Saturday, August 11, 2007

A rather forgettable match for Matt Prior

It was not just English bowlers who suffered during Indian onslaught, wicket-keeper Matt Prior had a nightmarish match also.On the opening day of the Test, he conceded 21 byes, which is a record for the first day of a Test match.Prior conceded 12 more on day two and got his name entered in the list of worst wicket-keeping performances.
He is now at the joint second place in this list. Interestingly all the first four places are held by England keepers. It may be noted here that the Frank Woolley (at the top of the list) was not the specialist wicket-keeper. He had to stand in when the regular keeper (Les Ames) was injured. So Prior's performance is now the worst ever for a specialist wicket-keeper.

Byes Keeper           Opposition (Score) Venue      Season
37  FE Woolley (Eng)  Australia (327)    The Oval   1934
33  JT Murray (Eng)   India (390)        Mumbai BS  1961-62
33  JM Parks (Eng)    West Indies (391)  Kingston   1967-68
33  MJ Prior (Eng)    India (664)        The Oval   2007
31  WL Cornford (Eng) New Zealand (387)  Auckland   1929-30
31  ATW Grout (Aus)   Pakistan (366)     Lahore     1959-60
30  M Bisset (SA)     England (417)      Cape Town  1909-10
30  W Carkeek (Aus)   South Africa (329) Nottingham 1912
30  EAC Hunte (WI)    England (327)      Georgetown 1929-30
30  TG Evans (Eng)    New Zealand (189)  Wellington 1950-51



Note: Prior has conceded 70 byes in the series so far.
The Test record of most byes in a three Test series is 73 by Jack Blackham which was set in 1893.
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