Shakib leads by a large margin over Shahid Afridi (the original one). From India, the best is 32 by Ashwin.
Best innings bowling (including all 5wi and over):
BAW Mendis and Herath have much better innings analyses than others including Umar Gul and Sam Curran. Curran’s 5-10 was the best in 2022. For India, the best is 4-11 by Ashwin in 2014
Best bowling averages (Minimum 500 balls bowled, all instances):
Only 7 bowlers have bowled enough to qualify. S Ajmal is closely followed by Ashwin, who is the only Indian player here. Next is Shakib.
Summing up this table:
Best averages: Ajmal, Ashwin
Best economy rates: Ashwin, S Afridi
Best strike rates: Ajmal, Ashwin.
Next we come to Fielding statistics:
Most dismissals (12 and above):
The most dismissals are 32 by ABD and Dhoni. AB de Villiers has 9 dismissals as a keeper and 23 as a fielder, while all of Dhoni’s 32 dismissals are as a keeper.
Kamran Akmal is next with 30 dismissals as a keeper, including the most stumpings at 18.
de Villers has the most catches as a fielder (23) followed by DA Warner with 21.
Most dismissals in an innings (4):
Nobody reached this level in 2022. Dhoni is the only one from India, and the only one to appear here twice. Also note the 4 stumpings by Kamran Akmal and Ramdin. DJG Sammy is the only fielder here.
Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):
The best here is by the “hybrid” AB de Villiers with 1.066. Next are Dhoni and Kamran Akmal with 1.000.
The best by a “pure” fielder is 0.678 by MJ Guptill followed by current player GJ Maxwell (0.666)
Finally, we come to all-round performances:
Overall: Minimum 20 innings batted and 500 balls bowled:
Only 3 qualify here, with only Shakib having a creditable performance.
However, we get another viewpoint here:
Best match performance (Minimum 30 runs and 3 wickets):
The best performances here would be by DJ Bravo (66* and 4-38), followed by SR Watson’s 72 and 3-34 and Shakib’s 46 and 4-9. The best for India is by HH Pandya in 2022. Also note CR Brathwaite’s 34* which included 4 successive 6s in the 2016 final.
India won the home ODI series against South Africa 2-1, after losing the away series 3-0 earlier in 2022. They also lost the first match of the series by a small margin before winning the next two by convincing margins.
Here we summarise all the ODIs between the two teams. India was the first team to play international matches against South Africa after their return in 1991-92. India had also won that series 2-1.
Summary of all ODIs between these teams:
South Africa leads overall and at home, while India leads at home and is almost at par at neutral venues.
Individual performances, starting with
Batting:
Most runs (750 and above):
Tendulkar has many more runs than the second-placed Kallis. Kohli has the most among current players.
The most centuries are 6 by de Kock and de Villiers, followed by 5 by Tendulkar.
Dravid has the most 50+ scores (14 with no century), followed by Kallis, Kirsten and Tendulkar with 13.
Highest innings (115 and above):
Headed by Tendulkar again.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 25.00):
Here Kirsten is just above Kallis and Kohli.
Kohli and Dhawan have the best among current players.
Boucher leads by a large margin (60) followed by de Villiers (40).
de Villiers has the most catches by a fielder (25) besides 15 catches as a keeper. Next among fielders is Kallis with 23. Note that K Verreyne has 14 in just 2 Tests.
Current players here include Saha, de Kock, Pujara and Rahane.
Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):
Saha (twice), de Kock and newcomer Verreyne represent the current players.
Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):
Saha has the most, with 5 catches in each innings. Other current players are de Kock, Pant and Verreyne.
Most dismissals per innings (Minimum 20 innings, 0.60 or more):
Boucher leads by a large margin over Dhoni.
Apart from the “hybrid” de Villiers who played both as a keeper and fielder, GC Smith has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.
Rahane is the only current player here.
Finally: All-round performance:
Overall performance (see criteria in table):
Only SM Pollock can be called a genuine all-rounder. Kallis is not here as he bowled less than 2000 balls against India.
Match performance (at least 50+ and 5wi+):
The best of these match performances seems to be by N Boje.
Tail piece:
AK Markram has now played 29 Tests. 18 of them were won by SA and 11 were lost. None were drawn. He thus continues to hold the record for playing in the most Tests without a draw. Next is England’s GA Lohmann of long ago who played in 18 Tests (15 wins, 3 losses).
Note Ashwin and Axar Patel, the latter with only one Test.
Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 6wi and above):
AR Patel is here along with I Sharma.
Best match bowling (includes all cases of 8wm and above):
AR Patel now has the best match bowling figures, surpassing the 10-62 of PJ Cummins.
Best bowling average (Min 1000 balls bowled, all instances):
Cummins heads this list. Yasir Shah is the only non-Australian here.
Cummins also has the best economy rate, while Starc has the best strike rate.
Fielding records:
Most dismissals-(8 and above):
Most innings dismissals (4 and above):
Australians dominate as expected. Note that Kusal Mendis has the most catches by a non-keeper.
Most match dismissals (5 and above):
de Villiers leads here. Note 5 catches by non-fielders BKG Mendis and SPD Smith.
Dismissal rate (Min 10 innings, all cases):
All-round performances:
Overall (see criteria below):
Starc and Holder have the best records. Would they be the true masters of pink-ball cricket?
Match performances (Min 50 and 5wi):
Holder again!
AND FINALLY:
Lowest team innings (under 100 runs all out):
No prizes for guessing which team has the lowest score.
Highest team innings (300 and above):
Many tall scores here (notably Pakistan’s 450 in the 4th innings). India needed only 300-odd to win against Bangladesh, and less than 150 more recently.
Continuing with individual performances in bowling:
Most wickets (20 and more):
Steyn is far ahead of the others. Rabada is the only current player here.
Best innings bowling (6wi and above):
Nothing from the current series. Oddly, KJ Abbott played only two Tests.
Nauman Ali took 5-35 (on Test debut) in the first Test. This is now the best for P v SA in Pakistan, surpassing the 5-46 by D Kaneria in 2003-04.
Best match bowling (all instances of 9wm and above):
Note Hasan Ali from the current series. His 10-114 is now the best for P v SA in Pakistan, surpassing the 8-210 by Abdur Rehman in 2007-08.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Pollock and Steyn lead here, with Kaneria having the best average among Pakistani players.
Kaneria and Pollock have the best economy rates.
Steyn and Pollock have the best strike rates.
Fielding: Most dismissals (10 and above):
Boucher has by far the best figures here. The best by non-keepers are 23 by GC Smith and 21 by Younis Khan.
de Kock and Elgar represent the current players.
Most innings dismissals (4 and above):
The best by a non-keeper is 4 by Taufeeq Umar.
Most match dismissals (6 and above):
de Villiers has 11 dismissals which is a share in the world record. No instance from the current series. The best by a non-keeper is 6 by Taufeeq Umar.
Best dismissal ratio (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500 and above):
Headed by Boucher and de Villiers. The best by non-keepers are by Younis Khan and GC Smith.
After this series was won 2-0 by Pakistan, this is the summary of the 28 Tests played between these teams:
This is only the second time Pakistan has won a Test series against South Africa. The previous occasion was in 2003-04, where the captains were Md Yousuf (win) and Inzamam (draw) vs Graeme Smith.
And Pakistan lost 3-0 when they last toured SA in 2018-19. Sarfraraz Ahmed was then the captain.
Babar Azam’s Test captaincy started with two wins.
The overall record:
Next we look at individual records.
Most runs (500 and above):
Azhar Ali is the only current player here.
The most centuries are 6 by Kallis and 4 each by de Villiers, Smith and Younis Khan. And the most 50+ scores are 14 by Kallis and 12 by Amla.
Highest individual scores (125 and above):
de Villiers has the best performance here. No one from the current series.
Highest batting average (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
As in the earlier table, de Villiers leads by a distance. Azhar Ali is the only current player.
Highest strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):
Similarly, led by de Villiers with Azhar Ali the only current player.
Here we take up the cases where someone was not the nominated keeper in a Test, took over when the nominated keeper was unfit or unavailable and took one or more catch or stumping while doing so.
Catches as keeper while not nominated keeper:
These are all the 38 players who took at least 1 catch in their careers.
The number of Tests here are those when they were not nominated keepers. Some, notably de Villiers and Bairstow in recent years, have been nominated keepers in some Tests. These are not included in the above table.
Stumpings while not nominated keeper:
Similarly, these are the 15 players who have taken at least 1 stumping in their career as a non-keeper.
These lists overlap. It is better to consolidate them into a single list.
Consolidated list of players who have taken at least one catch as keeper and/or one stumping in Tests where they were not nominated keepers:
Among these 43 players, AB de Villiers has the most catches and most dismissals (12 each) followed by KC Sangakarra and TWM Latham (7 each).
The most stumpings are 2 by Tillakaratne, M Wasim and Christiani.
This also lists the total number of dismissals (as a fielder) in these Tests. The highest is 133 by de Villiers followed by 96 by Collingwood with a few others in the 90s.
Although it is not mentioned here, de Villiers played another 24 Tests as nominated keeper and took a further 89 catches and 5 stumpings there. Similarly, Collingwood never played any Test as a nominated keeper, so his career total of catches is 96 as shown above. Sangakkara played a further 48 Tests as nominated keeper and took 124 catches and 20 stumpings, to give him a total of 202 dismissals.
From the first two tables above, we can see that the most dismissals in a match by these keepers is 5 by Imrul Kayes, followed by 4 for several others. The case of Majid Khan’s 4 catches is particularly interesting, and deserves a separate post.
But this is not the end of the story. There are also players who were not in the playing eleven and substituted for the wicketkeeper. Details of their performance are hard to find. However, stumpings by a substitute are rare and are covered here:
Here we look at the Test players with the highest dismissal rates, subject to a minimum of 20 innings fielded. These are correct as of Aug 31, 2020 and do not include the ICC XI Test of 2005.
Naturally, this will be headed by wicket-keepers who invariably get more catches than other fielders. But you would not have guessed that the highest average is by Rishabh Pant, who is generally not considered to be India’s best keeper at the moment.
The #2 is also not what you would expect. While Tim Paine did a good job as stopgap captain of Australia, you would not expect him to be so high up.
At #3 there is another current player in Quintun de Kock, who is likely to be SA’s next Test captain.
Going further down, we see NZ’s BJ Watling with 241 dismissals including 231 catches as a keeper, 10 catches as a keeper and 8 stumpings. But there is no non-keeper in the above list which goes down to a dismissal rate of 1.500.
Going still further down, the highest dismissal rate by a non-keeper is 1.060 by India’s ED Solkar (53 catches at 1.060). He is just ahead of AB de Villiers at 1.046, with 121 as a fielder and 106 as a keeper.
There are several prominent keepers like Gilchrist, Dhoni and Knott who played all their Tests as keepers. Others took on keeping duties for one or more Tests when the regular keeper was unavailable. And some took over the keeping duties in the middle of a Test and took catches as well as stumped batsmen.
Statsguru does list “catches as keeper” and “catches as fielder” in separate columns, so we can identify catches taken by short-term keepers. There are even a few cases of substitute fielders going on the field to keep wickets and accounting for catches and stumpings. These were in the earlier days.
Here we look at the cases of those who took at least 10 catches as a keeper and 10 as non-keeper.
There are numerous “multitaskers” from recent years, such as Watling (239 dismissals as keeper and 10 as a fielder). Others are ABD (106 and 121), Bairstow (186 and 11), Buttler (86 and 23) and Chandimal (72 and 15). We can see that ABD is the only one whose dismissals in both categories are roughly the same.
Now we look at those who played at least 5 Tests as keepers and 5 Tests as non-keepers:
From recent years there are Watling, de Villiers, Bairstow, Mushfiqur, Buttler, Chandimal, Wade, KD Karthik, Liton and Kusal Perera.
Karthik is the only Indian player here. Oddly enough, the only players from before 2000 are CL Walcott and WB Philips.
When all-round records are tabulated in statistical articles, they invariably refer to feats of batting and bowling.
Here we look at feats of batting and fielding in the same match.
First, for wicket-keepers:
Century and 5 dismissals in an innings:
This did not occur in Tests until 1966. The best match performance would appear to be by de Villiers with a century and 11 dismissals in a match. Also consider Lindsay and Prior.
Watling appears here 3 times (twice in Wellington) along with Prior and Bairstow (twice each).
India has been on the receiving end twice: SAR Silva in 1985 and BJ Watling in 2014.
For non-keepers:
Century and 4 dismissals in an innings:
Bowling efforts have also been added where relevant.
We can see that Kallis’s feat in 2012 is clearly the best here, as he is the only double centurion here. Next would be Woolley.
Weekes did this against India in 1953, and was followed by fellow West Indian Viv Richards in 1989. Rahane did this for India against Sri Lanka in the course of the 3-0 sweep in Sri Lanka in 2017.
Next, we will look at career all-round performance for batting and fielding.
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