Review of Pakistan-New Zealand Tests after 2022-23 series (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now proceed to Bowling records for Tests between these teams.

Most wickets (25 or more):

It is not surprising to see Waqar and Wasim at the top, and that Sir Richard has the most for New Zealand.

The most 5wis are 6 by Wasim followed by 5 by Waqar. Several players have two 10wms.

Southee has the most by current players.

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi or better):

The best figures are the most recent here, 8-41 by Yasir Shah who is not currently in the team. Also note Mohammad Zahid’s 7-for on debut in 1996. The best by NZ was by the lesser-known C Pringle

Best match bowling (including all 10wm or better):

Yasir Shah’s 2018 performance also tops this list. KA Jamieson has the next best performance in recent years. Mohammad Zahid took 11 wickets on debut.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):

The two Ws again. Note the unusually poor average of Vettori.

The best economy rates are Pervez Sajjad and HJ Howarth.

The best strike rates are by Wasim and Waqar.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

The most dismissals are by recent player BJ Watling, followed by current player Sarfaraz Ahmed. Sarfaraz also has the most stumpings (6) and recent player R Taylor has the most catches as a fielder (29).

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

Headed by Wasim Bari (7), followed by Adnan Akmal with 6.

Bari’s 7 was then a world record for innings dismissals.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

Headed by Rashid Latif and BB McCullum with 9.

Best dismissal rates (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Headed by BJ Watling. The best by a fielder is by another recent player R Taylor.

All-round performances(Minimum 20 innings and 2000 balls):

Only Intikhab Alam makes the cut.

All-round match performances (Minimum 50 runs and 5wi):

The best performances are by Mushtaq Mohammad and MD Craig.

Mushtaq and DS Atkinson are the only ones to score a double century and take a 5wi in a match.

MD Craig’s 50/10wm was the highlight of a short career. Also note Sodhi’s performance in the latest series.

The “double” of a century and 5wi in the same Test.

This has been achieved 33 times, although some players have done it more than once. This will be apparent from this table:

From this we can identify the “multibaggers” as

IT Botham 5 times (1978, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984)

R Ashwin 3 times (2011, 2016, 2021)

JH Kallis 2 times (1999, 2002)

Mushtaq Mohammad 2 times (1973, 1977)

Shakib Al Hasan 2 times (2011, 2014)

GS Sobers 2 times (1962, 1966).

We can also see that Botham (1980), Imran (1983) and Shakib (2014) went a step further by scoring a century and taking 10 wickets in the match.

BR Taylor (1965) was the only one to score a century and take 5wi on his Test debut. This was his first first-class century.

Review of Tests between the West Indies and Pakistan-2

Continuing our review of all Tests between these teams, after the conclusion of the recent series.

Bowling-20 or more wickets:

Imran and Akram top the list, with Walsh having the most wickets for the West Indies. Among current players there are Yasir Shah (46), Bishoo (36) and Gabriel (25). The most 5wi are 6 by Imran and 5 by Yasir Shah. No one has taken 10wm more than once.

Best innings bowling-all cases of 6wi and above:

While Croft and Imran have the best innings figures for their teams, Yasir Shah’s 7-94 and 6-63, Mohammad Amir’s 6-44 and Gabriel’s 5-11 are from the just-concluded series. The second best figures of 8-49 were by Bishoo in the series in the UAE last year.

Best match bowling-all cases of 9wm and above:

Gabriel and Yasir Shah recorded 9-wicket hauls in this series, although the overall record of 12-100 was set by Fazal Mahmood long ago. Bishoo and Yasir Shah had  10-wicket hauls last year in the UAE.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls)-all instances:

Croft has the best bowling average with Marshall and Wasim Akram close behind.

Of current players, Yasir Shah and Bishoo can be seen here.

The best economy rates are 2.05 by Gibbs and 2.36 by Fazal Mahmood.

The best strike rates are 39.6 by Waqar Younis and 41.7 by Croft.

Fielding: 12 or more dismissals:

The record of 29 dismissals was set by Alexander long ago, though Kamran Akmal and Moin Khan are second with 25. The most stumpings is by Imtiaz Ahmed (8) and most by non-keepers 23 by Viv Richards and Younis Khan. Dowrich and Sarfraz Ahmed are slowly moving up.

Best innings fielding: 4 or more dismissals:

The record of 5 is shared by DL Murray, Moin Khan and Kamran Akmal (twice). The most by non-keepers is 4 by Mathias, Logie and Taufeeq Umar.

Best match fielding: 5 or more dismissals:

The much-maligned Kamran Akmal has the record of 9 dismissals, while Imtiaz Ahmed holds the record of 3 stumpings. The most catches by non-keepers is 5 by Logie, Taufeeq Umar and Younis Khan. Younis achieved this in the 2nd Test of this series.

Best dismissal rate (20 or more innings):

No wicket-keepers figure in this list as none of them played enough. The best dismissal rate is by Younis Khan followed by Viv Richards.

All-round performance (see criteria in table):

Even with these modest criteria, only Imran Khan qualifies with a respectable total of 775 runs and 80 wickets.

All-round match performance (fifty and 5wi in match):

Oddly enough, Imran did not achieve this but the then captain Mushtaq Mohammad’s all-round performance is one of the finest for Pakistan. And we are reminded of Gayle’s lesser-known bowling capability.