Most runs off an over in all formats

This is one topic for which information is readily available from Cricinfo’s record section.

The record for T20I cricket came under serious threat recently:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284226.html

This can also be seen here:

In the 5th T20I in the recently concluded India-New Zealand series, Seifert (17) and Ross Taylor (17 including a no-ball) took 34 runs off an over from Shivam Dube. That was his first and only over in the innings. It was the second highest in T20Is, surpassed only by Yuvraj Singh’s 6*6 off Stuart Broad in the 2007 world championship.

Previously the worst such misfortune to an Indian bowler was Evan Lewis taking 32 (including a wide) off another Stuart (Binny) in 2016. Suresh Raina had conceded 26 against South Africans Ontong and Albie Morkel in 2012.

Now for ODIs:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/278847.html

Remember to read the footnotes at the bottom.

The highest scores from the link can be seen here:

There is also a 6*6 by Herschelle Gibbs off Namibia’s DLS van Bunge during the 2007 World Cup.

The Indian record is 31 by Shreyas Iyer (30 including 2 extras) and Rishabh Pant (1) off WI’s RL Chase earlier in the 2019-20 season.

Tendulkar (27 including 4 extras) and Ajay Jadeja (1) took 28 off New Zealand’s CJ Drum in 1999.

Indian bowlers also figure here: Yuvraj Singh conceded 30 to AD Mascarenhas in 2007, shortly before he repaid this with interest to Broad in a T20I.

Ishant Sharma conceded 30 to JP Faulkner in 2013/14

And finally Tests:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/233006.html

Which is reproduced here:

The record has not gone beyond 28, shared by Lara off RJ Peterson in 2003-04, GJ Bailey off JM Anderson in 2013-14 and most recently KA Maharaj off JE Root earlier in 2019-2020.

The Indian record is 26 by HH Pandya off SL’s PM Pushpakumara in 2017.

At the other end, Harbhajan conceded 27 to Shahid Afridi in 2005-06. RR Sarwan took 25 off Munaf Patel in 2006.

 

 

Test Captaincy Updates-2

Continuing from Part 1:https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/12/12/test-captaincy-updates-1/

We have seen which players have appeared in the most Tests, captained in the most Tests and have played in the most Tests while not captaining.

Now we look at those who 1) played their entire Test career as captains, and 2) played their entire Test careers NOT as captains.

The first list is relatively short:

Only 25 cases here. The top few are less-known except for LK Germon who was captain relatively recently. He was brought in as captain as the selectors felt that no other suitable captain could be found among the existing players. Sherwell and Germon were both wicketkeepers.

Tail piece: LK Germon does possess an odd record-he has scored the most runs on debut without scoring a fifty; 48 + 41 = 89.

We also see James Lillywhite jnr of England who captained his side in the first 2 Tests ever played and never played another,

In some cases certain players were appointed captains as they were amateurs rather than professionals, or if they were from the “nobility” as in the case of “Vizzy” and his British counterparts. In the early days of West Indies cricket, the captain was chosen from the players of the territory where the match was being played.

But clearly the players listed above were not good enough to stay in the team if their presence as captains was not essential. Vizzy, for example, was clearly not competent enough either as a batsman or captain.

More recently, WTS Porterfield captained Ireland in their first 3 Tests.

It is also interesting to note that the last 5 players made only a single Test appearance, in which they captained. The best known was CA Smith, later known as Sir Audrey Smith of Hollywood where he typically played roles of elderly Englishmen.

Now we go on to those who never captained in Tests.

There are over 1500 who played 5 or more Tests without ever being captains. Here we list

Those who played 85 or more Tests without ever captaining:

England’s current players Anderson and Broad are in the first and third places, Anderson having crossed Warne’s mark of 144 recently. The national record holders would therefore include Anderson (149 for England), Warne (144 for Australia), VVS Laxman (134 for India), Muralitharan (132 for Sri Lanka), Ntini (101 for South Africa), CEL Ambrose (98 for WI) and Sir Richard Hadlee (86 for New Zealand). Further down there is Mudassar Nazar with 76 for Pakistan, GW Flower (67 for Zimbabwe) and Javed Omar (40 for Bangladesh).

There may be various reasons why they were never considered suitable for captaincy. However, Warne did captain Australia in a few ODIs. The knowledgeable feel that he may have been a better captain than some of his contemporaries.

 

Review of Eng-NZ Tests-Dec 2019-1

New Zealand won the 2-Test series 1-0. as they had in 2017-2018. This series was not part of the World Test Championship.

The overall summary of Tests between these countries:

New Zealand is slowly beginning to show better performances at home.

Looking at individual performances:

Batting

Most Runs (1000 and above):

MD Crowe has the most centuries (5) while several others have 4. The most scores of 50+ are 11 by JG Wright while several other have 10. R Taylor (1145) has the most runs among current players.

Highest innings (150 and above):

Root and Watling scored double centuries in this series.

Best batting average (Min 20 innings, all instances):

Cowdrey has the highest average here. Root and Taylor have the highest averages among current players. Williamson has not played enough against England.

Best strike rate (Min 1000 balls faced, 45.00):

McCullum leads by a large margin. Taylor, Root and Watling represent current players.

Bowling

Most wickets (25 and more):

Sir Richard leads by a large margin, although current player Broad is next. Southee, Boult and Wagner are also moving up.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 7wi):

No instances from the last few years.

Best match bowling (includes all instances of 10wm):

Note the duopoly at the top from Underwood and Lock who have the 5 best performances. Nothing from recent years.

Best bowling average (Min 2000 balls bowled, all instances):

Underwood and Willis have the best bowling averages, Underwood and Illingworth the best economy while Underwood and Anderson have the best strike rates. Boult and Wagner have the best averages among current players.

To be continued.

Batting recoveries 3: Doubling the score by the 8th wicket partners

The last post in our series on great batting recoveries covers cases where the 8th-wicket pair doubled the score after the 7th wicket fell. There are 24 such instances; 13 resulted in losses, 4 in draws and 7 in wins.

These matches are tabulated below:

 

The highest such 8th-wicket partnership of 332 by Trott and Broad in that tainted Lord’s match of 2010, where it is very likely that Pakistan’s bowlers deliberately allowed them to add runs to satisfy the requirements of the fixers. The “genuine” highest partnership would then be the 313 by Akram and Saqlain in the only Test ever played at Sheikhpura.

The highest ratio of (8th wkt partnership)/( sum of 1st to 7th wicket partnerships) is 3.255 by Trott and Broad (102/7 to 434/8) followed by 2.423 by Absolom and Lord Harris (26/7 to 89/8). The lowest here is 1.053 by debutants Morkel and Vincent who went from 38/7 to 78/8.

Absolom and Harris did this as early as 1879, unlike the 9th wicket recoveries starting from 1946 and 10th wicket recoveries starting from 1980.

Soon afterwards Absolom became the first (and only?) Test player to be killed by sugar bags (or bananas?) falling from a ship’s crane.Also see https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22972852/the-curious-affair-charlie-absolom

Lord Harris went on to bigger things, not necessarily in cricket. He did, however see England win in all his 5 Tests although he hardly contributed to these victories.

If you look at the ratio of (innings total)/(sum of 1st to 7th wicket partnerships) the highest is 4.333 where Blunt and Dickinson started the recovery from 21/7 to 64/8 which went on to 112. This was New Zealand’s first ever Test and noted for debutant MJC Allom’s hat-trick and 4 wickets in 5 balls. Next is 3.474 by Morkel and Vincent, who started with 38/7 and went to 78/8 and finally 170. This is a little better than 3.255 by Trott and Broad, 102/7 to 434/8 and finally 446.

The lowest is the anemic 1.250 by Pakistan in 2017, going from 36/7 to 78/8 and 81.

Of special note was the England-WI Test of 1966 which witnessed a 200+ stand for the 8th wicket (Graveney and Murray) as well as a 100+ stand for the 10th wicket (Higgs and Snow), taking them from 166/7 to 383/8, 399/9 and finally 527. This ended a series of heavy defeats by the West Indies, and marked the start of the short reign of the maverick captain DB Close.

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.

 

 

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.