Chris Martin further enhanced his already considerable reputation as the classic tailender with a near-perfect game at the Wanderers: played eight balls (which, some might argue, was six more than necessary), scored 0 runs, out twice. His 19 Test ducks mean he is fast moving up the all-time list, and is already in the top 15, after a mere 34 matches.
As Mathew Varghese pointed out in his post-match stats piece after the Johannesburg Test, Martin is already the proud holder of three records – the most number of pairs in Tests, the most zeroes in Tests between South Africa and New Zealand, and in Tests at the Wanderers.
The table below shows just how far ahead of the rest of the pack Martin is: in 25 completed innings, he has failed to get off the mark 19 times. Taking a cut-off of 20 dismissals in Tests, Martin is far ahead of his nearest competitor, Danish Kaneria. If he continues at his current rate of a duck every 1.79 Test, Martin will get his 44th – and go past Courtney Walsh’s world record – in his 79th match.
Highest duck factor, as a % of innings dismissed (at least 20 dismissals)
Player
Dismissed innings
Ducks
% of ducks
Chris Martin
25
19
76.00
Danish Kaneria
34
20
58.82
BS Chandrasekhar
41
23
56.10
Danny Morrison
45
24
53.33
Ewen Chatfield
21
11
52.38
Allan Mullally
23
12
52.17
Phil Tufnell
30
15
50.00
Dilip Doshi
28
14
50.00
Manjural Islam
22
10
45.45
Corey Collymore
25
11
44.00
Meanwhile, here’s a response to the queries about genuine batsmen with the most propensity to score ducks. Taking a cut-off of 50 Test innings, and an average of at least 30, India’s Pankaj Roy comes out on top. Among specialist batsmen, Marvan Atapattu and Steve Waugh have the most number of ducks – 22 – but while Atapattu makes it to the list below, Waugh’s zeroes came over 260 innings, which means his percentage was only 8.46.
Batsmen with highest duck percentage in Tests (at least 50 innings, with an average of at least 30)
Posted by: Michael Barker at November 13, 2007 9:41 AM
He's vying with a lot of other Kiwis in accumulating noughts these days! New Zealand cricket frankly is in a parlous state (worst its been in three decades) and I despair of it ever coming right again. I just think there's no passion in NZ for the game anymore nor heart for a fight when the going gets tough.
Posted by: shibu mathew at November 13, 2007 9:51 AM
yes if you consider a batsman is out for a duck it is not a big crime it depends what the situation and who the bowler is. every batsman out for ducks. after all the game is cricket.
Posted by: Bob Mason at November 13, 2007 9:50 PM
Don't forget that rare group of truly shocking batsmen who have taken more Test wickets than scored runs. Chris Martin has 52 Test runs in total, but has taken 110 wickets, roughly twice the number of wickets. He will never make more runs than his total wickets tally. Only Bruce Reid and BS Chandrasekhar have achieved this feat. Stats to confirm, please?
Posted by: Andrew Dunford at November 14, 2007 1:59 AM
Arguably Chris Martin's most famous batting record - which is not mentioned in this article - is the nine consecutive innings without scoring a run. This sequence spanned eleven Test matches, Martin taking 41 wickets between scoring his 12th and 13th career runs.
Incidentally, Martin has hit one boundary in front of square in his Test career.
Posted by: David Kirby at November 14, 2007 2:33 AM
Is Chris Martin's dreadful 2.08 also the worst career batting average of all time?
Posted by: Tony Long at November 14, 2007 3:56 AM
Apparently there's a reason his batting is so poor. I read an article in the paper about him, discovering that he has only had a driver's licence for two years. Before that, in his pre-Black-Caps days he biked to cricket training, meaning he couldn't carry a bat. So that's why he is no good at batting. I hope he gets the record - he deserves it.
Posted by: John A. at November 14, 2007 5:30 AM
I have tried to 'Ask Steven' this question, but does Chris Martin hold some type of record for the greatest differential between Test wickets and runs? From the last test versus South Africa, he now has 110 wickets and 52 runs for a -58 differential. He is a bit better in all first-class cricket with 355 wickets and 319 runs for a -36 differential. Thankfully he is a Test class bowler.
Posted by: David Barry at November 14, 2007 7:39 AM
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar has the record differential of wickets - runs: 242 wickets, 167 runs, differential of 75. Chris Martin is second, though he looks set to eventually get to number one, having played 24 less Tests.
Mfuneko Ngam and Charles Mariott each have the record of 11 Test wickets without scoring a run. Mariott took all of his in his only Test!
An honourable mention goes to the former left-arm quick from South Africa, Brett Schultz - 9 Tests, 9 runs, 37 wickets.
Posted by: David C at November 14, 2007 8:14 AM
Chris Martin's highest Test score is seven. He's the only player with 50 Test wickets who has failed to reach double figures.
Posted by: Ryan A at November 14, 2007 10:33 AM
Great new feature this. Keep em coming.
A note on NZ's fortunes of late. They are in a transitional phase and probably will be for a good year or two. It might appear they dont have the bottle to compete at the moment, but I think its more about ability on quicker surfaces and lack of experience more than lack of fight. Besides this, with Vettori's fighting qualities and 'never back down' approach together with the ex-skipper's courage and captaincy support...you dont have a bette combination to help the others through.
Lets hope for NZ's sake, Bond, Shane Bond can shake off his injury propensity and give them a fighing chance.
In the mean time, come on you Proteas! (Did that sound slightly Aussie?)
Posted by: Alex at November 29, 2007 10:26 AM
it's actually a bit harsh on Chris Martin to only look at completed innings. He has a lot of not out innings where he has got off the mark, so these should presumably count in his favour...
Posted by: Arjun Chaudhuri at November 30, 2007 8:10 AM
Chris Martin would have been an ideal Super-Sub in ODIs—bowl your ten overs and pack off please!. Wonder why, ICC dropped the rule; it was worth persisting with some more time—it was definitely more interesting than permutations and combinations with field restrictions. Any taker for taking Chris Martin in a double-wicket or super-sixes team? No wonder, he his bat doesn’t display a manufacturer or sponsor’s sticker!
Y Anantha Narayanan has over 35 years of IT background. Over the past 15 years, he has been concentrating on Cricket analysis and software development. He has been involved with StumpVision, Wisden, Hallmark Software and his own site www.thirdslip.com during this period.
David Barry was cricket-starved when teaching English in France, and
study of cricket stats was his only way to stay sane. He is now back
in Brisbane, Australia, and working towards a PhD in Physics. He once
played for the worst team in the G-division of Muscat's cricket
league.
After doing an MBA in marketing and working in an advertising agency, S Rajesh decided that his skills might be put to better use by number-crunching on cricket. He hasn’t regretted that decision in the last six years, and edits the Numbers Game column on cricinfo.com every Friday.
Andrew Samson had his moments with bat and ball, once scoring 43 and taking 3 for 14 with his legbreaks, but he was much better at arithmetic, which explains why he is where he is today. Andrew has been keeping cricket stats since the days when it used to be done with pen and paper, and has been involved in scoring/stats for Radio and TV since 1987. He has been Cricket South Africa's official statistician since1994.
A former scientist and occasional TV quiz champion, Charles Davis now works full time at sports statistics in Melbourne.
His only real contribution to the Test record books came at age 4, when he formed part of the record 90,800 crowd
who saw West Indies at the MCG in 1961. He has two books to his credit, and claims to be the only cricket statistician
ever who has been quoted in the New York Times and in Australian Federal Parliament on the same day. Not to be
confused with the West Indian batsman Charlie Davis, especially in terms of ability.
Having just taken early retirement as a Mathematics teacher in Hobart, Ric
Finlay now fully devotes his time to recording cricket, both past and
present, for the popular CSW cricket database, along with his colleague
David Fitzgerald (www.tastats.com.au). His interest in the game is
inversely proportional to his ability as a player, but he did once score a
century after being dropped at 3 and running out three of his team-mates.
His first memory of international cricket is the 1962-63 MCC tour of
Australia, described as one of the most boring ever. Totally fascinated, he
was instantly hooked, and has never looked back. Author of three books on
cricket of a historical nature, he has provided statistics and scored for
radio and television cricket coverage since 1983.
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