KL Rahul scored 152 the other day – and finished on the losing side. I heard this was the highest score in vain in the IPL, but what about all T20 cricket? asked Ladhu Veerasamy from India
KL Rahul smacked 152 not out from 67 balls in Delhi last weekend, but – despite Delhi Capitals running up 264 for 2 – finished on the losing side, as Punjab Kings sailed home with seven balls to spare.
Rahul’s score was not only the highest in a losing cause in the IPL – previously Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 128 for Delhi Daredevils against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Delhi in 2018 – but also the highest in any senior T20 match. He just beat Chris Gayle’s 151 not out for Somerset against Kent in Taunton in 2015.
The match aggregate of 536 runs last weekend was the second-highest in all T20 cricket, behind the 549 of Sunrisers (287 for 3) and Royal Challengers (262 for 7) in Bengaluru in the IPL in 2024.
Glamorgan had a strange innings the other day, with three nineties but no hundreds. How many times has this happened? asked Jason Jandu from England
The innings you’re talking about was Glamorgan’s first against Leicestershire in the County Championship in Cardiff last week. Their total of 440 did not include an individual hundred, but there were three scores in the nineties: Kiran Carlson made 95, Shaun Dickson exactly 90, and Mason Crane 99.
This is obviously unusual, but it is some way from being a record total: when Surrey piled up 671 for 9 declared against Kent in Beckenham in 2022, there were no individual hundreds but seven half-centuries, including 96 from Ollie Pope, 91 from Ben Foakes and 93 from Jamie Overton.
Overall, Glamorgan’s was the 11th first-class innings to contain three nineties but no hundreds; none of these were in Tests. There are four further innings that included three nineties and one or two individual centuries. (Thanks to Keith Walmsley of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians for coming up with this information remarkably quickly.)
Who has bowled the most overs in a Test innings without taking a wicket? asked Jamie Stewart from the Netherlands
The West Indian medium-pacer Denis Atkinson bowled 72 overs against England at Edgbaston in 1957, finishing with 0 for 137. Many of his overs came during a long partnership of 411 between Peter May and Colin Cowdrey. Also in this innings, spinner Sonny Ramadhin sent down 98 overs – still the Test record – and finished with 2 for 179.
When Sri Lanka ran up 756 for 5 in Colombo in 2006, an innings which included the Test-record partnership of 624 between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, the South African slow left-armer Nicky Boje sent down 65 overs and finished with 0 for 221.
The record for the most runs conceded without taking a wicket in a Test innings is 259 (in 54 overs) by Khan Mohammad, the Pakistan seamer, against West Indies in Kingston in 1958, in the innings in which Garry Sobers scored 365 not out. Here’s the full list of fruitless bowling spells.
Has anyone ever batted at every spot in the order in a Test match – and how about ODIs and T20s? asked Thomas Kicuroski from Australia
Five men have batted in every position in a Test innings: Syd Gregory of Australia, Vinoo Mankad of India, Pakistan’s Nasim-ul-Ghani, and the England pair of Wilfred Rhodes and Ben Stokes. Another Pakistani, Abdul Razzaq, is the only man to do it in ODIs, while Kevin Irakoze of Rwanda has managed it in T20Is.
No one has done this in women’s Tests: the most batting positions occupied is nine, by the former England wicketkeeper Jane Smit. But five women managed it in ODIs: Clare Connor (England), Sophie Devine (New Zealand), Inoka Galagedara (Sri Lanka), Isobel Joyce (Ireland) and Amita Sharma (India), while Fiji’s Sulia Vuni has done it in T20 internationals. (For these lists we counted opening as covering Nos. 1 and 2, as it’s not always clear who faced the first ball of an innings.)
I just noticed that Scott Borthwick has represented England in all three international formats – for a grand total of four appearances. Has anyone ever finished their career having played only once in each format? asked Ivan Monaghan from England
The England career of Scott Borthwick comprised one Test (against Australia in January 2014), two ODIs and one T20I (in 2011). He’s one of five men whose four international appearances were spread over the three formats, alongside Charlton Tshuma of Zimbabwe, Afghanistan’s Mohammad Saleem, and the Indian pair of Naman Ojha and Karn Sharma. There’s also a current woman player, Australia’s Lucy Hamilton, but she’s only 19 and so may well appear again soon.
However, there is another woman who boasts a unique international career of one match in all three formats. It’s the South African Nonkhululeko Thabethe, who played a Test, an ODI and a T20I on tour of India in the space of three weeks in November 2014. She made two runs in four innings, and did not bowl. Thabethe is still playing domestic cricket in South Africa, but it seems unlikely that she will add to her international cap collection.
Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.
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