The most (20) is by PVD Chameera (20) followed by Simi Singh with 19-two relatively lesser-known players. The best for India is 9 by B Kumar.
Best innings bowling (including all 5wi):
The best innings bowling is 6-11 by S Lamichane followed by 5-10 by Simi Singh.
No one has taken more than one 5wi. Nepal’s S Lamichane has 3 of 4wi.
The best for India is 4-54 by MP Krishna.
There is not enough data to meaningfully study bowling averages, economy rates and strike rates.
Now for Fielding:
Most dismissals (9 or more):
The most is 17 by Ireland’s LJ Tucker, followed by RW Chakabva with 13. The most by a non-keeper is 9 by K Bhurtel (Nepal) followed by 8 by Liton Das.
Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):
The best is by England’s stand-in JA Simpson with 5. We also see that no non-keeper has taken more than 4 catches.
All-round performance in a match (40+ runs and 4+ wickets):
The best performances are by Simi Singh and JJ Smit. Another example of players from lesser-known sides thriving in the absence of players from major teams.
2021 had relatively fewer ODIs than in recent years. Covid cancellations played their part, and many teams gave priority to T20Is because of the World Cup late in the year. (But that will happen in 2022 as well). Anyway, we summarize whatever information is available for ODIs in the calendar year 2021.
Team performances:
Considering teams which have played at least 10 matches, the best W/L ratios are by Bangladesh and Oman followed by South Africa. Teams such as New Zealand, England, Australia and India played less than 10 matches.
Batting:
Most runs (250 and above):
As you may guess, the most runs were played by someone from a minor team: PR Stirling of Ireland with 706. Next is JN Malan of SA with 509. India has one representative here in S Dhawan (297).
The most centuries are 3 by PR Stirling, and 2 by 3 others.
The most 50+ scores are 5 by Stirling (again) and Tamim Iqbal.
Highest individual scores (100 and above):
The top scores (above 150) are 193 by Fakhar Zaman, 177* by JN Malan, 173* by JS Malhotra (USA) and 158 by Babar Azam. The best for India is 108 by KL Rahul.
There is not enough data (minimum 20 innings) for batting averages. However, we have something for Strike Rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, all instances):
JN Malan’s 90+ SR is considerably higher than the next (Stirling yet again).
To this list we can list SA’s newcomer Marco Jansen who is 2.06 M (6’9″), which would make him second to Mohammad Irfan (7’1″), who is the only Test player to top 7 feet.
While many of these tall men (almost exclusively fast bowlers, except the spinner Suleiman Benn) had long and successful careers, some did not (e.g. Mohammad Irfan, Boyd Rankin, Chris Tremlett). However, Irfan is still playing domestic cricket when he is almost 40:
This lists the shortest Test player as Kruger van Wyk (born in SA, played Tests for New Zealand). At 4’9″ (1.45 M), he is clearly the shortest Test player (and perhaps the shortest adult cricketer of standard). He played his 9 Tests as recently as 2012, but there was not much comment on his height at that time.
There are several short players among the all-time greats, such as Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Viswanath besides other fairly well-known players such as Kallicharan, Taibu and Mushfiqur Rahim.
This we have identified most of the tallest Test players (including one over 7 feet) and the shortest (5 ft and 4’9″).
Sometimes we get to see the very tall and the very short in the same match. At the time of writing we have Mushfiqur Rahim (1.60 M) playing against Kyle Jamieson (2.03) or Temba Bavuma (1.62) in the same team as Marco Jansen (2.06).
Note: There is no authentic list for these figures. Various websites may mention different names and heights.
We continue our study of the T20I performances in the calendar year 2021, counting only the matches between teams which had Test or ODI status in the past.
Bowling figures:
Most wickets (15 or more):
Newcomer Hasaranga de Silva and T Shamsi have the most wickets (36), followed by Mustafizur (28). No one from India has taken 15 or more wickets.
There are 5 instances of 5wi and 8 instances of 4+wi.
Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 5wi and more):
The lesser-known JN Frylinck has the best figures. Next is AC Agar, who is better known for his 98 at No 11 on Test debut.
Also note the startling figures of 4 for 2 by AU Rashid.
No one from India is in this list.
Bowlingaverages (minimum 500 balls bowled):
Only one bowler reaches this cutoff. Hasaranga has bowled a few overs less but has a better average of 11.63 (see the first table above).
Fielding figures:
Most dismissals (10 or more):
The most dismissals are 24 by M Rizwan and 21 by MS Wade. The most catches by a fielder is 17 by Babar Azam. However, the most stumpings are 5 by JS Buttler. Rizwan’s 24 dismissals include 22 as keeper and 2 as fielder.
The most catches by an Indian player are 11 by SA Yadav.
Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):
From the lesser teams. Erasmus’s 4 catches were as a fielder.
Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500)
Led by MS Wade, while Fakhar Zaman has the best by a fielder.
All-round match performance (30 runs and 3 wickets):
2 of the 4 performances are by Shakib Al Hasan, although MR Marsh’s performance is the best followed by Shakib’s against PNG. MR Marsh was also Man of the Match in the T20I Cup final with 77*
A review of team and individual performances in T20Is in the calendar year 2021.
As discussed here, for any meaningful comparison, we should not consider all T20Is but only those of a reasonable standard (i.e. those who have or had Test or ODI status in the past). These are:
Afghanistan
Australia
Bangladesh
Bermuda
Canada
England
Hong Kong (HK)
India
Ireland
Kenya
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand (NZ)
Oman
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Scotland
South Africa (SA)
Sri Lanka (SL)
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
United States of America (USA)
West Indies (WI)
Zimbabwe
We first look at the performance of teams:
Among the teams which have played at least 10 matches, Pakistan has the best W/L ratio followed by South Africa and England. Zimbabwe brings up the tail with Ireland just above it.
Now for individual performances, starting with Batting
Most runs (300 and above):
Note that Mohammad Rizwan has by far the most runs, with his team-mate Babar Azam in second place. No one has scored more than one century. Rizwan has the most 50+ scores (13), followed by Azam (10).
The most runs by an Indian player are 424 by RG Sharma, in the middle of the table above.
Highest innings (80 and above):
Led by Babar Azam (122). The best for India is 80* by V Kohli.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Inevitably headed by Rizwan, whose average is almost double that of the runner-up Azam. Nobody from India has played enough.
Highest strike rate (Minimum 250 balls faced, all instances):
Here WI’s E Lewis leads, followed by RG Sharma. No one else from India. The Pakistani pair of Rizwan and Azam are in the middle.
It is not difficult to get the usual T20I statistics from Statsguru.
The question is that whether matches between ALL the 60-odd T20I teams need to be considered for meaningful statistical comparisons. Especially when many of the teams have little cricketing tradition, and are not showing any worthwhile performances against the experienced teams.
T20I women’s matches have been even more one-sided, with numerous instances of single-digit totals such as 6 all out.
Is there a way in which we can extract meaningful statistics for “major” T20I matches from Statsguru? Yes.
Borrowing ideas from Playfair’s annual, whose statistics section only counts matches where one of the teams is a Test or ODI team:
I am considering only T20I matches where BOTH teams have played Tests and ODIs at some time. (This is important as there are several teams such as Canada, Bermuda and Kenya which earlier had ODI status, but now do not.)
After removing the multi-national teams such as ICC XI and Asia XI (and removing the defunct East African team), we get the following 24 teams which are considered for “useful” T20I statistics:
Afghanistan
Australia
Bangladesh
Bermuda
Canada
England
Hong Kong (HK)
India
Ireland
Kenya
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand (NZ)
Oman
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Scotland
South Africa (SA)
Sri Lanka (SL)
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
United States of America (USA)
West Indies (WI)
Zimbabwe
In the next post, I will give the summarized statistics for the “relevant” T20Is in the calendar year 2021. The last two matches were in the series between the USA and Ireland, which was drawn 1-1.
In the days BC (Before Covid), most people learned Alpha, Beta and Gamma besides Pi in school. These are the first 3 of the 24 Greek letters. Those who went on to study physical sciences or engineering (or even economics and finance) usually ended up making the acquaintance of more Greek letters (both upper case and lower case, so there are actually 24 * 2 = 48 characters).
Covid variants have now got up to the 15th letter (Omicron) after skipping the 14th (Xi. Guess why?)
Next are Pi and Rho.
But if there are more than 24 variants, what then? Should we start using the small letters? That gives 24 more. Or combine them-e.g. Delta-Omicron is already here. Or start something else-naming the variants after signs of the Zodiac such as Aries, Taurus etc.
While England’s chances of winning the current Ashes series look increasingly bleak, one of their players achieved a landmark in becoming the first to make 100 not-out innings in Tests. Who else but the Burnley Lara?
Here we see the list of those players who have made the most not-out innings in Tests:
(This does not include the Aus vs ICC XI Test of 2005, which makes a minor difference to the figures for some players such as Muraltharan and Kallis.)
Anderson is followed by CA Walsh (61) and several others in the 50s. The best for India is 47 by I Sharma
While Anderson has usually batted at No 11, he has an 81 and over 1200 runs. The first 6 in this list are tailenders, while the first regular batsman is S Chanderpaul followed by SR Waugh and AR Border with other tailenders intervening.
This is a true test of longevity for Anderson. And Lancashire players were known for their tenacity.
We now resume regular programming. Australia won at Brisbane, and England lost the first Test of an Ashes series. And “Goat” Lyon crossed 400 wickets. But it was the debutant wicket-keeper Alex Carey who wrote his name into the record books.
Here are the best innings fielding figures for those making their Test debut:
Carey was one of the few to make 5 dismissals in an innings on debut. Yajurvindra Singh is the only one to do so as a non-keeper. Also note Rishabh Pant’s 5 dismissals in an innings.
Now for match fielding figures on Test debut:
Here, Carey equaled the record of 8 dismissals in an match on debut, earlier held by HB Taber (Aus) and CMW Read (Eng). However, Carey is the only one with 8 catches, as the other two had 7 catches and 1 stumping.
Yajurvindra Singh also holds the record for the most catches (7) by a non-keeper on debut. Rishabh Pant is one of the keepers with 7 catches on debut.
Tests between these sides have invariably been one-sided, as you can see in this list below:
Pakistan has won 12 of these 13 Tests with one draw.
In Bangladesh, Pakistan leads 7-0 with 1 draw.
In Pakistan, Pakistan leads 5-0.
The one exception to heavy defeats was at Multan in 2003 where Bangladesh came within one wicket of defeating Pakistan. Inzamam (in his home town) was able to scrape through a 1-wicket win here.
We now look at individual scores, starting with Batting:
Most runs (minimum 400):
Azhar Ali has the highest total among current players, followed by Shakib Al Hasan.
The most centuries are 3 by M Hafeez and Younis Khan. The most 50+ scores are 7 by Habibul Bashar (who had only one century). Next are Taufeeq Umar and Shakib with 5 each.
Highest innings (minimum 100):
Abid Ali and Liton Das scored centuries in the just-concluded series.
Yasir Hameed scored centuries in both innings on his Test debut, but never made another century.
There is not enough data (minimum 20 innings) for calculating batting averages.
But we can find batting strike rates (for those with a minimum of 1000 balls faced).
Younis Khan leads 4 Pakistani players here.
Now for Bowling.
Most wickets (minimum 10 wickets):
Current player Taijul Islam (22) has the most for Bangladesh, although Danish Kaneria has the most with 34. Umar Gul also has 22. Newcomers Sajid Khan and SS Afridi are also here.
Best innings bowling (all 6wi and above):
Sajid Khan’s 8-42 is now the best in this series, surpassing Danish’s 7-77.
Taijul Islam now has the best innings figures for Bangladesh (7-116) surpassing Shakib’s 6-82.
Best match bowling (including all 8wm):
Here Sajid Khan’s 12-128 is second to Danish’s 12-94.
In this series, Taijul Islam had the best figures for Bangladesh (8-205).
Best bowling averages-not enough data as no one has bowled 2000 balls.
Fielding records:
Most dismissals (Minimum 8):
Rashid Latif has by far the most dismissals (26). Next is Khaled Mashud with 9.
Among fielders, Azhar Ali and Younis Khan have 8 each. Mahmudullah has 7.
Innings dismissals (Minimum 4):
Match dismissals (Minimum 5):
Rashid Latif again leads with 7 dismissals, while Shadab Kabir had 5 as a fielder.
All-round match performance (Minimum 50+ and 5-for):
Here we have the best performance by a Bangladesh player, with Shakib scoring 144 and taking 6-82).
General Bipin Rawat was India’s Chief of Defence Staff. He had flown from Delhi to the IAF base at Sulur in an Embraer 145 transport, like this one:
The IAF base at Sulur is east of Coimbatore, near this station:
This is quite distinct from Coimbatore’s civil airport, which is near Pilamedu station. But Sulur has served as Coimbatore’s civil airport on some occasions. Civilian airliners have also landed there by mistake, though without damage as the runway was long enough for them.
His destination was at the Army establishment here. He was to deliver a lecture at the Defence Services Staff College.
This journey was to be covered by an IAF Mil Mi-17V5 helicopter (No ZP5164)
like this:
Unfortunately, it crashed near the destination resulting in the deaths of all 14 abroad, including the General and his wife. One survivor died in hospital a week later.
The crash site given above (11.3325 N, 76.8078 E) appears to be southeast of the destination of Wellington helipad, and about 3.5 km on a bearing of 122 from Coonoor railway station.
From another source, the Twitter location of the crash site is 11.3396 N, 76.8103 E
Either way, it seems to be off the normal approach which is from the south-west to the Wellington helipad.
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