The fastest micro-innings batting

As we have seen here https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/10/20/umesh-yadavs-batting-record/

The fastest score of 25+ was 31/10 balls, with a strike rate of 310.00

For 50+, it is 54/25 balls and 216.00

For 100+, it is 110*/58 balls and 189.65

Now let use see about the highest strike rates for innings lasting for one to six balls.

There is no record of anyone scoring more than a zero off zero balls, though it may be theoretically possible under some obscure rule.

Here you have only 0* and 0, the latter being diamond ducks.

Now for 1-ball innings:

There is only one such innings involving a six, and it is fittingly by Jayasuriya with an SR of 600. Next is Ishant Sharma with 5 (a single plus 4 overthrows) and 500. Then there are those who scored a 4 or 3 off one ball. Ishant Sharma appears again. At least half of the batsmen here are tailenders. Even the famous batsman CS Martin has scored 4 off one ball! So has NM Lyon.

2-ball innings:

There are four batsmen (all tailenders) who have made 7 off two balls. They would have made a 6 and a single, apart from Muralitharan who made a 4 and a 3. Then there are 6s and 5s. Here we do not meet a recognized batsman until Sir Richard Hadlee (?) and AL Logie. The only current players are Wafadar of Afghanistan and India’s Mohammed Shami.

3-ball innings:

The highest off 3 balls is 12* by Misbah, including two sixes and a dot. Murali has 6,4 and dot while Shami has two fours and a two. Others have made 6 runs with one four. Muralitharan appears three times here. The proportion of recognized batsmen is more here, including current players Mushfiqur and Malan along with Shami.

4-ball innings:

The maximum here is 12, either by 3 fours (de Villiers and Warner) or 2 sixes (Henry). Warner, Henry and M Marsh represent the current players.

5-ball innings:

The best here is by Southee (another expert tailend slogger) with 3 sixes in his 20. He has also made 13 to be in second place with Pietersen.

6-ball innings:

The highest here is 17* which is less than the 20 in 5 balls. Ntini made his 16* with 4 fours. KMA Paul’s 12 included 3 fours.

Having come so far, we can also see

Most successive sixes:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284014.html

Kapil’s 4 successive sixes came when averting the follow-on with No 11 at the other end. The No 11 (Hirwani) was out just after the follow-on was averted. There are numerous current players here (such as Southee) besides old-timers such as Hammond.

And finally,

Most successive fours:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284011.html

All 6 balls by Jayasuriya, Sarwan and Gayle (although Sarwan had a no-ball interspersed after 4 sixes. DW Hookes hit 5 fours on his debut, which came in the Centenary Test of 1977. So did RE Redmond, a staple of quiz questions.

Review of Tests between the West Indies and Pakistan-1

Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies in 2016-17 was historic in more than one way. Besides the overly sentimental last Test series for Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, this was the first time that Pakistan had won a Test series in the West Indies. Pakistan had won series in Pakistan and neutral venues before. But their best results in the West Indies had been draws; 1-1 in 1987-88, 2005 and 2011. Until their 2-1 victory this time.

Here is a summary of all Tests between the two countries:

As we can see, Pakistan has consistently done better at home and in neutral venues, but not in the West Indies. There was a long gap between 1959 and 1975 when these teams did not meet.

We start with the batting records:

Most runs (500 and above):

Among current players, Younis Khan has the highest with 1030 followed by Azhar Ali, Misbah-ul-Haq and RL Chase.

M. Yousuf has the most centuries (7) followed by Inzamam and Lara with 4. M. Yousuf also has the most scores of 50-plus (10) while several others have 9. The most by a West Indies player is 9 by Viv Richards.

Highest individual scores (125 and above):

While Gary Sobers’s former world record has pride of place, it is followed by Hanif Mohammad’s ultra-defensive 337 from the same series. From the current series only Chase (131) and Azhar Ali (127) qualify.

Best batting averages (minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Wasim Raja surprisingly tops this, while only Younis Khan is here from current players. Many prominent players such as Mohammad Yousuf, Gary Sobers and Misbah did not play enough innings. But you can see their averages in the first table above.

Enough for now. Will look at bowling, fielding and all-round records in the next post.

 

More on Misbah-ul-Haq and the 99ers.

A follow up of the earlier posts:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/unbeaten-scores-of-99199-and-299/

and

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/more-on-test-nineties/

Some more points of interest:

Those who scored 99 and 0 in the same Test:

No one has done this on debut. But Misbah is the only captain to achieve this rare feat.

99 and hundred in the same Test: This has occurred only twice:

G Boycott 99 and 112, E v WI, 1973-74

RT Ponting 101 and 99, A v SA, 2008-09

Boycott never made centuries in each innings of a Test. Ponting did so thrice, a Test record he shares with SM Gavaskar and DA Warner. Unlike the others, he did so thrice in a single season (2005-06), once against WI and twice against SA.

There have been a total of 90 scores of 99 in a Test, including 6 not outs. The list can be seen here, in chronological order:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;opposition=1;opposition=2;opposition=25;opposition=3;opposition=4;opposition=5;opposition=6;opposition=7;opposition=8;opposition=9;orderby=player;qualmax2=99;qualmin2=99;qualval2=batted_score;size=200;team=1;team=2;team=25;team=3;team=4;team=5;team=6;team=7;team=8;team=9;template=results;type=batting;view=innings

Misbah is the only one to make THREE 99s in Tests, which included one not out.

From this list, you can see that 9 others have made two 99s. Of these, Boycott is the only one to get a not out.

Full list of captains who made 99:

Misbah did so thrice. No other captain has more than one 99. There are some like Atherton, Ganguly and Salim Malik who had one 99 as captain and another 99 while not captain.

The full list of unbeaten 99s:

No one has done this on debut, though three (Chipperfield, RJ Christiani and Asim Kamal) scored 99 on debut. This 99 remained Asim Kamal’s highest Test score.

Pollock and Misbah are the only captains to score an unbeaten 99.

Of these 6 scores of 99*, only one (Tudor) occurred when a batsman was left on 99 while his team was chasing a target. In all other cases the team was bowled out.

Finally, here is a list of all unbeaten 90s in Tests which ended when the team won in the 4th innings:

Next to Tudor’s 99, there are 98s by Hutton, Greg Chappell, Atherton and Ganguly.

Boycott’s 99* came when his team was bowled out in the 4th innings and lost. He had carried his bat through the innings.

In the 4th innings of drawn matches, the highest unbeaten 90 is 95* by McCosker, at Leeds in 1975. There was no play on the final day due to deliberate sabotage of the pitch for reasons unconnected with cricket. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Davis_(robber)

 

 

 

Unbeaten scores of 99,199 and 299

Test scores of 99 are more common than one may imagine. Misbah’s score of 99 in the ongoing Test at Kingston was the 89th such instance. The first such score was by Clem Hill against England in early 1902.

Scores of 99* are somewhat rarer. Here is the full list of such scores in chronological order:

The first such score was recorded only in late 1979. Boycott carried his bat through this innings.

Boycott had a special affinity for 99, as he was the first to score 99 and a century in the same Test:  http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63121.html

That series-equalling win was also due to Tony Greig’s little-used off-spin which got him 13 wickets in the match.

RT Ponting (101 and 99) was the only other batsman to score a century and 99 in the same Test, which was against South Africa at Melbourne in 2008-09.

All the scores of 99* (except that of Tudor) ended when the team was bowled out. Tudor’s 99* remains the only one where the team was chasing a target. This Test, which immediately followed the 1999 World Cup, had a rather weird scorecard:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63841.html

10 wickets fell on the first day and 21 on the second. At close England was 3 for 1 facing a target of 208. Alex Tudor, who normally batted at 8 or below, had come in as a nightwatchman at the fall of the first wicket. On the 3rd day it looked as if he would get a century but his fourth-wicket partner Graham Thorpe was in a hurry to finish things off, leaving Tudor stranded on his highest Test score of 99*. It was to be his only score above 50.

199s and 199*s are still rarer. Here is a complete list of the 11 instances:

The first 199 was scored in late 1984 by Mudassar Nazar, and the most recent by KL Rahul. Both the unbeaten 199s came when the teams were bowled out. Andy Flower scored 142 in addition to 199* in a follow-on as his side lost the Test. (That match ended on 9/11 in 2001).

Sangakkara was more fortunate as his team won.

And 299? Two such instances, the first one being unbeaten:

Martin Crowe’s 299 was the New Zealand record for over two decades until McCullum made 302.  Let us have a closer look at Bradman’s unbeaten 299:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62601.html

This was the 4th Test of Australia’s 5-0 whitewash of South Africa, who had not yet fully graduated from whipping boys. Bradman was stranded on 299 when the No 11 HM Thurlow was run out for 0 on his debut. Thurlow also failed to take a wicket in two innings. Predictably his first Test was his last.