Stats: Lowest team score from where a No.6 scored a Test century

Coming in to bat with his team reeling at 23/4 in the 2nd innings with only 33 runs lead on the board, Sikandar Raza played one of the finest knocks for Zimbabwe in Test cricket scoring 127 to help his side to gain a huge lead of 387 over hosts Sri Lanka in the only match of the series.

Despite struggling from cramps on the 3rd day, Raza batted out two sessions and remained unbeaten on 97 at stumps. He brought up his maiden century in Test cricket and added 30 more runs to his overnight score. Raza hit 9 fours and a six in his 205-ball effort and took his side’s total to 305 before getting out as the team’s 8th wicket. His 127-run knock finally came to an end when he was cleaned up by Rangana Herath to complete his 5-wicket haul and with that, he registered yet another 10-wicket match haul.

Thus Raza became only the 8th No.6 batsman in Test history to score a century coming to bat after his team lost 4 wickets before getting to the total of 25. The last of the previous 7 players to score a hundred coming in to bat at 25/4 or with an even lesser score on the board was Dinesh Chandimal, in the 2016 Test against Australia at Colombo (SSC) where he scored 132.

Among the eight, Sikandar’s 127 stands as the third highest behind Chandimal’s 132 and Tony Grieg’s 139 which he scored against New Zealand in 1973 after coming in to bat with his team 4 down for 24 runs. The lowest score at which a No.6 batsman walked out to bat and scored a century in Tests is 16 runs by India’s Mohammad Azharuddin against New Zealand in 1998 during their first innings. Azharuddin remained unbeaten on 103 in that innings.

No.6 batsman scoring a century coming in with the score 4/25 or worse in Test cricket:

(Stats as on July 17, 2017)