Over two decades before Pujara, an Indian opener had taken the responsibility of stonewalling against a world-class pace attack.

Donald, Matthews, McMillan, Schultz.

He did not get the runs, but he hung around grimly in all five innings:
14 (81)
7 (48)
23 (139)
10 (76)
5 (68)
+
A series tally of 59 runs in 412 balls. Strike rate, 14.3.

Put a 400-ball cut-off (where balls faced is known), and his nobody else has a series strike rate under 18.

Boring, ugly, ghastly, but he would just not give up. He outlasted the new ball every time.
+
A few years before that, India were chasing 348 on the last day of the tied Test. He came out at 253/5.

He remained unbeaten on 48 from 40 balls. This was the second tied Test.

If Pant has the fastest First-Class hundred among Indians, our man has the fastest double-hundred.
+
You can see that he had the mindset to become both Pujara and Pant.

And just like Pujara and Pant, he was there at Brisbane.

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More from @ovshake42

22 Jan
On this day, 1902, at Adelaide, Clem Hill played a ball from Gilbert Jessop on to the stumps.

He had scored 97.

He had scored 99 and 98 in his two previous innings.

Not only that – these were the first scores of 99, 98, and 97 in the history of Test cricket.
+
Before that, Hill had also scored the first ever 96.

So basically before him, everyone who went past 95 got a Test hundred!

Over his career, Hill crossed fifty 26 times but only 7 of these were hundreds.

However, of the other 19, there were scores of 91*, 96, 97, 98, 98, 99.
+
In other words, another 21 runs would have given him six more hundreds.

He also had 87, 87, 88. And his hundreds included 188 and 191.

Hill was a fantastic batsman, one of the greatest in the post-War era.
+
Read 7 tweets
20 Jan
Frank Chester was born on this day, 1895.

Many hailed him as the greatest umpire of all time.

Before the facts and stories, let me remind that Chester was hit by shrapnel during the Great War.

As you can see, the gangrenous right arm had to be amputated from under the elbow.
+ Image
He used to wear a black leather glove to cover the wooden stump.

Chester was a fine cricketer before the War, talented enough to earn his Worcestershire cap at 16.

He impressed his contemporaries. Jack Hobbs, for example:
+
"I played against him in his brief career and am sure he would have been a great England all-rounder."

The injury robbed Chester of a cricket career, but there was no way he was going to give up cricket.

Encouraged by Plum Warner, he took up umpiring.
+
Read 19 tweets
15 Jan
Raqibul Hasan Sr (also spelled Roqibul, Raquibul, Roquibul) was born on this day, 1953.

He was the first international captain of a representative Bangladesh side.

And his heroics in 1971 on a cricket field, in the face of fire, have been matched by almost no one.
+
Let me provide the backdrop first. This was 1970-71. Threats of Civil War loomed over East Pakistan.

Yahya Khan was making a last-ditch attempt to have control on East Pakistan, and cricket was going to be his tool.

An International XI was touring Pakistan.
+
Their second match was scheduled at Dacca.

In the 1970 Pakistan General Elections, Awami League had won 160 seats out of 300, but were still not allowed to form the Government.

And now Raqibul was roped in, probably as the ruling party's poster boy.
+
Read 17 tweets
14 Jan
Richard Blakey, born on January 15, 1967, played for Yorkshire for almost two decades.

Of cricketers who debuted after Blakey, only five have more First-Class dismissals than his 835 (778 catches, 57 stumpings).

Blakey also scored almost 15,000 runs.
+
But in Test cricket, he managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He played two Tests, both on England's disastrous 1992-93 tour of India.

He debuted as an emergency replacement, when Graham Gooch went down with food poisoning.
+
With Alec Stewart leading, Blakey batted at six and kept wickets.

And he kept brilliantly, not conceding a bye in 165 overs.

But he failed miserably with bat.

When he walked out to bat in front of a packed Chepauk, his first thought was "how am I going to get a run?"
+
Read 9 tweets
14 Jan
Benjamin Aislabie, born on this day, 1774, was probably the worst cricketer in the history of First-class cricket.

And a worse human being.

Aislabie averaged 3.15 with bat (3.90 in all recorded cricket).
+
Even if you make allowances for the era, this still a rank tail-ender's average.

The problem was that he played 56 matches *as a specialist batsman*.

He did kept wickets, and did not bowl even one ball in First-Class cricket.

It was not that he was a great fielder.
+
He only ever held seven catches, and seldom chased.

EW Swanton assessed that he was "much too fat to be any good" at cricket.

Aislabie's long career may be explained by the fact that he was the first Secretary (1822 to 1842) as well as President (1823/24) of the MCC.
+
Read 10 tweets
13 Jan
Kenia Jayantilal, one of the most unfortunate Indian Test cricketers, was born on this day, 1948.

He played only one Test, the first match on the historic 1970-71 tour of the West Indies.

He scored 5 before he tried to leave a ball from Grayson Shillingford.
+ Image
The ball still came into him, took an edge, and flew between second and third slip.

And Sobers did a Sobers by somehow emerging, laughing, the ball clutched to his chest.

In the pavilion was an uncapped cricketer named Sunil Gavaskar.
+
He had been brought up on stories of the brilliances of Sobers and Kanhai.

Now he told a teammate: "Now all I want to see is Rohan Kanhai's falling sweep shot, and my tour is made."

Gavaskar replaced Jayantilal in the next Test match.
+
Read 5 tweets

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