Slowest Centuries in Test Cricket
Being a cricket fan, if someone gets through the term ‘Slow’, they usually associate that with the boring game or a game that is unable to generate any kind of interest or excitement amongst the audience or the spectators. On the other hand, when we talk about “Slow batting” in the broader context of the test matches, the meaning itself changes to a great extent.
When it comes to the longer version of the sport, players have to sometimes play without having a look at their strike rate and there have been times when these innings have helped a team escaped out of a defeat in the process. Keeping up with the same point of discussion, let’s take a look at the 7 slowest centuries in the test cricket by minutes played.
Slowest Centuries in Test History by Minutes Played
1. Mudasssar Nazar (Pakistan)
Number of minutes taken for the century: 557
England was on their most anticipated Pakistan tour in the year 1977 and they were really looking forward to scoring a memorable victory against their Asian Rivals. After winning the toss, Pakistan decided to bat first on a batting-friendly wicket and got off to a shaky start with the English bowler miller giving them the early blows. It was then due to the innings played by Mudassar and Rasheed, which seriously took them out of anger towards a respectable total of 407 for the loss of 9 wickets.
Even though the Pakistani team has been able to bowl out the English team to a score of 288, they couldn’t really capitalize on the second innings lead and the match ended in a draw. Still one of the things which were been talked about was the slowest nature of the century scored by Mudassar Nazar in the first innings. Mudassar took 557 minutes to complete a century and that brought him to the top of our list of the slowest century in Test history by minutes.
2. Jackie McGlew (South Africa)
Number of minutes taken for the century: 545
It was during the 3rd test between Australia and South Africa when one of the slowest centuries was scored by the South African batsman Jackie McGlew in the first innings. The match took place at Durban in 1958 and the Australian team decided to bat first after winning the toss. Still, this decision backfired as they were bundled out for a paltry score of 163. South Africa did their bets in the first innings whilst scoring an impressive 384 runs but the match eventually ended in a draw.
Still one of the most interesting facts which caught everyone’s eyes was the second slowest century scored by the South African in the cricket history which has been quoted as one of the reasons why South Africa couldn’t capitalize on their first innings’ lead.
3. Asanka Gurusinha (Sri Lanka)
Number of minutes taken for the century: 535
Sri Lankan team were on their way to become a cricket superpower and during the Zimbabwe tour in 1994, they proved exactly that whilst making an impressive batting display. After winning the toss, Srilanka decided to bat first and on a batting-friendly wicket, they scored a brilliant 383 runs against an average bowling side of Zimbabwe. Although the match also ended in a draw, the innings played by Asanka Gurusinha got highlighted because of its slow nature. Gurusinha took 535 balls to score his century and him along with his other partners ensured that Srilanka isn’t going to lose this match by any means.
4. Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)
Number of minutes taken for the century: 516
It was during the first test of the New Zealand tour of Srilanka when the visitors decided to bowl first after winning the toss. The Lankan team rode on the back of an impressive double century by D Kuruppu and got to a score of 397 runs of 9 wickets. It was then to the Kiwi team to give a strong reason to the same score by the Lankans and they did exactly that whilst scoring 406 runs for the loss of 5 wickets.
The match concluded as a draw and everyone was talking about the slow innings of Kiwi batsman Jeff Crowe who took almost 516 minutes to complete his century in the process.
5. Sanjay Manjrekar (India)
Number of minutes taken for the century: 500
The Indian team was about to play their only team against the Zimbabwe team in 1992 and all the players did carry a big hope to do something in order to write off the nightmare of the world cup within the same year. Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat track and scored a big 456 runs against an experience Indian bowling line up. India, in reply, didn’t get a good start and they were 5 wickets down by the time they score 100 runs on the board.
The match didn’t end as a draw but the slow innings played by Sanjay Manjrekar attracted everyone’s attention in the same regards. He took 500 minutes to finish his century and register his name in the “ not so desired” list of slowest centuries in terms of minutes spent on the crease.
6. Peter Richardson ( England )
Number of minutes taken for the century: 488
Yes! We are finally talking about the first name in the list which didn’t make the match go into a draw and made his team win by a margin of 131 runs. Peter Richardson scored a century in 488 minutes to power his team to a first-innings total of 268 runs and that came to be the biggest reason in the end, which took them to the glory against the Proteas at their own backyard.
Quite interestingly, he was the only player in the match to touch the three-figure mark, and looking in with the same perspective, we can give the credit to the player this time.
7. Keith Fletcher ( England)
Number of minutes taken for the century: 458
Finally, we have an innings that took place in the English conditions and it was none other than English player Keith Fletcher, who scored the slowest ever century on the English soil whilst taking 458 minutes. The match was against the team of Pakistan and it took place in the Oval in 1974. Looking into the same innings and the rest of the list, we can say that you can’t really hang on for long in the English and the Australian conditions and that is why we didn’t have much of the slowest centuries at either of these venues.
