The Jodhpur Railway from the Bradshaw of June 1944

The Jodhpur Railway of those days was one of the small but well-run railway systems in the first half of the 20th century. The network (as shown in the June 1944 Indian Bradshaw) is:

These are also in the IRFCA gallery’s Heritage section, though wrongly labelled as being from the 1943 Bradshaw.

It can be seen that after 1947 a part of this system (west of Munabao) became part of Pakistan’s railway system. Initially it was merged with the North Western Railway, then Pakistan Western Railway and finally Pakistan Railway.

Note the branches ending at Chilo and Sujangarh. These connected to the Bikaner State Railway.

The part remaining in India essentially became the Jodhpur Division of the Northern Railway and later the North Western Railway (which has nothing to do with the previous NWR).

Review of Bangladesh-Zimbabwe Tests (2020)-2

Hope that you have read Part 1

We now look at bowling records:

Most wickets (15 and above):

Taijul is far ahead of others.

He also has the most fivers (4) followed by Shakib and Enamul with 3. No one has more than one tenner.

Best innings bowling (6wi and above):

Taijul again leads this table. However there was no haul of 6wi or more in this match.

Best match bowling (8wm and above):

Enamul’s 12-wicket haul was instrumental in Bangladesh’s first-ever Test win in 2005.

Shakib’s 10-for in 2014 was accompanied by a century. He is only the third player in all Tests to score a century and take a 10-for in the same match, after Botham and Imran.

Also note Nayeem Hasan’s 9-for in this match.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Led by Mushfiqur, while Masakadza has the most by a non-keeper.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 and above):

Chakabva took 5 catches in this Test to equal the record. No non-keeper has taken 4 or more catches.

Most dismissals in a match (5 and above):

The record of 7 was set long ago. Chakabva took 5 in this match.

Best dismissal rate (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Mushfiqur leads here, far ahead of the others.

All-round performance (Overall, see criteria in table):

Shakib leads, followed by Chigumbura at a distance.

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

Shakib’s century and 10wm has pride of place.

Review of Bangladesh-Zimbabwe Tests (2020)-1

These teams have met in 17 Tests, with these results:

These can be summarized as:

The teams are now level at 7 wins each.

CR Ervine followed TW Latham as an one-Test captain.

This was only the 14th Test win by Bangladesh, and the second by an innings:

Bangladesh’s first Test win (and series win) was against Zimbabwe in 2005.

Batting records:

Most runs (250 and above):

Current and near-current players hold the first few places.

Taylor is the only one with 5 centuries. Taylor, Masakadza and Bashar have 7 50+ scores.

Highest innings scores (100 and above):

Mushfiqur’s double century in this series was less than his earlier record score in 2018. No one else has scored a double in these Tests.

Batting average (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Mushfiqur is just ahead of Taylor.

Batting strike rate (Min 750 balls faced, all instances):

Mominul and Taylor lead this table.

To be continued.

When India first won a Test and series abroad

You might think this relates to the victories over the West Indies and England in 1971, when Wadekar was the captain.

But the first time India won a Test outside India was in New Zealand in February 1968 when Pataudi was still the captain.

India lost the second Test but won the 4-match series 3-1. This is mostly forgotten now, particularly as New Zealand was not considered to be a strong team then.

Anyway, you can look through the old scorecards through this link, which covers all Tests played by India in New Zealand:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;home_or_away=2;opposition=5;orderby=start;team=6;template=results;type=team;view=results

After this, India only won two further Tests in New Zealand. The first was in 1976 at Auckland. Later at Wellington the hitherto unknown Richard Hadlee ensured that his team squared the series 1-1. It is noteworthy that India’s win came when Gavaskar was standing in for captain Bedi, who captained in the rest of the series.

And in 2009, when Dhoni’s team won the series 1-0 after winning at Hamilton.

This year, the Tests are scheduled at Wellington and Christchurch. India had won at Wellington back in 1968, but have never won at Christchurch.

More recent name changes in Uttar Pradesh

Earlier we have dealt with the renaming of Allahabad Jn and nearby changes to reflect the old name of Prayagraj. There are a number of other name changes in UP over the last couple of years. Some are well known and others have been hardly mentioned in the media.

The most well known change was this:

As in the case of Allahabad/Prayagraj, there was a long gap between the announcement of the change and its actual implementation. So a number of photoshopped pictures appeared in the local media, like this:

As we know, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was found dead near this station in 1968. The circumstances of his death have never been satisfactorily explained, and may well become a never-ending mystery like the deaths of Subhash Chandra Bose and Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Other changes which attracted less attention:

Farah Town (between Mathura and Agra Cantt) became Deen Dayal Dham – as Panditji was born in that area.

Panki (near Kanpur) became Panki Dham:

Robertsganj became Sonebhadra (which is the name of the district):

Chanehti became Bareilly Cantt:

And someone will have to decide which of these is correct, as the staff at the station (as well as the local authorities) in Bareilly do not seem to be sure:

It was indeed named after a British railway manager named Charles Izat, though somehow it morphed into Izzat over the years. Interestingly, both names are seen on signs in the locality.

Return to Allahabad

Here you see the map of railways around Allahabad (with an inset on the left). This is from “The Great Indian Railway Atlas”, 2015 edition.

And some of the existing station signboards:

This one has already had its name changed:

The main station and a fake picture of it from a few months ago:

Other stations in the area:

Finally, there is a notification dated Feb 23, 2020 stating that these name changes will now take effect:

Allahabad Division of NC Rly now becomes Prayagraj Division.

So now you have it. Prayag Jn will apparently remain as it is.

Allahabad City station was locally referred to as Rambagh station as that is the locality. (similar to Nampalli for HYB and Kalupur for ADI).

Allahabad Fort is shown in the map. But it does not seem to have had scheduled passenger services.

Chheoki will be renamed for the second time within a few years. But it was a non-timetabled station for many years.

Meanwhile, Gurgaon station awaits renaming to Gurugram. (This had not happened even in mid-2022).

Good places for hanging around

Some may need an explanation:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/hindi-english/%E0%A4%AB%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%80-%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE

Next, we proceed to one of Guwahati’s main markets:

Those familiar with the city will point out that the market is near the jail, where hangings were carried out. The trading community must have thought that Fancy Bazar sounded better than Phansi, which would be bad for business. Hence the present name.

Then there is this small town near Siliguri. It is important enough to be marked on highway signs. Here is one sign which indicates its name:

It is unclear why this nondescript place was associated with hanging.

You can see the town here.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Phansidewa+734434,+Bangladesh/@26.5891217,88.35675,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x39e45b3050a20c8d:0xbd2dd4a74361baa1!8m2!3d26.5885778!4d88.3712796?hl=en

The nearby station was indeed named Phansidewa. By the early 1970s it was renamed:

It is on one of the main routes leading to North-East India.

However, there is another station in India where you can hang out:

This is the Hindi word for “noose”.

This is between Bhopal and Ujjain.

There are, of course, other places with morbid-sounding names. One of the better known ones is Tombstone, Arizona which was the site of many shootouts in the days of the Wild West:

Examples of the town’s history (with a lot of graveyard humour) can be seen in this tourist brochure:

Following the Gunsmoke Trail

Clean sweeps or whitewashes in ODI series

When New Zealand won all 3 ODIs in the series against India, there was much checking of old records to see when this had last happened.

Fortunately, this is one performance which appears in the records section of Cricinfo so one does not have to resort to Statsguru.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283240.html

From this we see:

The last such “whitewash” against India was by 4-0 in 2006-07 by South Africa.

Before that, by West Indies (5-0) in 1988-89

(More than a generation ago).

However, India has also done the same to

Sri Lanka (5-0) IN Sri Lanka in 2017, Zimbabwe (3-0) in 2016 and 20, both times in Zimbabwe. And several others before that.

Not to forget the triple clean sweep in Tests, ODIs and T20Is in Sri Lanka in 2017.

Then one can coin new terms such as brownwashes and blackwashes (though the latter should be applicable only when the West Indies does this).

For Test matches, see this:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283942.html

 

Review of NZ-India ODIs-2

Hope you have seen Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The Karnataka pair of Srinath and Kumble lead.

No one has more than one 5-for. Srinath and Southee have two 4-fors.

Southee (30) and Boult (24) have the most wickets amongst current players.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5wi):

SE Bond has the best figures of 6-19, during his relatively short career. No good individual performance in this series, although Boult had 5-21 in 2019.

Bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Southee is the only current player here, though close to the bottom.

Srinath and Hadlee have the best bowling averages.

Hadlee and Kapil have the best economy rates.

Srinath and Nehra (!) have the best strike rates.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

The forgotten NR Mongia has the most dismissals (36) and most stumpings (12).

However McCullum (25) has the most catches by a keeper, followed by Mongia and Dhoni with 24 each.

R Taylor (19) has the most catches by a fielder, followed by SP Fleming (18).

Most dismissals in innings (4 and above):

The record is 5 dismissals, while a number of fielders have taken 4 catches. The only such instance recently was KD Karthik’s 4 catches as a keeper in 2019.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.500):

NR Mongia leads again. Vengsarkar (!) has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

Overall all-round performance (see criterion in table):

While notable all-rounders such as Kapil, Hadlee and Vettori have played in these matches, the only one with a creditable record is the “bits-and-pieces” all-rounder CZ Harris.

All-round match performance (Min 40 runs and 4 innings):

Another surprise: the only such performance is the unheralded K Srikkanth, whose bowling ability seems to have been a well-kept secret. His 70 and 5-27 back in 1988-89 was probably India’s best all-round feat in ODIs against all countries at that time.

The Lumiere Brothers are back

First, see if this reminds you of their work:

It is said (but is probably not true) that the audiences of 1896 fled from the image of the oncoming train.

More recently, the old film has been converted to 4K with a lot of technical improvements:

https://www.indiewire.com/2020/02/lumiere-brothers-arrival-of-a-train-4k-update-1202208955/

The trains of Madras in 1958

Recently a Madras suburban timetable of the 1950s (probably 1958) surfaced on the IRFCA forum. This had a page showing the arrivals and departures of long-distance trains at Madras Central and Madras Egmore:

No Rajdhanis, Shatabdis or Durontos, although there are Janata Expresses. See how many of these trains have survived, often with new names.

Madras itself has become Chennai. Stations such as Waltair, Bezwada, Arkonam, Bangalore, Jalarpet, Bombay, Mangalore, Conjeevaram, Madura, Trivandrum and Tinnevelly have long been renamed, while no train has run to Dhanushkodi since December 1964. Vizagapatnam Town station also closed around the same time.

Let us not talk about the present name of Madras Central.

Note the Tuticorin Express which came to grief near Ariyalur in 1956.

(Thanks to S. Aravind for providing this piece of history).

Review of Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe Tests-2

Hope that you have read Part 1

Continuing with individual performances:

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and above):

A Flower has the most dismissals and catches by a keeper. Dickwella has the most stumpings and M Jayawardene the most catches by a non-keeper. Dickwella also has the most dismissals among current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

No good performances from the current series.

Most match dismissals (5 and above):

Dickwella had 5 dismissals in the current series. The long-forgotten WR James holds the records for innings as well as match dismissals.

All-round overall performance (see criteria in table):

Jayasuriya and Vaas have the best performances here. Nothing from recent years.

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

The only such performance was by Sikandar Raza in this series.