90s in both innings

Mahela Jayawardene

Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene had got out in the nervous nineties only three times in his Test career of 106 matches. However, in the ongoing Test against New Zealand – his 107th – he was out in 90s twice. Jayawardene scored 92 and 96 (both time O’Brien got his wicket) and thus became fourth batsman (5th instance) in the history of the longer version of the game to be out in the nervous nineties in the both innings of a test.
Interestingly, he is first batsman in last 30 years and also first Sri Lankan to do so. Former West Indian opener Gordon Greenidge scored a ‘nervous’ against the Kiwis at Christchurch in 1979-80. In fact Greenidge did it against Pakistan in 1976-77 at Georgetown. Australia’s Clem Hill (98 & 97; Vs England, Adelaide, 1901-02) and England’s Frank Woolley (95 & 93; Vs Australia, Lord’s, 1921) are among the others who scored a pair of 90s in test cricket.

• About nervous nineties:
• Most nervous nineties: 10 each by Steve Waugh (Australia) and Rahul Dravid (India)
• 99: there are 76 batsmen out on 99 in an innings.
• 9: Number of batsmen whose highest score in test cricket is 99.