Dickwella and the elusive century

Updated to 30 Sep 2021

It is now common to reach various batting landmarks but miss out on making a century.

Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella now has a record 18 fifties without ever making a century.

Most fifties without a Test century:

The record had stood at 16 by Chetan Chauhan for 40 years.

And one can make 3000 runs without a century (though coming close with a 99):

Most runs without a Test century:

Dickwella is in second place to Shane Warne here. Chauhan is the only other one to cross 2000. Southee still has a chance to reach 2000.

If you look carefully, most of the players in the above list are wicket-keepers or all-rounders. Laird, Brearley and Chauhan are among the exceptions.

We can also look at the

Highest batting averages without a century.

Here we consider with a minimum of 20 innings batted.

Here, the leader is the lesser-known Pakistani batsman Asim Kamal (who made 99 on debut). Current players are TD Paine and N Dickwella (again).

Finally, we look at

Highest score 95-99:

Of these, Mitchell Starc and Dickwella may yet make a century. Other current players who have a chance include AC Agar (not a Test regular), Dilruwan (MDK) Perera and DT Tiripano.

Some scored 95-99 on debut but never made a century. They include:

MDK Perera (primarily a bowler).

VH Stollmeyer (96 in his only Test innings)

Abdul Kadir

AC Agar (At no 11). But not considered a Test regular now.

Asim Kamal (one of only 3 debutants with 99s). The other two were AG Chipperfield and RJ Christiani who also had short Test careers but did make a century apiece.

And finally:

The longest wait for a maiden century:

A Kumble (118th of 132 Tests)

C Vaas (97th of 111 Tests)

SM Pollock (51st of 107 Tests)

ADR Campbell (47th of 60 Tests)

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).

List of PresidentsDownload

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

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Toss result won the toss

Totals in terms of batting team

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Match results
Team	Result	Margin	Toss	Bat		Opposition	Ground	Start Date
Australia	won	inns & 88 runs	won	1st		v South Africa	Manchester	27 May 1912
South Africa	lost	10 wickets	won	1st		v Australia	Lord’s	15 Jul 1912
South Africa	draw	–	won	1st		v Australia	Nottingham	5 Aug 1912
Sri Lanka	lost	inns & 175 runs	won	1st		v Pakistan	Dhaka	12 Mar 1999
Pakistan	won	170 runs	won	1st		v West Indies	Sharjah	31 Jan 2002
West Indies	lost	244 runs	won	2nd		v Pakistan	Sharjah	7 Feb 2002
Australia	won	41 runs	won	1st		v Pakistan	Colombo (PSS)	3 Oct 2002
Pakistan	lost	inns & 198 runs	won	1st		v Australia	Sharjah	11 Oct 2002
Australia	won	inns & 20 runs	won	1st		v Pakistan	Sharjah	19 Oct 2002
Pakistan	lost	150 runs	won	2nd		v Australia	Lord’s	13 Jul 2010
Australia	lost	3 wickets	won	1st		v Pakistan	Leeds	21 Jul 2010
South Africa	draw	–	won	1st		v Pakistan	Dubai (DSC)	12 Nov 2010
Pakistan	draw	–	won	2nd		v South Africa	Abu Dhabi	20 Nov 2010
Pakistan	draw	–	won	2nd		v Sri Lanka	Abu Dhabi	18 Oct 2011
Sri Lanka	lost	9 wickets	won	1st		v Pakistan	Dubai (DSC)	26 Oct 2011
Sri Lanka	draw	–	won	1st		v Pakistan	Sharjah	3 Nov 2011
England	lost	10 wickets	won	1st		v Pakistan	Dubai (DSC)	17 Jan 2012
Pakistan	won	72 runs	won	1st		v England	Abu Dhabi	25 Jan 2012
Pakistan	won	71 runs	won	1st		v England	Dubai (DSC)	3 Feb 2012
South Africa	lost	7 wickets	won	1st		v Pakistan	Abu Dhabi	14 Oct 2013
Pakistan	lost	inns & 92 runs	won	1st		v South Africa	Dubai (DSC)	23 Oct 2013
Pakistan	draw	–	won	2nd		v Sri Lanka	Abu Dhabi	31 Dec 2013
Sri Lanka	won	9 wickets	won	2nd		v Pakistan	Dubai (DSC)	8 Jan 2014
Sri Lanka	lost	5 wickets	won	1st		v Pakistan	Sharjah	16 Jan 2014
Pakistan	won	221 runs	won	1st		v Australia	Dubai (DSC)	22 Oct 2014
Pakistan	won	356 runs	won	1st		v Australia	Abu Dhabi	30 Oct 2014
Pakistan	won	248 runs	won	1st		v New Zealand	Abu Dhabi	9 Nov 2014
New Zealand	draw	–	won	1st		v Pakistan	Dubai (DSC)	17 Nov 2014
Pakistan	lost	inns & 80 runs	won	1st		v New Zealand	Sharjah	26 Nov 2014
Pakistan	draw	–	won	1st		v England	Abu Dhabi	13 Oct 2015
Pakistan	won	178 runs	won	1st		v England	Dubai (DSC)	22 Oct 2015
Pakistan	won	127 runs	won	1st		v England	Sharjah	1 Nov 2015
Pakistan	won	56 runs	won	1st		v West Indies	Dubai (DSC)	13 Oct 2016
Pakistan	won	133 runs	won	1st		v West Indies	Abu Dhabi	21 Oct 2016
Pakistan	lost	5 wickets	won	1st		v West Indies	Sharjah	30 Oct 2016
Sri Lanka	won	21 runs	won	1st		v Pakistan	Abu Dhabi	28 Sep 2017
Sri Lanka	won	68 runs	won	1st		v Pakistan	Dubai (DSC)	6 Oct 2017
Pakistan	draw	–	won	1st		v Australia	Dubai (DSC)	7 Oct 2018
Pakistan	won	373 runs	won	1st		v Australia	Abu Dhabi	16 Oct 2018
New Zealand	won	4 runs	won	1st		v Pakistan	Abu Dhabi	16 Nov 2018
Pakistan	won	inns & 16 runs	won	1st		v New Zealand	Dubai (DSC)	24 Nov 2018
New Zealand	won	123 runs	won	1st		v Pakistan	Abu Dhabi	3 Dec 2018
Ireland	lost	7 wickets	won	1st		v Afghanistan	Dehradun	15 Mar 2019
West Indies	won	9 wickets	won	2nd		v Afghanistan	Lucknow	27 Nov 2019
Afghanistan	lost	10 wickets	won	1st		v Zimbabwe	Abu Dhabi	2 Mar 2021

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.