Monday, July 13, 2009

THE GREAT ESCAPE

England saved the Cardiff Test by the skin of their teeth. The last pair of James Anderson and Monty Panesar batted for 37 minutes to steer England to safety. Here is a glance at some of the drawn Test matches with narrowest of margins.

Last wicket pair saving an innings defeat
(by taking their side’s match-aggregate to at par or just ahead of opponent’s total)

Ahead by For       Vs            Venue      Season Stay of last wicket
0 runs   England  South Africa Manchester   1998     19 minutes
13 runs  England  Australia    Cardiff      2009     37 minutes
The Tests that ended in a draw with fielding side needing just one wicket to win 

Total Target Batting side  Fielding side   Venue         Season
152-9  278   India         England         Manchester    1946
273-9  460   Australia     West Indies     Adelaide      1960-61
228-9  234   England       West Indies     Lord's        1963
206-9  308   England       West Indies     Georgetown    1967-68
339-9  360   Australia     West Indies     Adelaide      1968-69
251-9  306   West Indies   Pakistan        Bridgetown    1976-77
258-9  369   West Indies   Australia       Kingston      1977-78
197-9  335   West Indies   India           Kolkata       1978-79
230-9  247   Australia     New Zealand     Melbourne     1987-88
341-9  372   Pakistan      West Indies     Port of Spain 1987-88
223-9  288   New Zealand   Australia       Hobart        1997-98
207-9  373   West Indies   Zimbabwe        Harare        2003-04
210-9  323   England       Sri Lanka       Galle         2003-04
371-9  423   Australia     England         Manchester    2005
298-9  392   West Indies   India           St.John's     2006
282-9  380   India         England         Lord’s        2007
370-9  503   West Indies   England         St.John’s     2008-09
The Test matches that were drawn with narrowest margins, as the batting side just failed to achieve the fourth innings winning target 

Diff     Batting side Target  Score  Fielding side Venue       Season
 1 run   England       205    204-6  Zimbabwe      Bulawayo    1996-97
 6 runs  India         361    355-8  West Indies   Mumbai (BS) 1948-49
 6 runs  England       234    228-9  West Indies   Lord's      1963
 8 runs  Australia     246    238-8  England       Melbourne   1974-75
 9 runs  India         438    429-8  England       The Oval    1979
10 runs  New Zealand   284    274-6  Australia     Brisbane    2001-02
11 runs  West Indies   253    242-5  Australia     Bridgetown  1964-65
11 runs  New Zealand   286    275-8  Zimbabwe      Bulawayo    1997-98
15 runs  England       124    109-7  Pakistan      Birmingham  1987
17 runs  Australia     247    230-9  New Zealand   Melbourne   1987-88
Note: The first entry in the above table is an intriguing one. It was for the first time in Test history that two teams tied on the same score and yet the match ended in a draw and not as a tie since England had not lost all their wickets. The entries in the bold are the ones also appearing in the first table, meaning either of the two sides could have won the match!
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