Review of Australia-India T20Is-Sep 2022

India won the series 2-1, just as they had won in Australia in 2020-21.

A summary of all T20Is between these teams:

India leads 15-10 overall, as well as 7-4 in Australia and 6-4 in India. They are level at 2-2 on neutral venues.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Kohli leads by a large margin over Finch at # 2.

The first 5 batsmen in this list all played in the series just concluded

Watson and Maxwell are the only ones to have scored centuries. Kohli made 8 scores of 50+, while no one else made more than 3.

Highest innings (60 and above):

Note that the highest score in this series was 71* by Pandya. For Australia it was 61 by Green.

There is not enough data to get meaningful batting averages. However, we have some strike rates:

Highest strike rates (Minimum 250 balls faced, all instances):

Kohli and the next three are closely bunched together.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (6 and above):

Bumrah and Zampa lead here. Both of them played in the current series.

Best innings bowling (Includes all 3wi and above):

No one has a 5-for. Those with 4-fors did not play in this series.

The best in this series was 3-16 by Zampa and 3-17 by AR Patel.

Note that the best performance here (Ashwin’s 4-11) came in a World Championship match at a neutral venue.

We do not have enough data for proper estimation of bowling averages, economy rates and strike rates.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (5 and above):

Dhoni is the only keeper here, with 10 catches and 5 stumpings. Kohli has the most catches by a fielder (10).

Most dismissals in an innings (3 and above):

Dhoni and Paine have the most dismissals by keepers, while Behrendorff took 3 catches as a fielder. No one took more than 2 dismissals in this series.

All-round match performance (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

Watson’s performance in 2012 is clearly the best. DR Sams achieved a modest 28* and 2-33 in this series.

Jhulan Goswami’s records

A long list of records in all three formats can be seen in this link:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/jhulan-goswami-53932/tests-odi-t20-records

Summarising the instances where she is 1st or 2nd in a category:

Tests:

Youngest to take 10wm (23 years 277 days)

Most wickets taken lbw (18)

2nd longest career (19 years 262 days)

ODIs:

Most ducks scored (17)

Most wickets (255)

Best innings bowling from a losing side (6-31 vs NZ in 2011)

Most balls bowled (9945)

Most runs conceded (5592)

Most wickets taken bowled (94)

Most wickets taken as catches by keeper (40)

Most wickets taken lbw (56)

2nd longest career (20 years 258 days)

2nd most catches (68)

T20Is:

The best here is a batting record:

3rd best while batting at No 8: 37* vs SL in 2014.

Conclusion: Many of the records are due to her longevity in ODIs. But that is itself a tribute.

Winning a chase with no wickets down

Pakistan scored 203 for no loss against England in the 2nd T20I at Karachi on 22 Sep. Actually, the T20I record is 213/0 by Gibraltar v Bulgaria earlier this year, though Pakistan’s 203 is the best for matches between full members. The batsman were M Rizwan (88*) and Babar Azam (110*).

Here we see all instances of a winning chase of 100 or more runs for no loss in T20Is:

The best by India is 103/0 against Zimbabwe in 2016 (KL Rahul 47*, Mandeep Singh 52*).

Now we look at the corresponding figures for ODIs:

All instances of a winning chase of 150 or more runs for no loss in ODIs:

South Africa holds the record with 282/0 against Bangladesh in 2017 (de Kock 168*, Amla 110*).

India’s record is 201/0 against New Zealand in 2009 (Gambhir 63*, Sehwag 125*).

Finally, we look at 10-wicket victories in Tests with 75 or more in the 4th innings:

The record is 173/0 by Australia against England in 2017 (Bancroft 82*, Warner 87*).

The first 4 partnerships are all by Australia.

The best for India is 78/0 against Pakistan in 1980 (Gavaskar 29*, Chauhan 46*).

7 or more matches in a cricket series

Today (Sep 20) England begins a 7-match T-20I series against Pakistan. Is this the longest ever bilateral T20I series ?

Not quite. It is the first 7-match between ICC full members. However, there has been one earlier 7-match T20I series between Malawi and Mozambique in 2019, which was won 5-1 by Malawi with one no-result.

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/team/120.html?class=3;filter=advanced;orderby=start;spanmax1=10+Nov+2019;spanval1=span;template=results;type=team;view=results

What about ODI series ?

There has been one 8-match bilateral series between South Africa and Australia in 1993-94:

http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1993-94/AUS_IN_RSA/

This was drawn 4-4. The 3-match Test series was also drawn 1-1

A “fake” 8-match ODI series was played in 1987-88 when the West Indies toured India in 1987-88 after the World Cup. This was actually a 7-match series but somehow the BCCI inserted an “extra” ODI at Ahmedabad between the 4th and 5th ODIs:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/west-indies-tour-of-india-1987-88-61942/india-vs-west-indies-only-odi-64317/full-scorecard

WI won this by 2 runs. It is considered an official ODI but not part of the series. The regular ODI series was won by the West Indies 6-1, although the 4-Test series was drawn 1-1 with the Hirwani and More show.

And Test series ?

There have been 21 6-Test bilateral series between 1970-71 and 1997-98. There was also the 9-Test triangular series between Eng, Aus and SA in 1912 but we are not counting that.

The 1970-71 Ashes was scheduled to be the first ever bilateral Test series with 6 Tests. This is what happened;

http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1970S/1970-71/ENG_IN_AUS/

The 3rd Test at Melbourne was abandoned on the 3rd day due to rain. This led to the first-ever ODI being played a few days later, which was won by Australia.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-marylebone-cricket-club-tour-of-australia-1970-71-61725/australia-vs-england-only-odi-64148/full-scorecard

A “seventh” Test was tagged on after the scheduled 6th Test. However, most statisticians consider this to be a 6-Test series which was won by England 2-0, regaining the Ashes which they had lost in 1958-59.

From North to South by metre gauge in 1976

We have covered various long metre gauge journeys which were possible in 1976, such as Delhi-Madras, Madras-Bangalore, Delhi-Bangalore etc. There was also East-West route from Okha (or Varvala) to Lekhapani. These were the furthest west and east points of IR at that time.

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/west-to-east-by-metre-gauge-in-1976/

Now we come to the route connecting the northern extreme and southern extreme points of metre gauge.

At that time the northern extreme of IR was Jammu Tawi on BG. On MG it was Kot Kapura:

For a short time in the 19th century MG extended from Kot Kapura to Ferozepur (Cantt?) making it the northern extreme of MG at that time.

In the south, there was Tiruchendur, on a branch line from Tirunelveli was the southern extreme of metre gauge. Earlier Trivandrum Central had this honour, although it was converted to BG by 1975.

This North-South MG route was touched upon here:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/09/18/delhi-to-madras-by-metre-gauge-in-1976/

Anyway, the full route including important stations and distances is given below. Spellings of place names are those given in timetables of 1976. The distances between Khandwa and Hingoli had a separate “chargeable distance”, although we have used actual distances here.

As of 2022, a large proportion of this route is now broad gauge, while the remaining metre gauge counts off its last days.

This route passes through NR, WR,CR, SCR and SR as they were at that time.

It passes through the states of PB, HR, RJ, MP, MH, AP, TN (besides the future TG).

Km Station Name Note

0 Kot Kapura
43 Bhatinda
118 Sirsa
200 Hisar
260 Bhiwani Jn
343 Rewari NR ends
445 Nim-Ka-Thana
492 Ringas
558 Phulera
638 Ajmer
662 Nasirabad
827 Chittaurgarh
880 Nimach
1013 Ratlam
1132 Indore
1153 Mhow
1271 Khandwa WR ends
1435 Akola
1574 Hingoli
1654 Purna CR ends
1795 Nizamabad
1956 Secunderabad
1964 Kacheguda
2069 Mahbubnagar
2200 Kurnool Town
2253 Dronachellam
2309 Guntakal SCR ends
2377 Anantapur
2411 Dharmavaram
2556 Madanapalle Road
2639 Pakala
2669 Chittoor
2712 Katpadi
2722 Vellore Cantt
2805 Tiruvannamallai
2873 Villupuram
2928 Vriddhachalam
2973 Ariyalur
3051 Tiruchchirapalli Jn
3144 Dindigul
3206 Madurai Jn
3249 Virudunagar
3334 Maniyachi
3363 Tirunelveli Jn
3425 Tiruchendur SR

The importance of September 17

You would probably know September 17 only because it is the Indian PM’s birthday. What else happened on September 17 ?

Derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_17

People born on September 17:

1859: Billy the Kid, American gunman

1879: EV Ramaswamy, social reformer in Tamil Nadu

1906: JR Jayawardene, President of Sri Lanka

1907: Warren Burger, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court

1915: MF Husain, Indian painter

1929: Stirling Moss, English racing driver

1930: Lalgudi Jayaraman, Indian musician

1934: Maureen Connolly, American tennis player

1950: Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister

1986: R Ashwin, Indian cricketer

People who died on September 17:

1858: Dred Scott, American slave

1994: Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player

1994: Karl Popper, Austrian philosopher

1996: Spiro Agnew, American vice-president

Important events on September 17:

1908: First fatal air crash. Orville Wright survived.

1939: The USSR invades Poland (which was already invaded by Germany).

1948: The Nizam of Hyderabad joins the Indian Union.

1978: Camp David accords signed by Egypt and Israel.

1983: Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.

The Dacca Mail of 1944

From the Bradshaw of June 1944, long before today’s Maitri Express or even the East Bengal Mail of the early 1960s, though it followed the same route as the latter.

At that time the route was on the short-lived Bengal & Assam Railway.

As you may know, it crossed the future Radcliffe Line between Banpur and Darsana and terminated at Goalundo Ghat, which was a terminus from Pordaha on the main line to Siliguri. The passengers than got on to a ferry to Narayanganj, and then got onto a local train for the short journey to Dacca. The present main station in Dhaka called Kamalapur is at a different location from the old station, which closed in the 1960s.

Summary of the overall journey:

Here the Dacca Mail (No 7) leaves Sealdah at 21.10, reaches Goalundo Ghat at 05.05. The ferry left at 05.50 and reached Narayanganj at 13.00. A local train left there at 13.12 and reached Dacca at 14.10. Note that some passenger trains ran beyond Dacca to destinations such as Mymensingh.

At the bottom of the page you can see the 8 Mail leaving Dacca at 11.30, reaching Narayanganj at 12.04. The ferry left at 12.45 and reached Goalundo Ghat at 21.30. The train left there at 23.00, reaching Sealdah at 06.20.

Here you can see the full timetable between Sealdah and Goalundo in both directions:

The above timetable does not show timings between Sealdah and Ranaghat. These can be seen below:

You can also see the timings of the Darjeeling Mail of 1944 (from the same source) here:

The Darjeeling Mail of 1944

Review of Tests between England and South Africa-Sep 2022-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (50 and above):

Anderson leads with 103, followed by SM Pollock with 91 and Broad with 89.

From the olden days, we have Barnes with 83 and Tayfield with 95.

Barnes has the most fivers (12) followed by Donald with 9.

Barnes also has the most tenners (6) followed by Blythe with 2. No one else has more than 1.

Best innings bowling (including all 8wi and above):

Best match bowling (including all 10wm and above):

The first few places are by SF Barnes and others from the earlier days. Rabada’s 13-144 is the best from recent times.

Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls, maximum 30.00):

Barnes and Blythe have the best bowling averages.

Verity and Goddard have the best economy rates.

Barnes and Rabada have the best strike rates.

Coming to Fielding:

Most dismissals (Minimum 25):

Boucher has the most dismissals and catches, although Evans has the most stumpings. B Mitchell and Kallis have the most catches by fielders.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

Stokes has the most catches (5) as a fielder.

Most match dismissals (7 or more):

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.65):

Boucher and Bairstow have the highest dismissal rates. Stokes has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

All-round performance (overall):

See criteria in table:

Hammond and Kallis have the best differences here.

All-round performance (match):

Minimum 50 and 5wi:

Note the instances of century + 5wi (Sinclair and Faulkner): and 50/10wm (MM Ali, Jul 2017).

Review of Tests between England and South Africa-Sep 2022-Part 1

England won the 3-test series 2-1, with all three Tests finishing within 3 days of play. The 3rd Test at the Oval lost the first day due to the weather and the second day to the queen’s demise, but still finished soon after the start of what was the scheduled 5th day. Stokes was the last English captain of the Elizabethan era. Earlier, SA won by an innings in the first Test and England won by an innings in the second Test.

A summary of Tests between these teams:

The upper table is for all tests since the beginning. England leads by a large margin both at home and abroad. This is not surprising as SA was a weak team for many of its earlier Tests, when they only played against England and Australia.

I thought it would be more useful to look at the record after SA returned to Tests in the 1990s. Here, England still leads at home and abroad but with a narrower margin.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (1200 and above):

As we will see in the later tables, many of the aggregate records are from the pre-1990 period. Thus Kallis has the most runs of the post-1990 batsmen but is fifth overall. Next is GC Smith (6th overall).

Kallis has the most centuries (8), followed by several others with 7.

B Mitchell has the most 50+ scores (23), followed by Hammond and HW Taylor with 20. The most by a recent player is 16 by Kallis.

Highest individual scores (180 and above):

Here, the top few scores are from recent players. None from this low-scoring series.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 40.00):

GC Smith has the highest average among recent players, followed by Amla. However, the highest averages are by Hammond and Hobbs from the early days.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 45.00):

Here Stokes leads by a good margin over de Kock. None of the pre-1990 players are here.

To be continued:

England’s cricket captains in the Elizabethan era

Queen Elizabeth became monarch on 6 February 1952. On that day DB Carr was captaining England for the first time, in the 5th Test vs India at Madras. The second day was declared a rest day due to the death of King George VI. However, there was enough time for India to record their first Test win against any country:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-india-1951-52-61800/india-vs-england-5th-test-62729/full-scorecard

This series was drawn 1-1

Over 70 years later, the Queen passed away on 8 September 2022. This was the scheduled first day of the 3rd Test vs South Africa at the Oval. This time the captain was BA Stokes. His team succeeded in winning against South Africa in a little over two days play:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-in-england-2022-1276896/england-vs-south-africa-3rd-test-1276918/full-scorecard

A total of 37 players have captained England in Tests during this period of over 70 years.

These are their individual performances for the Tests in which they captained:

There are some 1-Test captains such as DB Carr in the beginning. The most Tests captained are 64 by JE Root, 59 by AN Cook and 54 by MA Atherton.

The most runs were 5295 by JE Root, the most centuries 14 by JE Root again, the most wickets (77) and most 5-fors (3) by RGD Willis and the most catches were 87 by Root yet again.

Analysis of the Asia T-20I Cup, 2022

Sri Lanka won the championship winning against Pakistan in the final.

The third and fourth places were taken by India and Afghanistan respectively.

Bangladesh and Hong Kong made up the final 6.

All the figures given below are for the matches starting from August 27, which include the 6 teams mentioned above but not the preliminary round in which Singapore, Kuwait and the UAE participated.

Team performances:

Batting: 100 or more runs:

M Rizwan has the most runs (281) closely followed by Kohli with 276.

Kohli was the only one to score a century in this tournament (which was his first in T20Is). He and Rizwan were the only ones to make three 50+ scores. The Sri Lankan pair of Nissanka and K Mendis made two 50+ scores each.

Highest individual scores (50 or more):

Kohli’s 122* is far ahead of the next scores of 84 and 78*

Most wickets (6 or more):

B Kumar leads with 11 wickets, followed by PWH de Silva (Hasaranga). Kumar was the only one with a 5 -for. He and two others also scored 4-fors, as we see below.

Best innings bowling (including all 3wi or better):

PM Liyanagamage is often listed as P Madushan in scorecards.

Most dismissals (3 or more):

Iftikhar and Nissanka lead with 5 dismissals as fielders. A number of keepers have made 3 dismissals.

Most innings dismissals (2 or more):

Karthik has made 3 dismissals as a keeper, while Nawaz and Nissanka took 3 catches as fielders. No stumping is recorded here.

All-round match performance (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

In three roughly equal efforts, Hasaranga’s 36 and 3-27 in the final would be the best.

In this tournament, Sri Lanka did outshine the more favoured India and Pakistan.

Timetables from the past: 1886 and 1917

Today we have a couple of extracts from “Railways of the Raj” by Michael Satow (1980) and other titbits.

Random extracts from the Bradshaw of January 1886:

Some points to note:

Changed names:

Saiyan = Jajau

Morar Road = Birla Nagar

Umballa = Ambala

Also note that Warora was a terminus for a long time-the line was not extended to Balharshah until 1908. The last link in the Delhi-Madras route (and the Golden Quad) between Balharshah and Asifabad Road was opened in November 1928.

In the history books you may have come across the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. Here we see details of the special train which carried the Viceroy Baron Chelmsford and the Secretary of State for India (Montagu) in 1917:

Note the large number of honours which had been bestowed on them. They were nicely spoofed in an episode of “Yes, Minister”:

In the satirical British television programme Yes Minister, Jim Hacker MP is told a joke^[12] by his Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley, about what the various post-nominals stand for. From Season 2, Episode 2 “Doing the Honours”:

Woolley: In the [civil] service, CMG stands for “Call Me God”. And KCMG for “Kindly Call Me God”.
Hacker: What does GCMG stand for?
Woolley (deadpan): “God Calls Me God”.