Review of WI-Pakistan Test series.

After this Test series was drawn 1-1:

A total of 54 Tests have been played between these countries. Pakistan lead 21-18 with 15 draws.

In the West Indies: Of 28 Tests, WI lead Pakistan 13-8 with 7 draws.

In Pakistan: Of 21 Tests, Pakistan lead 9-4 with 8 draws.

In neutral venues: Of 5 Tests, Pakistan lead 4-1 with 0 draws.

Babar Azam has captained Pakistan in 6 Tests, with 5 wins and 1 loss.

Most runs: 1214 by Mohammad Yousuf. From recent players, 951 by Azhar Ali.

Highest innings: 365* by Gary Sobers in 1957-58. In recent years 302* by Azhar Ali in 2016-2017

Highest batting average: 57.43 by Wasim Raja. From recent players, 50.05 by Azhar Ali.

Most wickets: 80 by Imran Khan. From recent players, 46 by Yasir Shah.

Best innings bowling: 8-29 by Colin Croft in 1976-77

In recent years 8-49 by D Bishoo in 2016-17

Best match bowling: 12-100 by Fazal Mahmood in 1958-59

In recent years 10-94 by SS Afridi in 2021.

Best bowling average: 19.56 by Colin Croft

Best economy rate: 2.05 by Lance Gibbs

Best strike rate: 39.6 by Waqar Younis

Most dismissals: 29 by Franz Alexander

Most by non-keeper: 23 by Vivian Richards and Younis Khan.

Highest dismissal rate 0.821 by Younis Khan.

(No regular keeper had played the cutoff of 20 innings fielded)

Match all-round performance: 121 & 56, 5-28 & 3-69 by Mushtaq Mohammad in 1976-77.

Records of Zimbabwe-Pakistan Test series-May 2021

Another one-sided series which was a common feature of the last few months.

Here is a full record of Tests between these teams:

Zimbabwe has only won 3 of these Tests. But they have been significant, as the first win in 1994-95 was Zimbabwe’s first win (though they lost the series 2-1). The second in 1998-99 ensured Zimbabwe’s first series win abroad. And the third in 2013 was one of their rare drawn series against a major team.

Highlights of this series: Babar Azam won all 4 of his first 4 Tests as captain.

Abid Ali’s 215* is the highest for Pak v Zim in Zim, surpassing Younis Khan’s 200* in 2013. The Pak v Zim record is still Wasim Akram’s 257* in 1996 at Sheikhupura.

He also became the first to make a score of 215* in a Test. Several others have been dismissed on 215, most recently MA Agarwal and M Labuschagne.

Nauman Ali (97 and 5-86) came close to becoming the first to make a century +5wi for Pakistan against Zimbabwe. PA Strang had already done this for Zim v Pak in 1996. That was the same match in which Wasim Akram scored 257*.

Fawad Alam now has the most centuries (4) without a score between 50 and 99. The previous “record” was 3 centuries by Ravi Bopara. However, it should be mentioned that ED Weekes made 5 centuries before making his first fifty (that too in 5 successive innings), and GA Headley went a step ahead with 6 centuries before stooping to a fifty.

Review of Pakistan-South Africa Test series-1

After this series was won 2-0 by Pakistan, this is the summary of the 28 Tests played between these teams:

This is only the second time Pakistan has won a Test series against South Africa. The previous occasion was in 2003-04, where the captains were Md Yousuf (win) and Inzamam (draw) vs Graeme Smith.

And Pakistan lost 3-0 when they last toured SA in 2018-19. Sarfraraz Ahmed was then the captain.

Babar Azam’s Test captaincy started with two wins.

The overall record:

Next we look at individual records.

Most runs (500 and above):

Azhar Ali is the only current player here.

The most centuries are 6 by Kallis and 4 each by de Villiers, Smith and Younis Khan. And the most 50+ scores are 14 by Kallis and 12 by Amla.

Highest individual scores (125 and above):

de Villiers has the best performance here. No one from the current series.

Highest batting average (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

As in the earlier table, de Villiers leads by a distance. Azhar Ali is the only current player.

Highest strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Similarly, led by de Villiers with Azhar Ali the only current player.

To be continued.

The ODIs of 2019-1

Here is the summary of all the ODIs of 2019:

Win-Loss ratios for all teams:

This isn’t very useful as the Netherlands and Namibia come out on top.

The ICC rankings on Dec 31 are more meaningful:

Here we have the four semi-finalists of the World Cup at the top.

Next we move to the individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (600 or more):

RG Sharma, V Kohli and SD Hope lead by a big margin.

Sharma has the most centuries (7) followed by Kohli (5).

The most scores of 50+ were by Sharma (13) followed by Kohli and Hope with 12 apiece.

Highest innings scores (120 or more):

Led by the relatively lesser-known JD Campbell. There are several other scores above 150.

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

Hope, Babar Azam and Kohli are close together at the top.

Highest strike rates (Min 500 balls faced, 90.00):

Here we have some other names at the top such as JJ Roy, who is considerably ahead of EJG Morgan. While Kohli is here, others who scored the most (RG Sharma and SD Hope) did not score fast enough. There is one player (N Zadran) from Afghanistan.

To be continued: