Jimmy Neesham’s Unexpected Elevation

In case you missed it, Jimmy Neesham today became only the eighth test cricketer to score a century in each of his first two tests, and the first New Zealander to achieve the feat.

The fact that this has only happened eight times in the history of test cricket defines how hard the feat is to achieve.  And Neesham becomes the first to do it in different series, in different countries, and there was even an IPL chucked in the middle of it.

The Century on Debut achievement has proved to be a bit of a curse for New Zealand batsmen, with Kane Williamson being the notable exception.

To emphasise how tricky this is, here are the second test scores for all those who achieved a century on debut.  Kind of like the batting equivalent of the Difficult Second Album.

Jack Mills 3

Mills was New Zealand’s first player to score a century on debut, in the country second test.  Easy game this test cricket.  It was to be the only time he passed 50.

Bruce Taylor 8 & 21

Taylor remains the only player in test cricket to achieve the century and five wicket double on debut.  Like Neesham he was picked as a bowler who could bat, and went on to score one more test century.

Things did not go so well once he stopped playing test cricket.

Rodney Redmond N/A

Famously, Redmond’s test career was about as strange as they got.  He notched up a half-century in the second innings for good measure, got picked for the tour to England and was replaced by … John Parker.

Mark Greatbatch 14 & 10

The similarity with Nessham’s first two tests was that the first was in New Zealand and the second was months later, and abroad.  Greatbatch was to play one of the great rear-guard test saving innings in Perth, and helped revolutionise the role of an ODI opener, but possibly never really delivered on the early promise.

Mat Sinclair 8 & 6

A double century on debut; the third highest debut score and a star was born.  Two months later he was facing up against McGrath, Lee, Warne and co and it suddenly seemed like a different game.  He was to score another double century, but famously frustrated a nation for a decade or so.

Lou Vincent 0

When you’ve scored a century and a fifty agsint one of the great bowling attacks of all time, and your second test is at home against Bangladesh you’d be filling your boots; right?  Instead a Golden Duck was to follow.  That, like so much of Vincent’s career was a bit perplexing; even before the Dark Forces took effect.

Things did not go so well once he stopped playing test cricket.

Scott Styris 0

Like Taylor and Neesham Styris made his debut as a bowler who batted a bit; coming in at number 8. And like Redmond and Vincent it was a 100 & 50 on debut.

For his second test he’d been elevated to number 6, but it was that series against India in late 2002 and it things were a bit different.

Kane Williamson 4 & 69

Fittingly, Williiamson breaks the trend to a certain extent.  As mentioned above, the only player on this list to fulfil the early promise.  He is still only 23 and is arguably already New Zealand’s best player of spin.

Hamish Rutherford 23 & 15

It was less than 18 months ago that Hamish Rutherford burst onto the international scene with 171 on debut.  Not a slow starter like his father.  But it’s all gone pretty flat since then.  This test marks the first time he has been dropped from the side.

These figures reinforce just how hard that second test is.  Had Corey Anderson not been injured in warm-ups this week Neesham was unlikely to have played.  But we are looking at something special here.