Review of Tests in 2020-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We continue with individual performances

Fielding – 8 or more dismissals:

Led by Buttler and Watling. The most catches by a fielder are 14 by Root and Stokes.

From India, Pant has 12 catches as a keeper.

The most stumpings is 3 by Dickwella.

Innings dismissals – 4 and above:

5 dismissals by 4 players, including a non-keeper in Stokes. He also gets a share in the world record of 5 catches held by several players. Pant has 4 catches in an innings.

Match dismissals – 5 and above:

Dominated by de Kock and Watling. Among non-keepers, Stokes and Pope have 6 catches each.

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

Broad achieved the rare double of a fifty and 10wm. The next best performance was by Sikander Raza with 100+ runs and 8 wickets.

In Part 3, we will look at the performances of debutants in 2020.

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)

Test matches of 2019-Fielding

Individual performances in fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Australian captain Paine leads by a large margin over the next, de Kock.

The best by a non-keeper was 25 by Root, England’s captain.

M Rizwan took over as Pakistan’s keeper from former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Buttler and Hope played some (but not all) of their matches as keepers.

The most stumpings were 4 by JL Bairstow.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

de Kock is the only one with more than 5 dismissals.

Klaasen took 4 dismissals on debut. Other new faces here are RR Pant and Mohammad Rizwan.

Root, Warner and SPD Smith took 4 catches apiece as non-keepers.

Most match dismissals (6 or more):

Sarfaraz Ahmed took 10 dismissals before he lost his captaincy as well as his place in the team. Paine and de Kock were next with 8. New faces here include GC Wilson, RR Pant and Mohammad Rizwan.

Warner and SPD Smith took 6 catches as non-keepers.

Best dismissal rate (Min 15 innings, 0.500):

Paine has by far the best dismissal rate (2.521), followed by Watling.

The best by a non-keeper is 1.312 by SPD Smith.

Test matches of 2019-Batting

We now look at individual batting performances.

Most runs (500 or more):

The top scorer here is M Labuschagne who had made his debut in 2018 with little impact, but he soon showed his class. The returning SPD Smith came second, while his former deputy Warner did not fare so well.

Others in this list who had made their Test debuts in 2018 or 2019 are RJ Burns, MA Agarwal, TM Head and JL Denly.

Several players made 3 centuries. Labuschagne had the most 50+ scores (10) and the next highest was 7.

Labuschagne scored the most 4s (129) while RG Sharma scored the most 6s (20).

SCJ Broad had the most ducks (5) followed by three others with 4.

Highest innings (125 or more):

One triple by Warner and 6 doubles, including 2 by newcomer Agarwal and one by the rejuvenated RG Sharma. Labuschagne’s highest was 185, but he made a double at the beginning of 2020. The longest innings was 473 balls in Watling’s 205.

Sharma and Smith made centuries in each innings:

Sharma’s 13 6s in the match is a new Test record. The previous record was 12 by Wasim Akram in a single innings:

Highest batting averages (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Labuschagne yet again, with Head and Warner following at a distance.

There are even a couple of single-digit averages by tailenders. This seems to show that Broad’s batting is now negligible.

Highest batting strike rates (Minimum 750 balls faced, all instances):

de Kock leads by a distance over Babar Azam, who also has a large lead over R Taylor. And Watling showed that a low overall strike rate does not prevent one from scoring a double century.

 

 

NZ-SL Test review (Aug 2019)-2

Continuing from Part 1

Bowling:

Most Wickets (15 or more):

Muralitharan dominates, but current players such as Southee and Boult are slowly catching up. Southee overtook Vettori as top wicket-taker for NZ during this series.

Best innings bowling (6wi or more):

Vettori has the only 7-wicket haul here. Boult and Southee did well in the 2018 series.

Best match bowling (9wm or more):

While there are several 10-wicket hauls, the only recent good performance was 9-107 by Boult in 2018. Sir Richard Hadlee is here from the early days.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

For once, Southee is ahead of Muralitharan in bowling average. We can also see that the best economy rates are by Murali followed by Southee, and that the best strike rates are by Southee followed by Boult.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 or more):

Here Watling leads although he has played relatively fewer matches. P Jayawardene has the most stumpings.

The next two places go to Tillakratne and Mc Cullum who were not keepers in all their matches. The most by a non-keeper is 23 by Fleming. Current players including Williamson and Taylor can also be seen here.

Innings dismissals (5 or more):

While IDS Smith has 7 catches in an innings, no non-keeper has reached 5.

Match dismissals (6 or more):

Watling is the only one with 9 dismissals. The most by a non-keeper is 7 by Tillakratne, which was a share in the world record for some years. He also took 7 catches as a keeper on another occasion.

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

Tillakratne heads this table, with dismissals both as a keeper and non-keeper. Next is McCullum, another “hybrid”. The best figures by a non-keeper are by SP Fleming.

Watling is not here as he has not played enough. Williamson and Taylor have the best figures among current players.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

The only true all-rounders Vettori and Vaas can be seen here.

Match performance (50 and 5wi):

Vettori and Vaas again. Vettori has the relatively rare feat of a fifty plus 10 wickets.

 

Review of New Zealand – Bangladesh Tests

With the 3rd Test at Christchurch being called off due to violent incidents, New Zealand won the 2-Test series 2-0.

As you can see below, New Zealand has won all 9 Tests against Bangladesh at home. In Bangladesh, New Zealand have won 3 Tests and 3 were drawn.

We proceed to individual performances. As the number of matches played is small, no meaningful averages can be found.

Batting:

Most runs (250 and above):

Most of the top scorers such as Tamim and Williamson are still playing.

The most centuries are 3 by Williamson, and the most 50+ scores are 9 by Tamim (including 8 scores between 50 and 99).

Highest innings scores (90 and above):

Two double centuries were made by NZ batsmen in this series. Williamson’s 200* was the highest for NZ against BD at home, surpassing Taylor’s 200 in the same series and Guptill’s 189 in 2010.

Bowling:

Most wickets (10 and above):

Vettori is far ahead of Wagner and the rest. Vettori has 5 fivers and Wagner 3. Vettori also has the only tenner.

Best innings bowling (all instances of 5wi):

Best match bowling (all instances of 6wm):

Wagner’s 9-73 in this series is the best for NZ vs BD at home, surpassing CL Cairns’s 8-108 in 2001.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and above):

Watling has the most catches by a keeper, McCullum the most stumpings and Taylor the most catches by a non-keeper. Mushfiqur leads the Bangladesh players.

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

Kayes has the most dismissals (5). Several non-keepers have taken 3 catches.

Most match dismissals (5 and above):

Watling has the best figures for a match, while Sinclair has the most by a non-keeper.

All-round performance (match):

DL Vettori’s effort is the best here. It can be termed as one of the finest all-round efforts in all Tests, as he scored two fifties as well as a fiver and a “fourer”.

He is the only one to do this in all Tests. The “counterpart” would be AK Davidson who made 44, 80 and a fiver and a “sixer” in the Tied Test of 1960.