v WI	Mar 9, 1972		22
Mohammad Ashraful (Bang)		1	26	114	v SL	Sep 6, 2001		23	158*	3	v India	Dec 17, 2004		22
RA Duff (Aus)		1	32	104	v Eng	Jan 1, 1902		22	146	DNB	v Eng	Aug 14, 1905		21
JM Parks (Eng)		2	43	101*	v WI	Mar 25, 1960		22	108*	-	v SA	Dec 4, 1964		20
CL Hooper (WI)		2	100*	DNB	v India	Dec 26, 1987		22	134	49	v Pak	Dec 6, 1990		20
BA Young (NZ)		4	38	120	v Pak	Feb 24, 1994		24	267*	-	v SL	Mar 7, 1997		20
L Klusener (SA)		4	102*	12	v India	Jan 2, 1997		24	174	DNB	v Eng	Dec 9, 1999		20

The most recent player in the table above is MS Dhoni, whose century in the first Test of the ongoing series against Sri Lanka was only the second of his career. Dhoni had scored a century in his fifth Test, in Faisalabad in 2006, and then went 32 matches without a hundred.

Wally Hammond was only the fourth player - after Albert Trott, Len Braund and Frank Foster - to score a fifty and take a five-for on Test debut. But while Hammond had to wait only three more innings for his next Test half-century, his next five-wicket haul came only in his 61st Test, against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in 1937. It's the longest anyone has had to wait to take a second five-for after achieving the first on debut.

Longest wait for second Test five-for after taking one on debut

Player		Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard		Mat	Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard
WR Hammond (Eng)		0/21	5/36	v SA	Dec 24, 1927		61	2/30	5/57	v Aus	Jan 29, 1937
SR Clark (Aus)		5/55	4/34	v SA	Mar 16, 2006		16	3/59	5/32	v WI	May 22, 2008
UDU Chandana (SL)		6/179	-	v Pak	Mar 12, 1999		12	5/109	5/101	v Aus	Jul 9, 2004
JC Laker (Eng)		7/103	2/95	v WI	Jan 21, 1948		11	4/64	6/55	v SA	Aug 16, 1951
FA Rose (WI)		6/100	1/23	v India	Mar 6, 1997		11	7/84	0/31	v SA	Dec 26, 1998
PJ Wiseman (NZ)		2/61	5/82	v SL	May 27, 1998		11	5/90	3/54	v Zim	Sep 12, 2000
Mohammad Sami (Pak)		3/70	5/36	v NZ	Mar 8, 2001		11	0/126	5/44	v NZ	Dec 19, 2003
JDF Larter (Eng)		5/57	4/88	v Pak	Aug 16, 1962		10	1/25	5/68	v SA	Aug 5, 1965
G Dymock (Aus)		2/44	5/58	v NZ	Jan 26, 1974		10	5/99	7/67	v India	Oct 2, 1979
PM Such (Eng)		6/67	2/78	v Aus	Jun 3, 1993		10	1/77	5/81	v Aus	Jan 2, 1999

Hammond's 61 Tests is also the largest gap between a first and second five-wicket haul, irrespective of whether the first was on debut or not. Andrew Flintoff creeps in right at the bottom of the table below. He took 5 for 58 in Barbados in 2004, his first five-for, in his 32nd Test, and then had to wait another 20 Tests until his next - 5 for 78 against Australia at The Oval. The gap between Flintoff's second and last five-fors was even longer - 25 Tests.

Longest wait for second Test five-for after first five-for

Player		Mat	Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard		Mat	Inns 1	Inns 2	Opposition	Scorecard		Diff
WR Hammond (Eng)		1	0/21	5/36	v SA	Dec 24, 1927		61	2/30	5/57	v Aus	Jan 29, 1937		60
PR Umrigar (India)		22	6/74	-	v Pak	Jan 15, 1955		58	5/107	0/17	v WI	Apr 4, 1962		36
RB Simpson (Aus)		19	5/57	0/5	v Eng	Jan 11, 1963		52	3/38	5/59	v India	Jan 26, 1968		33
PR Adams (SA)		5	6/55	2/84	v India	Dec 8, 1996		37	5/37	5/69	v Bang	Apr 24, 2003		32
GP Wickramasinghe (SL)		3	5/73	1/53	v Pak	Jan 2, 1992		32	6/103	0/27	v Pak	Mar 4, 1999		29
JH Kallis (SA)		23	2/34	5/90	v WI	Jan 2, 1999		48	6/67	2/34	v WI	Mar 29, 2001		25
M Dillon (WI)		3	5/111	DNB	v Pak	Dec 6, 1997		26	5/71	1/77	v India	May 18, 2002		23
ST Jayasuriya (SL)		69	5/43	4/31	v Zim	Jan 12, 2002		92	5/34	0/22	v SA	Aug 11, 2004		23
CG Macartney (Aus)		8	7/58	4/27	v Eng	Jul 1, 1909		30	1/47	5/44	v SA	Nov 26, 1921		22
RB Desai (India)		3	5/89	1/29	v Eng	Jun 18, 1959		25	6/56	1/18	v NZ	Mar 12, 1965		22
FMM Worrell (WI)		10	6/38	0/29	v Aus	Dec 22, 1951		31	7/70	-	v Eng	Jul 25, 1957		21
AR Border (Aus)		101	7/46	4/50	v WI	Jan 26, 1989		122	5/68	DNB	v WI	Mar 23, 1991		21
HK Olonga (Zim)		8	5/70	1/40	v India	Oct 7, 1998		29	1/46	5/93	v Pak	Nov 9, 2002		21
A Flintoff (Eng)		32	5/58	2/20	v WI	Apr 1, 2004		52	5/78	DNB	v Aus	Sep 8, 2005		20

Lance Klusener began his Test career by taking 8 for 64, bowling South Africa to a 329-run victory in Kolkata in 1996. It turned out to be Klusener's last five-for as well. His best figures in his remaining 48 Tests were back-to-back four-wicket hauls against Australia and Pakistan in 1998.