Review of India-New Zealand ODI series-Jan 2023

India won the series 3-0.

A total of 116 ODIs have been played between these teams,

India have won 58, New Zealand 50, ties 1, no result 7

In India: 29-8-0-1

In NZ: 14-26-1-4

Neutral 15-16-0-2

Note the strong home advantage for both teams.

Looking at individual performances, starting with Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

The most centuries were 6 by Sehwag, followed by three players with 5 (Tendulkar, Kohli and Astle). The most 50+ scores were 13 by Kohli and Tendulkar, followed by 11 by R Taylor.

Highest innings scores (115 or more):

In this series, S Gill’s 208 became the highest for India against NZ, surpassing Tendulkar’s 186* in 1999. That was at Hyderabad, though on another ground.MG Bracewell’s 140 was the highest for NZ in India, surpassing NJ Astle’s 120 in 1999. Conway’s 138 also surpassed the old record.

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

Headed by Kohli with Latham close behind.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):

Headed by Sehwag with Kapil Dev close behind.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Srinath is far ahead of the second-placed Kumble. Southee has the most among current players.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi):

SE Bond is the only one with a 6-for. Next is A Mishra. K Srikkanth is the only one with 2 five-fors.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

The best averages are by Srinath and Hadlee.

The best economy rates are by Hadlee and Kapil

The best strike rates are by Srinath and Southee.

Next is Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Headed by the lesser-known NR Mongia, who also has the most stumpings. Latham has the most from current players, and R Taylor has the most catches by a fielder

Best innings fielding (4 or more dismissals):

Several have made 5 dismissals in an innings. Similarly for 4 catches as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):

Again headed by NR Mongia.

All-round performances:

Overall performances (see criteria in table below):

Only one player qualifies here,

Match performances:

Only one player qualifies, and he was an occasional bowler.

Highest scores in losing ODI chases

Fakhar Zaman made 193 in a losing ODI chase, thus making a new record.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/pakistan-tour-of-south-africa-2021-1251556/south-africa-vs-pakistan-2nd-odi-1251573/full-scorecard

Here we look at the record high scores in unsuccessful ODI chases:

Until now the record was 175 by Tendulkar against Australia in 2009. Oddly enough, the previous highest score in this category for Pakistan was ALSO by Fakhar Zaman (138 v Eng in 2019).

From the above table you can see that India is well represented.

For India alone, the highest scores in unsuccessful ODI chases are:

ODI debuts for and against India

ODI debuts by Indian players were highlighted in the first match, both in batting and bowling.

ODI debuts by India (minimum 40 runs):

KL Rahul is the only player from India to score a century on ODI debut. Before that, RV Uthappa’s record of 86 stood for several years.

This table also gives the strike rate for the innings. Indeed, the highest rate is 187 by KH Pandya, far ahead of the previous record of 127 by Azharuddin back in 1984-85.

This list includes several who served India well, and others who vanished quickly. For instance, Khurasiya scored 57 on debut and played in only a few ODIs after that.

Now we look at those who scored 40 or more on their ODI debut which was against India:

The highest is 90 by SP Fleming, who also scored 90+ on his Test debut. Some other famous names here include Wade, du Plessis, RB Richardson and YJ Bairstow. Others such as CS Cowdrey and Moxon did not last long.

Now we look at ODI debuts by Indian players, with a minimum of 3 wickets in an innings:

We see that MP Krishna’s 4-54 is the best by an Indian player on ODI debut, surpassing the long-forgotten NA David’s 3-21 in 1997.

David’s 2.62 is also the best economy rate here, followed by ST Banerjee’s 3.00. The worst is 6.66 by C Sharma, just ahead of Krishna’s 6.61.

Prominent names here include Pandya junior, DR Doshi and even BS Chandrasekhar.

Finally, we look at those who took 3wi on their Test debut which was against India.

The best here is 5-28 by BD’s Taskin Ahmed, just ahead of AA Donald’s 5-29. Donald and maybe Henry and Styris are the only others who lasted long enough.

The best economy rates are 2.50 by FA Rose and 3.16 by SA Thomson. The worst is 6.30 by SB Styris.

Statistics of ODIs of 2020

The number of matches in all formats got reduced due to “unforeseen circumstances”. However, we still have some aggregates which are of some utility even if averages and strike rates are not meaningful.

We start with the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

Which has England, India, New Zealand and Australia as the top 4 teams.

A simple comparison of W-L ratios gives this:

Not really meaningful as the top 3 teams here (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) have played too few matches. Then we have Oman (!) followed by SA and NZ which still doesn’t make much sense.

A summary of individual performances follows.

Batting-most runs (250 and above):

That’s more like it. Finch leads by a large margin over his team-mate SPD Smith. Rahul and Kohli are 5th and 6th.

And Labuschagne, the Test find of 2019 is 3rd here.

The most 100s are 3 by SPD Smith. The most 50+ scores are 7 by Finch followed by 5 by Smith and Kohli.

Highest innings (100 and more):

All the centuries are listed here:

Unusually, the only scores above 150 are from Bangladesh. The highest from India is 119 by RG Sharma.

Bowling – most wickets (8 and above):

Zampa with 27 wickets is far ahead of the second-placed AS Joseph.

The most 4wi hauls is 3 by AS Joseph

No one has more than one 5wi.

M Shami has the most wickets for India (12).

Best innings bowling (All instances of 4wi):

The fast-rising S Lamichane of Nepal has the best figures of 6-16, which came against USA, another one of the newcomers. The only other 6-wicket haul was by the relatively inexperienced L Ngidi

India’s best is quite far down, being Shami’s 4-63.

Most dismissals (5 or more):

The most dismissals are 15 by Carey (Aus) and Hope (WI). The most by a non-keeper is 10 by Starc.

Rahul had the most stumpings (2).

For India, Kohli has 5 dismissals.

Most innings dismissals (4 and more):

The highest is 5 by Hope, and three others have 4 each. The best for India is 3 by Rahul on two occasions.

Several non-keepers have taken 3 catches in an innings.

All-round match performances (30 runs and 3wi):

The best would seem to be the two instances by Aqib Ilyas of Oman, followed by JJ Smit of Namibia.

Pakistan-Zimbabwe ODIs: a quick look

The ODI series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe was won 2-0 by Pakistan with one tie. While the series appears as 2-0 in the general records, Zimbabwe’s win in the Super Over made it 2-1 for the purpose of the ICC World Cup Super League which will be the main input for qualification for the 2023 World Cup. See this: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/_/id/19882/season/2020/icc-men’s-cricket-world-cup-super-league

These teams have played 62 ODIs. Pakistan have won 54, Zimbabwe 4, with 2 ties and 2 no-results.

In Pakistan, the contrast is even starker: Matches 22, Pakistan 19, Zimbabwe 1, 1 tie (2020) and 1 no-result.

Zimbabwe’s only win in Pakistan was in 1998: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15876/scorecard/64596/pakistan-vs-zimbabwe-2nd-odi-zimbabwe-tour-of-pakistan-1998-99

Zimbabwe also won the Test series in that tour.

Other ODI records for matches between these teams:

Most runs: 1033 by Mohammad Yousuf, 906 by GW Flower

Most wickets: 35 by HH Streak, 34 by Shahid Afridi

Most dismissals: 26 by Rashid Latif, 25 by A Flower and Moin Khan.

Most sixes (but no fours) in an innings

While following WI batting against SL in a T20I on Mar 6, one wondered if Russell’s 6 sixes and no fours was a record. It isn’t, but we can see the records here:

The devaluation of T20I match records is well under way. However, among “serious” matches the record would be Morgan’s 7 against SA. The next among serious matches would be Russell’s 6.

Let us look at the corresponding records for ODIs:

Here the record is 6 (less than the T20I record!) by Collingwood and Neesham. Raina is one with 5 sixes. Another  was AD Mascarenhas, who scored 30 of his runs in 5 6s off an over from Yuvraj Singh.

And in Tests, the record is held by one of the rising tailend sloggers from India:

Umesh Yadav took over the record jointly held by Nixon Mclean, Flintoff and de Grandhomme. Further down, Keith Miller hit 3 sixes and no fours against India back in 1948. More recently, Southee and Bairstow also did this against India.

CA Walsh’s 18* included three 6s as the only scoring strokes in his 18-ball innings.

From India, others such as Kuruvilla, Shami and Sir Ravindra Jadeja have also tried their hand at this.

Footnote: NAM McLean was better known for his illustrious names (Nixon Alexei McNamara) than for his relatively modest performances.

India had a similar player named Napoleon Einstein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Einstein

Review of NZ-India ODIs-2

Hope you have seen Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The Karnataka pair of Srinath and Kumble lead.

No one has more than one 5-for. Srinath and Southee have two 4-fors.

Southee (30) and Boult (24) have the most wickets amongst current players.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5wi):

SE Bond has the best figures of 6-19, during his relatively short career. No good individual performance in this series, although Boult had 5-21 in 2019.

Bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Southee is the only current player here, though close to the bottom.

Srinath and Hadlee have the best bowling averages.

Hadlee and Kapil have the best economy rates.

Srinath and Nehra (!) have the best strike rates.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

The forgotten NR Mongia has the most dismissals (36) and most stumpings (12).

However McCullum (25) has the most catches by a keeper, followed by Mongia and Dhoni with 24 each.

R Taylor (19) has the most catches by a fielder, followed by SP Fleming (18).

Most dismissals in innings (4 and above):

The record is 5 dismissals, while a number of fielders have taken 4 catches. The only such instance recently was KD Karthik’s 4 catches as a keeper in 2019.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.500):

NR Mongia leads again. Vengsarkar (!) has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

Overall all-round performance (see criterion in table):

While notable all-rounders such as Kapil, Hadlee and Vettori have played in these matches, the only one with a creditable record is the “bits-and-pieces” all-rounder CZ Harris.

All-round match performance (Min 40 runs and 4 innings):

Another surprise: the only such performance is the unheralded K Srikkanth, whose bowling ability seems to have been a well-kept secret. His 70 and 5-27 back in 1988-89 was probably India’s best all-round feat in ODIs against all countries at that time.

Review of India-Australia ODI series-2

Continuing with our study of individual performances. Now for bowling.

Most wickets (20 or more):

Jadeja and Shami have the most wickets among current players. Cummins has the most among current Australian players.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 5wi):

The first two places are occupied by now-forgotten players. There is nothing from this series, although YS Chahal took 6-42 early in 2019. Cummins also had a fiver in 2019.

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

Brett Lee has a much better average than the second-placed Johnson. However Jadeja at 17th place has the best average among current players.

Kapil and McDermott have the best economy rates, and Lee and Agarkar (!) the best strike rates.

Now for fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

Gilchrist and Dhoni are far ahead of the others, including Tendulkar who has the most catches by a non-keeper. Dhoni has the most stumpings. Kohli and Maxwell are the only current players here.

Most innings dismissals (4 or more):

Gilchrist and Dhoni again. Clarke is the only non-keeper with 4 catches.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.500):

Gilchrist and Dhoni lead, with Maxwell having the best average for a non-keeper.

All-round performance (overall)-see criteria in table):

The first two (or three) would not generally be considered leading all-rounders, although they have done well in these contests.

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

The best performance here would be by Tendulkar, followed by Kapil and Watson (5 Nov 2009).

Review of India-Australia ODI series-1

As you know, India won the series of January 2020 by a 2-1 margin.

Here are the results of ODIs between these teams since January 2019:

India won 2-1 in Australia in Jan 2019

Aus won 3-2 in Ind in Mar 2019

Ind won 1-0 in the World Cup in Jun 2019

Ind won 2-1 in Ind in Jan 2020

On the whole India has done better in the past year.

We also look at the results of all ODIs between these teams:

Australia still leads 78-51 overall but only 30-29 in India.

We now look at the individual performances in batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

RG Sharma and Kohli continue to move up though they have some distance to go to reach Tendulkar’s record. Finch and Dhawan are among the other current players here.

Tendulkar has the most centuries (9) followed by Kohli and Sharma with 8.

Tendulkar also has the most scores of 50-plus (24) and is predictably followed by Kohli and Sharma with 16.

Highest innings (125 or more):

Note that RG Sharma has the highest overall score in this series (209) as well as India’s highest in Australia (171*).

However, Smith (131) and Warner (128*) made the highest scores in this series.

Highest batting average (Min 20 innings, 35.00):

Sharma and Kohli are the top two. Dhawan and Finch are among the other current players here. Smith and Warner have not played enough to qualify.

Highest strike rate (Minimum 500 balls faced, 80.00):

Now you can see why Australian fans want Maxwell back in the team.

Dhawan and SPD Smith have the best strike rates among those who played in 2020.

To be continued:

 

 

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.

 

 

The ODIs of 2019-1

Here is the summary of all the ODIs of 2019:

Win-Loss ratios for all teams:

This isn’t very useful as the Netherlands and Namibia come out on top.

The ICC rankings on Dec 31 are more meaningful:

Here we have the four semi-finalists of the World Cup at the top.

Next we move to the individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (600 or more):

RG Sharma, V Kohli and SD Hope lead by a big margin.

Sharma has the most centuries (7) followed by Kohli (5).

The most scores of 50+ were by Sharma (13) followed by Kohli and Hope with 12 apiece.

Highest innings scores (120 or more):

Led by the relatively lesser-known JD Campbell. There are several other scores above 150.

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

Hope, Babar Azam and Kohli are close together at the top.

Highest strike rates (Min 500 balls faced, 90.00):

Here we have some other names at the top such as JJ Roy, who is considerably ahead of EJG Morgan. While Kohli is here, others who scored the most (RG Sharma and SD Hope) did not score fast enough. There is one player (N Zadran) from Afghanistan.

To be continued:

Low scores in international cricket

Opening the gates of T20Is to virtually all countries who play a bit of cricket has had predictable results, particularly in women’s cricket:

These lists of lowest totals are correct on Dec 8, 2019:

Women’s T20Is:

Note the single-digit and near single-digit scores by Mali and the Maldives in the past few months. The men’s T20I teams have fared slightly better:

Men’s T20Is:

Note that these sub-50 scores include entries from major teams such as the West Indies.

Are things any better with ODIs and Tests, which still have considerable entry barriers? :

Women’s ODIs:

Well-established women’s teams have had their share of low scores.

There are even some sub-50 scores in men’s ODIs, mainly from minnow teams who were out of their depths in World Cup matches:

Men’s ODIs:

Take the cases of Canada (twice) and Namibia above in World Cup matches.

For comparison, we look at Test matches. There have been very limited Tests in women’s cricket:

Women’s Tests:

Mainly from the earlier days. Both England and Australia recorded their lowest scores in the same Test in 1958.

Men’s Tests:

While the majority of these low scores are from the times when South Africa were the whipping boys, there are some from the past few years (Ireland’s 38 in 2019, Bangladesh’s 43 in 2018). Not to forget Australia’s 47 in 2011, which needed Siddle and Lyon to reach this total from 21/9. It had a chance of lowering the mark of 26 set in 1955.