Ireland’s record in Test cricket

Ireland played its first Test in 2018. Here are the results of their first 7 Tests:

This looks bad-even Bangladesh had a draw in their 5th Test. But South Africa lost their first 8 Tests before drawing the 9th. In the early days SA was much weaker than England and Australia.

A Balbernie is the only player who played in all 7 Tests. Two others (McBrine and McCollum) have played in 6.

Most runs (200 or more):

Headed by LJ Tucker (351) and HT Tector (336).

4 batsmen have made a century. Tector has the most 50+ scores (4).

Highest innings scores (75 or more):

Headed by KJ O’Brien in their maiden Test. No one else scored a century until 2023.

Most wickets (7 and above):

The most wickets are 14 by McBrine followed by 13 by Murtagh.

The best innings bowling is 6-118 by McBrine, followed by 5-13 by Murtagh. That helped to dismiss England for 85 in 2019. No one else has taken 4 or more wickets in an innings.

The best match bowling is 7-170 by McBrine, followed by 6-65 by Murtagh.

Fielding (3 or more dismissals):

The most dismissals are 7 by LJ Tucker, which includes 5 catches and 2 stumpings. GC Wilson has 6 catches as a keeper.

Balbirnie and Stirling have 4 catches each as fielders.

The best all-rounder appears to be the present captain A Balbirnie, who has 318 runs and 14 wickets.

Oddities: Ben Stokes vs Ireland

After England won their Test against Ireland, we see that their captain Ben Stokes did not bat or bowl during this match. He did take one catch.

Stokes thus became the 5th captain to win a Test without batting or bowling. Now you can see that the other 4 instances involved captains who were wicket-keepers.

Thus Stokes became the first captain to win a Test without batting, bowling or wicket-keeping.

IPL finals from 2008 to 2023

Here we summarise results of the IPL final matches since their inception:

Some points of interest:

The IPL trophy has been won 5 times by Chennai and Mumbai

2 times by Kolkata and Deccan/Hyderabad

1 time by Rajasthan and Gujarat

Of the 8 teams which played in 2008, three have never won the trophy. They are Punjab, Delhi and Bangalore (though they have been runners-up)

An interesting meme here: Virat Kohli is a Punjabi living in Delhi who plays for Bangalore 🙂

Looking at the Man of the Match awards:

There is a mix of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders.

The highest score by a MOM is 117* by S Watson in 2018

The best bowling by a MOM is 4-16 by A Kumble in 2009

The best all-round performance is probably 56 and 3-22 by YK Pathan in 2008

The only MOM who did not represent his country is M Bisla (2012)

Next is B Cutting (2016), who played for Australia in a few matches.

Both the Pandya brothers are here.

Looking ahead to the 2023 World Cup

By mid-May, we know the 8 teams which have qualified for the main tournament as well as those who will participate in the qualifying tournament which will be held in July in Zimbabwe. A similar tournament was also held in Zimbabwe in 2019.

Here we list the teams with their ICC points as on 15 May:

Main draw:

1. Australia (118)
2. Pakistan (116)
3. India (115)
4. New Zealand (104)
5. England (101)
6. South Africa (101)
7. Bangladesh (97)
8. Afghanistan (88)

Qualifiers- 2 of these will go into the tournament along with the 8 listed above:

1. Sri Lanka (80)

2. West Indies (72)

3.Zimbabwe (51)

4. Ireland (47)

5. Scotland (46)

6. Nepal (37)

7. USA (35)

8. Netherlands (26)

9. Oman (20)

10. UAE (18)

At the moment, it seems most likely that Sri Lanka and West Indies will qualify. There can be some fluke results along the way, but the end result is still likely to be the same two teams qualifying.

Deaths of cricketers in 2022

We start with the list of (male) Test players who passed away in 2022. This list has been compiled from Cricinfo and Wikipedia:

For the “others”, we include:

Test umpires

ODI players

Women’s Test players

Prominent FC players (with a stress on India)

Prominent administrators and journalists

This list is subjective and depends on the amount of coverage a person has in the media.

Cumulative records for highest Test innings (India)

Now we look at the cumulative records in Tests for India.

L Amar Singh scored the first 50 for India in their very first Test in 1932. L Amarnath made the first century the following year.

L Amar Singh, 51 vs E, Lord’s, 25/06/1932

L Amarnath, 118 vs E, Mumbai, 15/12/1933

V Merchant, 128 vs E, Oval, 17/08/1946

VS Hazare, 145 vs A, Adelaide, 13/01/1948

VS Hazare, 164* vs E, Delhi, 02/11/1951

MH Mankad, 184 vs E, Lord’s, 19/06/1952

PR Umrigar, 223 vs NA, Hyderabad, 19/11/1955

MH Mankad, 223 vs NZ, Mumbai, 02/12/1955

MH Mankad, 231 vs NZ, Chennai, 06/01/1956

SM Gavaskar, 236* vs WI, Chennai, 24/12/1983

VVS Laxman, 281 vs A, Kolkata, 11/03/2001

V Sehwag, 309 vs P, Multan, 28/03/2004

V Sehwag, 319 vs SA, Chennai, 21/03/2008

Points of interest: See how the record changed hands three times in the 1955-56 season.

Mankad held the record from late 1955 to late 1983, 28 years. The next highest stretch is 19 years by Sehwag from 2004 to the present.

One batsman outscoring two innings of the opponents

In Test cricket, there have been 5 instances where a batsman scored more than the opponent’s totals in two innings. First we look at instances where one innings of the batsman was more than the runs made in two innings by the opposing team.

1. R Abel (120), E v SA (47 & 43), Cape Town, 1888-89

2. L Hutton (364), E v A (201 &123), Oval, 1938

3. DG Bradman (185), A v I (58 & 98), Brisbane, 1947-48

4. Inzamam-ul-Haq (329), P v NZ (73 & 246), Lahore, 2002

5. ML Hayden (119), A v P (59 & 53), Sharjah, 2002-03

One step below, we look at the 4 instances where one batsman’s total in two innings was more than the runs made in two innings by the opposing team.

1. EH Hendren (169 & 45), E v A (122 & 66), Brisbane, 1928-29
2. CG Greenidge (134 & 101), WI v E (71 & 126), Manchester, 1976
3. JL Langer (191 & 97), A v P (197 & 72), Perth, 2004-05
4. D Karunaratne (158* & 60), SL v SA (126 & 73), Galle, 2018.

Reference: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/has-any-side-made-more-than-ireland-s-492-in-a-test-and-still-lost-by-an-innings-ask-steven-1372538

Indian cricketers in Wisden’s Five

A list of Indian cricketers who have appeared in Wisden’s “Five Cricketers of the Year” over the years. No one can be chosen more than once. The list is longer than what you may think, starting with Ranjitsinhji in 1897 with the latest addition of Harmanpreet Kaur in 2023.

1897: Ranjitsinhji

1930: Duleepsinhji

1932: Iftekar Ali Khan (Pataudi senior)

1933: CK Nayudu

1937: Vijay Merchant

1947: Vinoo Mankad

1968: Mansur Ali Khan (Pataudi junior)

1972: BS Chandrasekhar

1980: Sunil Gavaskar

1983: Kapil Dev

1984: Mohinder Amarnath

1987: Dilip Vengsarkar

1991: M Azharuddin

1996: Anil Kumble

1997: Sachin Tendulkar

2000: Rahul Dravid

2002: VVS Laxman

2008: Zaheer Khan

2014: Shikhar Dhawan

2019: Virat Kohli

2022: Jasprit Bumrah

2022: Rohit Sharma

2023: Harmanpreet Kaur

A convenient reference is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisden_Cricketers_of_the_Year

Team performance in the first 4 Tests

Ireland has played (and lost) its 4th Test. Here we look at how all the Test teams performed in their first 4 Tests:

Afghanistan LWWL

Australia WLWL

Bangladesh LLLL

England LWLW

India LLDL

Ireland LLLL

New Zealand LDDD

Pakistan LWLD

South Africa LLLL

Sri Lanka LLDL

West Indies LLLD

Zimbabwe DDLL

We see that Bangladesh, South Africa and Ireland each lost all 4 of their first 4 Tests.

The best performances were by Australia and England with 2 wins and 2 losses. Their first 4 Tests were against each other, hence the mirror-image results.

Australia and Zimbabwe are the only teams which did not lose their first Test.

Review of New Zealand-Sri Lanka Tests (2023)-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Headed by Muralidaran, while current player Southee has the most for NZ.

Best innings bowling (6wi or better):

Headed by Vettori, but no good performances since 2018.

Best match bowling (includes all 9wm or more):

Herath has the best figures here, though there are no good performances since 2018.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Southee has the best bowling average and strike rate. Muralidaran has the best economy rate.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 and above):

Headed by Watling. Williamson has the most dismissals among current players. P Jayawardene has the most stumpings, and SP Fleming the most catches as a fielder.

Best innings figures (5 dismissals or more):

Headed by IDS Smith and Watling.

Best match figures (6 dismissals or more):

Headed by Watling, followed by Lees and IDS Smith.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Headed by Tillakratne and the Bazball Man.

All-round performances:

No one has a good overall record.

Match performances:

Vettori has the best performance, followed by Vaas.

Review of NZ vs SL Tests (2023)-Part 1

New Zealand won the series 2-0, which had the effect of denying Sri Lanka a place in the WTC final. India benefited from this.

A total of 38 Tests have been played between these teams.

NZ leads 18-9 with 11 draws.

In NZ, NZ leads 13-2 with 6 draws in 21 matches.

In SL, NZ trails 5-7 with 5 draws in 17 matches.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

Led by current player KS Williamson. Other current players near the top are Latham and Mathews.

Williamson has the most centuries (5). He also has the most 50+ scores (10) whele several have 9.

Highest individual scores (175 or more):

Williamson (215) has the highest score in the current series, followed by Nicholls with 200*. There have been several scores above 250.

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

Williamson’s average is far more than that of second-placed Fleming. Mathews has the highest average for SL.

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

The highest strike rate is 61.04 by Aravinda de Silva, just above that of Sangakkara. Williamson and Latham have the highest SR from current players.

To be continued.

Review of Ind vs Aus Tests (2023)-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now proceed with Bowling:

Most wickets (50 or more):

Led by Lyon, closely followed by Ashwin. Both of them surpassed Kumble’s record in this series.

Kumble has the most 5wis (10). Harbhajan has the most 10wms (3), while Lyon took 2 in recent years.

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

Lyon’s 8-50 came in 2017, and 8-64 in this series. These are the two best innings figures for Aus against India.

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

The best in recent years is Lyon’s 11-99 in this series.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, maximum 30.00):

Benaud has the best average and economy rate, while Jadeja has the best strike rate.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (25 or more):

Led by Gilchrist. Dhoni has the most stumpings, and Dravid the most catches by a fielder.

Best innings fielding (5 or more):

Led by Haddin and Pant. Srikkanth has the most by a fielder.

Best match fielding (7 or more):

Led by Pant.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Led by Haddin and Gilchrist. M Waugh and Simpson have the best by a fielder.

All-round performance (overall):

Note the criteria in the table:

Led by Jadeja with a large margin. Kapil is the only other one with respectable figures.

All-round match performances (5wi and 50 in a match):

The best performances would be by Surti and Cummins. Jadeja’s performance came in this series.