Jason Holder's century saved the match for West Indies against England © Getty Images
Jason Holder’s century saved the match for West Indies against England © Getty Images

Jason Holder scored his maiden test century in the fourth innings of the Antigua test against England to produce a draw for his team. Bharath Seervi lists the other players who got to their maiden Test century in the fourth innings of the match.

Jason Holder is having a good time with his bat. He scored 56, 57 and 42 in his last three innings in the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and in the very next match he scored a his maiden Test century and 16 in the first innings. Remember, all these innings came when he batted at No. 8! Jason Holder’s transformation into a batting all-rounder holds great hope for West Indies

Holder’s 103 not out off 149 balls was the reason England were denied a victory and the Test was drawn. He hit 15 fours in his innings and was a part of two important partnerships — 105 with Denesh Ramdin from 32.1 overs and 56 not out with Kemar Roach from 18.2 overs. He was the dominant partner in both the partnerships. Jason Holder says the inspiration of Nelson Mandela helped him while scoring his match saving hundred against England

There have been several players who scored their maiden test century in the fourth innings of a test, few who went on to become batting greats. Others to do it the last four years (barring Holder) were Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Faf du Plessis and David Warner. The table below lists all men, 40 in all (including Holder). Jason Holder: My job was simple; it was just to bat

Maiden test century in fourth innings of the match

Batsman Runs Position Team Against Venue Date Result
Jack Brown+ 140 4 England Australia MCG 01-Mar-1895 Won
Gilbert Jessop 104 7 England Australia The Oval 11-Aug-1902 Won
Bill Edrich 219 3 England South Africa Kingsmead 03-Mar-1939 Drawn
Cyril Washbrook 112 2 England Australia MCG 01-Jan-1947 Drawn
Willie Watson 109 5 England Australia Lord’s 25-Jun-1953 Drawn
Abbas Ali Baig+ 112 3 India England Old Trafford 23-Jul-1959 Lost
Mohammad Ilyas+ 126 1 Pakistan New Zealand Karachi 09-Apr-1965 Won
Colin Milburn 126* 2 England West Indies Lord’s 16-Jun-1966 Drawn
Vic Pollard 116 6 New Zealand England Trent Bridge 07-Jun-1973 Lost
Frank Hayes+ 106* 4 England West Indies The Oval 26-Jul-1973 Lost
Len Baichan+ 105* 2 West Indies Pakistan Lahore 15-Feb-1975 Drawn
Derek Randall 174 3 England Australia MCG 12-Mar-1977 Lost
Tony Mann+ 105 3 Australia India WACA 16-Dec-1977 Won
Graeme Wood 126 2 Australia West Indies Bourda 31-Mar-1978 Won
Craig Serjeant+ 124 5 Australia West Indies Bourda 31-Mar-1978 Won
Allan Border 105 3 Australia Pakistan MCG 10-Mar-1979 Lost
Andrew Hilditch 113 2 Australia West Indies MCG 22-Dec-1984 Drawn
Sachin Tendulkar 119* 6 India England Old Trafford 09-Aug-1990 Drawn
Kevin Arnott+ 101* 1 Zimbabwe New Zealand Bulawayo 01-Nov-1992 Drawn
Phil Simmons+ 110 2 West Indies Australia MCG 26-Dec-1992 Lost
Bryan Young 120 1 New Zealand Pakistan Christchurch 24-Feb-1994 Won
Shane Thomson+ 120* 6 New Zealand Pakistan Christchurch 24-Feb-1994 Won
Sanath Jayasuriya 112 1 Sri Lanka Australia Adelaide Oval 25-Jan-1996 Lost
Mohammad Wasim 109* 7 Pakistan New Zealand Lahore 21-Nov-1996 Lost
Jacques Kallis 101 3 South Africa Australia MCG 26-Dec-1997 Drawn
Adam Gilchrist 149* 7 Australia Pakistan Bellerive Oval 18-Nov-1999 Won
Ajit Agarkar+ 109* 8 India England Lord’s 25-Jul-2002 Lost
Mohammad Hafeez 102* 1 Pakistan Bangladesh Peshawar 27-Aug-2003 Won
Dwayne Smith+ 105* 6 West Indies South Africa Newlands 02-Jan-2004 Drawn
Nafees Iqbal+ 121 2 Bangladesh Zimbabwe Bangabandhu 14-Jan-2005 Drawn
Wasim Jaffer 100 1 India England Nagpur 01-Mar-2006 Drawn
Shoaib Malik 148* 1 Pakistan Sri Lanka SSC 26-Mar-2006 Drawn
Mushfiqur Rahim 101 7 Bangladesh India Chittagong 17-Jan-2010 Lost
Shakib Al Hasan 100 6 Bangladesh New Zealand Hamilton 15-Feb-2010 Lost
Junaid Siddique+ 106 3 Bangladesh England Chittagong 12-Mar-2010 Lost
David Warner 123* 2 Australia New Zealand Bellerive Oval 09-Dec-2011 Lost
Faf du Plessis 110* 6 South Africa Australia Adelaide Oval 22-Nov-2012 Drawn
Ben Stokes+ 120 6 England Australia WACA 13-Dec-2013 Lost
Moeen Ali+ 108* 7 England Sri Lanka Headingley 20-Jun-2014 Lost
Jason Holder+ 103* 8 West Indies England North Sound 13-Apr-2015 Drawn

 

+ – It was batsmen’s only Test century.

Notes:

–          Of the 40 hundreds, 10 resulted in victories, 15 in defeats and 15 in draws.

–          As many as 14 of the 40 have come in this century.

–          Of the above, Bill Edrich (219) and Derek Randall (174) are the only players whose maiden test centuries were in excess of 150.

–          There are two occasions of two batsmen scoring their maiden Test centuries in the fourth innings of the same Test — Graeme Wood and Craig Sergeant for Australia against West Indies at Bourda in 1977-78; Bryan Young and Shane Thomson for New Zealand against Pakistan at Christchurch in 1993-94.

–          Jacques Kallis scored 44 hundreds after his maiden century, but none in the fourth innings of a Test. He scored ten 50s.

–          Edrich scored five more centuries, but his maiden century of 219 remained his highest. Derek Randall’s 174 remained his highest out of seven hundreds.

–          Ajit Agarkar and Holder are the ones who have done it while batting at No. 8. Gilbert Jessop, Mohammad Wasim, Adam Gilchrist, Mushfiqur and Moeen did it batting at No. 7.

Team-wise distribution

Team No. of players
Australia 7
Bangladesh 4
England 10
India 4
New Zealand 3
Pakistan 4
South Africa 2
Sri Lanka 1
West Indies 4
Zimbabwe 1

England seems to have a penchant for this record, followed by Australia. However, they have played the most Tests as well. Bangladesh’s four hundreds is a surprise entry, given that they have not played cricket in the last millennium.

(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)