The Lord’s Dishonour Boards

You know all about the Test honours boards at Lord’s, which have been  covered in this blog a few times.

You also know who never did well while playing in several matches at Lord’s: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/those-who-missed-the-bus-at-lords/

Now imagine the concept of a Dishonour Board. For batting, this would be anyone who gets a genuine pair (dismissed for a duck in both innings) at Lord’s:

Dismissed for a duck at Lord’s:

India contributed Murali Vijay and Kuldeep Yadav in the 2018 Test. Earlier that season, Stuart Broad was dismissed for a silver pair (out second ball in each innings). No instance could be found of a golden pair (first ball in each innings) and bronze pair (third ball).

As you may guess, most of these players are not specialist batsmen (though Prior, Stokes and Murali Vijay are exceptions).

Botham’s pair in 1981 was the final trigger to his dismissal from the captaincy, when England trailed 0-1 in the second Test of an Ashes series. Brearley came back as captain, and the rest was history  as England won three Tests in a row to win 3-1.

Now we look at those who bowled in each innings of a match and had match figures of  0-100 or worse:

The most runs conceded are 143 by West Indian Fidel Edwards and 142 by Australian AC Agar. The only instance from India is that of Shastri, who came up against Gooch’s 333 and 123 in 1990.

And finally, we look at wicket-keepers who did not make a dismissal after fielding in both innings of a match:

Leslie Ames appears here three times in the 1930s. A number of other prominent keepers ranging from Waite to de Villiers are here.

Now someone like Andy Zaltzman can take this up further and put up the Dishonour Boards at Lord’s.

 

 

Queen Pairs in Tests (2018 update)

You have heard of King Pairs or golden pairs. Next there come Queen Pairs or silver pairs, which means that the batsman is dismissed second ball in each innings.

As in the case of King Pairs, caution should be used in using databases such as Statsguru since  scorecards before 2000 do not always mention the balls faced in an innings.

However, the list below has been created for the cases where we definitely know that the batsman was out second ball in both innings. The 19th instance occurred in the Eng v Pak series earlier this year.

Stuart Broad became the most recent entrant to this group. He was the first to get a golden pair OR a silver pair at Lord’s. The bowler Mohammad Abbas should be told about this distinction.

This list does include recognized batsmen such as OG Smith, Mudassar Nazar, MN Samuels, AB de Villiers and Babar Azam besides others such as AL Mann and SCJ Broad who scored at least one century.

While no batsman has made two golden pairs, GD McGrath has two silver pairs.

Review of England-Pakistan Tests-2018 (2)

After covering general results and batting figures in the first part, we move on to bowling figures:

Most wickets (25 and above):

Qadir has by far the most wickets and Anderson is unlikely to overtake him. Broad and M. Amir are next among current players

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi and above):

Qadir again at the top. No good performances in the last few years. In fact the 2018 series did not see anyone take a five-for.

Best match bowling (including all 10wm and above):

Underwood and Qadir lead. Nothing from the current series, though Woakes and Yasir Shah are there from 2016.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Anderson has by far the best bowling average, followed by his partner Broad. Qadir is somewhat further down. M. Amir is also there from the current series.

The best economy rates are by Iqbal Qasim (1.82) and DA Allen (1.90). The best strike rates are by by Waqar Younis (48.5) and almost the same by Anderson (48.6).

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (15 and above):

Wasim Bari has by far the most dismissals, followed unexpectedly by Kamran Akmal. Bari and Sarfraz Ahmed have the most stumpings. Cook, Miandad and Younis Khan share the record for non-keepers.

Best innings fielding (5 or more dismissals):

Sarfraz Ahmed has done this in 2015, 2016 and 2018.

Best match fielding (6 or more dismissals):

Wasim Bari and Kamran Akmal (!) have the record of 8 dismissals. Bairstow had 7 in 2016. Greig and Hick have the most catches (6) by non-keepers.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500 and above):

Knott and Taylor lead, while Asad Shafiq and Cook have the most among current players. Trescothick and Atherton have the best rates for non-keepers. Sarfraz Ahmed has not played enough.

Overall all-round performances (see criteria):

Botham and Broad lead, followed by Intikhab Alam at a distance. Imran Khan does not seem to have played enough.

All-round match performances (50 and 5wi):

Imran and Botham appear here twice apiece, along with some unexpected appearances by Abdul Qadir and others. Qadir has one of the rare doubles of a fifty and ten-for in a match, while Botham had a century and 8-34.