Boucher holds nightwatchman record

After going wicketless in Pakistan's three innings to date, a similar fate awaits him when the two sides square up for the final Test in Karachi next week.

But perhaps it is not Salisbury's fault at all; perhaps it is merely the curse of the English nightwatchman.

After all Alex Tudor won a match for England against New Zealand last year when, after two overcast days on which wickets had tumbled on both sides, he blazed his way to 99 not out from No. 3, having been sent in to protect Nasser Hussain.

Where, we might ask, is the protection for bowlers when times get tough?

At the time it was the highest score by a nightwatchman in Test cricket - it has since been overtaken by South Africa's Mark Boucher - and drew attention because England, so we were told, had found a hero who could draw the untapped Afro-Caribbean community.

But England's new (at the time only) hero was promptly dropped and overlooked for the remainder of the series.

The England selectors evidently had a hunch about Salisbury being able to do a job as nightwatchman from the very beginning.

In his first Test appearance in 1992 - ironically, also against Pakistan - Salisbury went in at No 3 to protect Graeme Hick on the 3rd evening and survived to be 1 not out at the close.

The next day, he hung around long enough to take his score to 12 (only one batsman scored over 13 in the innings) and then took 3/49 as Pakistan just made it to their target of 138 with two wickets in hand.

Mixed bag

Full of confidence, he went on to score his maiden Test fifty in the next Test from his customary position of No 9 but, with figures of 0/117 and 0/67 he was overlooked for seamer-friendly Leeds and dropped in favour of Phil Tufnell at the Oval.

Recalled for the winter tour to India, he was immediately elevated in the batting order as nightwatchman in the first Test in Calcutta.

It soon transpired that he played spin a good deal better than he bowled it when he worked his way to 28 (only Gatting, with 33, scored more in the innings).

But England lost the match heavily and, once again, by the third Test Salisbury had been discarded with only three wickets in 52 expensive overs.

In the last two Tests of the 1998 series against South Africa it was a similar story - only this time he was dropped only after another disappointing performance against Sri Lanka to end the summer.

Considerably more impressive than his combined figures of 50.5-9-192-1 was his performance as nightwatchman in the fourth Test against South Africa when was sent at No 6 in to protect Graeme Hick.

Having survived to reach 1 not out by the close of play, he took his score on to 23 the next day. Again, in the final Test, he came and completed his task by keeping his wicket intact to the close.

It begs the question - how have recent English nightwatchmen fared when Salisbury has not been in the side?

Apart from Tudor, the only other player to threaten three figures (or even record a half-century, for that matter) has been Jack Russell on his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 1988 but he fell six runs short when he holed out to cover.

Otherwise, it has been a mixed bag with Dean Headley having performed the task on most occasions (seven) - once he came early in both innings of a Test against South Africa.

But despite losing his wicket just once before the close, only once did he manage more than 20 runs the following day.

In the 1994/95 Ashes series, England used no fewer than three different nightwatchmen in the space of four Tests.

Twice the experiment failed as Martin McCague and Angus Fraser were out before the close (Fraser's dismissal in Perth left England 27/5).

Make amends

But at least Fraser had been successful in the previous match, taking his overnight 3 on to 27 not out before running out of luck.

Otherwise, Andrew Caddick, Peter Martin and Richard Illingworth have all been asked to perform nightwatchman duties on one occasion.

While Martin used his long reach to good effect, scoring 23 against India, Illingworth had his right index finger broken by Courtney Walsh in 1995 and was forced to retire hurt.

With the exception of Tudor in 1999 and Russell more than a decade before, Salisbury has, therefore, been England's most successful nightwatchman.

Sadly, he might just have run out of opportunities to make amends for his modest returns with the ball.