What was Sir Don's record in first-class cricket after Test retirement?

After Bradman’s retirement from Test cricket, what was his record in first-class cricket? – Suresh Desai on Facebook

Don Bradman after his famous duck at the Oval on 14 August 1948 in what proved to be his final Test match appeared in seven first-class matches for various teams while still averaging around 91 runs per innings with the bat. The final phase of his first-class career also included four scores of 100-plus. The details match by match are given below:

Summary: 7 matches, 8 innings, 727 runs, average 90.88, 100s: 4, 50s: 2 (HS: 153)

I read recently that Sachin Tendulkar has been a victim of several bowlers as their maiden Test wicket. Is this true? If so, who are the ‘lucky’ bowlers? - Aniket Kulkarni on Twitter

That is indeed true since as many as 11 bowlers have claimed Tendulkar as their maiden Test wicket. Incidentally, Tendulkar now holds the Test record of being a bowler’s first victim on most occasions – eleven! Two English batsmen Herbert Sutcliffe and Colin Cowdrey have been a bowler’s first victim on ten occasions each. The list:

+ only Test match

* Tendulkar was Johnson’s first two Test wickets

* White and Siddle achieved it in successive Tests and in the same series.

I find that Don Bradman has aggregated 5393 runs just from all his 29 Test centuries. In doing so, he averages nearly 186 runs for each of his 29 centuries. Is this the highest for any Test batsman? Also, what is the lowest average for 100+ scores? – Kiran Shetty on Twitter

Yes, his mean score while making the 29 Test centuries is 185.97 when if you consider all his 29 innings while discounting the six not outs. This by far, is the highest by any Test batsman while scoring ten or more centuries. The list below lists the highest and lowest mean scores by a batsman with at least ten or more centuries in Test cricket.

Thank you for replying to my query last week, as to which batsman holds the record for most scores in the nineties without ever making a Test century? This week, my question is, which Test batsman has the most 90s before their maiden century – S Kartik on Twitter

Only three Test batsmen have the distinction of making the most nineties (3) before their maiden Test century. The details are listed below:

+ his only Test century

Note: 20 other batsmen have made two 90s before their maiden Test century

Is it rare for a batsman to score a double century as his maiden Test three-figure score? Is Zak Crawley’s 267 some sort of a record? - Aashish Batra on Twitter

Zak Crawley in the recent Old Trafford Test became the 38th batsman to register a score of 200 or more as his maiden Test century. If you recall in October last, before Crawley, India’s Mayank Agarwal had made 215 against South Africa at Vizag. And three years before that in December 2016 another Indian, Karun Nair against England at Chennai had made a triple century (303*). For both Nair and Agarwal, these 200-plus scores were their maiden three-figure Test score. The list below will show Crawley’s 267 is the seventh-highest, while three batsmen have the distinction of making triple centuries as their maiden Test 100+ score.

+ on Test debut

All records mentioned above are correct and updated as on 6 September 2020

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