Batsmen with most score in nervous nineties in Tests
Some people say, for a cricketer, it is bad to get out on zero but it is worse to get out in the nineties. Such is the importance of a century in Cricket.
Nervous nineties was already a popular term in the cricketing world but was made more popular by none other than the God of Cricket – Sachin Tendulkar. In his 24-year long Test career, he became the victim of nervous nineties 10 times. That is the most by any batsmen in the history of the game. Had he not been the victim so many times, his tally of Test centuries would have gone to 61. And that not be an unbreakable record but unfortunately, it was not destined to happen.
In this religion called Cricket, players other than the God itself usually get neglected. So, how can this record be an exception to that? Apart from Sachin, two other legends also have become the victims of the nervous nineties for the same number of times as that of Sachin but this fact is not known to many of us.
The first legend is Mr. Dependable – Rahul Dravid. Because of nervous nineties, the man who led Team India to many memorable victories could not score a century 10 times in 164 Tests that he played. On many occasions, he had taken more than 50 balls to score first few runs of his innings. Such was his discipline and patience. And even then he failed to score these few runs which were more important than the first few ones. How did this happen? Only he can answer this question. Still, he scored 36 magnificent centuries for India rightly earning the name for himself – The Wall.
Steve Waugh, the former Australian Captain who led a fierce and very competitive Australian team successfully is the second legend in the list. Out of these 10 instances of nervous nineties, four were against one team - England. Had he managed to score hundreds on all these occasions, he would have surpassed Sunil Gavaskar clinching the second spot in the list of most hundreds against one team with overall 14 hundreds. Sir Don Bradman is at the top of this list with 19 centuries scored against the same opposition - England.
Steve Waugh was as great a batsman as a captain. In his 168 Test appearances, he scored 32 astonishing centuries and also led his team to a record 16 matches win in succession.
These were such good players that in spite of being victims of nervous nineties the most number of times, all of them are still part of top 11 in the list of the most Test hundreds .
Then, what do you think could be the reason for this? Was it the amount of cricket they played so it was bound to happen, the amount of pressure they carried on their shoulders for so many years or just the nervousness of human mind as depicted in the name itself – nervous nineties? Let me know in the comments below.