what are the worst first tons?

this may have been done before

many first tons have been scratchy affairs...some of the makers of their first ugly ton disappeared into obscurity, others became champs.

here are two inglorious first tons that I remember from Oz players.

Gary Cozier - at the G I had the misfortune to witness this ton full of edges and mistimings...disappeared into obscurity.

Matt Hayden - after being given a few gos and having failed MTB got his first ton against the saffies at the Adelaide Oval (from memory)...the knock was dreadful...dropped at least 3 times and full of nervous nicks, this ton belied the champ powerhouse hayden eventually became...watching his ton convinced me he was not up to international cricket...how wrong I was as he has had a fine career.

are there other dreadful first tons forummers can remember either for Oz or for other countries?

Your first hundred posts.

Closely followed by the next hundred.

And the hundred after that.

After which, you went into a bit of a decline.

I remember Graham Gooch scoring a double ton against NZ in 94 I think.

At the end of his career it was, never looked 'in' for the whole innings. Was having a shocking FC season and was recalled after a year for some reason.

NZ were that carp.

Looking at his stats on crocinfo after that knock he scored 1 fifty in his last 19 test innings.
http://stats.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/player/13399.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting;view=innings

definitely the worst double i've ever seen
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/match/63646.html

***points at zoggy avatar***

Oh look, horace must have been listening to small children... 'Yes you are, but what am I?'

On second thoughts, it may be the voices in his head that have been listening to small children.

we know you are missing mudge

***points at zoggy avatar***

horace wrote:this may have been done before

many first tons have been scratchy affairs...some of the makers of their first ugly ton disappeared into obscurity, others became champs.

here are two inglorious first tons that I remember from Oz players.

Gary Cozier - at the G I had the misfortune to witness this ton full of edges and mistimings...disappeared into obscurity.

Matt Hayden - after being given a few gos and having failed MTB got his first ton against the saffies at the Adelaide Oval (from memory)...the knock was dreadful...dropped at least 3 times and full of nervous nicks, this ton belied the champ powerhouse hayden eventually became...watching his ton convinced me he was not up to international cricket...how wrong I was as he has had a fine career.

are there other dreadful first tons forummers can remember either for Oz or for other countries?

Ian Chappell was interviewed in the tea break after that knock and said Hayden's technique was not up to test standard and that he would never make it. He's had to eat his words.

When did Justin Langer make his first ton? I'll go with that one......

Henry wrote:When did Justin Langer make his first ton? I'll go with that one......

it might be helpful if you nominated one that you had seen (nb Zimmy no longer posts here)

I think I saw most of langer's hundreds, but they were so forgettable that I can't really remember which one was which. Wasn't his first ton against Pakistan in 1998? I seem to remember him being out plumb LBW first ball but good old Bucknor let him off.....

That innings of Gooch doesn't look too bad on the scoresheet - he scored at a much faster rate than the next top scorers, Athers and Smith.

And that ton or any other would have looked like Sobers at his best compared to Mike Gatting's ton in Adelaide a few months later - noting that it was Gatt's first ton for six years Gideon Haigh likened it to a 'tattered, dog-eared copy of a badly written, barely remembered novel'.

Trev in 'blind squirrel' mode may have fallen over an acorn - as I recall JL's first ton was 116 in Pak in the same match as Tubby made his 334, and was a pretty ropey innings after he survived a plumb LBW second ball.

BNLG still made plenty of tons

His last test ton was even less memorable than his first - Ponts not enforcing the follow-on when Oz led England by 450 plus in Brisbane, JL sleepwalking his way to 100 red against the might of Harmi, Anderson, the 'toff and Farmer Giles. There was nothing particularly wrong with his batting, except maybe he could have gone a bit faster but that didn't matter, it was just the zero degree of difficulty and the way he went through the motions took 'pedestrian' to a new level.

Most of his hundreds in between were very good, some were monumental.

Oh, and before Horrie jumps down my throat in his new role as Ricky's Perry Mason: Not enforcing the follow on in Brisbane might have won us the match in Aelaide a week later, so no criticism of that decision is implied - if there had been I'd have called him 'Capt Clueles' or something instead..

See my post on worst 8fers. Might as well start a thread on worst first shags

Worst double ton I saw was Shastri's at SCG.

He was dropped about 6 times.