Which is the greatest sub-ten Test innings of the last 40 years?

Rajesh: Since we’re talking West Indies, I’ll throw another one in the ring. A classic No. 11 who Mr Martin would be proud of: Courtney Walsh, who saved West Indies the ignominy of their first home series defeat to Pakistan with the grittiest 4 off 24 balls ever seen.Miller: Ah, Courtney. My favourite of his innings came a year earlier, in remarkably similar circumstances. But his 0 not out against Australia in Barbados in 1999, in support of Lara’s 153, edges it for me because of the comic majesty of his first delivery. A no-ball from Jason Gillespie, left alone outside off, and in the same motion he tucks his bat under his arm and fist-pumps the bonus run. Never mind the fact it meant he had another ball to survive. Heart and soul on the line.Rajesh: Yes, we need to do a separate list for Walsh. I think we’re allowed our individual favourites as long as Walsh is on the list.Zaltzman: Tidy attack there too: McGrath, Gillespie, Warne, MacGill. It takes a special tailender to avoid facing too much of them.Zaltzman: I once saw Courtney Walsh hit three sixes over the pavilion in Oxford. Bowling maybe not in the same category, admittedly.Rajesh: Was it you bowling to him?Zaltzman: I’d have cleaned him up. Raw pace.Miller: While we’re talking of 0 not outs, by the way, I’d like to nominate a forgotten classic of the genre. Andrew Caddick, at The Oval in 1997. For some reason, he was always batting at No. 8 in that era, getting a nosebleed every innings. But on this occasion, in a low-scoring humdinger, he loitered for 37 balls to give Mark Ramprakash enough support to squeeze England’s lead into triple figures. And then, when Ramps got out for 48, Digger Martin, Devon Malcolm and Phil Tufnell all fell second ball – from 160 for 6 to 163 all out, a target of 124 for Australia. So Caddick then rocks up with 5 for 42 to win by 19 runs.

Zaltzman: Caddick averaged 14 at No. 8, 10 at No. 9 and 6.9 at No. 10. Should have filled the problem No. 3 position, in hindsight.Rajesh: And let me throw in a Statsguru question. There are only two instances of a sub-ten score lasting 100-plus balls, in matches not lost by that player’s team, in Tests since 1980.Zaltzman: In my mind, that is Gary Kirsten’s entire career. Only, he often strung together the sub-tens in one innings. Sometimes 30 or so of them.Rajesh: You’re close. South African, but not for South Africa.Zaltzman: Neil Wagner?Rajesh: Yep, enjoy this one.Zaltzman: I had Wagner on my list – 7 off 103 to save the 2018 Christchurch Test v England and secure a 1-0 series win. But his innings was nothing to do with wanting to save the game or series for his team. Nothing at all. It was a deeply personal revenge block.Miller: I fancy a bit more heroic failure amid all this tail-end bigging-up, though. Time to bring out the Beef! Specifically, his six-ball duck against Australia at Old Trafford. First morning of the Test, England 2-0 down in the series and going reasonably steady with Robin Smith well set. His response? A maniacal lurch down the track to Trevor Hohns, going for a massive hoon over cow corner, and bowled. It was utterly abject. But you have to applaud the intent. Imagine if he had connected. It could have changed the course of history!Zaltzman: I get terrible flashbacks. The horror…Did his attention to spectacle hygiene make Jack Leach’s Headingley innings even more valiant?•Getty ImagesMiller: Staying with ’80s Ashes knocks, I had a Bob Willis innings shortlisted, but it’s really only as a proxy for one that sadly got too rowdy to make the cut – 8 not out at Melbourne in England’s three-run win.Zaltzman: Muttiah Muralitharan and Lonwabo Tsotsobe are the only other two players with a recorded 8 off three balls in Tests on Statsguru. Murali’s was v West Indies in 2008. He clubbed Fidel Edwards for two fours, then, in the great Sri Lankan tradition, was caught at third man.Miller: Talking of Murali and Co, I’ve got another bosh-tastic belter to fling into the mix: Sanath Jayasuriya, Colombo 1993. Facing his only ball with Sri Lanka on the verge of their maiden Test victory over England, he smokes Phil Tufnell for six. It was the stirring of the beast that would soon be unleashed. At that stage of his career, he was a left-arm spinner batting at seven. Cue Faisalabad and The Oval.Zaltzman: Can I dive back into the pre-1980 universe and mention West Indies’ Frank King?Rajesh: By all means.Zaltzman: 1955 v Australia, came in in the second innings on, appropriately enough, a king pair. Out second ball for 6.Miller: Sensational.Rajesh: That’s class.Zaltzman: Three balls in the match, W, 6, W. Can’t ask for more than that. The only recorded two-ball 6 in Tests.Rajesh: That deserves more than an honourable mention.Australia’s reaction to the dismissal is all the proof you need to know how valuable Courtney Walsh’s wicket used to be•Hamish Blair/Getty ImagesMiller: A bit like Chris Martin’s career, that is the sort of Test performance I think I could aspire to.Rajesh: And to save the best for last – Sreesanth’s 4 not out off seven balls to save India the Lord’s Test.Miller: Oh shush. That innings sent Monty Panesar’s career into a tailspin. His execrable Twitter channel is almost certainly the fault of that not-out.Zaltzman: Shall we try to resolve the Vishwa Fernando v Jack Leach issue? You could write a doctorate on whether Fernando’s innings or Leach’s innings was the greater.Miller: Fidel probably has.Rajesh: My favourite Vishwa stat: He had batted only seven times in Tests before that innings and never lasted more than 17 balls. Scored only five runs in those innings. Beat that, Leach.Zaltzman: Leach, 1 not out off 17, added 76 with Stokes to win by one wicket and keep the Ashes alive. Vishwa Fernando v South Africa in South Africa, 6 not out off 27, added 78 with Kusal Perera to win by one wicket. Vishwa had emphatically never scored 92 as a Test nightwatchman, however.Miller: To be fair to Vishwa, Leach did cheat a bit with that net against Ireland.Zaltzman: Before that innings, Vishwa had been out four times in the 52 balls he’d faced in Tests.Rajesh: He hadn’t even scored 9. His scores till then: 0 not out, 0, 0, 4 not out, 0, 0, 1 not out.Vishwa Fernando (left): no sneaky nightwatchman innings pollute his pristine tail-end stats•Getty ImagesZaltzman: Two high-class bowling attacks, two pyrotechnicians flambéeing away at the other end… hard to separate. In any case, out of the 22,259 single-figure innings in Tests since 1980 (bear in mind, this is a much more hotly contested title than Greatest Century, for all the glory hunters out there), are we down to Troup v Leach v Vishwa? Or one of Walsh’s one-wicket-win masterpieces?Miller: I did go against my better judgement and proclaim Kusal Perera’ innings as greater than Ben Stokes’, so I’m not sure I can stand for both debates to be won by Sri Lanka!Zaltzman: Sri Lanka went on to win the series as well, if you want to factor that into the extremely non-mathematical equation.Rajesh: Yeah, too many factors going for Vishwa, so let’s give it to Leach.Miller: Leach clearly gets bonus points for his comedy glasses-cleaning. Would only have been improved had he recruited Bilal Shafayat to run his lint cloth onto the field between balls.Rajesh: And he proved Lyon is a choker.Miller: By causing the gaffe to end all gaffes (and to end Australia’s dressing-room rubbish bin) when he called for the run that led to Lyon’s fumble.Sentinels of the single-digit scores

ANDY ZALTZMAN
Gary Troup 7* v West Indies, Dunedin, 1980: the most fearsome opponents, a low-scoring match, a tailender with only tailenders (and home umpires) for company.
Vishwa Fernando 6* v South Africa, Durban, 2019: if an innings of 6 can be a bolt from the blue, this was it.
Alec Stewart 9* v West Indies, Jamaica, 1998: surviving ten overs on that pitch is the greatest feat of human endurance since the last ice age. Arguably.
ANDREW MILLER
Jack Leach Recency bias? Whatever. Nominative determinism, on the other hand…
Chris Martin Tendulkar said of that Wellington innings that it was like watching Bradman in his prime. Nuff said.
Alec Stewart at Sabina Park. Was at the crease for every delivery of a completed Test match.
S RAJESH
Gary Troup in Dunedin. Faced 38 balls against Holding, Croft, Garner; scripted the only series defeat for a full-strength West Indies team in 19 years and 35 series.
Neil Wagner 7 v England, 2018. An epic match-saving blockathon, and one of only two instances of a sub-ten innings lasting 100-plus balls in a non-defeat in the last 40 years.
Courtney Walsh 4* off 24 v Pakistan, 2000. Turned a likely 0-1 series defeat into a 1-0 series win. Showed that it’s not “how” or “how many” that really matters, but “when”.

Zaltzman: I had to start a stand-up comedy show (remember them?) at the Edinburgh Festival 15 minutes after Stokes hit the winning boundary. In front of the giddiest crowd I have ever played to. I reckon 90% of them were watching the cricket on their mobiles whilst waiting outside the venue. And 100% of me was watching it on my mobile in my dressing room.Miller: Did you just play Lyon’s fumble on loop and take the moolah?Zaltzman: Would also be remiss not to mention Pommie Mbangwa, 25 innings without reaching double figures, the most by a player who never troubled the second digit on the scoreboard. If only he’d played more Tests, he could have challenged Chris Martin.Miller: Sadly, Jasprit Bumrah’s 10 not out in Christchurch, to haul his average out of the 1s, is too rich for the palate of this discussionZaltzman: One more: Nick Compton’s 7 v New Zealand in 2013 whilst . Outscored by Cook by a factor of 8 to 1 – heroic.Miller: That’s joyous. And to think he got the hump when Trevor Bayliss suggested he might like to get a bit of a move on.Zaltzman: Much promise being shown by Bangladesh’s Ebadot Hussain – ten innings, four runs, six dismissals, in his Test career so far. Keep an eye on him, he could go far in the pantheon of single-figure batsmanship.Miller: Splendid, that’s good intel.Zaltzman: Do we have to choose a winner? Troup or Vishwa for me, I think.Rajesh: I’ll go with Troup.Zaltzman: I suppose Wilfred Rhodes’ 6 not out at The Oval in 1902 is out of the qualifying period. Shame.Rajesh: No one remembers James Anderson’s 81-minute 0?Rajesh: Didn’t do much good for England, though.Zaltzman: Both my children cried when Anderson was out that day.Miller: So did Anderson.Rajesh: In that innings, Nos. 10 and 11 (Broad, Anderson) faced 79 balls without a run. Defiance in defeat defined.Miller: I’m reluctant to let go of Martin, but reluctantly I can be talked round.Zaltzman: Can we give Martin a Lifetime Achievement Award?Miller: Done!Nick Compton: channelling his inner Chris Tavaré, at Headingley 2013•Owen Humphreys/PA Photos/Getty ImagesZaltzman: I vote for Troup. But if we’re doing 1981 onwards instead of 1980 onwards: Vishwa Fernando.Rajesh: I’ll go with Troup (with a rather heavy heart, to justify the request to go back to 1980).Rajesh: So the group’s with Troup?Miller: I’ll go for Leach – the majesty of that single. But Troup has the room.Zaltzman: There will be dancing in the streets of Taumarunui. If they’re allowed out at the moment.Rajesh: With honourable mentions for Walsh and Vishwa.Miller: And Caddick, for being asked to bat at No. 8 by the tidal wave of ineptitude that he was walling in.Zaltzman: A pleasure discussing this highly important issue with you both.Rajesh: Ditto!Miller: Well rummaged, everyone.Rabbit Holes