Review of Australia-India T20Is-Sep 2022

India won the series 2-1, just as they had won in Australia in 2020-21.

A summary of all T20Is between these teams:

India leads 15-10 overall, as well as 7-4 in Australia and 6-4 in India. They are level at 2-2 on neutral venues.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Kohli leads by a large margin over Finch at # 2.

The first 5 batsmen in this list all played in the series just concluded

Watson and Maxwell are the only ones to have scored centuries. Kohli made 8 scores of 50+, while no one else made more than 3.

Highest innings (60 and above):

Note that the highest score in this series was 71* by Pandya. For Australia it was 61 by Green.

There is not enough data to get meaningful batting averages. However, we have some strike rates:

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

Kohli and the next three are closely bunched together.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (6 and above):

Bumrah and Zampa lead here. Both of them played in the current series.

Best innings bowling (Includes all 3wi and above):

No one has a 5-for. Those with 4-fors did not play in this series.

The best in this series was 3-16 by Zampa and 3-17 by AR Patel.

Note that the best performance here (Ashwin’s 4-11) came in a World Championship match at a neutral venue.

We do not have enough data for proper estimation of bowling averages, economy rates and strike rates.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (5 and above):

Dhoni is the only keeper here, with 10 catches and 5 stumpings. Kohli has the most catches by a fielder (10).

Most dismissals in an innings (3 and above):

Dhoni and Paine have the most dismissals by keepers, while Behrendorff took 3 catches as a fielder. No one took more than 2 dismissals in this series.

All-round match performance (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

Watson’s performance in 2012 is clearly the best. DR Sams achieved a modest 28* and 2-33 in this series.

Review of England vs India ODIs-Jul 2022 (Part 1)

India won this series 2-1, after winning the T20I series 3-0.

This summarises all ODIs played between these teams:

India lead England 57-44 in ODIs, although England lead 23-18 for ODIs played in England.

We now look at individual performances.

Batting:

Most runs (600 or more):

The most runs are 1546 by Dhoni and 1523 by Yuvraj, and the highest is 1163 by Bell.

Kohli (1340) has the most by current players.

The most centuries are 4 by Yuvraj, followed by 3 by Kohli and Root.

The most 50+ scores are 12 by Kohli, Raina and Tendulkar. The most for England is 9 by Pietersen.

Highest innings scores (115 and more):

The highest by a current player is 137* by RG Sharma, while the highest in this series is 125* by RR Pant. The highest for England is 158 by Strauss in the 2011 World Cup.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):

Led by Azharuddin by a large margin. Pietersen has the highest average for England, and Jadeja (!) the highest among current players.

Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):

The current pair of Bairstow and Stokes have the highest strike rates, followed by Sehwag and Yuvraj for India.

Now for

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

The highest are by Anderson and Jadeja. The latter has the highest for India and current players.

The most 5wis are 2 by Harbhajan, and the most 4wis are 2 by several players.

Best innings performances (including all 5wi):

The best performance here is Bumrah’s 6-19 which is the best for Ind vs Eng, surpassing Nehra’s 6-23 (in SA) and K Yadav’s 6-25 in England.

Similarly R Topley’s 6-24 is the best for Eng v Ind, surpassing RS Irani’s 5-26 in 2002

It is also the best for England in all ODIs, surpassing Collingwood’s 6-31 against BD in 2005.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all cases):

Srinath and current player Jadeja have the best averages. Flintoff has the best for England

The best economy rates are by Kapil and Harbhajan.

The best strike rates are by Jadeja and Srinath.

To be continued.

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.

Low Test scores against India-and India’s bowlers

While much has been said about 36 all out in recent days, it should not be forgotten that Indian bowlers have also now become capable of dismissing Test teams for two-digit scores. This did not happen before 1981, and the lowest by anyone against India is 79.

Here we list all Test scores by teams which are 100 or less, and 8 to 10 wickets down.

Note the 80/8 was not an all-out score, but probably would have ended under 100.

We give below details of the Indian bowlers involved, plus other features of interest.

Starting from the top:

SA 79 in 2015-16; I Sharma 0-4, Ashwin 5-32, Jadeja 4-33, A Mishra 1-9

NZ 80/8 in 1964-65; Desai 1-18, Jaisimha 1-4, Chandrasekhar 3-25, Durani 2-16, Venkataraghavan 1-10.

(NZ narrowly escaped defeat after they had dismissed India for 88 and made them follow on. But Sardesai had other ideas and made his maiden century of 200*)

SL 82 in 1989-90; Kapil 1-14, Prabhakar 1-27, V Raju 6-12, G Sharma 1-26.

(The only Test played at Chandigarh).

Aus 83 in 1980-81; Ghavri 2-10, S Patil 0-5, Doshi 2-53, Kapil 5-28)

(The first time an Indian team dismissed the opposition in a Test for under 100, and they squared the series with this unexpected win. India’s next win in Australia came in 2003-04.)

SA 84 in 2006-07; Zaheer 2-32, Sreesanth 5-40, VRV Singh 1-8, Kumble 2-2

(Probably the high point of Sreesanth’s Test career. This was India’s first win in SA).

BD 91 in 2000-01; Srinath 3-19, Zaheer 1-20, Agarkar 2-16, S Joshi 3-27, M Kartik 1-1

(Bangladesh’s first Test. However, they had made 400 in the first innings).

Aus 93 in 2004-05; Zaheer 1-14, Harbhajan 5-29, M Kartik 3-32, Kumble 1-5

(Australia failed to chase 107, though India won a dead Test and lost the series 2-1.)

NZ 94 in 2002-03; Zaheer 5-29, Yohannan 0-16, Nehra 2-20, Bangar 0-4, Harbhajan 2-20

(India still lost this Test. They had made 99 in the first innings.)

NZ 100 in 1980-81; Kapil 4-34, R Binny 2-26, Shastri 3-9, S Patil 1-12, K Azad 0-5

(India lost this Test. Shastri took 3-9 on debut, which included 3 wickets in 4 balls.)

WI 100 in 2019; I Sharma 3-31, Bumrah 5-7, Jadeja 0-42, Shami 2-13.

(India reduced WI to 50/9 before Roach (38) and M Cummins (19*) doubled the score.)

Lies, damn lies and statistics in cricket-Revised in 2020

For some unknown reason, this post in Dec 2015 was the most popular of my cricket-related posts and got over 700 views in that month.

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/lies-damn-lies-and-statistics-in-cricket/

So I thought of revising it in 2020.

The first question we asked was “Who is the best opening bowler of the 2010s?”

Here we set the bowling position as #1 or #2, and a minimum of 50 wickets.

You may have thought of someone like Steyn or Mitchell Johnson or Morkel.

In Dec 2015, R Ashwin had the best average, BW Hilfenhaus the best economy rate, and Ashwin again with the best strike rate.

When we consider the entire 2010s:

There is another unexpected result with the burly Rangana Herath having the best bowling average here. He is followed by Bumrah (expected) and Rabada (also expected). Ashwin is 4th.

Other spinners here are MDK (Dilruwan) Perera, and MH Miraz.

This time Mohammad Abbas has the best economy rate and K Rabada the best strike rate.

Next, who is India’s best opening bowler? Surely Kapil or Srinath?

In 2015 we got Ashwin again (followed by Srinath and Kapil). Phadkar had the best economy rate and Ashwin the best strike rate.

Again in 2020, we consider all those who bowled at 1 or 2 for India and took at least 50 wickets up to the end of 2019.

This time Bumrah leads, followed by his contemporaries Ashwin and B Kumar. The first 4 places are held by current players.

Phadkar still has the best economy rate and is now followed by Bumrah. Bumrah has the best strike rate while Ashwin is second.

Finally, who was India’s best all-rounder? We consider all those who scored at least 1000 runs and took 100 wickets up to the end of 2019.

In 2015, it was Ashwin followed by Kapil and Pathan.

In 2020, the topper was not Ashwin but one of his contemporaries.

Indeed, this is led by Jadeja who is followed by Ashwin and Kapil. Of course, anyone below Shastri in this table should not really be called an all-rounder.

 

Test matches of 2019-Bowling

Now for individual bowling performances in Tests in the calendar year 2019.

Most wickets (12 or more):

The two top positions are for Australian players Cummins and Lyon. Cummings has a large lead. The best of the newcomers appear to be Archer, Rashid Khan, Embuldeniya and SS Afridi, while Cornwall had a 10-wicket haul in his 2nd Test

Wagner and Starc had the most 5-wicket hauls (4). No one took more than one 10-for.

Best innings performances (including all 6wi and above):

Chase’s 8-wicket haul was largely responsible for England’s defeat. Next is another WI spinner who was playing in his 2nd Test. Other good performances were by newcomers JC Archer, TJ Murtagh and Rashid Khan.

Murtagh was the first Irish player to get his name on the Lord’s honours boards.

Here we add the only hat-trick this year:

JJ Bumrah took a hat-trick with the wickets of 2-13 (Bravo, 8.2 ov), 3-13 (Brooks, 8.3 ov), and 4-13 (Chase, 8.4 ov). He finished with innings figures of 6-27 and match figures of 7-58.

Best match bowling (including all cases of 8wm and above):

Rashid Khan scored a fifty along with his 11 wickets. Other newcomers here are Cornwall and Archer.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1500 balls, all instances):

Wagner and Cummins lead here, with Archer the best of the newcomers.

The best economy rates are by Cummins and Hazlewood. The best strike rates are by Starc and Wagner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tale of two hat-tricks

Here is a list of all hat-tricks in World Cup matches, as on June 22 2019:

Live link: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/1190325.html

The first as well as the most recent instances were by Indian bowlers.

The first one was by a bowler who is not always given the credit he deserved. He is unfortunately remembered more for a last-ball six by Javed Miandad in a crucial match.

It may not be remembered that he is still the only Indian bowler to take a 10-for in a Test in England. And that he is one of the few Indian tailenders who scored an ODI century when tried in the middle order.

See the overview:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/33949.html

And his World Cup hat-trick in 1987. No one else had taken a hat-trick in the World Cup until then in matches starting from 1975.

See the scorecard:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8039/scorecard/65114/india-vs-new-zealand-24th-match-reliance-world-cup-1987-88

That match on Oct 31, 1987 was critical, as it was India’s last match in the group and needed to defeat New Zealand by a large margin to ensure that they topped the group. If they came second, they would have to face Pakistan in the semi-final (which, by prior agreement, would have been held in Pakistan if the two teams were to meet).

New Zealand won the toss and batted first. They made steady and unspectacular progress until they reached 182/5. One of their key batsmen Ken Rutherford was batting along with pinch-hitter Martin Snedden. Chetan Sharma had not taken a wicket at that stage.

He then had Rutherford bowled, followed by bowling No 8 Ian Smith (a Test centurion) and No 9 batsman Ewan Chatfield (capable of stubborn batting). This would be one of the relatively rare all-bowled hat-tricks in international cricket.

From 182/8, they got up to 221/9 in 50 overs.

This is still the only World Cup hat-trick where all three dismissals were bowled.

The Indian team knew the required run rate. Sunil Gavaskar had not been much of a success as an ODI batsman, but seized the occasion to score his only ODI century, an unbeaten 103. Srikkanth (75) and Azharuddin (41*) also ensured that India met the required run rate. Gavaskar and Sharma shared the Man of the Match award.

So it was India vs England at Bombay, and Pakistan vs Australia at Lahore. We all know how THAT turned out. So there was an Ashes final rather than a South Asian final at Calcutta, where Border’s unheralded team won by a narrow margin.

Hat-tricks in World Cup matches remained scarce, with no instance in 1992 and 1996. The next instance was by Saqlain Mushtaq in a Super Six match against Zimbabwe in 1999.

Forward to 2019. Mohammad Shami had made a good beginning to his Test career (with a 9-wicket haul against an admittedly weak WI team) but was generally felt to have performed below expectations. He did score a fifty in a Test batting at no 11. Injuries and domestic issues played their role.

There was even some kind of fudging in his records as his birthplace was initially shown to be in Jonagar in Bengal. No such town can be found in the map. Later his birthplace was mysteriously changed to Amroha (near Moradabad in UP) which is generally considered to be correct.

From the table in the beginning, we see that hat-tricks in the World Cup had become more common since 1999, with Malinga going a step beyond with 4 in 4. That is the only such dismissal in ODIs (or Tests). Malinga also took two regular hat-tricks later.

As I write this on June 23, the result of the 2019 World Cup is unknown. The only thing we know definitely is that Afghanistan (0 points in 6 matches) cannot qualify.

Points table after matches on June 22, 2019:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8039/scorecard/1144510/afghanistan-vs-india-28th-match-icc-cricket-world-cup-2019

In this match India batted below par and finished with 224/8, primarily due to lower-order failures. Shami’s dismissal was typical as he scored 1 off 2 balls.

Some time later the unthinkable seemed likely as Afghanistan made good progress towards the modest target. Shami had earlier taken the first wicket of H Zazai. With an over left, Afg was 209/7 with Nabi and Ikram going strong.

The upsets by Bangladesh against WI and Sri Lanka against England were fresh in viewer’s minds.

16 in the last over was difficult but not impossible (as Dinesh Karthik would testify). With the 3rd ball, Shami had Nabi caught by Pandya for 52 (213/8). 12 to get off 3 balls with 2 wickets in hand.

Surely that was the end for Afghanistan’s hopes? Shami made sure of that by bowling No 10 (Aftab 49.4) and No 11 (Mujeeb, 49.5) and taking India’s second hat-trick in the World Cup, over 31 years after the first. He finished with 4-40.

Also see this: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27035426/mohammed-shami-reveals-ms-dhoni-advice-world-cup-hat-trick-ball

However, it was JJ Bumrah (2-39) who was Man of the Match as his wickets were probably more critical.

 

Review of India – Aus T20Is-2019

A total of 20 T20Is have been played between India and Australia. Here is the summary of all results:

And the summary of the matches in India:

Considering bilateral matches in a series of at least 2 matches, we see that the 2017 series was drawn 1-1 and this series was won 2-0 by Australia.

Coming to individual performances:

Batting:

100 or more runs:

Kohli is far ahead of the others. Watson and Maxwell are the only ones to score centuries. The most 50+ scores are by Kohli (6 with no centuries) and 3 each by RG Sharma, Watson and Yuvraj.

Highest individual scores (50 and above):

Maxwell’s 113* was the highest for Australia in India, surpassing AJ Finch’s 89 in 2013.

Bowling:

Most wickets (5 and above):

Bumrah has moved into the lead.

Best innings bowling (includes all 3wi and above):

Bumrah’s 3-16 is the best for India at home, surpassing the earlier 3-26 by Vinay Kumar in 2013. The overall best performance was by Ashwin in the 2014 World Championship.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (4 or more dismissals):

Dhoni has the most stumpings and catches by a keeper. Kohli has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Best innings dismissals (2 and above):

All-round performance:

100 runs and 5 wickets:

Clearly they are the best all-rounders in these teams.

Match performance (20 runs and 2 wickets):

Watson’s effort is the best here.

The same teams continue with a 5-match ODI series.

Test statistics for 2018-2

Now for bowling:

Most wickets in 2018 (25 or more):

JJ Bumrah took 48 wickets in the calendar year of his debut, coming 3rd after Alderman (54 in 1981) and Ambrose (49 in 1988). The previous record for India was 40 by Doshi in 1979. A Dananjaya took 27 wickets in his debut calendar year.

The most fivers were 4 by Taijul and Miraz of Bangladesh and Holder of the West Indies. No one took more than one tenner.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 6wi and above):

The best effort by Maharaj was in a losing cause.

Best match bowling (including all instances of 9wm and above):

Maharaj also figures here with a 12-wicket haul when his side lost. Yasir Shah’s 14-wicket haul was the best in the UAE. He and Imran Khan are the only Pakistani bowlers to have taken 14 wickets in a match.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Bumrah has the best average and strike rate, while Anderson has the best economy.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

de Kock and Paine lead, although Dickwella has the most stumpings. Kusal Mendis has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

Newcomer Pant is the only one with 6 dismissals. SPD Smith has the most catches by a non-fielder, making him one of several to share this record in all Tests. Saha took 5 catches in each innings of a match.

Most match dismissals (6 or more):

Pant with 11 dismissals shared the world record with Russell and de Villiers. Earlier in the year Saha had an Indian record with 10 dismissals.

The most by a non-keeper was 7 by Rahul, in the only Test which India won on that series. Smith made 6 catches before being disgraced.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):

de Kock and Paine at the top, leading the others by a large margin. Kusal Mendis has the best by a non-keeper.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Not a good year for all-rounders, as Cummins is the only one to make the cut with these relatively modest standards.

Match (50 and 5wi):

More good performances, with Cummins’ last-gasp performance at the end. Holder also has two entries here.

 

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.

 

 

Batting fails in ODI cricket

After covering batting fails in T20I cricket, we proceed to ODI cricket.

Data is up to 3 Feb 2017. Matches involving the ICC XI, Asia XI and Africa XI are not counted.

We start with those who never scored a run in ODI cricket.

Most matches (4 and more):

Jaspreet Bumrah, the T20I leader, leads here again followed by D. Mohammed and JD Unadkat. Unadkat is one of several who never got an opportunity to bat.

Next we take up those who played in the most innings without scoring a run.

Most innings (2 and more):

Here we have 3 cases of players who got to bat in 3 innings and did not score from the balls they faced. Radford and Kabir had brief Test careers. Bumrah faced the least balls here (1) and was dismissed by that ball.

We now look closer at those who never got to face a ball in ODIs.

Most matches (3 and more):

Unadkat has played in the most matches (7) without ever going to bat. He is followed by a more recent Indian player BB Sran with 6. This list included Lance Gibbs and two lesser-known Test players who played one innings but did not face a ball.

Finally we look at those who played the most innings without facing a ball:

The record is one innings, achieved by these:

Of these, AGR Loudon was run out as a non-striker and was dismissed without facing a ball. And Aminul Islam (jnr) scored one run off zero balls. Presumably he scored off a no ball, though it is difficult to check this as the commentary of 1999 is not available.

Batting fails in T20I matches

You may think that this is about England losing 8 wickets for 8 runs in the third match. That has been covered enough elsewhere. Here we note some remarkable figures about players who have played the most matches and innings without scoring a single run, and others who have gone a step better and did not get to face a single ball while batting. These figures are as on 2 Feb 2017.

The unlikely hero here is India’s new-found death bowler Jasprit Bumrah, apparently a Sikh who was born and brought up in Ahmedabad. We know about his bowling. Now see the records he has set while batting.

Most matches played without scoring a run (5 or more):

Bumrah stands at the peak with 24 T20Is played without scoring a single run, twice that of his nearest competitors Santokie and Sodhi. He did bat in 4 innings, faced 2 balls and was dismissed once. As you can see, there are others who have played up to 9 matches without being called on the bat. The Australian Test player Stuart Clark played 9 matches without going in to bat.Then come Fareed Ahmed and the better known Josh Hazlewood in 7 matches. The latest hero YS Chahal has not had to bat in his 6 matches.

Now we look at

Most innings played without scoring a run (2 or more):

Bumrah leads here as well, but interestingly a prominent Test batsman MS Sinclair also appears here. The end of his career seemed to coincide with the increase in the frequency of T20Is which began in 2005.Ruchira Perera also played a few Tests as an all-rounder. Note that he played 2 innings without facing a ball.

Next, we look at those who never got to face a ball in T20Is.

Most matches played without facing a ball (5 or more):

Santokie and Sodhi head this list. Next comes A. Mishra who did get dismissed without facing a ball, with the dreaded diamond duck which usually strikes non-strikers who are run out. Then we note that Stuart Clark heads the list of those who never went out to bat.

The first four in this list have Indian connections-even Stuart Clark, whose parents were Anglo-Indians.

Finally, we look at the most innings played without facing a ball. It is a short list.

Most innings played without facing a ball (1 or more):

The aforementioned Ruchira Perera heads this list, playing two innings without facing a ball. Note that AA Noffke, like Amit Misra, also got a diamond duck.

ODIs and Test matches deserve separate posts.