Review of India-New Zealand T20Is-January 2023

India continued its run of successes in white-ball cricket at home, winning the series 2-1 after losing the first match.

A total of 25 T20Is have been played between these teams.

India leads 12-10 with 3 ties.

In India, India leads 7-4

In NZ, India leads 5-4 with 3 ties

On neutral grounds, India trail 0-2. Both these losses came in World Cup matches.

Looking at individual performances, starting with Batting:

Most runs (250 or more):

Headed by RG Sharma with C Munro some distance behind Munro. S Gill and SA Yadav are the only other ones with centuries. RG Sharma has the most fifties (six).

Highest innings (75 or more):

S Gill now has the highest score in this series, overtaking Yadav’s 111* a short time ago. Munro’s 109* is the best for NZ.

Highest strike rates (minimum 250 balls faced):

This time Munro is ahead of RG Sharma.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (8 or more):

New Zealand bowlers dominate this list, starting with Sodhi (25) and Southee (20). The most for India is Bumrah’s 12.

Best innings bowling (including all 4wi or more):

DJ Hooda, not a frontline bowler, has the best innings figures followed by Santner and Pandya.

Most dismissals (8 or more):

Southee has the most dismissals (13). The most by a keeper is 9 by Dhoni.

Most innings dismissals: Several players have made 3 dismissals in an innings.

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

HH Pandya appears to have the best match performance, which came in India’s win in the final T20I.

The “double” of a century and 5wi in the same Test.

This has been achieved 33 times, although some players have done it more than once. This will be apparent from this table:

From this we can identify the “multibaggers” as

IT Botham 5 times (1978, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984)

R Ashwin 3 times (2011, 2016, 2021)

JH Kallis 2 times (1999, 2002)

Mushtaq Mohammad 2 times (1973, 1977)

Shakib Al Hasan 2 times (2011, 2014)

GS Sobers 2 times (1962, 1966).

We can also see that Botham (1980), Imran (1983) and Shakib (2014) went a step further by scoring a century and taking 10 wickets in the match.

BR Taylor (1965) was the only one to score a century and take 5wi on his Test debut. This was his first first-class century.

All-round records-batting and fielding-1

When all-round records are tabulated in statistical articles, they invariably refer to feats of batting and bowling.

Here we look at feats of batting and fielding in the same match.

First, for wicket-keepers:

Century and 5 dismissals in an innings:

This did not occur in Tests until 1966. The best match performance would appear to be by de Villiers with a century and 11 dismissals in a match. Also consider Lindsay and Prior.

Watling appears here 3 times (twice in Wellington) along with Prior and Bairstow (twice each).

India has been on the receiving end twice: SAR Silva in 1985 and BJ Watling in 2014.

For non-keepers:

Century and 4 dismissals in an innings:

Bowling efforts have also been added where relevant.

We can see that Kallis’s feat in 2012 is clearly the best here, as he is the only double centurion here. Next would be Woolley.

Weekes did this against India in 1953, and was followed by fellow West Indian Viv Richards in 1989. Rahane did this for India against Sri Lanka in the course of the 3-0 sweep in Sri Lanka in 2017.

Next, we will look at career all-round performance for batting and fielding.

(To be continued)

All-round match performances in the World Cup

Here is a list of all instances of 40+ runs and 4+ wickets in World Cup matches from 1975 up to June 24, 2019:

While some of these figures seem impressive, most of them have come against weak teams (if not minnows, teams which did not go beyond the first round). The exceptions are Flintoff (E v Ire), and Russell (WI v E). We already know that Afg will not be in the second round in 2019.

The only instances of 50/5wi are by Yuvraj Singh (I v Ire, 2011) and Shakib Al Hasan (BD v Afg, 2019).

Both of them have had impressive all-round performances throughout the tournament. Yuvraj was Man of the Series in 2011, when India won. Yuvraj had 362 runs and 15 wickets in 2011. Shakib has (at the time of writing on June 24) 471 runs and 10 wickets. He and David Warner (447 runs) seem to be main contenders for Man of the Series now.

In 1999, L Klusener had 281 runs and 17 wickets which earned him the Man of the Series award. His team lost narrowly in the semi-final.

 

The Lord’s triple honours list

You know about the honours boards at Lord’s: one for scoring a century, one for 5wi and one for 10wm. (Then there are separate boards for home, visitors and neutral players. Ignore that for now).

How many players do you think qualify to be on all three boards? One of them joined the club during this Test.

An elite group of all-rounders, with only one visitor (Miller) among them.

CR Woakes scored a century in this match. He had earlier taken 5wi and 10wm in 2016.

He really seems to like Lord’s, as we see from his record here:

Of those who appear on two or more boards. Vinoo Mankad and Ian Botham are the only ones to have taken a century and 5wi in the SAME match.

No one has scored a century and taken 10wm in the same Test at Lord’s. This has been achieved only three times in all Tests, by Botham, Imran and Shakib.

As an afterthought, here are the only two who have scored a fifty and taken 10wm in the SAME Test at Lord’s:  they would be duly listed for their 5wi and 10wm, but not for their fifty.

A similar piece from Cricinfo: http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/24350452/chris-woakes-lord-love

Tail piece: Some readers seem to be unsure about the existence of the 10wm boards. Maybe they are a relatively recent innovation. However, we have some pictures to verify this:

Part of the 10wm board.

Also, when someone gets 10wm with two fivers, both fivers are mentioned on the fiver board. If he gets one fiver and another haul of less than 5 wickets in the match, both are mentioned (and marked) as you can see here:

And finally, one of the obscure boards for neutral Tests:

These were set up in 2010 and so far cover only two Tests, Aus v SA in 1912 and Aus v Pak in 2010.

 

 

An unusual all-round feat

Test matches between the West Indies and Zimbabwe have generally been one-sided. So it is a welcome change to see a strong performance by a Zimbabwe player.

Sikandar Raza became only the 15th player in all Tests to score two fifty-plus scores and take a fiver in the same Test:

In fact, he and Kallis are the only ones to make two scores of 80+ and take a fiver.

This list include some well-known and not so well-known players. Mankad (256) and Umrigar (228) have scored the most runs here-but in both cases India lost. Faulkner is the only other one here to have scored over 200 runs (when his team won).

There are a few other instances where the player’s team lost. Bhuvaneswar Kumar was the last to achieve this all-round feat, which resulted in a draw.

Sikandar Raza is probably the only Zimbabwe player who was born in Pakistan.

Shakib Al Hasan’s all round feat

Bangladesh’s first Test victory against Australia came in their fifth attempt, having lost all four of the previous Tests. Two were in Australia and two were at home.

The main architect of this victory was Shakib Al Hasan with a fine all-round performance, which we will look at in more detail:

While the feat of a century + fiver is well documented, the “converse” of a fifty and ten wickets is not. But it can easily be got from Statsguru.

Fifty and ten wickets in a Test:

Only 28 such instances in all Tests. The only ones who have done this on more than one occasion are Sir Richard Hadlee (3 times) and now Shakib Al Hasan (twice). Kapil and India’s false knight also make appearances (while R. Ashwin does not). Moeen Ali was the last entry before Shakib.

Kapil and Jadeja are the only ones from India.

If you take the still rarer feat of a fifty and two five-fors:

Only 14 instances-including two by Sir Richard and two by Shakib. None from India.

While we are at it, let us take the analogous case of two fifties and one five-for:

Only 14 instances, including four from India. Mankad, Umrigar and Surti could not save their team from defeat, while B. Kumar’s neglected batting helped in a draw.

No one has achieved this more than once.

No one has scored two fifties AND two five-fors in a Test. From the above we see that the nearest approaches were by Davidson in 1960 (44, 80, 5wi and 6wi) and Vettori in 2008 (55*, 76, 5wi and 4wi).

There have, however been four instances of 100 runs and 10 wickets in a match-in which Shakib figures again:

Another landmark for Moeen Ali

Perhaps Moeen Ali shaving his head made some difference (apart from being mistaken for Hashim Amla at a distance). In the first Test of the current series against South Africa he became one of the relatively few (25) to score a fifty and 10 wickets in the same match (Sir Richard Hadlee did so 3 times, while a false knight of the present also appears here):

He also became part of a select group of 40 to have scored both a century and a ten-for in Tests. Only IT Botham, Imran Khan and Shakib Al Hasan achieved this in the same Test.

In the third Test, he finished the match with a hat-trick. This was the 43rd hat-trick in Tests and he became the 39th player to achieve this. H Trumble, TJ Matthews, Wasim Akram and SCB Broad took two hat-tricks apiece. The updated list of hat-tricks:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/136977.html

Finally, he joined a rather short list of 7 players who have scored a century and taken a hat-trick in Tests. Of these, Sohag Gazi is the only one to do so in the same Test-though he vanished from the international scene quite rapidly.

1. J Briggs
2. Wasim Akram
3. Harbhajan Singh
4. IK Pathan
5. SCJ Broad
6. Sohag Gazi
7. MM Ali

Of these, 6 of them (i.e. excluding Sohag Gazi) have scored a century, taken a ten-for AND a hat-trick in Tests.

The other Test all-rounders-1

We start with the scorecard of the  England-South Africa Test at Lord’s:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-south-africa-2017/engine/match/1031437.html

Moeen Ali achieved the double of a fifty and 10 wickets in the match.

Now, the standard definition of a good all-round performance in a Test is a century and a fiver. Cricinfo provides this as a direct link: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282793.html

There are 32 such instances at the time of writing.

The achievement of a fifty and 10wm is somewhat less common though the instances can be easily be got from Statsguru:

Fifty and 10 wickets in a Test (as on Jul 11, 2017)

27 entries here, the most recent entrants here being Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Dilruwan Perera. Sir Richard Hadlee is the only one to do this 3 times. No one else has done it more than once.

Also note that Alan Davidson was the first to score a hundred runs and take 10 wickets in a match (though without a century). This was in the Brisbane tied Test of 1960. He held this record for over 19 years. It was not until 1980 that Botham became the first to score a century and take 10 wickets in a match. Imran repeated this a few years later and Shakib followed much later.

While the list of those who scored a century and 5wi is mostly populated by the better-known all-rounders ranging from Sobers to Botham to Ashwin, the second list has a few unexpected names. These include bowlers who were not considered recognized batsmen but somehow managed a fifty: e.g. JK Lever (on debut), Abdul Qadir, DW Steyn and PS de Villiers. Then there are non-regular bowlers (notably AR Border and MG Bevan) who were not regular bowlers but somehow managed a ten-wicket haul.

In several cases these were the only fifties or ten-fors the player achieved in their Test careers. The strangest case may be that of JK Lever, who is the only one to score a fifty and take ten wickets on his debut. He did not achieve either of these again in his 21-Test career.

All-round fails in Test matches

Data correct as of April 4, 2017.

No runs and no wickets in Test career:

There are 33 such cases. Only one, TAP Sekhar of India, has played in more than 1 Test. But he has been reasonably successful as a coach.

Most of the other names are unfamiliar, as they were dropped after one lacklustre performance. The names of JCW MacBryan and V Rajindernath would be more familiar to trivia-hunters. We will see more of them in a moment.

A further step is to identify those who had

No runs, no wickets and no fielding dismissals in their Test careers:

This is a subset of the upper table, as 12 of them had taken at least one fielding dismissal (notably V. Rajindernath with 4 stumpings). The 21 listed here did not even have that. TAP Sekhar is again the only one with more than one Test.

The case of HM Thurlow is of some interest as he was run out for 0 to leave Bradman on 299 not out in a Test against South Africa. See the 4th entry here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/541300.html

Next we come to those who

Never batted or bowled in their Test career:

Our two friends again-but they did field. You may want to look up their entries:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/16858.html

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/33027.html

Never batted, bowled or fielded in their Test career:

While two Netherlands players have achieved this in T20Is and one Sri Lankan in ODIs, everyone who played a Test has at least fielded, if not made a fielding dismissal. You may want to see MacBryan’s Test career here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62542.html

Play was possible only on the first of the three days scheduled, in which South Africa batted for 66.5 overs. MacBryan would have fielded through the day, but did not take a catch. Presumably he must have touched the ball at some point.

And Rajindernath could at least console himself with sharing the record for the Most stumpings on debut (4):

 

 

More on Chinaman bowlers in Tests

This article: http://www.cricketcountry.com/news/chinaman-bowlers-kuldeep-yadav-lakshan-sandakan-tabraiz-shamsi-and-others-in-international-cricket-2-588700

gives a comprehensive history of all those who have bowled in the Chinaman style (left-hand wrist-spinner) at some point in their Test careers. I am going a little further in studying the performances of those who exclusively bowled in this style (even if they were not regular bowlers). A number of famous names including the alleged inventor Ellis Achong, Johnny Wardle, Gary Sobers and Bernard Julien bowled in various other styles.

So here are the “exclusively Chinaman” bowlers and their careers in brief. This is in chronological order:

Even the change bowlers have taken fivers and tenners.

The best innings bowling in this category is 7-75 by Lindsay Kline:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62866.html

The best match bowling is 10-106 by Paul Adams:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64028.html

There is also Michael Bevan’s tenner along with 85*, which makes him among the relatively few to score a fifty and take 10-wickets in a match:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63732.html

A few years before that Allan Border also scored 75 and took 11 wickets with his little-used left-arm spin against the West Indies:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63499.html

The full list of those who scored 50 and took 10 wickets in a match:

Sir Richard Hadlee is the only one to do this more than once, while “Sir” Ravindra Jadeja also makes an appearance.

It is interesting to see that these occasional bowlers achieved a ten-wicket haul which well-known bowlers such as Willis, Brett Lee, Kallis, Thomson and Sobers were not able to manage during their long careers:

Over 200 wickets with no 10-for:

Coming back to the Chinamen bowlers, here are the best innings and match bowling figures on debut:

The trio of PADLR Sandakan, LO Fleetwood Smith and Kuldeep Yadav have the best performances in innings as well as match bowling. Here is Sandakan’s debut:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/995451.html

We now look forward to competition between Sandakan and Yadav for being the best current Chinamen bowlers.

Footnote: Michael Bevan, who seems to have had some Indian ancestry, was soon dropped from the Test team as his batting was not good enough. He then became one of the mainstays of Australia’s ODI middle-order.

 

 

All-round fails in ODIs

Note: Data as on 25th March 2017:

Having covered batting, bowling and fielding fails in the three formats of cricket, we finally turn our attention to all-round fails in ODIs. (T20Is have already been covered.) For all-round performance we take the cases of (batting + bowling) as well as (batting + bowling + fielding).

No runs and no wickets in ODIs (2 or more matches):

There are, in fact, as many as 58 players who did not score a run or take a wicket in their ODI career. Here we have listed only the 13 who played 2 or more matches.

These include a few Test players such as T Bosch, RG Hart and KV Sharma.

No runs, no wickets and no dismissals in ODIs (complete list):

A few more Test players here, of whom the best known among current players may be PHT (Tharindu) Kaushal and Zafar Ansari. The most well-known may be the Australian pace bowler of the 60s Alan Connolly who played one ODI at the end of his career which included 29 Tests. We have already met Anwar Hussain Monir as one of the most unsuccessful Test bowlers. M Watkinson had scored 80+ in a Test against the West Indies.

Note something odd about the career of A Dananjaya? We will soon return to him.

No batting and bowling in ODIs (complete list):

Note the newcomer Zafar Ansari (3 Tests) and the forgotten Roger Tolchard (4 Tests against India in 1976-77; he was Alan Knott’s reserve but was considered a good enough batsman to displace a specialist batsman in Tests). Apart from our now familiar A Dananjaya, all of them did get to field (but not to bat or bowl).

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

We need to know more about him and his ODI career.

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

He has a nice smile.

He has played 5 T20Is and even a side 50-over match against Bangladesh a few days ago, so he may yet play more ODIs.

This explains what happened in his one ODI so far:

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 the No 10 or 11 batsman and never got to bat. And he could not bowl or field as rain prevented New Zealand’s innings from starting. Let us hope he plays at least one more ODI so that he loses this record.