The 2-Test series was drawn 1-1. This is the overall summary:
Pakistan leads 21-17 overall. They also lead 9-8 for matches in Sri Lanka as well as 9-6 in Pakistan. However they are tied at 3-3 for matches in neutral countries.
We look at individual performances, starting with
Batting:
Most runs (750 or more):
The most centuries are 10 by Sangakkara, followed by 8 by Aravinda and Younis Khan.
The most 50+ scores are 22 by Sangakkara, followed by 14 by Younis Khan.
Sangakkara has the most runs, followed by Younis Khan by some distance.
Mathews and Azhar Ali have the most runs among current players.
Highest innings (150 or more):
Matches between these teams have generally been high-scoring, with a triple century by Younis Khan and 250+ by Jayasuriya follwed by several other double centuries. The highest score in this series was 160* by A Shafique (that too in a 4th-innings chase).
Sangakkara’s average of 74+ is considerably more than the next (Inzamam with 59+). Mathews and Karunaratne have the highest averages among current players.
Unexpectedly, the highest strike rate was 70+ by Sarfaraz Ahmed followed by Dilshan at 63+. Babar Azam and Karunaratne have the best figures among current players.
India won 3-0 in the West Indies, their first clean sweep in an ODI series against WI in WI.
Earlier in 2022 India had also won 3-0 against the West Indies at home, which was their first clean sweep in an ODI series against WI.
Long ago, West Indies had won 5-0 against India in India in 1983-84, which may be considered as revenge for the 1983 World Cup final. They had also won 5-0 against India in the West Indies in 1988-89.
Here we review performances between these teams in all ODIs.
Summary:
India now leads 70-63 overall, and trails 19-20 for matches in the West Indies. India leads 32-28 for matches in India and 19-15 for matches in neutral venues.
Individual records:
Batting:
Most runs (750 and above):
Led by Kohli and RG Sharma, who did not play in this series.
Dhawan (1012) and Hope (877) have the most runs among those who played in this series.
The most centuries are 9 by Kohli, followed by Gayle and Tendulkar with 4.
The most 50+ scores are 20 by Kohli, followed by 15 each by RG Sharma and Tendulkar.
Highest individual scores (115 and above):
Sehwag has the top score of 219. In this series the highest was 115 by SD Hope.
Highest batting average (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):
Kohli leads here with 66.50.
SD Hope (46.15) and Dhawan (34.89) have the highest averages among those who played in this series.
Headed by Sehwag (102.57). Second is SS Iyer (99.60) who played in this series, with Viv Richards (99.50) in third place. Further down there is S Dhawan (86.86) who also played in this series.
There are many mysteries about this locomotive. Is it really an HPS? Where did it come from? If it came from East Pakistan, how did it come?
Presuming that it was owned by the Pakistan Eastern Railway (the name used from 1961 to around 1972), the most logical answer to this is that it was operating a scheduled passenger service between East Pakistan and Calcutta (Sealdah). The normal practice is that the locomotive would be changed either at the last station in Pakistan or the first station in India. That is being followed even in 2022.
These services were abruptly stopped during the 1965 war. At some point during this war, this locomotive probably happened to enter India on its way to Gede or Bangaon or Petrapol and was “captured” by India. There was no land war in the east in 1965, although there were air attacks by both sides.
No scheduled passenger services ran between India and East Pakistan/Bangladesh until 2008. It is known that goods services had started some years before that. And military trains ran between India and East Pakistan/Bangladesh during and after the 1971 war.
There may be various other ways in which the locomotive came to be in India, but I am not going into them. It is just possible that it was brought into India in 1971-72 as some kind of “war trophy” as some Pakistani tanks were. But it was not displayed in public until recent years.
We now pick up the story in 1985, when a British railfan took this picture in 1985 at Bandel:
You can just make out the number 32 on the cab.
A few years ago this loco made its way to the Howrah Railway Museum. This is what you will see now:
Numerous other pictures can be found on the net. It has been painted in a nice shade of green. The tender is that of a different type of locomotive (but this is not so significant as there were many mismatched locos and tenders over the years).
What is significant is the inscription. It is clearly made by someone from the Howrah museum who thought it should be like this.
The questions are:
Bangla was one of the official languages of Pakistan from around 1954 to 1972 or a bit later. Pakistani postage stamps and other government documents did have Bangla as well as Urdu during this period. Station signs in East Pakistan then had inscriptions in both languages, as you can see in these pictures from the 1971 war:
But why would anything operating in East Pakistan at that time have Urdu and not Bangla?
Here is a rather bad picture of a PER coach:
One can just make out the Bangla inscription “Purbo Pakistan Railway”, followed by PE (the official abbreviation) followed by an Urdu inscription. (Perhaps some reader will be able to say what is written in Urdu).
A typical Pakistani stamp issued in 1971 or earlier, overprinted with Bangladesh:
Now come back to the present-day picture.
It says “East Pakistan Railway” but nothing of that name existed in the past. As mentioned above, it should be “Pakistan Eastern Railway” or PE. Wagons and coaches were also marked PE.
The Urdu inscription has been checked by a couple of friends who know the language. It reads “Purvi Pakistan Railway”. That is not Urdu (as the first word would correctly have been something like “Mashriqi”). In fact, the Urdu inscription seems to be transliteration from Hindi “Purvi” rather than Bangla “Purba”. Please correct me if this is wrong.
Conclusion: It is interesting to speculate on various questions:
If it is not an HPS, why was this marked as one?
The records show that HPS 32 was listed under the PER. (p 38 of Hughes, Vol 1 (1990), also p.82 of Hughes, Vol 4 (1996)). However, the manufacturer and date of manufacture are not given.
How did it come to be in places far from the border, such as Bandel?
And whoever painted the inscriptions in English and Urdu was not instructed properly. (Why? There are certainly enough people in West Bengal who know Urdu properly.)
While this probably isn’t something to worry about, it just shows the shoddiness which is associated with IR’s restoration works. There are many examples of garishly painted locos (Pink? Blue?) plinthed in different parts of the country.
Cota Ramaswami went a step further as he also played in Wimbledon in 1922, reaching the second round.
But Ramaswami and Legall had more things in common. Ramaswami’s 2-Test career began and ended with the 1936 tour of England. Later he was manager of India’s team to a Test tour of the West Indies in 1953.
He would have met Legall, a Barbadian wicket-keeper,who played the only 4 Tests of his career during this series.
Later in 1985, the 89-year old Ramaswami left his home in Madras and was never officially seen again. Lookout notices appeared in the major newspapers. After some years, it was decided that he had died in January 1990. That is what appears in today’s record books.
Legall’s case was similar. Wisden mentioned that he had died in Feb 2003, but was not clear whether he died in the US, Canada or Trinidad.
These are not the only Test cricketers whose fate remains unclear. Some were from early West Indian teams. Then there was South Africa’s JM Blanckenberg. He had a somewhat better run, playing 18 Tests between 1913 and 1924. He was believed to have died in West Berlin in 1955, but researchers were unable find any record of his death there.
Men’s cricket was an event at the 1998 CWG at Kuala Lumpur. 16 countries took part, and India failed to get a medal. South Africa won the gold, followed by Australia (silver) and New Zealand (bronze). India did not get beyond the group stage. And these matches were List A, not ODIs
We should be more concerned about the 2022 CWG, where the cricket is restricted to women’s T-20s. They do have T20I status, though that doesn’t mean much nowadays.
More details (including the match schedules) can be seen here:
India is one of the 8 teams participating. Today India has an ICC ranking of 4 (after Australia, England and New Zealand) so one can think there is some chance of a medal. To get to the semi-final round India will have to finish 1st or 2nd in a pool which also includes Australia, Barbados and Pakistan.
Dhoni is the only one with 6 dismissals, followed by the forgotten S Viswanath and today’s Buttler. No fielder took 4 or more catches.
Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.600):
The current player Buttler is followed by Dhoni at a distance. Azharuddin has the highest rate as a fielder, followed by Dravid who was the keeper in some matches.
All-round performance:
Overall (Minimum 20 innings and 1000 balls bowled):
The current player Jadeja has left Kapil and Flintoff far behind,
Match performance (Minimum 40 and 4wi):
In this short list, Yuvraj’s performance would be followed by Pandya’s in this series.
India won this series 2-1, after winning the T20I series 3-0.
This summarises all ODIs played between these teams:
India lead England 57-44 in ODIs, although England lead 23-18 for ODIs played in England.
We now look at individual performances.
Batting:
Most runs (600 or more):
The most runs are 1546 by Dhoni and 1523 by Yuvraj, and the highest is 1163 by Bell.
Kohli (1340) has the most by current players.
The most centuries are 4 by Yuvraj, followed by 3 by Kohli and Root.
The most 50+ scores are 12 by Kohli, Raina and Tendulkar. The most for England is 9 by Pietersen.
Highest innings scores (115 and more):
The highest by a current player is 137* by RG Sharma, while the highest in this series is 125* by RR Pant. The highest for England is 158 by Strauss in the 2011 World Cup.
Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):
Led by Azharuddin by a large margin. Pietersen has the highest average for England, and Jadeja (!) the highest among current players.
Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):
The current pair of Bairstow and Stokes have the highest strike rates, followed by Sehwag and Yuvraj for India.
Now for
Bowling:
Most wickets (20 or more):
The highest are by Anderson and Jadeja. The latter has the highest for India and current players.
The most 5wis are 2 by Harbhajan, and the most 4wis are 2 by several players.
Best innings performances (including all 5wi):
The best performance here is Bumrah’s 6-19 which is the best for Ind vs Eng, surpassing Nehra’s 6-23 (in SA) and K Yadav’s 6-25 in England.
Similarly R Topley’s 6-24 is the best for Eng v Ind, surpassing RS Irani’s 5-26 in 2002
It is also the best for England in all ODIs, surpassing Collingwood’s 6-31 against BD in 2005.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all cases):
Srinath and current player Jadeja have the best averages. Flintoff has the best for England
The best economy rates are by Kapil and Harbhajan.
Headed by Gilchrist and Healy, with Sangakkara some distance behind. Kusal Mendis (14) has the most among current players.
The most stumpings, however, are 6 by Kaluwitharana. The most by a fielder are 20 by M Jayawardene.
Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):
Only Carey among current players.
Most dismissals in a match (6 or more):
Gilchrist and Healy lead again. Hayden is one of several fielders to have taken 7 catches in a match, which was a world record until Rahane took 8, also against Sri Lanka.
The series was drawn 1-1, with sudden collapses on the final day of play in both Tests.
Summary of all Tests between these teams:
While Australia leads 20-5 overall, it leads only by 7-5 in Sri Lanka. And Sri Lanka trails 13-0 in Australia.
Coming to individual performances;
Batting:
Most runs (500 or more):
Headed by M Hussey with 994 with Ponting and M Jayawardene close behind. Mathews (692) and Chandimal (579) have the most runs among current players.
The most centuries are 5 by Hussey, and the most 50+ scores are 8 by Clarke, Ponting and Sangakkara.
Highest innings (125 or more):
Chandimal’s 206* in the second Test is the highest for SL v Aus, surpassing Sangakkara’s 192 in Aus in 2007 and Kusal Mendis’s 176 in SL in 2016. This was a reatively low-scoring series, with the only other score of note being 145* by SPD Smith.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Headed by Ponting and Sangakkara. The current players have not played enough.
Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 40.00):
Headed by ST Jayasuriya and Hayden. Chandimal and Mathews are the only current players here.
Bowling:
Most wickets (12 or more):
Headed by R Herath with 66, followed by the better-known Warne and Muralidaran. Starc and Lyon have the most among current players. Newcomer P Jayasuriya makes this list after only one Test. The most 5-fors are 6 by Herath and Starc, and 10wms 2 by Starc and Warne.
Best innings bowling (6wi or more):
Headed by Kasprowicz and R Herath. P Jayasuriya’s 6-59 and 6-118 came on his debut.
Best match bowling (9wm or more):
Headed by R Herath’s 13-wicket haul in 2016 and P Jayasuriya’s 12 on debut in the second Test here.
That was the best match figures for any Sri Lankan player on debut. This is covered in more detail here:
India maintain their lead at 12-10, although England leads 5-4 for matches in England.
We now look at individual performances.
Batting:
Most runs (100 and more):
Kohli remains the leader, considerably ahead of runner-up Buttler.
No one has more than one century.
The most fifty-plus scores are 4 by Kohli.
Highest innings (60 and more):
The highest individual score is 117 by SA Yadav in the 3rd match of this series. The earlier record was 101* by KL Rahul in 2018. The best for England is 83* by Buttler in early 2021. DJ Malan’s 77 is the highest for England in England.
Bowling:
Most wickets (6 and more):
Led by current players Jordan (18), Chahal and Pandya.
Best innings bowling (including all 4wi and more):
Chahal’s record of 6-25 from 2017 still stands, as does Dernbach’s 4-22 for England back in 2011.
Fielding:
Most dismissals (6 and more):
Buttler equalled Dhoni’s record of 12 dismissals.
Buttler has the most catches by a keeper (9) and Dhoni the most stumpings (6). Kohli has the most catches by a fielder (10).
Best innings dismissals (3 and more):
Headed by Dhoni (5), while Rahane had 4 catches as a fielder.
All-round match performance (minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):
Pandya’s 51/4-33 in this series would be the best. MM Ali’s 36/2-26 in this series is the best for England.
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