Stats: Most deliveries faced for a duck in Test cricket

James Anderson after being dismissed for a ‘duck’

England No. 11 James Anderson, coming out to bat in a difficult situation against Sri Lanka on the last day of the 2nd Test at Headingley, nearly bailed England out with the bat. He almost saw his side to a draw with the bat. Anderson didn’t score a single run during his patient stay at the crease for more than one hour and when he got out in his 55th delivery, he became the 2^nd longest duck-scorer in Test cricket (in terms of deliveries faced).

The table here reflects on the batsmen who batted for most number of balls without getting off the mark in Test matches. Geoff Alott of New Zealand faced the most number of deliveries, and returning nothing. The fast bowler faced 77 balls against South Africa in 1999 at Auckland, and he was finally dismissed without a run from his bat. Surprisingly, it was only the second innings of the match after South Africa scored a massive 621. New Zealand held on to a comfortable draw despite following-on.

Peter Such of England batted for 51 balls against New Zealand for nothing in the very first innings of the Test match in Machester, 1999. Paul Sheahan of Australia and Wasim Bari of Pakistan remained unbeaten during their innings.

#	Batsmen	Balls Faced	Minutes	Innings	Against	Venue	Year
1	Geoff Alott (NZ)	77	101	2	South Africa	Auckland	1999
2	James Anderson (Eng)	55	81	4	Sri Lanka	Leeds	2014
3	Richard Ellison (Eng)	52	50	3	India	Mumbai	1984
4	Peter Such (Eng)	51	72	1	New Zealand	Manchester	1999
5	Paul Sheahan (Aus)	44	52	3	England	Lord’s	1968
6	Wasim Bari (Pak)	43	51	4	India	Kolkata	1980
7	Mike Whitney (Aus)	42	38	4	England	Manchester	1981
8	Shoaib Akhtar (Pak)	42	45	3	Sri Lanka	Karachi	2000
9	Manjural Islam (Ban)	41	72	2	Sri Lanka	Colombo (SSC)	2002
10	Keith Arthurton (WI)	40	49	4	England	Lord’s	1995

Stats updated till 25 June, 2014