Review of England-New Zealand Tests-2023 (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Bowling:

Most wickets (50 or more):

Headed by Sir Richard. He is followed by three current players (Broad, Anderson and Southee) with Boult and Wagner a little further down. Sir Richard also has the most 5-fors (8).

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

None in recent years.

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

Note the top two by Underwood (and 3 of the top 4 performances).

The only recent one is Leach’s 10-for in 2022.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, 30.00 or better):

Underwood’s average is by far the best. Boult, Anderson and Broad are also seen here.

Underwood has the best bowling average, economy rate and strike rate. In second place are Willis, Illingworth and Caddick respectively.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (25 or more):

Parore and Bob Taylor have the most dismissals. SP Fleming has the most by a non-keeper. TG Evans has the most stumpings. From recent years there are Blundell and Root.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

C Read is the only one with 6 dismissals in an innings. There is only Blundell from recent years.

Most match dismissals (6 or more):

Blundell is among the three keepers with 8 catches in a match. Allan Lamb has the most (6) by a fielder

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.700 or better):

Here, Ian Smith has the best average followed by Parore and Watling. Fleming has the most by a fielder. Latham and Root represent current players.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria in the table):

Headed by Botham, followed by Hadlee and Cairns at a distance.

Match performance (50 and 5wi):

Many entries here. Of special note are those with a century and 5wi, including Botham (1978 and 1984).

Those with a 50 and 10wm include Greig, Hadlee (1986) and Nash. Nash was the first to achieve this at Lord’s.

Review of Pakistan-England Tests (Dec 2022)-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

Now we look at individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (35 and above):

Qadir and Anderson share the record with 82 wickets. Anderson had played in part of this series. His long-term partner Broad is next with 67.

Best innings bowling (including7wi or more):

Led by Qadir and Botham, the latter taking 8-34 at Lord’s. The best in this series was 7-114 by Abrar Ahmed who was making his debut.

Best match bowling (including 10wm or more):

Led by Underwood and Qadir who each took 13 wickets. In this series Abrar Ahmed took 11-234 on debut

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

The best bowling averages are by Anderson followed by Broad. The best economy rates are by Iqbal Qasim and DA Allen. The best strike rates are by Waqar Younis and Anderson.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (20 and above):

Headed by Wasim Bari, followed by Kamran Akmal and Knott. Bari and Sarfraz Ahmed have the most stumpings with 4. Root has the most catches by a fielder with 25.

Best innings fielding (5 or more dismissals):

Sarfraz Ahmed took 5 dismissals on 2 occasions, while GO Jones did so twice. No fielder took more than 4 catches.

Best match fielding (7 dismissals or more):

Wasim Bari and Kamran Akmal took 8 dismissals in a match. No fielder took more than 6.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Led by Knott and RW Taylor, followed by Wasim Bari. Root has the best rate for fielders.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Broad and Botham have the best performances.

Match performances

50+ and 5wi in the match

Of these, the best would be Botham’s century and 8wi, and Qadir’s 61 and 10wm. Honourable mention to Imran Khan’s 100 runs and 8wm in 1982.

More about the honors boards at Lord’s-2

We now look at the honors boards in England’s dressing room.

A total of 129 centuries were made for England:

The most centuries by an English batsman are 6 each by Gooch and Vaughan.

Centuries in both innings were made by Gooch (333 and 123 v Ind in 1990) and Vaughan (103 and 101* v WI in 2004). Gooch’s 333 is also the only Test triple century at Lord’s. This was also the first instance of a triple century and century in a first-class match. Some years later Sangakkara repeated this in a Test against Bangladesh.

The next highest score for England here is 240 by Hammond v Aus in 1938.

Those who scored a century on debut were Hampshire (107 v WI, 1969), Strauss (112 v NZ, 2004) and Prior (126* v WI, 2007).

Next we look at the 95 five-fors by England:

The most five-fors are 8 by Botham followed by 5 each by Anderson and Trueman. Anderson may yet add to this.

The best performance here is 8-34 by Botham vs Pakistan in 1978, and he also scored a century in that match. Eight-wicket hauls have been made on 4 occasions by Botham (twice), Verity and Underwood.

There are numerous cases of five-fors in both innings. The most recent instance was by Woakes vs Pak in 2016.

It seems to be easier for debutants to take a five-for than to score a century at Lord’s. Here are those who took a five-for on debut:

Cork has the best figures here. No one has taken five-fors in each innings on debut.

And finally, we look at the rather shorter list of the 17 who took 10wm for England:

Underwood is the only one to do so twice.

Verity’s 15-wicket haul is the best here.

Bedser is the only one to do so on debut.

And MM Ali is the only English player to score a fifty and take a ten-for in a Test at Lord’s. He finished the match with a hat-trick.

There are some who have scored both a century and a five-for at Lord’s (though not always in the same Test):

Botham (108 and 8-34 v Pak in 1978) is the only one to do so in the same Test.

Those who scored both a century and ten-for at Lord’s:

None of them scored a century and took 10 wickets in a match (in fact, this has happened only 3 times in all Tests, Botham being the first to do so.) Oddly enough, Allen and Broad scored their only Test centuries at Lord’s.

Finally, in the third part, we will look at the boards for visiting teams.