Highlights of the NZ-Pak Test series

Yes, it was a historic series as NZ is Test #1 (probably) for the first time since the rankings were started.

Apart from that:

KS Williamson’s 238 at Christchurch is the highest for NZ against Pakistan, surpassing the 204* by MS Sinclair also at Christchurch in 2000-01.

He also becomes the first to score 238 (or 238*) in a Test. There are a number of lower scores such as 140*, 180*, 181* and 229/229* which have never been made.

KA Jamieson’s 6-48 at Christchurch is not an innings record for NZ v Pakistan.

However, his match bowling figures of 11-117 in the same Test are indeed a record for NZ against Pakistan. The previous best was 11-152 by C Pringle at Faisalabad in 1990-91.

The previous best match figures for NZ in NZ were 9-70 by FJ Cameron at Auckland in 1964-65.

Also left behind is the neutral venue record for NZ by MD Craig of 10-203 at Sharjah in 2014-15.

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.

Six off first ball on debut-and soon vanished

When Rishabh Pant hit his second ball on Test debut for six, the keepers of arcane statistics pointed out that this had only been surpassed by New Zealander Mark Craig, who had done this on his first ball while making his debut in 2014. More importantly, he took 8 wickets in the match and played a major role in one of New Zealand’s rare victories in the West Indies.

See: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/497543.html

and this extract from Steven Lynch’s column:

“Has anyone hit his first ball in Test cricket for six? And how about his last ball? asked Julian Metcalfe from England
The only player so far to hit the first ball he received in Test cricket for six was the New Zealand offspinner Mark Craig, who cracked Sulieman Benn of West Indies over the long-off boundary in Kingston in June 2014. In the field that day, probably nodding approvingly, was Chris Gayle, who remains the only man to hit the very first ball of a Test match for six – from the debutant Sohag Gazi of Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2012. The only man known to have hit his last ball in Test cricket for six was another West Indian, Wayne Daniel, against Australia in Port-of-Spain in 1984.”

Craig seemed set for a long career, particularly as he soon became one of  the few to make the double of a fifty and ten wickets in a Test during his first year of international cricket.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=start;qualmin1=1;qualmin2=10;qualval1=fifty_plus;qualval2=wickets;template=results;type=allround;view=match

However, his Test career lasted little over two years and he is no longer in contention for the NZ team. Probably this was more because his bowling figures had declined, though he continued to score useful runs in the lower order.

He played 15 Tests and no ODIs and T20Is.

Here you can see his Test career (2014-2016):

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/497543.html?class=1;template=results;type=allround;view=match