Ireland’s flop show

After holding their own for the first two days, Ireland collapsed abjectly to an 143-run defeat in their first Test at Lord’s.

From here we can see that their 38 all out

1) is the lowest score at Lord’s, slipping below the 42 by India in 1974.

2) the second shortest innings by balls bowled. The record is 75 balls in South Africa’s 30 all out at Birmingham in 1924. Ireland’s 94-ball effort shares the second spot with England’s 61 all out at Melbourne in 1901-02 as well as South Africa’s other 30 all out, at Port Elizabeth in 1895-96. at Melbourne in 1901-02

It is also one of the rare instances in recent times when two bowlers (Woakes and Broad) ran through a side:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282890.html

Interestingly, the last such instance was by England (58 all out under lights) at Auckland in 2017-2018. On that occasion Boult and Southee were the wreckers.

India’s 42 does not appear here, since Old and Arnold together bowled 16 overs and Hendrick bowled the 17th.

England’s first innings score of 85 is not the lowest score by a winning side. More about this here (though it is from 2016 and has not been updated):

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/233412.html

On the positive side:

TJ Murtagh recorded the first fiver (5-13) for Ireland. In their last Test against Afghanistan, he had recorded their third fifty (54*).

He will thus the first Irish player to appear on the Lord’s honours boards.

Murtagh (6-65) and debutant Adair (6-98) now have the best match figures for Ireland. The previous record was 6-100 by Murtagh in their maiden Test against Pakistan.

Naturally, Murtagh has the most wickets (13) for Ireland.

KJ O’Brien has the most runs (258) for Ireland, besides the only century (118) which was in their maiden Test.

Finally, Chris Woakes recorded his third five-wicket haul. All three of them had come at Lord’s, where he took two fivers in the same match against Pakistan in 2016.

The Lord’s triple honours list

You know about the honours boards at Lord’s: one for scoring a century, one for 5wi and one for 10wm. (Then there are separate boards for home, visitors and neutral players. Ignore that for now).

How many players do you think qualify to be on all three boards? One of them joined the club during this Test.

An elite group of all-rounders, with only one visitor (Miller) among them.

CR Woakes scored a century in this match. He had earlier taken 5wi and 10wm in 2016.

He really seems to like Lord’s, as we see from his record here:

Of those who appear on two or more boards. Vinoo Mankad and Ian Botham are the only ones to have taken a century and 5wi in the SAME match.

No one has scored a century and taken 10wm in the same Test at Lord’s. This has been achieved only three times in all Tests, by Botham, Imran and Shakib.

As an afterthought, here are the only two who have scored a fifty and taken 10wm in the SAME Test at Lord’s:  they would be duly listed for their 5wi and 10wm, but not for their fifty.

A similar piece from Cricinfo: http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/24350452/chris-woakes-lord-love

Tail piece: Some readers seem to be unsure about the existence of the 10wm boards. Maybe they are a relatively recent innovation. However, we have some pictures to verify this:

Part of the 10wm board.

Also, when someone gets 10wm with two fivers, both fivers are mentioned on the fiver board. If he gets one fiver and another haul of less than 5 wickets in the match, both are mentioned (and marked) as you can see here:

And finally, one of the obscure boards for neutral Tests:

These were set up in 2010 and so far cover only two Tests, Aus v SA in 1912 and Aus v Pak in 2010.

 

 

More about the honors boards at Lord’s-1

The feats of scoring a century, five wickets in an innings and ten wickets in a match in Test matches are documented on the boards at Lord’s. There are separate sets of boards for the home team (England), visiting teams and (more recently) teams in neutral Tests.

A total of 135 Tests have been played at Lord’s from 1884 to 2017. 133 involved England and only 2 were neutral. They were: Aus v SA in 1912 as part of the Triangular Tournament, and Aus v Pak in 2010.

3 Tests (including one neutral Test) were played in 1912 and 2010. From 1928 onwards (except in 1940-45) Lord’s has always had at least one Test. When England started hosting two visiting teams in 1965 (starting with NZ and SA) Lord’s always had a Test for each side. Since 2000 there have always been two teams and thus two Tests at Lord’s, except in 2010 when there were three.

Neutral Tests at Lord’s:

We first look at the scanty entries on the boards for neutral Tests:

Centuries:

Two from 1912 and none from 2010.

Five wickets in an innings:

In contrast, there are two from 2010 and none from 1912. Watson and North recorded their first five-fors. In North’s case, he was an occasional bowler and this was his only five-for in Tests.

Ten wickets in an innings:

No instance. The two best match bowling figures are 6-55 by MJ North (as above) and 6-140 by Pakistan’s Mohammed Asif in the same match.

To be continued:

 

 

Those who missed the bus at Lord’s (Revised in Aug 2018)

The honors board at Lord’s are well known-anyone who scores a century or takes a fiver or a tenner gets his name on them, even if it is a neutral Test not involving England. If you need to brush up, see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_honours_boards

and for Indian players featured there, full details are here:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/07/24/indian-cricketers-on-the-lords-honours-boards/

However, note this extract from the Wikipedia article:

“A number of very distinguished players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Curtly Ambrose and Brian Lara are not named on the honours boards.”

It may be recalled that there was much heartbreak when Sachin failed to score a century in 2011, which was then generally understood to be his last Test there.

We now look at the aspect of prominent players failing to reach a board-worthy performance at Lord’s despite several opportunities. And there are some visitors who simply did not get to play enough at Lord’s.

Many English players whose career lasted about 5 years would have played 10+ Tests at Lord’s. Visiting players with long careers usually manage 4 Tests, unless they miss one Test or series. So we begin by identifying those who batted in at least 8 innings there. A further stipulation is that their batting position is 1 to 8, to eliminate tailenders without much batting ability.

So we have this for Most innings/matches at Lord’s without a century:

Atherton, Thorpe and Gatting played the most innings there without a century-particularly odd as Gatting played for Middlesex. Atherton did score 99 there and has the most fifties (7).

Visitors are led by Gavaskar and Tendulkar, followed by Azhar Ali,  Faulkner, AW Nourse, Ponting and R Taylor. Lara played in only 3 Tests and 6 innings. The highest averages here are by Dexter (51.62) and FS Jackson (47.71).

Apart from Atherton’s 99, there are 90s by TE Bailey, JM Parks and FS Jackson.

Most innings/matches at Lord’s without a fifty:

While most of the batsmen here scored at least one fifty, some did not. They include Ramprakash (HS 40 in 13 innings), bowling all-rounder Emburey, Brearley, wicketkeeper Downton, Tendulkar, Faulkner and Ponting. The lowest average here is 10.38 by Ramprakash who was a specialist batsman, unlike some of the others. Then comes all-rounder Pringle (16.11) and another famous batsman Ponting (16.87). Tendulkar at least got into the 20s.

Next, we take up bowlers who bowled at least 1000 balls (while bowling at no 1 to 5) and never took a five-for:

Hoggard has the most Tests (11) and innings (20) here with a best of 4-27. However Edmonds has the best bowling figures of 4-6 followed by Laker with 4-13, while Hoggard has the most wickets (37).

Titmus is the only one who did not even take a 3-for.

Lillee (17 wkts), Kumble and Gibbs are the only visitors here.

Ambrose and Warne did not bowl enough balls here.

The best bowling average here is Laker’s 24.43, followed by Wardle’s 26.78.

And one gets similar results if we look for those who made the same effort and never took a ten-for:

Here, Anderson has the most wickets (110) with a best of 9-43. He may, of course, play a few more Tests at Lord’s. He also has the most 5-fors (7). CM Old has 9-88. Oddly enough Anderson has more than twice the wickets of the next bowler Willis with 47. Bedi, Kapil and Kumble represent India. The best bowling average is by Willis with 18.76 followed by Illingworth with 19.85.

Sir Richard Hadlee has the most wickets by a visitor (26).

Indian cricketers on the Lord’s honours boards (August 2021)

This is revised whenever India plays a Test at Lord’s

Here we continue our focus on Lord’s with the list of Indian batsmen and bowlers who figure on the honors boards there.

First, batting:

Some points of interest:

Mankad’s century came along with a five-for. He and Ian Botham are the only ones to score a century and take a five-for in the same match at Lord’s.

Dilip Vengsarkar is the only visiting batsman from any country to score 3 Test centuries at this venue.

Ganguly’s 131 came on his Test debut. It was the highest innings score by anyone making his Test debut at this venue, until D Conway made 200 earlier in 2021.

Agarkar made his only Test century here-all the more remarkable as his next highest score was 41. Now you know the answer to the old quiz question “What batting feat was attained by Agarkar and not by Gavaskar and Tendulkar?”

No instance from 2018.

Now we come to the bowling boards, listing all Indians who have taken 5 wickets in an innings here:

No one from 2018 or even the win at 2021. A fair cross-section of Indian bowlers over the years. Ishant Sharma now holds the record with 7-74, surpassing the record of 6-35 by Amar Singh in 1936. Mohammed Nissar’s fiver came on his Test debut which was also India’s first Test.

There is also an honors board for 10-wicket hauls, in which no Indian appears. There are some performances by English bowlers against India, notably Alec Bedser’s 11-wicket haul on his debut in 1946.

Tail piece: After the 2021 Test, England and India had played 19 Tests there. England lead 12-3 with 4 draws. India’s victories were in 1986, 2014 and 2021.

Shane Watson’s Test career

Although Shane Watson‘s Test career was not extraordinary, he fulfilled the role of a batting all-rounder for some years. His contribution to limited overs cricket was more striking, as he holds the record for Australia’s top score in ODIs (185*) and second highest in T20Is (124*).

Leaving out the Test against the ICC XI, he played 58 Tests, scoring 3697 runs and taking 75 wickets. If we compare his all-round performance in those of other Australians who had a minimum of 1000 runs and 50 wickets, it is above average but not outstanding (9th out of 22). The only other Australian of that time who might be called an all-rounder was Mitchell Johnson, who was a considerably better bowler but certainly a worse batsman.

However, Watson does have one claim to fame in that he is one of only 4 players to feature on the “neutral” honours board at Lord’s. More about the honours boards here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord’s_honours_boards

Only two neutral Tests have been played here. One was between Australia and South Africa as part of the experimental triangular Test series of 2012:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62391.html

Australia easily defeated South Africa by 10 wickets. In general it was felt that the triangular Test series was a bad idea and it was not repeated. The nearest revival it got was the interlocking tours of England and West Indies to Australia in 1979-80.

Then there was the Test between Australia and Pakistan in 2010:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/426394.html

The neutral honours boards thus have these entries:

Batting:

Bowling:

(There is also a board for ten wickets in a match, which does not have any entries yet).

The actual board being “unveiled” with the new entries:

This Test marked the Test debuts of Steve Smith (1, 12 and 3-51) and Azhar Ali (16 and 42). Watson got the first of his three fivers  while North got his only one here. This match marked Shahid Afridi’s only Test as captain; after this he retired from Tests altogether.

In the second neutral Test at Leeds, Salman Butt’s ill-fated captaincy began with a 3-wicket victory over Australia.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/426395.html

Watson recorded his career-best 6-33 in this Test, while the two As (Asif and Amir) combined to bowl Australia out for 88.