Review of West Indies-Zimbabwe Tests

West Indies won this series 1-0 with one draw, when the second Test was drawn. The last draw involving Zimbabwe was in January 2005, when a Test in Bangladesh was drawn. From then till now Zimbabwe played in 26 Tests, including 23 losses and 3 wins (2 against Bangladesh and one against Pakistan). However, Zimbabwe did not play any Tests between Sep 2005 and Aug 2011.

Some Zimbabwe players ended their all-loss Test record. Chakabva now has seen 11 losses and 1 draw, while Sikandar has seen 8 losses and 1 draw. SC Williams has seen losses in all his 7 Tests, though the overall Test record is held by Alok Kapali with 17.

Zimbabwe’s captain AG Cremer also came out of the all-loss group. His 7 Tests as captain now have 6 losses and 1 draw.

Here we have a summary of all 10 Tests between these teams:

WI leads 7-0 with 3 draws. They won all 4 Tests held in the West Indies and 3 out of 6 in Zimbabwe. All 3 draws were in Zimbabwe.

With this limited sample size there is no point in looking at averages, strike rates and the like. So we concentrate on overall tallies and innings and match performances.

Most runs (200 and above):

Gayle and H Masakadza scored 2 centuries apiece. These two players along with Sarwan are the only ones to make 3 scores of 50-plus. Gayle and Chanderpaul had played in all Tests between these teams except this series.

Highest individual scores (all centuries):

In this series H Masakadza made the highest score for Zim against WI. The previous record was 127* by Streak.

Also during this series WI’s no 8 and 9 batsmen (Holder and Dowrich) scored centuries. This was only the 2nd time this happened, after this one in the 1907-08 Ashes: http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17646/scorecard/62493/Australia-vs-England-3rd-Test-the-ashes/

In that match a top-order batsman Clem Hill was batting at No 9 for some reason (probably an injury). So this instance is the only one involving “genuine” No 8 and No 9 batsmen.

Bowling: 10 or more wickets:

Price has the most wickets. He and S Shillingford are the only ones to have taken tenners. Shillingford is also the only one with 3 fivers. Several current players (led by Bishoo) are in the above table.

Best innings bowling (including all fivers):

Shillingford and Price lead again.

Best match bowling (including all cases of 8wm and above): The same pair again head the table.

Some current players (notably Bishoo) are in these tables.

Fielding records (5 or more dismissals):

Gayle has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most dismissals in an innings (3 or more):

Ervine and A Flower have the most catches in an innings.

Most dismissals in a match (4 or more):

Interestingly a non-keeper Powell has the most dismissals.

All-round performances (overall):

Fittingly the only name here is that of Zimbabwe’s leading all-rounder.

All-round match performances (50 and 5wi):

In this series Sikandar Raza became only the second Test player to make two eighty-plus scores along with a fiver (see more about this in the previous post).