Records by India and Shubman Gill

India won the T20I series against New Zealand 2-1, winning the decider in Ahmedabad by 168 runs. This is not a record for all T20Is, but it is a record for T20Is between full members.

The previous record for matches between full members was 143 runs, which has occurred twice: India vs Ireland in June 2018 and Pakistan vs West Indies in April 2018.

Looking at individual scores:

We see that Shubman Gill’s 126* is the highest T20I score for India. It surpasses V Kohli’s 122* vs Afghanistan in Sep 2022.

T20Is in 2020-Part 1 (Teams)

Covid prevented cricket for much of the year, though some T20Is were played. Here we have a summary of all T20Is in the calendar year 2020.

A total of 36 teams played T20Is during 2020. But would a table like this have much meaning? Many of the teams listed here have cricketing standards much lower than the “regular” teams who have been playing Tests and ODIs over the decades. (And the vast majority of the players in these teams are those who grew up elsewhere, mainly from South Asia with a few from England and Australia).

The Playfair Cricket Annual recognizes the distortion which the “big bang” has caused, and have listed records “only for matches where at least one of the teams has played ODIs at some time.”

I am going a step further and am listing records only for matches between teams which have played ODIs.

There are 24 such teams after you remove the ICC World XI, Asia XI, Africa XI and the vanished East Africa. We then find that only 14 of them managed to play T20Is during this period.

We then repeat the above table for these 14 teams:

This seems to show that India is the best-performing team here, ahead of England and Pakistan.

Next I will take up individual performances in matches between these 14 teams in 2020.

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/t20is-in-2020-part-2-individuals/

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

T20Is of 2019-2

When we look at individual performances, most of the top scorers and wicket-takers are from the second-rung teams such as Afghanistan, Ireland and Netherlands who have played relatively more matches than the major teams.

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

The two top-scorers are from Ireland and the next two from the Netherlands. KJ O’Brien has made a Test century. But no one here is from the major teams.

Highest innings (100 or more):

Again, the top 3 are not from the major teams. H Zazai’s 162* is the highest T20I score for Afghanistan (and the second in all T20Is after AJ Finch’s 172 in 2018).

There are some players from the major teams such as GJ Maxwell, DJ Malan and DA Warner plus a sprinkling from lesser-ranked teams such as Austria, Romania and the Czech Republic among others.

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

The first few are from the Netherlands, Nepal and Ireland. The better-known players such as Rashid Khan and MJ Santner just make the cut.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5+ wickets):

Here we have the best performance by DL Chahar from India – but the next two are from Argentina and Luxembourg. The veteran Malinga, Rashid Khan and a couple  from England are the other known players here.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

Apart from KJ O’Brien and DA Miller, there are no familiar names. The most dismissals by a keeper are 26 by SA Edwards of the Netherlands, and by a non-keeper 17 by BDH Stevens of Jersey.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

DA Miller of SA is in 3rd place with 4 catches as a non-keeper. Also by de Grandhomme and Ramdin, while the best performance is by players from Kenya and PNG.

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

Familiar names here are SC Williams (Zim), Rohan Mustafa (UAE) and CJ Jordan (Eng). The best performance would be by S Davizi of the Czech Republic and SC Williams.

To sum up, the increased “democratization” of T20I cricket will mean more opportunities for teams beyond the to 10 or 12 and a hope that one day they will be able to compete with them. Players with South Asian names can be found all over, especially in the European teams.

 

T20Is of 2019-1

The year of the “big bang” when many new teams were admitted to “official” T20Is. A quick look at the results:

Teams ranked by W/L ratio:

A total of 71 teams played at least one T20I this year.

You will agree that the above table doesn’t mean much. Australia (OK), Argentina and Belize !? are the top teams, are they? And is Jersey as good as India?

Let us look at the ICC rankings, which are supposed to be more refined:

There are 86 teams covered in these rankings. The last 7 have zero points:

One might argue that Gibraltar and China are the worst teams as they have played the most matches for zero points.

Anyway, back to the top. The T20I World Championship will be held in Australia in late 2020:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_ICC_Men%27s_T20_World_Cup

The 16 teams participating are the top 19 in the ICC ranking table MINUS Zimbabwe, Nepal and UAE.

Next we look at individual performances in T20Is.

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.

 

 

 

 

Review of India- Bangladesh T20Is

This was the first bilateral T20I series between the teams, and was won 2-1 by India. The first match is the only T20I  which Bangladesh has won since matches between these teams started in 2009.

Here is the summary of all 11 matches between these teams, where India lead 10-1:

Most runs (100 and above):

RG Sharma is far ahead of the others wth 452 runs and 5 fifties. He, Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah have played for all 11 matches between these teams. Dhawan played in 10.

Highest individual scores (50 and above):

The 3 highest scores are all by RG Sharma, followed by the only other 80+ which was by Mohammad Naim in the last match.

Bowling – most wickets (5 and more):

YS Chahal leads, followed by Al-Amin and DL Chahar.

Best innings bowling (3wi and above):

DL Chahar has by far the best figures here. This was in the final T20I, and included a hat-trick spread over two overs.

This is the best innings bowling in all T20Is:

This includes all 6wis and most 5wis. Chahar overtook the old record of 6-8 by BAW Mendis set during the 2012 T20I World Championship (not World Cup). The previous record for India was 6-25 by YS Chahal against England in 2017.

Fielding: Most dismissals (3 and above):

Dhoni leads as expected, while Sarkar has the best by a non-keeper.

Fielding: Most innings dismissals (2 and above):

Several keepers and non-keepers have taken 2 innings, including Dhoni with 2 stumpings.

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

Only one instance, which came in the first T20I between these teams.

 

 

 

T20I 2020 World Championship qualifiers-wrapup

At the conclusion of the final on Nov 2, the results were:

1. Netherlands

2. PNG

3. Ireland

4. Namibia

5. Scotland

6. Oman

These teams qualified for the World Championship in Oct/Nov 2020 in Australia.

UAE and Hong Kong would be 7th/8th.

The full standings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_ICC_T20_World_Cup_Qualifier#Final_standings

The updated fixture list and other details for the World Championship can be seen here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_ICC_T20_World_Cup

Here you can see the quick summary of the performances of the players of the 6 qualifying teams during this tournament:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=3;filter=advanced;orderby=player;size=200;spanmax2=02+Nov+2019;spanmin2=18+Oct+2019;spanval2=span;team=15;team=20;team=28;team=29;team=30;team=37;template=results;type=allround

These are in alphabetical order.

India’s best tailenders

Ishant Sharma’s heroics and his maiden Test fifty reminded us of the importance of having tailenders who can score some runs. Or, failing that, at least stay around long enough for other batsmen to score some more runs. Ishant was perhaps more of the second type.

We have a quick look at the best performers at 8-11 in the three formats.

For Tests and ODIs  a cutoff of 20 innings is used. For T20Is it is 10 innings.

Test batting averages at 8-11:

RA Jadeja’s average is now above Kapil Dev’s. Remember that both of them and a few others like Nadkarni scored centuries up to No 7 as well.

Kapil, Ashwin and Harbhajan have two centuries here. Others with centuries are Kirmani, IK Pathan, Kumble and Agarkar.

Here Agarkar has the lowest average by a century-maker and Ishant the lowest by a fifty-maker.

The lowest average here is by Maninder Singh, followed by Chandrashekhar and Doshi which most would have guessed.

In ODIs, we have:

The highest averages are by Pathan and Chetan Sharma. Sharma has scored a century batting lower.

Pathan and Agarkar are the only ones here with 2 fifties. The lowest average by a fifty-scorer is by Praveen Kumar.

The lowest average is by Sreesanth, followed by Ishant Sharma and Nehra.

For T20Is, no one has 20 innings so we take the cutoff of 10 innings instead.

Ashwin and Harbhajan are the only ones who qualify here. Neither has scored a fifty.

 

Making sense of the Women’s T20 World Championship of 2020

This is one area where Wikipedia is more informative than Cricinfo.

With the conclusion of the qualifying rounds, Bangladesh and Thailand join the “big 8” to make up the 10 teams.

Whatever you need to know is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_ICC_Women%27s_T20_World_Cup

Also see the results of the 2018 championship, when India lost in the semi-finals to England, who in turn lost to Australia in the final:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_ICC_Women%27s_World_Twenty20

The Worst Defeats in T20Is-2

The Malian women’s T20I team has been making headlines all over the cricket world (not only in Bamako and famed Timbuktu) for their abject defeats.

Earlier we have looked at the worst defeats of men’s T20I teams.

The worst defeat in a limited overs match is measured by either 1) runs or 2) balls remaining when the target is reached.

One can also look at 3) lowest scores by runs 4) highest scores by runs conceded

And as a stretch: 5) least balls in an innings.

We now look at the records of women’s T20Is as on 28-06-2019:

Losses by runs (100 and above):

We see that the top three defeats were sustained by Mali, with China and Lesotho a little behind. We will see much more of Mali in the remaining part of this post.

Even some “respectable” teams such as South Africa, WI and Sri Lanka can be found here.

Losses by balls remaining (72 or more):

These are all the cases where a target was chased down in 8 overs or less. In two cases only 4 balls were enough.

As you may guess, the Mali team holds the top three positions. Mozambique and Fiji are next in line. The only “respectable” team here is Ireland.

Lowest scores (30 or less):

The three lowest scores are by Mali in the span of three days in June 2019. Note that they did improve to 30/9 in 20 overs. China is also here with its record of 14 set earlier in 2019. Even Bangladesh has a score of 30.

Least balls in an innings (72 or less):

Mali again, though they took less balls to score 14 than their 6. Mexico, China and Kuwait give them company.

And finally

Highest opposing totals (190 and above):

Note that almost all of these are in the first innings.

Mali yet again in 1st, 2nd and 4th place although South Africa is in 3rd and 5th place. Many other “respectable” teams have been at the receiving end, including India against England in 2018.

You can guess why those who follow statistics may be planning to visit Timbuktu. While this is supposes to be in an area affected by terrorism, you can at least get to Mali’s capital Bamako with a single stop at Paris or Addis Ababa. With luck, you can reach there within 18 hours from Delhi.

The Worst Defeats in T20Is-1

The Malian women’s T20I team has been making headlines all over the cricket world (not only in Bamako and famed Timbuktu) for their abject defeats.

It is a good time to examine the worst T20I defeats. For a change, gentlemen before ladies.

The worst defeat in a limited overs match is measured by either 1) runs or 2) balls remaining when the target is reached.

One can also look at 3) lowest scores by runs 4) highest scores by runs conceded

And as a stretch: 5) least balls in an innings.

We now look at the records of men’s T20Is as on 27-06-2019:

Losses by runs (100 and above):

We can see that the worst defeat was sustained by Kenya in the 2007 World Championship, and that they made 88 when facing a Sri Lankan total of 260.

Losses by balls remaining (60 or more):

These are all the cases where a target was chased down in 10 overs or less.

The “winner” here was Botswana who were dismissed for 46, and then let Namibia hit off these runs in 3.5 overs or 16.1 overs/97 balls remaining. Next comes Netherlands in the course of the 2014 World Championship. Other whipping boys such as Kenya, Nepal and Germany follow.

Lowest scores (60 or less):

The biggest fail here is Netherlands with 39 against Sri Lanka in the 2014 World Championship (mentioned above).

And next is one of the big boys, West Indies with 45 against England earlier this year.

Other whipping boys such as Botswana, Germany and Nepal follow.

Least balls in an innings (90 or less):

The lowest tally here is 10.3 overs, just over the halfway mark.

Most of these are in the second innings.

Our old friends Netherlands again, followed by West Indies as mentioned above.

A few teams such as South Africa have crossed 100 here in less than 15 overs.

And finally,

Highest opposing totals (240 and above):

Note that almost all of these are in the first innings.

Ireland has conceded the most (278) to Afghanistan earlier this year. But even Australia had a similar experience against Sri Lanka in 2016. Kenya conceded 260 to Sri Lanka in 2007 as mentioned earlier.

Next we will take up women’s T20Is, which includes single-digit totals.