Review of England-New Zealand Tests-2023 (Part 1)

The series in NZ in February 2023 was drawn 1-1, in contrast to England’s 3-0 sweep at home in 2022.

Th second Test saw two unusual results. It was only the second Test to be won by a margin of 1 run. Here is a list of Tests where the margin was 5 runs or less:

It was only the 4th time that a team lost a Test after imposing a follow-on, and the first such instance when Australia was not involved:

A total of 112 Tests have been played between these teams. England leads 52-13 with 47 draws.

In England, England leads 33-6 with 20 draws in 59 Tests

In New Zealand, England leads 19-7 with 27 draws in 53 Tests.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Most runs (1000 or more):

JE Root now has the most runs in these matches. He is the only current player in the above list.

Highest individual scores (175 or more):

H Brook’s 186 is the only score from the current series. The highest in recent years was 226 by Root in 2019.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 40.00):

Root has the second-highest average, followed by BA Stokes at some distance.

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

Fittingly, BB McCullum heads this list. Current players here include Stokes, Pope, Root and Blundell.

To be continued.

More snippets from the 3rd Test at Ahmedabad:

England’s lowest Test total against India:

You can see that England’s 81 is their lowest total against India. The previous record was 101 in 1971 where Chandrashekhar took 6-38 to set up India’s first Test win in England.

And their previous lowest total in India was 102 in 1981-82, when Kapil and Madan Lal took fivers in the 4th innings.

Most economical 5-for by a spinner in a Test innings: Root’s 5-8 is in second place after Australia’s Ironmonger if you take the criteria of the least runs conceded in a 5-for:

Only Ironmonger’s 5-6 in 1931-32 has less runs conceded.

Let us also look at the same figure for all captains (regardless of bowling styles):

Here, Root’s innings bowling is second to AER Gilligan’s 6-7. But Gilligan was clearly a medium pacer. The previous record by a captain who was a spin bowler was 5-27 by BS Bedi v NZ in 1976-77. Next is Mushtaq Mohammad with 5-28.

And finally, the Devil makes a comeback here with a score of 66/6:

Though England has also faced 666/6 against India not long ago at Chennai in 2016-17, in KK Nair’s match.

Notes from the 2nd India-England Test

First, a left-over stat from the 1st Test.

Here we see that JE Root’s 218 was the highest innings score for England in India, surpassing the 207 by MW Gatting in 1984-85 which was also at Madras.

Now for the second Test. We look at India’s highest victories by runs against all teams:

We can see that India’s win by 317 runs in the 2nd Test is their highest winning margin by runs against England. The previous record was by 279 runs at Leeds in 1986. In India it was by 246 runs at Visakhapatnam in 2016-17.

This margin of 317 runs is India’s 5th highest victory against all countries.

We also look at India’s highest defeats by runs against all teams:

In the first Test, England won by 227 runs against India. This is quite far down this list, but was England’s highest victory by runs against India in India. It surpassed the 212-run victory at Mumbai in 2005-06.

Debut innings figures by Indian bowlers:

AR Patel’s 5-60 is 7th on the list, but the 2nd best by a left-arm spinner.(after DR Doshi).

We also look at debut match figures by Indian bowlers:

AR Patel’s 7-100 is again 7th on this list and the second best by a left-arm spinner after DR Doshi.

Best match bowling figures by an Indian player who scored a century in the same Test:

Ashwin has the first 3 of the 5 positions here. His 8-96 is in 2nd place.

Axar (AR) Patel has figured in these columns before:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/axar-patels-feat-4-wickets-for-none-3/

Test matches of 2019-Fielding

Individual performances in fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Australian captain Paine leads by a large margin over the next, de Kock.

The best by a non-keeper was 25 by Root, England’s captain.

M Rizwan took over as Pakistan’s keeper from former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Buttler and Hope played some (but not all) of their matches as keepers.

The most stumpings were 4 by JL Bairstow.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

de Kock is the only one with more than 5 dismissals.

Klaasen took 4 dismissals on debut. Other new faces here are RR Pant and Mohammad Rizwan.

Root, Warner and SPD Smith took 4 catches apiece as non-keepers.

Most match dismissals (6 or more):

Sarfaraz Ahmed took 10 dismissals before he lost his captaincy as well as his place in the team. Paine and de Kock were next with 8. New faces here include GC Wilson, RR Pant and Mohammad Rizwan.

Warner and SPD Smith took 6 catches as non-keepers.

Best dismissal rate (Min 15 innings, 0.500):

Paine has by far the best dismissal rate (2.521), followed by Watling.

The best by a non-keeper is 1.312 by SPD Smith.

The ODIs of 2019-2

Hope that you have read Part 1

Continuing with the individual performances in ODIs for the calendar year 2019:

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Led by M Shami and TA Boult.

However Mustafizur Rahman and MA Starc are the only ones with two fivers.

Starc is also the only one with 4 hauls of 4+wi.

Best innings bowling ( including all fivers):

Newcomer SS Afridi has the best figures here, followed by YS Chahal.

Also note the remarkable 5-13 off 8 overs by JN Frylinck of Namibia.

Best bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Shami has the best average as well as strike rate and Boult the best economy rate.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 or more):

Carey, Hope and Latham lead here although Hope has the most catches by a keeper. Kohli has the most catches by a non-keeper and Dhoni the most stumpings.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

There is an unfamiliar name (ZE Green of Namibia) among those who made 5 dismissals in an innings. CR Woakes and CS Macleod took 4 catches as non-keepers.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.5):

Carey and Hope have the highest dismissal rate, while the third-placed Root has the best by a non-keeper.

Overall All-round performance:

(See criteria below):

Mohammad Nabi and Imad Wasim have almost the same difference rate.

All-round match performance: (30 runs and 3 wickets):

The best performance would be by Khawar Ali followed by that of AL Phehlukwayo and Soumya Sarkar. Perhaps Khawar Ali’s performance should be downplayed as it was against one of the weaker teams.

 

 

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.

 

ODIs of 2018-1

The ODIs of the year are over, and we review team and individual performances here:

First, the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

It can be seen that the 10 teams participating in the 2019 World Cup are the top 10 here.

This table includes matches in the past 2-3 years. Nepal has ODI status but has not played enough matches to get a ranking.

Here we look at W/L ratios. This and all subsequent tables refer to performances in the calendar year 2018.

Teams ranked by W/L ratio

Guess who finished last 🙂

And guess who played the most matches.

Of course, this table does not mean much as it does not take into account the opponent’s strength, which the ICC rankings are supposed to.

We now move to individual performances, starting with

Batting:

500 or more runs:

Also note that Kohli (6) and RG Sharma (5) have the most centuries, while Kohli (9) also has the most fifties followed by RG Sharma, Root and Fakhar Zaman with 8.

Innings scores of 125 or more:

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

You might expect Kohli, Sharma and a few others to be here but they did not play enough innings. However, they appear below:

Highest strike rates (Minimum 80.00 for a minimum of 500 balls faced):

Note that England has the two top spots, while India also has a few with strike rates above 100.

To be continued.

Quick statistical summary of the 2017 Champions Trophy

Here we focus on individual performances rather than the end result.

Most runs (100 and above):

No one scored more than one century. Several made 3 scores of 50-plus.

Dhawan, RG Sharma and Tamim scored the most runs.

Though there is not much sense in calculating averages and strike rates with a lesser number of matches, we can see that Kohli averaged 129.00. Next is Stokes with 92.00

The highest strike rate here is by HH Pandya with 194.44, with Fakhar Zaman, Dhawan and Morgan just crossing 100.

Highest individual scores (75 and above):

Consistent performances by RG Sharma, Dhawan and Kohli except in the final. Other consistent performances by Tamim, Fakhar Zaman and Williamson among others.

Bowling-5 or more wickets:

Hasan Ali clearly leads, while Hazlewood took most of his wickets in one innings. In this limited sample, Hasan Ali has the best average and best economy while Hazlewood has the best strike rate.Plunkett is the only one with two 4-wicket hauls.

Best innings bowling-3wi and above:

Note that startling consistency of Hasan Ali who took exactly 3 wickets in an innings in 4 matches.

Best fielding (3 or more dismissals):

Sarfraz has the most dismissals and catches, Buttler the most stumpings, while Babar Azam, Jadeja and Maxwell have the most catches by non-keepers.

Best innings fielding (2 or more):

Sarfraz and non-keeper Maxwell have the most dismissals.

All-round performance (see criteria below):

No one has reached these modest requirements.

All-round match performance (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

Nothing outstanding, although M. Amir’s performance may have been the most valuable.

 

Test fielding performances of 2016

This is for all Tests in the calendar year 2016.

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Note the relatively low proportion of stumpings, with Bairstow and Kusal Perera leading with 4. The most catches by non-keepers are 29 by SPD Smith followed by JE Root with 26. Also note that Bairstow’s tally of 70 dismissals is almost double that of the second-placed Sarfraz Ahmed.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 and above):

While Bairstow and Saha lead, Root has the highest for non-keepers with 4.

Most dismissals in a match (5 and above):

Note Bairstow’s dominance at the top, being the only one with two 9-fors, as well as several more near the top. The most by non-keepers is 6 by Smith.

Highest fielding average (Minimum 15 innings fielded, 0.500 or more dismissals per innings):

Here de Kock is a little ahead of Bairstow. Among the non-keepers, Smith and Root lead (along with Kusal Mendis who kept in a few matches)

To be continued.

Test batting performances of 2016

These tables cover all Test matches in the calendar year 2016.

This post concentrates on batting.

Most runs (500 and above):

As many as 7 with over 1000 runs (including 4 from England). Root just edged out Bairstow.

4 centuries each by V Kohli, S Smith and MM Ali.

The most scores of 50+ are 13 by JE Root and 11 by JM Bairstow. Three others have 9.

Highest innings scores (140 and above):

Headed by a newcomer KK Nair and a relative veteran in Azhar Ali. This was Nair’s maiden Test century. V Kohli had three scores of 200 and above. BA Stokes’s 258 was the highest by any No 6 batsman in Tests, surpassing KD Walters’s 250 in 1976-77.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 15 innings, 20.00 and above):

Also note the highest strike rates for a minimum of 15 innings: Warner (86.87), Sarfraz (70.33) and Stokes (66.76).

To be continued