There is nothing in cricket more disappointing than to be dismissed or left stranded on 99 in Test-except, perhaps, the trauma of bagging a 'pair' or scoring a 'duck' on debut.

In the recent One-day International between India and Australia at Bangalore, Aussie opener Matthew Hayden became the 12th player (2nd Australians) in One-day Internationals to be dismissed on 99.

NINETY-NINERS IN ODIs

G Boycott (Eng)	99	v Australia	The Oval	August 20, 1980
BA Edgar (NZ)	99*	v India	Auckland	February 14, 1981
AJ Lamb (Eng)	99	v India	The Oval	June 4, 1982
K Srikkanth (Ind)	99	v England	Cuttack	December 27, 1984
DM Jones (Aus)	99*	v Sri Lanka	Adelaide	Jan 28, 1985
RB Richardson (WI)	99*	v Pakistan	Sharjah	November 15, 1985
BC Broad (Eng)	99	Pakistan	The Oval	May 21, 1987
Rameez Raja (Pak)	99	England	Karachi	November 20, 1987
L Klusener (SA)	99	Sri Lanka	Lahore	November 8, 1997
A Flower (Zim)	99*	Australia	Harare	October 24, 1999
RS Kaluwitharana (SL)	99	Zimbabwe	Harare	December 18, 1999
MS Hayden (Aus)	99	India	Bangalore	March 25, 2001

In Test Cricket
The feat of two players being dismissed on an individual score of 99 in the same Test is also not unusual. It happened four times in the history of the game, the first in March 1973 when as many three batsmen fell for 99 in the Karachi Test - Majid and Mushtaq in the first innings for Pakistan and Dennis Amiss for England.

Similarly, in December 1979 at Perth, Australia's Kim Hughes was out for 99 and England's Geoff Boycott was left stranded on 99 in the second innings.

The third time it was in January 1992 at Christchurch when New Zealand's Dipak Patel in the first innings and John Wright in the second were dismissed for 99. The fourth time such a dismissal happened in 1993 at Lord's when Australia's Mark Waugh was out for 99 in the first innings and England's Mike Atherton in the second innings.

Perhaps the most controversial mode of dismissal for a batsman is to be adjudged leg-before wicket on 99. It has happened six times and the victims were Eddie Paynter, Bob Christiani, Ross Edwards, Dean Jones, Richie Richardson and Novjot Sidhu. In five out of the six instances the umpire has given a home team's batsman out on LBW.

There might have been an element of doubt in the dismissals - a catch or a stumping, lbw or run out, but nothing could be more conclusive than to be clean bowled. Nine batsman (ten instances) have suffered this agony on 99 - Herbert Sutcliffe, Keith Miller, Allan Rae, Ted Dexter, Maurice Foster, Richie Richardson, Mark Waugh, Aamer Sohail, Greg Blewett (twice).

John Wright is the second player to be stumped on 99 against England at Christchurch in February 1992 after Pakistan's Maqsood Ahmed who met the same fate in January 1955 against India at Lahore. Mike Smith, Geoff Boycott, Richie Richardson, John Wright, Mike Atherton, Saleem Malik and Greg Blewett are the only seven players in cricket annals to achieve scores of 99 in a Test innings twice.

Ten batsmen caught at the wicket on 99 are Charles Macartney, Arthur Chipperfield, Bruce Mitchell, Colin McDonald, Mike Smith, Geoff Boycott, Richard Hadlee, John Wright, Michael Slater and Alistiar Campbell.

By far the most frequent mode of dismissal on a score of 99 has been by a catch held in the outfield. It has occurred on 19 times - four for Australians (Clem Hill, Bob Cowper, Ian Chappell and Kim Hughes), four times for India (Pankaj Roy, Ajit Wadekar, Rusi Surti and Saurav Ganguly), four for Pakistan (Majid Khan, Javed Miandad and Saleem Malik {twice}), thrice Englishmen (Norman Yardley, Dennis Amiss, Martyn Moxon), twice for South Africa (Aubery Faulkner, Trevor Goddard) and once each for Sri Lanka (Russell Arnold) and New Zealand (Stephen Fleming).

Eleven Englishmen have been the luckless ones to record score of 99 on 14 occasions: Dennis Amiss, Mike Atherton (twice), Geoff Boycott (twice), Ted Dexter, Graham Gooch, Martyn Moxon, Eddie Paynter, Mike Smith (twice), Herbert Sutcliffe, Alex Tudor and Norman Yardley.

Sixteen Australians (Seventeen occasions) also figure in this circle of "99": Bill Brown, Greg Blewett (Twice), Ian Chappell, Arthur Chipperfield, Bob Cowper, Ross Edwards, Clem Hill, Kim Hughes, Dean Jones, Charles Macartney, Colin McDonald, Keith Miller, Arthur Morris, Michael Slater, Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh.

Three South Africans (Aubery Faulkner, Trevor Goddard and Bruce Mitchell), Five West Indians-six occasions- (Bob Christiani, Maurice Foster, Rohan Kanhai, Allan Rae and Richie Richardson (twice), Six New Zealanders-seven occasions (John Beck, Dipak Patel, Stephan Fleming, Richard Hadlee, Mark Richardson and John Wright{twice}), Six Indians (Jaisimha, Pankaj Roy, Rusi Surti, Ajit Wadekar, Navjot Sidhu, Saurav Ganguly), Six Pakistanis-seven occasions- (Maqsood Ahmed, Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad, Javed Miandad, Saleem Malik {twice}, Aamer Sohail), a Zimbabwean (Alistiar Campbell) and a Sri Lankan (Russell Arnold) are also members of " The 99"Club.

It will be observed that seven modes of dismissal were used to get the batsmen out on 99. Caught in the field 19 times, run out 10 times, caught by the wicketkeeper 10 times, bowled 10 times, leg-before seven times, stumped twice and caught by the bowler once. This makes a total of 59 dismissals on 99.

Twenty-eight Test venues world wide have witnessed the painful spectacle of a batsmen going back to the pavilion on a score of 99 on 62 occasions:

Seventeen times in Australia: Seven in Melbourne, five in Perth, two each in Adelaide and Brisbane and one in Hobart.

Twelve times in England: Six at Lord's (London), two each in Headingley (Leeds), Trent Bridge (Nottingham), once each at The Oval (London), and Edgbaston (Birmingham).

Seven times in South Africa: Four at Cape Town, once each at Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.

Seven times in India: Two at Bangalore, once each in Calcutta, Delhi, Kanpur, Nagpur and Madras.

Six times in Pakistan: thrice in Karachi, twice in Lahore, once at Peshawar.

Six times in New Zealand: thrice each in Auckland and in Christchurch.

Five times in West Indies: thrice in Port-of-Spain, twice in Bridgetown.

Two times in Zimbabwe: Both at Harare.

Australia's Arthur Chipperfield and West Indian Bob Christiani were dismissed for 99 on their Test debut.

The Aussies Clem Hill (the first in Test history to be dismissed for his innings at Melbourne in January 1902 with scores of 98 and 97 in each innings of the very next Test at Adelaide.

Geoff Boycott of England is the only one in Test annals to remain not out on 99, carrying his bat as an opener through a completed innings (Perth, December 1979).

Earlier, in March-April 1974 at Port-of-Spain, Boycott had achieved the unprecedented feat (never performed before or since) of scoring 99 and a century in the same Test.

	Total Occasions	V Eng	V Aus	V SA	V WI	V NZ	V Ind	V Pak	V SL	V Zim
England	14	-	5	4	1	2	-	2	-	-
Australia	17	9	-	2	1	2	2	-	1	-
South Africa	3	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
West Indies	6	1	1	-	-	1	3	-	-	-
New Zealand	7	3	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	1
India	6	-	2	-	-	1	-	1	2	-
Pakistan	7	3	1	1	-	-	2	-	-	-
Zimbabwe	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
Sri Lanka	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
TOTAL	62	19	10	9	2	6	7	4	4	1

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