This is being written in the middle of the 3rd Eng v Ind Test.
These figures may have concerned the player’s first or second innings as a fielder.
Note the only non-keeper Yajurvindra Singh, who took as many catches as Rishabh Pant.
He had a short career of 4 Tests, as did Maclean.
Emery played only one Test, as he had the misfortune to play in the Healy era.
When Rishabh Pant hit his second ball on Test debut for six, the keepers of arcane statistics pointed out that this had only been surpassed by New Zealander Mark Craig, who had done this on his first ball while making his debut in 2014. More importantly, he took 8 wickets in the match and played a major role in one of New Zealand’s rare victories in the West Indies.
See: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/497543.html
and this extract from Steven Lynch’s column:
“Has anyone hit his first ball in Test cricket for six? And how about his last ball? asked Julian Metcalfe from England
The only player so far to hit the first ball he received in Test cricket for six was the New Zealand offspinner Mark Craig, who cracked Sulieman Benn of West Indies over the long-off boundary in Kingston in June 2014. In the field that day, probably nodding approvingly, was Chris Gayle, who remains the only man to hit the very first ball of a Test match for six – from the debutant Sohag Gazi of Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2012. The only man known to have hit his last ball in Test cricket for six was another West Indian, Wayne Daniel, against Australia in Port-of-Spain in 1984.”
Craig seemed set for a long career, particularly as he soon became one of the few to make the double of a fifty and ten wickets in a Test during his first year of international cricket.
However, his Test career lasted little over two years and he is no longer in contention for the NZ team. Probably this was more because his bowling figures had declined, though he continued to score useful runs in the lower order.
He played 15 Tests and no ODIs and T20Is.
Here you can see his Test career (2014-2016):
Following the second Test at Lord’s, there were some snide remarks directed at Adil Rashid who did not bat, bowl or take a catch in the match. He had however scored a few runs and took 3 wickets in the first Test.
It is fairly common to end a match without runs, wickets or dismissals, particularly when rain affects a large portion of the match. In 2018 alone six Test players have experienced this, including Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay in the same Test.
An afterthought: Lakmal was captain in that Test. Probably we should exclude captains from a listing like this.
Is there anyone who never scored a run, took a wicket or made a fielding dismissal in his entire Test career? Yes, more than you may guess.
A total of 21 players, of whom only TAP Sekhar played 2 Tests and the rest never got another chance.
The only one who did not bat or bowl at all was JCW MacBryan in 1924, who was a victim of a badly rain-affected Test where his side never got to bat and the opponents also got less than a day to bat.
What of those who never batted or bowled in their career but at least made one dismissal?
There is only one instance:
This was wicketkeeper V Rajindernath who made 4 stumpings (but took no catches) in his only Test.
In ODIs and T20Is there are more such cases. One instance related to the current Sri Lankan player Akila Dananjaya who did not bat, bowl or field in his first ODI (mainly as he never came into bat before rain prevented the opponents from batting). Still, he is now one of his team’s key players in Test and limited-overs matches.
This was the scorecard of his debut ODI:
You know about the honours boards at Lord’s: one for scoring a century, one for 5wi and one for 10wm. (Then there are separate boards for home, visitors and neutral players. Ignore that for now).
How many players do you think qualify to be on all three boards? One of them joined the club during this Test.
An elite group of all-rounders, with only one visitor (Miller) among them.
CR Woakes scored a century in this match. He had earlier taken 5wi and 10wm in 2016.
He really seems to like Lord’s, as we see from his record here:
Of those who appear on two or more boards. Vinoo Mankad and Ian Botham are the only ones to have taken a century and 5wi in the SAME match.
No one has scored a century and taken 10wm in the same Test at Lord’s. This has been achieved only three times in all Tests, by Botham, Imran and Shakib.
As an afterthought, here are the only two who have scored a fifty and taken 10wm in the SAME Test at Lord’s: they would be duly listed for their 5wi and 10wm, but not for their fifty.
A similar piece from Cricinfo: http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/24350452/chris-woakes-lord-love
Tail piece: Some readers seem to be unsure about the existence of the 10wm boards. Maybe they are a relatively recent innovation. However, we have some pictures to verify this:
Part of the 10wm board.
Also, when someone gets 10wm with two fivers, both fivers are mentioned on the fiver board. If he gets one fiver and another haul of less than 5 wickets in the match, both are mentioned (and marked) as you can see here:
And finally, one of the obscure boards for neutral Tests:
These were set up in 2010 and so far cover only two Tests, Aus v SA in 1912 and Aus v Pak in 2010.
Hope that you have read part 1: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2018/08/05/best-performances-by-losing-captains/
We look at other performances by captains in tests lost by their team. We will see that India is well represented here.
Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5wi and above):
Kapil is the only captain who has taken more than 7 wickets here. BS Bedi, Imran Khan and Courtney Walsh have multiple appearances. Current players include Shakib Al Hasan (multiple appearances), Graeme Cremer and Jason Holder.
Best match bowling (8wm and above):
Kapil again heads this, from that same match in 1983. Bedi is the only other one with a 10-for. Current players include Jason Holder and Graeme Cremer.
Best innings fielding (5 dismissals):
Includes a few current players such as Mushfiqur, SPD Smith and Sarfraz. Sammy and Smith are the only non-keepers here.
Best match fielding (6 dismissals):
Current player Sarfraz Ahmed tops this list along with AC Gilchrist, while MS Dhoni and SPD Smith also appear. SP Fleming and SPD Smith (twice) are the only non-keepers. Gilchrist was a “regular” stand-in captain.
Best all-round performance (50 and 5wi):
Holder and Shakib from the present, while Imran Khan has two appearances from the same series in 1982. The best performances would by by Imran (July 1982) and Holder.
The 1st Test between England and India saw England winning, though Virat Kohli’s 149 and 51 attracted attention more as it was almost a solo performance. Let us see that best batting performances by captains whose side lost.
Best innings scores (140 and above):
Only one double century here. Remember that this is only for captains, so there are higher scores like Lara’s 221 (when not captain) which do not appear here.
Tendulkar and Kohli (in Jan 2018) have scored more than Kohli’s 149 here. Pataudi and Kohli (yet again, this time from 2014) appear further down. Cook and Mushfiqur are other current players here.
Now for Best match totals (190 and above):
Here, Kohli has the highest among all losing captains with 256 in 2014. His 200 in this match is in third place for India, with Pataudi in second place. Cook also appears here.
Next we will look at the best bowling, fielding and all-round performances by losing captains. A number of current players figure in these.
Keshav Maharaj’s 9-129 and match figures of 12-283 (along with Theunis de Bruyn’s maiden century) were South Africa’s only saving grace in their loss in the second Test at Colombo (SSC). We now look at the best bowling figures by losing teams in Tests.
Best innings bowling in defeats (including all instances of 8wi and above):
Maharaj’s 9-129 is the fourth-best performance here in a list headed by Kapil Dev’s 9-69. It may be recalled that Noreiga’s 9-95 is the best for WI in all Tests, and that it came in India’s first Test win over the West Indies.
The previous best for South Africa was Hugh Tayfield’s 7-23 in 1950, which can also be seen above.
Valentine and Krejza were making their debuts. Krezja played only in one more Test. Valentine made his debut with Ramadhin, and the two ensured that England lost the remaining 3 Tests of the series.
Best match bowling in defeats (including all instances of 11wm and above):
Here Maharaj’s 12-283 is somewhat down the list which is headed by Srinath’s 13-132 in 1999. The previous best for South Africa was AE Hall’s 11-112 in 1923, which can also be seen above.
Krejza, Hall, Burke and Valentine were making their debuts. Only Valentine got an extended run.
As this is being written, it appears likely that Imran Khan Niazi will be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan. While he may be described as one of Pakistan’s finest cricket captains, it is an open question whether he will be successful as a PM.
His adversary Nawaz Sharif was a cricketer of a sort-though he played only one first-class match in which he scored a duck and did not bowl or take a catch. The summary of his career is here:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/42259.html
If one wants to find out details of the match he played in, it is not in Cricinfo but can be found in other sources such as www.cricketarchive.com
I am giving the link for the scorecard here, though it will probably not be visible unless you have paid the subscription for access to the site.
http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/33/33876.html
This match was between Railways (NS’s team) and PIA “B” at Karachi (Gymkhana Ground) on 10/11 Dec 1973. Unusually for a 4-day match, it was concluded in two days when Railways won by an innings and 68 runs. This was a quarter-final of the BCCP Patron’s Trophy. Railways went on to win the trophy, defeating PIA “A” in the final.
A brief summary of the match in question:
Railways 238
PIA “B” 51 and (fo) 119.
As mentioned above, Nawaz Sharif scored a duck. He was the No 2 batsman, and did not bowl or take a catch.
His team-mates included two international players in Arif Butt and Mohammed Nazir who each played in a few Tests. The latter took 11 wickets in the match.
The PIA team did not have any international players. There was a Saeed Ahmed who batted at No 11, though he is not the one you are thinking of.
NS also appears in one “miscellaneous” one-day match which does not have List A status. This match was played between Lahore Gymkhana and England at Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore on 7 Oct 1987, as one of the warm-up matches for the Reliance World Cup.
This stadium was earlier known as Lawrence Gardens and had hosted a few Tests in 1955-59.
http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/201/201432.html
In this match England won by 129 runs, with NS batting at No 2 and bowled by DeFreitas for 1.
(Thanks to Pradeep Ramarathman for remembering the second match).
He also participated in non-serious matches later on, such as one in a meeting of Commonwealth leaders in the early 90s. In one of these matches he hit a few sixes.
Perhaps the high point of his cricket career occurred when he was PM, when Pakistan’s team captained by Imran Khan won the World Cup in 1992:
Only a few days ago we noticed that Bangladesh had finally got a Test ranking (8th) higher than that of the West Indies (9th). It was therefore hoped that Bangladesh would be competitive in the 2-Test series in the West Indies starting on July 4.
That did not happen, as Bangladesh was dismissed for 43 before lunch on the first day of the series at North Point. The main wrecker was Kemar Roach (5-1-8-5 with an injured knee).
In the following tables I have considered 9 or 10 wickets down, to cover cases where teams batted one man short.
This is the lowest score by Bangladesh in all Tests:
It also has the lowest number of balls in any Test innings by Bangladesh (112), the next lowest being 152 for their 62-run effort in 2007.
It is also the lowest Test score by any side since 2000 ( the list shows scores below 75)
However, they lasted for 112 balls which is higher than that for Australia (108 balls for 47 in 2011) and 111 balls for 60 in 2015).
And you can see that 43 all out is fairly low down in the all-time Test lows (below 50). India was dismissed for 42 (one man absent) in 1974.
We also look at the all-time Test lows by balls faced (less than 120 balls):
The all-time low is 75 balls by SA for 30 all out in 1924. The NZ team which made 26 all out did survive for 162 balls and thus does not appear here. India’s record low of 102 balls for 42 can be seen here.
The Bangladesh team’s 112 balls is one more than Australia’s 111 balls for 60 in 2015 and 108 balls in 2011, which are the lowest in recent years.
Finally we look at the lowest scores in the first innings of the match (below 60);
Bangladesh’s 43 today is the 3rd lowest here, and the lowest since 1946.
Also note that England won after being dismissed for 45 in 1887.
And the lowest number of balls faced in the first innings of the match (below 120):
Here Bangladesh has survived for one ball more than Australia’s famous 60 in 2015, which is the record.
And the 43 is the lowest Test score in the West Indies:
Afghanistan’s first Test gets under way at Bengaluru on Jun 14. We look at past encounters between the teams in limited overs cricket.
There is not much to write about. The teams have met only in one ODI and two T20Is and India have won all of them.
The ODI was in the course of the 2014 Asia Cup. India won by 8 wickets.
The two T20Is were in the World T20I Championships in 2010 and 2012. India won by 7 wickets and by 23 runs.
A sobering thought for Afghanistan: Among the other 11 Test teams, only Australia have won their first Test and only Zimbabwe drew their first Test. The other 9 all lost their maiden Test efforts.
The previous Test entrant Ireland had one previous Test player in Boyd Rankin. Afghanistan has none. But as in the case of Ireland, most of the team have long experience in ODIs and T20Is.
One of the sore points of India’s defeat in the Asia Cup final against dismissal was the unusual dismissal (obstructing the field) of Anuja Patil for 3. She thus became the first player to be so dismissed in a women’s T20I match.
There is no such instance in women’s Tests.
There is one instance in ODIs, again from India. D Kamini (2) was dismissed the same way against the West Indies in 2016.
This mode of dismissal is quite rare in men’s cricket too.
Tests: Only one instance, Len Hutton (27), E v SA in 1951.
ODIs: 6 instances, starting with Ramiz Raja (99) against England in 1987. This was in an ODI series after the 1987 World Cup. The last instance was by Ben Stokes, E v A in 2015.
T20Is: Only one instance, Jason Roy (67), E v SA in 2017.
The term “minnow-bashing” was often heard in World Cup cricket matches where the non-regular teams often came to grief against the major teams.
Now the women’s T20I teams of India and Pakistan have shown that they are better at minnow-bashing than their male counterparts. The occasions came in the course of the ongoing Asia Cup which is a T20I tournament in Malaysia. As we will see, the Malaysian team have been very gracious hosts.
The 6 participating teams are India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia. As the last 2 are not regular teams, their matches are not counted in women’s T20I records.
India started the process by dismissing Malaysia for 27 and thus winning by 142 runs:
Pakistan did almost as well, dismissing the hosts for 30 and winning by 147 runs.
Thailand has also done quite badly, without ever crossing 100. But they did beat Malaysia by 9 wickets:
The league matches continue on June 9, which features Ind v Pak, SL v Th and BD vs Ma.
The final on June 10 will probably be between India and Pakistan.
abn397 