A hundred Tests and no wins against Australia

Can you remember when New Zealand beat Australia last in a Test? Allan Border was captain, Glenn McGrath hadn't made his debut, and Daniel Vettori was 14 years old. This week in Hamilton - Vettori's 100th Test - New Zealand were presented with an opportunity to put one across their trans-Tasman rivals. They didn't take it, slipping to defeat by 176 runs instead, and maintained the winless records of their players against Australia. In today's column, we've looked at cricketers who played the most Tests against a particular opponent without winning even one.

The Hamilton Test was Vettori's 18th against Australia - 17 for New Zealand and one for the World XI - across eight series and he's been involved in five draws, 13 defeats and no wins. Seven of those series were lost and the one that was drawn, in 2001, contained two matches in which New Zealand and Vettori came closest to beating Australia since 1993. They ended the Brisbane Test 10 runs short of the target, and were three wickets away from victory in Perth.

Before the ongoing barren period began, New Zealand wins against Australia weren't that uncommon - there were four between 1982 and '86 and another in '90. Vettori, therefore, has played the most matches for New Zealand against Australia without a win. Stephen Fleming, the only other New Zealand cricketer to play 100 Tests, played 14 Tests against Australia without victory.

Pakistan beat England for the first time in the fourth Test between the two sides, but then went nearly three decades without a win. The careers of Mushtaq Mohammad and Intikhab Alam were during those years and they played 23 and 20 matches respectively against England between 1961 and 1974 without a win.

England didn't win the Ashes between 1987 and 2005 but several players experienced what it was like to win a Test against Australia, usually in dead rubbers. Not Robin Smith, though. He played 15 Ashes Tests between 1989 and 1993, of which England lost 11 and drew the others. His Ashes career ended with a pasting in 1993: Australia were 4-0 up after five Tests. England axed Smith, for the first time after 45 Tests, for the Oval dead rubber, and promptly won by 161 runs.

Pakistan have not beaten Australia in a Test since 1995. In fact they've lost their last 12 Tests to them. Mohammad Yousuf, one of Pakistan's batting mainstays during this period, ended his career on Monday, following a ban - a consequence of his conduct during a 3-0 drubbing in Australia. He played 11 Tests in all against them, of which Pakistan lost nine and drew two, and averaged only 29 with the bat. Another giant of the 1990s and 2000s who didn't win any of his 13 Tests against Australia was Shaun Pollock.

Only four players have played in 10 or more Tests against a particular opponent and won all of them. Three of those - Mahela Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara - did it against relatively weaker Bangladesh. Roger Harper, however, played 10 Tests against England between 1984 and 1988 and West Indies won every one. They were massive victories as well, the smallest margins being eight wickets or 172 runs. Harper's contribution was a batting average of 34 and 22 wickets at 17.90 apiece.

The West Indian dominance over England during the 1970s and 80s was so overwhelming that Michael Holding and Joel Garner spent more than a decade playing Test cricket without ever losing to them. Holding's 21 matches is the most anyone has played against a country without a defeat.

Gordon Greenidge nearly shattered that mark. He had played 28 Tests against England, with West Indies winning 19, drawing nine and losing none. Then, at Sabina Park in 1990, Angus Fraser triggered a collapse from which West Indies did not recover. It was England's first victory against West Indies in 16 years and Greenidge's only defeat against them in 32 Tests.

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