T20Is of 2019-1

The year of the “big bang” when many new teams were admitted to “official” T20Is. A quick look at the results:

Teams ranked by W/L ratio:

A total of 71 teams played at least one T20I this year.

You will agree that the above table doesn’t mean much. Australia (OK), Argentina and Belize !? are the top teams, are they? And is Jersey as good as India?

Let us look at the ICC rankings, which are supposed to be more refined:

There are 86 teams covered in these rankings. The last 7 have zero points:

One might argue that Gibraltar and China are the worst teams as they have played the most matches for zero points.

Anyway, back to the top. The T20I World Championship will be held in Australia in late 2020:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_ICC_Men%27s_T20_World_Cup

The 16 teams participating are the top 19 in the ICC ranking table MINUS Zimbabwe, Nepal and UAE.

Next we look at individual performances in T20Is.

Test statistics for 2018-1

Summarizing the team performances of 2018

Ranked by W/L ratio:

And the ICC ranking tables at the end of the year:

Note that the rankings are quite different, as the ICC rankings cover a longer period and are supposed to take the opponent’s strength into account.

Note the close bunching for 2nd to 4th position by England, New Zealand and South Africa. Also 6th and 7th (Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and for 8th and 9th (West Indies and Bangladesh).

Now we go on to individual performances.

Batting:

Most runs: 500 and above:

Virat Kohli has the most centuries (5). He also has the most scores above 50 (10).

Highest innings (110 and above):

The top score of 264* by Tom Latham was the highest by anyone carrying his bat through an innings, surpassing the 244* by Alastair Cook less than a year earlier. Here is a live link of all those who carried their bat through an innings, in chronological order.

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

Curiously, it was the first instance of anyone scoring 264 or 264* in a Test. The lowest score which has never been made is 229/229*  (but there is also an outlier at 140*).

KJ O’Brien is here for Ireland’s first Test century, while Afghanistan still has no score above 50.

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

Kohli and the hitherto unheralded Kusal Mendis are on top here, as in the listing of most runs. Others from India can also be seen here.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Here it is Buttler and Mominul  who have the highest strike rates. Pujara is near the bottom as we may expect. Kohli and Rahane are also here.

To be continued:

T20Is of 2018

The Test cricket caravan for 2018 finally comes to an end on December 30.

Meanwhile we look at the T20Is of 2018, which had concluded earlier in the month.

Here are the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

And the teams arranged by win/loss ratio:

Here Afghanistan has a clean sweep, including minnows as well as regulars such as Bangladesh. Pakistan has a more valid claim to the top position, as they do in the ICC rankings.

Some statistics for individual performances are given below. As in the above table, the one match involving the ICC XI is not counted.

Most runs: 250 and above:

Shikhar Dhawan is far ahead of the rest.

Highest innings: 90 and above:

AJ Finch is far ahead of the rest.

Most wickets: 10 and above:

The lesser known AJ Tye has the most wickets.

Best innings bowling: includes all cases of 4wi and above:

Most dismissals: 10 and above:

Sarfraz and Finch head the lists for keepers and non-keepers respectively.

All-round match performances: 30 runs and 3 wickets:

GJ Maxwell and Shakib Al Hasan have the best performances here.

From 2019 onwards, all T20I matches will be considered official and there will be no select list of T20I countries as there is for ODIs. So matches including presently unranked teams will figure in these statistics, as it already does with women’s T20I matches.

 

Quick guide to Test matches of 2017

In the calendar year 2017, 47 Test matches were played. 40 had results and 7 were drawn. Coincidentally, in 2016 there were also 47 Tests if which 7 were drawn.

These were the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

India clearly at the top, although there is some chance that South Africa will close the gap in the current series. But even a 3-0 win is not likely to put SA at the top.

At the bottom end, note that West Indies and Bangladesh are now level and Zimbabwe is far behind. It will be interesting to see where Ireland and Afghanistan will be (say) five years from now. While Ireland seems to be declining, Afghanistan may well get ahead of Zimbabwe.

Now we look at the win-loss ratio for all Tests in 2017. This is not expected to give the same results as the ICC rankings since the latter cover a longer period.

While India clearly leads, New Zealand has also done well to be in second place. Zimbabwe is the only one without a win, though Pakistan and Bangladesh have the same number of wins.

More detailed analysis of individual performances will follow.

 

The T20Is of 2017

The T20I matches of 2018 have already started. So we now look back at the matches of 2017. Not too many as there was no world championship, though there is now an increasing trend of 3-match series rather than a single match grudgingly tagged on at the end of the season.

First, the ICC ranking table at the end of the year:

This has a close bunching at the top, with 3 points separating Pakistan, New Zealand and India.

Now we look at win-loss ratios in 2017:

Pakistan and Scotland (!) at the top, with Bangladesh just above bottom-ranked PNG. Although Pakistan does top both lists, it should be remembered that the ICC rankings cover a longer period.

Now we look at individual performances. With a relatively small sample size there is not much point in finding averages and strike rates. The matches involving the World XI are not counted, even though the ICC and Cricinfo regards them as official T20Is

Batting: Most runs (150 and above):

So Evin Lewis of the West Indies leads, leaving established stars like ABD and Kohli behind. C Munro is the only one with 2 centuries, while several have three 50+ scores.

Highest innings (75 and above):

Evin Lewis leads the next in line RG Sharma by a large margin (by T20I standards).

Bowling: Most wickets (10 and above):

YS Chahal emerged with a bang, while Williams and Rashid also emerged from the fringes. Chahal is the only one with three 4wis, no one else had more than 1.

Best innings bowling (all instances of 5wi and above):

Chahal and Rashid Khan again.

Fielding: Most dismissals (8 and more):

Dhoni heads this list, although surprisingly Ireland’s GH Dockrell has the most catches as a non-keeper. In fact he has more catches than Dhoni or any other keeper!

Best innings fielding (3 or more dismissals):

While Chandimal, Dhoni and GD Philips have 4 dismissals apiece, several non-keepers have taken 3 catches.

All-round performance-overall:

See criteria below:

Seekuge Prasanna emerges as the only to one to have bowled and batted enough with some pretensions to being an all-rounder.

All-round match performances (20+ runs and 2+ wickets).

The best performances here are by Anshuman Rath (HK) and Shakib Al Hasan.