Flashback: Only batter to score two double centuries in a first-class match
Before going on to attain fame and fortune in international cricket, the players first need to prove their mettle at the first-class level where they are processed well. While there have been many batters who have shattered several records at the first-class level, hitting two double-centuries in the same game sounds far-fetched. However, the feat has been achieved twice.
Arthur Edward Fagg made his first-class debut for Kent at the young age of 17 and went on to play 435 matches at this level, amassing 27,291 runs averaging 36.05 including 58 centuries and 128 half-centuries.
What really stands out in Fagg’s illustrious FC career is that he succeeded in scoring two double-centuries in a first-class match. It was in the year 1938 when a 23-year-old Fagg set a first-class record, representing Kent against Essex at Colchester.
While Arthur made 244 in the first innings, he showcased the same amount of consistency in the second scoring an unbeaten 202. Fagg’s knock of 244 took a duration of five hours on the first day’s play. Surprisingly, he had already scored his century before lunch. The late cricketer’s knock of 202* was scored in a time span of two hours and 50 minutes.
It was indeed a milestone moment for Fagg from an individual perspective as the FC cricketer had returned early from the Australian tour on a stretcher 18 months prior to that knock after contracting rheumatic fever, which eventually forced him to miss the entire 1937 summer.
Fagg proudly held this world record for 81 years before Angelo Perera made his way into the elite list. Perera became only the second player to achieve this unique feat in first-class cricket in February 2019 when he registered scores of 201 and 231 in the same game while captaining Sri Lanka’s Nondescripts Cricket Club against the Sinhalese Sports Club.
