Batsmen who got dismissed in 290s in international test cricket

Scoring triple centuries in an international test cricket is indeed a huge task, only 31 triple centuries has been made in 145 years of international test cricket proves the same, without any doubt, with test cricket in itself a challenge it takes huge determination and application to get success in cricket. 

Some cricketers got to the triple centuries that everyone dreamt of and etched their name in the history of cricket, but there are some cricketers who were quiet near to the glory but dismissed just before that there and also there are some batters who never reached to that milestone ever again but still their feat doesn't get unnoticed.

Here are some of those batters who were dismissed on 290s in international test cricket:-

New Zealand vs. Australia, 2015-16, 2nd test at Perth

New Zealand cricket team toured Australia from 23 October to 1 December 2015 to play three Test matches and four tour matches, the first test match of the Trans-Tasman Trophy test series was won by the Australian team by a huge 208 runs.

In the 2nd test match, Australia batted first and scored 559/7,the major contributors were -David Warner 253 and Usman Khawaja 121, its not always that Australia scored 500+ in an innings and still not able to win the match.

However, Kiwis replied strongly with Ross Taylor (290) and Kane Williamson (166), scored the most runs for their side, New Zealand ended with 624with Taylor being the last man dismissed, in the process of making those runs, Taylor became the first Kiwi batsman to score a Test double-hundred against Australia and the 2nd fastest among his countrymen to reach 5,000 Test career runs.

New Zealand got an all important 65 runs lead, and they were also making it count when they got Australia at 46/2, but captain Steven Smith (138) and Adam Voges (119) made an important partnership of 224 runs that eventually helped Aussies to declare at 385/7, New Zealand were asked to chase 321 for win, finally the match ended up as a draw.

In the third and final test match of the series (which was most famous for being the first day night test match) Australia defeated New Zealand in a closely fought contest by 3 wickets, 290 scored by Ross Taylor was his highest individual score in test cricket.

West Indies vs. England, 1976, 5th test mach at The Oval.

In 1976, West Indies was making right noise through their pace attack with captain Clive Lloyd decided that no other side will ever chase 403 against West Indies again (Indian team has chased down 403 against Windies in the same year) captain Lloyd opted for a four man pace attack and they proved their might and every one was talking about the pace attack.

However, not everyone was impressed, the then England skipper Tony Greig made a controversial remark that he would like to make West indies grovel, this ignited a fire in Windies heart, what followed was complete destruction for England.

The first two test matches were drawn but England was dominated by West Indies, the four pronged pace attack troubled English batters and bowlers were also struggling against the Carribean batters, in the third test West Indies defeated England by 425 runs, West Indies defeated England in the 4th test match which was a closely fought contest by 55 runs.

In the 5th test match, West Indies batted first and scored a huge total of 687/8 (Decl), Viv Richards top scored with 291, England were bowled out for 435, thanks to a brilliant 203 by Dennis Amiss, despite getting a lead of 252, West Indies didn't enforced follow on instead they send their openers - Roy Fredricks (86*) and Gordon Greenidge (85*) to score quick runs, and they did exactly the same, West Indies declared at 182/0 and asked England to chase down 435 runs, finally England were bowled out for 203 handing West Indies victory of 232 runs.

Unfortunately, Viv Richards wasn't able to feature in the club of triple centuries and 291 was his highest individual score in test cricket and yes, when the defeat was imminent for England their captain Greig kneeled down on to the pitch smiling and performed a ‘grovel’ crawl on the ground.

 West Indies Vs. England, 2008-09, 4th test at Kensington Oval

England toured Caribbean to play 5 match test series, a solitary T20I match, and a 5 match ODI series with stacks completely against West Indies, Chris Gayle was leading the home side, every pundit has given a little chance to West Indies.

West Indies stunned everyone by winning the first test and that is also very comprehensively, England need to make a comeback as soon as possible, 2nd test at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua was abandoned due to dangerous outfield, the third test match ended as a draw.

In the fourth test match, England batted first and scored a huge total of 600/6 (Decl.), the top contributors were - England's captain Andrew Strauss -142, Ravi Bopara - 106, Paul Collingwood - 96, Alastair Cook - 94, Tim Ambrose - 76*.

West Indies replied strongly with Ramnaresh Sarwan scoring his career best 291 other contributors were -  Denesh Ramdin - 166, Shivnarine Chanderpaul- 70, Devon Smith - 55 and Jerome Taylor-53, West Indies declared at 749/9. 

West Indies got 149 runs lead, but England scored 279/2 (Decl) with Alastair Cook scoring 139* and Kevin Pietersen -72*, both sides mutually agreed for a draw, with the 5th test match ended as draw the series was won by West Indies. 

India vs Srilanka, 2009-10, 3rd test at Brabourne Stadium 

Srilanka toured India to play 3 match test series, 5 match ODI series and 2 T20Is, the first test match was ended up as a draw despite Srilanka scoring a huge total of  760/7 (Decl).

In the 2nd test match India defeated Sri lanka by scoring 642 and then bowling out Sri lanka for 229 (first innings) and 269(Following on), winning by an innings and 144 runs, Srilanka still had a chance, they need to win the third test and level the test series, but it wasn't that easy.

In the 3rd test, Srilanka batted first and scored 393, the top contributors were - Thilakratne Dilshan - 109, Angelo Matthews - 99 and N Paranavitana - 53, in reply, India scored 726/9 (Decl), with Virender Sehwag scoring 293 runs in 254 balls with an amazing strike rate of  115, the other major contributors were - MS Dhoni 100*, Murali Vijay - 87, Rahul Dravid - 74, VVS Laxman - 62, Sachin Tendulkar - 53.

India got 333 runs huge lead, Sri lanka required a special innings to make a comeback in the match, but expect Kumar Sangakkara (137) there was hardly a resistance from other Sri lankan Batsmen, Srilanka lost the match by an innings and 24 runs and won the series by 2-0 result.

Sehwag is the only batsman to cross triple hundred (2 times) from this list of batsmen who were dismissed in 290s.

 England Vs. India, 2011, 3rd test at Edgbaston

It was the year 2011, when India won the 50-over cricket world cup after a long 28 years, India toured England and almost everyone expected India to perform well, however things went wrong from the very start, Zaheer got injured before the start of the test series and was out of the series due to the same reason, which left Indian team without a proper spearhead for their bowling attack.

But without any excuses, England really performed well and won the 4 match test series 4-0, not only they blanked their opponents, they did it with better margins as well.

England has defeated India in the first two tests and in the thirs test after winning the toss they have asked Indian team to bat first, Indians were bowled out for 224 with only captain Dhoni scoring a half century (77) to take the team's first innings total to a respectable place.

 

In reply, England scored a commendable 710/7 (decl) with Opener Alastair Cook scoring 294 just 6 runs short of what could be a deserving triple century, other contributors were - Eoin Morgan- 104, fellow opener and captain Andrew Strauss - 87, Kevin Pietersen- 63 and Tim Bresnan - 53.

Indian batsmen faced an uphill task when they began their second essay they needed more than 486 runs to make England bat again, Indian team was bowled out for 244 runs with Captain Dhoni (74) scored another fighting half century, England won the match by an innings and 242 runs.

294 scored by Alastair Cook is his career best score and it is currently the sixth highest score by an English batsman

 New Zealand vs. Srilanka 1990-91, 1st test at Basin Reserve, Wellington

Martin Crowe was one of the greatest batsmen and a great captain who was always considered as one of the proactive leader, who wasn't scared of experimenting, he use to back his instinct rather than following the traditional methods and maybe that's why he was more successful in limited overs cricket.

In 1991, Srilanka toured New Zealand to play a 3 match test series and 3 ODIs, in the first test match, Srilanka won the toss and asked hosts to bat first, Srilankan bowlers proved their captain's decision right by bowling out New Zealand for 174 runs.

Srilanka batted well, with Aravinda Desilva's majestic 267, Srilanka reached at 497 before getting bowled out, other contributors were -  Asanka Gurusinha - 70 and captain Arjuna Ranatunga - 55. 

With a lead of 323 runs, it was surely a match that Srilanka can easily win, however captain Crowe (299) proved everyone wrong with bat in his hand, he along with Andrew Jones (186) put a world record partnership of  467 runs for the third wicket which helped New Zealand reach to 671/4, Crowe was unfortunately dismissed 1 runs short of a well deserved triple century, after his dismissal both side mutually agreed  for a draw, the three match test series was ultimately finished in a 0-0 draw.

299 was Martin Crowe's career best in international test cricket.