Bangladesh v Zimbabwe Test records

The only Test of July was played at Harare on the 7th to 11th.

Bangladesh won by 220 runs. This was their highest victory margin away from home, surpassing the 143-run victory also at Harare in 2013. Their highest victory margin was 226 runs against Zimbabwe in 2004-05.

A total of 18 Tests have been played between these countries. Bangladesh lead 8-7 with 3 draws.

In Zimbabwe, 8 Tests have been played. Zimbabwe lead 5-2 with 1 draw. However Bangladesh have won the last two Tests there.

The 9th-wicket partnership between Mahmudullah and Taskin was the 2nd highest in all Tests and the highest for Bangladesh. Mahmudullah was also involved in the previous record.

Until now no Bangladesh batter had scored a century in Zimbabwe. The previous best was 98 by M Ashraful in 2003-04. In this Test, Mahmudullah’s 150* was followed by two other centuries by Shadman and NH Shanto.

BRM Taylor continues to hold the record of 1239 runs in Tests between these countries. Next are H Masakadza (883) and Mushfiqur Rahim (857).

MH Miraz’s 9-148 is the best for Bangladesh in Zimbabwe and indeed their best away from home. These records were earlier held by Robiul Islam in 2013.

Also note: Bangladesh is the only Test team which has never played in at a neutral venue, after India played its first such Test in June.

The best tailenders in Tests

Having studied the Indian tailenders here , we take a look at Test batsmen from 8 to 12 (!) in all Tests.

Minimum 20 innings, average 25.00

Some of the players here also batted at 7 or higher. Jadeja’s only century and some of Kapil’s centuries came that way.

This list is headed by the relatively lesser known JDC Goddard who was the West Indies captain during the 1948-49 tour of India and the epochal 1950 tour of England.

The current players include (in descending order) Mahmudullah, Jadeja, JO Holder and Ashwin.

As most of us would be more familiar with recent players, we repeat the above exercise for players from 2000 onwards:

Minimum 20 innings, average 20.00 after 01 Jan 2000

Here, only performances after 1 Jan 2000 are included. So the earlier careers of a few trans-millenials such as Boucher, Vettori, Pollock and Streak are not included here.

Here, Boucher is followed by the already forgotten MD Craig, Mahmudullah, Prior and Jadeja. Those currently playing include Mahmudullah, Jadeja, Holder and Ashwin.

Vettori has the most centuries (5) and 50+ scores (20). In contrast, Australia’s NM Hauritz has only one fifty but still manages a batting average of above 20. Similarly for SA’s AJ Hall and England’s TT Bresnan with two fifties apiece.

Review of the Nidahas Trophy (2018)

This tournament is an one-off. There was another Nidahas Trophy in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of independence. That was also a triangular series but with 50-over matches. T20Is were still in the future.

This tournament was contested by Sri Lanka, India and New Zealand. Though the league matches were badly affected by rain, there was still a narrow 6-run win for India as Sri Lanka came close to chasing down a 300+ total in the final. Such things rarely happened in those days. See the scorecard:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8560/scorecard/66157/sri-lanka-vs-india-final-singer-akai-nidahas-1998/

At least the host got to the final then, unlike on this occasion. This time it was Dinesh Karthik who won the match with one of the most famous last-ball sixes in limited-overs cricket history. But Javed Miandad may have something to say about that.

Here is a statistical summary of the 2018 edition. The sample size is too small to have meaningful figures for averages, strike rates and the like.

Most runs (90 and above):

Kusal Perera made 3 fifties, while three others made two apiece.

Highest innings (40 and above):

Dhawan and RG Sharma have the highest scores.

During the SL v BD match on 16 Mar, there was a wisecrack that Mr Perera had scored 119 runs and took 5 catches.

Most wickets (4 and above):

India’s junior spinners lead here, with a number of highly experienced bowlers following.

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

The 4 top positions are by Indian bowlers.

Most dismissals (3 or more):

Thissara Perera and Sabbir have the most (6) by non-keepers while Karthik (5) the most by keepers.

Most innings dismissals (2 or more):

Sabbir and Kusal Perera lead the non-keepers and keepers respectively.

All round performances (20+ runs and 2+ wickets in a match):

Only one instance.