- Ask Steven
Haddin's haul
Brad Haddin scored at least a half-century in each Test of the Ashes series. Has anyone else ever done this? asked Steve Austin from Australia
Rather surprisingly, this turned out to be the 23rd time that a batsman had scored a fifty in every match of a five-Test series, the last occasion being by Shivnarine Chanderpaul for West Indies at home to India in 2002. John Edrich (1970-71 Ashes) and Mark Taylor (1989 Ashes) went one better, scoring at least one half-century in every Test of a six-match series.
Where Brad Haddin is unique, though, is in the fact that all his half-centuries came from No. 7 in the batting order. Another wicketkeeper, the West Indian Gerry Alexander, achieved the feat in the famous 1960-61 series in Australia, but one of his fifties came after he was promoted to No. 6. Garry Sobers (West Indies v England in 1966) and Chanderpaul in 2002 also made all their half-centuries from No. 6 or lower in the order.
No one has ever achieved the feat twice - and one of the closest to doing so is Haddin, who passed 50 in the first four Tests of the 2010-11 Ashes Down Under, before being out for 6 and 30 in the final game.
