Top cricketers who got stuck on 99 not out in Tests

Going back to the pavilion on an unbeaten 99 in Tests is one of the unluckiest things to happen to a batter. In the history of Test cricket, there are only a few incidents when some of the batters were unfortunate to have carried the bat after scoring unbeaten 99 runs. In the same vein, recently, James Anderson got dismissed at the hands of Cameron Green in the first innings of the fourth Test of the Ashes 2023. Anderson’s scalp finished England’s innings on 592. Consequently, this prevented Jonny Bairstow from scoring a memorable ton as he was left stranded on an unbeaten 99. With this unfortunate dismissal of Anderson, Bairstow became only the second English cricketer in the distinguished Test tournament to miss the century by a whisker. 

Similarly, during the 1979 Ashes, Geoff Dymock dismissed Bob Willis, and Geoffrey Boycott from the other end had to walk back to the pavilion with his unbeaten 99-run knock along with Willis. Along with these two instances, there are five more incidents when players remained unbeaten on 99 in the innings in the Test format.  

Here are the five instances when players carried the bat with their unbeaten 99-run knocks:

5. Misbah-ul-Haq vs West Indies in 2017

In 2017, Pakistan toured the West Indies and played a three-match Test series. After their emphatic victories over the hosts in One-Day Internationals (ODI) and Test series, Pakistan were riding high on confidence and thrashed the Windies team by seven wickets in the inaugural Test. In the opening game, Pakistan won the toss and invited the West Indies to bat first. 

Roston Chase’s 63, Jason Holder’s unbeaten 57, and wicketkeeper batter Shane Dowrich’s 56 helped the Caribbeans post 312 runs on the board. Pakistan gave a solid reply to the Windies team with the help of Babar Azam’s 72 and Younis Khan’s 58. Captain Misbah also stepped up and played some excellent strokes through his bat and crossed the 90-run mark to help his team reach 400. With nine down on 407, Misbah was the only main batter present at the crease along with the tailender, Mohammad Abbas.

On the fourth delivery of the 139th over, Roston Chase trapped Abbas through leg-by-wicket (lbw) and wrapped up Pakistan’s innings on 407. When Abbas got out, Pakistan skipper Misbah was standing on 99 at the other end. With Abbas’s wicket, Misbah also walked back to the pavilion, missing out on a century.