India vs England T20I series in Mar 2021

After winning the Test series 3-1, India went on to win the T20I series 3-2. All 5 matches were played at the Narendra Modi Stadium (earlier Motera stadium) in Ahmedabad.

A summary of all T20Is between these teams is given below. At the start of the series the 14 matches were split 7-7. Now India leads 10-9.

We now look at individual records, starting with Batting.

Most runs (100 and more):

Kohli is far ahead of the second-placed Buttler.

While RG Sharma and Rahul have scored a century apiece, Kohli has the most fifty-plus scores (4) followed by Buttler and RG Sharma each with 3.

Highest innings (60 or more):

Buttler (83*) and Malan (68) surpassed the previous record for England in India which was 56 by AD Hales in 2012-13.

Kohli 80* after 77* and 73* surpassed the previous record for India in India which was 71 by KL Rahul in 2016-17.

Most wickets (6 and more):

Chahal (12) and Jordan (10) now have the most T20I wickets for their teams, followed by Pandya with 9.

Best innings bowling (3wi and better):

No major innings figures in this series

Most dismissals (5 and above):

Dhoni still holds the record for the most dismissals (12) followed by Kohli with 9 (as a non-keeper).

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

While Dhoni has the most dismissals (5), the highest by a non-keeper is 4 by Rahane in 2014.

Best all-round performance (overall):

HH Pandya appears to have the best overall performance.

Best all-round match performance (20 runs and 2 wickets):

Pandya’s performance in 2018 appears to be the best here.

Analyzing Test captaincies – 6

Finally we look at captains with the most wins, most losses and most draws.

Most wins (14 and more):

Here, and in the rest of the post, we will see that the toppers will generally be those who captained in the most Tests. GC Smith with 53 wins had captained in the most Tests (108). RT Ponting is next with 47 wins.

Among current players, V Kohli has the most wins (33). That is also the most by an Indian captain.

Most losses (12 and more):

Unsurprisingly, it is also headed by GC Smith with 28 losses. Next is SP Fleming with 27.

Among current captains, JO Holder has the most losses (19). For India, MAK Pataudi leads with 19.

Most draws (12 and more):

For a change, this is headed by another captain AR Border with 39 draws (including 1 tie). Next is SM Gavaskar with 30. He was well known for his defensive captaincy. Like Border, he had a weak Test team most of the time. GC Smith is third with 27.

Among recent captains, AN Cook leads with 13 draws.

Review of NZ-India ODIs-1

New Zealand won the series 3-0, the first such whitewash for India in ODIs for a long time.

We start with a listing of match results since the beginning of 2019:

India did win 4-1 in New Zealand just over a year ago. Then they lost to them in the World cup semi-final, and then the 3 matches in Feb 2020.

Here is the overall record of ODIs between these teams:

India still has an overall lead of 55-49 and 26-8 at home, while NZ leads 25-14 at home and marginally leads 16-15 at neutral venues. Certainly a strong home advantage on both sides. But India had won there in 2019.

Now for individual records, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Taylor and Kohli are now in 2nd and 3rd place, though well below the first-placed Tendulkar. Williamson and Guptill are the other current players here.

Sehwag has the most centuries (6) followed by Tendulkar, Kohli and Astle with 5 apiece. The most scores of 50+ are 13 by Kohli and Tendulkar,  followed by 11 by R Taylor.

Highest innings (110 and above):

Tendulkar has the two highest scores made a decade apart. Kohli’s 154* is the highest score by current players. But this series had fewer large individual scores, the highest being 112 by KL Rahul.

Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, 30.00):

Kohli has the highest average here, with Dhoni (?) and Taylor the next highest among current players. Williamson and Rohit Sharma are also here.

Highest batting strike rate (Min 500 balls faced, 75.00):

The first two, Sehwag and Kapil, are at some distance from the next few. Kohli, Latham and Taylor lead among current players. Guptill and other current players are also seen here.

To be continued.

 

Review of India-Australia ODI series-1

As you know, India won the series of January 2020 by a 2-1 margin.

Here are the results of ODIs between these teams since January 2019:

India won 2-1 in Australia in Jan 2019

Aus won 3-2 in Ind in Mar 2019

Ind won 1-0 in the World Cup in Jun 2019

Ind won 2-1 in Ind in Jan 2020

On the whole India has done better in the past year.

We also look at the results of all ODIs between these teams:

Australia still leads 78-51 overall but only 30-29 in India.

We now look at the individual performances in batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

RG Sharma and Kohli continue to move up though they have some distance to go to reach Tendulkar’s record. Finch and Dhawan are among the other current players here.

Tendulkar has the most centuries (9) followed by Kohli and Sharma with 8.

Tendulkar also has the most scores of 50-plus (24) and is predictably followed by Kohli and Sharma with 16.

Highest innings (125 or more):

Note that RG Sharma has the highest overall score in this series (209) as well as India’s highest in Australia (171*).

However, Smith (131) and Warner (128*) made the highest scores in this series.

Highest batting average (Min 20 innings, 35.00):

Sharma and Kohli are the top two. Dhawan and Finch are among the other current players here. Smith and Warner have not played enough to qualify.

Highest strike rate (Minimum 500 balls faced, 80.00):

Now you can see why Australian fans want Maxwell back in the team.

Dhawan and SPD Smith have the best strike rates among those who played in 2020.

To be continued:

 

 

Review of India-Sri Lanka T20Is

India won this series 2-0 after the first match was washed out.

Here is the record of all T20Is between these sides:

Of the 18 completed matches:

India lead 13-5 overall

In India, they lead 8-2

In Sri Lanka, they lead 4-1

In neutral venues, India trail 1-2

From the above list, we see that the only bilateral series of 3 matches was in India in Dec 2017, which India won 3-0. Earlier in Sri Lanka that year, India won all the Tests and ODIs plus the sole T20I.

Now for individual records, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (115 or more):

The Indian top 4 in white-ball cricket are the top 4 here.

RG Sharma is the only one with a century. Kohli has the most (4) scores of 50+.

Highest individual scores (50 and above):

This was a low-scoring series as the highest score was just 57 by DM de Silva.

Most wickets (6 or more):

YS Chahal and Ashwin lead here, along with K Yadav, Bumrah and others who played in this series.

Best innings bowling (3 wickets or more):

The top positions are of those who have not played for a while. The best in this series was SN Thakur’s 3-23.

Most dismissals (5 or more):

Dhoni expectedly leads, although HH Pandya is a bit of  a surprise here. He also has the same dismissal rate as Dhoni.

Most innings dismissals (3 or more):

An one-man show.

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

Yuvraj Singh’s performance was clearly the best. Also note Thakur’s performance in this series.

 

The ODIs of 2019-1

Here is the summary of all the ODIs of 2019:

Win-Loss ratios for all teams:

This isn’t very useful as the Netherlands and Namibia come out on top.

The ICC rankings on Dec 31 are more meaningful:

Here we have the four semi-finalists of the World Cup at the top.

Next we move to the individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (600 or more):

RG Sharma, V Kohli and SD Hope lead by a big margin.

Sharma has the most centuries (7) followed by Kohli (5).

The most scores of 50+ were by Sharma (13) followed by Kohli and Hope with 12 apiece.

Highest innings scores (120 or more):

Led by the relatively lesser-known JD Campbell. There are several other scores above 150.

Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, all instances):

Hope, Babar Azam and Kohli are close together at the top.

Highest strike rates (Min 500 balls faced, 90.00):

Here we have some other names at the top such as JJ Roy, who is considerably ahead of EJG Morgan. While Kohli is here, others who scored the most (RG Sharma and SD Hope) did not score fast enough. There is one player (N Zadran) from Afghanistan.

To be continued:

Test captaincy updates-1

It is easy enough to get updated tables like this:

(All these tables are updated to May 15, 2021):

Most Tests (120 and above)

Current players with the most Tests are Anderson (160) and Broad (146).

Another table which is easy to create:

Most Tests as Captain (40 and above):

Kohli is the only current player here. He has captained in 60 Tests and has equalled Dhoni (60). He overtook Ganguly (49), Gavaskar and Azharuddin (47) not long ago. Root is on 50.

But this one needs a little more work with Excel:

Most Tests NOT as Captain (90 and above):

Tendulkar and Kallis lead. The most by current players are 161 by Anderson and 146 by his team-mate Broad.

Now what about those who played the most Tests without ever captaining their sides (90 and above)?

Led by Anderson and Broad, who recently surpassed the long-standing record of Warne.

VVS Laxman (134) has the highest for India which will probably stand for a long time..

Other current players are Ishant Sharma (101) and NM Lyon (100).

Finally, those who played all their Tests as captains (all cases):

Most of them are from the olden days, except LK Germon (12). Perhaps there was an acute shortage of captaincy talent in New Zealand in the mid-90s. And there is Porterfield who captained Ireland in the only 3 Tests which they have played.

Note the 5 at the bottom who played only one Test, in which they were captain.

There are a fair number of the glorious amateurs and their counterparts like Vizianagaram.

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.

 

 

 

Flashback: When Virat met Kane in 2008

They first met as opposing captains in another semi-final long ago in Kuala Lumpur in February 2008, when India won by 3 wkts (by D/L):

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8368/scorecard/317005/india-under-19s-vs-new-zealand-under-19s-semi-final-icc-under-19-world-cup-2007-08

Future internationals in this match included Worker, Williamson, Southee, CJ Anderson and Boult from NZ and Kohli, SS Tiwary, MK Pandey and Sir Ravindra Jadeja (though he was a minor nobleman at that time) from India.

In the other semi-final SA won against Pak.

In the final, Ind won against SA by 12 runs (again by D/L):

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8368/scorecard/317016/india-under-19s-vs-south-africa-under-19s-final-icc-under-19-world-cup-2007-08

SA’s future internationals included Rossouw, Reza Hendricks and Parnell (captain).

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: