South African batsman Faf du Plessis played 101 innings in his International cricket career since making his debut in 2011. He has become the first player to play more than 100 innings in International cricket without getting out for duck. Bharath Seervi presents some stats and records on this.
Faf du Plessis has been a wonderful addition to South African team for the last three years. He made his debut for South Africa in January 2011 in One Day International (ODI) against India at Cape Town. He scored a brilliant 60 on his ODI debut. He made his T20 International debut in September 2012 against England. He scored only four runs in his debut match. Later in November 2012 he was selected into Test team against Australia at Adelaide. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands well and scored 78 in his debut inning and an excellent unbeaten 110 off 376 balls in the fourth inning of the match and saved the test match for his team.
At the end of the triangular series in Zimbabwe, Du Plessis has so far played 28 innings in Tests, 53 in ODIs and 20 in T20Is. And he hasn’t got a duck in any of those. It makes 101 innings and no duck yet. The lowest score he has got out on is 1 which he has got five times. On March 24, 2010 in the T20I world cup match against Bangladesh when he scored his first run he broke the record of his team-mate AB de Villiers as most number of innings from debut without a duck. AB de Villiers had played 84 innings since his debut in 2004 before getting out for a duck in the 2007 World Cup match against Netherlands (the match in which Gibbs smashed six sixes in an over).
Most innings before first duck or no ducks in International cricket career
Innings
Batsman
Team
Start
End
No. of Days
101*
F du Plessis
South Africa
January 18, 2011
–
1329*
84
AB de Villiers
South Africa
December 17, 2004
March 16, 2007
819
71
GO Jones
England
April 10, 2004
March 28, 2006
717
69
BJ Haddin
Australia
January 30, 2001
March 27, 2009
2978
62
D Ramdin
West Indies
July 13, 2005
July 1, 2007
718
59
CH Lloyd
West Indies
December 13, 1966
February 2, 1974
2608
59
VG Kambli
India
October 19, 1991
November 7, 1994
1115
58
Yasir Hameed
Pakistan
May 20,2003
September 30, 2004
499
57
MA Taylor
Australia
January 26, 1989
March 23, 1991
786
54
KC Wessels
South Africa
November 26, 1982
November 9, 1984
714
51
AK Davidson
Australia
June 11, 1953
July 27, 1961
2968
51
UC Hathurusingha
Sri Lanka
February 22, 1991
September 6, 1993
927
51*
Samiullah Shenwari
Afghanistan
April 19, 2009
–
1978*
Among the current players, after Du Plessis the player with most innings with no duck yet is Samiullah Shemwari who has played 51 innings so far.
Batsmen playing more than 100 consecutive innings without a duck in International Cricket
With Du Plessis playing over 100 innings without being dismissed for duck, he has become only the eighth batsmen to do so. Most innings played without a duck in International cricket is 173 by Rahul Dravid from January 2000 to February 2004. Next best is 136 by Sachin Tendulkar from July 2008 till his retirement which was in November 2013.
Innings
Batsman
Team
Start
End
Days
173
R Dravid
India
January 10, 2000
February 6, 2004
1488
136*
SR Tendulkar
India
July 23, 2008
November 14, 2013
1940
135
AJ Stewart
England
March 17, 1994
November 28, 1998
1717
122
CL Hooper
West Indies
December 6, 1997
February 23, 2003
1905
117*
JV Coney
New Zealand
January 9, 1983
March 28, 1987
1539
112
Javed Miandad
Pakistan
July 23, 1987
June 18, 1992
1792
103
Mohammad Yousuf
Pakistan
January 29, 2006
November 24, 2009
1395
101+
F du Plessis
South Africa
January 18, 2011
–
1329+
Sachin Tendulkar and Jeremy Coney’s sequences did not end till their retirement from International cricket. Among the current cricketers Mushfiqur Rahim has not been dismissed for duck since December 2011 and he has played 69 innings in course.
Other records to aim related to ducks for Du Plessis:
The most number of innings before getting maiden duck in ODIs is 72 by Kumar Dharmasena of Sri Lanka. Du Plessis has batted out 53 ODI innings so far with no duck yet. He needs to do the same for another 20 innings to claim the record.
Most innings before first duck or no ducks in ODI career
Innings
Batsman
Team
Start
End
Days
105*
KC Wessels
Australia/South Africa
January 9, 1983
October 28, 1994
4310
72
HDPK Dharmasena
Sri Lanka
August 24, 1994
December 11, 2001
2666
70
CG Greenidge
West Indies
June 11, 1975
Macrh 31, 1986
3946
68
CD McMillan
New Zealand
May 20, 1997
January 31, 2001
1352
67
CL Cairns
New Zealand
February 13, 1991
December 7, 2001
2489
67
GC Smith
South Africa
March 30, 2002
August 21, 2005
1240
53*
F du Plessis
South Africa
January 18, 2011
–
1329
53
Ijaz Ahmed
Pakistan
November 14, 1986
October 27, 1989
1078
51
GM Wood
Australia
February 22, 1978
September 28, 1984
2410
Considering the same record in Tests, the most number of innings played before getting out for duck is 78 by AB de Villiers. Similarly in T20Is, it is Shoaib Malik with 40 innings. Du Plessis has played just 28 Test innings and 20 T20I innings. He has a longer way to go to achieve the records in Tests and T20Is compared to that of ODIs.
(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SeerviBharath and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeerviCricket)
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