Review of Bangladesh-India ODIs.

Bangladesh won the series 2-1. However the first two matches were won by the narrow margins of 1 wicket and 5 runs, while India won the 3rd match by a massive margin of 227 runs.

Bangladesh had also won 2-1 against India in 2015.

Here we review the main statistical highlights of ODIs between these teams.

Overall results:

While Bangladesh has done relatively well on its home soil, it has not yet won an ODI against India in India. They have won only one match on neutral grounds, but that was enough to prevent India proceeding further in the 2007 World Cup.

We now look at individual records, starting with Batting:

Most runs (250 or more):

Ishan Kishan is not here as his 210 was scored in his only ODI against Bangladesh.

Kohli and RG Sharma head this list, with Shakib in third place.

Highest innings (100 or more):

Ishan Kishan has the highest score here. Among other things, this is the highest maiden century in any ODI.

It is far ahead of the earlier mark of 175 by V Sehwag during the 2011 World Cup. The best by Bangladesh is

121 by Litton Das in 2018.

The records set by Ishan Kishan are summarised here:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/stats-ishan-kishan-double-century-ban-vs-ind-2022-23-3rd-odi-1348968

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings):

Only two batsmen have played sufficient innings.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced):

Kohli is followed closely by RG Sharma.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (10 or more):

This list is led by 4 Bangladeshi bowlers, starting with Shakib with 28. Agarkar has the most for India with 16.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi):

Headed by the startling 6 for 4 by STR Binny. The next best is 6-43 by Mustafizur. Also note Sehwag’s 4 for 6.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled):

Shakib heads this list which has only one other member in Mortaza.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (6 and above):

Dhoni (32) is followed by Mushfiqur with 29.Dhoni has the most stumpings with 10, while Mushfiqur has the most catches as a keeper (25). The most catches by a fielder are 8 by S Dhawan.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 and more):

Led by MS Dhoni and Mushfiqur Rahim with 5. Dhoni has 2 stumpings, while the most by a fielder is 4 by S Dhawan.

Highest dismissal rates (Minimum 20 innings):

Led by Dhoni and Mushfiqur again. Mortaza and Shakib have the best figures for fielders.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria from table):

Only Shakib has batted and bowled enough.

Match figures (Minimum of a 30 and a 3wi):

Only 3 instances here. Tendulkar’s 47 and 4-54 would appear to be the best.

Review of West Indies-Bangladesh Tests (June 2022)

West Indies won this series 2-0.

Here is a summary of all Tests between these teams:

Note the exact symmetry: WI leads BD 7-2 with one draw both at home and away. In 2009 Bangladesh won because of the absence of many WI players. These were the first two Tests won by Bangladesh away from home. They also won 2-0 under normal circumstances in 2018.

Looking at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (350 and more):

Brathwaite, Tamim and Shakib are bunched together at the top.

Chanderpaul has the most centuries (4), while Shakib has the most 50+ scores (10, but with no centuries). Bratwaite has 8 including 3 centuries.

Highest innings scores (120 and more):

Sarwan and Samuels are far ahead of the others. Mayers scored 210* on debut in a 4th-innings chase which his team won. The highest for Bangladesh is 136 by Mahmudullah.

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

Led by Brathwaite, but Shakib is close behind.

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

Headed by Shakib by a large margin over second-placed Tamim. DM Bravo has the best for WI.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and more):

Led by Shakib, Roach and Miraz.

Roach has the most 5-fors (4) while only Miraz and Holder have taken a 10-for.

Best innings bowling (includes 6wi and more):

Miraz is the only one on either side to take a 7-for. Lawson’s 6-3 is the best for WI, and the best 6-for in any Test.

Best match bowling (includes 8wm and more):

Headed by Miraz and Holder. Lawson appears at the bottom of this list.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Shakib is the only one who has bowled enough.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and more):

Headed by Mushfiqur and Ramdin. The most by a fielder is 13 by DJG Sammy.

J Da Silva has the most dismissals (16) among current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 and more):

While several WI players have taken 5 in an innings, Khaled Mashud is the only one from BD to take 4. DM Bravo is the only fielder with 5 catches.

Most match dismissals (5 and more):

Led by three WI players with 7 in a match. The best for BD is 5 by Nurul Hasan twice. DM Bravo has the most by a fielder (6).

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, all cases):

Headed by Mushfiqur, while Brathwaite has the best by a fielder. Apart from Mushfiqur, no keeper has fielded for 20 innings.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Shakib is the only one to have batted and bowled enough.

Match (50+ and 5wi):

Only three instances, all by Shakib. His best performance was in 2009, where he narrowly missed a century and 5wi.

Summary of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests-2 (after May 2022 series):

Hope you have seen Part 1.

We now proceed to

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and above):

Muralidaran has 89 wickets, far ahead of the others. Next are Herath and Shakib. Also note AM Fernando’s 13 wickets in 2 Tests in this series.

Best innings bowling (including all 6wi and above):

Led by Herath, with the next three by Muralidaran.

Nayeem Hasan’s 6-105 was the best by BD against SL, surpassing Shakib’s 5-70 in 2008. Also note AM Fernando’s 6-51 in this series.

Best match bowling (Including all 9wm and above):

Headed by Muralidaran and Herath. None from Bangladesh here. AM Fernando took 10-144 during this series.

Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls bowled):

Includes Shakib and Taijul from this series.

Muralidaran has the best bowling average, economy rate and strike rate.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Led by P Jayawardene with Dickwella and Sangakkara close behind.

Mushfiqur Rahim has the most dismissals from BD

P Jayawardene has the most stumpings (8) and M Jayawardene the most catches by a fielder (17).

Dickwella has the most catches by a keeper (24).

Most dismissals in an innings (4 and above):

Mushfiqur and Dickwella have made 5 dismissals in an innings, but not in this series. However Dickwella took 4 catches twice in this series.

Sangakkara and S Sarkar have taken 4 as a fielder.

Most dismissals in a match (5 and above):

Again headed by P Jayawardene with 7.

M Jayawardene and S Sarkar have taken 5 catches as fielders.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.600)

Headed by Sangakkara, with M Jayawardene heading the fielders.

Finally,

All-round performance

Overall (see criteria below):

Shakib (611 runs and 38 wickets) is the only one who qualifies.

Match (50 and 5wi):

All the instances are by Shakib.

Summary of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests-1 (after May 2022 series):

Sri Lanka won 1-0 with one draw.

Overall summary:

We see that Bangladesh is yet to win against Sri Lanka at home, although they have won one Test in Sri Lanka.

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Sangakkara has the most centuries (7) and most 50+ scores (14). Mushfiqur has 10 50+ scores.

Several current players starting with Mushfiqur Rahim are here.

Highest innings (150 and more):

Mathews made the highest score in this series (199). He became the first to score 199 and a duck in the same Test. Several have made 99 and a duck.

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

Sangakkara has by far the highest average, with current player Mushfiqur having the second highest.

Highest batting strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced):

Dilshan has by far the highest strike rate, while current player Tamim Iqbal has the highest among Bangladesh players.

To be continued.

See Part 2

10 wickets by the Hasans

Hasan is a common name in some countries.

Now look at this scorecard where all 10 wickets involved at least one person called Hasan.

This was for the first Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at Chattogram recently.

Nayeem Hasan took 6-105.

Shakib Al Hasan took 3-60 (and also took one of the catches off Nayeem’s bowling).

And Dhananjaya was caught by Mahmudul HASAN Joy off Shakib’s bowling.

So the Hasans took 9 wickets. What about the 10th?

Kusal Mendis was caught by Nayeem off Taijul Islam.

So someone called Hasan was involved in all 10 dismissals.

Lowest T20I totals by major teams

Today (Aug 9) Australia reached a new low in T20Is by being dismissed for 62 by Bangladesh, who had won the series 4-1.

T20I statistics have now become quite meaningless with the advent of a large number of weak teams. This listing includes only matches between Test teams (and totals with 8 or more wickets down):

You can see that this 62 is Australia’s lowest T20I score. India is slightly better with 74 (though that was long ago).

Review of Bangladesh-Zimbabwe Tests (2020)-2

Hope that you have read Part 1

We now look at bowling records:

Most wickets (15 and above):

Taijul is far ahead of others.

He also has the most fivers (4) followed by Shakib and Enamul with 3. No one has more than one tenner.

Best innings bowling (6wi and above):

Taijul again leads this table. However there was no haul of 6wi or more in this match.

Best match bowling (8wm and above):

Enamul’s 12-wicket haul was instrumental in Bangladesh’s first-ever Test win in 2005.

Shakib’s 10-for in 2014 was accompanied by a century. He is only the third player in all Tests to score a century and take a 10-for in the same match, after Botham and Imran.

Also note Nayeem Hasan’s 9-for in this match.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Led by Mushfiqur, while Masakadza has the most by a non-keeper.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 and above):

Chakabva took 5 catches in this Test to equal the record. No non-keeper has taken 4 or more catches.

Most dismissals in a match (5 and above):

The record of 7 was set long ago. Chakabva took 5 in this match.

Best dismissal rate (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Mushfiqur leads here, far ahead of the others.

All-round performance (Overall, see criteria in table):

Shakib leads, followed by Chigumbura at a distance.

All-round match performance (50 and 5wi):

Shakib’s century and 10wm has pride of place.

Review of Bangladesh-Zimbabwe Tests (2020)-1

These teams have met in 17 Tests, with these results:

These can be summarized as:

The teams are now level at 7 wins each.

CR Ervine followed TW Latham as an one-Test captain.

This was only the 14th Test win by Bangladesh, and the second by an innings:

Bangladesh’s first Test win (and series win) was against Zimbabwe in 2005.

Batting records:

Most runs (250 and above):

Current and near-current players hold the first few places.

Taylor is the only one with 5 centuries. Taylor, Masakadza and Bashar have 7 50+ scores.

Highest innings scores (100 and above):

Mushfiqur’s double century in this series was less than his earlier record score in 2018. No one else has scored a double in these Tests.

Batting average (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Mushfiqur is just ahead of Taylor.

Batting strike rate (Min 750 balls faced, all instances):

Mominul and Taylor lead this table.

To be continued.

Review of the Nidahas Trophy (2018)

This tournament is an one-off. There was another Nidahas Trophy in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of independence. That was also a triangular series but with 50-over matches. T20Is were still in the future.

This tournament was contested by Sri Lanka, India and New Zealand. Though the league matches were badly affected by rain, there was still a narrow 6-run win for India as Sri Lanka came close to chasing down a 300+ total in the final. Such things rarely happened in those days. See the scorecard:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8560/scorecard/66157/sri-lanka-vs-india-final-singer-akai-nidahas-1998/

At least the host got to the final then, unlike on this occasion. This time it was Dinesh Karthik who won the match with one of the most famous last-ball sixes in limited-overs cricket history. But Javed Miandad may have something to say about that.

Here is a statistical summary of the 2018 edition. The sample size is too small to have meaningful figures for averages, strike rates and the like.

Most runs (90 and above):

Kusal Perera made 3 fifties, while three others made two apiece.

Highest innings (40 and above):

Dhawan and RG Sharma have the highest scores.

During the SL v BD match on 16 Mar, there was a wisecrack that Mr Perera had scored 119 runs and took 5 catches.

Most wickets (4 and above):

India’s junior spinners lead here, with a number of highly experienced bowlers following.

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

The 4 top positions are by Indian bowlers.

Most dismissals (3 or more):

Thissara Perera and Sabbir have the most (6) by non-keepers while Karthik (5) the most by keepers.

Most innings dismissals (2 or more):

Sabbir and Kusal Perera lead the non-keepers and keepers respectively.

All round performances (20+ runs and 2+ wickets in a match):

Only one instance.

 

Review of Australia-Bangladesh Tests

The story of Tests between these countries is simply told:

Australia have won 5 of the 6 Tests against Bangladesh, 3 of them by an innings. But the last series was drawn 1-1. Bangladesh’s last venture was a 1-1 draw in Sri Lanka.

This series saw Bangladesh’s first Test victory against Australia, and they had a chance of winning the series.

With such a small sample, it is not worthwhile to look at the aggregates and averages. But we can look at innings and match performances.

Highest innings (100 and above):

The highest score here is by a tailender playing as a nightwatchman. It was his only Test century, which came in his last Test.

Lehmann, Steve Waugh and Warner scored 2 centuries. S Nafees is still the only BD player to score a century against Australia. Warner scored centuries in successive innings in this series.

Best innings bowling (including all cases of 5wi or better):

While MacGill still holds the overall record, Lyon has the three next best performances which were all recorded in the current series. Shakib also recorded two five-fors.

Best match bowling (8wm and above):

Lyon recorded the best match figures for this series with 13-154 in the second Test, besides 9-161 in the first. His 22 wickets is the second highest in a 2-Test series, surpassed only by Herath’s 23 vs Pakistan in 2014. Muralitharan has also taken 22 in 2 Tests. Shakib also recorded the best match figures for BD v Aus.

The best series bowling performances for those playing 2 Tests are given here:

Best innings fielding (3 dismissals):

The much-maligned Wade appears here.

Best match fielding (4 or more dismissals):

Gilchrist and Wade share the record, with Wade making 3 stumpings. Handscomb has the most (4) by a non-keeper.

All-round match performances (50 and 5wm):

Shakib Al Hasan is the only one to record this. It is in fact one of the best all-round performances in all Tests as he scored a fifty (coming close to a hundred) besides two five-fors. Relatively few all-rounders have achieved this:

A small series, but with more than its share of points of statistical interest.

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:

Little-known facts about Bangladesh cricket-1

A common question asked is “Was there any East Pakistani who played in Tests for Pakistan?” and most cricket fans, even from that part of the world, are not sure of the answer.

As Bob Dylan might say: the answer, my friend, is not blowing in the wind, but can be found after some research on the internet.

See this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Pakistan_first-class_cricket_teams

and a list of East Pakistani cricketers here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_East_Pakistan_first-class_cricketers

Note this extract:

“These included six Test cricketers—Mahmood Hussain, Mohammad Munaf, Mufassir-ul-Haq, Nasim-ul-Ghani, Naushad Ali, and Niaz Ahmed^[6] No native East Pakistanis, Bengali or otherwise, represented Pakistan’s national side at Test level. The closest was Raqibul Hasan, who was twelfth man against the touring New Zealanders during the 1969–70 season, and the following season represented a full-strength Pakistan side against a Commonwealth XI.^[7] Raqibul went on to serve as Bangladesh’s inaugural captain in the 1979 ICC Trophy, and later played two One Day International (ODI) matches for the team.^[8] Two other East Pakistan players went on to play for Bangladesh in ICC Trophy matches—Ashraful Haque and Shafiqul Haque.^[9][10]”

However, the information in this extract is not quite correct. The first 5 Pakistani players mentioned were indeed from West Pakistan and appear to have spent some time in East Pakistan for employment or other reasons. Mahmood Hussain and Nasim-ul-Ghani were fairly prominent in their time.

However, the case of Niaz Ahmed is different.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/42069.html

and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niaz_Ahmed

The Wikipedia entry is more detailed than the one on Cricinfo. Niaz Ahmed was born in Benares in the United Provinces (now Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh) and his family moved to East Pakistan after Partition. He appears to have spent his early life there, when he made his two Test appearances in 1967 and 1968-69. He and his family then moved to Pakistan after the liberation of Bangladesh and settled in Karachi. He died there in 2000.

While he appears to have been originally from UP and not a Bengali, he did spend his early life in East Pakistan and started his cricketing career there. Thus, although he did not achieve much in his Test career (2 Tests, 17 runs and 3 wickets) we have to consider him as the only permanent resident of East Pakistan to have played in official Tests for Pakistan.

Then there is Raqibul Hasan:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56070.html

and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raqibul_Hasan_(cricketer,_born_1953)

He was indeed a Bengali, born in Dacca in 1953. He was also 12th man in the P v NZ Test at Dacca in 1968-69, though those outside the playing XI are ignored in the records. However, he did play in what might be called an unofficial Test side, for the BCCP  XI vs International XI in early 1971, just before the Liberation War began:

Scorecard of this match:

http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1970S/1970-71/INT-XI_IN_PAK/INT-XI_BCCP-XI_26FEB-01MAR1971.html

The BCCP  XI seems to be practically a full-strength Pakistani team, as most of the players did play in the Test series in England later in 1971-the same season in which India recorded its first Test and series win in England.

Note that the International XI consisted mainly of English players (essentially fringe and former Test players). Probably the best known members would be wicketkeeper JT Murray and the Australian bowler Neil Hawke. It is not clear how Pakistani test player Younis Ahmed and another Pakistani first-class player Wahid Yar Khan were playing in this team.

(Wahid Yar Khan, like Asif Iqbal, had grown up in Hyderabad in India and started his cricket career there before moving to Pakistan in the 1960s).

After this, Raqibul, like most Bengalis in East Pakistan, underwent a lot of hardships when the war resulted in  the deaths of many of his family and friends. He went on to be Bangladesh’s first cricket captain in the initial stages, and even played in two ODIs in the Asia Cup in 1985-86 besides a number of other limited-over matches (such as those in the ICC Trophy in 1979) which did not have ODI status. At that time Bangladesh was classified as an Associate and only their Asia Cup matches had ODI status.

So the question is now answered. Niaz Ahmed was the only permanent resident of East Pakistan who played for Pakistan in Tests.

And Raquibul Hasan was the only Bengali who played for Pakistan in what can be described as an unofficial Test.