On this day in 1984: The first dismissal on 199 in Test cricket

It is never a good feeling on getting out on 99 or 199 scores while batting across formats. One can clearly spot an utter disappointment on the player’s face when he or she is walking back to the pavilion missing out a landmark like that. In Test cricket, it took 107 years for a cricketer to be dismissed on 199. Pakistani opener Mudassar Nazar was dismissed on 199 against India in a Test match at Faisalabad on October 2, 1984.

Pakistan hosted India in a five-match Test series where India survived the opening Test match in Lahore and managed to get a draw after a historic century by Mohinder Amarnath. In a second Test match in Faisalabad, India scored a big total of 500 while batting first as Sandeep Patil and Ravi Shastri smashed centuries while Azeem Hafiz and Abdul Qadir took four wickets each for Pakistan.

Nazar started Pakistan’s innings with Mohsin Khan on day three and smashed an unbeaten century on the same day. Both Nazar and Mohsin formed a brilliant 141-run partnership for the first wicket before Sandeep dismissed Mohsin.

Then Qasim Umar joined Nazar in the middle and dominated the Indian bowling attack from the start. Both put in a big 250-run partnership for the second wicket and looked destined for double hundreds. With the match going for a potential draw, both players were very selective with their shots and played carefully.

But Nazar lost his wicket while playing on 199 runs to became the first player to get dismissed on that particular score and it was off-spinner Nandlal Yadav who took his wicket. Qasim managed to smash a double century while Saleem Malik also scored hundred as Pakistan posted a huge total of 674/6 at the end of day five.

Nazar also holds another unwanted world record in Test cricket when he scored the slowest Test ton in Test cricket in 1977, when he took 419 balls and spent 557 minutes to reach the three-figure mark against England.

After becoming the first player to get dismissed on 199, he was quickly followed by Indian cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin in December 1984 when the former Indian captain was dismissed on 199 against Sri Lanka. Apart from Nazar and Azharuddin, 10 batters have gotten out on the 199-run mark in Test cricket to date. The most notable names in this list are Steven Smith, KL Rahul, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Ian bell.