When India first won a Test and series abroad

You might think this relates to the victories over the West Indies and England in 1971, when Wadekar was the captain.

But the first time India won a Test outside India was in New Zealand in February 1968 when Pataudi was still the captain.

India lost the second Test but won the 4-match series 3-1. This is mostly forgotten now, particularly as New Zealand was not considered to be a strong team then.

Anyway, you can look through the old scorecards through this link, which covers all Tests played by India in New Zealand:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;home_or_away=2;opposition=5;orderby=start;team=6;template=results;type=team;view=results

After this, India only won two further Tests in New Zealand. The first was in 1976 at Auckland. Later at Wellington the hitherto unknown Richard Hadlee ensured that his team squared the series 1-1. It is noteworthy that India’s win came when Gavaskar was standing in for captain Bedi, who captained in the rest of the series.

And in 2009, when Dhoni’s team won the series 1-0 after winning at Hamilton.

This year, the Tests are scheduled at Wellington and Christchurch. India had won at Wellington back in 1968, but have never won at Christchurch.

Clean sweeps or whitewashes in ODI series

When New Zealand won all 3 ODIs in the series against India, there was much checking of old records to see when this had last happened.

Fortunately, this is one performance which appears in the records section of Cricinfo so one does not have to resort to Statsguru.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283240.html

From this we see:

The last such “whitewash” against India was by 4-0 in 2006-07 by South Africa.

Before that, by West Indies (5-0) in 1988-89

(More than a generation ago).

However, India has also done the same to

Sri Lanka (5-0) IN Sri Lanka in 2017, Zimbabwe (3-0) in 2016 and 20, both times in Zimbabwe. And several others before that.

Not to forget the triple clean sweep in Tests, ODIs and T20Is in Sri Lanka in 2017.

Then one can coin new terms such as brownwashes and blackwashes (though the latter should be applicable only when the West Indies does this).

For Test matches, see this:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283942.html

 

Review of Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe Tests-2

Hope that you have read Part 1

Continuing with individual performances:

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and above):

A Flower has the most dismissals and catches by a keeper. Dickwella has the most stumpings and M Jayawardene the most catches by a non-keeper. Dickwella also has the most dismissals among current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

No good performances from the current series.

Most match dismissals (5 and above):

Dickwella had 5 dismissals in the current series. The long-forgotten WR James holds the records for innings as well as match dismissals.

All-round overall performance (see criteria in table):

Jayasuriya and Vaas have the best performances here. Nothing from recent years.

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

The only such performance was by Sikandar Raza in this series.

 

Review of Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe Tests-1

Sri Lanka won the series 1-0 with 1 draw. Zimbabwe put on a somewhat stronger challenge than expected, almost drawing  the first Test and putting Sri Lanka under some pressure in the second.

Summary of matches between these teams:

Zimbabwe is yet to win a Test in this series. They have lost all 8 Tests which they played in Sri Lanka.

This series was not part of the World Test Championship. Zimbabwe is not part of the championship in this cycle. Perhaps they will be in the top 9 and qualify for the next cycle.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (250 and above):

Atapattu leads by a large margin. He has the most centuries (5). A Flower has the most 50+ scores (7), including 2 centuries.

Karunaratne and CR Ervine have the most runs among current players.

Highest innings (125 and above):

Note Atapattu’s 3 double centuries. The highest score in this series was 200* by AD Mathews. No one else crossed 125.

Highest strike rate (Min 1000 balls faced, all cases):

Jayasuriya predictably leads here, while Atapattu also has a strike rate considerably higher than that of the others.

Now for

Bowling:

Most wickets (10 and above):

Muralitharan and Vaas have done much better than others. Murali and Herath both have 2 ten-fors, while Murali also has the most five-fors (6).

Lakmal and Kumara have the most wickets among current players.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 5wi and above):

While Muralitharan and Herath are at the top of this list, Sikandar Raza’s 7-113 was the best for Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka. The previous best was 5-106 by PA Strang back in 1996. The previous best for Zimbabwe at home was 4-50 by CT Mumba in 2016.

Embuldeniya is the only other bowler with a five-for in the current series.

Best match bowling (includes all instances of 8wm and above):

Muralitharan and Herath again. However, Sikandar Raza’s 8-176 is the best for Zimbabwe at home. AG Cremer’s 9-275 at Colombo (RPS) in 2017 remains the best for Zimbabwe in Sri Lanka.

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

Muralitharan expectedly heads this list as well. Herath did not bowl enough.

To be continued:

India’s oldest living first-class cricketer

Vasant Raiji, who played in first-class cricket for Bombay and Baroda in 1938-50, celebrates his 100th birthday on Republic Day, 2020:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/33480.html

A news item from 26 Jan 2020:

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/india-s-oldest-living-first-class-cricketer-vasant-raiji-hits-a-century/story-1IsG9ZUFj83Vk2uoXYtj8K.html

Among other things, he wrote some cricket-related books including a biography of one-Test player LP Jai.

At this stage, it is worth looking at the oldest first-class cricketers from all countries. This is one of the subjects where Wikipedia is more useful than Cricinfo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_oldest_cricketers#Longest-lived_first-class_cricketers

From this, we can see that Mr Raiji is the 24th first-class cricketer to cross 100.

The only other player from India is the better known DB Deodhar, who lived to be 101+.

The only Test player to cross 100 was the South African bowler N Gordon, 103+ :

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/45239.html

All of his 5 Tests were in the 1938-39 SA v Eng series, including the famous timeless Test:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17542/scorecard/62657/south-africa-vs-england-5th-test-england-tour-of-south-africa-1938-39

Meanwhile, we look at other long-lived Test players.

The longest-lived Test players of all time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_oldest_cricketers#Longest-lived_Test_cricketers

New Zealand’s Eric Tindill is the only other Test player to cross 99. India’s representative is MJ Gopalan at 94+.

In case you are thinking of the strange case of C Ramaswami, it is now generally accepted that he died in Jan 1990 at 93+ :

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/33059.html

Interestingly, Wisden carried his obituary in the 2015 edition only in the “supplementary obituaries” section. This included the obituaries of some who were killed in the Great War and had somehow not been covered by Wisden until then. Better late (by 100 years) than never.

The oldest living Test cricketers are here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_oldest_cricketers#Oldest_living_Test_cricketers

This is led by South Africa’s John Watkins (96+) while India’s representative is DK Gaekwad (91+), captain of the 1959 team and father of AD Gaekwad.

Some of these lists are also in Cricinfo but they are not updated frequently. For instance, the list of oldest-lived Test players

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283742.html

includes at least two (CK Singh of WI and Rajinder Pal of India) whose deaths have been reported elsewhere.

Also see:http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283740.html

Another long-lived Indian FC player was BK Garudachar, who celebrated his 99th birthday soon before he died in 2016:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/29090.html

 

 

 

Lies, damn lies and statistics in cricket-Revised in 2020

For some unknown reason, this post in Dec 2015 was the most popular of my cricket-related posts and got over 700 views in that month.

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/lies-damn-lies-and-statistics-in-cricket/

So I thought of revising it in 2020.

The first question we asked was “Who is the best opening bowler of the 2010s?”

Here we set the bowling position as #1 or #2, and a minimum of 50 wickets.

You may have thought of someone like Steyn or Mitchell Johnson or Morkel.

In Dec 2015, R Ashwin had the best average, BW Hilfenhaus the best economy rate, and Ashwin again with the best strike rate.

When we consider the entire 2010s:

There is another unexpected result with the burly Rangana Herath having the best bowling average here. He is followed by Bumrah (expected) and Rabada (also expected). Ashwin is 4th.

Other spinners here are MDK (Dilruwan) Perera, and MH Miraz.

This time Mohammad Abbas has the best economy rate and K Rabada the best strike rate.

Next, who is India’s best opening bowler? Surely Kapil or Srinath?

In 2015 we got Ashwin again (followed by Srinath and Kapil). Phadkar had the best economy rate and Ashwin the best strike rate.

Again in 2020, we consider all those who bowled at 1 or 2 for India and took at least 50 wickets up to the end of 2019.

This time Bumrah leads, followed by his contemporaries Ashwin and B Kumar. The first 4 places are held by current players.

Phadkar still has the best economy rate and is now followed by Bumrah. Bumrah has the best strike rate while Ashwin is second.

Finally, who was India’s best all-rounder? We consider all those who scored at least 1000 runs and took 100 wickets up to the end of 2019.

In 2015, it was Ashwin followed by Kapil and Pathan.

In 2020, the topper was not Ashwin but one of his contemporaries.

Indeed, this is led by Jadeja who is followed by Ashwin and Kapil. Of course, anyone below Shastri in this table should not really be called an all-rounder.

 

Test matches of 2019: All-round performance

Finally we look at all-round performances. For overall performances we have this (see the criteria):

Even by these modest standards we only get two who meet the criteria of all-rounders. Jadeja has clearly done better than Stokes, although the latter is more likely to make an impact.

Then we have

Match performances: Fifty and fiver in the same match:

Here we have two contrasting performances. While Chase was largely responsible for an unexpected WI win, Rashid Khan’s criteria was the best all-round performance from Afghanistan in a Test. He was also the captain.

R.I.P. Bapu Nadkarni

Rameshchandra Gangaram “Bapu” Nadkarni was one of the legendary figures of the bad old days of pre-1971 Indian Test cricket, as he played from 1955 to 1968. His last Test was the 4th  of the long-forgotten Indian tour of New Zealand which the visitors won 3-1. That was the first time India ever won a Test outside India, and naturally the first series win as well.

Typically, he signed off with 2-1-1-1, an economy of 0.50 while Prasanna and Bedi (with a little help from Surti) dismissed the home team for 101 facing 374.

He could be described as one of the most economical bowlers in Test history, as you can see here. He is 4th on the all-time list, after Attewell, Gladwin and TL Goddard.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283265.html

And the famous 32-27-5-0 at Chennai with an economy rate of 0.156 is here too:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283292.html

While that is first on the all-term economy list, he also has the 3rd position of 14-11-3-0 (0.214) which was also in that yawn-inducing series of 1963-64.

He was also good enough batsman to score a century and 7 other fifty-plus scores in Tests.

Anyway, this should give you a fair idea of his career.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/31760.html

As an afterthought, let us look how he compares with other left-arm spinners:

Left-arm spinners (minimum 2000 balls):

Ranked by economy rate (less than 2.25):

No prize for guessing who tops this list. Also note that Mankad, Bedi, Doshi and Raju are in the bottom half of the table.

And Nadkarni has one more record-the first Test player to die in the 2020s.

 

 

 

 

Test matches of 2019-Fielding

Individual performances in fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Australian captain Paine leads by a large margin over the next, de Kock.

The best by a non-keeper was 25 by Root, England’s captain.

M Rizwan took over as Pakistan’s keeper from former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Buttler and Hope played some (but not all) of their matches as keepers.

The most stumpings were 4 by JL Bairstow.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

de Kock is the only one with more than 5 dismissals.

Klaasen took 4 dismissals on debut. Other new faces here are RR Pant and Mohammad Rizwan.

Root, Warner and SPD Smith took 4 catches apiece as non-keepers.

Most match dismissals (6 or more):

Sarfaraz Ahmed took 10 dismissals before he lost his captaincy as well as his place in the team. Paine and de Kock were next with 8. New faces here include GC Wilson, RR Pant and Mohammad Rizwan.

Warner and SPD Smith took 6 catches as non-keepers.

Best dismissal rate (Min 15 innings, 0.500):

Paine has by far the best dismissal rate (2.521), followed by Watling.

The best by a non-keeper is 1.312 by SPD Smith.

Test matches of 2019-Bowling

Now for individual bowling performances in Tests in the calendar year 2019.

Most wickets (12 or more):

The two top positions are for Australian players Cummins and Lyon. Cummings has a large lead. The best of the newcomers appear to be Archer, Rashid Khan, Embuldeniya and SS Afridi, while Cornwall had a 10-wicket haul in his 2nd Test

Wagner and Starc had the most 5-wicket hauls (4). No one took more than one 10-for.

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

Chase’s 8-wicket haul was largely responsible for England’s defeat. Next is another WI spinner who was playing in his 2nd Test. Other good performances were by newcomers JC Archer, TJ Murtagh and Rashid Khan.

Murtagh was the first Irish player to get his name on the Lord’s honours boards.

Here we add the only hat-trick this year:

JJ Bumrah took a hat-trick with the wickets of 2-13 (Bravo, 8.2 ov), 3-13 (Brooks, 8.3 ov), and 4-13 (Chase, 8.4 ov). He finished with innings figures of 6-27 and match figures of 7-58.

Best match bowling (including all cases of 8wm and above):

Rashid Khan scored a fifty along with his 11 wickets. Other newcomers here are Cornwall and Archer.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1500 balls, all instances):

Wagner and Cummins lead here, with Archer the best of the newcomers.

The best economy rates are by Cummins and Hazlewood. The best strike rates are by Starc and Wagner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test matches of 2019-Batting

We now look at individual batting performances.

Most runs (500 or more):

The top scorer here is M Labuschagne who had made his debut in 2018 with little impact, but he soon showed his class. The returning SPD Smith came second, while his former deputy Warner did not fare so well.

Others in this list who had made their Test debuts in 2018 or 2019 are RJ Burns, MA Agarwal, TM Head and JL Denly.

Several players made 3 centuries. Labuschagne had the most 50+ scores (10) and the next highest was 7.

Labuschagne scored the most 4s (129) while RG Sharma scored the most 6s (20).

SCJ Broad had the most ducks (5) followed by three others with 4.

Highest innings (125 or more):

One triple by Warner and 6 doubles, including 2 by newcomer Agarwal and one by the rejuvenated RG Sharma. Labuschagne’s highest was 185, but he made a double at the beginning of 2020. The longest innings was 473 balls in Watling’s 205.

Sharma and Smith made centuries in each innings:

Sharma’s 13 6s in the match is a new Test record. The previous record was 12 by Wasim Akram in a single innings:

Highest batting averages (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Labuschagne yet again, with Head and Warner following at a distance.

There are even a couple of single-digit averages by tailenders. This seems to show that Broad’s batting is now negligible.

Highest batting strike rates (Minimum 750 balls faced, all instances):

de Kock leads by a distance over Babar Azam, who also has a large lead over R Taylor. And Watling showed that a low overall strike rate does not prevent one from scoring a double century.

 

 

Test matches of 2019-General summary

The summary of all the Tests played in the calendar year 2019. Here the teams are ranked by win/loss ratio. India is at the top with 7 wins and no losses, while Ireland and Bangladesh lost all their matches. Australia and Afghanistan (!) are next to India. Zimbabwe did not play any Test in this year, though they will resume in January 2020.

The ICC ranking tables at the end of the year are more meaningful:

A more realistic assessment, with Afghanistan overtaking Zimbabwe besides Ireland.

According to this, New Zealand is India’s closest rival with South Africa, England and Australia in joint third position (though they are actually separated by small fractions).

Then there is the new contest, the World Test Championship. Not all Test countries are involved. Even among the 9 countries involved, not all Test series are counted. An example is the 2-Test tour of England to New Zealand. This was the WTC points table at the end of the year:

It is still at an early stage, but it does seem that the other teams will not find it easy to catch up with India and Australia. By the middle of January, Australia had moved up to 296 and England to 86.