Carrying bat through an innings for and against India

The full list of “carry-throughs” can be found here.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283149.html

This is a dynamic link. D Elgar is the latest addition to this list in the Test starting on 24/01/2018.

The very first “carry-through” was by SA’s AB Tancred was 26* out of 47 in the Test starting on 25/03/1889. This remains a record for the lowest such score, though there are a few more under 50. The highest was recorded about a month ago, when AN Cook made 244* out of 491 in the Test starting on 26/12/2017. There are a few other double centuries, one of which is listed below.

Anyway, Elgar was only the 5th opener to carry his bat through an innings against India.

1) Nazar Mohammed, 124*/331 at Lucknow in match starting on 23/10/1952. Pakistan won by 10 wickets, though India won the series 2-1. This was Pakistan’s first Test series. See note in 3) below.

2) WM Lawry (Australia’s captain), 49*/107 at Delhi, starting 28/11/1969. India won this Test by 7 wickets, though Australia won the series 3-1. Lawry also carried his bat through an innings in an Ashes Test in 1971, which Australia lost.

3) Mudassar Nazar, 152*/323 at Lahore, starting 23/01/1983. Drawn, while Pakistan won the series 3-0. This is the only instance in all Tests where a father and son have both carried their bats through an innings.

4) Saeed Anwar, 188*/316 at Kolkata, starting 16/02/1999. Pakistan won by 46 runs. This was part of the Asian Test Championship, which was finally won by Pakistan.

5) D Elgar, 86*/177 at Johannesburg, starting 24/01/2018. India won by 63 runs, though SA won the series 2-1. Elgar had done this earlier against England in 2015, in a match which SA lost.

There are only 4 such instances for Indian openers in Tests:

1) SM Gavaskar, 127*/286 v Pak at Faisalabad, starting 03/01/1983. Pakistan won by 10 wickets and the series 3-0. Mudassar Nazar returned the compliment later in the series, as mentioned above.

2) V Sehwag, 201*/329 v SL at Galle, starting 31/07/2008. India won by 170 runs, though SL won the series 2-1.

3) R Dravid, 146*/300 v Eng at the Oval, starting 18/08/2011. India lost by an innings and 18 runs, and lost the series 4-0 in a clean sweep.

4) C Pujara, 145*/312 v SL at Colombo (SSC) starting on 28/08/2015. India won by 117 runs and the series 2-1.

Views of the Indian Railways in 1944

Some collections on the net include pictures taken by US servicemen serving in India during World War 2. A few samples:

This is between Visakhapatnam (then Waltair) and Rajahmundry. It now looks like this:

Like most of the Golden Quad, the route is now double-tracked and electrified. This station was then on the Madras & Southern Mahratta Railway, then Southern Railway and now the South Central Railway.

Another one from the East Coast. Probably this city is more well known because of its cricket connection:

Note the presence of 5 languages including Urdu and Telugu. It was then part of the Madras Presidency which extended up to Chatrapur in present-day Odisha. This station was then on the Bengal Nagpur Railway, later the Eastern Railway for a short time, then South Eastern and finally the East Coast Railway.

Here is another picture some years later (maybe the 1970s):

By now it was part of Andhra Pradesh. Someone seems to think it was on the South Central Railway, but it never was. It still had Odiya due to its closeness to the state border. This is what it looks like today:

By now it strictly follows the 3-language format with the local language at the top, followed by Hindi and English. However, a number of stations close to the state borders still have signs in the language of the neighboring state. Examples can be found in Jharkhand (Bengali), Kerala/Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka/Telangana among others.

This one also dates from 1944 and is better known:

This is obviously Sealdah as in those days all destinations to the east of the Hooghly were covered by the Sealdah-based Eastern Bengal Railway. At that time it had been merged with the Assam Bengal Railway to form the Bengal & Assam Railway, which itself ceased to exist at partition. However, East Pakistan used the title of Eastern Bengal Railway for all lines in its territory until 1961. The remnants lying in India essentially became the Sealdah Division of the East Indian Railway and then the Eastern Railway.

Most trains from Calcutta to the East ran via the Ranaghat-Darsana route which is still used by the Maitri Express. The border station of Gede did not exist then.

Trains going to the Jessore and Khulna side went via Bongaon-Benapol. The border station of Petrapol came up later.

I am trying to reconcile these timings with a Bradshaw of 1944 and will write more about the routes of these trains later. For the Darjeeling Mail route, see here

The Khulna route is described here

Test bowlers who failed on debut-Revised (Jan 2018)

This post from late 2015 started getting more views in January, perhaps because they wanted to see how England’s debutant Mason Crane would fare. He does appear here, but has not set any records. But Adil Rashid had done so in 2015.

England’s Adil Rashid became the unlikely hero for England on the last day of the first Test against Pakistan, but not before he had set an unwanted Test record in the first innings-the worst innings bowling by a debutant. This is assuming that no wicket was taken.

(All statistics are up to Jan 17, 2018 after the Ashes series and the 2nd Test between SA and Ind).

Worst innings bowling on debut-no wicket and 100+ runs conceded:

He took over the record from Australia’s one-test player BE McGain, while India’s Pankaj Singh is a close third. A few well-known names appear here, such as RG Nadkarni, GOB Allen and even JR Thomson. Bangladesh’s Abul Hasan at least got a century at No 10 to compensate; oddly enough he scored 113 in that innings to go with his 0-113. A more recent addition was 0-102 by RL Chase of WI.

A more unwanted record would pertain to those who failed to take any wicket in the match (though in some cases only one innings was bowled):

Worst match bowling on debut-no wicket and 100+ runs conceded:

Here Pankaj Singh is in top place, surpassing Pakistan’s Sohail Khan and the better-known Aaqib Javed. McGain’s 0-149 in an innings gets him into 4th place here. Some famous names here include RG Nadkarni, MA Holding, HH Streak, GOB Allen and others we have met before such as Abul Hasan and JR Thomson. More recently RL Chase entered this list with his 0-102 (which was in a single innings).

Of course, one may be able to take a wicket or two and yet concede a large number of runs. Now we look at those who took wickets but conceded the most runs in an innings on debut:

Worst innings bowling on debut-150+ runs conceded:

Here the leader is a current Sri Lankan player S Randiv who took over the lead from Australia’s JJ Krejza in 2010. Mason Crane ends up in 5th position with his 1-193. Not many well-known players here, until you come to the bottom to the Australian who took one wicket (Ravi Shastri) on debut.

There are several who took expensive fivers on debut but had rather short careers (Krejza being a good example as he played only one more Test). Adil Rashid finds his place in the top half of this list.

And finally we look at the most expensive match bowling figures on debut:

Worst match bowling on debut- 190+ runs conceded:

A surprisingly large number of bowlers conceded 200 or more runs in the match on debut. These include the luckless Krejza with 12-358 in a Test lost by Australia. Another 10-for here is AL Valentine’s 11-204. The West Indies lost this Test, but in the next three Tests he and his “old pal of mine” Ramadhin combined to wreck England.

Rashid finds his place here towards the middle with 5-227.  Crane is also here with 1-193 (as he bowled in one innings). There are a few current players who are yet unproven (such as KV Sharma) but the only other well-known players are AA Mailey (6-200) and J Garner (6-190).

Best debut bowling against India

The second Test at Centurion was noted for various things such as silly runouts and young Ngidi’s bowling. Here we look at the best bowling figures on debut against and for India (all figures as of 17 Jan 2018).

Best against India-innings (5wi): 

Ngidi is in 5th position here, while his compatriot Klusener leads. That was to remain Klusener’s best in Tests, as in the case of Lever. Krezja’s effort came in a defeat for his team, and he played only one Test after this. Hazlewood is another current player in this list, while B Lee, like Bedser, had a long career.

Bedser and Pollard made their debut together. BR Taylor remains the only one in all Tests to make a century and take a fiver on debut. We will come to Lever’s similar record in a moment.

Best against India-match (7wm):

The luckless Krezja tops this table. Bedser is second, and he followed with another 11-wicket haul in his second Test to start a long career for England. His partner Pollard is also here, though he had a relatively short career. Ngidi is relatively lower in this table as he took only one wicket in the first innings.

Hazlewood is the only other current player to appear here. Other famous names include B Lee and Trueman.

In an odd case of symmetry, JK Lever was the only one in all Tests to score a fifty and take a ten-for on debut. India’s S Venkataraghavan was in the Indian team on both occasions.

We also look at the corresponding figures for Indian bowlers on debut.

Best for India-innings (5wi):

Hirwani steals the show here. He had a slightly better career than RAL Massie, who also took 16 wickets on debut. Ashwin and Shami are in the current team, as is Mishra from recent times. Nissar’s effort came in India’s first-ever Test.

Best for India-match (7wm):

Hirwani again leads, with the best match figures in all Tests by a debutant. His 16-136 was just ahead of Massie’s 16-137. Shami, Ashwin and Mishra appear here as well. Doshi and Yadav had moderately successful careers.

Making sense of the Cricket World Cup qualifying matches in 2018

As we know, the CWC 2019 will have 10 teams. These were to be the host (England) plus top 7 teams in the ODI rankings on 30/09/2017. This was the ranking table on that date:

The first 8 (including the host) qualified while the bottom 4 (WI, Afg, Zim, Ire) would account for 4 places in the qualifying rounds in 2018.

They would be joined by the 4 top teams in the WCL championship. which got over in Dec 2017. These are the results:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9317_ICC_World_Cricket_League_Championship#Points_table

Thus Netherlands, Scotland, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea make up the second group of 4.

The remaining 2 spots will be selected from the bottom 4 in the WCL and the top 2 from WCL division 3: (Kenya, UAE, Nepal, Namibia) + (Canada, Oman).

There could be some upsets here, but probably Kenya and UAE will get through here. (Update: It was Nepal and UAE who emerged from this).

Details of this mini-qualifier (to be held in Feb 8-15 in Namibia) are here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_ICC_World_Cricket_League_Division_Two

So we now have:WI, Afg, Zim, Ire, Neth, Sco, HK, PNG, Nep and UAE in the “main” qualifier to be held in Zimbabwe from March 4 to 25. These have been divided into two pools of 5. There will be Super Sixes but no semi-finals.

Now we see the ODI rankings as of today (Jan 16):

While there may be an occasional upset, it is very unlikely that the 2 qualifiers will be from the WCL teams. West Indies should have no trouble in qualifying, while there may be an interesting struggle for the other qualifying spot between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Zimbabwe may have a slight home advantage. Ireland has generally declined in ODIs over the past year and may not challenge the other three seriously.

Final update: It was West Indies and Afghanistan who qualified for the 2019 World Cup.

 

Test all-round performances of 2017

Overall performance (see criteria below):

Nothing out of the way. Moeen Ali and Jason Holder are the best of a weak field.

Ali did however achieve the relatively rare feat of a fifty and 10 wickets in a match. More on that below.

Match performances (Fifty and 5wi):

The 9 instances include two each by Jadeja and Ali. While Ali and Shakib achieved the 50/10wm double, there were no instances of 100/5wi. But Sikandar Raza’a two 80s and a 5wi may rank among the best all-round performances in a losing cause. Something like a lite version of Vinoo Mankad at Lord’s in 1952.

Test fielding performances of 2017

Hope you have read the earlier posts on Test batting and bowling performances of 2017. Now we move to fielding.

Most dismissals-15 and above:

de Kock with 50 dismissals is far ahead of the next two, Bairstow and Saha who each played 11 Tests and dismissed 37. The most stumpings were 9 by Dickwella, while SPD Smith had the most catches (21) by a non-keeper. Rahane was close behind him with 20.

Most innings dismissals-4 and above:

The top position is shared by Kayes and de Kock, while several non-keepers took 4 catches. None of the keepers here took more than one stumping.

Most match dismissals-6 and above:

de Villiers leads with 8 while several others made 7 dismissals. The most stumpings were 3 by Wade, while no fielder took 6 catches.

Best dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings and 0.500):

As in the first table, de Kock is far ahead of the runners-up Bairstow and Saha. Smith and Rahane have the best rate among non-keepers.

Test bowling performances of 2017

After covering Test batting in 2017 in the previous post, we move to bowling. This refers to all Tests which occurred in the calendar year.

Most wickets (25 and above):

Lyon is followed at some distance by Rabada, Ashwin, Anderson and Jadeja bunched together.

Rabada and Herath are the only ones with two tenners. Lyon, Herath and Yasir Shah have five fivers apiece.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 6wi and above):

Lyon again, with the only 8-wicket haul. He is also among the four who had 7-wicket hauls.

Best match bowling (all instances of 9wm and above):

Lyon with 13 followed by O’Keefe with 12, both in Asia). Herath’s two 11-wicket hauls were also in Asia. Ali’s 10-for was accompanied by a fifty.

While disciplinary issues may keep O’Keefe out of the team for a while, he achieved an odd record by taking 6-35 in each innings for a match haul of 12-70. The previous record was by BS Chandrashekhar (6-52 twice, giving 12-104).

Best bowling averages (minimum 2000 balls bowled, bowling average below 30):

Anderson leads with Rabada some distance behind, followed by Jadeja and others.

It can be seen that the best economy rates (for 2000+ balls) are by Anderson (2.26) and Jadeja (2.44).

And the best strike rates (for 2000+ balls) are by Rabada (37.8), Maharaj (46.3) and Anderson (46.4).

 

Test batting performances of 2017

Here we look at individual batting performances for the calendar year 2017.

Most runs (750 and above):

SPD Smith and five others crossed 1000. Smith had the most centuries (6) followed by Elgar and Kohli with 5.

Smith also had 9 scores of 50-plus, which was attained by several others. But it is his Ashes counterpart Root who has 10 such scores. KL Rahul (who scored less than 750 runs and does not appear above) had 9 scores of 50+ with a top score of 90. You can also see Dickwella who failed to convert any of his 6 fifties.

Also Elgar has the most 4s (43) and Warner and Mushfiqur the most 6s (7) in the above table. A closer look shows that de Grandhomme (15) actually had the most 6s though he scored only 293 runs.

Highest individual innings (150 and above):

The highest score was 244* by AN Cook practically at the end of the year, while he and Kohli also made 243. Cook’s 244* is the first Test score at that number (though Bradman was once dismissed on 244). This 244* is also the highest score by anyone carrying his bat through an innings, surpassing GM Turner’s 223* in 1972.

Kohli has three double centuries while Elgar joined the somewhat exclusive 199 club.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Although Pujara and Kohli scored over 1000 runs they batted in less than 20 innings, so they do not appear here. So we have SPD Smith heading this table with Elgar a distant second.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, 50.00 and above):

Here we have Kohli closely followed by Dickwella, with Smith considerably behind.

Two centuries in a match:

Only one instance. They were Hope’s maiden centuries, and enabled the West Indies to win a Test in England for the first time since 2000.

Next we will take up bowling.

Where is Pellore?

You have heard of Vellore and Nellore. If you are familiar with Andhra Pradesh, you may know that Eluru was known as Ellore in British times. This name appears in railway timetables up to the 1940s.

And there is a fictitious place called Pellore – that too in the North West Frontier Province.

Not in South India as you may expect. Don’t try to find it on the map. It appears in the 1935 Laurel & Hardy film “Bonnie Scotland”, where the pair enlist in a Scottish regiment and create havoc at Pellore and the surroundings.

This was an MGM production. But even the large Hollywood producers would not shoot in such locations at that time. They would have had an “India consultant” who must have suggested the name.

The most famous fictitious place in India (in English literature) would be Bhowani Junction. The book was also made into a Hollywood film in the 1950s. However, there are enough clues in the book (not the film) which indicates that the author was familiar with Central and Northern India, and may have had Jhansi in mind. A more simplistic approach is to think it was Bhusaval because it sounds similar. It is not clear if anyone asked John Masters which place he had in mind. More on this topic later.

Quick guide to Test matches of 2017

In the calendar year 2017, 47 Test matches were played. 40 had results and 7 were drawn. Coincidentally, in 2016 there were also 47 Tests if which 7 were drawn.

These were the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

India clearly at the top, although there is some chance that South Africa will close the gap in the current series. But even a 3-0 win is not likely to put SA at the top.

At the bottom end, note that West Indies and Bangladesh are now level and Zimbabwe is far behind. It will be interesting to see where Ireland and Afghanistan will be (say) five years from now. While Ireland seems to be declining, Afghanistan may well get ahead of Zimbabwe.

Now we look at the win-loss ratio for all Tests in 2017. This is not expected to give the same results as the ICC rankings since the latter cover a longer period.

While India clearly leads, New Zealand has also done well to be in second place. Zimbabwe is the only one without a win, though Pakistan and Bangladesh have the same number of wins.

More detailed analysis of individual performances will follow.

 

The T20Is of 2017

The T20I matches of 2018 have already started. So we now look back at the matches of 2017. Not too many as there was no world championship, though there is now an increasing trend of 3-match series rather than a single match grudgingly tagged on at the end of the season.

First, the ICC ranking table at the end of the year:

This has a close bunching at the top, with 3 points separating Pakistan, New Zealand and India.

Now we look at win-loss ratios in 2017:

Pakistan and Scotland (!) at the top, with Bangladesh just above bottom-ranked PNG. Although Pakistan does top both lists, it should be remembered that the ICC rankings cover a longer period.

Now we look at individual performances. With a relatively small sample size there is not much point in finding averages and strike rates. The matches involving the World XI are not counted, even though the ICC and Cricinfo regards them as official T20Is

Batting: Most runs (150 and above):

So Evin Lewis of the West Indies leads, leaving established stars like ABD and Kohli behind. C Munro is the only one with 2 centuries, while several have three 50+ scores.

Highest innings (75 and above):

Evin Lewis leads the next in line RG Sharma by a large margin (by T20I standards).

Bowling: Most wickets (10 and above):

YS Chahal emerged with a bang, while Williams and Rashid also emerged from the fringes. Chahal is the only one with three 4wis, no one else had more than 1.

Best innings bowling (all instances of 5wi and above):

Chahal and Rashid Khan again.

Fielding: Most dismissals (8 and more):

Dhoni heads this list, although surprisingly Ireland’s GH Dockrell has the most catches as a non-keeper. In fact he has more catches than Dhoni or any other keeper!

Best innings fielding (3 or more dismissals):

While Chandimal, Dhoni and GD Philips have 4 dismissals apiece, several non-keepers have taken 3 catches.

All-round performance-overall:

See criteria below:

Seekuge Prasanna emerges as the only to one to have bowled and batted enough with some pretensions to being an all-rounder.

All-round match performances (20+ runs and 2+ wickets).

The best performances here are by Anshuman Rath (HK) and Shakib Al Hasan.