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 nightwatchman'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 five 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, uses the tactic.

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 five test centuries by nightwatchmen (as of 2007):

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
Syed Kirmani	India	101 not out	Australia	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India	1979
Mark Boucher	South Africa	125	Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club, Harare, Zimbabwe	1999
Jason Gillespie	Australia	201 not out	Bangladesh	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	2006

There has been some debate about whether Nasim-ul-Ghani (who later opened in a Test) and Boucher were genuine nightwatchmen - but in the matches in question they both came in at No. 6, at the end of the day, ahead of more recognised batsmen.

An honourable mention goes to Alex Tudor of England who made 99 not out against New Zealand in 1999 at Edgbaston, only to be denied when the target of 208 runs for victory was achieved, leaving Tudor stranded one short of a maiden test century .