Ask Steven

Has Jimmy Anderson now taken more wickets against West Indies in Tests than anyone else?

And how often has a batsman been dismissed twice in one day by the same bowler?

Steven Lynch
Steven Lynch
04-Aug-2020
With 87 wickets, Jimmy Anderson now has the most West Indies scalps for an England bowler in Tests, but is still a fair distance away from Glenn McGrath's 110  •  Getty Images

With 87 wickets, Jimmy Anderson now has the most West Indies scalps for an England bowler in Tests, but is still a fair distance away from Glenn McGrath's 110  •  Getty Images

Is it correct that Jimmy Anderson has now taken more wickets in Tests against West Indies than anyone else? asked Jamie Bright from England
James Anderson's final wicket in the recent series gave him 87 in Tests against West Indies, beating the old England record of 86, held for more than half a century by Fred Trueman (86). In third place now is Stuart Broad, with 73.
The list of wicket-takers in England-West Indies Tests is a bit lopsided, as no fewer than seven West Indies bowlers finished with more than Anderson's 87 wickets. Five of them reached 100, with Curtly Ambrose leading the way with a remarkable haul of 164, at an average below 19.
Anderson now holds the England record, but two bowlers from other countries have taken more West Indian wickets in Tests: Glenn McGrath captured 110, and Kapil Dev 89.
Which player scored 343 not out in a first-class match but finished on the losing side? asked Michael Seymour from France
This supremely unfortunate batsman was Essex's Peter "Percy" Perrin, who made 343 not out in Chesterfield in 1904. But it was in vain: Derbyshire almost matched Essex's 597, then bowled them out for 97 in the second innings - Perrin, perhaps believing he'd done his bit, managed only 8 - and knocked the runs off to win.
Perrin hit 68 fours in his innings, a record that stood for 90 years, until it was broken by Brian Lara in his 501 not out. According to a recent book by the Derbyshire historian John Shawcroft, Essex's scorer said that 14 of Perrin's boundary hits landed the ball onto the cinder path surrounding the turf or beyond it. Nowadays these would have counted as sixes (the rule was not changed till 1910), and he would have finished with 371.
Perrin made almost 30,000 runs in an Essex career that lasted over 30 years. He never played for England, although he was later a Test selector, eventually chairing the panel.
Kemar Roach was dismissed twice by Stuart Broad on the third day of the third Test. How often has this happened? asked Siddharth Doshi from India
That double dismissal of Kemar Roach by Stuart Broad at Old Trafford last week appears to be the 147th time a bowler has dismissed the same batsman twice on the same day in a Test. It had happened to Roach before: Australia's Josh Hazlewood removed him twice on the third day in Hobart in 2015-16.
Five South Africans fell twice on the same day to England's Johnny Briggs in Cape Town in 1888-89. This daily haul was equalled on a wet pitch at Lord's in 1934, when five Australians were dismissed twice on the third day, four of them by Hedley Verity. And in Harare in 2005, five Zimbabweans succumbed twice on the second day against New Zealand.
I was looking at Barry Richards's record - if we use four Test matches as the base, is he the batsman with the most runs and most centuries? asked Hemant Kher from the United States
If you mean people who played only four matches in all, then Barry Richards is indeed top with 508 runs - second, with 353, is another South African from that 1969-70 series, Lee Irvine. The only other man with two centuries from four Tests or fewer is Abid Ali, of Pakistan, who has two from three matches so far - but he'll presumably play again soon.
If you mean who of everyone had the most runs after four Tests, then Richards comes in eighth - Sunil Gavaskar is top with 774 (all in the West Indies in 1970-71). George Headley made 703, Conrad Hunte 577, Javed Miandad 573, Vinod Kambli 544, KS Ranjitsinhji 516, and Herbie Collins 515. Gavaskar and Headley had four centuries; Hunte, Arthur Morris and Mohammad Azharuddin three. Richards is one of 46 batsmen who made two centuries in their first four Tests.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul was involved in 77 Test losses. Who holds the corresponding records for one-day and T20Is? asked Gordon Brine from South Africa
You're right that Shivnarine Chanderpaul took part in the most Test defeats - 77 - a record he inherited from his long-time team-mate Brian Lara, who was on the losing side 63 times. Five others have lost a half-century of Tests: Sachin Tendulkar (56), Alastair Cook (55), Alec Stewart (54), Jimmy Anderson (53) and Mohammad Ashraful (50 of 61 matches played).
The record for most defeats in one-day internationals is a round 200, by Tendulkar: this is perhaps not terribly surprising, as he played more such matches (463) than anyone else. Behind him come Sanath Jayasuriya (193 defeats), Mahela Jayawardene (186) and Shahid Afridi (170). In all, 65 players have been on the losing side in 100 or more ODIs.
Three Bangladeshis top the list of most defeats in T20Is. Mahmudullah has played in 56 losses, and Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal in 52 each. Hamilton Masakadza of Zimbabwe played 66 matches and tasted defeat 50 times.
And there's an addition to the recent question about the tennis player Sania Mirza, from Manish Achuth, among others:
"With regards to your question on Sania Mirza's connections to cricketers, her sister Anam Mirza is married to Mohammad Asaduddin, the son of the former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin. He played two first-class matches for Goa a couple of seasons ago."
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Steven Lynch is the editor of the updated edition of Wisden on the Ashes