Review of WI-Pakistan Test series.

After this Test series was drawn 1-1:

A total of 54 Tests have been played between these countries. Pakistan lead 21-18 with 15 draws.

In the West Indies: Of 28 Tests, WI lead Pakistan 13-8 with 7 draws.

In Pakistan: Of 21 Tests, Pakistan lead 9-4 with 8 draws.

In neutral venues: Of 5 Tests, Pakistan lead 4-1 with 0 draws.

Babar Azam has captained Pakistan in 6 Tests, with 5 wins and 1 loss.

Most runs: 1214 by Mohammad Yousuf. From recent players, 951 by Azhar Ali.

Highest innings: 365* by Gary Sobers in 1957-58. In recent years 302* by Azhar Ali in 2016-2017

Highest batting average: 57.43 by Wasim Raja. From recent players, 50.05 by Azhar Ali.

Most wickets: 80 by Imran Khan. From recent players, 46 by Yasir Shah.

Best innings bowling: 8-29 by Colin Croft in 1976-77

In recent years 8-49 by D Bishoo in 2016-17

Best match bowling: 12-100 by Fazal Mahmood in 1958-59

In recent years 10-94 by SS Afridi in 2021.

Best bowling average: 19.56 by Colin Croft

Best economy rate: 2.05 by Lance Gibbs

Best strike rate: 39.6 by Waqar Younis

Most dismissals: 29 by Franz Alexander

Most by non-keeper: 23 by Vivian Richards and Younis Khan.

Highest dismissal rate 0.821 by Younis Khan.

(No regular keeper had played the cutoff of 20 innings fielded)

Match all-round performance: 121 & 56, 5-28 & 3-69 by Mushtaq Mohammad in 1976-77.

Kohli and the ducks

Kohli’s golden duck in the first Test is attracting attention. Let us look at the long relationship of Indian captains and ducks.

First, the summary of all ducks scored by Indian Test captains:

These are arranged in order of ducks scored in the entire career as captain. (See the last column).

Did you notice that Kohli has crept ahead of Dhoni’s record of captaining India in 58 Tests?

Kohli, Dhoni and Pataudi have the most ducks. While Ganguly, Azharuddin and Gavaskar captained in more Tests than Pataudi, they had considerably less ducks.

Pankaj Roy is one who scored a duck in his only Test as captain.

NJ Contractor played the most Tests (12) without ever making a duck.

Vizianagaram oddly enough did not make a duck in 3 Tests although his batting average was only 3.50

Now for golden ducks:

Kohli has the most (3) while a few others have 2.

Now for silver ducks (out 2nd ball):

Kohli has 2 along with Pataudi and Bedi, while Dhoni has 3. Bedi in fact had a pair of silver ducks, which one may call a “queen pair” to match the king pair for one who is out first ball in each innings. That was during John Lever’s unique debut (50 +10wm).

Finally, bronze (brazen?) ducks (out 3rd ball):

Dhoni has 2, while Pankaj Roy had one in his only Test as captain.

Lowest T20I totals by major teams

Today (Aug 9) Australia reached a new low in T20Is by being dismissed for 62 by Bangladesh, who had won the series 4-1.

T20I statistics have now become quite meaningless with the advent of a large number of weak teams. This listing includes only matches between Test teams (and totals with 8 or more wickets down):

You can see that this 62 is Australia’s lowest T20I score. India is slightly better with 74 (though that was long ago).

India at the Olympics-over the years

At the 2021 Olympics, India won a total of 7 medals (1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze).

There are different ways of ranking countries at a particular Olympics.

In the traditional way, first the # of Golds are taken, followed by the # of Silvers and finally the # of Bronzes.

That way, India is 48th. A total of 93 countries won at least one medal. India is between Romania and Venezuela (both #46) and Hong Kong (China) at #49. This puts India around the median of the countries which won at least one medal.

If you take the number of medals, India is at #33 along with Iran, Belgium, Belarus, Austria and Azerbaijan.

The final table is here:

https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/all-sports/medal-standings.htm

Looking at India’s performance over the years (starting in 1900, then from 1920 onwards):

Ranked in the traditional manner:

Ranked by the number of medals:

While 2021 is the best by either criteria, the rankings from #2 downward are different.

While the two silvers in 1900 are recorded in the IOC official record, some in India feel that they should not be.

Read more about this here:

Who was Norman Pritchard?

India in the 4th innings in England

India is set to make 209 to win the first Test at Nottingham. Rain is also likely to affect play on the 5th day, although they have already made 52/1

First we look at all of India’s performances in the 4th innings in England (50 and above):

India did chase 73 to win in 2007, which enabled India to win the series.

Their only higher winning totals are 136/5 (Lord’s, 1986) and 174/6 (Oval, 1971).

That 174/6 gave India its first victory in England, and still remains their best successful chase in England.

We also look at all winning 4th-innings scores by visiting teams in England above 50:

Some famous victories here, such as Australia’s win against a declaration at Leeds in 1948.

At Nottingham, the highest winning scores by visitors are:

209/8 by WI in 1980 (This was the only result of the 5-Test series).

158/3 by Aus in 2001

132/6 by Aus in 1981

115/1 by WI in 1991

103/0 by WI in 1950 (The year of Ramadhin and Valentine).

98/2 by Aus in 1948

77/2 by NZ in 1986

73/3 by Ind in 2007 (The only result of the series).

It is significant that India will have to equal the existing record of 209 at Nottingham if they are to win. The only positive note is that they are already almost a quarter of the way there with only one wicket down.

UPDATE: Rain prevented any play on the 5th day. The match was drawn.

Stations which span different states…or countries

There are a few stations in India which span different states.

This one came to light recently. Dilwa is on the Gurpa-Gujandih ghat section near Gaya on the Delhi-Kolkata route.

It is nominally in Jharkhand, as mentioned here: https://indiarailinfo.com/station/map/dilwa-dlw/2738

However, you will see this on the platform:

Credits to Debapriya Chakraborty for this discovery.

A couple of other such stations are better known:

Navapur, nominally in Maharashtra on the Surat-Bhusaval section:

https://indiarailinfo.com/station/map/navapur-nwu/211

However, part of this station lies in Gujarat:

Not sure whether these markings are accurate.

One can make jokes about this bench being partly in a dry zone, enabling alcohol to be consumed only on one side.

Another one which has been round for a long time is Bhawani Mandi, nominally in Rajasthan:

https://indiarailinfo.com/station/map/bhawani-mandi-bwm/886

But you will see these signs:

Then there is Hili station in Bangladesh. The boundary commission decided that the railway line itself was to be the border between India and East Pakistan. This becomes apparent here:

Looking from the Indian side. The wall and the rail line are in Bangladesh.

Also see this picture taken from a Bangladeshi train:

Note the cows grazing just within Bangladeshi territory marked by the stone. Clearly they have no problem in crossing the border. Hope they know which side is safer for them.

Elsewhere in Bangladesh, Quasba station is just across the Indian border. It used to be called Kamalasagar, after the town in India. Radcliffe cannot be blamed here as this was the existing border between Tripura and Bengal.

More weird things happened in the partition of Berlin which became more stringent after the Berlin Wall came up in 1961. While a number of roads and railways were blocked by barriers, there were special cases like Wollank Strasse station on the S-Bahn (which was largely on the surface, unlike the U-Bahn which was largely underground):

This station actually lay in East Berlin. But this platform opened out to a street in West Berlin.

Trains ran through from one side of West Berlin to another, and passengers could board or get down here.

However, no train stopped on the other track-as the Berlin Wall was right next to it. And the East Berliners in the buildings on the right could see the West Berliners going about their lives at this station and beyond.

Bornholmer Strasse, which featured in various novels and films set in the Cold War, is adjacent to this station:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Bornholmer_Stra%C3%9Fe_station