Akila Dananjaya’s comeback

Akila Dananjaya now has the best match figures by Sri Lankan bowler making his Test debut.

Apart from the best match figures on debut, he also has the second-best innings figures:

Match figures for Sri Lankan bowlers on debut:

(Kuruppuarachchi played only one more Test and Ahangama two more. The latter did not play after his debut series).

Innings figures for Sri Lankan bowlers on debut:

Not bad when you consider he once held a dubious record in ODI record. In March 2017, he was the only current player who had not batted, bowled or fielded in his ODI career. Here is an edited extract from my earlier post of 27/03/2017 titled “All-round fails in ODIs”:

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No batting, bowling and fielding in ODIs (complete list):

 

This explains what had happened in his one ODI till then:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/582191.html

In this rain-affected match, his team did bat and got to 123/8. He was to bat at No 10 or 11 and never got to bat. And he could not bowl or field as rain prevented New Zealand’s innings from starting

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Soon after this was written, his ODI career resumed and he became a regular ODI player, with a high of a 6-for against the all-conquering touring team of India besides a 50 against Pakistan. He may well become a regular in all 3 formats.

These are his current figures. Note that he has a nice smile. One needs to be cheerful to come back after an inauspicious start.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/574178.html

 

Fielding fails in ODIs

Data correct as on March 14, 2017

In the previous post on fielding fails in T20Is, we saw that the “leader” Amir Hamza had played in many more matches and innings than the second-placed Rangana Herath. We see the same trend here in the list of those who failed to make a fielding dismissal in their ODI career (10 or more innings):

We have here some fairly well-known Test players including New Zealand captain Bevan Congdon, Jermaine Lawson and Clayton Lambert (who added a few ODIs for the USA after he had finished with the West Indies). But the leader here is Ata-ur-Rehman who played 13 Tests for Pakistan in the mid-90s, supplementing the bowling of the two Ws. His career ended in disgrace after the match-fixing scandal earned him a life ban from cricket in 2000. The ban was lifted in 2006 although he could not do much afterwards. However, he does have this record of 30 ODIs and 30 innings fielded without a dismissal, which is considerably more than the second-placed HP Rinke of Zimbabwe, with a mere 18 ODIs and innings. Jermaine Lawson had a brief Test career but still holds the Test innings record of 6 wickets for 3 runs.

We now look at wicket-keepers who failed to make a dismissal:

This is a complete list of all such instances. Here there are a few Test players such as David Boon (who kept in one ODI without success), JA Maclean and XM Marshall. Like Boon, Xavier Marshall was not a regular keeper but failed in the one match where he kept.

There is the unfortunate FS Crockwell of Bermuda (who became a homicide victim in 2016) and JJ Dawood of Canada, who never got to field in the match where he was the designated keeper. He did field in one other ODI when he was not the keeper, but did not take a catch there either.

Finally, we look at those who never fielded in their ODI career:

A short list indeed. Akila Dananjaya did not get to bat in Sri Lanka’s innings which was ended by rain which also washed out the entire New Zealand innings. He did however play some T20Is in which he took one catch. If he had become better known, cricket writers would have had to become more familiar with his full name of MKPAD Perera:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/player/574178.html