In the ongoing Test between Australia and the West Indies at Perth, M Labuschagne became the 8th to achieve this double. Here is the list in chronological order:
KD Walters 242 & 103 Aus v WI Sydney 1969
SM Gavaskar 124 & 220 Ind v WI Port of Spain 1971
LG Rowe 214 & 100* WI v NZ Kingston 1972 (On debut)
GS Chappell 247* & 133 Aus v NZ Wellington 1974
GA Gooch 333 & 123 Eng v Ind Lord’s 1990
BC Lara 221 & 130 WI v SL Colombo SSC 2001 (WI lost)
KC Sangakkara 319 & 105 SL v BD Chattogram 2014
M Labuschagne 204 & 104* Aus v WI Perth 2022
Note that there are other cases of 300 runs without a double century, last achieved by RG Sharma (176 &127) at Vizag in 2019. AR Border (150* & 153 at Lahore in 1980) is the only one to score 150 or more in both innings.
Gooch and Sangakkara are the only ones with a triple century.
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):
The number of matches in all formats got reduced due to “unforeseen circumstances”. However, we still have some aggregates which are of some utility even if averages and strike rates are not meaningful.
We start with the ICC rankings at the end of the year:
Which has England, India, New Zealand and Australia as the top 4 teams.
A simple comparison of W-L ratios gives this:
Not really meaningful as the top 3 teams here (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) have played too few matches. Then we have Oman (!) followed by SA and NZ which still doesn’t make much sense.
A summary of individual performances follows.
Batting-most runs (250 and above):
That’s more like it. Finch leads by a large margin over his team-mate SPD Smith. Rahul and Kohli are 5th and 6th.
And Labuschagne, the Test find of 2019 is 3rd here.
The most 100s are 3 by SPD Smith. The most 50+ scores are 7 by Finch followed by 5 by Smith and Kohli.
Highest innings (100 and more):
All the centuries are listed here:
Unusually, the only scores above 150 are from Bangladesh. The highest from India is 119 by RG Sharma.
Bowling – most wickets (8 and above):
Zampa with 27 wickets is far ahead of the second-placed AS Joseph.
The most 4wi hauls is 3 by AS Joseph
No one has more than one 5wi.
M Shami has the most wickets for India (12).
Best innings bowling (All instances of 4wi):
The fast-rising S Lamichane of Nepal has the best figures of 6-16, which came against USA, another one of the newcomers. The only other 6-wicket haul was by the relatively inexperienced L Ngidi
India’s best is quite far down, being Shami’s 4-63.
Most dismissals (5 or more):
The most dismissals are 15 by Carey (Aus) and Hope (WI). The most by a non-keeper is 10 by Starc.
Rahul had the most stumpings (2).
For India, Kohli has 5 dismissals.
Most innings dismissals (4 and more):
The highest is 5 by Hope, and three others have 4 each. The best for India is 3 by Rahul on two occasions.
Several non-keepers have taken 3 catches in an innings.
All-round match performances (30 runs and 3wi):
The best would seem to be the two instances by Aqib Ilyas of Oman, followed by JJ Smit of Namibia.
The top scorer here is M Labuschagne who had made his debut in 2018 with little impact, but he soon showed his class. The returning SPD Smith came second, while his former deputy Warner did not fare so well.
Others in this list who had made their Test debuts in 2018 or 2019 are RJ Burns, MA Agarwal, TM Head and JL Denly.
Several players made 3 centuries. Labuschagne had the most 50+ scores (10) and the next highest was 7.
Labuschagne scored the most 4s (129) while RG Sharma scored the most 6s (20).
SCJ Broad had the most ducks (5) followed by three others with 4.
Highest innings (125 or more):
One triple by Warner and 6 doubles, including 2 by newcomer Agarwal and one by the rejuvenated RG Sharma. Labuschagne’s highest was 185, but he made a double at the beginning of 2020. The longest innings was 473 balls in Watling’s 205.
Sharma and Smith made centuries in each innings:
Sharma’s 13 6s in the match is anew Test record. The previous record was 12 by Wasim Akram in a single innings:
Highest batting averages (Min 15 innings, all instances):
Labuschagne yet again, with Head and Warner following at a distance.
There are even a couple of single-digit averages by tailenders. This seems to show that Broad’s batting is now negligible.
Highest batting strike rates (Minimum 750 balls faced, all instances):
de Kock leads by a distance over Babar Azam, who also has a large lead over R Taylor. And Watling showed that a low overall strike rate does not prevent one from scoring a double century.
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