This series was drawn 0-0 with both Tests at Karachi being drawn.
For Tests between these teams,
Pakistan lead 25-14 with 23 draws.
In Pakistan, Pakistan lead 13-2 with 8 draws.
In New Zealand, Pakistan lead 10-9 with 14 draws.
On neutral grounds, Pakistan trail 2-3 with 1 draw.
Looking at individual performances:
Batting:
Most runs (750 or more):
Javed Miandad leads, with KS Williamson in second place.
Highest innings scores, (150 or more):
Inzamam-ul-Haq leads with a triple century. Williamson has NZ’s record with 238. In this series his 200* was the highest for NZ in Pakistan, surpassing the previous record of 152 by WK Lees in 1976.
Highest averages (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):
Miandad leads second-placed Williamson by a large margin. Latham and some other recent players can also be seen here.
Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 40.00):
Led by McCullum with today’s hero Sarfraz Ahmed close behind. R Taylor and Williamson follow closely.
The series was drawn 1-1 after NZ’s unexpected win in the first Test. It was only the second Test win for them at home. The previous win was in March 2004 at Auckland. They have never won a Test series against SA, though some have been drawn. Their best performance was probably the 2-2 draw in SA in 1961-62.
Summary of all Tests between these teams:
We can see that SA has historically done better.
Now for individual performances, starting with
Batting:
Most runs (750 and above):
Led by Kallis, while Williamson is the only current player here.
Kallis has the most centuries-6
Kallis also has the most 50+ scores (12) followed by Amla (11).
Highest innings (125 and above):
While there are several large scores from the past, the highest from this series was 136* by SA newcomer K Verreynne. Williamson is also in this list although he did not play in this series.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Headed by DJ McGlew from the past. No current players here.
Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):
Headed by GC Smith. This list also includes Williamson and Elgar.
Finally, we look at centuries in the fourth innings:
It is clearly more difficult to make a century in the fourth innings than the other innings. The most centuries here is by Younis Khan (5), while 4 others have scored 4 each (GC Smith, RR Sarwan, RT Ponting and SM Gavaskar).
Among current players there are KS Williamson (3), AK Markram, BA Stokes and several others with 2.
Among Indian players, there are Gavaskar (4) and Tendulkar (3).
Those who loved the fourth innings:
W Watson (Eng) made both his centuries in the fourth innings.
No one else has scored 2 or more centuries in the fourth innings and none in other innings.
The next best is 2 out of 4 by JB Stollmeyer.
Those who hated the fourth innings:
There is a long list of prominent batsmen who scored many centuries but none in the fourth innings.
This is headed by SR Waugh (Aus) with 37 centuries. Next are SPD Smith (Aus) with 32, M Yousuf (Pak) with 24, JE Root and V Sehwag with 23.
It is just possible that Smith and Root will score a century in the fourth innings in the future. Or Smith may cross Waugh’s record of 37.
The first surprise here is that Bradman does not appear. Perhaps he did not bat enough in the third innings.
The leading batsman PBH May is a bit of a surprise. He is followed by JH Kallis and DCS Compton.
No current player appears in the top 10. The only players from recent times are K Sangakkara who retired in 2015 and HM Amla (2017). Batting in the third innings must have become more difficult in recent times.
From India there are M Amarnath and VVS Laxman.
Now for the fourth innings:
The cutoff here is 40.00.
Headed by Boycott, Gavaskar and Hobbs.
Current players here are KS Williamson (at 7), Kohli (at 8) besides recent player Younis Khan (at 9).
Other current players include AD Mathews (has he retired from Tests?), DA Warner, DM Bravo, Shakib Al Hasan, Asad Shafiq and R Taylor.
From India there are Gavaskar and Kohli in the top 10, followed by Dravid and Laxman.
It would seem that recent players have coped better with the fourth innings than with the third innings.
Another interesting topic to study would be the batters and bowlers who have done best in the fourth innings.
No Test matches for a while, so we can do some overall reviews.
Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, 50.00):
Mr 99.94 is well known, but No 2 has already been forgotten. No 3 is fast closing in on No 2’s 61.87. The only other current player in the top 10 is No 6 with 60.80.
The highest for India is by VG Kambli (!) at 54.20. Something similar to the case of AC Voges.
From India, there are also Tendulkar, Dravid, Gavaskar and Kohli.
Among current players, there are SPD Smith, M Labuschagne, KS Williamson, V Kohli and JE Root (who just manages 50+).
In following posts we will look at batting averages across innings.
This is what the final table of the WTC looked like. Note that the recent WI-SA series was also part of the WTC. Clearly these teams were not anywhere near the top 2:
We also look at the ICC ranking tables on June 24:
Here NZ is just ahead of India. There are some differences in the lower rankings.
It may happen that Zimbabwe (or even Afghanistan) will take Bangladesh’s place in the next cycle.
A quick look at the main statistical highlights of the WTC Tests (Remember that they started in 2019):
Most runs (750 or more):
Strangely the first few positions are from those whose teams did not reach the final. Rahane and R Sharma are in 5th and 6th place.
Highest scores (150 or more):
Kohli and Williamson are in 3rd and 4th place.
Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, 25.00):
Again, the best from India and NZ is in 6th place (Rahane), followed by MA Agarwal and Kohli. Pujara’s decline is clear.
Williamson is not here is he batted in less than 20 innings.
Most wickets (20 or more):
Ashwin has the most wickets, followed closely by Australia’s Cummins and England’s Broad. Southee and Jamieson have the most from NZ.
We can also see that Ashwin, Lyon and AR Patel each took 4 five-fors, and that Broad, Lyon, Jamieson, Embuldeniya and AR Patel each took a ten-for.
Best innings bowling (includes all 6wi or more):
Along with the lesser-known Embuldeniya, Ashwin also took a 7-for. There are startling figures of 5-7 by Bumrah, 5-8 by Hazlewood and Root (!) which were both against India.
Best match bowling (includes all 9wm or more):
AR Patel has the best figures here followed by Jamieson and the newcomer Jayawickrama. Ishant Sharma and Ashwin are also here.
Bowling average (Min 2000 balls, all instances):
Broad and Ashwin have the first two places here.
For economy rate, it is Hazlewood and Ashwin.
For strike rate, it is Broad and Southee.
Jamieson does not appear here as he has not bowled enough in the WTC matches.
Most dismissals (15 and above):
Watling bowed out in 4th place. Pant has the next highest. He also took the most stumpings (6). Root has the most catches by a fielder (34).
Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):
de Kock is the only one with 6 catches, and Stokes and Thirimanne the only fielders with 5.
Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):
Paine and de Kock dominate here. No fielder has taken more than 6 catches.
Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.65):
Paine and Watling lead. SPD Smith and Root have the most by fielders.
Overall all-round performance (see criteria in table):
Jadeja and Stokes (with Holder a distant third) did the best here. But there is no one from NZ.
Match all-round performances (fifty plus 5wi):
The best performances here are by Ashwin (100/5wi) and Broad (50/10wm).
Player of the series? Perhaps Williamson. He did not make the most runs, but how he made them was more important (notably in the final):
(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.
Future internationals in this match included Worker, Williamson, Southee, CJ Anderson and Boult from NZ and Kohli, SS Tiwary, MK Pandey and Sir Ravindra Jadeja (though he was a minor nobleman at that time) from India.
In the other semi-final SA won against Pak.
In the final, Ind won against SA by 12 runs (again by D/L):
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