As the Indian bowlers probed away on day five of the second Test at Vizag, England’s resilience slowly but surely faded away. And when Jayant Yadav trapped James Anderson leg-before, an emphatic victory was achieved. As India celebrated with high-fives, a dejected Anderson walked back to the hut with his head hanging in embarrassment. And his reason for embarrassment was twofold – needless to say, England has succumbed by 246 runs and he had achieved a “’kings pair’ with the bat in the process.
Like all those batting at number eleven, Anderson fancies himself every time he sets out with a bat in hand. But with a Test average of 10.21, it was India that fancied getting rid of him on nought. In the first innings, R Ashwin trapped him in the front and in England’s second essay, the debutant Jayant Yadav executed the same dismissal. On both instances, Anderson was dismissed off the very first ball.
Achieving a ‘Kings Pair’ isn’t something that a cricketer is particularly proud of, even if the person dismissed claims to be a bowler first. The first ever ‘Kings Pair’ in Test cricket occurred way back in 1892. William Attewell was dismissed off the first ball of both his innings against Australia. There have been 18 instances of ‘Kings Pair’ in Test cricket so far and three Indians made that dubious list – Bhagwath Chandrasekhar (vs Australia in 1977/78), Ajit Agarkar (vs Australia in 1999) and Virender Sehwag (vs England in 2011).
Anderson’s ‘Kings Pair’ caught the attention of Adam Gilchrist. Incidentally, the Australian had faced the ignominy of being dismissed for a ‘Kings Pair’ at the Eden Gardens Test in 2001 at Kolkata. Harbhajan Singh had trapped him in front in the first innings while Sachin Tendulkar did the honours in the second essay.
Gilchrist was quick to poke fun at James Anderson and took to Twitter.
Another dubious distinction, although lesser in embarrassment levels, is the ‘pair’.
20 batsmen have been dismissed for a nought in both innings of a Test match to bag a ‘pair’. The table below lists those with a minimum of four ‘pairs’ in Test cricket.
| Player | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 | 0 | Pairs |
| CS Martin (NZ) | 71 | 104 | 52 | 123 | 12* | 2.36 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 7 |
| M Dillon (WI) | 38 | 68 | 3 | 549 | 43 | 8.44 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 4 |
| BS Chandrasekhar (IND) | 58 | 80 | 39 | 167 | 22 | 4.07 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 4 |
| MS Atapattu (SL) | 90 | 156 | 15 | 5502 | 249 | 39.02 | 16 | 17 | 22 | 4 |
| CA Walsh (WI) | 132 | 185 | 61 | 936 | 30* | 7.54 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 4 |
| M Muralitharan (SL) | 133 | 164 | 56 | 1261 | 67 | 11.67 | 0 | 1 | 33 | 4 |
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