Test matches of 2019-Batting

We now look at individual batting performances.

Most runs (500 or more):

The top scorer here is M Labuschagne who had made his debut in 2018 with little impact, but he soon showed his class. The returning SPD Smith came second, while his former deputy Warner did not fare so well.

Others in this list who had made their Test debuts in 2018 or 2019 are RJ Burns, MA Agarwal, TM Head and JL Denly.

Several players made 3 centuries. Labuschagne had the most 50+ scores (10) and the next highest was 7.

Labuschagne scored the most 4s (129) while RG Sharma scored the most 6s (20).

SCJ Broad had the most ducks (5) followed by three others with 4.

Highest innings (125 or more):

One triple by Warner and 6 doubles, including 2 by newcomer Agarwal and one by the rejuvenated RG Sharma. Labuschagne’s highest was 185, but he made a double at the beginning of 2020. The longest innings was 473 balls in Watling’s 205.

Sharma and Smith made centuries in each innings:

Sharma’s 13 6s in the match is a new Test record. The previous record was 12 by Wasim Akram in a single innings:

Highest batting averages (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Labuschagne yet again, with Head and Warner following at a distance.

There are even a couple of single-digit averages by tailenders. This seems to show that Broad’s batting is now negligible.

Highest batting strike rates (Minimum 750 balls faced, all instances):

de Kock leads by a distance over Babar Azam, who also has a large lead over R Taylor. And Watling showed that a low overall strike rate does not prevent one from scoring a double century.

 

 

Test matches of 2019-General summary

The summary of all the Tests played in the calendar year 2019. Here the teams are ranked by win/loss ratio. India is at the top with 7 wins and no losses, while Ireland and Bangladesh lost all their matches. Australia and Afghanistan (!) are next to India. Zimbabwe did not play any Test in this year, though they will resume in January 2020.

The ICC ranking tables at the end of the year are more meaningful:

A more realistic assessment, with Afghanistan overtaking Zimbabwe besides Ireland.

According to this, New Zealand is India’s closest rival with South Africa, England and Australia in joint third position (though they are actually separated by small fractions).

Then there is the new contest, the World Test Championship. Not all Test countries are involved. Even among the 9 countries involved, not all Test series are counted. An example is the 2-Test tour of England to New Zealand. This was the WTC points table at the end of the year:

It is still at an early stage, but it does seem that the other teams will not find it easy to catch up with India and Australia. By the middle of January, Australia had moved up to 296 and England to 86.

More about the Test debutants of 2019

Hope that you have read this:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2020/01/09/the-test-debutants-of-2019/

Another point of interest is to compare the number of debutants and the number of Tests played by a team. These are summarized below:

You can see that:

New teams (Afg, Ire) are just starting out and need to try out more players.

Australia, Bangladesh and India did not need that many new players.

Among the major teams, South Africa was the most unsettled, introducing 8 new players in 8 Tests giving  a ratio of 1.000. Next are Pakistan and West Indies each with 4 new players in 6 Tests (0.667).

Next are England (0.500), Sri Lanka (0.375), New Zealand (0.250).

The ODIs of 2019-2

Hope that you have read Part 1

Continuing with the individual performances in ODIs for the calendar year 2019:

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Led by M Shami and TA Boult.

However Mustafizur Rahman and MA Starc are the only ones with two fivers.

Starc is also the only one with 4 hauls of 4+wi.

Best innings bowling ( including all fivers):

Newcomer SS Afridi has the best figures here, followed by YS Chahal.

Also note the remarkable 5-13 off 8 overs by JN Frylinck of Namibia.

Best bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Shami has the best average as well as strike rate and Boult the best economy rate.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 or more):

Carey, Hope and Latham lead here although Hope has the most catches by a keeper. Kohli has the most catches by a non-keeper and Dhoni the most stumpings.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

There is an unfamiliar name (ZE Green of Namibia) among those who made 5 dismissals in an innings. CR Woakes and CS Macleod took 4 catches as non-keepers.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.5):

Carey and Hope have the highest dismissal rate, while the third-placed Root has the best by a non-keeper.

Overall All-round performance:

(See criteria below):

Mohammad Nabi and Imad Wasim have almost the same difference rate.

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

The best performance would be by Khawar Ali followed by that of AL Phehlukwayo and Soumya Sarkar. Perhaps Khawar Ali’s performance should be downplayed as it was against one of the weaker teams.

 

 

The ODIs of 2019-1

Here is the summary of all the ODIs of 2019:

Win-Loss ratios for all teams:

This isn’t very useful as the Netherlands and Namibia come out on top.

The ICC rankings on Dec 31 are more meaningful:

Here we have the four semi-finalists of the World Cup at the top.

Next we move to the individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (600 or more):

RG Sharma, V Kohli and SD Hope lead by a big margin.

Sharma has the most centuries (7) followed by Kohli (5).

The most scores of 50+ were by Sharma (13) followed by Kohli and Hope with 12 apiece.

Highest innings scores (120 or more):

Led by the relatively lesser-known JD Campbell. There are several other scores above 150.

Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, all instances):

Hope, Babar Azam and Kohli are close together at the top.

Highest strike rates (Min 500 balls faced, 90.00):

Here we have some other names at the top such as JJ Roy, who is considerably ahead of EJG Morgan. While Kohli is here, others who scored the most (RG Sharma and SD Hope) did not score fast enough. There is one player (N Zadran) from Afghanistan.

To be continued:

T20Is of 2019-2

When we look at individual performances, most of the top scorers and wicket-takers are from the second-rung teams such as Afghanistan, Ireland and Netherlands who have played relatively more matches than the major teams.

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

The two top-scorers are from Ireland and the next two from the Netherlands. KJ O’Brien has made a Test century. But no one here is from the major teams.

Highest innings (100 or more):

Again, the top 3 are not from the major teams. H Zazai’s 162* is the highest T20I score for Afghanistan (and the second in all T20Is after AJ Finch’s 172 in 2018).

There are some players from the major teams such as GJ Maxwell, DJ Malan and DA Warner plus a sprinkling from lesser-ranked teams such as Austria, Romania and the Czech Republic among others.

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

The first few are from the Netherlands, Nepal and Ireland. The better-known players such as Rashid Khan and MJ Santner just make the cut.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5+ wickets):

Here we have the best performance by DL Chahar from India – but the next two are from Argentina and Luxembourg. The veteran Malinga, Rashid Khan and a couple  from England are the other known players here.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

Apart from KJ O’Brien and DA Miller, there are no familiar names. The most dismissals by a keeper are 26 by SA Edwards of the Netherlands, and by a non-keeper 17 by BDH Stevens of Jersey.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

DA Miller of SA is in 3rd place with 4 catches as a non-keeper. Also by de Grandhomme and Ramdin, while the best performance is by players from Kenya and PNG.

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

Familiar names here are SC Williams (Zim), Rohan Mustafa (UAE) and CJ Jordan (Eng). The best performance would be by S Davizi of the Czech Republic and SC Williams.

To sum up, the increased “democratization” of T20I cricket will mean more opportunities for teams beyond the to 10 or 12 and a hope that one day they will be able to compete with them. Players with South Asian names can be found all over, especially in the European teams.

 

T20Is of 2019-1

The year of the “big bang” when many new teams were admitted to “official” T20Is. A quick look at the results:

Teams ranked by W/L ratio:

A total of 71 teams played at least one T20I this year.

You will agree that the above table doesn’t mean much. Australia (OK), Argentina and Belize !? are the top teams, are they? And is Jersey as good as India?

Let us look at the ICC rankings, which are supposed to be more refined:

There are 86 teams covered in these rankings. The last 7 have zero points:

One might argue that Gibraltar and China are the worst teams as they have played the most matches for zero points.

Anyway, back to the top. The T20I World Championship will be held in Australia in late 2020:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_ICC_Men%27s_T20_World_Cup

The 16 teams participating are the top 19 in the ICC ranking table MINUS Zimbabwe, Nepal and UAE.

Next we look at individual performances in T20Is.