Most and least losses in Test matches

Hope you have read the previous post https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/10/22/most-and-least-wins-in-test-matches/

Using the same methods, we now look at those who saw the most and least losses in Tests.

These are for all Tests up to 30 Sep 2022 (except the ICC XI v Aus Test in 2005).

A total of 1888 players have played in 5 or more Tests.

It is easy enough to see who have seen the most losses. That is given in the next table. Naturally, this depends on how many Tests the player got to play in.

Chanderpaul (77) and Lara (62) have the first two places, symbolising the decline of West Indies cricket which started in their times.

The best by a current player is JM Anderson in 3rd place with 61, followed by his partner SCJ Broad in 8th place with 50.

The best by an Indian player is 56 by SR Tendulkar  in 4th place.

But it is more interesting to see those who did the best on a percentage basis, as we will see below.

These are those who have seen losses in all of their Tests.

A total of 16 players saw losses in all their Tests (among those who played 5 or more Tests). They are listed below:

Not surprisingly, the first 6 places are from Bangladeshi players. The unlikely leader is Alok Kapali, an all-rounder who has other claims to fame such as being the first Bangladeshi (and first Hindu) to take a Test hat-trick. In second place is Mohammad Sharif, also from Bangladesh. He was a medium-pace bowler.

There is no contemporary player or Indian player here

Now we look at a list of 22 players who saw losses in 90% or more of their Tests.

However, there is still no contemporary player (unless you count SW Ambris who played his last Test in 2018). However, there are players from teams other than Bangladesh here, starting with J Middleton of South Africa (6 out of 6 losses).

And what about those who saw the least losses ?

A total of 69 players did not see any loss in their careers of 5 Tests or more.

Here we list those who played 7 or more Tests without seeing a loss:

This time it is headed by a relatively lesser-known Indian player Rajesh Chauhan. Like Eldine Baptiste and his comrades, he was fortunate to be in a lesser role (as 3rd spinner) in a fairly strong team. The next three (McCool, Loxton and Toshack) can best be described as fringe players in Australia’s invincibles of 1948. Ernie Toshack at least has the most economical 5-for (5 wickets for 2 runs) in all Tests. That was against India; he had 11-31 in the match.

The most recent player here is Aizaz Cheema of Pakistan, who played his last Test in 2012.

Next we will look at those who saw the most and least draws.

Records of “Ashes” T20I matches

The Australia-England match is due to take place on Oct 28. The prospects for play seem to be poor, considering that the match at this venue earlier in the day was washed out. Anyway, here are the records of T20I matches between Australia and England.

Overall team performance:

Total matches 23. 10 won by Aus, 11 by Eng, 0 ties, 2 no-result

In Aus: Aus 7, Eng 3, NR 1 (Total 11)

In Eng: Aus 2, Eng 6, NR 1 (9)

Neutral: Aus 1, Eng 2 (3)

Note the strong home advantage for both teams.

Looking at individual performances:

Batting:

Most runs-200 and above:

Finch leads, followed by Buttler. Finch and Maxwell have scored centuries.

The most 50+ scores are 5 by Buttler, followed by Finch with 4 including a century.

The most sixes are 55 by Finch and 51 by Buttler

The most 4s are 35 by Finch and 23 by Buttler.

Highest innings scores-60 and above:

Again, Finch is far ahead of the others.

Bowling:

Most wickets-8 and above:

Rashid has the most wickets (12) followed by MG Johnson and Jordan with 11.

No one has taken a 5wi. 4 players have taken a 4wi, as we can see below.

Best innings bowling (including all 4wi):

Watson has the best figures of 4-15 here, followed by J Lewis with 4-24.

Fielding:

Most dismissals-5 and above:

Buttler and Warner have each made 11 dismissals.

Buttler (11) and Wade (7) have the most dismissals as a keeper.

Warner (11) and Hales (9) have the most dismissals as a fielder.

No one has made more than 1 stumping.

All-round match performances:

20 runs and 2 wickets in a match, in chronological order:

While there is some subjectivity here, the best performances here seem to be by Maxwell (103* and 3-10) and Watson (59 and 4-15). The only English player here is Collingwood (46 and 2-8).

Note that the ground at Southampton figures in many places in the above tables. The city is also the birthplace of the UK’s new Prime Minister.

Most and least wins in Test matches

These are for all Tests up to 30 Sep 2022 (except the ICC XI v Aus Test in 2005).

A total of 1888 players have played in 5 or more Tests.

It is easy enough to see who have seen the most wins. That is given in the next table. Naturally, this depends on how many Tests the player got to play in.

The first 4 are from the great Australian teams of the mid-1990s to the 2000s, headed by RT Ponting with 107. Next is SK Warne with 91.

The best by a current player is JM Anderson in 6th place with 78, followed by his partner SCJ Broad in 8th/11th place with 72.

The best by an Indian player is also 72 by SR Tendulkar (sharing the 8th/11th position with Broad, Gilchrist and Mark Waugh).

But it is more interesting to see those who did the best on a percentage basis, as we will see below.

These are those who have seen wins in all of their Tests.

It is a short list with only 4 names. The first name may not be familiar to many cricket followers of today.

Eldine Baptiste, who played in a strong West Indies team of the 1980s, saw wins in all 10 of his Tests. There are three others with 100% records in 5 Tests, and they are not particularly well-known.

GJ Bailey was more successful in limited-over matches than in Tests, and had captained Australia in 29 ODIs. His only Tests were in the Ashes whitewash of 2013-2014.

KA Archer is the elder brother of the better-known RG Archer.

Lord Hawke was a rather undistinguished batsman but got Test opportunities mainly because only amateurs could captain England in those days.

Now we look at a longer list of 38 players who saw wins in at least 75% of their Tests:

Note current players such as AR Patel and J Yadav who have 5 wins and 1 draw, giving a win percentage of 83.33 %. The only other Indian player with 5/6 is KK Nair.

And what about those who saw the least wins ?

A total of 165 players did not see any win in their careers of 5 Tests or more.

Here we list those who played 12 or more Tests without seeing a win:

The first name of B Sutcliffe of New Zealand is rather unexpected, as he was probably NZ’s best batsman for most of his 42-Test career. NZ did win a few Tests during his career, although he missed those matches. After him there is BC Strang of Zimbabwe who played in 26 Tests.

No current player here. The most Tests by an Indian player are 18 by BK Kunderan followed by 12 by PG Joshi.

Next we will take up the cases of most and least losses, followed by the cases of most and least draws.

A to Z of Indian railway stations

There are numerous directories of railway stations in India. They do not all agree.

Some will list the first station (in an alphabetical list) as AB Junction near Agra Cantt. But it is a cabin and not a station.

The first station in the list is Abada (near Howrah on the way to Kharagpur):

Then there is this place on the Bengaluru-Hassan section on the SWR:

In some sources it is listed as Aadi….. so that would make it the first in the alphabetical list. Of course, there are many cases where the name on the station sign differs from the name listed in timetables or elsewhere.

The last entry is more clear-cut:

This is on the Suratgarh-Shri Ganganagar section in Rajasthan, on the NWR.

Coming to junction stations.

The first one is Abhanpur, near Raipur in Chhattisgarh. It was a narrow-gauge junction which is presently closed for conversion

So the first junction (which is presently functioning) is Abohar in Punjab:

No dispute about the last junction, Zafarabad near Jaunpur in eastern UP:

Review of India-South Africa ODIs-Oct 2022: Part 2

Continuing with the statistical summary of ODIs between India and South Africa.

Hope you have read Part 1: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/10/15/review-of-india-south-africa-odis-oct-2022-part-1/

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (15 and above):

The most by current players is 24 by Kuldeep Yadav and 22 by YS Chahal.

No one has more than one 5wi.

3 players have 3 instances of 4wi.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 4wi):

SB Joshi’s 5-6 was the best in his short ODI career.

Kuldeep Yadav’s 4-18 at Delhi in this series is the best for India against SA at home. The previous best was 4-25 by Kumble at Wankhede in 1996.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Donald and Pollock have the best averages. But no current player has bowled enough.

Kumble and Pollock have the best economy rates

Donald and Pollock have the best strike rates.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Boucher (42) is closely followed by Dhoni (41). Dhoni has the most stumpings (11).

The most catches by a fielder is 23 by Kohli. Also note the “hybrid” de Villiers with 9 dismissals as keeper and 8 as fielder, totalling 17.

de Kock (25) has the most for current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

Boucher is the only one with 5 dismissals. GC Smith and Bavuma have taken 4 catches as fielders.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.500):

Headed by Boucher. Kohli has the best rate by a fielder.

Finally, all-round performance:

Career performance (see criteria in table):

Cronje’s occasional bowling puts him at the top here, far ahead of Tendulkar. Strangely, Kallis does not qualify here.

Match performance (Minimum 30 runs and 3 wickets):

There are several instances here, but the best would clearly be by Kallis (Nov 2006) followed by Kallis again (Feb 2010). Honourable mention to Klusener.

Review of India-South Africa ODIs-Oct 2022: Part 1

India won the home ODI series against South Africa 2-1, after losing the away series 3-0 earlier in 2022. They also lost the first match of the series by a small margin before winning the next two by convincing margins.

Here we summarise all the ODIs between the two teams. India was the first team to play international matches against South Africa after their return in 1991-92. India had also won that series 2-1.

Summary of all ODIs between these teams:

South Africa leads overall and at home, while India leads at home and is almost at par at neutral venues.

Individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Tendulkar has many more runs than the second-placed Kallis. Kohli has the most among current players.

The most centuries are 6 by de Kock and de Villiers, followed by 5 by Tendulkar.

Dravid has the most 50+ scores (14 with no century), followed by Kallis, Kirsten and Tendulkar with 13.

Highest innings (115 and above):

Headed by Tendulkar again.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 25.00):

Here Kirsten is just above Kallis and Kohli.

Kohli and Dhawan have the best among current players.

Batting strike rate (Minimum 500 balls faced, 70.00):

Here de Villiers is far ahead of the the next two Sehwag and Miller. Miller and Dhawan have the highest strike rates among current players.

To be continued: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/10/16/review-of-india-south-africa-odis-oct-2022-part-2/

Long names in Telangana

There are many places with long names in southern India. Telangana is furthest north, but also has some good examples (though some consist of multiple words). Some names are not that long, but the inscriptions have some peculiar features.

Gundratimadugu, spelt Gundrati Margoo until the 1960s.

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This does not seem so long, but its full form is Hyderabad Batteries Ltd Nagar. Like many places in this state, it has signs in four languages.

More recently, the company has become HBL Power Systems. So it should be renamed from H.B.L. Nagar to HBL Nagar.

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Note the 5 languages here. It borders Karnataka, so Kannada is added.

As you may guess, it is near a bridge over the Krishna river.

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Here, unlike in HBL Nagar, the name is spelt out in full in all languages.

On the new line from Raichur to Gadwal.

Also on the Raichur-Gadwal section. Maybe the only station name in India which includes the word “Project”.

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Another multi-word name.

Both of these are on the main Delhi-Chennai route, between Kazipet and Vijayawada.

Not that long, but interesting spelling. B.H.E.L. is written as a single word both in Hindi and English. Near Hyderabad.

Review of India-South Africa T20Is-Oct 2022

The two sides had met before in June 2022, when the 5-match series was drawn 2-2. This time India won 2-1. It was the first time India had won a bilateral series against SA at home. They had won series in SA earlier.

Here is a summary of all T20Is between the sides:

India still trails SA 6-5 at home, but leads 5-2 in SA and 3-1 at neutral venues. And India also won the first T20I World Championship in SA in 2007.

Overall, India leads 13-9.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Headed by current player RG Sharma with 405 runs. Miller has the highest for SA with 320.

RG Sharma, Raina and Miller are the only ones to score centuries. de Kock has the most 50+ scores with 4.

Highest innings (60 and above):

In this series Miller made 106* in the 2nd match, the highest score in matches between these sides. Rossouw made 100* in the 3rd match. Previously SA’s record against India was 81 by H Klaasen earlier in 2022. The best innings by India in this series was was 61 by SA Yadav.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of batting averages and strike rates.

Now for

Bowling:

Most wickets (6 and above):

Led by current player B Kumar with 14 wickets. From SA, three players have 8 wickets each.

B Kumar is the only one with a 5-for. He is also the only one with 2 4-fors.

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

B Kumar has the best figures of 5-24 back in 2018. The best in this series were D Pretorius’s 3-26 and Arshdeep’s 3-32.

Meaningful calculation for bowling averages, economy rates and strike rates cannot be done here either.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (5 and above):

Fielders RG Sharma (10 catches) and SK Raina (9 catches) lead here. The best by a keeper is 7 by de Kock.

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

Several players have made 3 dismissals. Karthik has made 2 stumpings as a keeper. Miller was the only fielder to take 3 catches in this series. Oddly, no one has made a catch as a keeper.

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

Two similar performances by Yuvraj and Pretorius, but nothing worthwhile in this series.

Nobel Prizes 2022-an oddity

As you would have read, Svante Paabo of Sweden was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2022.

There are numerous examples of related Nobel laureates (spouses, children and siblings). But his case is a little peculiar.

It has been mentioned that his father Sune Bergstrom was also awarded the same Nobel Prize along with two others in 1982. However, Svante was born out of wedlock and was brought up by his mother, an Estonian chemist named Karin Paabo.

Sune Bergstrom also had a son named Rurik with his wife. Both sons were born in 1955. Apparently Rurik did not know of Svante’s existence until around 2004.

Sune died in 2004, so he did not see his “other” son winning the award.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_P%C3%A4%C3%A4bo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sune_Bergstr%C3%B6m

Vladimir Putin’s birthday on Oct 7

Remember to wish Vladimir Putin on his 70th birthday on October 7. You will probably not be able to do this next year.

October 7 may become the focus of celebrations in the future, just as April 20 has become in parts of Europe.

Some other people born on October 7 are:

Niels Bohr, Danish scientist, 1885

Heinrich Himmler, Nazi leader, 1900

Graham Yallop, Australian cricketer, 1952 (Same as Putin).

Yo-Yo Ma, American musician, 1955

Dida, Brazilian footballer, 1973

Zaheer Khan, Indian cricketer, 1978

Review of Pakistan-England T20I matches-Oct 2022

England won the current series series 4-3. This was the first 7-match T20I series between full members, although there has also been one between Malawi and Mozambique earlier this year. These were the first T20Is played by England in Pakistan.

A summary of all T20Is between England and Pakistan:

England leads overall, as well as at home, away and at neutral venues.

Individual performances:

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Led by the opening pair of Babar Azam (560) and M Rizwan (522).

Highest innings (70 and above):

The only two centuries are by Babar Azam and LS Livingstone.

The most 50+ scores are 6 by M Rizwan and 5 by Babar Azam.

PD Salt’s 88* is the best for England in Pakistan.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of averages.

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

Headed by Babar Azam and EJG Morgan.

Bowling:

Most wickets (8 and above):

AU Rashid and GP Swann have 17 wickets each, while Haris Rauf (14) has the best for Pakistan.

There are two instances of 4wi, by Saeed Ajmal (4-21) and AU Rashid (4-35).

Innings bowling (3wi and above):

MA Wood’s 3-20 is the best for England in Pakistan.

Wahab Riaz’s 3-18 is the best for Pakistan in England.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (6 and above):

Morgan has the most catches by a fielder (12). Buttler has the most dismissals by a keeper (7 including 5 stumpings).

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

No England player has made 3 dismissals in a match in Pakistan.

This list includes a number of keepers and fielders.

Buttler is the only one with 2 stumpings in an innings.

All-round performance:

Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets in a match:

The best performances here would be by MM Ali (36 and 2-32) and Shahid Afridi (24 and 3-15).

What happened on October 2

India has a public holiday on October 2 to mail the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. What other things happened on this day?

Main reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2

Births on October 2:

1869: Mahatma Gandhi, Indian leader

1871: Cordell Hull, US leader

1873: Pelham Warner, English cricketer

1890: Groucho Marx, American actor

1904: Graham Greene, British writer

1904: Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indian leader

1939: Budhi Kunderan, Indian cricketer

1942: Asha Parekh, Indian actress

1948: Donna Karan, American designer

1951: Sting, British singer

Deaths on October 2:

1968: Marcel Duchamp, French artist

1973: Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner

1975: K Kamaraj, Indian leader

1985: Rock Hudson, American actor

2018: Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist

Events on October 2:

1967: Thurgood Marshall sworn in as first African-American judge of the US Supreme Court

2018: Jamal Khashoggi incident in Istanbul