Australia won the two-Test series 2-0. This was the first series between these teams since 2015-16 in Australia. The West Indies has not hosted Australia since 2015.
Here is a summary of all Tests between these teams:
Total: 118 Tests, 60 won by Aus, 32 won by WI, 1 tie, 25 draws
In Aus: 68 Tests, 39 won by Aus, 18 won by WI,1 tie, 10 draws
In WI: 50 Tests, 21 won by Aus, 14 won by WI, 15 draws.
Going to individual scores, starting with
Batting:
Most runs, minimum 1000:
Led by Lara by a large margin.Next is Viv Richards. The most by an Aus player is by Steve Waugh. Lara and Richards also have the most centuries (9 each). Lara also has the most 50+ scores (20) followed by Haynes and Border with 19.
No current player here, partly because these teams have not met much in the recent past.
Highest individual scores, minimum 175:
Led by Lara, with what was his first Test century.Second is 269* by the already forgotten AC Voges less than a decade ago. The 242 by KD Walters is significant as he was the first of several to score a double century and century in the same Test. M Labuschagne also achieved this, and his 204 also appears above.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 40.00):
Headed by the somewhat unexpected pair of Ian Chappell and Larry Gomes. Greg Chappell is just after Gomes. No current player here.
Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 50.00):
Data on balls faced is not fully available. But it is reasonable to assume that Viv Richards would have the highest strike rate. Next is the less disputable SR of Steven Smith..
Now for
Bowling:
Most wickets (Minimum 50):
Headed by the long-serving CA Walsh (135), Ambrose (128) and McGrath (110). Again, no one from recent years.
The most fivers are 8 by Ambrose and McGrath. Only McGrath has taken two tenners.
Best innings bowling (including all 7wi and better):
Nothing from recent years. The most recent entry is by WI’s J Lawson in 2003 (not the Australian GF Lawson).
Best match bowling (Including all 10wm and better):
Headed by the colourful MG Hughes. Nothing after 2012, which does include current player Kemar Roach.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, maximum 30.00):
Headed by McGrath and Garner. We also see that the best economy rates were by Gibbs and Walker, and that the best strike rates were by B Lee and J Thomson). N Lyon represents the current players.
The top two were contemporaries at a time when WI were declining from their peak. Broad is the only current player.
The most 5-fors were by Ambrose (8) and Gibbs (7), while several (including Broad) had two 10-fors.
Most wickets in an innings (8wi and above):
The only one from recent years was Chase’s 8-60 in 2019.
Most wickets in a Test (11wm and above):
Broad’s 10-67 is the best in recent years.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, maximum 30.00):
While Garner and Ambrose lead the averages, Valentine and Ramadhin have the best economy rates and Marshall and Holding the best strike rates. An equitable distribution of work.
Now for Fielding statistics:
Most dismissals (25 or more):
Buttler is the only current player here.
The most stumpings were by Ames (11), the most catches by a keeper by DL Murray (90) and the most by a non-keeper by Lara (45)Â and Sobers (40).
Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):
Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):
Best dismissal ratio (Minimum 20 innings and 0.750)
Only Root from recent times. The best by a non-keeper is 0.916 by Hammond and 0.863 by Constantine. Also see the figures for the “hybrids” Stewart and Walcott.
Kapil has the highest tally here, while Ashwin and I Sharma have the highest among current players.
Best innings bowling (All instances of 6wi or more):
While Kapil has the best performance here, spare a thought for JM Noreiga who played only in 4 tests but still had the best innings performance for the West Indies in all Tests.
Ashwin (2016) and Bumrah in this series have the best figures among current players.
Best match bowling (All instances of 9wm or more):
Hirwani’s match figures are the best for India in all Test. UT Yadav (2018) and I Sharma (2019) have the best figures among current players.
Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):
Hall and Walsh have the best bowling averages, while Ashwin and I Sharma have the best among current players. It can also be seen that GE Gomez and Gibbs have the best economy rates, and that Hall and Roberts have the best strike rate.
Fielding:
Most dismissals (15 or more):
Dujon has the most dismissals and catches, Dhoni the most stumpings and Richards the most catches by a non-keeper.
Most dismissals in an innings (4 and more):
WP Saha is the only one with 6 dismissals in an innings. SD Hope made 5 dismissals in this series. DJG Sammy has the most catches by a non-keeper with 5 in 2013, which is a share in the world record. Also note KS More’s 5 stumpings which is a world record.
Most dismissals in a match (6 and more):
Dhoni has the most dismissals here (8) while More’s 6 stumpings is a world record. Both his records came in Hirwani’s record bowling performance. The most catches by a non-keeper are 6 by ED Solkar, in India’s first victory against WI in 1971.
Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):
Dhoni has the best rate here followed by Dujon. While CL Walcott played some of his Tests as a keeper, the best rate by a non-keeper is 0.800 by Azharuddin.
All-round performances:
Overall (see criteria in table):
Sobers has by far the best record here, followed by Ashwin who is again far ahead of Kapil. JO Holder and Chase have the best record among current players, while Mankad had a relatively poor record against WI.
Match performance (50 and 5wi):
This includes the century/5wi double by OG Smith, Umrigar, Sobers, Ashwin (twice) and Chase.
There have only been 15 1-wicket victories, and none between 1923 and 1951 and then between 1951 and 1980.
Here is a list of all 1-wicket and 2-wicket victories as on 16 Aug 2021:
1) The first instance was in the Eng v Aus Test starting at the Oval on 11/08/1902, when England won.
The last wicket partnership was of 15 runs from 248/9 to 263/9 by GH Hirst (58) and W Rhodes (6). The story goes that they planned to get the runs in singles, but they did not have to do this.
Similarly:
2) SA v Eng at Johannesburg starting on 02/01/1906, won by SA. Partnership of 48 from 239 to 287 by AW Nourse (93) and captain/keeper PW Sherwell (22).
3) Aus v Eng at Melbourne starting on 01/01/1908, won by Eng. Partnership of 39 from 243 to 282 by SF Barnes (38) and A Fielder (18).
4) SA v Eng at Cape Town starting on 01/01/1923, won by Eng. Partnership of 5 from 168 to 173 by AS Kennedy (11) and GG Macaulay (1).
5) Aus v WI at Melbourne starting on 31/12/1951, won by Aus. Partnership of 38 from 222 to 260 by DT Ring (32) and WA Johnston (7).
6) NZ v WI at Dunedin starting on 08/02/1980, won by NZ. Partnership of 4 from 100 to 104 by GB Troup (7) and SL Boock (2).
7) Pak v Aus at Karachi starting on 28/09/1994, won by Pak. Partnership of 57 from 258 to 315 by Inzamam-ul-Haq (58) and Mushtaq Ahmed (20).
8) WI v Aus at Bridgetown starting on 26/03/1999, won by WI. Partnership of 9 from 302 to 311 by BC Lara (153) and CA Walsh (0).
9) WI v Pak at St John’s starting on 25/05/2000, won by WI. Partnership of 19 from 197 to 216 by JC Adams (48) and CA Walsh (4).
10) Pak v BD at Multan starting on 03/09/2003, won by Pak. Partnership of 5 from 257 to 262 by Inzamam-ul-Haq (138) and Yasir Ali (1).
11) SL v SA at Colombo (PSS) starting on 04/08/2006, won by SL. Partnership of 2 from 350 to 352 by MF Mahroof (29) and SL Malinga (1).
12) Ind v Aus at Mohali starting on 01/10/2010, won by Ind. Partnership of 11 from 205 to 216 by VVS Laxman (73) and PP Ojha (5).
13) SA v SL at Durban starting on 13/02/2019, won by SL. Partnership of 78 from 226 to 304 by MDKJ Perera (153) and MVT Fernando (6).
14) Eng v Aus at Leeds starting on 22/08/2019, won by Eng. Partnership of 76 from 286 to 362 by BA Stokes (135) and MJ Leach (1).
15) WI v Pak at Kingston starting on 12/08/2021, won by WI. Partnership of 17 between Roach (30) and Seales (2). Seales had earlier taken his first five-for.
Scorecards of the first match in 1902 and the last match in 2021 are here and here.
We now look at the 17 Tests which ended in a two-wicket victory.
One of them was actually an one-wicket victory as one batsman had retired hurt and probably would not have batted. This was at Dunedin where NZ had pulled off an improbable win in 1980 (see No 6 above).
The 1985 match was NZ v Pak at Dunedin starting on 09/02/1985, won by NZ. The 9th wicket partnership (effectively the last wicket) put on 50 from 228/8 to 278/8 by JV Coney (111) and EJ Chatfield (21). Earlier BL Cairns (0) had retired hurt at 217/7 and the 8th wicket fell at 228.
Coming back to the list of 14 1-wicket victories:
The Feb 2019 match saw the highest winning 10th wicket partnership of 78 in Tests as well as in all first-class cricket. The previous Test record was 57 by Pakistan in 1994.
Later in Aug 2019 we had the second highest winning 10th wicket partnership of 76.
The highest scores in these partnership were 153 by Lara as well as Perera, followed by Inzaman’s 138 and Stokes’s 135.
The lowest scores by the no 11 batsman include 0 by Walsh in 1999, 1 by Leach in 2019 and several other single-figure scores. Walsh did slightly better in 2000 scoring 4.
Leach made his single run only towards the end of the partnership, which ensured the match would at least be tied when England’s score reached 358.
The highest score by a No 11 in these matches was 22 by Sherwell in 1906.
Yasir Ali was playing in his only Test.
Inzamam and Walsh are the only ones to appear twice in these partnerships.
The highest total here is 362 by England in 2019, and the lowest 104 by NZ in 1980.
That was an eventful match which saw DL Haynes scoring 55 and 105, being the only opener in all Tests to be last out in both innings. It ultimately led to New Zealand winning a series against West Indies. This was the first time they had won any Test series at home. They had earlier won only against Pakistan in Pakistan in 1969-70.
The August 2019 win by England also involved one of the lowest first-innings totals by a winning side (and the lowest such total since 1887):
After New Zealand’s 2-0 victory, results of Tests between these teams are summarized below:
New Zealand has now moved into the lead with 15 victories against 13 by the West Indies.
The last victory of WI against NZ was at Port of Spain in Jan 2014. The last victory of WI in NZ was a generation ago, at Wellington in Feb 1995. That is remembered for Walsh’s 13-55.
We now look at individual performances, starting with batting:
Runs scored (750 and above):
The most centuries are 4 by Taylor, and the most scores of 50+ are 10 by Chanderpaul and Gayle. Taylor is the only current player here.
Highest innings (150 and above):
None from the recent series, although Ross Taylor had a 200+ score earlier.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Only Taylor from the current players. Relatively few names here because of the relative infrequency of Tests between these teams over the years.
Now for bowling:
Most wickets (30 and above):
Several current players led by Boult and Southee.
Best innings bowling (including all instances of 7wi and above):
Wagner’s feat in the current series is here.
Best match bowling (including all instances of 10wm and above):
Note Walsh’s extraordinary figures. But there are no instances from recent years.
Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):
Nobody among current players as they have not played enough.
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