Two fifties in a match in India-WI Tests

GH Vihari became the latest to make two scores of 50+ in a Test for India against the Wes Indies. Here is the full list of those who have achieved this:

This includes 3 matches of Gavaskar in the 1971 series, where he made his debut on 06/03/1971. He is the only debutant here.

In 1962, Umrigar added a fiver to his two fifty-plus scores.

Two cases of centuries in both innings by Gavaskar (1971 and 1978).

The corresponding performances for the West Indies against India:

Only 23 such performances, compared to 33 by India.

They include Weekes’s pair of centuries in 1948, as part of his five in  successive innings.

And Sobers added a fiver to his century and fifty in 1962.

Lloyd and Greenidge were making their debuts.

Only Weekes made centuries in both innings.

When the tail wagged (Aug 2019)

In the ongoing Test at Kingston, India registered a somewhat rare triumph of a fifty at No 9 along with a century partnership.

Fifty plus by No 9 batsmen from India:

Ishant Sharma’s 57 is a little below the middle. There are several Indians above him, led by J Yadav who vanished as quickly as he got into the team. Even a century at no 9 does not help.

Century partnership for the 8th wicket by India:

Again, the partnership of 112 by Vihari and Ishant is a little below the middle. There is one against WI a little higher (120* by Dravid and Sarandeep in 2002).

For the sake of comparison, we also look at:

Fifty plus at No 9 against the West Indies:

Here, too, Ishant is a bit lower than the middle. The highest for India is 79 by Kunderan in 1966-67. The highest for India in the West Indies is 68 by BS Sandhu. Oddly enough, Sandhu’s 71 against Pakistan in 1982-83 is the best on debut by a No 9 in all Tests.

Century partnerships for the 8th wicket against the West Indies:

The Vihari – Sharma partnership is the 8th highest here, while the 120* by Dravid and Sarandeep is the 6th highest. The highest partnership of 217 was part of one of the more remarkable comebacks in all Tests, when Brian Close captained for the first time:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17312/scorecard/62995/england-vs-west-indies-5th-test-west-indies-tour-of-england-1966

This involved a recovery from 166/7 to 527 and fifty-plus from the No 9, 10 and 11 batsmen (Murray, Higgs and Snow).

 

 

 

Batting on all 5 days of a Test

RJ Burns took his appointed place on the short list of those who have batted on all 5 days of a Test:

In some cases there would have been curtailment of play, but some play was possible on each of the 5 days. This does not include Tests which finished in 4 or less days. While there have been Tests played over 6 or more days, there is no such instance there.

Oddly enough, this did not occur until 1960 and Jaisimha had the record to himself until 1977. Several others followed Boycott in quick succession, although there was a 15-year gap between 1984 and 1999.

The lowest totals are by Pujara (74) followed by Jaisimha with 94.

In at least one case, the player (Boycott) can be said to have played a major role in his team’s win. There are some where his team lost (Lamb, Griffith, Burns).

 

Peter Siddle and the PJs

Peter Siddle has been in and out of the Australian team.

In 64 Tests before the start of the current Ashes series, he has scored 1080 runs and has taken 214 wickets. In the current Test, he was the second top-scorer and made 44 batting at number 10.

He has taken 8 fivers and a hat-trick, and also holds one batting record as he is the only  batsman to have scored two fifties in a Test while batting at No 9.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/7898.html

Older cricket fans would remember Raju Bharatan and his horrible puns. He would have a field day with Peter Siddle, as his surname rhymes with many other words (not all of them polite): diddle, fiddle, middle, piddle, riddle, griddle etc.

The British media had this to say after one of his good performances: “Peter goes from second fiddle to fecund Siddle”.

Not quite up to the standard of Shashi Tharoor, but a good try.

Test Fielding Records-2

Hope that you have read the first part.

Now we go on to the most neglected aspect of statistics – stumpings.

Most stumpings in an innings (4 and above):

The record is 5 by KS More, when he worked in tandem with Hirwani on his 16-wicket debut in 1987-88.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/31038.html

The previous record was shared by Australia’s Bert Oldfield, (the stumping champion whose 52 victims in the 1920s and 1930s are still a record) and India’s PK Sen (during India’s first-ever Test win in 1951-52, which coincided with the passing of King George VI).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/7003.html

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/34741.html

While PK Sen was not as well known as Oldfield, he had his moments as in this Test against England. He also appears in trivia questions as the only Indian Test player who was born in a place which is now in Bangladesh. There were several who were born in places which are now in Pakistan, starting with Naoomal of the 1932 team (Karachi).

Then there is:

Most stumpings in a match (4 and above):

Oldfield dominates this list as one would expect. However, Sen had the record of 5 after that Test in 1951-52. More took over in 1987-88.

Also note V Rajindernath who took 4 stumpings and no catches in his only Test. He did not get to bat either, and thus he and JCW McBryan are the only ones who did not bat or bowl in their Test career. But McBryan did not take a catch.

We also look at the most stumpings in a career (20 and above):

Oldfield and Evans lead, with Dhoni in 3rd place and Kirmani in 4th.  The only other current player here is Sarfaraz Ahmed, though he is yet to catch up with his countrymen Wasim Bari and Kamran Akmal.

 

Test Fielding Records-1

While batting and bowling records are well covered in most sources of cricket statistics, fielding receives lesser attention (as the data points are only for catches and stumpings). Here we take a closer look at this neglected field.

Most dismissals in an innings (6 and above):

The first keeper to take 6 catches/dismissals in an innings was Wally Grout in 1957-58.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/5449.html

The record was then shared by DT Lindsay, JT Murray and SMH Kirmani, the last instance being in 1975-76.

Wasim Bari then became the first to take 7 dismissals in an innings in 1978-79. He was followed by Bob Taylor (though that was overshadowed by Botham’s 13 wickets + century as well as a total eclipse) in 1979-80. Later Ian Smith and Ridley Jacobs joined the 7-catch club.

Most catches in an innings by a non-keeper (5 and above):

The first non-keeper to take 5 catches in an innings was Victor Richardson, who is nowadays better-known as the maternal grandfather of the Chappells. Some resemblance can be seen:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/7346.html

The second to do so was India’s Yajurvindra Singh on his debut in 1976-77. A total of 12 fielders have now reached the mark of 5 catches in an innings.

Now we look at match performances.

Most dismissals in a match (9 and above):

The first to make 9 dismissals was Australia’s Gilbert Langley in 1956 (Laker’s series).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/6258.html

No one else took 9 in a match until 1979-80, when Bob Taylor took 10 (along with 7 in an innings in the match of Botham and the eclipse).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/21494.html

Before anyone else could cross 10, the new record of 11 was set by RC Russell in 1995-96.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/19500.html

Subsequently several others have taken 10 dismissals (a total of 4 including WP Saha and Sarfaraz Ahmed) and 11 dismissals in a match (a total of 3 including AB de Villiers and Rishabh Pant).

And finally;

Most dismissals in a match by a non-keeper (7 and above):

The first to take 7 catches in a match was Greg Chappell in 1974-75. Unfortunately his grandfather did not see this as he had passed away a few years earlier, although he had lived long enough to see Ian Chappell make a good start in Tests.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/4558.html

And the second was Yajurvindra Singh on his debut in 1976-77.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/36072.html

Unfortunately he played only in 4 Tests.

Several others took 7 in a match. The next record of 8 catches was set by AM Rahane in 2015 (although India lost that Test).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/277916.html

He continues to have that record to himself, although you will see ABD with 8 catches as a fielder. However, he took these 8 catches as a keeper substituting for the injured Q de Kock. He is listed as a non-keeper here as he was not the nominated keeper for this Test.

de Villiers was also the captain in this Test. This was a day-night Test against Zimbabwe which got over in 2 days.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18067/scorecard/1122310/south-africa-vs-zimbabwe-only-test-zim-in-sa-dec-2017-2017-18

Meanwhile, several others took 7 catches in a match. The last was KL Rahul in 2018.

 

 

Ireland’s flop show

After holding their own for the first two days, Ireland collapsed abjectly to an 143-run defeat in their first Test at Lord’s.

From here we can see that their 38 all out

1) is the lowest score at Lord’s, slipping below the 42 by India in 1974.

2) the second shortest innings by balls bowled. The record is 75 balls in South Africa’s 30 all out at Birmingham in 1924. Ireland’s 94-ball effort shares the second spot with England’s 61 all out at Melbourne in 1901-02 as well as South Africa’s other 30 all out, at Port Elizabeth in 1895-96. at Melbourne in 1901-02

It is also one of the rare instances in recent times when two bowlers (Woakes and Broad) ran through a side:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282890.html

Interestingly, the last such instance was by England (58 all out under lights) at Auckland in 2017-2018. On that occasion Boult and Southee were the wreckers.

India’s 42 does not appear here, since Old and Arnold together bowled 16 overs and Hendrick bowled the 17th.

England’s first innings score of 85 is not the lowest score by a winning side. More about this here (though it is from 2016 and has not been updated):

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/233412.html

On the positive side:

TJ Murtagh recorded the first fiver (5-13) for Ireland. In their last Test against Afghanistan, he had recorded their third fifty (54*).

He will thus the first Irish player to appear on the Lord’s honours boards.

Murtagh (6-65) and debutant Adair (6-98) now have the best match figures for Ireland. The previous record was 6-100 by Murtagh in their maiden Test against Pakistan.

Naturally, Murtagh has the most wickets (13) for Ireland.

KJ O’Brien has the most runs (258) for Ireland, besides the only century (118) which was in their maiden Test.

Finally, Chris Woakes recorded his third five-wicket haul. All three of them had come at Lord’s, where he took two fivers in the same match against Pakistan in 2016.

5wi in last Test innings

We have already looked at the cases of those who scored a double century in their last Test and those who took 10+ wickets in their last Test. Now we look at the cases of those who took 5+ wickets in the their last innings in Tests.

The current players such as Dananjaya and Wagner can be disregarded. We see that the best performance in these condition is the lesser-known Australian GR Hazlitt with 7-25 in the triangular series of 1912. Some famous names here are Trumble, Barnes, Caddick, Grimmett, Procter, Hadlee and Zaheer Khan.

There is also WH Ashley who took 7-95 in his only Test innings, and CS Marriott who took 11 wickets in his only Test.

This table was obtained by Statsguru’s function which gives performances in the player’s last Test. Possibly we may have missed out some cases where someone has bowled for the last time before playing his last Test. This could happen to non-regular bowlers. Or regular bowlers who were unable to bowl in their last Test.

Ten wickets in last Test

We have seen that several players including Andrew Sandham and Seymour Nurse scored triple and double centuries in their last Test. Here we look at those who took 10 or more wickets in their last Test.

Leave out MA Starc’s 2019 performance as he will play many more Tests. SF Barnes holds the record of 14-144 in the penultimate Test before the Great War. He did not play in the next Test which started on 27 Feb 1914.

The remaining 9 have taken 10 or more wickets in their last Test. In some cases they took 5+ wickets in each innings, which we will look at next.

CS Marriott was playing in his only Test. He is, obviously, the only one to take 10 wickets in his only Test. There are several others who took 5 wickets in an innings in their only Test.

Cricket World Cup finals and honors

A summary of all the World Cup final matches, their MOM awards and MOS awards. Also other World Cup records.

As you can see here, sometimes the presentation in Wikipedia is better than in Cricinfo and other cricket websites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_World_Cup#Man_of_the_tournament

Seymour Nurse’s odd record (Updated in Dec 2019)

Back to old-fashioned cricket.

Seymour Nurse passed away earlier this year: http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/52636.html

He was one of the reasonably strong members of the West Indies invincibles of the 1960s, playing 29 Tests between 1960 and 1969.

And he was one of the few to score a double century in his last Test, which was https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17283/scorecard/63038/new-zealand-vs-west-indies-3rd-test-west-indies-tour-of-new-zealand-1968-69

These are the few who achieved this:

As we can see, Warner, Sandham and Ponsford scored more than Nurse’s 258 in their final Tests.

Spare a thought for Sandham. He was the first to score a Test 300, and his match total of 375 was a record until 1974 when Greg Chappell overtook it. But an average cricket fan of today (or, indeed, from the 1940s onward) probably would not have heard of him unless they were deep into history.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/20058.html

Now we see that Sandham scored 325 and 50 in his last Test: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17590/scorecard/62579/west-indies-vs-england-4th-test-england-tour-of-west-indies-1929-30

And Ponsford likewise scored 266 and 22 in his last Test (with Bradman making 244 and 77): https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17565/scorecard/62623/england-vs-australia-5th-test-australia-tour-of-england-1934

It was not often that Bradman made a double century but was outscored by a team-mate.

So we see that SM Nurse, who made 258 in his only innings in his last Test, holds the record for the highest last innings score in all Tests.

Others to score a double century in their last Test innings are:

Aravinda de Silva; 206 in his last first-class match.

JN Gillespie; 201* as a night-watchman batting at No 3 instead of his usual 9.

Warner and Root will be around for a while.

For India, the answer to this is VM Merchant, with 154 vs England in 1951-52. VS Hazare outscored him with 164*. Other Indians with a century in their last Test innings are VL Manjrekar (102* vs NZ in 1964-65) and M Azharuddin (102 vs SA in 1999-2000).

 

 

Performances in CWC 2019

Batting:

Most runs (400 runs and above):

Note 5 centuries by RG Sharma, while Shakib Al Hasan has 7 scores of 50+.

Only 1 run separates the leader RG Sharma (648) and runner up DA Warner (647).

Highest innings (95 and above):

Not as high-scoring as the 2015 WC, which had scores of 215 and 237.

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and above):

Note that MA Starc has 4 hauls of 4wi and above, followed by M Shami with 3.

Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 4wi and better):

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and above):

JE Root has the most catches (13) by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

CR Woakes and JM Bairstow have the most catches by non-keepers (4) which equals the existing World Cup record held by several others.

All-round performance:

Overall:

Shakib Al Hasan with 606 runs and 11 wickets is clearly leading here, followed by the less expected all-rounder JDS Neesham.

Match performances (30 runs and 3 wickets):

Only these two. Shakib and Yuvraj Singh (vs Ireland in 2011) are the only two with 50/5wi in a World Cup match.

Man of the Series:  KS Williamson, presumably for his captaincy as well as being the 4th top scorer with 578 runs.