Review of England-New Zealand Tests-2023 (Part 1)

The series in NZ in February 2023 was drawn 1-1, in contrast to England’s 3-0 sweep at home in 2022.

Th second Test saw two unusual results. It was only the second Test to be won by a margin of 1 run. Here is a list of Tests where the margin was 5 runs or less:

It was only the 4th time that a team lost a Test after imposing a follow-on, and the first such instance when Australia was not involved:

A total of 112 Tests have been played between these teams. England leads 52-13 with 47 draws.

In England, England leads 33-6 with 20 draws in 59 Tests

In New Zealand, England leads 19-7 with 27 draws in 53 Tests.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Most runs (1000 or more):

JE Root now has the most runs in these matches. He is the only current player in the above list.

Highest individual scores (175 or more):

H Brook’s 186 is the only score from the current series. The highest in recent years was 226 by Root in 2019.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 40.00):

Root has the second-highest average, followed by BA Stokes at some distance.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 50.00):

Fittingly, BB McCullum heads this list. Current players here include Stokes, Pope, Root and Blundell.

To be continued.

Review of Pakistan-New Zealand Tests after 2022-23 series (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now proceed to Bowling records for Tests between these teams.

Most wickets (25 or more):

It is not surprising to see Waqar and Wasim at the top, and that Sir Richard has the most for New Zealand.

The most 5wis are 6 by Wasim followed by 5 by Waqar. Several players have two 10wms.

Southee has the most by current players.

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi or better):

The best figures are the most recent here, 8-41 by Yasir Shah who is not currently in the team. Also note Mohammad Zahid’s 7-for on debut in 1996. The best by NZ was by the lesser-known C Pringle

Best match bowling (including all 10wm or better):

Yasir Shah’s 2018 performance also tops this list. KA Jamieson has the next best performance in recent years. Mohammad Zahid took 11 wickets on debut.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):

The two Ws again. Note the unusually poor average of Vettori.

The best economy rates are Pervez Sajjad and HJ Howarth.

The best strike rates are by Wasim and Waqar.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

The most dismissals are by recent player BJ Watling, followed by current player Sarfaraz Ahmed. Sarfaraz also has the most stumpings (6) and recent player R Taylor has the most catches as a fielder (29).

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

Headed by Wasim Bari (7), followed by Adnan Akmal with 6.

Bari’s 7 was then a world record for innings dismissals.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

Headed by Rashid Latif and BB McCullum with 9.

Best dismissal rates (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Headed by BJ Watling. The best by a fielder is by another recent player R Taylor.

All-round performances(Minimum 20 innings and 2000 balls):

Only Intikhab Alam makes the cut.

All-round match performances (Minimum 50 runs and 5wi):

The best performances are by Mushtaq Mohammad and MD Craig.

Mushtaq and DS Atkinson are the only ones to score a double century and take a 5wi in a match.

MD Craig’s 50/10wm was the highlight of a short career. Also note Sodhi’s performance in the latest series.

Records of the T20I World Cup (2007-2022): Part 1

Team performance, (ranked by W/L ratio):

This includes all teams who have participated in one or more tournaments until 2022, and also includes the preliminary rounds which are held just before the main tournament.

Here we see that Nepal has the highest W/L ratio, though they played in only 3 matches in the preliminary rounds in 2014. Of the “regular” teams, India leads with 1.80 followed by Australia (1.67), Sri Lanka (1.63) and South Africa (1.60). The current champion (England, 1.26) and runner-up (Pakistan, 1.56) are further down.

Next we come to

Batting:

Most runs (500 and above):

V Kohli has leapfrogged over MJ and Gayle to head this list by a large margin. Next among current players are RG Sharma and DA Warner.

The only player with 2 centuries is Gayle. Several others have one.

The most 50+ scores is 14 by V Kohli (no centuries). Next are 9 by CH Gayle (including 2 centuries) and RG Sharma (no centuries).

Most 4s ; 111 by M Jayawardene, 103 by V Kohli

Most 6s: 63 by CH Gayle, 35 by RG Sharma

Next we look at Highest Innings Scores (85 and above):

There are 11 centuries, including two from 2022. SK Raina’s 101* from 2010 remains the highest for India. AD Hales (116*) has the highest score among current players. There is a single 99 (unbeaten) by LJ Wright.

Now we look at Batting Averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Headed by V Kohli with 81.50, almost twice that of second-placed JC Buttler with 42.05. Kohli was aided by a large proportion of unbeaten innings.

Finally for today, the Highest Batting Strike Rates (Minimum 250 balls faced and minimum 125.00):

Headed by Shahid Afridi (154) and KP Pietersen (148). The most by a current player is 147 by GJ Maxwell. The best for India is, unsurprisingly, V Kohli with 131.

To be continued. https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/records-of-the-t20i-world-cup-2007-2022-part-2/

Records of the T20 World Cup (2007-2021)-Part 1

To refresh your memory about the finals and finalists, see : https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/10/17/finals-of-the-t20-world-cup/

The overall records for all teams:

The W/L ratio is headed by Nepal (!) who won 2 of their 3 matches.

Among those who played 10 or more matches, the highest W/L ratios are by Sri Lanka (1.80), India (1.77) and South Africa (1.69). The 2021 finalists are a little lower: Australia (1.57) and New Zealand (1.33)

Now for individual performances in Batting:.

Most runs (500 and above):

Gayle might still be there in 2022 to overtake MJ’s record aggregate. The next highest among the current players are RG Sharma (847), V Kohli (845) and DA Warner (762).

Highest innings (90 and above):

Gayle is the only one with 2 centuries.

In 2021 there was one century (Buttler) and a 90 (van der Dussen).

Raina is the only Indian player who has made a score above 90.

The most 50+ scores are 10 by Kohli (no centuries), 9 by Gayle (including 2 centuries) and 8 by RG Sharma (no centuries).

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Buttler now heads this table. Next among current players are RG Sharma, Gayle and Shoaib Malik. Kohli is not here as he has played only 19 innings.

Strike rates (Minimum 250 balls faced, 125.00 and above):

Afridi leads by a large margin over the runners-up Pietersen and Buttler. Other current players here are Gayle,Warner and RG Sharma.

To be continued.

200+ scores for and against India

RG Sharma made the 54th score of 200 and above in a Test for India. These include 3 of 300+ and 51 from 200-299. Kohli has the most such scores (7), although Sehwag has the highest scores both inside and outside India. Outside Asia, we go quite far down until we reach Tendulkar’s 241* at Sydney.

The first such score was Umrigar’s 223 in 1955, equalled in the next month by Mankad and then surpassed by him with 231 which remained the record until Gavaskar’s 236* in 1983.This was surpassed by VVS Laxman’s 281 in 2001, Sehwag’s 309 in 2004 and again by him in 2008.

The highest in a win is 309 by Sehwag, in a loss 201* by Sehwag and in a draw 319 by (who else) Sehwag. An unique triple.

Now we see who did the same against India:

4 triple centuries and 47 from 200-299.

McCullum and Ponting have each done this 3 times against India.

The highest score here is Jayasuriya’s 340, the highest outside Asia is Gooch’s 333 and the highest in India is M Jayawardene’s 275.

The best in a victory is 333 by Gooch, in a defeat 242 by Ponting and in a draw 340 by Jayasuriya. In fact, Ponting’s 242 is the highest in any Test defeat.

The records of the T20I match on 27 Jul 2016

Some records were almost broken (like Richard Levi’s 45-ball century). As you can see below, the challengers E Lewis and KL Rahul just fell short.

But here are some records which did get broken.

India’s 244/4 is their highest in T20Is, surpassing their 218/4 v England in the 2007 World Championship. It is also the highest in any T20I’s second innings, surpassing 236/6 by WI v SA in 2015. And it is the highest losing total in any T20I, surpassing SA’s 231/7 in the match against WI in 2015 mentioned earlier. And WI and India made the 3rd and 4th highest T20I totals in today’s match. All these details can be seen below:

Coming to individual scores: After todays’s match, 22 centuries in T20Is have been made by 20 players (Gayle and McCullum making two centuries apiece).

Of these 20, as many as 12 have made centuries in all three formats.

They are: Watson, McCullum, du Plessis, Gayle, Ahmed Shehzad, Rahul, RG Sharma, Dilshan, Tamim, Guptill, Raina and Jayawardene. And Rahul’s individual score is the highest in T20Is in the US, for what it is worth.

Interestingly, some of those listed above have never played in Tests or even ODIs. An extreme case is that of E Lewis who had played one T20I (without scoring much) before this and no ODI or Test.

Another record for Brendon McCullum (Revised in Sep 2017)

As we all know, Brendon McCullum recorded the fastest ever Test century in the Christchurch Test when he crossed 100 in 54 balls.

He also became the only Test player to score a century in the last test of his career, while captaining his country. This is what you get from Statsguru:

Naturally, Smith can be discounted as we know he has not retired. So McCullum is the only one who qualifies.

This seemed a bit odd, so I repeated this check to identify those who scored a fifty in the last test of their career, while captaining their side. We get this:

This live link may be more useful: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?captain=1;class=1;debut_or_last=2;filter=advanced;opposition=1;opposition=2;opposition=25;opposition=3;opposition=4;opposition=5;opposition=6;opposition=7;opposition=8;opposition=9;orderby=start;qualmin1=1;qualval1=fifty_plus;team=1;team=2;team=25;team=3;team=4;team=5;team=6;team=7;team=8;team=9;template=results;type=batting

As many as 34 names here. But it includes some whose Test careers are not over, essentially everyone from Mushfiqur Rahim downwards excluding McCullum and now Misbah. So we remove Mushfiqur, Kohli, Mathews, AN Cook and SPD Smith.

So we are left with 29 who scored a fifty in their last Test when they were captaining. In some cases their retirement was known in advance, in other cases they may not have known they were playing their last Test.

McCullum has scored the most runs in the match (170) among these, though a few others have crossed 100 without making a century. The WI player RK Nunes is the only one to score two fifties in this category.

We may as well see the list of all those who scored centuries in the last Test of their career, regardless of captaincy:

This live link may be more useful: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282931.html

Here we have a total of 42. We remove current players who are likely to keep playing for a while: Hafeez, Rahane, SE Marsh, Amla, SC Cook, de Kock, Burns and SPD Smith. This leaves 34 who scored centuries in their last Test (unless McCullum makes a comeback). In contrast, 100 players scored 102 centuries on debut (Remember Rowe and Yaseer Hameed).

Naturally our old friends AG Ganteaume and RE Redmond are there, as their first and last Tests were the same. Others who scored centuries on debut and last Tests are Duff (104 & 146), Ponsford (110 & 266), Greg Chappell (108 & 182) and Azharuddin (110 & 102). In case SE Marsh does not play another Test he will also join this club with 141 & 182.

Centuries in their last Test include those by Sandham (325, the first Test triple century) and double centuries by Ponsford, Nurse, Aravinda de Silva (last f-c match) and (strangest of all) night-watchman Gillespie making his only Test century.

CAG Russell is the only one to score centuries in both innings of his last Test. He was the first English player to score centuries in both innings of a Test.