T20Is of 2019-1

The year of the “big bang” when many new teams were admitted to “official” T20Is. A quick look at the results:

Teams ranked by W/L ratio:

A total of 71 teams played at least one T20I this year.

You will agree that the above table doesn’t mean much. Australia (OK), Argentina and Belize !? are the top teams, are they? And is Jersey as good as India?

Let us look at the ICC rankings, which are supposed to be more refined:

There are 86 teams covered in these rankings. The last 7 have zero points:

One might argue that Gibraltar and China are the worst teams as they have played the most matches for zero points.

Anyway, back to the top. The T20I World Championship will be held in Australia in late 2020:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_ICC_Men%27s_T20_World_Cup

The 16 teams participating are the top 19 in the ICC ranking table MINUS Zimbabwe, Nepal and UAE.

Next we look at individual performances in T20Is.

Now for the semi finals-1

PS: If you are feeling nostalgic for the national anthems of the departed teams, you can see this (from the 2015 WC):

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/national-anthems-of-wc-2015/

Now we have:

Jul 9: 1st SF, Ind v NZ, 1500 IST

Jul 11: 2nd SF, Aus v Eng, 1500 IST

Jul 14: Final, 1500 IST

And the road so far:

This WC has so far been marked by several relatively close (but not very close) finishes.

Also see the ICC rankings after the matches of Jul 6:

Note that only a fraction of a point separates England and India.

The top 4 here are indeed the semi-finalists. And the top 10 are indeed those who qualified for the World Cup. Ireland and Zimbabwe would have been out of their depth, as Ireland is 10 points behind Afghanistan.

A quick look at the IPL-style contests at the moment:

Orange Cap: RG Sharma 647 runs, followed by DA Warner (638) and Shakib Al Hasan* (606).

Purple Cap: MA Starc 26 wickets, followed by Mustafizur Rahman* (20) and 4 others with 17.

Most 6s: EJG Morgan 22, AJ Finch 18 and RG Sharma 14.

(Shakib* also has 11 wickets).

*No further part in the 2019 World Cup.

Next we will take up the statistical highlights so far.

Test statistics for 2018-1

Summarizing the team performances of 2018

Ranked by W/L ratio:

And the ICC ranking tables at the end of the year:

Note that the rankings are quite different, as the ICC rankings cover a longer period and are supposed to take the opponent’s strength into account.

Note the close bunching for 2nd to 4th position by England, New Zealand and South Africa. Also 6th and 7th (Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and for 8th and 9th (West Indies and Bangladesh).

Now we go on to individual performances.

Batting:

Most runs: 500 and above:

Virat Kohli has the most centuries (5). He also has the most scores above 50 (10).

Highest innings (110 and above):

The top score of 264* by Tom Latham was the highest by anyone carrying his bat through an innings, surpassing the 244* by Alastair Cook less than a year earlier. Here is a live link of all those who carried their bat through an innings, in chronological order.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283149.html

Curiously, it was the first instance of anyone scoring 264 or 264* in a Test. The lowest score which has never been made is 229/229*  (but there is also an outlier at 140*).

KJ O’Brien is here for Ireland’s first Test century, while Afghanistan still has no score above 50.

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

Kohli and the hitherto unheralded Kusal Mendis are on top here, as in the listing of most runs. Others from India can also be seen here.

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

Here it is Buttler and Mominul  who have the highest strike rates. Pujara is near the bottom as we may expect. Kohli and Rahane are also here.

To be continued:

T20Is of 2018

The Test cricket caravan for 2018 finally comes to an end on December 30.

Meanwhile we look at the T20Is of 2018, which had concluded earlier in the month.

Here are the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

And the teams arranged by win/loss ratio:

Here Afghanistan has a clean sweep, including minnows as well as regulars such as Bangladesh. Pakistan has a more valid claim to the top position, as they do in the ICC rankings.

Some statistics for individual performances are given below. As in the above table, the one match involving the ICC XI is not counted.

Most runs: 250 and above:

Shikhar Dhawan is far ahead of the rest.

Highest innings: 90 and above:

AJ Finch is far ahead of the rest.

Most wickets: 10 and above:

The lesser known AJ Tye has the most wickets.

Best innings bowling: includes all cases of 4wi and above:

Most dismissals: 10 and above:

Sarfraz and Finch head the lists for keepers and non-keepers respectively.

All-round match performances: 30 runs and 3 wickets:

GJ Maxwell and Shakib Al Hasan have the best performances here.

From 2019 onwards, all T20I matches will be considered official and there will be no select list of T20I countries as there is for ODIs. So matches including presently unranked teams will figure in these statistics, as it already does with women’s T20I matches.

 

ODIs of 2018-1

The ODIs of the year are over, and we review team and individual performances here:

First, the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

It can be seen that the 10 teams participating in the 2019 World Cup are the top 10 here.

This table includes matches in the past 2-3 years. Nepal has ODI status but has not played enough matches to get a ranking.

Here we look at W/L ratios. This and all subsequent tables refer to performances in the calendar year 2018.

Teams ranked by W/L ratio

Guess who finished last 🙂

And guess who played the most matches.

Of course, this table does not mean much as it does not take into account the opponent’s strength, which the ICC rankings are supposed to.

We now move to individual performances, starting with

Batting:

500 or more runs:

Also note that Kohli (6) and RG Sharma (5) have the most centuries, while Kohli (9) also has the most fifties followed by RG Sharma, Root and Fakhar Zaman with 8.

Innings scores of 125 or more:

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

You might expect Kohli, Sharma and a few others to be here but they did not play enough innings. However, they appear below:

Highest strike rates (Minimum 80.00 for a minimum of 500 balls faced):

Note that England has the two top spots, while India also has a few with strike rates above 100.

To be continued.

Quick guide to Test matches of 2017

In the calendar year 2017, 47 Test matches were played. 40 had results and 7 were drawn. Coincidentally, in 2016 there were also 47 Tests if which 7 were drawn.

These were the ICC rankings at the end of the year:

India clearly at the top, although there is some chance that South Africa will close the gap in the current series. But even a 3-0 win is not likely to put SA at the top.

At the bottom end, note that West Indies and Bangladesh are now level and Zimbabwe is far behind. It will be interesting to see where Ireland and Afghanistan will be (say) five years from now. While Ireland seems to be declining, Afghanistan may well get ahead of Zimbabwe.

Now we look at the win-loss ratio for all Tests in 2017. This is not expected to give the same results as the ICC rankings since the latter cover a longer period.

While India clearly leads, New Zealand has also done well to be in second place. Zimbabwe is the only one without a win, though Pakistan and Bangladesh have the same number of wins.

More detailed analysis of individual performances will follow.

 

The T20Is of 2017

The T20I matches of 2018 have already started. So we now look back at the matches of 2017. Not too many as there was no world championship, though there is now an increasing trend of 3-match series rather than a single match grudgingly tagged on at the end of the season.

First, the ICC ranking table at the end of the year:

This has a close bunching at the top, with 3 points separating Pakistan, New Zealand and India.

Now we look at win-loss ratios in 2017:

Pakistan and Scotland (!) at the top, with Bangladesh just above bottom-ranked PNG. Although Pakistan does top both lists, it should be remembered that the ICC rankings cover a longer period.

Now we look at individual performances. With a relatively small sample size there is not much point in finding averages and strike rates. The matches involving the World XI are not counted, even though the ICC and Cricinfo regards them as official T20Is

Batting: Most runs (150 and above):

So Evin Lewis of the West Indies leads, leaving established stars like ABD and Kohli behind. C Munro is the only one with 2 centuries, while several have three 50+ scores.

Highest innings (75 and above):

Evin Lewis leads the next in line RG Sharma by a large margin (by T20I standards).

Bowling: Most wickets (10 and above):

YS Chahal emerged with a bang, while Williams and Rashid also emerged from the fringes. Chahal is the only one with three 4wis, no one else had more than 1.

Best innings bowling (all instances of 5wi and above):

Chahal and Rashid Khan again.

Fielding: Most dismissals (8 and more):

Dhoni heads this list, although surprisingly Ireland’s GH Dockrell has the most catches as a non-keeper. In fact he has more catches than Dhoni or any other keeper!

Best innings fielding (3 or more dismissals):

While Chandimal, Dhoni and GD Philips have 4 dismissals apiece, several non-keepers have taken 3 catches.

All-round performance-overall:

See criteria below:

Seekuge Prasanna emerges as the only to one to have bowled and batted enough with some pretensions to being an all-rounder.

All-round match performances (20+ runs and 2+ wickets).

The best performances here are by Anshuman Rath (HK) and Shakib Al Hasan.

 

 

The ODIs of 2017

With the conclusion of ODIs on Dec 26, these were the ICC rankings for this date:

We see that South Africa leads with India just a point behind. As they are to play a 6-match ODI series in January 2018, the top position may well change hands.

We now survey ODI performances in 2017, starting with overall win-loss rations for all ODIs from starting between Jan 1 and Dec 31. All later tables are also in this time frame.

Win-Loss ratios:

This cannot be expected to tally exactly with the ICC rankings since the latter takes into account a longer time span. And this table cannot be taken too seriously as it has Hong Kong in 2nd position, as it mainly plays with the lower-ranked teams. Among the regulars, we have England followed by India, South Africa and Pakistan. And the West Indies is at the very bottom, with its fellow wooden – spooners Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea.

We now move on to individual performances, starting with batting.

Most runs (500 and above):

Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Tharanga scored the most runs. The two Indians also have the most centuries (6 apiece) and most 50+ scores (13 and 11 respectively).

Among those who batted for 20 innings and above, the highest averages are for Kohli (76.84) followed by Rohit Sharma.

Among those who faced at least 500 balls, the highest strike rates are by de Villiers (116.94) followed by KM Jadhav (!) and Ben Stokes.

Now for the highest innings (115 and above):

RG Sharma has the only double century (208*) while du Plessis and Guptill are some distance behind.

Now for bowling:

Most wickets (15 and above):

The table is led by rising stars Hasan Ali and Rashid Khan, with Bumrah and Plunkett a little behind. Hasan Ali is the only one with three fivers, while Rashid Khan and Plunkett each have four 4+s.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wis):

Rashid Khan and TA Boult were the only ones with 7-wicket hauls. An interesting feature here is A Dananjaya (SL) with a 6-wicket haul besides 18 wickets overall. A year ago, he was an interesting oddity as his ODI career of 1 match saw him neither batting, bowling nor fielding.

To save space, there is no table for bowling averages. Taking a minimum of 1000 balls bowled, we see:

JJ Bumrah has the best bowling average of 26.25, followed distantly by B Kumar.

B Kumar has the best economy rate of 5.05, followed closely by JJ Bumrah.

And JJ Bumrah has the best strike rate (30.6) followed by HH Pandya .

An Indian monopoly-as Indian players are practically the only ones who have bowled enough overs. JO Holder is the only other one to have crossed 1000 balls.

Now for fielding:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Dhoni is far ahead of the second-placed Buttler. They do have the same number of catches though Dhoni has more stumpings. Several non-keepers have 12 catches.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

Latham is the only one with 5 dismissals. GJ Maxwell is the only non-keeper with 4 catches.

Dismissals per innings (minimum 20 innings):

Dhoni (1.392) is followed closely by SD Hope with 1.238.

Among non-keepers Kusal Mendis has the highest with 0.571.

All-round performance (overall, see criteria in table):

Ironically, only Rashid Khan has respectable figures here- as he can bat a bit to go along his excellent bowling average.

All-round match performance (minimum 40 runs and 4 wickets):

Dominated by players from the lesser-ranked teams, with Stirling and Mustafa having the best performances.

 

 

A quick look at international cricket in 2015

An overview of Tests in 2015:

Note that India and Pakistan jointly top the chart on the basis of win/loss ratio. Only 9 teams appear as Zimbabwe did not play any Tests this year. Note the sudden slide of South Africa and the continuing decline of the West Indies.

Now we see the latest available ICC Test rankings, dated Dec 21 which corresponds to the end of the NZ-SL series. It will not be strictly comparable to the above chart as it includes Tests since August 2012 with greater emphasis on recent Tests:

Now to ODIs, where series between NZ and SL and between Afg and Zim were in progress on Dec 31. The annual overview:

Leaving aside the freak result for Hong Kong, Australia leads with Bangladesh a surprise runner-up. And Afghanistan has quietly slipped past a number of Test teams. Here is the ICC table correct up to Dec 31:

Australia is undeniably No 1 here with India, SA and NZ fighting for second spot. And Afghanistan has now got to the 10th position, ahead of Ireland and Zimbabwe.

T-20 results are pretty meaningless as major teams do not play much of this format. Anyway, I cover it here for the sake of completeness. Annual review:

England was unbeaten in their one series against Pakistan. As the minnows play more matches (usually against teams of similar strength) they have deceptively high win ratios (see PNG and Scotland for example).

Anyway here are the ICC rankings which cover all the matches played this year:

Oman will also be on this table once they have played enough matches (though this is only applicable for T20Is and not ODIs). Here we see Sri Lanka at the top with a very close bunching of WI, Australia and England after that, and still more bunching between SA, Pakistan and India after that.

But past records do not count for much in this format, especially in the first World Cup in 2007 where the winning team had played precisely one T20I before the championship.