Afghanistan’s performance so far

Afghanistan has won 2 and lost 2 of its first 4 Tests. This makes it the best performer along with Australia and England:

(Here we have taken 1.0 for a win and 0.5 for a draw).

Now we look at individual performances:

Most runs (100 and above):

Rahmat Shah is the only one with a century. He and Asghar Afghan each have three fifties.

Highest innings (50 and above):

Ibrahim Zadran and Ihsanullah made fifties on debut.

Most wickets (5 and above):

Rashid Khan is the only one with a 10wm, and he also has the most 5wis (3).

Best innings bowling (3wi and above):

The two best figures are by Rashid Khan in the course of his 11-for. He also scored a fifty.

Amir Hamza took 5-74 on debut.

Best match bowling:

Apart for Rashid Khan’s dominance, there is Amir Hamza’s 6-wicket haul on debut.

Most dismissals (4 and above):

Note that Ibrahim Zadran and Ihsanullah have the most by non-keepers.

All-round match performance (50 and 5wi):

Once again Rashid Khan stands alone. In fact he has the rare double of a fifty and 10wm, which has happened only 29 times in all Tests.

 

 

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.

 

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.

Lowest scores in ODIs and related stuff

Zimbabwe’s 54 all out would have had cricket’s number-men looking for records of lowest scores in ODIs. This was not the lowest score in ODIs or even the lowest score by Zimbabwe in ODIs.

Tables are for data as on 28/02/2017

Here is a list of lowest ODI scores (below 60):

It can be seen that this is the lowest total against an Associate team.

Live link for ODI scores of 80 and below: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283987.html

Scorecard for the recent match, which came in a Duckworth-Lewis chase:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/1079250.html

The record for the lowest ODI score is 35, also set by Zimbabwe in 2004:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64890.html

Note that Sri Lanka’s innings of 9.2 overs and 39 minutes are probably records for a winning side in an ODI.

Indian fans would remember their team’s 54 as well, which was probably India’s most humiliating ODI defeat:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65900.html

Humiliating particularly because one player (Jayasuriya) scored over 3 times India’s total. It was the heaviest ODI defeat at that time, though it has since been surpassed several times. India has also inflicted similar defeats on Hong Kong and Bermuda. Afghanistan has also been on the receiving end (against Australia in 2015).

ODI victory margins of 225 runs and above:

Live link for all wins by 180 or more runs: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283902.html