Pointless Investigations 1
Is 111 unlucky?
The questions nobody sensible would commission, put to 895 men’s Tests since December 2001 and treated with the gravity they do not deserve.
David Shepherd stood on one leg whenever the score reached 111. The Nelson belongs to English cricket folklore, and Shepherd made it famous by hopping through every ball until the total moved on. Australians keep their own version at 87, thirteen short of a hundred.
Individual batters give the superstition nothing. On 111 in a Test innings, batters have faced 1,958 balls and been dismissed 23 times, a rate of 11.8 per 1,000 balls against 12.3 on every other score from 100 to 125. In men’s ODIs since 2002 the gap is wider: 45.9 dismissals per 1,000 balls on 111, against 51.8 on the other scores between 100 and 125.
Every other score from 100 to 125On 111
Three batters have fallen on 111 twice in Tests: Rahul Dravid, Steve Smith and Harry Brook, whose two came at Karachi in 2022 and the Oval in 2025. The double Nelson looks safer still. Batters have reached 222 in 51 Test innings and faced 110 balls on that score, and not one was out there.
Shepherd’s own version, the team total, gives the Nelson its best case. Test sides on 111, 222 or 333 have lost a wicket at 16.9 per 1,000 balls, against 16.5 on the scores around them. That works out at about one extra wicket every 200 Tests. In ODIs the effect runs the other way, and no men’s ODI side since 2002 has been bowled out for exactly 111. Three have been all out for 110 and seven for 112.
The Australian 87 fares worse still as a curse. Australian Test batters on 87 have faced 496 balls and been dismissed three times, a rate of 6.0 per 1,000 against 11.8 on their other scores between 80 and 95. The rest of the world is out on 87 at almost exactly its usual rate.