Review of Pakistan-England T20I matches-Oct 2022

England won the current series series 4-3. This was the first 7-match T20I series between full members, although there has also been one between Malawi and Mozambique earlier this year. These were the first T20Is played by England in Pakistan.

A summary of all T20Is between England and Pakistan:

England leads overall, as well as at home, away and at neutral venues.

Individual performances:

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Led by the opening pair of Babar Azam (560) and M Rizwan (522).

Highest innings (70 and above):

The only two centuries are by Babar Azam and LS Livingstone.

The most 50+ scores are 6 by M Rizwan and 5 by Babar Azam.

PD Salt’s 88* is the best for England in Pakistan.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of averages.

Best strike rates (Minimum 250 balls faced, all instances):

Headed by Babar Azam and EJG Morgan.

Bowling:

Most wickets (8 and above):

AU Rashid and GP Swann have 17 wickets each, while Haris Rauf (14) has the best for Pakistan.

There are two instances of 4wi, by Saeed Ajmal (4-21) and AU Rashid (4-35).

Innings bowling (3wi and above):

MA Wood’s 3-20 is the best for England in Pakistan.

Wahab Riaz’s 3-18 is the best for Pakistan in England.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (6 and above):

Morgan has the most catches by a fielder (12). Buttler has the most dismissals by a keeper (7 including 5 stumpings).

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

No England player has made 3 dismissals in a match in Pakistan.

This list includes a number of keepers and fielders.

Buttler is the only one with 2 stumpings in an innings.

All-round performance:

Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets in a match:

The best performances here would be by MM Ali (36 and 2-32) and Shahid Afridi (24 and 3-15).

Most sixes (but no fours) in an innings

While following WI batting against SL in a T20I on Mar 6, one wondered if Russell’s 6 sixes and no fours was a record. It isn’t, but we can see the records here:

The devaluation of T20I match records is well under way. However, among “serious” matches the record would be Morgan’s 7 against SA. The next among serious matches would be Russell’s 6.

Let us look at the corresponding records for ODIs:

Here the record is 6 (less than the T20I record!) by Collingwood and Neesham. Raina is one with 5 sixes. Another  was AD Mascarenhas, who scored 30 of his runs in 5 6s off an over from Yuvraj Singh.

And in Tests, the record is held by one of the rising tailend sloggers from India:

Umesh Yadav took over the record jointly held by Nixon Mclean, Flintoff and de Grandhomme. Further down, Keith Miller hit 3 sixes and no fours against India back in 1948. More recently, Southee and Bairstow also did this against India.

CA Walsh’s 18* included three 6s as the only scoring strokes in his 18-ball innings.

From India, others such as Kuruvilla, Shami and Sir Ravindra Jadeja have also tried their hand at this.

Footnote: NAM McLean was better known for his illustrious names (Nixon Alexei McNamara) than for his relatively modest performances.

India had a similar player named Napoleon Einstein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Einstein

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:

After the final of CWC 2019

Final results for the Orange Cap:

1. RG Sharma 648 runs

2. DA Warner 647

3. Shakib Al Hasan 606

4. KS Williamson 578

(Note: the series record is 673 by SR Tendulkar in 2003)

Purple Cap:

1. MA Starc 27 wickets

2. LH Ferguson 21

3. JC Archer 20

4. Mustafizur Rahman 20

(Note: Starc has the new series record, surpassing the 26 by GD McGrath in 2007.)

Most 6s:

1. EJG Morgan 22

2. AJ Finch 18

3. RG Sharma 14

4. CH Gayle 12

5. JJ Roy 12

(The series record is 26 by CH Gayle in 2015.)

Man of the Series: KS Williamson, for captaincy and 578 runs.

Also: While there have been tied matches in past World Cups (including the Aus v SA semi final in 1999), this is the first to involve a Super Over.

From Cricinfo: There had only been 37 ties in the 4045 ODIs that had been played till then, and only four in 445 World Cup matches; none since 2011. England had been involved in eight ties before this, and New Zealand seven, and in matches involving both, there had been three. The law of probabilities would have given it a 0.91% chance.

 

 

After the 2nd semi-final of CWC 2019

Apart from 1975 (obviously) and 1987, this is the only time when both finalists have not won previously.

Keeping up the pretense of the IPL:

Orange Cap: RG Sharma* 648, followed by DA Warner* 647, Shakib Al Hasan* 606, JE Root 549, KS Williamson 548.

Purple Cap: MA Starc* 27, followed by Mustafizur Rahman* 20, JC Archer 19, JJ Bumrah* and  LH Ferguson 18 each.

Most 6s: EJG Morgan 22, followed by AJ Finch* 18, RG Sharma* 14, CH Gayle* 12, JJ Roy 12.

* No further part in the World Cup.

While Starc will very likely be the top wicket-taker, both Sharma and Warner could be overtaken by Root, Williamson and a few others.

Man of the series is still open. A pity that Shakib would have not have a chance as his team did not do well enough. But there are precedents where players from losing semi-finalists have been MOS: Martin Crowe (1992) and Lance Klusener (1999).

Most 6s in an ODI innings

In the World Cup match against Afghanistan on June 18, EJG Morgan made 148 off 71 balls with 17 6s and (only) 4 4s.

This is the listing for the most 6s in an ODI innings (10 or more) after England’s innings:

The live link for future reference:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283127.html

Morgan overtook these 3 who shared the ODI record:

RG Sharma, 16 6s in 209, I v A, Bengaluru, 02/11/2013

AB de Villiers, 16 in 149, SA v WI, Jo’burg, 18/01/2015

CH Gayle, 16 in 215, WI v Zim, Canberra, 24/202/2015.

(So Gayle held the previous World Cup record).

No one else has scored 10 or more 6s in an innings so far in the 2019 World Cup. The best is 5 by JJ Roy for Eng v BD and AJ Finch for Aus v SL.

While on this topic, let us see the records for the most 4s in all ODIs (20 or more):

Live link:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284017.html

The runaway winner is RG Sharma with his 33 4s and 9 6s in the ODI record score of 264 for I v SL at Kolkata on 13/11/2014.

The next two positions are also held by India’s SR Tendulkar and V Sehwag (25 each), followed by ST Jayasuriya and several others with 24, i.e. far behind RG Sharma’s outlier.

The World Cup record is held by MJ Guptill with his 24 4s and 11 6s for NZ v WI at Wellington on 21/03/2015.

During this World Cup, no one else has crossed 20 4s. The best is 16 by these:

 

Records of “Ashes” ODIs-1

I do not normally cover limited-over series where India is not involved. The just-concluded England-Australia series was the first one to be won by a 5-0 margin, so it was a good time to review all ODIs between these teams from 1971 to 2018. Remember that the first-ever ODI was played between these teams in 1971.

As on June 25, 2018, 147 ODIs had been played between these teams. Eng won 61, Aus 81 and there were 2 ties and 3 no-results.

In England: 68 ODIs, Eng 34, Aus 30, Tie 2, NR 2

In Australia: 71 ODIs, Eng 25, Aus 45, Tie 0, NR 1

Neutral: 8 ODIs, Eng 2, Aus 6, no tie or NR.

Now for batting records:

Most runs (750 and above):

Morgan is by far the highest scorer, with Ponting making the most for Australia. Finch, Buttler and Roy represent the current players besides Morgan.

The most centuries are 6 by Finch, 5 by Ponting and 4 by Gooch

The most 50+ scores  are 16 by Morgan followed by 13 by Gooch and Ponting.

Highest innings (110 and above):

Jason Roy holds the record for the highest score, which was made earlier in 2018. From the current series we have 147 by Hales, 139 by Bairstow, 131 by SE Marsh, 120 by Roy and rounded up by Buttler’s 110* in the 5th match.

Highest batting averages (minimum 20 innings, minimum 30.00):

Martyn is somewhat unexpectedly on the top, followed by Finch and Buttler among current players.

Highest batting strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, minimum 75.00):

It is not surprising that the first 4 places go to current players headed by Roy and Buttler.

To be continued

More on Ireland’s maiden Test

Ultimately Ireland lost against Pakistan, but they performed better than most other Test teams on their maiden appearance. But then, the team had considerable international experience before they played in the Test.

We all know that B Rankin had played one Test for England. He has also played in ODIs and T20Is for England and Ireland.

Similarly EC Joyce has played in ODIs and T20Is for England and Ireland.

All 11 members of the team had played T20Is earlier. T Kane is the only one who had not played in an ODI.

Another potential player was Eoin Morgan who played 16 Tests for England with two centuries, besides ODIs for England and Ireland and T20Is for England. He could well have played here, but appears to prefer his present position as England’s ODI captain.

Probably Afghanistan’s Test team will have a similar bank of experience, except that they would never have played an international match in their home country.