Bevan Congdon R.I.P. – and his Indian connection

Bevan Congdon, who was one of New Zealand’s major players in the 1960s and 1970s, died a few days ago a day before his 80th bithday.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/36611.html

Victories for New Zealand were few and far between in those days. At that time even India always considered them to be a lesser team. His tenure as captain included NZ’s first win against Australia in 1974, and earlier his 175 came close to bringing his team to an improbable win against England, making 440 and losing by 38 runs:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17229/scorecard/63108/england-vs-new-zealand-1st-test-new-zealand-tour-of-england-1973/

That was then the highest fourth-innings score in a loss, though it has since been surpassed.

Congdon was a part-time medium pacer. His best bowling and all-round performance came in a Test against India at Auckland in early 1976. By then Glenn Turner was captain. India won this Test, which was significant in several ways.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17181/scorecard/63156/new-zealand-vs-india-1st-test-india-tour-of-new-zealand-1975-76/

Congdon scored 54 and 54 besides taking 5-65. Apart from this:

Surender Amarnath scored a century on debut. Like his father, he never made a Test century after his debut.

Gavaskar won his first Test as captain and made a century as well. He was standing in for BS Bedi who made his debut as captain in the second Test of the series.

Prasanna’s 8-76 remains the best innings bowling for an Indian bowler in a Test outside India. His match figures of 11-140 were then the best for India outside India, though the record now stands at 12-104 by BS Chandrashekhar against Australia at Melbourne in early 1978. Chandrashekhar would not have minded getting a king pair in that match.

But India did not win that series against New Zealand. The 2nd Test was drawn with India in a weaker position. And the third Test saw the then little-known Richard Hadlee taking 7-23 (and 11-58) in bringing about an innings victory for NZ.

 

Review of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests in Feb 2018-2

Continuing our review of all Tests between these teams until now.

Fielding:

8 or more dismissals:

The lesser-known P Jayawardene has the most dismissals, most catches by a keeper and most stumpings. The better-known M Jayawardene has the most catches by a fielder. Mushfiqur is catching up.

Innings fielding (4 or more dismissals):

Dickwella equalled the record of 5 during this series. Sangakkara and Soumya have 4 catches as fielders.

Match fielding (5 or more dismissals):

P Jayawardene has the record of 7, while M Jayawardene and Soumya have 5 catches as  fielders. Dickwella has the best figures from the current series.

Dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings fielded, all cases):

Sangakkara has the highest here, as P Jayawardene did not play enough matches here. Mushfiqur has done almost as well as Sangakkara. Among non-keepers the highest rate is inevitably by M Jayawardene.

All-round performances

Overall-see criteria in table:

Shakib is the only all-rounder with respectable figures. Vaas did not play enough in these matches.

Match performances (50 and 5wi):

The one-man army Shakib Al Hasan again. His absence in this series must have hurt Bangladesh a lot.

Review of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests in Feb 2018-1

With the premature conclusion of the 2nd Test at Mirpur (Dhaka), Sri Lanka won the 2-Test series 1-0. The last series between these teams was less than a year ago when Bangladesh drew 1-1 in Sri Lanka.

20 Tests have been played between these teams. Sri Lanka leads 16-1 with 3 draws.

In Bangladesh, Sri Lanka has played 8 Tests and lead 6-0 with 2 draws.

In Sri Lanka, the 12 Tests have resulted in the hosts leading 10-1 with 1 draw.

Batting records:

Most runs (500 and above):

Sangakkara has the most centuries (7) followed by M Jayawardene and Ashraful with 5 each. For scores of 50+, Sangakkara again leads with 14, followed by Dilshan (8) and M Jayawardene, Mushfiqur and Samaraweera with 7 each.

Highest individual scores (125 and above):

Sangakkara scored 319 and 105 in the same Test, becoming only the second (after Gooch) to score a triple century and century in the same Test. In this series we also saw Mominul Haque scoring 176 and 105, becoming the first from Bangladesh to score centuries in both innings of a Test. His 176 was the highest by Bangladesh against Sri Lanka at home, surpassing the 136 by Ashraful in 2006. However Mushfiqur’s 200 at Galle in 2013 remains the highest for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings):

Sangakkara has an average more than double that of runner-up Ashraful.

Batting strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced):

However, Dilshan and M Jayawardene have the highest strike rates, with Dilshan having a much higher figure than the runner-up.

Bowling figures:

Most wickets (15 and above):

Muralitharan leads followed by Herath and then Shakib, with the first two far ahead of the rest. MDK (Dilruwan) Perera and a few other current players also figure on this list.

As you may expect, Muralitharan has the most 10-fors (4) and 5-fors (11). Herath is the only other one with a 10-for.

Best innings bowling ( 5wi and above):

Note Muralitharan’s dominance here. From the current series we only have Dananjaya who was making his debut.

Best match figures (7wm and above):

Muralitharan dominates this list as well, while Dananjaya has the best match figures by a debutant for Sri Lanka. Taijul’s 8-159 is the best for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka, surpassing the 6-154 by Shakib at Colombo in March 2017. The best for Bangladesh in Bangladesh was 6-204 by Shakib at Chittagong in Dec 2008. His absence in this series seems to have made a lot of difference.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls):

Muralitharan has the best bowling average, economy rate and strike rate. Herath and Shakib follow at a distance.

To be continued.

 

Akila Dananjaya’s comeback

Akila Dananjaya now has the best match figures by Sri Lankan bowler making his Test debut.

Apart from the best match figures on debut, he also has the second-best innings figures:

Match figures for Sri Lankan bowlers on debut:

(Kuruppuarachchi played only one more Test and Ahangama two more. The latter did not play after his debut series).

Innings figures for Sri Lankan bowlers on debut:

Not bad when you consider he once held a dubious record in ODI record. In March 2017, he was the only current player who had not batted, bowled or fielded in his ODI career. Here is an edited extract from my earlier post of 27/03/2017 titled “All-round fails in ODIs”:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

No batting, bowling and fielding in ODIs (complete list):

 

This explains what had happened in his one ODI till then:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/582191.html

In this rain-affected match, his team did bat and got to 123/8. He was to bat at No 10 or 11 and never got to bat. And he could not bowl or field as rain prevented New Zealand’s innings from starting

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Soon after this was written, his ODI career resumed and he became a regular ODI player, with a high of a 6-for against the all-conquering touring team of India besides a 50 against Pakistan. He may well become a regular in all 3 formats.

These are his current figures. Note that he has a nice smile. One needs to be cheerful to come back after an inauspicious start.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/574178.html

 

Food on rails

You may have already read about fruit on rails:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/11/30/fruit-on-rails/

Today we explore some more station names associated with food. (This is mainly confined to Hindi and Bengali speaking areas, and there are probably other names which I have missed).

We start with food itself:

Muri (or murmura in Hindi):

which rhymes with

Non-vegetarians would be interested in this:

Other items of interest:

Non-vegetarians would also keep an eye on this:

A station once existed here on the Cutch State Railway:

Cooking utensils are not neglected:

Still more items of interest:

There was probably an Englishman named Currey, but we let that pass.

Some near misses: You should be able to get dhokla here as it is in Gujarat:

(Dholka).

And you might get tuna here as it is near the coast:

And cinnamon (dalchini) here:

When a king ate a lot of rice, this place in Bengal was named

Finally, you can proceed to this place

where you may find drinks sounding similar to

and

Then this place in Bangladesh, not Goa:

We are not done yet. In Pakistan, you will see this place on the way up the Bolan Pass:

I wonder if Bengalis going to Quetta were able to find fish at the station restaurant.

In Bangladesh itself, there used to be a station called Raita near the Hardinge Bridge.

http://www.maplandia.com/bangladesh/khulna-div/kushtia-zl/raita/

From Sri Lanka, we have the closest one for honey:

(Thanks to Vimlesh Chandra for inspiration).

Fruits are left out here, but they are covered in the earlier post referenced at the start.

Cricket obituaries of 2017

A quick look at prominent cricketing figures who passed away in 2017. This does include all Test players. “Others” include major ODI and FC players, Test umpires, prominent female players, administrators and journalists. This list would have to be subjective as this writer is more familiar with cricket in India and England.

Information has been taken from Cricinfo and Cricket Archive. Between them, they should not have missed anyone.

Note that this blog contains obituaries for 2014 onward which have appeared in the beginning of 2015 and subsequent years.

 

The Test debutants of 2017

Here we review the good performances by those who made their Test debut in 2017.

Batting: 50+ in an innings:

A century and a near century. While Blundell has played only one Test after his debut, Markram continued to score well in his subsequent matches. As of Jan 31, 2018 he has a Test average of 52.00 with 2 centuries and 2 fifties. Pandya has not been so consistent, though he has an average of 33.00 with a century and 2 fifties. The others have not done much until now, though we may soon hear more about them.

We also look at debutants who scored:

75+ in a match:

Apart from Blundell, Markram and Sohail also scored over 100 runs in their debut match.

Bowling: 3wi or more:

Roland-Jones is the only one with a five-for, with Kuldeep Yadav the only other one with a four-for. While injury caused the former to miss a number of Tests, Yadav has done particularly well in limited-over matches. Roland-Jones took 17 wickets at 19.64 so far, while Yadav has 9 wickets at 20.77.

Looking at match performances:

4wm or more:

Roland-Jones has by far the best figures here, while Olivier is second.

Fielding: 2 or more dismissals in an innings:

Markram has the most catches (3) while two others have 2. Nurul Hasan is the only keeper here.

Looking at match performances:

3 or more dismissals in a match:

Markram and Nurul Hasan again. As of today Markram has 6 catches besides 520 runs in 6 Tests.

All-round performances: runs and wickets

40 runs and 4 wickets in a match:

Roland-Jones again with Overton. Roland-Jones has 82 runs and 17 wickets in 4 Tests. Overton was unfortunate to make his debut against Australia in Australia.

All-round performances: runs and dismissals

20 runs and 2 dismissals in a match:

Markram’s performance is the best here followed by that of Mosaddek.