Nightwatchman (cricket)

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In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play. This batsman's job is to maintain most of the strike until the close of play (remaining in overnight, hence the name) and so protect other, more capable batsmen from being out cheaply in what may be a period of tiredness or in poor light. The theory is that losing two top-order batsmen in quick succession would be worse than losing one top-order batsman and a tailender.

However the nightwatchman's effort is not considered to be wasted, nor is he expected to play foolishly otherwise he would not last very long. The role of nightwatchman is generally given to players who emphasise defensive technique over quick run-scoring. However there have been occasions when nightwatchmen have made a big score, and three have made centuries in test matches.

Some claim the tactic can be rather ineffectual because, if the nightwatchman does survive until the end of the day, the opposing bowlers are given a less capable batsman to start on afresh the next day. Steve Waugh abandoned the tactic during his captaincy of Australia. However Australia's current captain, Ricky Ponting, does use the tactic, which clearly paid off in the case of Jason Gillespie, the first ever nightwatchman to score a double century.

The nightwatchman is not to be confused with the pinch hitter, a lower- or middle-order batsman who is promoted up the order in limited-overs games in the hope of scoring quick runs without too much concern for his wicket.

[edit] Centuries by nightwatchmen

There have been three test centuries by nightwatchmen (as of 2006):

Player	Team	Score	Versus	Ground	Date
Nasim-ul-Ghani	Pakistan	101	England	Lord's, London, England	1962
Tony Mann	Australia	108	India	WACA Ground, Perth, Western Australia	1977
Jason Gillespie	Australia	201 not out	Bangladesh	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	2006