The Dickwella phenomenon

Niroshan Dickwella is sometimes the subject of jokes involving his surname, but has attracted the attention of cricket enthusiasts for his puzzling inability to score a century.

Let us first look at:

Most 50+ scores without a century (8 and above):

Dickwella tops this list with 22 fifties, going far ahead of the previous record held by India’s CPS Chauhan which stood since 1981 until the 2020s. MA Starc is the only other current player here, and may yet make a hundred near the end of his Test career.

Also note Shane Warne whom we will meet again in this post.

Now we look at the

Most runs without a century (1500 and above):

Dickwella is 2nd here after Warne. Chauhan is in 3rd place. Other current players here are Southee and Starc.

Next we look at:

Highest batting averages without a century (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):

This is headed by the lesser-known Asim Kamal, who made 99 on his Test debut. Dickwella is further down this list, in 10th place. His neighbours include current players C Green (Aus), HE vd Dussen (SA) and Faheem Ashraf (Pak). S Gill (Ind) also has an average above 30.

Still, Dickwella has made 96 in a Test. But there is a surprisingly large number of Test players whose top score is between 96 and 99:

9 players have a top score of 99, besides AJ Tudor who was left on 99 not out in a winning 4th-innings chase. Similarly there are many with 96, 97, 98 and 99. There are a few current players here such as MA Starc (again !), van der Dussen, Nauman Ali and newcomer J Overton who made 97 in his debut innings. They are followed by W Sundar and N Dickwella.

But the current players who have not made a Test century yet should not lose heart. Some have made their maiden centuries after a long wait. (This list may not be exhaustive):

History and statistics of day/night Tests-2

Hope you have read the first part: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/02/27/history-and-statistics-of-day-night-tests/

We continue with Bowling records.

Most wickets-10 and above:

Note Ashwin and Axar Patel, the latter with only one Test.

Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 6wi and above):

AR Patel is here along with I Sharma.

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

AR Patel now has the best match bowling figures, surpassing the 10-62 of PJ Cummins.

Best bowling average (Min 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Cummins heads this list. Yasir Shah is the only non-Australian here.

Cummins also has the best economy rate, while Starc has the best strike rate.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals-(8 and above):

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

Australians dominate as expected. Note that Kusal Mendis has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most match dismissals (5 and above):

de Villiers leads here. Note 5 catches by non-fielders BKG Mendis and SPD Smith.

Dismissal rate (Min 10 innings, all cases):

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria below):

Starc and Holder have the best records. Would they be the true masters of pink-ball cricket?

Match performances (Min 50 and 5wi):

Holder again!

AND FINALLY:

Lowest team innings (under 100 runs all out):

No prizes for guessing which team has the lowest score.

Highest team innings (300 and above):

Many tall scores here (notably Pakistan’s 450 in the 4th innings). India needed only 300-odd to win against Bangladesh, and less than 150 more recently.

The ODIs of 2019-2

Hope that you have read Part 1

Continuing with the individual performances in ODIs for the calendar year 2019:

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Led by M Shami and TA Boult.

However Mustafizur Rahman and MA Starc are the only ones with two fivers.

Starc is also the only one with 4 hauls of 4+wi.

Best innings bowling ( including all fivers):

Newcomer SS Afridi has the best figures here, followed by YS Chahal.

Also note the remarkable 5-13 off 8 overs by JN Frylinck of Namibia.

Best bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Shami has the best average as well as strike rate and Boult the best economy rate.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 or more):

Carey, Hope and Latham lead here although Hope has the most catches by a keeper. Kohli has the most catches by a non-keeper and Dhoni the most stumpings.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

There is an unfamiliar name (ZE Green of Namibia) among those who made 5 dismissals in an innings. CR Woakes and CS Macleod took 4 catches as non-keepers.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.5):

Carey and Hope have the highest dismissal rate, while the third-placed Root has the best by a non-keeper.

Overall All-round performance:

(See criteria below):

Mohammad Nabi and Imad Wasim have almost the same difference rate.

All-round match performance: (30 runs and 3 wickets):

The best performance would be by Khawar Ali followed by that of AL Phehlukwayo and Soumya Sarkar. Perhaps Khawar Ali’s performance should be downplayed as it was against one of the weaker teams.

 

 

When the tail wagged against India

Indian bowlers have often been frustrated by lower-order batsmen. This happened in the first Test of this series as well as the first innings of the second Test.

Here we list all scores in Tests of 70 and above from No 8-11 (sorry, 12) against India:

This includes several debut scores (including 137* by Neesham, 105 by BR Taylor, 103* by Samaraweera to begin with) as well as career-best scores of 173 by IDS Smith, 137* by Neesham, 107 by Christiani and numerous others such as MA Starc, MD Marshall, TT Bresnan and even Anderson and Muralitharan. The most recent entry is KA Maharaj with 72.

We also look at the averages (with a minimum of 10 innings) for those who batted at 8-12 against India:

Vettori, Broad and Starc have scored the most runs here. Starc, JO Holder and Broad have done well in recent years.

Finally, partnerships of 90+ from the 8th wicket onward against India:

Ironically the highest such partnership is for the last wicket, when Anderson scored his only Test fifty. From the current series we have Maharaj and Philander with 109 for the 9th, and Muthusamy and Piedt with 91 for the 8th.

 

 

Performances in CWC 2019

Batting:

Most runs (400 runs and above):

Note 5 centuries by RG Sharma, while Shakib Al Hasan has 7 scores of 50+.

Only 1 run separates the leader RG Sharma (648) and runner up DA Warner (647).

Highest innings (95 and above):

Not as high-scoring as the 2015 WC, which had scores of 215 and 237.

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and above):

Note that MA Starc has 4 hauls of 4wi and above, followed by M Shami with 3.

Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 4wi and better):

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and above):

JE Root has the most catches (13) by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

CR Woakes and JM Bairstow have the most catches by non-keepers (4) which equals the existing World Cup record held by several others.

All-round performance:

Overall:

Shakib Al Hasan with 606 runs and 11 wickets is clearly leading here, followed by the less expected all-rounder JDS Neesham.

Match performances (30 runs and 3 wickets):

Only these two. Shakib and Yuvraj Singh (vs Ireland in 2011) are the only two with 50/5wi in a World Cup match.

Man of the Series:  KS Williamson, presumably for his captaincy as well as being the 4th top scorer with 578 runs.

 

After the final of CWC 2019

Final results for the Orange Cap:

1. RG Sharma 648 runs

2. DA Warner 647

3. Shakib Al Hasan 606

4. KS Williamson 578

(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.

 

 

After the 2nd semi-final of CWC 2019

Apart from 1975 (obviously) and 1987, this is the only time when both finalists have not won previously.

Keeping up the pretense of the IPL:

Orange Cap: RG Sharma* 648, followed by DA Warner* 647, Shakib Al Hasan* 606, JE Root 549, KS Williamson 548.

Purple Cap: MA Starc* 27, followed by Mustafizur Rahman* 20, JC Archer 19, JJ Bumrah* and  LH Ferguson 18 each.

Most 6s: EJG Morgan 22, followed by AJ Finch* 18, RG Sharma* 14, CH Gayle* 12, JJ Roy 12.

* No further part in the World Cup.

While Starc will very likely be the top wicket-taker, both Sharma and Warner could be overtaken by Root, Williamson and a few others.

Man of the series is still open. A pity that Shakib would have not have a chance as his team did not do well enough. But there are precedents where players from losing semi-finalists have been MOS: Martin Crowe (1992) and Lance Klusener (1999).