Records of “Ashes” T20I matches

The Australia-England match is due to take place on Oct 28. The prospects for play seem to be poor, considering that the match at this venue earlier in the day was washed out. Anyway, here are the records of T20I matches between Australia and England.

Overall team performance:

Total matches 23. 10 won by Aus, 11 by Eng, 0 ties, 2 no-result

In Aus: Aus 7, Eng 3, NR 1 (Total 11)

In Eng: Aus 2, Eng 6, NR 1 (9)

Neutral: Aus 1, Eng 2 (3)

Note the strong home advantage for both teams.

Looking at individual performances:

Batting:

Most runs-200 and above:

Finch leads, followed by Buttler. Finch and Maxwell have scored centuries.

The most 50+ scores are 5 by Buttler, followed by Finch with 4 including a century.

The most sixes are 55 by Finch and 51 by Buttler

The most 4s are 35 by Finch and 23 by Buttler.

Highest innings scores-60 and above:

Again, Finch is far ahead of the others.

Bowling:

Most wickets-8 and above:

Rashid has the most wickets (12) followed by MG Johnson and Jordan with 11.

No one has taken a 5wi. 4 players have taken a 4wi, as we can see below.

Best innings bowling (including all 4wi):

Watson has the best figures of 4-15 here, followed by J Lewis with 4-24.

Fielding:

Most dismissals-5 and above:

Buttler and Warner have each made 11 dismissals.

Buttler (11) and Wade (7) have the most dismissals as a keeper.

Warner (11) and Hales (9) have the most dismissals as a fielder.

No one has made more than 1 stumping.

All-round match performances:

20 runs and 2 wickets in a match, in chronological order:

While there is some subjectivity here, the best performances here seem to be by Maxwell (103* and 3-10) and Watson (59 and 4-15). The only English player here is Collingwood (46 and 2-8).

Note that the ground at Southampton figures in many places in the above tables. The city is also the birthplace of the UK’s new Prime Minister.

Review of Pakistan-England T20I matches-Oct 2022

England won the current series series 4-3. This was the first 7-match T20I series between full members, although there has also been one between Malawi and Mozambique earlier this year. These were the first T20Is played by England in Pakistan.

A summary of all T20Is between England and Pakistan:

England leads overall, as well as at home, away and at neutral venues.

Individual performances:

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Led by the opening pair of Babar Azam (560) and M Rizwan (522).

Highest innings (70 and above):

The only two centuries are by Babar Azam and LS Livingstone.

The most 50+ scores are 6 by M Rizwan and 5 by Babar Azam.

PD Salt’s 88* is the best for England in Pakistan.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of averages.

Best strike rates (Minimum 250 balls faced, all instances):

Headed by Babar Azam and EJG Morgan.

Bowling:

Most wickets (8 and above):

AU Rashid and GP Swann have 17 wickets each, while Haris Rauf (14) has the best for Pakistan.

There are two instances of 4wi, by Saeed Ajmal (4-21) and AU Rashid (4-35).

Innings bowling (3wi and above):

MA Wood’s 3-20 is the best for England in Pakistan.

Wahab Riaz’s 3-18 is the best for Pakistan in England.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (6 and above):

Morgan has the most catches by a fielder (12). Buttler has the most dismissals by a keeper (7 including 5 stumpings).

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

No England player has made 3 dismissals in a match in Pakistan.

This list includes a number of keepers and fielders.

Buttler is the only one with 2 stumpings in an innings.

All-round performance:

Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets in a match:

The best performances here would be by MM Ali (36 and 2-32) and Shahid Afridi (24 and 3-15).

T20I performances of 2021 – Pt 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We continue our study of the T20I performances in the calendar year 2021, counting only the matches between teams which had Test or ODI status in the past.

Bowling figures:

Most wickets (15 or more):

Newcomer Hasaranga de Silva and T Shamsi have the most wickets (36), followed by Mustafizur (28). No one from India has taken 15 or more wickets.

There are 5 instances of 5wi and 8 instances of 4+wi.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 5wi and more):

The lesser-known JN Frylinck has the best figures. Next is AC Agar, who is better known for his 98 at No 11 on Test debut.

Also note the startling figures of 4 for 2 by AU Rashid.

No one from India is in this list.

Bowling averages (minimum 500 balls bowled):

Only one bowler reaches this cutoff. Hasaranga has bowled a few overs less but has a better average of 11.63 (see the first table above).

Fielding figures:

Most dismissals (10 or more):

The most dismissals are 24 by M Rizwan and 21 by MS Wade. The most catches by a fielder is 17 by Babar Azam. However, the most stumpings are 5 by JS Buttler. Rizwan’s 24 dismissals include 22 as keeper and 2 as fielder.

The most catches by an Indian player are 11 by SA Yadav.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

From the lesser teams. Erasmus’s 4 catches were as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500)

Led by MS Wade, while Fakhar Zaman has the best by a fielder.

All-round match performance (30 runs and 3 wickets):

2 of the 4 performances are by Shakib Al Hasan, although MR Marsh’s performance is the best followed by Shakib’s against PNG. MR Marsh was also Man of the Match in the T20I Cup final with 77*

“He did nothing in the Test”

Following the second Test at Lord’s, there were some snide remarks directed at Adil Rashid who did not bat, bowl or take a catch in the match. He had however scored a few runs and took 3 wickets in the first Test.

It is fairly common to end a match without runs, wickets or dismissals, particularly when rain affects a large portion of the match. In 2018 alone six Test players have experienced this, including Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay in the same Test.

An afterthought: Lakmal was captain in that Test. Probably we should exclude captains from a listing like this.

Is there anyone who never scored a run, took a wicket or made a fielding dismissal in his entire Test career? Yes, more than you may guess.

A total of 21 players, of whom only TAP Sekhar played 2 Tests and the rest never got another chance.

The only one who did not bat or bowl at all was JCW MacBryan in 1924, who was a victim of a badly rain-affected Test where his side never got to bat and the opponents also got less than a day to bat.

What of those who never batted or bowled in their career but at least made one dismissal?

There is only one instance:

This was wicketkeeper V Rajindernath who made 4 stumpings (but took no catches) in his only Test.

In ODIs and T20Is there are more such cases. One instance related to the current Sri Lankan player Akila Dananjaya who did not bat, bowl or field in his first ODI (mainly as he never came into bat before rain prevented the opponents from batting). Still, he is now one of his team’s key players in Test and limited-overs matches.

This was the scorecard of his debut ODI:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/12294/scorecard/582191/sri-lanka-vs-new-zealand-5th-odi-new-zealand-tour-of-sri-lanka-2012-13