Cricket, as you might know, is made up of batters, bowlers, wicketkeepers, and fielders. Nevertheless, have you ever come across this cricket term — a nightwatchman?
If you don’t know what a nightwatchman is, I will clarify the term and explain its significance in cricket.
What is a Nightwatchman?
Well, a nightwatchman is a batter too, although not one of the experts. This implies that they are either a specialist bowler or a lower-order batter.
However, why the name nightwatchmen?
In a way, if a First-Class match or a Test match is on the verge of ending with just a few overs left, a team could opt to send a lower-order batter up the order to bat after a wicket has fallen.
When this happens, it is done to conserve the wickets of the prime batters since the playing conditions towards the close of the day are hard. Besides, the nightwatchman’s job is to guard his wicket and get through the rest of the day.
As these lower-order hitters come to the crease around evening time and have the job of saving wickets, they are termed as nightwatchmen.
The nightwatchman will be able to continue batting the next day until their wicket falls. This practice is confined to the Test format, as the other two formats do not necessitate a team’s effort to guard wickets.
Now that the concept of a nightwatchman is clear to you, let us see how he performs.
Role of the Nightwatchman
Mainly, a nightwatchman does coast along, nor does he pile up a huge score; he does mainly a necessary job of protecting the wicket at a time when it is very critical. The teams tell the batter to do the defensive play and keep the wickets safe for the next day’s play.
If they don’t get out at the end of day, then it’s a job well done. This will give the batting team a chance to make their next day’s play.
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But what if the nightwatchman is out before the day’s play ends?
In such a case, the team can either send in a new nightwatchman or their specialist batter.
However, there have been cases when nightwatchmen have brilliantly conquered the challenge. One such great example is Jason Gillespie, who scored a double century (201*) against Bangladesh in 2006.
The Australian bowler is the one who has the record of making the highest individual score as a nightwatchman in Tests. Isn’t it just an unbelievable record?
