Indian-origin cricketers who played for New Zealand

It was interesting to see New Zealand saving a Test against India with the last-wicket pair being of Indian origin. While AY Patel was born in Bombay in 1988, R Ravindra was born in New Zealand in 1999. There are a few others with Indian-sounding names who were born in New Zealand.

Here we attempt to enumerate the members of 2 categories

1. Born in India (including pre-partition India):

FT Badcock (Abbottabad, 1897)-presumably British-7 Tests

AY Patel (Bombay, 1988)-10

N Puna (Surat, 1929)-3

JA Raval (Gujarat, 1988)-24

IS Sodhi (Ludhiana, 1992)-17

2. Indian-sounding name, not born in India:

DN Patel (Kenya, 1958)-37

JS Patel (New Zealand, 1980)-24

R Ravindra (New Zealand, 1999)-1

Those of Gujarati origin just outnumber the others. Badcock, Sodhi and Ravindra are the exceptions.

Among these players, it was Nairobi-born Dipak Patel who played the most Tests for New Zealand. He was a member of the 99 Club, and finished with 1200 runs and 75 wickets. Next are JA Raval and JS Patel who played 24 Tests each.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/dipak-patel-38118

One wicket from victory (Jan 2022)

Yet another Test which was saved by the last-wicket pair. This has happened more often than you might think. The last 2 instances were in the last few weeks.

Here is the complete list of these instances, ending with the Aus-Eng Test at Sydney (Jan 2022):

There are some interesting stories here, including cases where the batting side came close to winning (Eng vs WI in 1963 and Ind v WI in 2011).

The first such instance was by India in 1946, when the long-forgotten pair of Sohoni and Hindlekar put on 14 for the last wicket. More recently, Dhoni and Sreesanth put on 19 in 2007.

India have been thwarted by the last wicket thrice: by WI in 1978 and 2006, and by NZ in 2021. In 2011, India ended needing 1 run to win with 9 wickets down.

There have been only two such instances in Ashes Tests: Australia surviving at Manchester in 2005, and England doing the same at Sydney in 2022.

Shreyas Iyer’s debut

Shreyas Iyer was the third Indian player and 40th overall to make two 50+ scores on debut:

Earlier Dilawar Hussain (59 & 57 in 1934) and SM Gavaskar (65 and 67* in 1971) had achieved this.

From the above table, we can also see that Shreyas was the first Indian player and 16th overall to score a century and a fifty+ on debut. This 16 included the special cases of LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed who scored twin centuries on debut.

CG Greenidge (93 & 107 in 1974) and AN Cook (104 & 60* in 2006) did so against India.

Now we look at the most runs made in debut Test (this is not the same as the above chart, as some would not have made 50+ in both innings.

Here the cutoff is 160 runs.

Iyer made 105 + 65 =170.

This is the third highest for India (after S Dhawan’s 187 and RG Sharma’s 177) and 28th overall. J Neesham also made 170 on debut, but is ranked above Iyer as his performance was earlier.

Also note CG Greenidge’s 200 (93 and 107) J Neesham’s 170 (33 & 137*), MJ Clarke’s 168 (151+ 17), AN Cook’s 164 (60 & 104*), DL Houghton’s 162 (121 & 41*) and CH Lloyd’s 160 (82 & 78*) against India

Another curiosity is that of the forgotten BM Laird’s 167 runs, which is the highest match total on debut by someone who did not score a century. Next are CH Lloyd and Fakhar Zaman both with 160.

And finally:

New Zealand was set to score 284 in the 4th innings to win this Test.

Guess what the highest winning chase at this venue was?

This doesn’t mean much as the Green Park has had many drawn matches, and is probably the most batting-friendly pitch among India’s older Test centres

Stumped by a substitute-a rare occurrence.

This is rarer than you might imagine. It is not listed in Statsguru or any of the common reference books on cricket oddities. It has happened only three times in Tests, the third instance being in the ongoing Test between India and New Zealand at Kanpur.

A full list of instances in first-class cricket is given here:

https://stats.acscricket.com/Records/First_Class/Overall/Batting/Stumped_by_a_Substitute.html

The instances in Tests are:

1. SJ Snooke (SA) st (sub) NC Tufnell (Eng) b G Thompson, SA v Eng, Durban, 1909-10
2. Pervez Sajjad (Pak) st (sub) BE Congdon (NZ) b BW Sinclair, Pak v NZ, Lahore, 1964-65 and now
3. TWM Latham (NZ) st (sub) KS Bharat (Ind) b AY Patel, Ind v NZ, Kanpur, 2021-22.

More notes on these occurrences:

The first instance: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-south-africa-1909-10-61690/south-africa-vs-england-2nd-test-62502/full-scorecard

SA’s captain SJ “Tip” Snooke was dismissed by substitute NC Tufnell for 53 in their second innings.

Simla-born Tufnell had not played in Tests yet. He played his only Test later in the series. His only dismissal was a stumping.

The second instance: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/new-zealand-tour-of-pakistan-1964-65-62109/pakistan-vs-new-zealand-2nd-test-62975/full-scorecard

Pervez Sajjad was dismissed for 16 in the second innings.

The substitute BE Congdon had played 6 Tests earlier. He played a total of 61 Tests (including 17 as captain).

And finally:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/new-zealand-in-india-2021-22-1278658/india-vs-new-zealand-1st-test-1278674/live-cricket-score

TWM Latham was dismissed for 95 in the first innings.

KS Bharat had not played Tests earlier. Besides the stumping, he also took 2 catches as a substitute.

He played in Tests later.

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See Steve Lynch’s comments in his column on 30 Nov 2021:

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Note:

These are the only 3 cases in Tests when the wicket-keeper was not a member of the playing XI.

There are numerous other instances where members of the playing XI acted as wicket-keepers when the nominated keeper became unfit. There are as many as 54 instances when these substitute keepers took catches. And 16 instances where they took stumpings:

Interestingly, the only two Indian players here are Manjrekar senior and junior.

Pakistan’s Mohammad Wasim appears twice.

Centuries in the third innings of Tests

Hope you have seen the previous post: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/11/24/centuries-in-the-second-innings-of-tests/

We now look at the third innings:

The most centuries in the third innings is 13 by AN Cook. He reached this record in his last Test in 2018.

Next are Sangakkara (12), followed by Tendulkar, Kallis and Hayden with 10.

Current players : the highest is 7 by Warner, followed by Root and Azhar Ali with 5.

Indian players: the highest is 10 by Tendulkar, followed by Gavaskar (7) and M Amarnath (6).

Those who loved the third innings:

R Subba Row (Eng) made all 3 of his centuries in the 3rd innings.

ADR Campbell (Zim), GC White (SA) and JDB Robertson (Eng) each made their only 2 centuries in the 3rd innings.

Those who hated the third innings:

SC Ganguly (Ind) made 16 centuries, but none in the 3rd innings.

Next are M Vijay (Ind) (12), AG Prince (SA) and TW Graveney (Eng) with 11

Centuries on debut by Indian players (Updated in Nov 2021)

With Shreyas Iyer scoring 105 on his Test debut, here is the list of Indian players who have achieved this:

We see that Iyer is the 16th to achieve this for India.

The others who scored a century on debut (that match being against New Zealand), are AG Kripal Singh (100*) in 1955 and S Amarnath (124) in 1976.

We also look at Indian players who scored a 50+ on debut, that match being against New Zealand:

The number is less than one would think. And Iyer has the second highest score here, after Amarnath’s 124. And that is the only one IN New Zealand.

Centuries in the second innings of Tests

Hope you have seen the previous post:

Centuries in the first innings of Tests

We now look at centuries in the second innings:

It is clear that the most centuries here are by Tendulkar (18), followed by M Jayawardene and Dravid (15) and then by Kallis, Ponting and Kohli (14).

Other Indian players with 10+ centuries are Gavaskar and Sehwag (12)

Current players with 10+ centuries are Kohli (14), Root and Williamson (10).

Those who loved the second innings:

MJ Horne (NZ) and RT Simpson (Eng) made all their 4 centuries in the second innings.

Next are 3 by BA Edgar (NZ), Qasim Umar (Pak) and RJ Burns (Eng).

Also 5 out of 6 by NCL O’Neill (Aus).

Those who hated the second innings:

BA Stokes (Eng) made 10 centuries but none in the second innings.

Next are SP Fleming (NZ), G Gambhir (Ind) and KJ Hughes (Aus) with 9.

To be continued.

Centuries in the first innings of Tests

Here we see the table of those who scored the most centuries in the first innings:

Ponting (21) is followed by Kallis and Tendulkar with 20. Next are the two Steves, Smith and Waugh with 17. From India, others with 10+ centuries are Dravid (15), Gavaskar (11), Pujara (10) and Sehwag (10).

Current players with 10+ centuries are SPD Smith (17) and Pujara (10).

Those who loved the first innings:

JM Bairstow (Eng) made all his 6 centuries in the first innings.

AF Rae (WI) and Wasim Raja (Pak) made all 4 of their centuries in the first innings.

Also note SP Fleming (NZ) who made 8 of his 9 centuries in the first innings. And KC Wessels (Aus/SA) made 5 of his 6 centuries in the first innings.

Those who hated the first innings:

Taufeeq Umar (Pak) made 7 centuries but none in the first innings.

WW Armstrong (Aus) similarly had 6 centuries, and MG Burgess (NZ) had 5.

To be continued.

Where is Toba Tek Singh?

Many of us have heard of the short story of this name, written by Saadat Hasan Manto. If you need to refresh your memory, you can read it here:

https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/toba-tek-singh

The fact is that Toba Tek Singh was not a joke (as some may think) and is now a district town in Pakistani Punjab. It was part of Faisalabad (ex-Lyallpur) district earlier.

It is, indeed, named after a Sikh who lived there long ago and is still remembered.

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

It is on the Shorkot Cantt-Faisalabad section, not on the main line. But this route has trains connecting with Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Here, we see railfans exploring this station and its surroundings. (Urdu with English subtitles):

Those who scored the most Test centuries

The Test season gets under way with Sri Lanka hosting the West Indies at Galle from Nov 21. There are also series between India/New Zealand and Bangladesh/Pakistan coming up, not to forget the Ashes starting in December.

Here we look at a summary of the centuries made by the highest century-makers, with a breakup across innings:

Note that this does not include the ICC XI vs Aus Test in 2005, which means that ML Hayden’s century in that Test is not counted.

As we will see, a closer look at the centuries in the different innings reveal some odd facts. From the sample above we can see that Steve Waugh and Steve Smith have the most centuries without ever making one in the fourth innings. And can you guess which current player has the distinction of making all his 6 centuries in the first innings? More to come in the next few days.

Fun and games with official languages in India

Let us first be clear about the official languages in different states of India.

Refer to the first two tables in this article:

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

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

Our first stop is in Punjab, where Punjabi is the official language. Signboards in railway stations are expected to be in English, Hindi as well as the state’s official language if it is not English or Hindi.

We see that “Chhavni” is the word for “Cantonment” in Hindi and Punjabi, although some places use Cantt in these languages.

Now to Uttarakhand, where the official languages are Hindi and Sanskrit. Earlier Urdu was an official language when UK was part of UP. See the old and new signs here:

(Old)

(New). Note the addition and subtraction of languages.

In UP, the official languages are Hindi and Urdu (but not Sanskrit). Now see some newly painted signs:

This is the old sign for Manduadih, a suburb of Varanasi. Recently it was renamed:

Note that both Sanskrit and Urdu are here.

The main station in Varanasi is:

They haven’t thought of adding Sanskrit here. Surely this station is more deserving than Manduadih, which most people outside this area have never heard of.

One more example of old and new:

Old

New. It is not to be confused with the existing Ayodhya:

Here is another city in UP:

Now, what will strike you is that “Chhavni” is the standard word for “Cantonment” in Hindi-speaking states and neighboring states.

Why does the Hindi inscription at Ayodhya Cantt have “Cantt” and the Sanskrit inscription “Chhavni”? Isn’t there any suitable word in Sanskrit?

Finally we visit a few more stations elsewhere in India:

In Southern India, Hindi script could have Chhavni or Cantonment.

And in Bengal and Bangladesh, “Cantonment” is used in Hindi as well as Bengali:

The last one is Chattogram Cantonment.

Stop trying to look for consistency in languages used and in nomenclature. There isn’t any.

See Bangladesh’s trains from India

There are at least two places where one can watch Bangladeshi internal train services from India,

The best-known place is Hili, which features in a number of Youtube videos.

See this:

Hili revisited-1

For more about Hili and its trains, you can see this: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/10/17/hili-revisited-2/

On the other side of Bangladesh, there is Quasba station:

The location can be seen here:

https://www.google.co.in/maps/@23.7430799,91.159405,15z

The peculiar border at Hili station came about because the Radcliffe Commission wanted to preserve the integrity of the main north-south BG line in East Pakistan.

At Quasba, it is a different story. The old Assam Bengal Railway did not wish that their lines entered the princely state of Tripura, so their main line going south to Chattogram ran within a few hundred metres of the border. The station was earlier known as Kamalasagar, a small town in Tripura. Its name was changed soon after it became part of East Pakistan.

One common attraction for Indian visitors to Agartala was to look into Bangladesh and see trains running through Quasba, which is a few hundred metres from the Indian border. In recent years this area has become a “soft border” where people from both countries can interact in a buffer zone. This seems to have benefited local businesses,

In these videos you can observe trains running in Bangladesh. All long distance trains from Chattogram to other parts of Bangladesh have to pass this way.

Here you can see Bangladeshi trains running near Quasba, viewed from a building in Kamalasagar area. All trains from Chattogram to Dhaka and Sylhet sides have to pass this way.