In cricket, the term carry the bat (or carry one's bat) refers to an opening batsman who is not dismissed ("not out") when the team innings is closed. The term is usually used only when the innings is closed as a result of all other 10 players being dismissed ("out"), not when an opening batsman remains "in" when the team's innings is declared closed, or the game ends when the batting team wins, or the match is drawn because time runs out.
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The term "carrying one's bat" dates back to the very early days of cricket.[1] Initially it referred to any not out batsman, but by the 20th century the term was used exclusively to refer to opening batsmen. The expression comes from a time when the team used to share bats so the outgoing batsman would leave the bat on the crease for the next batsman to use.[2] Therefore, if an opening batsman were to survive the entire innings, he would literally be "carrying the bat" back to the pavilion.
Carrying one's bat is a relatively rare occurrence. In Test cricket, a batsman has carried his bat only 48 times in over 2,000 Test matches. The first such occurrence being South African Bernard Tancred in 1889 in the 2nd test against England at Newlands in Cape Town. South Africa lost that test convincingly as Tancred scored an unbeaten 26 in an innings where his team were bowled out for 47 in 91 minutes. He only had to face 91 balls in that time.[3] The most recent example of an opener carrying his bat is Australian batsman David Warner at Bellerive Oval, Hobart in 2011 against New Zealand, scoring an unbeaten 123 in Australia's second innings. In One Day International cricket, the feat has been achieved only eight times, most recently by Bangladeshi opener Javed Omar in 2001 and scoring an unbeaten 33.[4] In Twenty20 cricket Chris Gayle carried his bat in the West Indies defeat against Sri Lanka in the ICC World Twenty20 semi-final at The Oval on June 20, 2009.
In first-class cricket, the record for the highest total where an opener has carried his bat is rather old, set in 1899. International opener Bobby Abel carried his bat through Surrey's innings of 811 against Somerset at The Oval. His contribution alone was 357.[5]
Batsmen have also carried their bats twice in the same match (ie. through both of his team's innings) but this has only occurred on 6 occasions. A further 4 batsman have carried the bat in one innings and been last out in the other. None of these instances was in a Test match, but West Indian Desmond Haynes was last out in both innings in a Test, the only such instance in first-class cricket.