Six is a common thread and a mark of serial underperformance in the careers of JP Duminy and Graeme Hick.
They are two supremely talented batsmen who never came close to realising their talents. In their combined 111 tests, they only scored 12 hundreds - six each.
Their first-class averages of 52.23 (Hick) and 46.08 (Duminy) paint a picture of their test cricket under-delivery.
In 65 tests between 1991 and 2001, Hick averaged a measly 31.32 while Duminy's nine-year, 46-test career saw the silky southpaw average a paltry 32.85.
They aren't the first, nor the last batsmen who will fail to fulfil their potential, but they are the current standard-bearers for modern flat-track bullies who had failed at the highest level. Hick had the misfortune of playing in an era when even the best of England's batsmen were subject to idiosyncratic selection policies.
Former Proteas batsman Boeta Dippenaar said the weight of expectation can often kill careers before they even start.
Hick went into his test debut against the West Indies at Leeds in 1991 on the back of 57 first-class hundreds for Worcestershire while Duminy had established himself as a crackerjack limited-overs batsman before his Perth debut in 2008. His reputation was enhanced by his enchanting and ultimately series clinching 166 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in his second test."It becomes a big mental barrier that one tends to get caught up in and I suspect that's what they got caught up in. Whatever you've done at first-class level goes under an intense microscope and when there's big build-up in terms of you getting the opportunity and all the work you've put in, there's not only your expectation to manage, but that of other people who supported you in terms of getting into the team.
"I suspect those who've been more successful at test cricket distanced themselves from those expectations and not get overwhelmed by those expectations."
Such are the vagaries of cricket, batsmen with little to no pretensions of aesthetics have somehow found a way to prosper.
England opener Alastair Cook is an example as a leading test run-scorer despite his square-jawed technique while Graeme Smith boxed, bullied and bottom-handed his way to 9,000-plus test runs.
Dippenaar said mental fortitude often separated the grain from the chaff. "Mental strength is very important but you do need a fair bit of luck in terms of the opportunity you get and when you get it, it could be backing from the selectors as Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis are examples of batsmen who were identified for big things early but had disastrous starts in their first 15 tests."..