Summary of Test matches in 2021: Bowling records : Part 3

Hope you have read the earlier parts, such as :https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/01/02/summary-of-test-matches-in-2021-batting-records-part-2/

We now proceed to study the Test bowling performances during the calendar year 2021.

Most wickets (minimum 20):

Led by R Ashwin, with SS Afridi a little behind.

The most 5wis are 5 by Hasan Ali and AR Patel.

No one has taken more than one 10wm.

A number of newcomers did well, such as AR Patel and M Siraj (Ind), OE Robinson (Eng) and RTM Mendis (SL).

Best innings bowling (including all 6wi and above):

Pride of place would go to AY Patel’s 10-119 although his team still lost. This was the 3rd 10wi in all Tests, and the best innings bowling for New Zealand. SM Boland’s 6-7 was one of the best figures on debut. JE Root’s occasional bowling got him 5-8.

Best match bowling (including all 9wm and above):

AY Patel and Sajid Khan again have the top 2 positions. And AR Patel’s 11-70 is the best match bowling in a day-night match.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled):

Only 3 bowlers make the cutoff of 2000 balls. R Ashwin has the best average and strike rate, while JM Anderson has the best economy rate.

To be continued:

Review of India-New Zealand Tests-1

India won the 2-Test series 1-0. The summary of all Tests between these teams is

Both sides have considerable home advantage.

The neutral Test at Southampton in 2021 is India’s only neutral Test.

The second Test has a host of records, including the lowest total against India (62) and India’s highest innings margin (372 runs). Both these records were earlier held by South Africa in their series in 2015. These previous records were 79 at Nagpur and 337 runs at Delhi.

For low totals see https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/12/04/lowest-test-scores-against-and-in-india/

Here we concentrate on individual records, starting with Batting:

Dravid has the most centuries (6). He and Tendulkar have 12 scores of 50+

Most runs (750 and above):

Dravid and Tendulkar head this list. R Taylor has the most runs (890) among current players, with Williamson, Pujara and Kohli bunched together after that.

Highest innings (175 and above):

The highest score in recent years is Kohli’s 211 in 2016.

Highest averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Note that Dravid’s average is much higher that that of the second-placed Dowling.

Kohli and Pujara have the highest averages among current players.

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

Taylor and Kohli have the highest SRs among current players.

Now for individual Bowling records:

Most wickets (25 and above):

R Ashwin with 66 wickets moved just ahead of Sir Richard Hadlee with 65. Next highest among current players is TG Southee (52).

Ashwin has the most 5-fors (6) and 10-fors (3).

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

AY Patel now has the record, moving ahead of Venkataraghavan’s 8-for in 1965.

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

AY Patel again, who moved ahead of R Ashwin’s 13-140 in 2016.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):

R Ashwin has the best average with 15.43. The next among current players is TG Southee with 24.69.

The best economy rates are 1.52 by RG Nadkarni (who else?) and 1.68 by BS Bedi.

The best strike rates are 35.7 by R Ashwin followed by 46.9 by TG Southee.

For more about recent bowling records see https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/12/06/more-bowling-records-from-the-mumbai-test/

To be continued.

More bowling records from the Mumbai Test

The full scorecard: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/new-zealand-in-india-2021-22-1278658/india-vs-new-zealand-2nd-test-1278675/full-scorecard

India won the match by 372 runs and won the series 1-0.

The innings bowling records set by AY Patel were covered here: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/12/04/best-innings-bowling-against-india/

Here we concentrate on match bowling figures.

Best innings bowling in a lost Test:

AY Patel surpasses the previous record by Kapil Dev at Ahmedabad in 1983.

Best match bowling in a lost Test:

Ajaz Patel again. He surpassed the previous record of J Srinath at Kolkata in 1999.

Thus both the records are no longer held by Indian bowlers.

Best innings bowling by NZ bowlers:

Ajaz takes over the record from Sir Richard, who had taken 9-52 against Australia at Brisbane in 1985. Against India, it was Sir Richard again with 7-23 at Wellington in 1976.

Best match bowling by NZ bowlers:

However, Sir Richard still holds this record with 15-123 in the same Test in 1985. Ajaz is in second place here with 14-225 here (10-119 and 4-106).

The best match figures for NZ v Ind were earlier 11-58 by Sir Richard at Wellington in 1976.

And R Ashwin now is second in the list of “Best match bowling without a fiver”:

Here he is second after SK Warne’s 8-24 at Sharjah in 2002.

Best innings bowling against India

After India’s first innings in the 2nd Test against New Zealand, a number of records have to be rewritten. Here we look at the best innings bowling against India by all teams in Tests.

(This covers all instances of 7 or more wickets in an innings):

Bombay-born Ajaz Patel now has:

Best figures by any team against India. The previous record was 9-95 by JM Noreiga of WI, in what was India’s first Test victory against WI.

Best figures by NZ against India. The previous record was 7-23 by Sir Richard Hadlee at Wellington in 1976. In India, the previous record was 7-64 by Patel’s teammate TG Southee at Bengaluru in 2012.

Best figures by any team against India in India. The previous record was 8-50 by NM Lyon (Aus) at Bengaluru in 2017.

We now look at the best bowling figures by New Zealand against all teams in Tests.

Ajaz Patel’s 10-119 was the best by any NZ bowler, surpassing the 9-52 by Sir Richard Hadlee against Australia at Brisbane in 1985. This also makes Patel’s haul the best for NZ away from home.

The best figures for NZ at home remain with Sir Richard, with his 7-23 against India at Wellington in 1976.

After the Test is over, we will have a look at match bowling records.

For the moment, we note that the best match figures against India are 13-106 by IT Botham (also at Wankhede) in 1980. And the best match figures by New Zealand are 15-123 by Sir Richard Hadlee against Australia at Brisbane in 1985.

Indian-origin cricketers who played for New Zealand

It was interesting to see New Zealand saving a Test against India with the last-wicket pair being of Indian origin. While AY Patel was born in Bombay in 1988, R Ravindra was born in New Zealand in 1999. There are a few others with Indian-sounding names who were born in New Zealand.

Here we attempt to enumerate the members of 2 categories

1. Born in India (including pre-partition India):

FT Badcock (Abbottabad, 1897)-presumably British-7 Tests

AY Patel (Bombay, 1988)-10

N Puna (Surat, 1929)-3

JA Raval (Gujarat, 1988)-24

IS Sodhi (Ludhiana, 1992)-17

2. Indian-sounding name, not born in India:

DN Patel (Kenya, 1958)-37

JS Patel (New Zealand, 1980)-24

R Ravindra (New Zealand, 1999)-1

Those of Gujarati origin just outnumber the others. Badcock, Sodhi and Ravindra are the exceptions.

Among these players, it was Nairobi-born Dipak Patel who played the most Tests for New Zealand. He was a member of the 99 Club, and finished with 1200 runs and 75 wickets. Next are JA Raval and JS Patel who played 24 Tests each.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/dipak-patel-38118