Snippets from the 2023 World Cup

This tournament has seen many new records, particularly in batting.

This information is up to Nov 7, 2023 (after the Afg vs Aus match).

We first look at the individual’s innings scores for all WC matches:

Highest Innings scores of 150 or more in World Cup ODIs:

GJ Maxwell’s 201* is the third highest individual score in all World Cup matches. It is the highest score for Australia in World Cup matches., surpassing DA Warner’s 178 against Afghanistan in 2015.

If you look at the highest innings scores by Australian players, it reads:

201* GJ Maxwell vs Afg in 2023

178, DA Warner vs Afg in 2015

166, DA Warner vs Ban in 2019

163, DA Warner vs Pak in 2023

158, ML Hayden vs WI in 2007

Until now, DA Warner had the three highest scores for Australia.

For Indian players:

183, SC Ganguly vs SL in 1999

175*, Kapil Dev vs Zim in 1983

175, V Sehwag vs Ban in 2011

152, SR Tendulkar vs Nam in 2003

Another point of interest is the highest partnerships, when Maxwell and Cummins put on 202* for the 8th wicket against Afg. This table is again only about partnerships in the World Cup

Partnerships of 200 or more in World Cup ODIs:

Note that the 8th-wicket partnership of 202* was not the highest for Australia in the World cup. It is however the highest for the 8th wicket in the World Cup.

From the above table we can get the top partnerships for each wicket in the World Cup:

1st: TM Dilshan and WU Tharanga, 282 vs Zimbabwe, 2011

2nd: CH Gayle and MN Samuels, 372 vs Zimbabwe, 2015

3rd: R Dravid and SR Tendulkar, 237* vs Kenya, 1999

4th, MJ Clarke and BJ Hodge, 204 vs Netherlands, 2007

5th, JP Duminy and DA Warner, 256* vs Zimbabwe, 2015

(Some record lower-order partnerships are less than 200 and are not in the above list)

Anyway, the 202* by Maxwell and Cummins is a new 8th-wicket record for the World Cup. The earlier record for this was a mere 117 by Butchart and Houghton (of Zimbabwe) in 1987. Other partnerships for this wicket are less than 100.

Highest partnerships for the 8th wicket in World Cup ODIs:

There are, of course, many batting records being set in this World Cup. This is a small sample.

Review of Aus-SA Tests, 2022-23 Part 1

A total of 101 Tests have been played between these teams.

Australia leads 54-26 with 21 draws.

In Australia, Aus leads 23-10 with 11 draws

In South Africa, Aus leads 29-16 with 9 draws

On neutral grounds (1912) Aus leads 2-0 with 1 draw.

We now look at individual matches, starting with Batting:

Most runs (800 or more):

Led by Ponting and de Villiers. The most centuries are 8 by Harvey and Ponting, and the most 50+s are 19 by de Villiers and Ponting.

Now for highest individual scores (175 or more):

Led by Bradman (299*) and RG Pollock (274). In recent years the best is 200 by Warner in this series.

Best batting averages (minimum 20 innings, 35.00):

Led by Harvey who is far ahead of RG Pollock and MJ Clarke. Bradman is not here since he played only 5 Tests against SA.

Best strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, 45.00):

Here, Warner is far ahead of Ponting and Clarke

To be continued (see Part 2)

Centuries in both innings of a Test-Part 1

It is easy to get a list of those who have achieved this using Statsguru:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=player;qualmax1=2;qualmin1=2;qualval1=hundreds;size=100;template=results;type=batting;view=match

This has been done on 89 occasions in all Tests.

Bradman did it once. Tendulkar never did.

3 players did it on 3 occasions: SM Gavaskar, RT Ponting and DA Warner.

11 others did it on 2 occasions, including R Dravid.

58 others did it on one occasion.

This is a fairly rare occurrence, but seems to have become more frequent in recent times.

LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed are the only ones to score two centuries on their debut. Hameed never scored a century again.

There are some who have scored their only two centuries in a single Test. And some others who scored their first two centuries in a single Test.

Read more in Part 2.

Centuries in both innings of a Test-Part 2

Records of the T20I World Cup (2007-2022): Part 2

Hope you have seen the first part:

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

Continuing with Bowling statistics:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Shakib leads by a large margin over Shahid Afridi (the original one). From India, the best is 32 by Ashwin.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi and over):

BAW Mendis and Herath have much better innings analyses than others including Umar Gul and Sam Curran. Curran’s 5-10 was the best in 2022. For India, the best is 4-11 by Ashwin in 2014

Best bowling averages (Minimum 500 balls bowled, all instances):

Only 7 bowlers have bowled enough to qualify. S Ajmal is closely followed by Ashwin, who is the only Indian player here. Next is Shakib.

Summing up this table:

Best averages: Ajmal, Ashwin

Best economy rates: Ashwin, S Afridi

Best strike rates: Ajmal, Ashwin.

Next we come to Fielding statistics:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

The most dismissals are 32 by ABD and Dhoni. AB de Villiers has 9 dismissals as a keeper and 23 as a fielder, while all of Dhoni’s 32 dismissals are as a keeper.

Kamran Akmal is next with 30 dismissals as a keeper, including the most stumpings at 18.

de Villers has the most catches as a fielder (23) followed by DA Warner with 21.

Most dismissals in an innings (4):

Nobody reached this level in 2022. Dhoni is the only one from India, and the only one to appear here twice. Also note the 4 stumpings by Kamran Akmal and Ramdin. DJG Sammy is the only fielder here.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

The best here is by the “hybrid” AB de Villiers with 1.066. Next are Dhoni and Kamran Akmal with 1.000.

The best by a “pure” fielder is 0.678 by MJ Guptill followed by current player GJ Maxwell (0.666)

Finally, we come to all-round performances:

Overall: Minimum 20 innings batted and 500 balls bowled:

Only 3 qualify here, with only Shakib having a creditable performance.

However, we get another viewpoint here:

Best match performance (Minimum 30 runs and 3 wickets):

The best performances here would be by DJ Bravo (66* and 4-38), followed by SR Watson’s 72 and 3-34 and Shakib’s 46 and 4-9. The best for India is by HH Pandya in 2022. Also note CR Brathwaite’s 34* which included 4 successive 6s in the 2016 final.

Records of “Ashes” T20I matches

The Australia-England match is due to take place on Oct 28. The prospects for play seem to be poor, considering that the match at this venue earlier in the day was washed out. Anyway, here are the records of T20I matches between Australia and England.

Overall team performance:

Total matches 23. 10 won by Aus, 11 by Eng, 0 ties, 2 no-result

In Aus: Aus 7, Eng 3, NR 1 (Total 11)

In Eng: Aus 2, Eng 6, NR 1 (9)

Neutral: Aus 1, Eng 2 (3)

Note the strong home advantage for both teams.

Looking at individual performances:

Batting:

Most runs-200 and above:

Finch leads, followed by Buttler. Finch and Maxwell have scored centuries.

The most 50+ scores are 5 by Buttler, followed by Finch with 4 including a century.

The most sixes are 55 by Finch and 51 by Buttler

The most 4s are 35 by Finch and 23 by Buttler.

Highest innings scores-60 and above:

Again, Finch is far ahead of the others.

Bowling:

Most wickets-8 and above:

Rashid has the most wickets (12) followed by MG Johnson and Jordan with 11.

No one has taken a 5wi. 4 players have taken a 4wi, as we can see below.

Best innings bowling (including all 4wi):

Watson has the best figures of 4-15 here, followed by J Lewis with 4-24.

Fielding:

Most dismissals-5 and above:

Buttler and Warner have each made 11 dismissals.

Buttler (11) and Wade (7) have the most dismissals as a keeper.

Warner (11) and Hales (9) have the most dismissals as a fielder.

No one has made more than 1 stumping.

All-round match performances:

20 runs and 2 wickets in a match, in chronological order:

While there is some subjectivity here, the best performances here seem to be by Maxwell (103* and 3-10) and Watson (59 and 4-15). The only English player here is Collingwood (46 and 2-8).

Note that the ground at Southampton figures in many places in the above tables. The city is also the birthplace of the UK’s new Prime Minister.

Centuries in the third innings of Tests

Hope you have seen the previous post: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/11/24/centuries-in-the-second-innings-of-tests/

We now look at the third innings:

The most centuries in the third innings is 13 by AN Cook. He reached this record in his last Test in 2018.

Next are Sangakkara (12), followed by Tendulkar, Kallis and Hayden with 10.

Current players : the highest is 7 by Warner, followed by Root and Azhar Ali with 5.

Indian players: the highest is 10 by Tendulkar, followed by Gavaskar (7) and M Amarnath (6).

Those who loved the third innings:

R Subba Row (Eng) made all 3 of his centuries in the 3rd innings.

ADR Campbell (Zim), GC White (SA) and JDB Robertson (Eng) each made their only 2 centuries in the 3rd innings.

Those who hated the third innings:

SC Ganguly (Ind) made 16 centuries, but none in the 3rd innings.

Next are M Vijay (Ind) (12), AG Prince (SA) and TW Graveney (Eng) with 11

History and statistics of day/night Tests-1

The pink-ball Test at Ahmedabad was the 16th such match. We take a look at their history, starting with a list of matches:

None of the 16 matches were drawn. Two (SA-Zim and Ind-Eng) finished in 2 days.

There are two “neutral” Tests, Pak v WI and Pak v SL at Dubai.

Of the remaining 14 Tests, 13 were won by the hosts. The only exception was Sri Lanka’s win at Bridgetown.

A summary of team performances:

Australia leads with an 8-0 margin, while India and Sri Lanka are next with 2-1 each.

Now for individual performances, starting with batting.

Most runs-175 and above:

Warner leads by a large margin, Labuschagne and Asad Shafiq have each scored 2 centuries. The same pair and SPD Smith have the most 50+ scores-four.

Highest innings scores-90 and above:

Led by triple centuries by Warner and Azhar Ali and a double by Cook. Kohli has the only century for India.

Batting averages (minimum 10 innings, all instances):

Warner and Smith here, with Starc almost a regular batsman.

Batting strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, all instances):

Warner leads again, followed by Asad Shafiq and Labuschagne.

To be continued

Review of Australia-New Zealand Tests-1

The overall results at the end of this series:

As Australia won all 3 Tests, they gained 120 points for the World Test Championship. The points table as of 06 Jan 2020:

Australia won their second clean sweep in a 3-Test series against New Zealand. They had earlier done this in New Zealand in 1999-2000.

While New Zealand has lost most of their series against Australia, they did win both at home and away in 1985-86 thanks mainly to RJ Hadlee.

Now for individual performances in Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

Warner, Taylor and Smith are the current players here.

The most centuries are 5 by Border and Warner.

The most 50+ scores are 11 by Border and Boon.

Highest innings (140 and above):

None of these high scores are from this series, although there are some from 2015 and 2016. Taylor and Warner made the top scores for these teams in the same Test in 2015.

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

Taylor and Southee represent the current players. Warner has not played enough in this series. JL Langer has a large lead over the next-placed Greg Chappell.

Highest batting strike rates (Min 1000 balls faced, 50.00):

Gilchrist leads by a large margin over Warner and Taylor.

To be continued:

 

Warner’s triple century and others

First, a list of all Test scores of 300 and above;

David Warner’s 335* was the 31st instance of 300+ in a Test, and the first at Adelaide. Incidentally the previous highest was 299* by DG Bradman vs SA in 1931-32.

It is also the highest in any day-night Test, surpassing  Azhar Ali’s 302* at Dubai in 2016-17.

However, it is the second highest score by an Australian player and in Australia, where ML Hayden’s 380 is in first place.

Coming back to the list of 300+ scores above, 27 players have made 31 such scores.

Lara, Gayle, Sehwag and Bradman have 2 such scores each. Bradman and Sehwag came close to getting a third, getting up to 299* and 293 respectively.

It is instructive to see the list of 300+ scores in chronological order.

The first such score was by Andrew Sandham in 1929-30. He remains relatively unknown now:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/20058.html

Prior to this tour of the West Indies, he had played in 10 Tests without a century, He made 152 in the first Test, and rounded this up with 325 and 50 in what was to be his last Test. England made 849 and later set WI over 800 to win. As in the better-known timeless Test at Durban a decade later, the match was called off as England had to catch their ship home.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17590/scorecard/62579/west-indies-vs-england-4th-test-england-tour-of-west-indies-1929-30

This record of 325 only lasted for a little over 7 months, as Bradman made 334 at Leeds during the 1930 tour. (His only other triple (304) also came at Leeds in 1934).

Another of Sandham’s records was more durable; his 375 in the match was not surpassed until Greg Chappell made 380 (247* and 133) in 1973-74.

In England’s customary add-on series with New Zealand after the bodyline series of 1932-33, Hammond made 336*. The captain (RES Wyatt) appears to have declared once he crossed Bradman’s record of 334. Even so, there was not enough time to win the Test.

So the record was back with England. Bradman got up to 304 at Leeds in 1934.

At the Oval in 1938, Hutton made sure it remained with England with 364. England’s total of 903/7 dec was the record until the Sri Lankans made 952/6 in 1997.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17544/scorecard/62652/england-vs-australia-5th-test-australia-tour-of-england-1938

A famous picture from that Test:

That record of 364 lasted a little less than 20 years, when a relatively unknown all-rounder named Garfield Sobers marked his first Test century with 365*. There was, expectedly, a crowd disturbance when he passed the old mark. But the captain Gerry Alexander declared after this, correctly guessing that there was enough time to bowl out Pakistan twice.

A more detailed account of this innings can be seen here:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/make-mine-a-double-no-a-triple/

This record stood for just over 36 years, when another West Indian batsman Brian Lara made 375 at St John’s in 1994. An account of this innings:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/21525184/brian-lara-375-world-record-nearly

The West Indies won the series 3-1 with this final Test drawn.

In the second half of the 1990s, there were two determined efforts, with Sri Lanka’s Jayasuriya making 340 in what is still a Test record total of 952/6, and the puzzling score of 334* by Australian captain Mark Taylor who declared at this point. The official story then was that he did not want to go past Bradman’s Australian record. Both these Tests ended in dull draws.

By late 2003, Matthew Hayden got a chance against Zimbabwe. Admittedly its bowling was somewhat better than what it was later, but he did not stop at crossing 375 and made 380 at Perth, still a record for Australia and in Australia. Steve Waugh declared as soon as Hayden was out at 735/6.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15140/scorecard/64048/australia-vs-zimbabwe-1st-test-zimbabwe-tour-of-australia-2003-04

Hayden’s record lasted only for 6 months, when Lara reclaimed it again at St. John’s:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15068/scorecard/64080/west-indies-vs-england-4th-test-england-tour-of-west-indies-2003-04

As in 1994, this score was not enough for West Indies to win the Test even though England had to follow on. However, England had won the first 3 Tests and thus won the series 3-0. Lara’s 400* was therefore relatively unimportant to the result.

Since then, the closest anyone got was 374 by M Jayawardene in 2006. Warner might well have come close to the record except that rain was forecast for the remainder of the Test. It is yet unclear whether the captain TD Paine attached any special significance to 335 which was Warner’s score when the captain declared. There was enough time to dismiss Pakistan twice with over a day to spare.

 

 

 

Umesh Yadav the batsman

This is a rather convoluted record, I know.

Umesh Yadav is the only batsman to make two scores of 25+ with a strike rate of 250.00 and above:

Above 200.00, there is only DA Warner to accompany Yadav with two such innings. For India, there are also PS Kumar (40 at 222) and Harbhajan (37 at 205).

Rohit Sharma the opener

These are those who have made centuries in both innings as an opener:

The only other Indian player here is Gavaskar (on 3 occasions). Others with multiple appearances are Warner (3) and Hayden and Sutcliffe with 2. Some well-known openers such as Graeme Smith, Fredericks, Boycott and Hutton did not achieve this mark.

No one achieved this feat on his Test debut, as Rohit became an opener after playing several Tests in the middle order. Wasti did so in his second Test, although he had opened in the second innings of his debut.

We also look at those who scored 300 runs in a match while opening. These are in order of runs scored. Some made their 300 in one innings:

Rohit is 19th on this list and 4th for India, with Gavaskar leading and followed by two instances by Sehwag. Others with two instances are Hayden and Gayle.

While LG Rowe scored 214 and 100* on debut, he was not an opener in that match. He later scored 302 as an opener.

Another curiosity is Sutcliffe and Rohit having the same combination of 176 and 127.

Here we look at those who scored centuries as opener for India. This is up to Nov 01, 2019:

Note that Rohit and Mayank Agarwal are side by side. Since Nov 1, the latter has moved ahead of Rohit as he now has 3 centuries AND three fifties.

Interestingly, Gavaskar and Sehwag have almost the same batting average.

Finally, we look at batting averages for all openers with 20+ innings and average of 45.00 and above. This is up to Nov 01, 2019 and does not include the ICC XI Test of 2005:

We see a rather close bunching just above an average of 50.00, with Gavaskar, Hayden, Sehwag, WA Brown and EAB Rowan.

 

 

Performances in CWC 2019

Batting:

Most runs (400 runs and above):

Note 5 centuries by RG Sharma, while Shakib Al Hasan has 7 scores of 50+.

Only 1 run separates the leader RG Sharma (648) and runner up DA Warner (647).

Highest innings (95 and above):

Not as high-scoring as the 2015 WC, which had scores of 215 and 237.

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and above):

Note that MA Starc has 4 hauls of 4wi and above, followed by M Shami with 3.

Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 4wi and better):

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and above):

JE Root has the most catches (13) by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

CR Woakes and JM Bairstow have the most catches by non-keepers (4) which equals the existing World Cup record held by several others.

All-round performance:

Overall:

Shakib Al Hasan with 606 runs and 11 wickets is clearly leading here, followed by the less expected all-rounder JDS Neesham.

Match performances (30 runs and 3 wickets):

Only these two. Shakib and Yuvraj Singh (vs Ireland in 2011) are the only two with 50/5wi in a World Cup match.

Man of the Series:  KS Williamson, presumably for his captaincy as well as being the 4th top scorer with 578 runs.