Review of Pakistan-England Tests (Dec 2022)-Part 1

England inflicted a rare 3-0 victory in an away series when they defeated Pakistan in this series.

This was the only time Pakistan has lost a home series by 3-0 or more. Only Australia and India have avoided clean sweeps at home by 3-0 or more.

Looking at the overall records of Tests between England and Pakistan:

Total Tests 89, England lead 29-21 with 39 draws

In England: 56 Tests, England lead 24-12 with 20 draws

In Pakistan: 27 Tests, England lead 5-4 with 18 draws

Neutral venues: 6 Tests, England trail 0-5 with 1 draw

Looking at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs, minimum 800:

Led by Cook and Inzamam. Root and Azhar Ali are there from this series, which marked the latter’s retirement from Tests. The most centuries are 6 by M Yousuf, followed by Cook and Inzamam with 5. The most 50+ scores are 15 by Inzamam.

Highest innings, minimum 175:

Nothing in the past few years except Crawley’s 267 in 2020.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 40.00):

Headed by M Yousuf and Saleem Malik, with AJ Stewart having the best average for England. Root represents current players.

Best batting strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, SR above 50):

Headed by Pietersen, Root and Inzamam. Root represents current players.

To be continued:

Batting averages in the first and second innings of Tests-September 2021

Hope you have seen this one:

Batting averages across innings-September 2021

In the first innings alone, we have:

The cutoff here is 55.

Bradman is still at #1, with over 100. Next are current player SPD Smith and another Australian in AL Hassett.

Ross Taylor, David Warner and F du Plessis are other current players here, though not in the top 10.

Among Indian players, Tendulkar is 9th here. Others are Sehwag, Dravid and Sidhu.

The Test record of 400* by Lara was in the first innings, besides the earlier records of 364 by Hutton and 334 by Bradman.

In the second innings, we have:

The cutoff here is still 55.

Bradman yet again leads, followed by current player KS Williamson and Mohammad Yousuf.

Other current players in the top ten are JE Root (4) and V Kohli (5).

Going further down, the other current players here are SPD Smith (besides AB de Villiers and AN Cook if you stretch a little).

From India, there is Kohli followed by Sehwag, Dravid, Gavaskar and Tendulkar.

The highest score here is 374 by M Jayawardene, while the old Test records of 365* by Sobers and 336* by Hammond are also here.

Current players seem to have done a little better here than in the first innings.

Will take up the third and fourth innings next. The results are somewhat different.

Pakistan-Zimbabwe ODIs: a quick look

The ODI series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe was won 2-0 by Pakistan with one tie. While the series appears as 2-0 in the general records, Zimbabwe’s win in the Super Over made it 2-1 for the purpose of the ICC World Cup Super League which will be the main input for qualification for the 2023 World Cup. See this: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/_/id/19882/season/2020/icc-men’s-cricket-world-cup-super-league

These teams have played 62 ODIs. Pakistan have won 54, Zimbabwe 4, with 2 ties and 2 no-results.

In Pakistan, the contrast is even starker: Matches 22, Pakistan 19, Zimbabwe 1, 1 tie (2020) and 1 no-result.

Zimbabwe’s only win in Pakistan was in 1998: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15876/scorecard/64596/pakistan-vs-zimbabwe-2nd-odi-zimbabwe-tour-of-pakistan-1998-99

Zimbabwe also won the Test series in that tour.

Other ODI records for matches between these teams:

Most runs: 1033 by Mohammad Yousuf, 906 by GW Flower

Most wickets: 35 by HH Streak, 34 by Shahid Afridi

Most dismissals: 26 by Rashid Latif, 25 by A Flower and Moin Khan.

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.

 

Tests between Pakistan and the West Indies-1

Better late than never. Here is a summary of all Tests between these countries including the recently concluded series in the UAE. A point of interest was that the West Indies recorded their first victory over Pakistan in neutral Tests, having lost 2-0 in 2002 and now 2-1. We see that they had lost all 4 neutral Tests against Pakistan till then.

49 Tests have been played between these countries. Pakistan now lead 18-16 with 15 draws. A summary:

                    Pak      WI       Draw  Total

In Pak         9              4          8           21

In WI           5             11          7           23

Neutral       4               1         0             5

Total          18            16      15           49

We now look at batting:

Most runs (500 and more):

M. Yousuf has the most centuries (7) followed by Inzamam and Lara with 4 apiece

M. Yousuf also has the most 50+ scores with 10, while four others have made 9.

And M. Yousuf has scored the most runs in this series though he played in  a relatively small number of Tests.

Highest innings (150 and above):

The top score here was the world record Test score for almost 40 years and strangely enough, Gary Sobers’s maiden Test hundred. In the same series, Pakistan recorded their highest score of this series which was one of the longest in all first-class cricket. It is still Pakistan’s highest Test score and the longest innings in all Tests (though no longer the first-class record).

Azhar Ali is the only current player here.

Highest batting averages (20 or more innings, all instances):

Wasim Raja tops this rather surprisingly. But heavy scorers such as M. Yousuf (101.16 in 14 innings), Sobers (89.45 in 13 innings) and Hanif (73.60 in 11 innings) did not play enough to feature here. See the first table above for their averages.

Mention must also be made of Kraigg Brathwaite’s batting feat (which deserves a post to itself): https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/kraigg-brathwaites-unique-feat/

Now for bowling:

Most wickets (20 and more):

The top few names are as expected, while newcomers such as Bishoo and Yasir Shah are climbing rapidly.

Imran has the most fivers (6), followed by 4 each by Akram and Walsh. No one has taken more than one tenner.

Best innings bowling (6 or more wickets):

Bishoo’s 8-49 was the second best in this series, though his team did not win that match. The only other current player here is Yasir Shah at the bottom, though at least his team did win.

Best match bowling (9 or more wickets):

Bishoo and Yasir Shah also appear here.

Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Current players will take a while to reach here.

It can be seen that the best economy rates are 2.05 by Gibbs and 2.36 by Fazal. The best strike rates are 39.6 by Younis and 41.7 by Croft.

To be continued.