Part-time wicket keepers in Tests

Here we take up the cases where someone was not the nominated keeper in a Test, took over when the nominated keeper was unfit or unavailable and took one or more catch or stumping while doing so.

Catches as keeper while not nominated keeper:

These are all the 38 players who took at least 1 catch in their careers.

The number of Tests here are those when they were not nominated keepers. Some, notably de Villiers and Bairstow in recent years, have been nominated keepers in some Tests. These are not included in the above table.

Stumpings while not nominated keeper:

Similarly, these are the 15 players who have taken at least 1 stumping in their career as a non-keeper.

These lists overlap. It is better to consolidate them into a single list.

Consolidated list of players who have taken at least one catch as keeper and/or one stumping in Tests where they were not nominated keepers:

Among these 43 players, AB de Villiers has the most catches and most dismissals (12 each) followed by KC Sangakarra and TWM Latham (7 each).

The most stumpings are 2 by Tillakaratne, M Wasim and Christiani.

This also lists the total number of dismissals (as a fielder) in these Tests. The highest is 133 by de Villiers followed by 96 by Collingwood with a few others in the 90s.

Although it is not mentioned here, de Villiers played another 24 Tests as nominated keeper and took a further 89 catches and 5 stumpings there. Similarly, Collingwood never played any Test as a nominated keeper, so his career total of catches is 96 as shown above. Sangakkara played a further 48 Tests as nominated keeper and took 124 catches and 20 stumpings, to give him a total of 202 dismissals.

From the first two tables above, we can see that the most dismissals in a match by these keepers is 5 by Imrul Kayes, followed by 4 for several others. The case of Majid Khan’s 4 catches is particularly interesting, and deserves a separate post.

But this is not the end of the story. There are also players who were not in the playing eleven and substituted for the wicketkeeper. Details of their performance are hard to find. However, stumpings by a substitute are rare and are covered here:

Stumped by a substitute-a rare occurrence.

India’s far north

Those familiar with the Indian Railways would know that the northern-most station is Sopore (lat 34.26 N). It is just ahead of the terminus at Baramula (34.22).

It is uncertain if any further railway lines in this area will be built in the next few years. One plan included a connection to Kupwara (34.53) which should be the northern-most station in India if the line is built.

Meanwhile, the northern-most station which is connected to the rest of IR’s network is SMVD Katra at 32.98

The title of the northern-most junction is a tie between Pathankot and Bharoli which are at 32.27. This is a tie when latitudes are measured to 2 decimal places.

The northern-most airport with regular commercial flights is Leh (34.14) which is just ahead of Srinagar (33.99)

The northern-most airport with regular military transport flights is Daulat Beg Oldi (35.39) It is said to be 8 km south of the border with China. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daulat_Beg_Oldi

There may be helicopter landing grounds in the Siachen Glacier at still higher latitudes.

The best catchers in Tests

Here we look at the Test players with the highest dismissal rates, subject to a minimum of 20 innings fielded. These are correct as of Aug 31, 2020 and do not include the ICC XI Test of 2005.

Naturally, this will be headed by wicket-keepers who invariably get more catches than other fielders. But you would not have guessed that the highest average is by Rishabh Pant, who is generally not considered to be India’s best keeper at the moment.

The #2 is also not what you would expect. While Tim Paine did a good job as stopgap captain of Australia, you would not expect him to be so high up.

At #3 there is another current player in Quintun de Kock, who is likely to be SA’s next Test captain.

Going further down, we see NZ’s BJ Watling with 241 dismissals including 231 catches as a keeper, 10 catches as a keeper and 8 stumpings. But there is no non-keeper in the above list which goes down to a dismissal rate of 1.500.

Going still further down, the highest dismissal rate by a non-keeper is 1.060 by India’s ED Solkar (53 catches at 1.060). He is just ahead of AB de Villiers at 1.046, with 121 as a fielder and 106 as a keeper.

More notes on wicket-keeping and fielding in Tests

There are several prominent keepers like Gilchrist, Dhoni and Knott who played all their Tests as keepers. Others took on keeping duties for one or more Tests when the regular keeper was unavailable. And some took over the keeping duties in the middle of a Test and took catches as well as stumped batsmen.

Statsguru does list “catches as keeper” and “catches as fielder” in separate columns, so we can identify catches taken by short-term keepers. There are even a few cases of substitute fielders going on the field to keep wickets and accounting for catches and stumpings. These were in the earlier days.

Here we look at the cases of those who took at least 10 catches as a keeper and 10 as non-keeper.

There are numerous “multitaskers” from recent years, such as Watling (239 dismissals as keeper and 10 as a fielder). Others are ABD (106 and 121), Bairstow (186 and 11), Buttler (86 and 23) and Chandimal (72 and 15). We can see that ABD is the only one whose dismissals in both categories are roughly the same.

Now we look at those who played at least 5 Tests as keepers and 5 Tests as non-keepers:

From recent years there are Watling, de Villiers, Bairstow, Mushfiqur, Buttler, Chandimal, Wade, KD Karthik, Liton and Kusal Perera.

Karthik is the only Indian player here. Oddly enough, the only players from before 2000 are CL Walcott and WB Philips.

All-round records-Batting and fielding-2

Continued from here:

abn397.wordpress.com/2020/11/12/all-round-records-batting-and-fielding-1/

Looking at career figures (minimum 2000 runs and 100 dismissals):

These figures are correct up to 31 Aug 2020, and do not include the ICC XI Test in 2005.

The current players can be seen at the bottom, from Mushfiqur Rahim downwards.

It may be more meaningful to segregate the figures of dismissals for 1) designated wicket-keepers and 2) not designated wicket-keepers

Designated wicket-keepers: 2000 runs and 100 dismissals:

The most runs here are by Boucher (5498) and Gilchrist (5475), with several in the 4000s. The most dismissals are by Boucher (553) and Gilchrist (409). From India, we have Kirmani and Dhoni.

Not designated wicket-keepers: 2000 runs and 100 dismissals:

The most runs here are by Ponting (13278), Dravid (13265) and Kallis (13206) with several others above 10000. The most dismissals are by Dravid (209) and M Jayawardene (205).

From India we have Gavaskar, Azharuddin, Tendulkar, Dravid, and Laxman.

Also note those with over 100 wickets: Sobers, Botham, Hooper, Warne and Kallis. #3 and #4 would usually not be considered great all-rounders.

Next, we will look more closely at those who played sometimes as designated wicket-keepers and sometimes not.

All-round records-batting and fielding-1

When all-round records are tabulated in statistical articles, they invariably refer to feats of batting and bowling.

Here we look at feats of batting and fielding in the same match.

First, for wicket-keepers:

Century and 5 dismissals in an innings:

This did not occur in Tests until 1966. The best match performance would appear to be by de Villiers with a century and 11 dismissals in a match. Also consider Lindsay and Prior.

Watling appears here 3 times (twice in Wellington) along with Prior and Bairstow (twice each).

India has been on the receiving end twice: SAR Silva in 1985 and BJ Watling in 2014.

For non-keepers:

Century and 4 dismissals in an innings:

Bowling efforts have also been added where relevant.

We can see that Kallis’s feat in 2012 is clearly the best here, as he is the only double centurion here. Next would be Woolley.

Weekes did this against India in 1953, and was followed by fellow West Indian Viv Richards in 1989. Rahane did this for India against Sri Lanka in the course of the 3-0 sweep in Sri Lanka in 2017.

Next, we will look at career all-round performance for batting and fielding.

(To be continued)

Notes from the US elections of 2020

If you have not heard of the Curse of Tippecanoe, you can look it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Tippecanoe

More details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEqokw0gQLc&ab_channel=Mr.Beat

Also Joe Biden (born 20/11/1942) will be the oldest President (78+) at the time of his inauguration on 20/01/2021. The previous record was 70+ by Donald Trump when he was sworn in on 20/01/2017. Ronald Reagan was 73+ when he was sworn in for the second time on 20/01/1985.

Joe Biden was born before 4 of his predecessors (Clinton, Bush (Jr), Obama and Trump.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter continues his run as the longest-lived President. He crossed 97 on Oct 1, 2021

Joe Biden becomes the second Catholic President after JFK (1961-63).

He emulated Richard Nixon and George Bush (Sr) by being elected Vice-President twice and then becoming President.

He may be the first incoming President to have a railway station named after him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_station_(Delaware)

Along with POTUS and VPOTUS, there are normally FLOTUS and SLOTUS: the First Lady and Second Lady. For the first time there will be a First Gentleman. Douglas Emhoff becomes the first Jewish person to be either President, Vice-president or spouse of either.

Looking more closely as the outgoing and incoming FLOTUSs:

Melania Trump has some claims to fame: “In March 2001 she became a permanent resident of the U.S. She married the businessman, real estate developer and television personality Donald Trump in January 2005, gave birth to their son Barron in March 2006, and obtained U.S. citizenship in July 2006. After Louisa Adams, she is the second First Lady to have been born outside the country (not counting those born in U.S. territory before the country existed), the first one to be a naturalized citizen and the first whose native language is not English.”

As for her successor-she is the first First Lady with Italian ancestry and the first with a PhD. This is the second marriage for both her and her husband.

While there have been several Presidents named John (hence Jack), she is the first Jill among First Ladies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Biden

Pakistan-Zimbabwe ODIs: a quick look

The ODI series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe was won 2-0 by Pakistan with one tie. While the series appears as 2-0 in the general records, Zimbabwe’s win in the Super Over made it 2-1 for the purpose of the ICC World Cup Super League which will be the main input for qualification for the 2023 World Cup. See this: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/_/id/19882/season/2020/icc-men’s-cricket-world-cup-super-league

These teams have played 62 ODIs. Pakistan have won 54, Zimbabwe 4, with 2 ties and 2 no-results.

In Pakistan, the contrast is even starker: Matches 22, Pakistan 19, Zimbabwe 1, 1 tie (2020) and 1 no-result.

Zimbabwe’s only win in Pakistan was in 1998: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15876/scorecard/64596/pakistan-vs-zimbabwe-2nd-odi-zimbabwe-tour-of-pakistan-1998-99

Zimbabwe also won the Test series in that tour.

Other ODI records for matches between these teams:

Most runs: 1033 by Mohammad Yousuf, 906 by GW Flower

Most wickets: 35 by HH Streak, 34 by Shahid Afridi

Most dismissals: 26 by Rashid Latif, 25 by A Flower and Moin Khan.

Analyzing Test captaincies – 6

Finally we look at captains with the most wins, most losses and most draws.

Most wins (14 and more):

Here, and in the rest of the post, we will see that the toppers will generally be those who captained in the most Tests. GC Smith with 53 wins had captained in the most Tests (108). RT Ponting is next with 47 wins.

Among current players, V Kohli has the most wins (33). That is also the most by an Indian captain.

Most losses (12 and more):

Unsurprisingly, it is also headed by GC Smith with 28 losses. Next is SP Fleming with 27.

Among current captains, JO Holder has the most losses (19). For India, MAK Pataudi leads with 19.

Most draws (12 and more):

For a change, this is headed by another captain AR Border with 39 draws (including 1 tie). Next is SM Gavaskar with 30. He was well known for his defensive captaincy. Like Border, he had a weak Test team most of the time. GC Smith is third with 27.

Among recent captains, AN Cook leads with 13 draws.

Cricket nicknames

Many prominent cricketers have well-known nicknames-as you can see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nicknames_used_in_cricket

The origins of these names are varied. Sometimes they are common nicknames such as Jack for John or Harry for Henry. Sometimes they are decided by the player’s family, as in the case of Nanik Amarnath Bharadwaj becoming Lala Amarnath and Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad becoming Vinoo Mankad.

Australia has more than its share of nicknames with odd origins. A very quiet Ashley Mallett became “Rowdy”, while Adam Gilchrist became Gilchurch because a young boy thought that was his name.

Lillee was Fot, because Tony Lock once said “Dennis, stop bowling like a flippin’ old tart!”

Some of the names occurred as a consequence of the long train journeys involved in earlier years. At the start of his domestic career, young Bill Lawry was sent by his seniors to pick up suitable literature from the station bookstall. He had to hurry, and grabbed whatever he could. When he got back, he was told, “Bill, all that you got was a bunch of bloody Phantom comics!”

Rod Marsh’s name came when the train was passing this suburb of Melbourne, when they saw a sign like this:

Moreover, Bacchus the god of wine is depicted in paintings like this:

Some saw a resemblance, so the name stuck.