Imagine your test cricket debut. Desperate to do well, you want to prove you belong in the arena. For a bowler a five wicket innings is trumped only by a 10 wicket match haul. And as a specialist bowler you might strive your whole career to score a test match fifty. Tim Southee did both on test debut, 5-55 in England's first innings and then a six laden 77* in the futile chase for 553 to win.
I do go on, but it really is a big deal. Only 8 players in test history have done the "50 & five-for" double on debut. The interesting thing is that ever since that debut Tim Southee has never scored as many or had bowling figures as good. His debut performances remain his best in his 16 test career. So what about the others, who else never reached the dizzying heights of their test debut?
The table below shows all the players who have done the 50 and five for double on debut. The last two columns show the matches taken until they bettered their debut performance.
Four players (Trott, Lever, Dodemaide and Southee) never bettered their debut performance in either discipline. John Lever had the longest career without ever bettering his debut effort ( 21 tests) but our boy Tim is closing in - 16 tests to date.
Wally Hammond, one of the greatest batsmen of all time, took only until his third test to better his debut 51 but never again took a test match five-for in his 85 match career.
All of the others in the list did better their debut performances at some point in their career, in some cases very soon after their debut.
Surely the question is not if, but when, Tim Southee will go on to better his debut performance with either bat or ball. What price he does it against Zimbabwe some time over the weekend?
Player | Debut | HS | BBI | Total career | Bettered | |
High Score | Best bowling | |||||
AE Trott (Aus) | 1895 | 72* | 8 for 43 | 8 matches | never | never |
LC Braund (Eng) | 1901 | 58 | 5 for 61 | 24 matches | 3rd match | 14th match |
FR Foster (Eng) | 1911 | 56 | 5 for 92 | 11 matches | 3rd match | 2nd match |
WR Hammond (Eng) | 1927 | 51 | 5 for 36 | 85 matches | 3rd match | never |
BR Taylor (NZ) | 1965 | 105 | 5 for 86 | 30 matches | 13th match | 2nd match |
JK Lever (Eng) | 1976 | 53 | 7 for 46 | 21 matches | never | never |
AIC Dodemaide (Aus) | 1987 | 50 | 6 for 58 | 10 matches | never | never |
TG Southee (NZ) | 2008 | 77* | 5 for 55 | 16 matches | never | never |
Also, big shout out to Bruce Taylor - the Kiwi all-rounder who appears in the list as the only player in test history to score a century and take five wickets in an innings on test debut. Kudos.
