'Retired out'

By Mohandas Menon

This is the first time two Indian batsmen (Das and Laxman) were forced to retire out, so as to give batting opportunities to the rest of the batsmen. The 1947 MCC code vide Law 2.9 made it clear for the first time that an innings thus deliberately ended can never be resumed later and must be considered as out for the purposes of compiling averages.

The first such instance is believed to have occurred when South African Tony Pithey was forced to retire having made 170 against Tasmania at Launceston in 1963-64 in order to give others a chance to bat. Australian Greg Chappell is perhaps the only batsman to have recorded retired outs on two separate occasions in 1976-77 (in New Zealand) and 1980 (in England) in his first- class career.

Meanwhile, the centuries by Shiv Sunder Das (110) and V.V.S. Laxman (100) against the CFX Academy at Harare's Country Club were the fifth and sixth first class hundreds scored by Indian batsmen on Zimbabwean soil. The others to do so are: Sanjay Manjrekar (104) against Zimbabwe at Harare in October 1992; Anil Kumble (100 not out) against ZCU Presidents XI at Harare (Sunrise Club) in October 1998; Rahul Dravid (118) against Zimbabwe at Harare in October 1998; and Dravid (137) once again in the opening match of the current tour at Mutare.

Incidentally this was Das' first century on foreign soil. Laxman meanwhile recorded his 29th first-class hundred in 94 matches. For the record, Laxman now has more hundreds than fifties (28) in his first-class career.

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