History and statistics of day/night Tests-1

The pink-ball Test at Ahmedabad was the 16th such match. We take a look at their history, starting with a list of matches:

None of the 16 matches were drawn. Two (SA-Zim and Ind-Eng) finished in 2 days.

There are two “neutral” Tests, Pak v WI and Pak v SL at Dubai.

Of the remaining 14 Tests, 13 were won by the hosts. The only exception was Sri Lanka’s win at Bridgetown.

A summary of team performances:

Australia leads with an 8-0 margin, while India and Sri Lanka are next with 2-1 each.

Now for individual performances, starting with batting.

Most runs-175 and above:

Warner leads by a large margin, Labuschagne and Asad Shafiq have each scored 2 centuries. The same pair and SPD Smith have the most 50+ scores-four.

Highest innings scores-90 and above:

Led by triple centuries by Warner and Azhar Ali and a double by Cook. Kohli has the only century for India.

Batting averages (minimum 10 innings, all instances):

Warner and Smith here, with Starc almost a regular batsman.

Batting strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, all instances):

Warner leads again, followed by Asad Shafiq and Labuschagne.

To be continued

The shortest Tests

Today’s hot topic!

Contrary to popular belief, Tests finishing in 2 days are not so uncommon. Here is the complete list:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283076.html

There are 22 such instances including 7 since 2000. The last two have been won by India.

The Test at Ahmedabad is not the first such instance in a day-night match, as South Africa has already won one against Zimbabwe in 2017.

It may be more instructive to look at finished tests with the least number of balls.

The full record is here: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/215456.html

The five shortest finished Tests are therefore:

656 balls: Aus v SA at Melbourne in 1932: Aus won by an innings and 72 runs:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-tour-of-australia-1931-32-61828/australia-vs-south-africa-5th-test-62602/full-scorecard

672 balls: WI v Eng at Bridgetown in 1935: Eng won by 4 wickets:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-west-indies-1934-35-61755/west-indies-vs-england-1st-test-62624/full-scorecard

788 balls: Eng v Aus at Manchester in 1888: England won by an innings and 21 runs

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/australia-tour-of-england-1888-61333/england-vs-australia-3rd-test-62425/full-scorecard

792 balls: Eng v Aus at Lord’s in 1888: Australia won by 61 runs

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/australia-tour-of-england-1888-61333/england-vs-australia-1st-test-62423/full-scorecard

(Note that these two instances were from the same series)

796 balls: SA v Eng at Cape Town in 1889: England won by an innings and 202 runs

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-south-africa-1888-89-61689/south-africa-vs-england-2nd-test-62427/full-scorecard

And the just-concluded Test at Ahmedabad is 7th on the list with 842 balls between India and England in 2021: India won by 10 wickets.

The “double” of a fifty+ and 10wm in the same Test.

Hope you have read the related piece https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/the-double-of-a-century-and-5wi-in-the-same-test/

We now look at the converse: a fifty-plus and ten wickets in an innings in the same match.

This is a little rarer than the earlier case. It has occurred 30 times, compared to 33 times for the earlier case.

Multibaggers are rarer here. We have 3 instances by Sir Richard Hadlee and 2 by Shakib Al Hasan. That’s all. Botham is here, but only for one instance. Ashwin, Sobers and Mushtaq are not here. But there are others such as Bevan and Border who would not usually be considered to be all-rounders.

The most recent instance was by Stuart Broad during one of the Covid Tests of 2020.

Earlier we saw that Bruce Taylor was the only one to score a century and take 5wi on debut. That was against India in 1965.

There is only instance of someone scoring a 50+ and taking 10 wickets on debut. This was John Lever for England v India in 1976. What is even stranger is that India’s S Venkataraghavan appeared in both of these Tests.

Among current and recent players there are MM Ali, SCJ Broad, RA Jadeja, Dilruwan Perera, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan and DW Steyn. The only other player from India is Kapil Dev (who never made a century and 5wi together).

Also note AK Davidson, who scored 44 and 80 and took 11 wickets in the tied Test in 1960. He was the first to score over 100 runs and 10 wickets in a match. He had this record to himself until Botham scored a century and took 13 wickets against India in early 1980. Imran Khan and Shakib later followed with a century and 10 wickets in 1983 (against India, who else?) and 2014 (against Zimbabwe).

Meanwhile in Karnataka…..

You have heard of these changes:

Apart from that you had this change for Gulbarga (which is on the Central zone, not on the South Western):

And in these on the Southern zone:

Things went beyond these lists:

and finally

A lot of quiz questions could be generated.

The “double” of a century and 5wi in the same Test.

This has been achieved 33 times, although some players have done it more than once. This will be apparent from this table:

From this we can identify the “multibaggers” as

IT Botham 5 times (1978, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984)

R Ashwin 3 times (2011, 2016, 2021)

JH Kallis 2 times (1999, 2002)

Mushtaq Mohammad 2 times (1973, 1977)

Shakib Al Hasan 2 times (2011, 2014)

GS Sobers 2 times (1962, 1966).

We can also see that Botham (1980), Imran (1983) and Shakib (2014) went a step further by scoring a century and taking 10 wickets in the match.

BR Taylor (1965) was the only one to score a century and take 5wi on his Test debut. This was his first first-class century.

Notes from the 2nd India-England Test

First, a left-over stat from the 1st Test.

Here we see that JE Root’s 218 was the highest innings score for England in India, surpassing the 207 by MW Gatting in 1984-85 which was also at Madras.

Now for the second Test. We look at India’s highest victories by runs against all teams:

We can see that India’s win by 317 runs in the 2nd Test is their highest winning margin by runs against England. The previous record was by 279 runs at Leeds in 1986. In India it was by 246 runs at Visakhapatnam in 2016-17.

This margin of 317 runs is India’s 5th highest victory against all countries.

We also look at India’s highest defeats by runs against all teams:

In the first Test, England won by 227 runs against India. This is quite far down this list, but was England’s highest victory by runs against India in India. It surpassed the 212-run victory at Mumbai in 2005-06.

Debut innings figures by Indian bowlers:

AR Patel’s 5-60 is 7th on the list, but the 2nd best by a left-arm spinner.(after DR Doshi).

We also look at debut match figures by Indian bowlers:

AR Patel’s 7-100 is again 7th on this list and the second best by a left-arm spinner after DR Doshi.

Best match bowling figures by an Indian player who scored a century in the same Test:

Ashwin has the first 3 of the 5 positions here. His 8-96 is in 2nd place.

Axar (AR) Patel has figured in these columns before:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/axar-patels-feat-4-wickets-for-none-3/

Review of Pakistan-South Africa Test series-2

Hope you have seen Part 1:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/review-of-pakistan-south-africa-test-series/

Continuing with individual performances in bowling:

Most wickets (20 and more):

Steyn is far ahead of the others. Rabada is the only current player here.

Best innings bowling (6wi and above):

Nothing from the current series. Oddly, KJ Abbott played only two Tests.

Nauman Ali took 5-35 (on Test debut) in the first Test. This is now the best for P v SA in Pakistan, surpassing the 5-46 by D Kaneria in 2003-04.

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

Note Hasan Ali from the current series. His 10-114 is now the best for P v SA in Pakistan, surpassing the 8-210 by Abdur Rehman in 2007-08.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Pollock and Steyn lead here, with Kaneria having the best average among Pakistani players.

Kaneria and Pollock have the best economy rates.

Steyn and Pollock have the best strike rates.

Fielding: Most dismissals (10 and above):

Boucher has by far the best figures here. The best by non-keepers are 23 by GC Smith and 21 by Younis Khan.

de Kock and Elgar represent the current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

The best by a non-keeper is 4 by Taufeeq Umar.

Most match dismissals (6 and above):

de Villiers has 11 dismissals which is a share in the world record. No instance from the current series. The best by a non-keeper is 6 by Taufeeq Umar.

Best dismissal ratio (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500 and above):

Headed by Boucher and de Villiers. The best by non-keepers are by Younis Khan and GC Smith.

All-round performance (see conditions in table):

Only Pollock and Kallis qualify here.

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

Only the lesser known PS de Villiers and Pollock.

Review of Pakistan-South Africa Test series-1

After this series was won 2-0 by Pakistan, this is the summary of the 28 Tests played between these teams:

This is only the second time Pakistan has won a Test series against South Africa. The previous occasion was in 2003-04, where the captains were Md Yousuf (win) and Inzamam (draw) vs Graeme Smith.

And Pakistan lost 3-0 when they last toured SA in 2018-19. Sarfraraz Ahmed was then the captain.

Babar Azam’s Test captaincy started with two wins.

The overall record:

Next we look at individual records.

Most runs (500 and above):

Azhar Ali is the only current player here.

The most centuries are 6 by Kallis and 4 each by de Villiers, Smith and Younis Khan. And the most 50+ scores are 14 by Kallis and 12 by Amla.

Highest individual scores (125 and above):

de Villiers has the best performance here. No one from the current series.

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

As in the earlier table, de Villiers leads by a distance. Azhar Ali is the only current player.

Highest strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Similarly, led by de Villiers with Azhar Ali the only current player.

To be continued.

Lord Mayers of Chattogram

The West Indies has had many levels of aristocracy, such as Baron Constantine and Sir Frank Worrell. And the calypso men such as Lord Kitchener, Lord Beginner and Lord Relator.

So the tabloids in Barbados may well refer to Kyle Mayers as Lord Mayers of Chattogram.

(They might also be interested in what their heroine Rihanna says about India 🙂 )

Also his partner Nkrumah Bonner whose parents must have named him after the Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/348056.html

https://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/314650.html

Both of them have been prominent in domestic cricket for a while, but would probably not been on this tour if not for Covid.

Here are some of the records set during the chase of 395:

Most runs on debut (innings scores):

5th position here among the 6 who scored 200+

Most runs in a match on debut:

4th among the 12 who have made 200 in their debut match. Yasir Hameed did not score a century after making two on debut. Others such as Foster, Umar Akmal and Kuruppu did not last long, and Rowe somewhat under-performed though he played Tests up to 1980. He did make 302 against England in 1974.

Most runs in 4th innings on debut:

Mayers does top this list, surpassing India’s AA Baig who had provided a small silver lining to the 5-0 sweep in 1959. None of the other debutants except Yasir Hameed figured in successful chases.

Highest partnerships in successful chases (not only for debutants):

6th in this all-time list. No other instance where both were debutants. Gilchrist was playing his 2nd Test.

Most runs in unbeaten innings in successful run chase:

Here too Mayers is far ahead of the rest. No one else scored a century under these conditions. Next in line is a recent player Bancroft who was part of the Smith-Warner axis and probably will not play again.

This list also includes Lloyd, Lewis and Gimblett against India, besides Gavaskar for India against the West Indies. Maybe in some cases they hit the winning runs, but we need to check accounts of the match or commentary transcripts if available. It can be seen that Mayers did hit the winning run (a single).

Finally, we look at the cases of unbeaten 100+ scores in successful run chases (all instances, not only debutants):

Here Mayers is second only to Greenidge. India has Tendulkar and VVS near the bottom. There are also Haynes, Richards and Mark Taylor against India. But the next highest debutant after Mayers is Bancroft, as described above.

Tail piece: The WI captain Kraigg Brathwaite recorded his first win. His first 5 Tests as captain were losses.

de Kock’s misfortune

This refers to the 2nd Test between Pakistan and South Africa at Rawalpindi, which was played on 4-8 Feb 2021.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-in-pakistan-2020-21-1242968/pakistan-vs-south-africa-2nd-test-1243018/full-scorecard

Needing 370 to win, SA made a reasonably good start. Things started going wrong when Markram was dismissed at 241/4. Captain Quinton de Kock came in, and was promptly dismissed first ball by Hasan Ali, becoming one of this bowler’s five victims in the innings and ten in the match.

It must be particularly mortifying for a captain to be dismissed first ball in the 4th innings of a difficult chase. Let us see how many times it has happened.

While the number of balls in an innings have not always been recorded before 2000, we presume that most golden ducks have been recorded.

Golden duck by captain in 4th innings:

This includes all cases (win, loss, tie, draw).

23 such cases ending with Q de Kock. Many prominent captains appear here, such as Sobers, Greg Chappell (twice), Atherton, Ganguly, Inzamam and more recently Kohli and Root.

What if the team won in the chase despite the captain getting a golden duck? See this list:

That was a very short list of two. And they were relatively less prominent captains.

Now see when teams have tied or drawn in the chase when the captain got a golden duck:

5 such instances. The one involving Sobers was not in the second Test which India won, but the 5th one which India came close to winning (thanks partly to Gavaskar’s 124 and 220).

And finally, cases when teams have lost in the chase when the captain got a golden duck:

16 such cases, ending with de Kock. He is in distinguished company, along with his contemporaries Kohli and Root.

Washington Sundar’s good start

At the time of writing, the 1st Test between India and England at Chennai has ended in defeat for the home side. Washington Sundar’s Test batting record is now 62 and 22 followed by 85* and 0, thus making two fifties in his first two Tests.

Not such a big deal, is it? 15 Indian players have made a century on Test debut (although a significant proportion of them never made another century). There are 44 instances of Indian players making at least one fifty on their debut, such as Sundar.

We now look at cases where they scored at least two scores of fifty-plus in their first two Tests. There are only 14 such instances. Let us look more closely at them.

1. Dilawar Hussain (1933-34): 59, 57; 13, 36. He and Gavaskar are the only Indian players to make two 50+ scores on Test debut.

2. DG Phadkar (1947-48): 51, 2; 55*, 13

3. AG Kripal Singh (1955-56): 100*; 63

4. SM Gavaskar (1970-71): 65, 67*; 116, 64* No less than four 50+ scores in his first two Tests. He and Dilawar are the only Indian players to score two fifties on Test debut.

5. J Arun Lal (1982-83): 63,1; 51

6. M Azharuddin (1984-85): 110; 48, 105

7. R Dravid (1996): 95; 84, 8

8. SC Ganguly (1996): 131; 136, 48 These two played their debut and second Tests together.

9. DJ Gandhi (1999-2000): 0, 75; 88, 31*

10. SK Raina (2010): 120; 62, 41*

12. RG Sharma (2013-14): 177; 111* Centuries in his first two innings, but not in the same Test.

12. PP Shaw (2018-19): 134; 70, 33*

13. MA Agarwal (2018-19): 76, 42; 77

14. W Sundar (2020-21): 62, 22; 85*,0

Some, like Dilawar, Arun Lal and Gandhi never scored a Test century.

Of these, only Gavaskar made four 50+ scores in his first two Tests. This is probably a world Test record. No one else from India made three 50+ scores in his first two Tests.

The importance of February 6

On February 6, 1952 King George VI died in London. His daughter Elizabeth, who was than on an official visit to Kenya ascended the throne (though the coronation took place over a year later). 69 years later, she is still going strong….

In 2021, Queen Elizabeth will turn 95, Prince Philip will turn 100 and their marriage will complete 74 years. They were married a few months after India’s independence.

Closer home, Feb 6, 1952 was the first day of the 5th Test between India and England at Madras. England led 1-0 at that point.

In those days there used to be a rest day after 3 days of play. However Feb 7 was made the rest day instead because of the King’s demise. The English players wore black armbands.

On Feb 10th (the 4th day of play) India won by an innings and 8 runs. This was India’s first Test victory and they drew the series 1-1. This was the only Test when England was captained by DB Carr, while Vijay Hazare was India’s captain.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-india-1951-52-61800/india-vs-england-5th-test-62729/full-scorecard

On February 6, 2021 another Test between India and England will be in progress at Chennai.

Important people born on Feb 6:

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890)

Ronald Reagan (1911)

Eva Braun Hitler (1912)

Fred Trueman (1931)

Bob Marley (1945)

S Sreesanth (1983)

Important people who died on Feb 6:

Motilal Nehru (1931)

King George VI (1952)

Ritwik Ghatak (1976)

James Hadley Chase (1985)

Arthur Ashe (1993)

besides several football players of Manchester United in a plane crash at Munich airport in 1958.