After this series was won 2-0 by Pakistan, this is the summary of the 28 Tests played between these teams:
This is only the second time Pakistan has won a Test series against South Africa. The previous occasion was in 2003-04, where the captains were Md Yousuf (win) and Inzamam (draw) vs Graeme Smith.
And Pakistan lost 3-0 when they last toured SA in 2018-19. Sarfraraz Ahmed was then the captain.
Babar Azam’s Test captaincy started with two wins.
The overall record:
Next we look at individual records.
Most runs (500 and above):
Azhar Ali is the only current player here.
The most centuries are 6 by Kallis and 4 each by de Villiers, Smith and Younis Khan. And the most 50+ scores are 14 by Kallis and 12 by Amla.
Highest individual scores (125 and above):
de Villiers has the best performance here. No one from the current series.
Highest batting average (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
As in the earlier table, de Villiers leads by a distance. Azhar Ali is the only current player.
Highest strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):
Similarly, led by de Villiers with Azhar Ali the only current player.
The 1st Test between England and India saw England winning, though Virat Kohli’s 149 and 51 attracted attention more as it was almost a solo performance. Let us see that best batting performances by captains whose side lost.
Best innings scores (140 and above):
Only one double century here. Remember that this is only for captains, so there are higher scores like Lara’s 221 (when not captain) which do not appear here.
Tendulkar and Kohli (in Jan 2018) have scored more than Kohli’s 149 here. Pataudi and Kohli (yet again, this time from 2014) appear further down. Cook and Mushfiqur are other current players here.
Now for Best match totals (190 and above):
Here, Kohli has the highest among all losing captains with 256 in 2014. His 200 in this match is in third place for India, with Pataudi in second place. Cook also appears here.
Next we will look at the best bowling, fielding and all-round performances by losing captains. A number of current players figure in these.
Q de Kock and Mohammad Rizwan became the latest of the relatively few wicket-keepers to have captained in a Test. Here is the full list (as on 20 Oct 2022):
Relatively few keepers have had extended runs as captains, although the first 3 were playing after 2000.
There are some like Gilchrist, Boucher and Jacobs who captained only when the regular captain was temporarily unavailable. Some, like DL Murray and IDS Smith, had long Test careers but captained their side in precisely one Test.
Sarfaraz Ahmed (13) was replaced after his last Test as captain in January 2019, and TD Paine (23) was replaced for non-cricketing reasons in late 2021.
Dhoni has the most dismissals, followed by Paine and Alexander at a long distance.
Dhoni has the most stumpings (24) and is followed by PM Sherwell with 16.
Lee Germon is a special case as he captained his side in all his 12 Tests. He is the only player from an established side to have captained in a Test on his debut in recent years. The last before him was Tony Lewis in 1972. (Obviously we do not count Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Ireland, Afghanistan and the returning South Africa).
Germon is second on the list of those who captained their side in all their Tests.
The leader in this category was also a keeper:
Long ago PM Sherwell led South Africa in all his 13 Tests, a record for all countries. He was keeper in all these 13 Tests.
A few such as AJ Stewart played numerous Tests as keeper and non-keeper. The above list only includes the Tests where he was keeper. He also opened the batting in some of these matches. He captained England a total of 15 times, 12 as keeper and 3 as non-keeper. BB McCullum captained New Zealand 31 times, but was keeper in only 1 of them.
Other examples include KC Sangakkara (captained in 15 Tests, never as a keeper), AB de Villiers (captained in 3 Tests, none as keeper), R Dravid (25 Tests, none as keeper) and LD Chandimal (captained in 10 Tests, none as keeper). But they have captained in ODIs and T20Is as keepers.
Note that Taibu somehow took one catch as a fielder when he temporarily relinquished his keeping duties. He has also bowled and taken a wicket while a designated keeper.
Here we summarize the batting performance of these captains. The batting average is for those who batted for 20 innings:
The highest batting average for long-term captains is Andy Flower’s 49.28, followed by Mushfiqur and Dhoni in the low 40s. Paine and Sarfaraz are in the middle, while Moin Khan did not play enough to reach 20 innings.
Note the double centuries by Mushfiqur and Dhoni.
The dismissal rate, for those who fielded in at least 20 innings:
While Sarfaraz is no longer captain, his dismissal rate as captain is second only to that of Paine’s. But he and Paine have been dropped altogether from the team. Moin Khan and Mushfiqur are at the bottom, while Dhoni is in the middle.
Flower is the only one here who never made a stumping, while Dhoni has the most.
And finally we look at their performance as captains, considering the win/loss ratio. This is for those keepers who captained for at least 10 Tests:
(This table is still valid on 20 Oct 2022).
Interesting. We saw that Moin Khan performed worst as a keeper, but he did best as a captain. Similarly for FCM Alexander who did not do too well as a batsman. Next are Dhoni and Paine.
Taibu and Khaled Mashud failed to win a Test as captain, while Germon and Flower were just ahead with one Test win apiece.
As you can see, this stadium built by the Tata group has hosted recognized cricket matches from 1969 to 2009. Now take a look at this scorecard from 1983-84:
A hitherto unknown batsman from Hyderabad scored a double century against Central Zone. Admittedly it was not a very good bowling line-up, but it was the first time that most cricket fans of that time had heard of Mohammad Azharuddin
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