Tales of the tail

There were a few oddities in England's 354-run rout of Pakistan at Trent Bridge.

The top scorers in each of the four innings were Eoin Morgan, Umar Gul, Matt Prior and Danish Kaneria. Morgan scored 130 from No. 6 in the first innings, Umar Gul biffed 65 from No. 9 in the second, Prior revived England with an unbeaten 102 at No. 7 in the third, and Danish Kaneria, Pakistan's No. 10, top-scored (if you could call it that) with 16 not out in the fourth. Spot the oddity yet? All four top scorers in the Test were batsmen at No. 6 or lower in the order. It was only the third such occurrence in 1967 Tests.

By coincidence, the two other Tests in which batsmen in positions 6 to 11 top-scored in all four innings were also in the 21st century, and both matches involved Bangladesh. It's mildly surprising that none of the Tests from the 19th and early 20th centuries, with their sticky wickets and reversed batting orders, had top-scorers at No. 6 or lower.

The first such Test was at the Harare Sports Club in 2004, before Zimbabwe suspended themselves from the Test circuit. The hosts made 441 in the first innings, with Sean Ervine scoring 86 from No. 6, after which Mohammad Ashraful scored 98 at the same position in Bangladesh's first innings. Ervine top-scored again in Zimbabwe's second innings, while Khaled Mashud made 61 at No. 8 in the final innings. In January 2005, Tillakaratne Dilshan scored brisk hundreds at No. 6 in each innings of the Chittagong Test, while Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan made high scores in Bangladesh's innings from Nos. 9 and 7.

The Nottingham Test was also only the seventh time a team's top scorers in both innings were at No. 8 or lower in the batting line-up: Gul and Kaneria at No. 8 and 10 for Pakistan.

The only time a team won a Test despite their top scorers in either innings being at No. 8 or lower was also the first time batsmen between Nos. 8 and 11 top-scored for a team. England were floundering against Australia at 29 for 8 at the SCG when George Lohmann made 17 at No. 9, before they were shot out for 45 in the first innings. After wiping out a deficit of 74 in their second innings, England collapsed to 103 for 7 before their No. 8, Johnny Briggs, made 33 to help them to 184. Australia then collapsed for 97 in their pursuit of 111.

Prior's century at Trent Bridge, in proportion to the next highest score in the innings, was among the largest for a batsman at No. 7 or lower in the order. Prior made 102, which was 3.64 times Graeme Swann's score of 28, the second highest in England's second innings.

The largest ratio between a lower-order batsman's score and the next best score in an innings is 7.58: Kapil Dev made 129 against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in 1992 and India's Nos. 8, 9 and 10 scored 17 each, the second-highest score in the second innings.

The ratio between Prior's 102 and Swann's 28 is also among the highest for a wicketkeeper top-scoring in an innings, behind those of Adam Gilchrist and Moin Khan. In 2006, Gilchrist scored 144 in the first innings in Fatullah, a match Australia nearly lost to Bangladesh, 5.53 times the next highest score, which was Jason Gillespie's 26.

While most of the entries in the table below are substantial contributions from wicketkeepers, Ridley Jacobs makes an appearance with a score of 19. Chasing a target of 364 against Australia in Port-of-Spain in 1999, West Indies were routed for 51. Jacobs, batting at No. 6, made 19, while the next best score was Curtly Ambrose's 6.

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