Funny story, the English cricket team has actually only won one of their last six test matches at Lord's – a 124 run win over New Zealand last year. That result was trash too, as the Blackcaps blew a first innings lead of 134 runs and got themselves bowled out for 220 on the final day, caught between chasing 345 in two and a half sessions for the win and settling for a casual draw. The downside of the aggressive B-Mac thing.

But anyway, the Home of Cricket isn’t quite so accommodating to their hosts anymore and Pakistan went and smacked the Pommers for a 75 run win. Yasir Shah was bloody magnificent, with match figures of 10/141. Mohammad Amir capped a triumphant return to the scene of his former disgrace with the final wicket. Asad Shafiq scored some crucial runs. But the man that got everyone talking was the captain, Misbah ul Haq.

With his ton in the first innings, Misbah became the sixth oldest man to score a test century. Ever. And this in a sport which in the old days was sorta famous for lads playing into their forties – the inimitable Doctor Grace retired from internationals at age 51. Hey, but he never tonned up at that age. In fact Misbah is the oldest player ever to score a test hundy as captain.

It’s one thing to keep playing at this level post-40 and it’s a complete other thing when you can keep captaining your team to victory and are leading by example with the bat. Well, in the first innings at least. The second time up he slogged Moeen Ali away over midwicket and was caught on the boundary for a second ball duck.

But ignore the little details of context. His effort in the first frame was a masterful example of picking his moments as he slapped 18 fours on his way to 114, most of them behind the wicket. His partnership with Shafiq was massive in getting Pakistan set up for the rest of the match, don’t ignore that little ditty either. 148 runs for the fifth wicket having, at 134/4, been a wicket or two away from an early collapse that’d be tough to recover from. And all this at age 42.

Yeah, so that thing about older players not being so prominent anymore shows through clearly here. The oldest man to ton up since Patsy Hendren in 1934 – that’s 82 years right there. A lifetime since this last occurred. Graham Gooch famously scored 210 against New Zealand in the early 90s while Shiv Chanderpaul was almost a month over 40 when he scored his 30th and final test century. If he came out of retirement (slightly complicated situation, that) tomorrow and hit triple figures he’d still be short of Misbah by about two months. Bob Simpson was a week shy of 42 when he tonned up in the 1978 Ashes, the oldest captain to do that until Misbah’s heroics.

The main man on that list is the iconic Sir Jack Hobbs. When people talk about Misbah being the sixth oldest centurion they don’t mean this was the sixth oldest innings (if that makes sense) because Hobbsy went and scored four 100s at an age beyond what Misbah’s at right now. Including the record at roughly 46 ¼ years. Mate, that is some record. They called Hobbs “The Master” and you can’t really argue with that when you take into account that the Surrey legend scored 199 first class hundreds. Considering that he lost some of the prime years of his career to the First World War, that’s even more incredible. To be fair, he made up for lost time by playing as long as he did. Hobbs was the best batsman in the world before WW1, a dashing player known for his stroke-making, but appendicitis cost him most of the 1921 season and almost cost him his life as well. He recovered to become a more controlled batsman and with Herbert Sutcliffe would go on to establish one of the finest opening partnerships in test history – averaging 87 runs for the first wicket in 38 opening stands for England.

Hobbs is also one of the two folks to have scored hundreds at Lord's older than Misbah. The other was Warren Bardsley of Australia, 43 years and 202 days in 1926. Wouldn’t you know it, they were both in the same test and Sutcliffe played in that one too (they put on 182 runs for the opening stand). Also featured in that test were Patsy Hendren and Frank Woolley, both on the list ahead of Misbah. South Africa’s Dave Nourse is the other bugger.

There’s one New Zealander on that list and it’s the bloke who shares a name with Jack Hobbs’ famous opening partner: Bert Sutcliffe. His is a pretty amazing story, he didn’t play through like others on this list. He’d actually retired from playing in 1959, sadly for reasons other than form. In his mid-30s and married with kids, money wasn’t as easy to come by as an athlete in the 1960s, even one as beloved as he was. Sutcliffe continued to play first class stuff in NZ though, and ahead of New Zealand’s 1964-65 tour to the subcontinent, he was talked into joining the squad by Walter Hadlee (then the tour manager). It was a transitional time for the NZ team, with eight of the 15 travellers on their first international tour and Sutcliffe’s experience was pretty helpful even at age 41 – particularly given his brilliance against slow bowlers. He’d play all seven tests on the tour, beginning with an assuring half-century in the first that helped earn a draw (Sutcliffe never played in a winning test for NZ) almost six years since his last official test match.

The second test at Eden Gardens though, that was special. With NZ at 152/5 in the first innings, Sutcliffe stubbornly ground his way through brutal conditions and a passionate home crowd for an almost six-hour knock that set NZ up for another draw. The highlight was his partnership with Bruce Taylor, which put on 163 for the seventh wicket. Bert had settled into an anchoring role and was nudging his way towards his century when Taylor went mental and belted 14 fours and 3 sixes on his way to a test century of his own. Still, it was Sutcliffe’s 151* that made the headlines (although Taylor did get five-for with the ball as well).

The rest of the tour didn’t go quite so well, with New Zealand blowing a big first innings lead to barely hold on for a draw in the third test before being beaten in the fourth against India. Then they got done 2-0 across three tests in Pakistan with Sutcliffe doing barely anything. He’d score a half century in his final test innings against England at the end of the trip and hang the batting pads up for good once again.

@thenichecache More likely he celebrated with a tune on the piano after play.
— NZ Cricket Museum (@NZCricketMuseum) July 15, 2016

In Richard Boock’s (superb) biography of Sutcliffe, he quotes the great man recalling the moment he made it to triple figures in that legendary knock:

“I could see all the photographers lined up on the boundary and was determined to see it through; to prove to a lot of people, not least myself, that I could still do it. Eventually I turn one behind square on the legside and Brucie yells, “Yes”, and we’re off. I get to the other end and just start crying. Couldn’t stop myself. I thought, “Jesus, you’ve done it, you’ve really done it.” And I’m minding my own business and fetching a handkerchief from my pocket when I collect a bloody great thump between the shoulder blades. “You bloody beauty,” Taylor screams. Nearly knocked me over.”

Misbah celebrated his one a little more ceremoniously when he dropped to the deck and starting logging press-ups. Ten of them in fact, a promised tribute to the Pakistani Military Academy soldiers that ran them through a rigorous fitness camp before the tour. After winning the match, the whole team was getting in on it.

Whatever they did, it must be bloody working.