Batting recoveries 1: Doubling the score by the 10th wicket partners

There are only 6 occasions when a Test innings score has been doubled after the 9th wicket fell:

Interestingly, this first happened over 100 years after the first Test.

5 of these 6 instances have come since 2011. No 11 batsmen have become more skilled in handling collapses 🙂

The Hughes-Agar partnership is the highest (163) and has the best ratio of (10th wicket partnership) / (sum of 1st to 9th wicket partnerships): 1.393

Agar’s 98 remains the best at No 11 in all Tests. He was making his debut (as a pure bowler).

At the other end of the scale, Roach and Cummins just succeeded in equalling the 50 made by the first 9 wickets.

There are two instances (Lyon and Murtagh) where the No 11 batsman was the top scorer of the innings.

The only such effort which did not end in a loss was the one in 1980. It did avert a likely defeat.

Next we will come to doubling after the 8th and 7th wickets fell.

Afghanistan and Ireland in Tests-2

More highlights from their short Test history:

Fielding:

Most dismissals (3 and above):

The most by a non-keeper is 4 by Stirling.

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

Most match dismissals (3 and above):

Wilson has the most dismissals here, while the best by non-keepers are 3 by Strling and I. Zadran.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria):

These two players have made an encouraging start.

Match performance (50 and 5wi):

Only one instance here, but it is the relatively rare combination of a fifty and 10 wickets. This has been achieved 29 times in all Tests.

Rashid is only the third Test caption to achieve this:

He is in august company, though it may be a while before he becomes PM of his country.

 

Afghanistan and Ireland in Tests-1

Afghanistan and Ireland have each played 3 Tests, including one between themselves. Here is the record of these matches:

Afghanistan have made rapid progress, starting with a two-day defeat in their first Test followed by two wins, the latest against the higher-rated Bangladesh. Ireland have lost all three Tests, putting up a good fight in the first two but abjectly collapsing to 38 all out in the third. They did however dismiss England for 85 in that Test.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (100 and above):

Rahmat Shah, KJ O’Brien and Asghar Afghan (former Stanikzai) have the most runs. The only centuries are by Rahmat and O’Brien, the latter on debut. Rahmat and Asghar have 3 scores of 50+.

At the other end of the scale, Murtagh became the first No 11 batsman in any Test to score 25+ in each innings during Ireland’s second Test.

Highest innings (75 and above):

Bowling:

Most wickets (8 and above):

Rashid Khan has by far the best total here. He has 3 fivers and the only tenner here. Murtagh is the only other with a fiver.

Best innings bowling (4wi or more):

Note Rashid’s two fivers in the same match, while Murtagh’s 2018 figure is the best on debut from either side. Murtagh also became the first Irish player to appear on the Lord’s honours board.

Best match bowling (6wi and above):

Rashid Khan has the two best performances here.

To be continued

 

 

More tailend heroics-2

Another aspect of great tailend recoveries is the proportion of runs added by the tailenders. Today we will concentrate on cases where the score was doubled after the fall of the 9th wicket.

There are only 6 such instances in all Tests. In chronological order, they are:

1) P Willey and RGD Willis took the score from 92/9 to 209/9. (Added 117*, which is 1.27 times the score of the first 9 wickets. Eng v WI, Oval, 24/07/1980. Drawn.

Scores: Eng 370 and 209/9 dec; WI 265.

Similarly:

2) PM Siddle and NM Lyon took the score from 21/9 to 47. Added 26, 1.24 times. A v SA, Cape Town, 09/11/2011. Lost.

Scores: Aus 284 and 47; SA 96 and 236/2. SA won by 8 wickets.

3) PJ Hughes and AC Agar took the score from 117/9 to 280. Added 163, 1.39 times. A v E, Nottingham, 10/07/2013. Lost.

Scores: Eng 215 and 375. Aus 280 and 296. Eng won by 14 runs.

4) C Overton and JM Anderson took the score from 27/9 to 58. Added 31, 1.15 times. E v NZ, Auckland, 22/03/2018. Lost.

Scores: Eng 58 and 320. NZ 427/8 dec. NZ won by an innings and 49 runs (Day-night Test)

5) GH Dockrell and  TJ Murtagh took the score from 85/9 to 172. Added 87, 1.02 times. Ire v Afg, Dehradun, 15/03/2019. Lost.

Scores: Ire 172 and 288. Afg 314 and 149/3. Afg won by 7 wickets.

6) KAJ Roach and ML Cummins took the score from 50/9 to 100. Added 50, 1.00 times. WI v Ind, North Sound. 22/08/2019. Lost.

Scores: Ind 297 and 343/7 Dec. WI 222 and 100. Ind won by 318 runs.

It is interesting that the first such instance occurred only after more than a century of Tests.

Going by the number of runs scored for the last wicket, the most is 163 by Hughes and Agar. The latter was making his debut and holds the record for the highest score (98) at no 11 in all Tests.

They also have the record for the highest ratio, 1.39.

You can also see that none of these teams won the Test. Only one managed a draw.

Next we will look at recoveries where the score was doubled after the fall of the 8th wicket. Apart from the 6 cases listed above, there are 8 others starting from 1927.

More tailend heroics-1

The best scores while batting at numbers 9, 10 and 11:

At No 9: (75 and above):

At No 10 (60 and above):

At No 11 (50 and above):

More than 25 in each innings at No 11:

This table is for those with 2 innings and over 50 runs. It can be seen that only TJ Murtagh has scored 25+ in each innings.

Finally, those who have scored a fifty in each innings at 9 to 11:

It can be verified that both of them scored 50+ in both innings at No 9.

 

High scores at No 11

On the opening day of the first Afghanistan – Ireland Test at the new Test venue Dehradun, Ireland’s last pair of GH Dockrell and TJ Murtagh took Ireland from 85/9 to 172. They contributed 39 (No 8) and 54* (No 11) respectively.

First we look at :

High Scores at No 11:

Only 19 such instances. Murtagh is 11th in this list.

He also figures in this list in Cricinfo’s records section:

When No 11 was top scorer of the innings:

There have been only 11 such instances, 6 of them after 2000.

Murtagh has the third highest score here, after Agar and Vogler.

The partnership which lasted from 85/9 to 172 is one of the few instances where a team’s score was doubled after the 9th wicket fell.

There are only 5 such instances, and 4 of them were after 2010. More about this later.

We also add a table of the Highest 10th-wicket partnerships (85 and above):

Dockrell and Murtagh just manage to enter here.

The highest partnership involving No 10 and 11 appears to be the 128 by Higgs (63) and Snow (59*) in 1966.