One of cricket’s beautiful quirks is that even the best cannot do anything on their own. The Laws of Cricket make it compulsory for two from the bowling side to bowl in tandem, and two from the batting team to coexist on the pitch. A solo performance is, thus, never literal in the sport.

It does not matter how invincible you are with the bat: you can only be there as long as all your partners have not deserted you. For every masterclass that has stood the test of time, there have been near-unseen collaborators holding the other end up.

To qualify for this list of invisible acts, one has to meet at least two criteria. One, they have to be bona-fide tail-enders, so Rahul Dravid (for VVS Laxman’s 281) or Larry Gomes (for Gordon Greenidge’s 214 not out) or even Syed Kirmani (Kapil Dev’s 175 not out) or Chris Cairns (for Nathan Astle’s 222) do not count. Additionally, the fifty-year filter eliminates Stanley Jackson (for Gilbert Jessop’s 104), Lindsay Kline (for Ken Mackay’s 62 not out) and so on.

And two, they cannot be “equals” in their act, which rules out both James Anderson and Monty Panesar from Cardiff 2009. With that in mind, onwards to the list!

12. Michael Holding: 12* (27) vs England, Manchester 1984

Unbroken 106-run stand for last wicket with Viv Richards to take the West Indies to 272-9

This ranks low because despite his No.11 position, Holding was a prolific hitter (more Test sixes than Steve Waugh or Virat Kohli). Here, however, his role was far from that: walking out at 166-9, all he needed was to preserve his wicket as Richards blasted his way to 189 not out, the highest ODI score at the time. Of the unbroken 106 they added for the last wicket, Holding made only a dozen.

11. Pat Cummins: 12*(68) vs Afghanistan, Mumbai 2023

Unbroken 202-run stand for eighth wicket with Glenn Maxwell to help Australia win the game

It is unfair to call Cummins a tail-ender, despite his nickname of 7-11 being inspired by his binary batting avatars. Chasing 292 here, Australia were 91-7 when he arrived. He had to hold one end up, which he did as Maxwell went on a “two legs good, one leg better” mantra. Cummins watched as his partner went on to rewrite a plethora of records en route to scripting arguably the greatest ODI cricket innings of all time.

10. Geoff Allott: 0(77) vs South Africa, Auckland 1998/99

Unbroken 101-minute, 32-run stand for last wicket with Chris Harris to help New Zealand delay the follow-on

A few months before he was the joint-highest wicket-taker at the World Cup, Allott found himself in the middle as New Zealand needed another 102 to avert the follow-on. As Harris hung on for six hours, Allott scored the longest duck in Test history. It kept the South Africans on the field for long enough for them to lose the steam on a flat wicket.

9. Jack Leach: 1*(17) vs Australia, Leeds 2019

Unbroken 76-run stand for last wicket with Ben Stokes to help England win the Test

In 2016, Leach had been the lead act when Somerset put on 31 for the last wicket to beat Surrey. He had already been England’s night-watcher, and had even scored 92 as an opener in a Test. On this occasion however, as Stokes cut loose, Leach kept alternating between defending everything Australia threw at him and wiping his glasses. If the former made him one-half of an iconic win, the latter won him a free lifetime supply from SpecSavers.

8. Vishwa Fernando, 6*(27) vs South Africa, Durban 2018/19

Unbroken 78-run stand for last wicket with Kusal Perera to help Sri Lanka win the Test

Fernando ranks above Leach because (a) he was playing away from home, (b) he still has a single-digit average in first-class cricket, and (c) he faced 10 more balls. His memo was as clear as some of the others on this list: having taken eight wickets already, all he needed was to maximise the duration of the best possible view of Perera’s carnage. Easier done than said, as it turned out: as Perera hammered a star-studded attack to carve arguably the greatest ever Test innings, Fernando stayed put.

7. Clive Eksteen, 4*(89) vs Sri Lanka, Moratuwa 1993

Unbroken 92-minute, 52-run stand for last wicket with Jonty Rhodes to help South Africa save the Test

South Africa needed 365 against four Sri Lankan spinners (including a young Muttiah Muralidaran) on a rank turner. Never in the hunt for a win, the visitors were seven down with three hours left. But Eksteen demonstrated that he could defend spin better than some compatriots, especially during a 66-ball scoreless phase where he dead-batted virtually everything. Jonty Rhodes’ hundred became the talk of the day, but Eksteen played his part by standing between Murali and the tail.

6. Ishant Sharma, 31(92) vs Australia, Mohali 2010/11

81-run ninth-wicket stand with VVS Laxman to bring India within 11 runs of a win

Had Ishant (first-class average 8.48) stayed put, this would have ranked higher on this list. Battling a back spasm, Laxman played his last great innings against Australia … but he was not alone in it. India needed 92 when No.10 Ishant arrived at the crease. When he hit five fours in his 31, Ishant looked every bit a top-order batter. But then he got an lbw that he could not overturn in the absence of DRS. However, he had already done his bit to slash the target to 11.

5. Haris Rauf, 7*(19) vs England, Lahore 2026

Unbroken 89-run stand for last wicket with Shadab Khan to help Pakistan pull off a miracle

When this match is discussed in the future, Shadab will be spoken about very highly, and rightly so. But this absurd 89-run stand would not have been possible without Rauf, who was in control of 17 of the 19 balls he faced and was in no danger from the other two. When England got a decision in their favour, it was against Shadab, not Rauf. When Shadab walked back, it was Rauf who convinced him to review the decision. And when Shadab trusted him to face a full over, Rauf hit the boundary that fetched the win.

4. Chris Old, 29(31) vs Australia, Leeds 1981

67-run stand for ninth wicket with Ian Botham to push England’s lead from 25 to 94 (eventually 129)

Volumes have been written on the 500-1 saga, but a skeleton gist is worth repeating. Following on, England needed 92 to avoid the innings defeat when the seventh wicket fell. As long as Test cricket exists, Botham’s 149 not out will have its rightful place in history, with Graham Dilley’s 56 as the footnote. Not as talked-about is local hero Old’s 29 that helped Botham push Australia’s target to a defendable one. Bob Willis did the rest.

3. Terry Alderman, 21*(69) vs West Indies, Port of Spain 1983/84

Unbroken 105-minute, 61-run stand for last wicket with Allan Border to help Australia save the Test

Border was a player who looked gritty and batted grittier, and this was the grittiest entry on his CV. He played unbeaten innings of 98 and 100, facing 583 balls in the Test (the second-most by anyone without getting dismissed) when his teammates combined for 656. And yet, it might have all gone in vain, for nearly two hours remained when last man Alderman arrived. Australia led by only 25 in the second innings, but Border need not have worried: the No.11 defied his Test average of 4.67 and career-best of 12 not out to save the day.

2. Danny Morrison, 14*(133) v England, Auckland 1996/97

Unbroken 166-minute, 106-run stand for last wicket with Nathan Astle to help New Zealand save the Test

For the second spot, we focused not on the when or what but on the who. Morrison’s 24 ducks in 48 Tests earned him the nickname of The Duckman. New Zealand had just about saved the innings defeat, when last man Morrison joined Astle. They were still there three hours later, when Astle got his hundred and the umpires removed the bails. Morrison, one of Test cricket’s “elite” tail-enders, returned after his most famous innings … but never played another Test match.

1. Courtney Walsh: 0*(5) v Australia, Bridgetown 1999

You cannot describe Walsh’s batting: anything seems banal here

If Walsh qualifies for a batting list, he has to be number one even if it is a five-ball masterpiece: those are the rules. Armed with the technique of a single-blade propeller in Brownian motion, Walsh had to survive three balls. That became four when Jason Gillespie overstepped, but Walsh survived it all while fist-pumping thin air with the bat under his armpit, because … why not? When he had to thwart Glenn McGrath at the other end, he did that too. The cheer he received after every ball might have drowned what they had saved for Lara.

It was no fluke, for Walsh was at it again a year later, this time for 72 minutes to help Jimmy Adams pull off a heist against Pakistan. He does not hold the world record for most wickets anymore, but in 150 years of Test cricket, Walsh is the only No.11 to remain unbeaten in two successful chases.