New Delhi: India’s stunning defeat to England in the first Test at Headingley has created cricket history. It marked the first time any team has lost a Test match after producing five individual centuries. The match, played last week, ended in a shock result as England overcame India despite 471 runs in the first innings, which featured centuries from five different Indian batters.
According to cricket statistician records, this outcome is unprecedented in over 2,500 Test matches and across more than 63,000 first-class games globally. The closest prior instance came in 1928-29 when Australia, with four centurions including Don Bradman, lost to England in a timeless Test in Melbourne.
Adding to the statistical oddities, Harry Brook of England was dismissed for 99 in one innings and a duck in the other—a rare pairing. Only two players before him, Geoffrey Boycott (1979) and Andrew Hall (2003), have posted 99* and 0 in a single Test.
Meanwhile, India’s Rishabh Pant delivered another extraordinary feat, becoming only the second wicketkeeper in Test history to score centuries in both innings of a match. His scores of 134 and 118 match Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower, who hit 142 and 199* against South Africa in 2001.
India’s first-innings total of 471 also set another record: the lowest all-out Test score to feature three individual centuries. This eclipsed the previous lowest such total, South Africa’s 475 in 2016. Curiously, India’s innings also included three ducks, highlighting the highs and lows of their performance.
Separately, the cricket world also reflected on the legacy of Dilip Doshi, the late Indian left-arm spinner. Doshi once recorded remarkable figures of 8-7-1-1 in a 1977 Sunday League game in England—only to be dropped for the following match due to overseas player restrictions.
Doshi, who debuted in Tests at nearly 32, went on to take 114 wickets, joining a rare group of bowlers who passed 100 wickets after turning 30.
