Review of Aus-SA Tests, 2022-23 Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now take up Bowling records:

Most wickets (Minimum 50 or more):

Warne has the most wickets, with Grimmett following at a distance. Recent players Steyn and MG Johnson are next. Grimmett (8) and Warne (7) have the most 5wis. Grimmett (4) also has the most 10wms, followed by MG Johnson and Warne.

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi):

MG Johnson is the only one with an 8wi.

Best match bowling (including all 10wm):

Grimmett has 2 of the best 3 performances here.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Grimmett and Whitty have the best averages, Goddard and Grimmett the best economy rates, with Whitty and Steyn having the best strike rates.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (25 or more):

Boucher has the most dismissals, although Oldfield has the most stumpings. Ponting (35) and de Villiers (34) have the most catches by fielders.

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

Grout and Lindsay were once Test record-holders in this category.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

de Kock is the only recent player at the top.

Best dismissal rate (0.650 or more):

Headed by Lindsay and Haddin. The best by a pure fielder is 0.964 by RB Simpson, although the “hybrid” de Villiers is a little higher at 1.085.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria below):

MG Johnson is a little ahead of TL Goddard.

Match performances (50+ runs and 5+wi):

The best performances include 100/5wi (Kelleway and Benaud) and 50/10wm (Steyn).

Most runs in an over, across formats

Starting with T20Is:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284226.html

The record of 36 was first achieved by Yuvraj vs Broad in 2007, and later equalled by K Pollard vs A Dananjaya in 2021. As you can see, they were perfect 6 X 6s without the aid of no-balls and wides. No other batsman from India has scored 26 or more.

Now to ODIs:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/278847.html

This was first achieved by HH Gibbs (SA) vs DLS van Bunge (NL) in the 2007 World Cup. It was equalled by JS Malhotra (USA) v G Toka (PNG) in 2021. Both of these were perfect 6 x 6s.

The best for India is 32 (SS Iyer 31, R Pant 1) vs RL Chase (WI) in 2019.

And for Tests:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/233006.html

Bumrah vs Broad in 2022 would be fresh in your minds. See Footnote 3 in this link

The previous record was 28 by BC Lara (WI) v RJ Peterson (SA) in 2003.

The next best for India is 26 by HH Pandya vs PM Pushpakumara (SL) in 2017.

The only entry before 1980 is the 25 by B Sutcliffe (19) and RW Blair (6) vs HJ Tayfield in 1953-and that was an 8-ball over. There was an human-interest angle here, as Blair had just learnt of his fiancee’s death in NZ’s worst rail accident. And the SA fast bowlers had injured more than one NZ batsman.

New Zealand-South Africa Tests, 2022 (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/03/05/new-zealand-south-africa-tests-2022-part-1/

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The current players here are Wagner and Rabada.

Steyn has the most fivers (6), followed by CS Martin and M Ntini with 4 each.

Steyn is the only one with two tenners.

Best innings bowling (including all 6wi and better):

In this series we have MJ Henry taking 7-23 in the first Test as a record for NZ v SA, surpassing JR Reid’s 6-60 at Dunedin in 1964.

Best match bowling (including all 9wm and better):

Here Henry has 9-55, which is NZ’s second best match bowling performance against SA. CS Martin’s 11-180 figured in NZ’s first home victory against SA in 2004.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):

Headed by Steyn and Tayfield. No current players here. Also note Vettori’s poor performance.

Steyn and Tayfield have the best averages.

Tayfield and Reid have the best economy rates.

Steyn and CS Martin have the best strike rates.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

Headed by Waite and Boucher, who are far ahead of the others. Boucher has 49 catches to Waite’s 47, although Waite has the most dismissals.

No current players here. GC Smith (18) has the most catches by a fielder.

Most innings dismissals (5 and above):

de Kock appears twice, while several other keepers have 4 dismissals in an innings. No fielder has more than 3 catches in an innings.

Most match dismissals (6 and above):

Several keepers have made 7 dismissals in a match. The best by a current player is 6 by Blundell. GC Smith took 5 catches as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.40):

Waite heads this list by a large margin, followed by Boucher. GC Smith has the best rate for a fielder.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria in table):

With these criteria, JR Reid has the best overall performance, far ahead of Vettori.

Match (fifty and five-for):

Only two instances, and MJ Henry’s performance is the best here. His fifty came at No 11.