Ian Bell’s dismissals on 1 — and other similar records

Ian Bell was out for 1 for the sixth time in Tests in 2015 during the fourth Ashes 2015 Test at Trent Bridge. It was also the 12th one of his career, which is a world record. Bharath Seervi has more…

It has been a familiar ordeal for Ian Bell: coming to the crease, get off the mark with a single, and get out without adding to that. Bell has batted in 15 innings this year and has got out for 1 six times, including thrice in the ongoing Ashes. His team is winning, which has made the authorities sort of overlook Bell’s lack of form — but, as always, numbers tell the truth. He scored 143 in his first innings of 2015, and has aggregated a mere 182 from the next 14 innings. This includes two fifties, two ducks, and as mentioned above, six 1s.

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The dismissal for 1 in the fourth Ashes test at Trent Bridge was the 12th time Bell got for that score in his career of 107 Tests since 2004. Surprisingly, it is the most number of dismissals for 1 by a top-order batsman in Tests. He got past Sachin Tendulkar (11 times) to get to this dubious distinction. Though there are two men with more 1s in Tests — 14 each by James Anderson and Harbhajan Singh — but they are bowlers and bat down the batting.

The table below lists batsman (who batted most of their career innings at No. 6 or above) who got out for 1 most number of times in Tests.

Top-order batsmen getting out for 1 most number of times in Tests

–          Only Mohammad Ashraful (13.22 innings per dismissal) has a higher frequency of 1s less than Bell (16.42). Gary Kirsten (19.56) is the other batsman who has rate of getting out for 1 run in less than every 20th dismissal.

Cricketers getting out for 1 most number of times in Tests

–          Javagal Srinath got out for 1 almost every eighth innings he batted in his Tests. Bob Taylor got out 10 times for 1 in his 83 innings he batted.

–          Bell is nearing Anderson and Harbhajan and may get past them!

Top-order batsmen dismissed most number of times on each score from 0 to 10 in Tests

–          Nine batsmen have got out for 3 on seven times each in their careers.

–          Rahul Dravid has got out most times on 2 and joint most on 3.

–          Alec Stewart has got out most times on 7 and joint most on 3.

Note: The figures for batsmen are the number of dismissals on that particular score throughout their Test careers. Though they have batted at No. 6 or above in most innings, but if they have batted below No. 6 on the rarest of occasions, that has been included as well.

(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 @SeerviBharath and on Facebook here)