Duckless de Villiers, and a first for Clarke

Michael Clarke remained rooted to the crease after edging to first slip against India in Sydney, an action for which he was severely criticised. He defended himself by saying he was in shock after getting his "first first-baller in Test cricket". It was indeed Clarke's first duck, after going 46 innings and 1822 runs without one. His team-mate Michael Hussey hasn't made one yet, and during the course of his hundred at the SCG became the second current batsmen to aggregate 2000 Test runs without a duck.

South Africa's AB de Villiers holds the record for the most innings - 63 - without a duck; he has come close, though, getting dismissed for 1 on three occasions. His 2201 runs at an average of 37.30 is also the highest aggregate for a batsman who hasn't yet scored a Test duck; Hussey is following closely behind, needing 81 runs to draw level. Hussey, though, is nowhere close to de Villiers' innings record; a much better average means he has played only 33 innings for his 2120 runs. The real records, though, belong to Aravinda de Silva who went 75 innings and scored 2779 runs before being dismissed for his first zero.

de Silva's first duck came against Zimbabwe, when he was caught by Wayne James off Heath Streak in Bulawayo in 1994. After that he was dismissed for a duck five times in his next 26 innings against New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies. Thereafter he made only one duck in his last 53 innings to finish with a total of seven in 159 innings.

Most innings in a career without a duck - Tests

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100
AB de Villiers (SA)	2004-2008	35	63	2201	178	37.30	4
Yasir Hameed (Pak)	2003-2007	23	45	1450	170	34.52	2
JW Burke (Aus)	1951-1959	24	44	1280	189	34.59	3
RA Duff (Aus)	1902-1905	22	40	1317	146	35.59	2
BP Patel (India)	1974-1977	21	38	972	115*	29.45	1
RJ Christiani (WI)	1948-1954	22	37	896	107	26.35	1
DL Houghton (Zim)	1992-1997	22	36	1464	266	43.05	4
Waqar Hasan (Pak)	1952-1959	21	35	1071	189	31.50	1
BD Julien (WI)	1973-1977	24	34	866	121	30.92	2
MEK Hussey (Aus)	2005-2008	20	33	2120	182	84.80	8
JW Zulch (SA)	1910-1921	16	32	985	150	32.83	2
HL Collins (Aus)	1920-1926	19	31	1352	203	45.06	4
MF Maharoof (SL)	2004-2007	20	31	538	72	19.92	0
JM Anderson (Eng)	2003-2007	20	30	143	21*	11.00	0
KD Karthik (India)	2004-2007	19	30	931	129	32.10	1
WW Read (Eng)	1882-1893	18	27	720	117	27.69	1
W Bates (Eng)	1881-1887	15	26	656	64	27.33	0
MLC Foster (WI)	1969-1978	14	24	580	125	30.52	1
UDU Chandana (SL)	1999-2005	16	24	616	92	26.78	0
TJE Andrews (Aus)	1921-1926	16	23	592	94	26.90	0

James Anderson, the England fast bowler, has batted 30 innings without a duck, the highest for a specialist bowler. He has remained not out 17 times, out of which he did not get off the mark on seven occasions.

The record for the most ducks in Tests belongs to Courtney Walsh, whose 43 zeroes are followed by Glenn McGrath's 35. Among current players, Muttiah Muralitharan leads the way with 30, with Danish Kaneria, who has 23 ducks, in second place.

Clive Lloyd, Wally Hammond, Jack Hobbs, Mushtaq Mohammad, Kumar Sangakkara and Doug Walters have all been dismissed without scoring only four times in their careers, which is the least for a cut-off of 100 innings. Lloyd's 175 innings, however, is the most among those batsmen, giving him a rate of 2.28 ducks per 100 innings.

The batsman with the highest duck percentage is Alan Hurst, who was dismissed for zero in 10 out of his 20 innings. Among the current crop of players, New Zealand's Chris Martin is racing up the rankings, with 20 ducks out of the 26 innings in which he has been dismissed. To add to the 20 ducks, he stayed not out on zero 11 times, making it 31 times he has ended the innings on zero, out of 50 innings.

Highest percentage of ducks/innings in a career - Tests (qualification: 20 inns)

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100	0	%
AG Hurst (Aus)	1974-1979	12	20	102	26	6.00	0	10	50.00
AD Mullally (Eng)	1996-2001	19	27	127	24	5.52	0	12	44.44
CS Martin (NZ)	2000-2008	37	50	64	12*	2.46	0	20	40.00
A Nehra (India)	1999-2004	17	25	77	19	5.50	0	10	40.00
M Dillon (WI)	1997-2004	38	68	549	43	8.44	0	26	38.23
D Ramnarine (WI)	1998-2002	12	21	106	35*	6.23	0	8	38.09
DR Doshi (India)	1979-1983	33	38	129	20	4.60	0	14	36.84
M Mbangwa (Zim)	1996-2000	15	25	34	8	2.00	0	9	36.00
RW Blair (NZ)	1953-1964	19	34	189	64*	6.75	0	12	35.29
Mohammad Sharif (Ban)	2001-2007	10	20	122	24*	7.17	0	7	35.00
JV Saunders (Aus)	1902-1908	14	23	39	11*	2.29	0	8	34.78
DK Morrison (NZ)	1987-1997	48	71	379	42	8.42	0	24	33.80
Danish Kaneria (Pak)	2000-2007	51	69	260	29	6.84	0	23	33.33
C Pringle (NZ)	1990-1995	14	21	175	30	10.29	0	7	33.33
HK Olonga (Zim)	1995-2002	30	45	184	24	5.41	0	14	31.11
Manjural Islam (Ban)	2001-2004	17	33	81	21	3.68	0	10	30.30
PT Collins (WI)	1999-2006	32	47	235	24	5.87	0	14	29.78
WP Howell (Aus)	1898-1904	18	27	158	35	7.52	0	8	29.62
NS Tamhane (India)	1955-1961	21	27	225	54*	10.22	0	8	29.62
Aaqib Javed (Pak)	1989-1998	22	27	101	28*	5.05	0	8	29.62

Shane Warne, who has 34 ducks to his name, and McGrath have enhanced the legend of the ducks with the ball too. They are Nos 2 and 1 respectively on the list of bowlers who have dismissed batsmen for a duck the most number of times. McGrath has 104 victims with no score to their name, Warne 102; but Muttiah Muralitharan is poised to overtake them with 97 such victims.

Ghulam Ahmed, the Indian offspinner, holds the record for having bowled the most balls - 5650 - without dismissing a batsman for a duck. He's followed closely by Viv Richards who bowled 5170 without a duck. Ahmed and Richards also are also first and second on the list of bowlers with the most Test wickets - 68 and 32 respectively - without dismissing a batsman for a duck.