Review of Zimbabwe-West Indies Tests-Feb 2023

The recent Test series was won by the West Indies 1-0 with one draw.

A total of 12 Tests have been played between these teams. West Indies leas 8-0 with 4 draws.

In The West Indies, the home team leads 4-0. In Zimbabwe, the west Indies lead 4-0 with 4 draws.

We now look at individual records, starting with Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

Brathwaite has the most runs (335) among current players.

Gayle and H Masakadza have the most centuries (2) R Sarwan has the most 50+ scores (3).

Highest innings (125 or more):

In this series, T Chanderpaul made the highest score (207*) in matches between these teams, surpassing Lara’s 191 in 2003. Brathwaite made 182. GS Ballance scored a century on debut for Zimbabwe after earlier scoring 4 centuries for England.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (12 or more):

Newcomer G Motie is in third place with 19 wickets.

S Shilligford has the most 5wis (3)

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi or more):

G Motie has the best and third-best innings figures.

Best match bowling (for West Indies against all teams, 11wm or better):

Motie’s 13-99 is the third best match bowling for the West Indies. It is also the best for a West Indian spinner, surpassing the 11-152 by Ramadhin in 1950.

Best match bowling (West Indies and Zimbabwe), 8wm or better:

G Motie’s 13-99 is the best for matches between these teams, surpassing S Shillingford’s 10-93 in 2013.

Most dismissals (8 or more):

RD Jacobs has the most dismissals (16). Current player J da Silva is in third place with 10.

Most innings dismissals (4 or more):

Current player CR Ervine has the most catches by a fielder (4)

Most match dismissals (4 or more):

Current keeper has the most match dismissals (6). K Powell has the most by a fielder (5).

All-round performance (50+ and 5+wi in a match):

Note B Mavuta’s performance in this series.

The two Chanderpauls

Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his Test debut in 1994. His son Tagenarine followed in late 2022.

Shivnarine became one of the leading Test batsmen for the West Indies for 20-odd years. So there was much anticipation when his son made his Test debut.

His scores in his first three Tests were 51 &45, 47 &17 and 207* & 15. That is 382 runs at 76.40

Compare this with Shivnarine’s first 3 Tests: 62, 19 & 50, 77 & 5 which is 213 runs at 42.60

Also, we note that Junior scored a double century in his 3rd Test about 60 days after his debut.

In contrast, Senior scored his first century in his 19th Test 3 years after his debut. The first of his two double centuries came in his 79th Test after 11 years. Another example of how the next generation did things in a hurry.

See: https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/shivnarine-chanderpaul-51469

and https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/tagenarine-chanderpaul-601968

Summary of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests-2 (after May 2022 series):

Hope you have seen Part 1.

We now proceed to

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and above):

Muralidaran has 89 wickets, far ahead of the others. Next are Herath and Shakib. Also note AM Fernando’s 13 wickets in 2 Tests in this series.

Best innings bowling (including all 6wi and above):

Led by Herath, with the next three by Muralidaran.

Nayeem Hasan’s 6-105 was the best by BD against SL, surpassing Shakib’s 5-70 in 2008. Also note AM Fernando’s 6-51 in this series.

Best match bowling (Including all 9wm and above):

Headed by Muralidaran and Herath. None from Bangladesh here. AM Fernando took 10-144 during this series.

Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls bowled):

Includes Shakib and Taijul from this series.

Muralidaran has the best bowling average, economy rate and strike rate.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Led by P Jayawardene with Dickwella and Sangakkara close behind.

Mushfiqur Rahim has the most dismissals from BD

P Jayawardene has the most stumpings (8) and M Jayawardene the most catches by a fielder (17).

Dickwella has the most catches by a keeper (24).

Most dismissals in an innings (4 and above):

Mushfiqur and Dickwella have made 5 dismissals in an innings, but not in this series. However Dickwella took 4 catches twice in this series.

Sangakkara and S Sarkar have taken 4 as a fielder.

Most dismissals in a match (5 and above):

Again headed by P Jayawardene with 7.

M Jayawardene and S Sarkar have taken 5 catches as fielders.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.600)

Headed by Sangakkara, with M Jayawardene heading the fielders.

Finally,

All-round performance

Overall (see criteria below):

Shakib (611 runs and 38 wickets) is the only one who qualifies.

Match (50 and 5wi):

All the instances are by Shakib.

Zeroes and big scores in Tests

In the first Test at Chittagong, Angelo Mathews became the first to score a zero and 199 in the same Test.

There are also a number of batsmen who scored a zero and double century in the same Test.

Here is the list for scores of 150 and above:

There are also 190s by GB Legge of long ago and SP Fleming. However, the record here is by Shoaib Malik with 245. Next is Ponting’s 242 which is the highest score by anyone in a losing Test side.

From India, the highest scores include 163* by ML Apte and 152 by NR Mongia. (Also GR Viswanath’s 0 and 137 on debut).

There are several cases of 0s and 99s.

Here is the full list of zeroes and scores between 95 and 99:

There are 6 cases of 0 and 99, including Pankaj Roy and (most recently) Misbah-ul-Haq and Babar Azam.

Some, like van der Dussen and WV Raman did not make a Test century. The former still has time to rectify this.

Best innings bowling against India

After India’s first innings in the 2nd Test against New Zealand, a number of records have to be rewritten. Here we look at the best innings bowling against India by all teams in Tests.

(This covers all instances of 7 or more wickets in an innings):

Bombay-born Ajaz Patel now has:

Best figures by any team against India. The previous record was 9-95 by JM Noreiga of WI, in what was India’s first Test victory against WI.

Best figures by NZ against India. The previous record was 7-23 by Sir Richard Hadlee at Wellington in 1976. In India, the previous record was 7-64 by Patel’s teammate TG Southee at Bengaluru in 2012.

Best figures by any team against India in India. The previous record was 8-50 by NM Lyon (Aus) at Bengaluru in 2017.

We now look at the best bowling figures by New Zealand against all teams in Tests.

Ajaz Patel’s 10-119 was the best by any NZ bowler, surpassing the 9-52 by Sir Richard Hadlee against Australia at Brisbane in 1985. This also makes Patel’s haul the best for NZ away from home.

The best figures for NZ at home remain with Sir Richard, with his 7-23 against India at Wellington in 1976.

After the Test is over, we will have a look at match bowling records.

For the moment, we note that the best match figures against India are 13-106 by IT Botham (also at Wankhede) in 1980. And the best match figures by New Zealand are 15-123 by Sir Richard Hadlee against Australia at Brisbane in 1985.

Indian-origin cricketers who played for New Zealand

It was interesting to see New Zealand saving a Test against India with the last-wicket pair being of Indian origin. While AY Patel was born in Bombay in 1988, R Ravindra was born in New Zealand in 1999. There are a few others with Indian-sounding names who were born in New Zealand.

Here we attempt to enumerate the members of 2 categories

1. Born in India (including pre-partition India):

FT Badcock (Abbottabad, 1897)-presumably British-7 Tests

AY Patel (Bombay, 1988)-10

N Puna (Surat, 1929)-3

JA Raval (Gujarat, 1988)-24

IS Sodhi (Ludhiana, 1992)-17

2. Indian-sounding name, not born in India:

DN Patel (Kenya, 1958)-37

JS Patel (New Zealand, 1980)-24

R Ravindra (New Zealand, 1999)-1

Those of Gujarati origin just outnumber the others. Badcock, Sodhi and Ravindra are the exceptions.

Among these players, it was Nairobi-born Dipak Patel who played the most Tests for New Zealand. He was a member of the 99 Club, and finished with 1200 runs and 75 wickets. Next are JA Raval and JS Patel who played 24 Tests each.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/dipak-patel-38118

Those who scored the most Test centuries

The Test season gets under way with Sri Lanka hosting the West Indies at Galle from Nov 21. There are also series between India/New Zealand and Bangladesh/Pakistan coming up, not to forget the Ashes starting in December.

Here we look at a summary of the centuries made by the highest century-makers, with a breakup across innings:

Note that this does not include the ICC XI vs Aus Test in 2005, which means that ML Hayden’s century in that Test is not counted.

As we will see, a closer look at the centuries in the different innings reveal some odd facts. From the sample above we can see that Steve Waugh and Steve Smith have the most centuries without ever making one in the fourth innings. And can you guess which current player has the distinction of making all his 6 centuries in the first innings? More to come in the next few days.

Mallett, Davidson and India

Australia lost two of its Test stalwarts on successive days; Ashley Mallett on Oct 29 and Alan Davidson on the 30th.

While Mallett was somewhat overshadowed by the Australian fast bowlers of his time, he often played an useful role as the sole spinner.

He did well bowling against India, as you can see here:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/6472.html?class=1;template=results;type=bowling

His bowling average against India was his best against all Test countries. He only played one series against India, in 1969-70. He took 28 wickets including his only 10-for in the last Test at Madras, which gave Australia a 3-1 win. Indian fans of that period remember it more for Viswanath’s debut and numerous crowd disturbances.

Davidson is better-known for being the first to score over a 100 runs and take a 10-for in the same Test. This was at the Tied Test at Brisbane:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/west-indies-tour-of-australia-1960-61-61907/australia-vs-west-indies-1st-test-62888/full-scorecard

In later years this was overshadowed by the feats of Botham, Imran and Shakib who scored centuries along with 10-fors. No one else has emulated Davidson.

He did not do too well as a batsman against India: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/4902.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting

But did somewhat better as a bowler:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/4902.html?class=1;template=results;type=bowling

His bowling average against India was his best against all Test countries. His best innings figures (7-93) and match figures (12-124) were also against India.

This was at Kanpur in 1959-60, which marked India’s first win against Australia:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/australia-tour-of-india-1959-60-61422/india-vs-australia-2nd-test-62869/full-scorecard

Australia batted first, took a first-innings lead, and lost. An Australian left-arm pace bowler took 12 wickets.

20 years passed. 7 Tests were played at Kanpur and all were drawn (including the one against Australia in 1969-70).

In 1979-80, a weakened Australian team toured India.

The story was the same as in 1959-60:

Australia batted first, took a first-innings lead, and lost. An Australian left-arm pace bowler took 12 wickets.

The only difference was that the bowler was Dymock instead of Davidson:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/australia-tour-of-india-1979-80-61434/india-vs-australia-3rd-test-63243/full-scorecard

Like Davidson, Dymock took 5 wickets in the first innings and 7 in the second.

Unlike in 1959 when Jasu Patel took 14 wickets, here the spoils were shared by Kapil, Ghavri and Shivlal Yadav.

But these two Tests at Kanpur had a remarkable number of similarities, more than those of the two Australia-England Tests of 1877 and 1977.

After the WTC Final

This is what the final table of the WTC looked like. Note that the recent WI-SA series was also part of the WTC. Clearly these teams were not anywhere near the top 2:

We also look at the ICC ranking tables on June 24:

Here NZ is just ahead of India. There are some differences in the lower rankings.

It may happen that Zimbabwe (or even Afghanistan) will take Bangladesh’s place in the next cycle.

A quick look at the main statistical highlights of the WTC Tests (Remember that they started in 2019):

Most runs (750 or more):

Strangely the first few positions are from those whose teams did not reach the final. Rahane and R Sharma are in 5th and 6th place.

Highest scores (150 or more):

Kohli and Williamson are in 3rd and 4th place.

Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, 25.00):

Again, the best from India and NZ is in 6th place (Rahane), followed by MA Agarwal and Kohli. Pujara’s decline is clear.

Williamson is not here is he batted in less than 20 innings.

Most wickets (20 or more):

Ashwin has the most wickets, followed closely by Australia’s Cummins and England’s Broad. Southee and Jamieson have the most from NZ.

We can also see that Ashwin, Lyon and AR Patel each took 4 five-fors, and that Broad, Lyon, Jamieson, Embuldeniya and AR Patel each took a ten-for.

Best innings bowling (includes all 6wi or more):

Along with the lesser-known Embuldeniya, Ashwin also took a 7-for. There are startling figures of 5-7 by Bumrah, 5-8 by Hazlewood and Root (!) which were both against India.

Best match bowling (includes all 9wm or more):

AR Patel has the best figures here followed by Jamieson and the newcomer Jayawickrama. Ishant Sharma and Ashwin are also here.

Bowling average (Min 2000 balls, all instances):

Broad and Ashwin have the first two places here.

For economy rate, it is Hazlewood and Ashwin.

For strike rate, it is Broad and Southee.

Jamieson does not appear here as he has not bowled enough in the WTC matches.

Most dismissals (15 and above):

Watling bowed out in 4th place. Pant has the next highest. He also took the most stumpings (6). Root has the most catches by a fielder (34).

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

de Kock is the only one with 6 catches, and Stokes and Thirimanne the only fielders with 5.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

Paine and de Kock dominate here. No fielder has taken more than 6 catches.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.65):

Paine and Watling lead. SPD Smith and Root have the most by fielders.

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

Jadeja and Stokes (with Holder a distant third) did the best here. But there is no one from NZ.

Match all-round performances (fifty plus 5wi):

The best performances here are by Ashwin (100/5wi) and Broad (50/10wm).

Player of the series? Perhaps Williamson. He did not make the most runs, but how he made them was more important (notably in the final):

Elgar’s unusual record

South Africa’s 3-day rout of West Indies included an obscure record for captain Dean Elgar.

He is one of the few captains who won a Test without scoring a run, taking a wicket or a fielding dismissal. Here is the complete list of captains who achieved this:

Note that Babar Azam did the same earlier this year.

There are some famous names here (including Bradman in his last Test in 1948).

No Indian captain here, although Clive Lloyd did this against India in 1976. That was the Test famous for the bouncer barrage and India being 97 all out with 5 batsmen unable to bat due to various injuries.

Meanwhile, here is the short list of Indian players whose side won a Test without any contribution by them:

Ishant Sharma achieved this earlier in the year. There is also Pujara with one of his rare ducks.

Also note 3 separate players in the test against NZ at Chennai in 1955-56, which is remembered for the long-standing opening record of 413 by Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy.

TAIL PIECE: If you have any connection with Maharashtra, you can create memes about the Elgar Parishad.

Captains in one Test-May 2021

There are as many as 45 Test captains who were captain in exactly one Test:

From this we come to

Captains who won their only Test:

Only 10 of the 40, the most recent being Mashrafe Mortaza. Even in his case, he was injured soon after the match started and Shakib Al Hasan was the effective captain. This was Bangladesh’s first Test win abroad, though it was against what was virtually a 3rd XI of the West Indies.

Shastri is the only such captain from India. Perhaps India’s performance in the late 80s may have been better if he had captained.

CA Smith was playing in his only Test. Later he was better known as a Hollywood actor.

Captains who lost their only Test:

Not surprisingly, the 19 members here are almost twice the number of those who won their only Test. The latest was Ben Stokes, who was substituting for Joe Root.

India has two prominent players in Borde and Pankaj Roy.

DB Carr played only in 2 Tests overall. This loss was India’s first win in any Test, which oddly enough coincided with the death of King George VI. The captain appointed for that series was the equally undistinguished ND Howard who played his only 4 Tests in that series.

AR Richards, JH Anderson and N Betancourt were playing in their only Tests.

Captains who drew their only Test:

The most recent was BA Murphy in 2001. From India there is HR Adhikari. Prominent players here include DL Murray, G Kirsten, RR Lindwall and TW Graveney.

Taberer was playing his only Test.

Test captains compared-fielding

We now look at the fielding figures for Test captains. This includes both keepers and non-keepers.

Most dismissals (35 and above):

Led by Dhoni (211) followed by non-keepers GC Smith (152) and Fleming (132) and current keeper Paine (101)

Fine-tuning:

A Flower and AJ Stewart had captained both as keepers and as non-keepers. Sangakkara and AB de Villiers never captained as a keeper.

Most catches by WK: 187 by Dhoni, almost double the next (97 by Paine).

Most stumpings: 24 by Dhoni, followed by Sherwell (16 from long ago)

Most catches by non-keeper: 152 by GC Smith, 132 by Fleming. The highest for India is 59 by Kohli

Most dismissals in an innings (5 and above):

Rashid Latif and Dhoni have the most dismissals (6).

Among non-keepers, the highest is 5 by VY Richardson, Fleming, GC Smith, Sammy and SPD Smith.

5 is still the world record for catches by a fielder in an innings. It is shared by several others. VY Richardson was the first to achieve this. He is better known as the (maternal) grandfather of the Chappells.

Most dismissals in a match (7 and above):

Here the record is 10 by Sarfaraz Ahmed, who had a relatively short spell as captain.

For non-keepers, it is 7 by Fleming. This was a share in the world record until AM Rahane took 8 catches.

And the most stumpings appear to be 3 by Dhoni in 2010.

Highest dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, and 0.65):

Here the results are a little surprising: Paine (2.244) followed by Sarfaraz (2.200) and Alexander. Dhoni is next.

Among fielders, the leader is SPD Smith(1.187) followed by DJG Sammy (1.075). Dravid (0.702) has the most for India.

You may also like to see this, which has the same dateline in May 2021.

Wicket-keepers who captained in Tests (Revised in May 2021)