Analyzing Test captaincies – 3

Now we look at the ranking of captains by simple criteria such as win-loss ratios and win percentage.

Win-loss ratios (raw):

All of those listed here have a win-loss ratio of infinity-since they never lost a Test. A few like Srikkanth and Majid Khan managed to draw all their Tests.

As this table is not very meaningful, we repeat this with a restriction of a minimum of 10 Tests:

These are limited to those with W/L ratios above 2.00

This list of 31 is headed by Warwick Armstrong with 8 wins, no losses and 2 draws. Others have lost at least one Test. The first few are generally considered to be among the best captains although they had relatively short careers. And not everyone would agree with Jardine’s tactics.

Current captains are Kohli (#16) and Williamson (#25). They should be around for a while.

Also note that these two are the only representatives of India and New Zealand respectively among the top 31 (who have W/L ratio above 2.00)

West Indies is headed by Richards and Lloyd (as you may expect). Pakistan is headed by Zaheer Abbas (whom you would not expect). Similarly SM Pollock is the top SA captain here (though there is also A Bacher with 4 wins in 4 Tests).

From the upper table, special mention should be made of DB Close (6 wins and 1 draw in 7 Tests).

We also look at

Percentage of wins (raw):

Somewhat meaningful, although those with short careers (A Bacher and Lord Hawke) have an advantage with 4 wins out of 4. The latter was a poor batsman but somehow managed to win 4 Tests and played in one other victory, thus seeing victory in all his 5 Tests.

Bacher did not do too well himself but had a good team and a demoralized Australian team to contend with.

As in the case of W/L ratios, we will get more useful results with a restriction of a minimum of 10 Tests:

This list of 28 is of those with a win percentage of a minimum of 50%.

This may fit in better with general perceptions, though Warwick Armstrong is still at the top with 80%. Here Steve Waugh is above Bradman unlike in the upper table. Others like Kohli and Williamson are ranked higher than in the upper table.

Kohli, Williamson, Paine, Root and du Plessis are the current captains although the last-named intends to step down. And SPD Smith may make a comeback.

It is interesting to see the most successful captains from their countries:

WW Armstrong (Aus)

WG Grace (Eng) ?!

V Kohli (Ind)

FMM Worrell (WI)

Waqar Younis (Pak) ?!

KS Williamson (NZ)

SM Pollock (SA)

Note that Waqar Younis has 10 wins, 7 losses and no draws. This is also a record, which we will see later.

CH Lloyd is not here as his win % is less than 50.

There are still more studies of captaincy coming up.

Warner’s triple century and others

First, a list of all Test scores of 300 and above;

David Warner’s 335* was the 31st instance of 300+ in a Test, and the first at Adelaide. Incidentally the previous highest was 299* by DG Bradman vs SA in 1931-32.

It is also the highest in any day-night Test, surpassing  Azhar Ali’s 302* at Dubai in 2016-17.

However, it is the second highest score by an Australian player and in Australia, where ML Hayden’s 380 is in first place.

Coming back to the list of 300+ scores above, 27 players have made 31 such scores.

Lara, Gayle, Sehwag and Bradman have 2 such scores each. Bradman and Sehwag came close to getting a third, getting up to 299* and 293 respectively.

It is instructive to see the list of 300+ scores in chronological order.

The first such score was by Andrew Sandham in 1929-30. He remains relatively unknown now:

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

Prior to this tour of the West Indies, he had played in 10 Tests without a century, He made 152 in the first Test, and rounded this up with 325 and 50 in what was to be his last Test. England made 849 and later set WI over 800 to win. As in the better-known timeless Test at Durban a decade later, the match was called off as England had to catch their ship home.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17590/scorecard/62579/west-indies-vs-england-4th-test-england-tour-of-west-indies-1929-30

This record of 325 only lasted for a little over 7 months, as Bradman made 334 at Leeds during the 1930 tour. (His only other triple (304) also came at Leeds in 1934).

Another of Sandham’s records was more durable; his 375 in the match was not surpassed until Greg Chappell made 380 (247* and 133) in 1973-74.

In England’s customary add-on series with New Zealand after the bodyline series of 1932-33, Hammond made 336*. The captain (RES Wyatt) appears to have declared once he crossed Bradman’s record of 334. Even so, there was not enough time to win the Test.

So the record was back with England. Bradman got up to 304 at Leeds in 1934.

At the Oval in 1938, Hutton made sure it remained with England with 364. England’s total of 903/7 dec was the record until the Sri Lankans made 952/6 in 1997.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17544/scorecard/62652/england-vs-australia-5th-test-australia-tour-of-england-1938

A famous picture from that Test:

That record of 364 lasted a little less than 20 years, when a relatively unknown all-rounder named Garfield Sobers marked his first Test century with 365*. There was, expectedly, a crowd disturbance when he passed the old mark. But the captain Gerry Alexander declared after this, correctly guessing that there was enough time to bowl out Pakistan twice.

A more detailed account of this innings can be seen here:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/make-mine-a-double-no-a-triple/

This record stood for just over 36 years, when another West Indian batsman Brian Lara made 375 at St John’s in 1994. An account of this innings:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/21525184/brian-lara-375-world-record-nearly

The West Indies won the series 3-1 with this final Test drawn.

In the second half of the 1990s, there were two determined efforts, with Sri Lanka’s Jayasuriya making 340 in what is still a Test record total of 952/6, and the puzzling score of 334* by Australian captain Mark Taylor who declared at this point. The official story then was that he did not want to go past Bradman’s Australian record. Both these Tests ended in dull draws.

By late 2003, Matthew Hayden got a chance against Zimbabwe. Admittedly its bowling was somewhat better than what it was later, but he did not stop at crossing 375 and made 380 at Perth, still a record for Australia and in Australia. Steve Waugh declared as soon as Hayden was out at 735/6.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15140/scorecard/64048/australia-vs-zimbabwe-1st-test-zimbabwe-tour-of-australia-2003-04

Hayden’s record lasted only for 6 months, when Lara reclaimed it again at St. John’s:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15068/scorecard/64080/west-indies-vs-england-4th-test-england-tour-of-west-indies-2003-04

As in 1994, this score was not enough for West Indies to win the Test even though England had to follow on. However, England had won the first 3 Tests and thus won the series 3-0. Lara’s 400* was therefore relatively unimportant to the result.

Since then, the closest anyone got was 374 by M Jayawardene in 2006. Warner might well have come close to the record except that rain was forecast for the remainder of the Test. It is yet unclear whether the captain TD Paine attached any special significance to 335 which was Warner’s score when the captain declared. There was enough time to dismiss Pakistan twice with over a day to spare.

 

 

 

More about batting averages

Here is the table showing the batting averages for all 1105 players who batted in at least 20 innings up to 25 Oct 2019:

Averages Oct 2019-Complete

The averages range from 99.94 (DG Bradman) to 2.00 (M Mbangwa).

The mean of these averages is 27.07, and those closest to it are KR Rutherford, JJ Lyons and PA Strang.

Looking at other measures of central tendency:

First quartile: 36.16 (Wasim Raja)

Median: 26.52 (PR Reiffel, RW Marsh)

Third quartile: 16.28 (RW Taylor, BL Cairns)

 

Test scores of 200+ by Indians and others

Information correct as on Oct 11, 2019.

First we look at those who have made 5 or more scores of 200 or more:

We can see that Kohli is now equal with Hammond and M Jayawardene in making 7 scores of 200+. The previous record of 6 for India was shared by him, Sehwag and Tendulkar. Kohli is also the only current player above.

The only other player with more than one triple century is CH Gayle, whose 4 scores of 200+ include 2 triples.

A total of 374 scores of 200+ have been made in Tests. This includes one quadruple century, 29 triples and 344 doubles.

All those who have made 200+ for India are tabulated below:

We also look at scores of 200+ in ODIs:

There are only 8 such scores.

RG Sharma has made 3, with a top score of 264 which is the ODI record.

Others who have made 200+ scores in ODIs are Fakhar Zaman, CH Gayle, MJ Guptill, V Sehwag and SR Tendulkar.

And for T20Is:

The highest score is 172 by AJ Finch. There are 2 other scores above 150, by AJ Finch again and H Zazai.

 

Alistair Cook’s record score.

As you can see from here, Alistair Cook’s 244* at Melbourne is not his highest Test score.

That is 294.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/11728.html

However, it set a number of records. He became the first Test player to make 244*, while Bradman is the only one to be dismissed on 244 (vs England, who else?) in 1934.

Cook’s 244* is also the highest score by anyone carrying his bat through a Test:

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

The previous record was 223* by GM Turner vs WI in 1971-72; this series had all 5 Tests drawn and is the only such series not involving India.

The previous record for England was 202* by L Hutton vs WI in 1950-this was not enough to prevent an innings defeat against Ramadhin, Valentine and Goddard.

And the previous record in Australia was 169* by MA Taylor vs SA at Adelaide in 1998.

There was also a near-miss in 1974 when DL Amiss made 262* against WI in a total of 432/9.

 

Unbeaten scores of 99,199 and 299

Test scores of 99 are more common than one may imagine. Misbah’s score of 99 in the ongoing Test at Kingston was the 89th such instance. The first such score was by Clem Hill against England in early 1902.

Scores of 99* are somewhat rarer. Here is the full list of such scores in chronological order:

The first such score was recorded only in late 1979. Boycott carried his bat through this innings.

Boycott had a special affinity for 99, as he was the first to score 99 and a century in the same Test:  http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63121.html

That series-equalling win was also due to Tony Greig’s little-used off-spin which got him 13 wickets in the match.

RT Ponting (101 and 99) was the only other batsman to score a century and 99 in the same Test, which was against South Africa at Melbourne in 2008-09.

All the scores of 99* (except that of Tudor) ended when the team was bowled out. Tudor’s 99* remains the only one where the team was chasing a target. This Test, which immediately followed the 1999 World Cup, had a rather weird scorecard:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63841.html

10 wickets fell on the first day and 21 on the second. At close England was 3 for 1 facing a target of 208. Alex Tudor, who normally batted at 8 or below, had come in as a nightwatchman at the fall of the first wicket. On the 3rd day it looked as if he would get a century but his fourth-wicket partner Graham Thorpe was in a hurry to finish things off, leaving Tudor stranded on his highest Test score of 99*. It was to be his only score above 50.

199s and 199*s are still rarer. Here is a complete list of the 11 instances:

The first 199 was scored in late 1984 by Mudassar Nazar, and the most recent by KL Rahul. Both the unbeaten 199s came when the teams were bowled out. Andy Flower scored 142 in addition to 199* in a follow-on as his side lost the Test. (That match ended on 9/11 in 2001).

Sangakkara was more fortunate as his team won.

And 299? Two such instances, the first one being unbeaten:

Martin Crowe’s 299 was the New Zealand record for over two decades until McCullum made 302.  Let us have a closer look at Bradman’s unbeaten 299:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62601.html

This was the 4th Test of Australia’s 5-0 whitewash of South Africa, who had not yet fully graduated from whipping boys. Bradman was stranded on 299 when the No 11 HM Thurlow was run out for 0 on his debut. Thurlow also failed to take a wicket in two innings. Predictably his first Test was his last.