“He did nothing in the Test”

Following the second Test at Lord’s, there were some snide remarks directed at Adil Rashid who did not bat, bowl or take a catch in the match. He had however scored a few runs and took 3 wickets in the first Test.

It is fairly common to end a match without runs, wickets or dismissals, particularly when rain affects a large portion of the match. In 2018 alone six Test players have experienced this, including Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay in the same Test.

An afterthought: Lakmal was captain in that Test. Probably we should exclude captains from a listing like this.

Is there anyone who never scored a run, took a wicket or made a fielding dismissal in his entire Test career? Yes, more than you may guess.

A total of 21 players, of whom only TAP Sekhar played 2 Tests and the rest never got another chance.

The only one who did not bat or bowl at all was JCW MacBryan in 1924, who was a victim of a badly rain-affected Test where his side never got to bat and the opponents also got less than a day to bat.

What of those who never batted or bowled in their career but at least made one dismissal?

There is only one instance:

This was wicketkeeper V Rajindernath who made 4 stumpings (but took no catches) in his only Test.

In ODIs and T20Is there are more such cases. One instance related to the current Sri Lankan player Akila Dananjaya who did not bat, bowl or field in his first ODI (mainly as he never came into bat before rain prevented the opponents from batting). Still, he is now one of his team’s key players in Test and limited-overs matches.

This was the scorecard of his debut ODI:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/12294/scorecard/582191/sri-lanka-vs-new-zealand-5th-odi-new-zealand-tour-of-sri-lanka-2012-13

 

Review of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests in Feb 2018-1

With the premature conclusion of the 2nd Test at Mirpur (Dhaka), Sri Lanka won the 2-Test series 1-0. The last series between these teams was less than a year ago when Bangladesh drew 1-1 in Sri Lanka.

20 Tests have been played between these teams. Sri Lanka leads 16-1 with 3 draws.

In Bangladesh, Sri Lanka has played 8 Tests and lead 6-0 with 2 draws.

In Sri Lanka, the 12 Tests have resulted in the hosts leading 10-1 with 1 draw.

Batting records:

Most runs (500 and above):

Sangakkara has the most centuries (7) followed by M Jayawardene and Ashraful with 5 each. For scores of 50+, Sangakkara again leads with 14, followed by Dilshan (8) and M Jayawardene, Mushfiqur and Samaraweera with 7 each.

Highest individual scores (125 and above):

Sangakkara scored 319 and 105 in the same Test, becoming only the second (after Gooch) to score a triple century and century in the same Test. In this series we also saw Mominul Haque scoring 176 and 105, becoming the first from Bangladesh to score centuries in both innings of a Test. His 176 was the highest by Bangladesh against Sri Lanka at home, surpassing the 136 by Ashraful in 2006. However Mushfiqur’s 200 at Galle in 2013 remains the highest for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings):

Sangakkara has an average more than double that of runner-up Ashraful.

Batting strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced):

However, Dilshan and M Jayawardene have the highest strike rates, with Dilshan having a much higher figure than the runner-up.

Bowling figures:

Most wickets (15 and above):

Muralitharan leads followed by Herath and then Shakib, with the first two far ahead of the rest. MDK (Dilruwan) Perera and a few other current players also figure on this list.

As you may expect, Muralitharan has the most 10-fors (4) and 5-fors (11). Herath is the only other one with a 10-for.

Best innings bowling ( 5wi and above):

Note Muralitharan’s dominance here. From the current series we only have Dananjaya who was making his debut.

Best match figures (7wm and above):

Muralitharan dominates this list as well, while Dananjaya has the best match figures by a debutant for Sri Lanka. Taijul’s 8-159 is the best for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka, surpassing the 6-154 by Shakib at Colombo in March 2017. The best for Bangladesh in Bangladesh was 6-204 by Shakib at Chittagong in Dec 2008. His absence in this series seems to have made a lot of difference.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls):

Muralitharan has the best bowling average, economy rate and strike rate. Herath and Shakib follow at a distance.

To be continued.

 

Akila Dananjaya’s comeback

Akila Dananjaya now has the best match figures by Sri Lankan bowler making his Test debut.

Apart from the best match figures on debut, he also has the second-best innings figures:

Match figures for Sri Lankan bowlers on debut:

(Kuruppuarachchi played only one more Test and Ahangama two more. The latter did not play after his debut series).

Innings figures for Sri Lankan bowlers on debut:

Not bad when you consider he once held a dubious record in ODI record. In March 2017, he was the only current player who had not batted, bowled or fielded in his ODI career. Here is an edited extract from my earlier post of 27/03/2017 titled “All-round fails in ODIs”:

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No batting, bowling and fielding in ODIs (complete list):

 

This explains what had happened in his one ODI till then:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/582191.html

In this rain-affected match, his team did bat and got to 123/8. He was to bat at No 10 or 11 and never got to bat. And he could not bowl or field as rain prevented New Zealand’s innings from starting

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Soon after this was written, his ODI career resumed and he became a regular ODI player, with a high of a 6-for against the all-conquering touring team of India besides a 50 against Pakistan. He may well become a regular in all 3 formats.

These are his current figures. Note that he has a nice smile. One needs to be cheerful to come back after an inauspicious start.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/574178.html