Thursday, January 25, 2007

Wallis Mathias

Born- February 4, 1935, Karachi, Sind
Died - September 1, 1994, Karachi, Sind (aged 59 years 209 days)
Major teams: Pakistan, Karachi, National Bank of Pakistan, Sind
Batting style : Right-hand bat
Bowling style : Right-arm medium

Batting and fielding averages
class mat inns no runs hs ave 100 50 6s ct st
Tests 21 36 3 783 77 23.72 0 3 0 22 0
First-class 146 206 37 7520 278* 44.49 16

130 0
List A 1 1 1 51 51* - 0 1
0 0

Bowling averages
class mat balls runs wkts bbi bbm ave econ sr 4 5 10
Tests 21 24 20 0 - - - 5.00 - 0 0 0
First-class 146
532 13 2/4
40.92


0 0
List A 1 0 0 0 - - - - - 0 0 0

Career statistics

Test debut Pakistan v New Zealand at Dhaka - Nov 7-12, 1955 scorecard
Last Test England v Pakistan at The Oval - Aug 16-20, 1962 scorecard
First-class span 1953/54 - 1976/77
List A span 1974/75


Wisden obituary
Wallis Mathias, who died on September 1, 1994, after a brain haemorrhage, aged 59, was the first non-Muslim to play for Pakistan. He made his debut in November 1955 as a 20-year-old and played in 21 Tests over the next seven years.

His greatest merit was his fielding; he was the safe pair of hands in the slips that Pakistan's strong medium-pace attack of that era desperately wanted. He had exceptional reflexes and, though he took some spectacular catches, his great skill was to make hard chances look simple.

He was also a middle-order batsman whose figures did not do justice to the usefulness of his runs: he scored 783 runs in Tests at 23.72, but regularly played critical little innings. The 64 and 45 he scored in Pakistan's win over West Indies at Dacca in 1958-59 made him easily the most successful batsman in a low-scoring game; a year earlier he had scored 73 and 77 in successive Tests in the Caribbean. He played three Tests in England in 1962, but the following year he suffered a finger injury in the nets which left him with a slight deformity that restricted his brilliant catching. He continued in domestic cricket and scored 278 not out for Karachi Blues against Railway Greens in 1965-66. In 1969-70 he became National Bank's first captain and played on until 1975-76 before becoming coach, selector and manager. In 146 first-class matches he made 7,520 runs, average 44.49, including 16 centuries. He held 130 catches, 22 in Tests. He was a popular captain and a much respected man.
Kamran Abassi (link)

The Test Career Figures can be viewed here.
Cricinfo Profile can be viewed here.
More links 1

No comments: