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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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