High scores on Test debut by Sri Lankan players

Pathum Nissanka became the fourth Sri Lankan player to score a century on debut.

Here is a list of all Sri Lankan players to have scored a 50 or more on Test debut.

Note that several members of the current Sri Lankan team are in this list. Chandimal and Kusal (MDKJ) Perera had scored two fifties on debut, along with Hasuranga (PWH) de Silva, Karunaratne, Dickwella and Dilruwan (MDK) Perera.

ODI debuts for and against India

ODI debuts by Indian players were highlighted in the first match, both in batting and bowling.

ODI debuts by India (minimum 40 runs):

KL Rahul is the only player from India to score a century on ODI debut. Before that, RV Uthappa’s record of 86 stood for several years.

This table also gives the strike rate for the innings. Indeed, the highest rate is 187 by KH Pandya, far ahead of the previous record of 127 by Azharuddin back in 1984-85.

This list includes several who served India well, and others who vanished quickly. For instance, Khurasiya scored 57 on debut and played in only a few ODIs after that.

Now we look at those who scored 40 or more on their ODI debut which was against India:

The highest is 90 by SP Fleming, who also scored 90+ on his Test debut. Some other famous names here include Wade, du Plessis, RB Richardson and YJ Bairstow. Others such as CS Cowdrey and Moxon did not last long.

Now we look at ODI debuts by Indian players, with a minimum of 3 wickets in an innings:

We see that MP Krishna’s 4-54 is the best by an Indian player on ODI debut, surpassing the long-forgotten NA David’s 3-21 in 1997.

David’s 2.62 is also the best economy rate here, followed by ST Banerjee’s 3.00. The worst is 6.66 by C Sharma, just ahead of Krishna’s 6.61.

Prominent names here include Pandya junior, DR Doshi and even BS Chandrasekhar.

Finally, we look at those who took 3wi on their Test debut which was against India.

The best here is 5-28 by BD’s Taskin Ahmed, just ahead of AA Donald’s 5-29. Donald and maybe Henry and Styris are the only others who lasted long enough.

The best economy rates are 2.50 by FA Rose and 3.16 by SA Thomson. The worst is 6.30 by SB Styris.

A closer look at Line 1 of the Kolkata Metro

First, you can look at the planned Metro network in Kolkata:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata_Metro#/media/File:Kolkata_Metro_map.svg

At this time Line 1 is fully completed and a relatively small part of Line 2 has been opened.

Also see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata_Metro_Line_1

The proposed link from Baranagar to Line 4 is not under construction yet.

Here we can see the full list of stations on Line 1 in both directions. This includes the station codes as well as inter-station distances. Different sources may give slightly different distances.

Notes from the White House-birthplaces

The US Presidency has run in an unbroken chain since 1789. Here we look at the birthplaces of all the US Presidents from Washington to Biden.

This may be useful for the state codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_and_territory_abbreviations

Note that states joined the US at different times. After the original 13 states, the newcomers joined steadily and the last 5 to join were OK (1907), NM and AZ (1912), AK and HI (1959).

Some notes:

Biden was the second President (after Buchanan) to be born in PA state. Buchanan is generally considered to be one of the worst Presidents.

If Trump had suddenly ceased to be President, Mike Pence would have been the first President to be born in Indiana state.

If this eventuality occurs now, Kamala Harris will be the second President born in California and the first from Northern California (Oakland). The only other President born in California is Richard Nixon, in Yorba Linda near Los Angeles.

There are several large states where no President has been born.

By population, these would include Florida (#3), Michigan (10), New Jersey (11), Washington (13) and Arizona (14). At the other end of the scale, #50 (Wyoming) and #48 (Alaska) have had no representatives, although Vermont (#49) does have Calvin Coolidge.

In many cases, a person may have largely grown up in a state which is not the state of his/her birth. This is more likely to happen in the US than India and most European countries.

Afghanistan-the first 5 Tests

Afghanistan has now played 6 Tests, neatly divided into 3 losses and 3 wins.

Here we compare the performances in the first 5 Tests for all teams (except Ireland who have played only 3 Tests).

(1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw)

We see that Australia and England have the best performance in their first 5 Tests, followed by Afghanistan, New Zealand and Pakistan.

Australia is the only team to win their first Test, and Zimbabwe the only one to draw their first Test. Zimbabwe in fact drew their first 2 Tests.

Bangladesh and South Africa lost their first 5 Tests in a row.

We now look at individual performances by Afghan players in the 6 Tests played so far.

Most runs (100 and more):

Note the consistency of Asghar Afghan and Rahmat Shah who each made four 50+ scores.

Highest scores (75 and above):

While H Shahidi has the only double century here, others have been more consistent.

Bowling (5 or more wickets overall):

Rashid Khan has more than twice the next (Amir Hamza)

Innings bowling (4 or more wickets):

Note the dominance of Rashid Khan here. He and Amir Hamza are the only ones to have taken 4wi. Hamza’s 5-74 against WI was on debut.

Match bowling (5 or more wickets):

The top three places are by Rashid Khan, and the next two by Amir Hamza. He took 6-79 on debut.

Most dismissals (4 or more):

While wicketkeeper A Zazai has 10 dismissals, I Zadran has the most (6) by a non-keeper.

All-round overall:

Rashid Khan is the only one who can be called an all-rounder.

All-round match (fifty and 5wi):

Here, too, the only standout performer is Rashid Khan. He was captaining his side, and scored a fifty and took over 10 wickets. The only other Test captains who did this are Imran Khan (v Ind 1982-83) and AR Border (v WI 1988-89).


Neutral Tests up to 2021

India will play New Zealand in the finals of the World Test Championship. This will be India’s first neutral Test, while Bangladesh is the only other team not to have played a neutral test so far.

Here is a summary of the 45 neutral Tests so far. It is long story, starting in the year of the Titanic.

Batting | Bowling | Fielding | All-round | Partnership | Team | Umpire and referee | Aggregate/overall

View match results [change view]
Home or away neutral venue 
Toss result won the toss 
Totals in terms of batting team 
Ordered by start date (ascending)
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Match results
TeamResultMarginTossBatOppositionGroundStart Date
Australiawoninns & 88 runswon1stSouth AfricaManchester27 May 1912investigate this query
South Africalost10 wicketswon1stAustraliaLord’s15 Jul 1912investigate this query
South Africadrawwon1stAustraliaNottingham5 Aug 1912investigate this query
Sri Lankalostinns & 175 runswon1stPakistanDhaka12 Mar 1999investigate this query
Pakistanwon170 runswon1stWest IndiesSharjah31 Jan 2002investigate this query
West Indieslost244 runswon2ndPakistanSharjah7 Feb 2002investigate this query
Australiawon41 runswon1stPakistanColombo (PSS)3 Oct 2002investigate this query
Pakistanlostinns & 198 runswon1stAustraliaSharjah11 Oct 2002investigate this query
Australiawoninns & 20 runswon1stPakistanSharjah19 Oct 2002investigate this query
Pakistanlost150 runswon2ndAustraliaLord’s13 Jul 2010investigate this query
Australialost3 wicketswon1stPakistanLeeds21 Jul 2010investigate this query
South Africadrawwon1stPakistanDubai (DSC)12 Nov 2010investigate this query
Pakistandrawwon2ndSouth AfricaAbu Dhabi20 Nov 2010investigate this query
Pakistandrawwon2ndSri LankaAbu Dhabi18 Oct 2011investigate this query
Sri Lankalost9 wicketswon1stPakistanDubai (DSC)26 Oct 2011investigate this query
Sri Lankadrawwon1stPakistanSharjah3 Nov 2011investigate this query
Englandlost10 wicketswon1stPakistanDubai (DSC)17 Jan 2012investigate this query
Pakistanwon72 runswon1stEnglandAbu Dhabi25 Jan 2012investigate this query
Pakistanwon71 runswon1stEnglandDubai (DSC)3 Feb 2012investigate this query
South Africalost7 wicketswon1stPakistanAbu Dhabi14 Oct 2013investigate this query
Pakistanlostinns & 92 runswon1stSouth AfricaDubai (DSC)23 Oct 2013investigate this query
Pakistandrawwon2ndSri LankaAbu Dhabi31 Dec 2013investigate this query
Sri Lankawon9 wicketswon2ndPakistanDubai (DSC)8 Jan 2014investigate this query
Sri Lankalost5 wicketswon1stPakistanSharjah16 Jan 2014investigate this query
Pakistanwon221 runswon1stAustraliaDubai (DSC)22 Oct 2014investigate this query
Pakistanwon356 runswon1stAustraliaAbu Dhabi30 Oct 2014investigate this query
Pakistanwon248 runswon1stNew ZealandAbu Dhabi9 Nov 2014investigate this query
New Zealanddrawwon1stPakistanDubai (DSC)17 Nov 2014investigate this query
Pakistanlostinns & 80 runswon1stNew ZealandSharjah26 Nov 2014investigate this query
Pakistandrawwon1stEnglandAbu Dhabi13 Oct 2015investigate this query
Pakistanwon178 runswon1stEnglandDubai (DSC)22 Oct 2015investigate this query
Pakistanwon127 runswon1stEnglandSharjah1 Nov 2015investigate this query
Pakistanwon56 runswon1stWest IndiesDubai (DSC)13 Oct 2016investigate this query
Pakistanwon133 runswon1stWest IndiesAbu Dhabi21 Oct 2016investigate this query
Pakistanlost5 wicketswon1stWest IndiesSharjah30 Oct 2016investigate this query
Sri Lankawon21 runswon1stPakistanAbu Dhabi28 Sep 2017investigate this query
Sri Lankawon68 runswon1stPakistanDubai (DSC)6 Oct 2017investigate this query
Pakistandrawwon1stAustraliaDubai (DSC)7 Oct 2018investigate this query
Pakistanwon373 runswon1stAustraliaAbu Dhabi16 Oct 2018investigate this query
New Zealandwon4 runswon1stPakistanAbu Dhabi16 Nov 2018investigate this query
Pakistanwoninns & 16 runswon1stNew ZealandDubai (DSC)24 Nov 2018investigate this query
New Zealandwon123 runswon1stPakistanAbu Dhabi3 Dec 2018investigate this query
Irelandlost7 wicketswon1stAfghanistanDehradun15 Mar 2019investigate this query
West Indieswon9 wicketswon2ndAfghanistanLucknow27 Nov 2019investigate this query
Afghanistanlost10 wicketswon1stZimbabweAbu Dhabi2 Mar 2021investigate this query

More snippets from the 3rd Test at Ahmedabad:

England’s lowest Test total against India:

You can see that England’s 81 is their lowest total against India. The previous record was 101 in 1971 where Chandrashekhar took 6-38 to set up India’s first Test win in England.

And their previous lowest total in India was 102 in 1981-82, when Kapil and Madan Lal took fivers in the 4th innings.

Most economical 5-for by a spinner in a Test innings: Root’s 5-8 is in second place after Australia’s Ironmonger if you take the criteria of the least runs conceded in a 5-for:

Only Ironmonger’s 5-6 in 1931-32 has less runs conceded.

Let us also look at the same figure for all captains (regardless of bowling styles):

Here, Root’s innings bowling is second to AER Gilligan’s 6-7. But Gilligan was clearly a medium pacer. The previous record by a captain who was a spin bowler was 5-27 by BS Bedi v NZ in 1976-77. Next is Mushtaq Mohammad with 5-28.

And finally, the Devil makes a comeback here with a score of 66/6:

Though England has also faced 666/6 against India not long ago at Chennai in 2016-17, in KK Nair’s match.

History and statistics of day/night Tests-2

Hope you have read the first part: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/02/27/history-and-statistics-of-day-night-tests/

We continue with Bowling records.

Most wickets-10 and above:

Note Ashwin and Axar Patel, the latter with only one Test.

Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 6wi and above):

AR Patel is here along with I Sharma.

Best match bowling (includes all cases of 8wm and above):

AR Patel now has the best match bowling figures, surpassing the 10-62 of PJ Cummins.

Best bowling average (Min 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Cummins heads this list. Yasir Shah is the only non-Australian here.

Cummins also has the best economy rate, while Starc has the best strike rate.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals-(8 and above):

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

Australians dominate as expected. Note that Kusal Mendis has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most match dismissals (5 and above):

de Villiers leads here. Note 5 catches by non-fielders BKG Mendis and SPD Smith.

Dismissal rate (Min 10 innings, all cases):

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria below):

Starc and Holder have the best records. Would they be the true masters of pink-ball cricket?

Match performances (Min 50 and 5wi):

Holder again!

AND FINALLY:

Lowest team innings (under 100 runs all out):

No prizes for guessing which team has the lowest score.

Highest team innings (300 and above):

Many tall scores here (notably Pakistan’s 450 in the 4th innings). India needed only 300-odd to win against Bangladesh, and less than 150 more recently.