Review of India-South Africa Tests (2019)-1

While on the topic of clean sweeps in Test series, see this: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/clean-sweeps-in-test-series/

At the end of this series, 39 Tests had been played between these countries.

The World Test Championship results are now:

with India having more points than all other teams put together.

Result Summary:

In India: India won 11, SA 5 and 3 drawn (Total 19)

In SA: India won 3, SA 10 and 7 drawn (Total 20)

Total: India won 14, SA 15 and 10 drawn.

Strong home advantage on both sides.

We now look at individual performances:

Batting: Most runs (750 or more):

Also note: Most centuries 7 by Tendulkar and Kallis.

Most 50+ scores: 12 by the same pair and Amla.

The most runs by current players are 1075 (Kohli) and 758 (Pujara).

Highest innings (125 and more):

In this series we have Kohli’s 254* , MA Agarwal’s 215 and RG Sharma’s 212. For SA Elgar made 160 but hardly anyone from SA did anything after that.

Also remember that Sharma became the first to score two centuries on debut while opening-a feat which eluded the greats of the past such as Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hutton and many others.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Kallis leads, followed by Kohli at some distance. RG Sharma has not played enough yet.

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

The leader is not hard to guess, with current players Sharma and Kohli close behind. From SA the current players Elgar and du Plessis are considerably below..

Also note UT Yadav’s 10-ball blitz for 31 (310.00), which is the highest strike rate for any innings above 25.

To be continued:

 

200+ scores for and against India

RG Sharma made the 54th score of 200 and above in a Test for India. These include 3 of 300+ and 51 from 200-299. Kohli has the most such scores (7), although Sehwag has the highest scores both inside and outside India. Outside Asia, we go quite far down until we reach Tendulkar’s 241* at Sydney.

The first such score was Umrigar’s 223 in 1955, equalled in the next month by Mankad and then surpassed by him with 231 which remained the record until Gavaskar’s 236* in 1983.This was surpassed by VVS Laxman’s 281 in 2001, Sehwag’s 309 in 2004 and again by him in 2008.

The highest in a win is 309 by Sehwag, in a loss 201* by Sehwag and in a draw 319 by (who else) Sehwag. An unique triple.

Now we see who did the same against India:

4 triple centuries and 47 from 200-299.

McCullum and Ponting have each done this 3 times against India.

The highest score here is Jayasuriya’s 340, the highest outside Asia is Gooch’s 333 and the highest in India is M Jayawardene’s 275.

The best in a victory is 333 by Gooch, in a defeat 242 by Ponting and in a draw 340 by Jayasuriya. In fact, Ponting’s 242 is the highest in any Test defeat.

Test scores of 200+ by Indians and others

Information correct as on Oct 11, 2019.

First we look at those who have made 5 or more scores of 200 or more:

We can see that Kohli is now equal with Hammond and M Jayawardene in making 7 scores of 200+. The previous record of 6 for India was shared by him, Sehwag and Tendulkar. Kohli is also the only current player above.

The only other player with more than one triple century is CH Gayle, whose 4 scores of 200+ include 2 triples.

A total of 374 scores of 200+ have been made in Tests. This includes one quadruple century, 29 triples and 344 doubles.

All those who have made 200+ for India are tabulated below:

We also look at scores of 200+ in ODIs:

There are only 8 such scores.

RG Sharma has made 3, with a top score of 264 which is the ODI record.

Others who have made 200+ scores in ODIs are Fakhar Zaman, CH Gayle, MJ Guptill, V Sehwag and SR Tendulkar.

And for T20Is:

The highest score is 172 by AJ Finch. There are 2 other scores above 150, by AJ Finch again and H Zazai.

 

India at the World Cup over the years-2

With India finishing its commitments at the 2019 World Cup, we look at individual performances in all the World Cups from 1975 to 2019.

Batting:

Most runs (500+):

While Kohli is second, he still has less than half the runs scored by Tendulkar. RG Sharma and Dhoni are next among current players.

Tendulkar and RG Sharma each have 6 centuries. Tendulkar also has the most 50+ scores (21), followed by Sharma with 9. Note Sharma’s conversion rate; he scored a century on 6 of the 9 occasions when he crossed 50. And Dhawan did the same on 3 of the 4 occasions!

Highest innings (95+):

This lists all the centuries and near-centuries. No one had scored an ODI century for India until Kapil did so in 1983. Note Gambhir’s 97 in the 2011 final. No one from either India or WI crossed 40 in the 1983 final.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Some like RG Sharma, Gavaskar and Dhawan miss out as they did not play enough WC matches. Dhoni is in the middle of this table.

Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, all instances):

The names at the top are predictable. And that Dhoni and Kohli (?) are in the middle, with Gavaskar and M Amarnath bringing up the rear.

Bowling:

Most wickets (10+):

The top position of 44 wickets is shared by Zaheer Khan and Srinath, with the former bowling significantly less overs. M Shami has the highest among current players.

No one has more than one fiver. M Shami is the only one with 4 four-fors, followed by Srinath and UT Yadav with 2 each.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 4+ wickets):

The best figures here are by A Nehra (the only 6-for). The highest among current players is 4-16 by M Shami. His 4-40 including a hat-trick is further down.

Bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Zaheer Khan has the best average and best strike-rate, while Kapil Dev has the best economy rate. None of the current bowlers have played enough.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10+):

Dhoni has more than twice the dismissals of the next man Dravid, while regular keeper KS More has the same number of dismissals.

Dhoni has the most dismissals (42), stumpings (8), and catches by a keeper (34). Kohli and Kumble have the most catches by non-keepers (14).

Most dismissals in an innings (3+):

The most dismissals are by Kirmani and Mongia (5 apiece). M Kaif has the most (4) by a non-keeper. He held this World Cup record from 2003 to 2015, when others also took 4 catches in an innings.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Dhoni is the highest, followed by Dravid who kept in most of his WC matches. Kohli and Sehwag have the most among non-keepers.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Kapil is the only one from India to reach this standard. Imran and Kallis also reached this, although Botham and Hadlee did not.

Match performance (30 runs and 3 wickets):

Yuvraj is here in his purple patch leading to the Man of the Series award in 2011. He and Shakib are the only ones with 50/5 in the World Cup. Next best is Kapil’s in 1983, although it ended in a defeat.

 

 

 

India at the World Cup over the years-1

1975: Group stage.

1979: Group stage (no wins).

1983: Won, vs WI in finals.

1987: Lost in SF to Eng.

1992: Group stage.

1996: Lost in SF to SL.

1999: Super Six.

2003: Lost in final to Aus. Tendulkar is Man of the Series.

2007: Group stage.

2011: Won, vs SL in finals. Yuvraj is Man of the Series.

2015: Lost in SF to Aus.

2019: Lost in SF to NZ.

ODIs between India and Pakistan-1

It seems unlikely that there will be any bilateral series between India and Pakistan for quite some time. It has already been decided that India will not play Pakistan in the group stages of the World Test Championship.

So this seems to be a good time to look back at the records of ODIs between India and Pakistan (not just in the World Cup).

Of a total of 132 ODIs between the sides, India has won 55, Pakistan 73, no ties and No Result 4.

In India: 30 matches; Ind 11, Pak 19.

In Pakistan: 27 matches; Ind 11, Pak 14, NR 2.

In Neutral venues: 75 matches; Ind 33, Pak 40, NR 2.

Looking at individual figures:

Batting:

500 or more runs:

Headed by the older players who had more opportunities to play these matches. Among current players there is Shoaib Malik (1782) and MS Dhoni (1231).

The most centuries are 5 by Tendulkar, followed by 4 by several others.

The most 50+ scores are also led by Tendulkar with 21. Next is 16 by Inzamam and Dravid.

Highest innings: 110 and more:

Saeed Anwar’s 194 was a record in all ODIs for several years. The highest score in recent years is RG Sharma’s 140 in the current World Cup.

Highest Averages (Minimum 20 innings, 30.00 and above):

A number of current players such as Kohli are not here as they have not played 20 innings. Dhoni and Shoaib Malik have the highest averages among current players.

Highest Strike Rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, 80.00 and above):

Shahid Afridi and Sehwag lead as one would expect. Kohli, Dhoni  and RG Sharma have the highest strike rates among current players.

To be continued:

 

 

Review of World Cup performances up to 2015: Batting

We start our review of World Cup performances from 1975 to 2015.

First, runs scored (750 and above):

Ponting has played in most matches (46) followed by Tendulkar with 45 and M Jayawardene with 40.

Tendulkar has the most centuries (6) follwed by Ponting and Sangakkara (5).

The most scores of 50+  are by Tendulkar (21) followed by Sangakkara (12) and Ponting (11).

It can be seen that Tendulkar has a large lead with 2278 runs against the next highest (Ponting) with 1743. The highest among current players are Gayle and Guptill with 944 and 809 respectively.

Highest individual scores (130 or more):

It can be seen that Kapil’s 175* in 1983 was then the World cup record, though Viv Richards overtook it with 181 in 1987. That was also the first ODI century for India.

The two highest scores above are by Guptill and Gayle, who will be here in 2019. Other high scores by current players are by Warner and Amla.

Footnote: Matches had 60-over innings from 1975 to 1983, before the 50-over innings became standard.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, 30.00 and above):

The best career figures here are by de Villiers, closely followed by Clarke and Viv Richards. The best averages by current players are by Gayle and Ross Taylor. Others such as Virat Kohli have not played 20 innings yet.

But some of the less experienced players can be found here:

Best batting strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, 80.00):

Here Mc Cullum leads despite a relatively low average. He is followed by de Villiers and Kapil.

It is also interesting to see that A Symonds averaged over 100 in World Cup matches though he did not bat enough to reach the cutoff of 20 innings.

Amla (!), Dhoni and Gayle have the highest strike rates among current players.

Next we will look at bowling performances.