Longest to reach 100 County Championship matches:

9 553 days WH Rowlands (Glos) 1901-1927
9 504 GHS Fowke (Leics) 1899- 925
8 722 JM Anderson (Lancs) 2002-2026

Score of 150+ and taking 5 for under 10 in an innings in a first-class match:

173 & 5-9 Matt Critchley Essex v Hampshire Southampton 2026

This is the 2nd time that the first innings of each match has passed 300 in all 9 matches starting on the same day in the County Championship after the matches that started on 29 June 2025.

It looks like the last spinner to take the season's first wicket for his team in the Championship for 3 seasons in a row was Tich Freeman for Kent 1933-1935.

Dan Lawrence has taken the first wicket of the season for Surrey in the County Championship for the 3rd season in a row:
2024 K Jennings (Lancs)
2025 C Allison (Ess)
2026 A Davies (Warks)

Marnus Labuschagne was the leading run-scorer in the 2025/26 first-class season in Australia (784 @ 34.08).

This is the lowest average the leading run-scorer has had in an Australian season since 1879/80 when Alick Bannerman scored 103 runs at 25.75. (There were only 2 f-c matches that season).

Atherton v McGrath How much damage can one bowler do to a player’s career stats?

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/atherton-v...

The Great Pyramids of Cricket Scorecard Series Number 2

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/the-great-...

Jammu & Kashmir played their 1st first-class match in 1960. Their first win was in their 99th match in 1982, the most matches any team has taken to get their first win. They draw 8 and lost 90 of their first 98 matches, 61 by an innings.

Today they reached the Ranji Trophy final for the first time.

An unhappy couple A look at pairs

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/an-unhappy...

There is no ‘I’ in team Scorecard Series Number 1

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/there-is-n...

One, One, One ….. The last Notcher’s Natter was about dots.

open.substack.com/pub/andrewsa...

Dot, Dot, Dot, Dot ……. Featuring Roach, Washbrook, Carlisle et al.

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The humble caught and bowled “No-Notcher’s November” has come and gone.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/the-humble...

First scoring shot In Test cricket was a 5 (where known):

Shakeel Ahmed Pak v Zim Bulawayo 1995
PR Adams SA v Eng Cape Town 1996
Naeem Islam Ban v NZ Chittagong 2008
BW Hilfenhaus Aus v SA Johannesburg 2009
MD Rae NZ v WI Wellington 2025

South Africans to score 90+ and take 6-for in a Test:

JH Sinclair 106 & 6-26 v England at Cape Town, 1899

CB Llewellyn 90 & 6-92 v Australia at Johannesburg, 1902

M Jansen 93 & 6-48 v India at Guwahati, 2025

That should read batting average over 55 (not 50).

Players with a win % over 60 and a batting average over 50 in Tests as captain:

T Bavuma
969 runs @ 57.00.
90.90% win (P 11, W 10, D 1)

WW Armstrong
616 runs @ 56.00.
80.00% win (P 10, W 8, D 2)

DG Bradman
3147 runs @ 101.51.
62.50% win (P 24, W 15, L 3, D 6)

Min 10 Tests as captain

South Africa have won 5 of the 7 Tests that Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer have played together (1 loss and 1 draw).

In those matches Maharaj has 34 wickets @ 20.58 and Harmer 35 @ 18.94.

Best bowling figures in comeback first-class match having not played for at least 7 years:

9-100 HJ Knutton England XI v Australians at Bradford, 1902 (previous match 1894)

9-144 AG Cremer Rhinos v Southern Rocks at Kwekwe 2025
(previous match 2017)

I have posted a few stats on South Africa A's successful run-chase of 417-5 against India A here:

andrewsamson.substack.com/notes

The new Hick? As a general rule, first-class stats are a reasonable predictor of Test performances.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/the-new-hick

After 7 Tests Senuran Muthusamy has 279 runs at 46.50 and 22 wickets at 26.50.

Only 3 men had more runs at a higher average and more wickets at a lower average than this:

Ian Botham, Jack Gregory and Washington Sundar

Three different spinners taking a 6-for for a team in a series

Eng v WI in Eng 1933 Robins/Langridge/Marriott
Eng v Aus in Aus 1903/04 Rhodes/Bosanquet/Braund
Ind v NZ in NZ 1968 Prasanna/Bedi/Nadkarni
Eng v Aus in Eng 1968 Pocock/Illingworth/Underwood
SA v Pak in Pak 2025 Muthusamy/Maharaj/Harmer

South Africans with 1 000 first-class wickets:

1 417 Mike Procter
1 216 Allan Donald
1 013 Buck Llewellyn
1 000 Simon Harmer

Fastest fifty by a number 11 in Test cricket:

25 balls S Shillingford WI v NZ at Kingston 2014
38 balls K Rabada SA v Pak at Rawalpindi 2025
54 balls PL Symcox SA v Aus Adelaide 1998

Oldest to take 5-for on Test debut:

38 yrs 301 days Asif Afridi Pak v SA Rawalpindi 2025
37 yrs 333 days CS Marriott Eng v WI The Oval 1933

Give and take In one of my favourite Hagar the Horrible cartoons, Hagar is explaining to young Hamlet “Son, in our fast-paced society … stress is unavoidable” and then goes on to say “But when you grow up, it’s bet...

Some wickets are given rather than taken

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14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 14 for Bihar in their current Ranji Trophy match against Arunachal Pradesh.

Although he has just 114 runs in 11 first-class innings, he also had a score of 12 aged 12 (the youngest to score his age in first-class cricket) and a score of 13 aged 13.

Is there Hope for Shai? The strap at the bottom of the screen on the TV for the West Indies 2nd innings against India at Delhi had the name ‘Hope’ below that of his partner ‘Chase’.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/is-there-h...