Elgar’s unusual record

South Africa’s 3-day rout of West Indies included an obscure record for captain Dean Elgar.

He is one of the few captains who won a Test without scoring a run, taking a wicket or a fielding dismissal. Here is the complete list of captains who achieved this:

Note that Babar Azam did the same earlier this year.

There are some famous names here (including Bradman in his last Test in 1948).

No Indian captain here, although Clive Lloyd did this against India in 1976. That was the Test famous for the bouncer barrage and India being 97 all out with 5 batsmen unable to bat due to various injuries.

Meanwhile, here is the short list of Indian players whose side won a Test without any contribution by them:

Ishant Sharma achieved this earlier in the year. There is also Pujara with one of his rare ducks.

Also note 3 separate players in the test against NZ at Chennai in 1955-56, which is remembered for the long-standing opening record of 413 by Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy.

TAIL PIECE: If you have any connection with Maharashtra, you can create memes about the Elgar Parishad.

Carrying bat through an innings for and against India

The full list of “carry-throughs” can be found here.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283149.html

This is a dynamic link. D Elgar is the latest addition to this list in the Test starting on 24/01/2018.

The very first “carry-through” was by SA’s AB Tancred was 26* out of 47 in the Test starting on 25/03/1889. This remains a record for the lowest such score, though there are a few more under 50. The highest was recorded about a month ago, when AN Cook made 244* out of 491 in the Test starting on 26/12/2017. There are a few other double centuries, one of which is listed below.

Anyway, Elgar was only the 5th opener to carry his bat through an innings against India.

1) Nazar Mohammed, 124*/331 at Lucknow in match starting on 23/10/1952. Pakistan won by 10 wickets, though India won the series 2-1. This was Pakistan’s first Test series. See note in 3) below.

2) WM Lawry (Australia’s captain), 49*/107 at Delhi, starting 28/11/1969. India won this Test by 7 wickets, though Australia won the series 3-1. Lawry also carried his bat through an innings in an Ashes Test in 1971, which Australia lost.

3) Mudassar Nazar, 152*/323 at Lahore, starting 23/01/1983. Drawn, while Pakistan won the series 3-0. This is the only instance in all Tests where a father and son have both carried their bats through an innings.

4) Saeed Anwar, 188*/316 at Kolkata, starting 16/02/1999. Pakistan won by 46 runs. This was part of the Asian Test Championship, which was finally won by Pakistan.

5) D Elgar, 86*/177 at Johannesburg, starting 24/01/2018. India won by 63 runs, though SA won the series 2-1. Elgar had done this earlier against England in 2015, in a match which SA lost.

There are only 4 such instances for Indian openers in Tests:

1) SM Gavaskar, 127*/286 v Pak at Faisalabad, starting 03/01/1983. Pakistan won by 10 wickets and the series 3-0. Mudassar Nazar returned the compliment later in the series, as mentioned above.

2) V Sehwag, 201*/329 v SL at Galle, starting 31/07/2008. India won by 170 runs, though SL won the series 2-1.

3) R Dravid, 146*/300 v Eng at the Oval, starting 18/08/2011. India lost by an innings and 18 runs, and lost the series 4-0 in a clean sweep.

4) C Pujara, 145*/312 v SL at Colombo (SSC) starting on 28/08/2015. India won by 117 runs and the series 2-1.

Test batting performances of 2017

Here we look at individual batting performances for the calendar year 2017.

Most runs (750 and above):

SPD Smith and five others crossed 1000. Smith had the most centuries (6) followed by Elgar and Kohli with 5.

Smith also had 9 scores of 50-plus, which was attained by several others. But it is his Ashes counterpart Root who has 10 such scores. KL Rahul (who scored less than 750 runs and does not appear above) had 9 scores of 50+ with a top score of 90. You can also see Dickwella who failed to convert any of his 6 fifties.

Also Elgar has the most 4s (43) and Warner and Mushfiqur the most 6s (7) in the above table. A closer look shows that de Grandhomme (15) actually had the most 6s though he scored only 293 runs.

Highest individual innings (150 and above):

The highest score was 244* by AN Cook practically at the end of the year, while he and Kohli also made 243. Cook’s 244* is the first Test score at that number (though Bradman was once dismissed on 244). This 244* is also the highest score by anyone carrying his bat through an innings, surpassing GM Turner’s 223* in 1972.

Kohli has three double centuries while Elgar joined the somewhat exclusive 199 club.

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

Although Pujara and Kohli scored over 1000 runs they batted in less than 20 innings, so they do not appear here. So we have SPD Smith heading this table with Elgar a distant second.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, 50.00 and above):

Here we have Kohli closely followed by Dickwella, with Smith considerably behind.

Two centuries in a match:

Only one instance. They were Hope’s maiden centuries, and enabled the West Indies to win a Test in England for the first time since 2000.

Next we will take up bowling.