IPL finals from 2008 to 2023

Here we summarise results of the IPL final matches since their inception:

Some points of interest:

The IPL trophy has been won 5 times by Chennai and Mumbai

2 times by Kolkata and Deccan/Hyderabad

1 time by Rajasthan and Gujarat

Of the 8 teams which played in 2008, three have never won the trophy. They are Punjab, Delhi and Bangalore (though they have been runners-up)

An interesting meme here: Virat Kohli is a Punjabi living in Delhi who plays for Bangalore 🙂

Looking at the Man of the Match awards:

There is a mix of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders.

The highest score by a MOM is 117* by S Watson in 2018

The best bowling by a MOM is 4-16 by A Kumble in 2009

The best all-round performance is probably 56 and 3-22 by YK Pathan in 2008

The only MOM who did not represent his country is M Bisla (2012)

Next is B Cutting (2016), who played for Australia in a few matches.

Both the Pandya brothers are here.

Cumulative Test bowling records (World and India)

Here we look at how the record for the best innings bowling has progressed.

The very first Test in 1877 saw Australia’s TK Kendall taking 7-55 against England.

7-55, TK Kendall, A vs E, Melbourne, 15/03/1877

7-44, FR Spofforth, A vs E, Oval, 28/08/1882

7-28, W Bates, E vs A, Melbourne, 19/01/1883

8-35, GA Lohmann, E vs A, Sydney, 25/02/1887

8-11, J Briggs, E vs SA, Cape Town, 25/03/1889

9-28, GA Lohmann, E vs SA, Johannesburg, 02/03/1896

10-53, JC Laker, E vs A, Manchester, 26/07/1956

In the first 20 years the record changed hands frequently. Then GA Lohmann’s 9-28 became the record for over 60 years. JC Laker’s record has stood for over 66 years.

Next we look at the corresponding Indian records.

India’s first Test had M Nissar taking a 5-for at Lord’s.

5-93, M Nissar, vs E, Lord’s, 25/06/1932

5-90, M Nissar, vs E, Mumbai, 15/12/1933

7-86, L Amar Singh, vs E, Chennai, 10/02/1934

8-55, MH Mankad, vs E, Chennai, 06/02/1952

8-52, MH Mankad, vs P, Delhi, 10/10/1952

9-102, SP Gupte, vs WI, Kanpur, 12/12/1958

9-69, JM Patel, vs A, Kanpur, 19/12/1959

10-74, A Kumble, vs P, Delhi, 04/02/1999.

The current record by Kumble has stood for over 24 years. Before that, JM Patel’s record had stood for over 39 years.

Review of Ind vs Aus Tests (2023)-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now proceed with Bowling:

Most wickets (50 or more):

Led by Lyon, closely followed by Ashwin. Both of them surpassed Kumble’s record in this series.

Kumble has the most 5wis (10). Harbhajan has the most 10wms (3), while Lyon took 2 in recent years.

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi and better):

Lyon’s 8-50 came in 2017, and 8-64 in this series. These are the two best innings figures for Aus against India.

Best match bowling (including all 10wm and better):

The best in recent years is Lyon’s 11-99 in this series.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, maximum 30.00):

Benaud has the best average and economy rate, while Jadeja has the best strike rate.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (25 or more):

Led by Gilchrist. Dhoni has the most stumpings, and Dravid the most catches by a fielder.

Best innings fielding (5 or more):

Led by Haddin and Pant. Srikkanth has the most by a fielder.

Best match fielding (7 or more):

Led by Pant.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Led by Haddin and Gilchrist. M Waugh and Simpson have the best by a fielder.

All-round performance (overall):

Note the criteria in the table:

Led by Jadeja with a large margin. Kapil is the only other one with respectable figures.

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

The best performances would be by Surti and Cummins. Jadeja’s performance came in this series.

Review of India-New Zealand ODI series-Jan 2023

India won the series 3-0.

A total of 116 ODIs have been played between these teams,

India have won 58, New Zealand 50, ties 1, no result 7

In India: 29-8-0-1

In NZ: 14-26-1-4

Neutral 15-16-0-2

Note the strong home advantage for both teams.

Looking at individual performances, starting with Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

The most centuries were 6 by Sehwag, followed by three players with 5 (Tendulkar, Kohli and Astle). The most 50+ scores were 13 by Kohli and Tendulkar, followed by 11 by R Taylor.

Highest innings scores (115 or more):

In this series, S Gill’s 208 became the highest for India against NZ, surpassing Tendulkar’s 186* in 1999. That was at Hyderabad, though on another ground.MG Bracewell’s 140 was the highest for NZ in India, surpassing NJ Astle’s 120 in 1999. Conway’s 138 also surpassed the old record.

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

Headed by Kohli with Latham close behind.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):

Headed by Sehwag with Kapil Dev close behind.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Srinath is far ahead of the second-placed Kumble. Southee has the most among current players.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi):

SE Bond is the only one with a 6-for. Next is A Mishra. K Srikkanth is the only one with 2 five-fors.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

The best averages are by Srinath and Hadlee.

The best economy rates are by Hadlee and Kapil

The best strike rates are by Srinath and Southee.

Next is Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Headed by the lesser-known NR Mongia, who also has the most stumpings. Latham has the most from current players, and R Taylor has the most catches by a fielder

Best innings fielding (4 or more dismissals):

Several have made 5 dismissals in an innings. Similarly for 4 catches as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):

Again headed by NR Mongia.

All-round performances:

Overall performances (see criteria in table below):

Only one player qualifies here,

Match performances:

Only one player qualifies, and he was an occasional bowler.

The Dickwella phenomenon

Niroshan Dickwella is sometimes the subject of jokes involving his surname, but has attracted the attention of cricket enthusiasts for his puzzling inability to score a century.

Let us first look at:

Most 50+ scores without a century (8 and above):

Dickwella tops this list with 22 fifties, going far ahead of the previous record held by India’s CPS Chauhan which stood since 1981 until the 2020s. MA Starc is the only other current player here, and may yet make a hundred near the end of his Test career.

Also note Shane Warne whom we will meet again in this post.

Now we look at the

Most runs without a century (1500 and above):

Dickwella is 2nd here after Warne. Chauhan is in 3rd place. Other current players here are Southee and Starc.

Next we look at:

Highest batting averages without a century (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):

This is headed by the lesser-known Asim Kamal, who made 99 on his Test debut. Dickwella is further down this list, in 10th place. His neighbours include current players C Green (Aus), HE vd Dussen (SA) and Faheem Ashraf (Pak). S Gill (Ind) also has an average above 30.

Still, Dickwella has made 96 in a Test. But there is a surprisingly large number of Test players whose top score is between 96 and 99:

9 players have a top score of 99, besides AJ Tudor who was left on 99 not out in a winning 4th-innings chase. Similarly there are many with 96, 97, 98 and 99. There are a few current players here such as MA Starc (again !), van der Dussen, Nauman Ali and newcomer J Overton who made 97 in his debut innings. They are followed by W Sundar and N Dickwella.

But the current players who have not made a Test century yet should not lose heart. Some have made their maiden centuries after a long wait. (This list may not be exhaustive):

Review of ODIs between India and West Indies (July 2022)-Part 2

Hope that you have seen Part 1:

Review of ODIs between India and West Indies (July 2022)-Part 1

Continuing with individual performances:

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Walsh is just ahead of Kapil, Jadeja and Kumble. Kuldeep Yadav with 26 has the most by those who played in 2022.

M Dillon is the only one with 2 instances of 5wi.

M Shami and R Rampaul have 4 instances of 4wi.

Best innings bowling (Includes all instances of 5wi or more):

Kumble and Patterson have the best for their teams, with Viv Richards in third place.

YS Chahal’s 4-17 in this series is the best for India in WI, surpassing A Mishra’s 4-51 in 2011.

Best bowling average (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, maximum 35.00)

Surprisingly headed by Viv Richards, closely followed by Ambrose.

Marshall has the best economy rate, and Richards the best strike rate.

No one who played in 2022 is here.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

Headed by Dhoni and Dujon. Dhoni also has the most stumpings.

Richards and Hooper have the most catches as fielders.

SD Hope has the most dismissals among current players.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

Ramdin is the only one with 5 dismissals.

Dravid is the only one with 4 dismissals as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.450)

Headed by Ramdin, followed by Jacobs.

SD Hope has the best average among current players, followed by Dhawan.

Richards (again) has the best among fielders.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria below):

Headed by Richards yet again, followed by Hooper and Kapil.

Match performance (Minimum 40 runs and 4 wickets):

Richards is the only one here.

Weird conclusion: Viv Richards was the best all-rounder in matches between these teams.

Review of Tests between India and South Africa-1

The series in 2021-22 resulted in a 2-1 win for South Africa, after India won the first Test. India has failed to win a Test series in SA, although they have won at least one series in all other countries. The best India has done there is an 1-1 draw in 2010-11. The 2021-22 series followed the pattern of 2006-07 where India won the first Test but lost the next two.

Here is an overall summary of Tests between these two countries:

SA leads India 17-15 overall. Both sides appear to have strong home advantages.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

Led by Tendulkar and Kallis.

These two have the most centuries (7)

Amla, Kallis and Tendulkar have the most 50+ scores (12).

From the above table, the best by current players is 1236 by Kohli, followed by Rahane, Pujara and Elgar with 800+. RG Sharma is further down.

Highest innings (125 or more):

The highest by current players are 254* by Kohli, followed by double centuries by MA Agarwal and RG Sharma. But no one crossed 125 in this series.

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

Kallis has the highest average, followed by Kohli at some distance. Other current players here are Rahane, Elgar and Pujara.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Sehwag and Azharuddin lead here. Among current players there are RG Sharma (in 3rd place), Kohli and Rahane. Also note Dravid at the bottom of this list.

Bowling performances:

Most wickets (12 or more):

Led Kumble, followed by Steyn and Srinath at a distance. Ashwin (56) has the most by a current player, followed by Shami, Rabada and Jadeja. Also note M Jansen with 19 in his debut series.

The most 5-fors are 5 by Steyn and Ashwin. No one has taken more than one 10-for.

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

The best performance was an 8-for by Klusener on his debut.

Current players here include SN Thakur, Ashwin and Ngidi.

Thakur’s 7-61 in this series is the best for India against SA, surpassing the earlier record of 7-66 by Ashwin (Nagpur, 2015) and 7-120 by Harbhajan (Cape Town, 2011) which was India’s best in SA.

Best match performances (includes all 8wm and more):

Led by Ashwin and Donald with 12-fors, and 10-fors by Steyn, Pollock and V Prasad.

Current players here include Ashwin, Jadeja and Ngidi.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):

Headed by Donald and Jadeja (!) Current players here include Jadeja, Shami, Ashwin and Rabada.

The best economy rates are by Pollock and Jadeja.

The best strike rates are by Steyn and Shami.

To be continued.

Kings of the fourth-innings chase (Revised-Sep 2021)-Pt 2

Continued from: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/09/24/kings-of-the-fourth-innings-chase-revised-sep-2021-pt-1/

We now look at the bowlers who have been most successful in winning matches in the fourth innings.

Most wickets (35 and above):

Warne leads with 103, followed by late developer Herath and McGrath.

Herath has the most five-fors (11) followed by Muralitharan (7)

Current players are headed by Lyon (68 wickets), Broad and Ashwin.

The most wickets by Indian players are by Ashwin (65), Kumble (51) and Ishant Sharma (45).

Best innings bowling (including all 8wi and above):

The best here is 10-74 by Kumble. (Laker’s 10-wicket haul was in the third innings). Then there is 9-86 by Sarfraz Nawaz which included a spell of 7-1.

The best innings figures in recent times include 8-60 by RL Chase in 2019 and 8-63 by R Herath in 2016.

India is represented by Kumble and debutant Hirwani. (Another famous debutant Bob Massie had bowled in the third innings).

Finally we look at career figures for bowling in the fourth innings of wins:

Best bowling averages in wins in the 4th innings (Minimum 1500 balls bowled):

These are all the 25 bowlers who crossed the cutoff of 1500 balls bowled.

McGrath leads here with 14.24, followed by Herath, Ashwin and Kumble.

The best by current players are Ashwin (16.03), MM Ali, Starc , Ishant Sharma, Broad, Anderson and a few more with 1500+ balls bowled.

The best averages for India are by Ashwin, Kumble, Ishant Sharma, Jadeja and Harbhajan.

The best economy rates are by Illingworth (1.70) and Jadeja

The best strike rates are by Waqar Younis and MM Ali (32.9 with Waqar slightly ahead).

Review of NZ-India ODIs-2

Hope you have seen Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The Karnataka pair of Srinath and Kumble lead.

No one has more than one 5-for. Srinath and Southee have two 4-fors.

Southee (30) and Boult (24) have the most wickets amongst current players.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5wi):

SE Bond has the best figures of 6-19, during his relatively short career. No good individual performance in this series, although Boult had 5-21 in 2019.

Bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Southee is the only current player here, though close to the bottom.

Srinath and Hadlee have the best bowling averages.

Hadlee and Kapil have the best economy rates.

Srinath and Nehra (!) have the best strike rates.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

The forgotten NR Mongia has the most dismissals (36) and most stumpings (12).

However McCullum (25) has the most catches by a keeper, followed by Mongia and Dhoni with 24 each.

R Taylor (19) has the most catches by a fielder, followed by SP Fleming (18).

Most dismissals in innings (4 and above):

The record is 5 dismissals, while a number of fielders have taken 4 catches. The only such instance recently was KD Karthik’s 4 catches as a keeper in 2019.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.500):

NR Mongia leads again. Vengsarkar (!) has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

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

While notable all-rounders such as Kapil, Hadlee and Vettori have played in these matches, the only one with a creditable record is the “bits-and-pieces” all-rounder CZ Harris.

All-round match performance (Min 40 runs and 4 innings):

Another surprise: the only such performance is the unheralded K Srikkanth, whose bowling ability seems to have been a well-kept secret. His 70 and 5-27 back in 1988-89 was probably India’s best all-round feat in ODIs against all countries at that time.

The Indian tail also wags

Data as of 14 Oct 2019:

Having seen how batsmen of no 8 and below have fared against India, we see how India’s tailend batsmen have done in Tests:

Innings of 90 and above by Indian batsmen at No 8 and below:

Dhoni and Ashwin are among the main contributors here. It is often forgotten that Saha has scored centuries (also two more while batting at 7 or higher).

There are relatively few newcomers here. RH Shodhan is the only debutant here, while Ratra, Ashwin and Pandya made their centuries at the start of their career. J Yadav soon dropped out of the Test reckoning. Kumble and Harbhajan made their centuries at a late stage of their careers.

It should be noted that Kapil usually batted at 7 or higher.

We now look at averages of those batting at 8 and below, subject to a minimum of 10 innings:

Dhoni expectedly has the highest average, while Saha is surprisingly second and Prabhakar third. Prabhakar also played many of his matches higher in the order.

Sandhu seems to have been better as a batsman than a bowler during his brief career. He still holds the record of the highest score by a debutant (71) at no 9.

Dhoni, Kapil, Ashwin and Harbhajan all have two centuries here. The most 50+ scores are by Kapil (15), Harbhajan (11) and Jadeja (10). Harbhajan did make rapid progress as a batsman since his debut.

Kumble has over 2000 runs here, while Kapil and several others have over a thousand. Saha, Ashwin and Jadeja are among the current players here.

Finally we look at century partnerships for the 8th to 10th wicket:

There are some large partnerships here, some of which were in a losing cause (such as the one between Azhar and Kumble). One which was significant was the 122 by Prasanna and Sardesai, which helped India to impose the follow-on on the West Indies and gain a psychological advantage which lasted till the end of the series.

The partnership between Tendulkar (248*) and Zaheer Khan (75) was then the record for the 10th wicket, until Root and Anderson overtook it against India. Both Tendulkar and Zaheer made their highest scores here. Another useful 10th-wicket partnership was the one between B Kumar and Shami, in which both scored fifties.