Analyzing Test captaincies – 6

Finally we look at captains with the most wins, most losses and most draws.

Most wins (14 and more):

Here, and in the rest of the post, we will see that the toppers will generally be those who captained in the most Tests. GC Smith with 53 wins had captained in the most Tests (108). RT Ponting is next with 47 wins.

Among current players, V Kohli has the most wins (33). That is also the most by an Indian captain.

Most losses (12 and more):

Unsurprisingly, it is also headed by GC Smith with 28 losses. Next is SP Fleming with 27.

Among current captains, JO Holder has the most losses (19). For India, MAK Pataudi leads with 19.

Most draws (12 and more):

For a change, this is headed by another captain AR Border with 39 draws (including 1 tie). Next is SM Gavaskar with 30. He was well known for his defensive captaincy. Like Border, he had a weak Test team most of the time. GC Smith is third with 27.

Among recent captains, AN Cook leads with 13 draws.

The other double: 50 + 10 wkts in a match

Most of those who follow Test cricket know about the double of a century and 5wi in a match. This has been done 32 times, with the last occasion being the present WI player Roston Chase in 2016.

The lesser-known double is that of 50 and 10wm, which is slightly rarer and has been done on 30 occasions. Stuart Broad joined this list in the 3rd Test against West Indies in 2020.

This seems to be a little harder to achieve compared to the other double. Sir Richard Hadlee is the only one to do it 3 times and Shakib Al Hasan the only one to do it twice. Kapil, Botham and Imran duly appear here. “Sir” Jadeja is the only other player from India here.

In a mirror of Bruce Taylor’s 100 + 5wi against India on his debut in 1965, only one player John Lever has  managed 50 + 10 wm also against India in 1976. Oddly enough S Venkataraghavan was in India’s team on both occasions.

There are some odd cases here involving players who were not generally considered all-rounders, such as Qadir, Border, Bevan and Steyn. And others who had short careers such as Lever, Nash and Craig. But most of the big names of the past few decades are there.

The elite group with a century and 10-for includes Botham, Imran, Shakib and honorary member Davidson with 100 runs and 10-for.

Broad achieved this in the nick of time, taking the last wicket of the match to complete his tenner.

Review of Australia-New Zealand Tests-1

The overall results at the end of this series:

As Australia won all 3 Tests, they gained 120 points for the World Test Championship. The points table as of 06 Jan 2020:

Australia won their second clean sweep in a 3-Test series against New Zealand. They had earlier done this in New Zealand in 1999-2000.

While New Zealand has lost most of their series against Australia, they did win both at home and away in 1985-86 thanks mainly to RJ Hadlee.

Now for individual performances in Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

Warner, Taylor and Smith are the current players here.

The most centuries are 5 by Border and Warner.

The most 50+ scores are 11 by Border and Boon.

Highest innings (140 and above):

None of these high scores are from this series, although there are some from 2015 and 2016. Taylor and Warner made the top scores for these teams in the same Test in 2015.

Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, all instances):

Taylor and Southee represent the current players. Warner has not played enough in this series. JL Langer has a large lead over the next-placed Greg Chappell.

Highest batting strike rates (Min 1000 balls faced, 50.00):

Gilchrist leads by a large margin over Warner and Taylor.

To be continued: