Jimmy Neesham: First New Zealand batsman to score two centuries in as many Tests

Neesham has become first New Zealand batsman to score a century in each of first two Tests.

 

New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who scored a century in his debut Test versus India, has scored another century in his second Test this time against the West Indies. He has joined the elite club of players scoring a century in each of their first two Test matches. Bharath Seervi lists out the players who achieved this feat before Neesham.

 

Jimmy Neesham has done something which no other New Zealand player has done that before. First he scored a match saving 137 not out against India at Wellington in February 2014 on his debut and then in his second Test in the Caribbean, he scored 107 in the first innings. This made him the first player from New Zealand to achieve this unique feat in Test cricket.

 

Before Neesham, seven other players scored a century in each of their first two Tests of their career. The first to achieve this was Bill Ponsford for Australia in 1924-1925 and the last to do this was Rohit Sharma from India in 2013. Below is the complete list.

 

Players scoring a century in each of their first two Test matches:

 

Batsman	Team	First Test	Second Test	Year
Bill Ponsford	Australia	110 & 27 vs Eng	128 & 4 vs Eng	1924-1925
Doug Walters	Australia	155 vs Eng	22 & 115 vs Eng	1965
Alvin Kallicharran	West Indies	100* vs NZ	101 & 18 vs NZ	1972
Mohammad Azharuddin	India	110 vs Eng	48 & 105 vs Eng	1984-1985
Greg Blewett	Australia	102* & 12 vs Eng	20 & 115 vs Eng	1995
Sourav Ganguly	India	131 vs Eng	136 & 48 vs Eng	1996
Rohit Sharma	India	177 vs WI	111* vs WI	2013
Jimmy Neesham	New Zealand	33& 137* vs Ind	107 vs WI	2014

Note:

 

Other than Neesham, all the previous seven batsmen had scored a century in their debut Test innings.

 

Neesham is the only player to achieve the feat against two different teams.

 

Mohammad Azharuddin had scored a century in his third Test as well, making him the only player so far to score centuries in each of the first three Tests.

 

Apart from the above eight cricketers there are four more cricketers who had scored two centuries in their first two Test matches, but in a different fashion. Two players scored two centuries in their debut Test match and other two players scored two centuries in their second Test. Below is the table listing them:

 

Batsman	Team	First Test	Second Test	Year
Lawrence Rowe	West Indies	214 & 100* vs NZ	22 & 1 vs NZ	1972
Yasir Hameed	Pakistan	170 & 105 vs Ban	23 & 18* vs Ban	2003
Wajahatullah Wasti	Pakistan	6 & 9 vs Ind	133 & 121* vs SL	1999
Phillip Hughes	Australia	0 & 75 vs SA	115 & 160 vs SA	2009

 

(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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