New Zealand-South Africa Tests, 2022 (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/03/05/new-zealand-south-africa-tests-2022-part-1/

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The current players here are Wagner and Rabada.

Steyn has the most fivers (6), followed by CS Martin and M Ntini with 4 each.

Steyn is the only one with two tenners.

Best innings bowling (including all 6wi and better):

In this series we have MJ Henry taking 7-23 in the first Test as a record for NZ v SA, surpassing JR Reid’s 6-60 at Dunedin in 1964.

Best match bowling (including all 9wm and better):

Here Henry has 9-55, which is NZ’s second best match bowling performance against SA. CS Martin’s 11-180 figured in NZ’s first home victory against SA in 2004.

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

Headed by Steyn and Tayfield. No current players here. Also note Vettori’s poor performance.

Steyn and Tayfield have the best averages.

Tayfield and Reid have the best economy rates.

Steyn and CS Martin have the best strike rates.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

Headed by Waite and Boucher, who are far ahead of the others. Boucher has 49 catches to Waite’s 47, although Waite has the most dismissals.

No current players here. GC Smith (18) has the most catches by a fielder.

Most innings dismissals (5 and above):

de Kock appears twice, while several other keepers have 4 dismissals in an innings. No fielder has more than 3 catches in an innings.

Most match dismissals (6 and above):

Several keepers have made 7 dismissals in a match. The best by a current player is 6 by Blundell. GC Smith took 5 catches as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.40):

Waite heads this list by a large margin, followed by Boucher. GC Smith has the best rate for a fielder.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria in table):

With these criteria, JR Reid has the best overall performance, far ahead of Vettori.

Match (fifty and five-for):

Only two instances, and MJ Henry’s performance is the best here. His fifty came at No 11.

New Zealand-South Africa Tests, 2022 (Part 1)

The series was drawn 1-1 after NZ’s unexpected win in the first Test. It was only the second Test win for them at home. The previous win was in March 2004 at Auckland. They have never won a Test series against SA, though some have been drawn. Their best performance was probably the 2-2 draw in SA in 1961-62.

Summary of all Tests between these teams:

We can see that SA has historically done better.

Now for individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Led by Kallis, while Williamson is the only current player here.

Kallis has the most centuries-6

Kallis also has the most 50+ scores (12) followed by Amla (11).

Highest innings (125 and above):

While there are several large scores from the past, the highest from this series was 136* by SA newcomer K Verreynne. Williamson is also in this list although he did not play in this series.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Headed by DJ McGlew from the past. No current players here.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Headed by GC Smith. This list also includes Williamson and Elgar.

To be continued at https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/03/06/new-zealand-south-africa-tests-2022-part-2/

Review of New Zealand-Bangladesh Tests (2022)

This two-test series marked an important landmark, as Bangladesh won their first Test against New Zealand in their 16th attempt. The series was drawn 1-1.

Results of all Tests between NZ and BD:

Overall: 17 tests: NZ lead 13-1, 3 draws

In NZ: 11 tests: NZ lead 10-1

In BD: 6 tests: NZ lead 3-0 with 3 draws.

Most runs (minimum 350):

Tamim Iqbal leads with 908, followed by Shakib (763) and newly-retired R Taylor (746).

Highest individual scores (Minimum 110):

TWM Latham’s 252 in the second Test is the highest for NZ against BD, surpassing the 202 by SP Fleming at Chattogram in 2004. Their previous best in NZ was 200* by Williamson at Hamilton in 2019. Also note that Shakib had made 217 at Wellington in 2017.

Incidentally Latham is the first player to score 252 in a Test.

While there is not enough data for meaningful batting averages, we have some strike rates:

Highest strike rates (Min 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Not surprisingly, R Taylor has the highest strike rate. Williamson and Shakib are slightly lower.

Bowling:

Most wickets (Minimum 10):

Vettori (51) is followed by the current trio of Wagner, Boult and Southee.

The most 5wi are 5 by Vettori and 3 by Wagner.

The only 10wm is by Vettori.

Best innings bowling (including all 6wi):

Shakib has BD’s best innings figure of 7-36 at Chattogram in 2008. In this series, Ebadot took 6-46 which is BD’s best innings figure in NZ. The previous best for BD in NZ was 5-166 by Rubel Hossain at Hamilton in 2010.

Best match bowling (7wm and above):

Vettori’s 12-170 at Chattogram is the best performance here.

Ebadot’s 7-121 is BD’s best match figure in NZ. The previous record was 5-88 by Mashraf Mortaza at Dunedin in 2008.

There is not enough data for meaningful bowling averages etc, as Vettori is the only one with over 2000 balls bowled.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (Minimum 8):

McCullum (28) and Watling (26) have the most dismissals.

Watling (26) and McCullum (24) have the most catches by a keeper.

Mc Cullum (4) has the most stumpings.

R Taylor (17) and Sinclair (12) have the most dismissals by a fielder.

Most innings dismissals (Minimum 4):

Imrul Kayes has the most catches by a keeper in an innings (5)

During this series Shadman Islam and TWM Latham both took 4 catches as fielders.

Most match dismissals (Minimum 5):

Watling (7) has the most dismissals by a keeper in an innings (all caught). Next is McCullum with 6.

The most catches by a fielder is 6 by Latham in this series. Next are Sinclair and Shadman with 5.

All-round performance:

50+ and 5wi in a match:

Vettori’s 55*, 76 and 9-133 at Chattogram in 2008 is clearly the best. If he had taken one more wicket, he would have become one of the only five players to score 100 runs and take 10 wickets in a test (The others are Davidson, Botham, Imran and Shakib).

Review of India-New Zealand Tests-2

Hope you have seen Part 1.

We now proceed to Fielding records:

Most dismissals (15 and above):

Headed by Watling with 39. Dhoni has the most stumpings. R Taylor (23) has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most dismissals in an innings (5 and above):

Kirmani, Dhoni and Watling jointly hold the record with 6.

Most dismissals in a match (5 and above):

Watling again with 9 dismissals

Highest dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings):

FM Engineer has the highest dismissal rate, and SP Fleming the highest by a fielder. R Taylor and Kohli have the most by current players.

All-round performances

Overall (Minimum 15 innings batted, 1500 balls bowled, one fifty, one 4-for):

This leads to the surprising result of Harbhajan Singh and BS Bedi leading this table, ahead of Sir Richard Hadlee.

Fifty-plus and five-for in the same match:

The best performances here are by BR Taylor (on his Test debut), BE Congdon and JG Bracewell.

Review of India-New Zealand Tests-1

India won the 2-Test series 1-0. The summary of all Tests between these teams is

Both sides have considerable home advantage.

The neutral Test at Southampton in 2021 is India’s only neutral Test.

The second Test has a host of records, including the lowest total against India (62) and India’s highest innings margin (372 runs). Both these records were earlier held by South Africa in their series in 2015. These previous records were 79 at Nagpur and 337 runs at Delhi.

For low totals see https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/12/04/lowest-test-scores-against-and-in-india/

Here we concentrate on individual records, starting with Batting:

Dravid has the most centuries (6). He and Tendulkar have 12 scores of 50+

Most runs (750 and above):

Dravid and Tendulkar head this list. R Taylor has the most runs (890) among current players, with Williamson, Pujara and Kohli bunched together after that.

Highest innings (175 and above):

The highest score in recent years is Kohli’s 211 in 2016.

Highest averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Note that Dravid’s average is much higher that that of the second-placed Dowling.

Kohli and Pujara have the highest averages among current players.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Taylor and Kohli have the highest SRs among current players.

Now for individual Bowling records:

Most wickets (25 and above):

R Ashwin with 66 wickets moved just ahead of Sir Richard Hadlee with 65. Next highest among current players is TG Southee (52).

Ashwin has the most 5-fors (6) and 10-fors (3).

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi and above):

AY Patel now has the record, moving ahead of Venkataraghavan’s 8-for in 1965.

Best match bowling (including all 10wm and above):

AY Patel again, who moved ahead of R Ashwin’s 13-140 in 2016.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls bowled, all instances):

R Ashwin has the best average with 15.43. The next among current players is TG Southee with 24.69.

The best economy rates are 1.52 by RG Nadkarni (who else?) and 1.68 by BS Bedi.

The best strike rates are 35.7 by R Ashwin followed by 46.9 by TG Southee.

For more about recent bowling records see https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/12/06/more-bowling-records-from-the-mumbai-test/

To be continued.

More bowling records from the Mumbai Test

The full scorecard: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/new-zealand-in-india-2021-22-1278658/india-vs-new-zealand-2nd-test-1278675/full-scorecard

India won the match by 372 runs and won the series 1-0.

The innings bowling records set by AY Patel were covered here: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/12/04/best-innings-bowling-against-india/

Here we concentrate on match bowling figures.

Best innings bowling in a lost Test:

AY Patel surpasses the previous record by Kapil Dev at Ahmedabad in 1983.

Best match bowling in a lost Test:

Ajaz Patel again. He surpassed the previous record of J Srinath at Kolkata in 1999.

Thus both the records are no longer held by Indian bowlers.

Best innings bowling by NZ bowlers:

Ajaz takes over the record from Sir Richard, who had taken 9-52 against Australia at Brisbane in 1985. Against India, it was Sir Richard again with 7-23 at Wellington in 1976.

Best match bowling by NZ bowlers:

However, Sir Richard still holds this record with 15-123 in the same Test in 1985. Ajaz is in second place here with 14-225 here (10-119 and 4-106).

The best match figures for NZ v Ind were earlier 11-58 by Sir Richard at Wellington in 1976.

And R Ashwin now is second in the list of “Best match bowling without a fiver”:

Here he is second after SK Warne’s 8-24 at Sharjah in 2002.

Indian-origin cricketers who played for New Zealand

It was interesting to see New Zealand saving a Test against India with the last-wicket pair being of Indian origin. While AY Patel was born in Bombay in 1988, R Ravindra was born in New Zealand in 1999. There are a few others with Indian-sounding names who were born in New Zealand.

Here we attempt to enumerate the members of 2 categories

1. Born in India (including pre-partition India):

FT Badcock (Abbottabad, 1897)-presumably British-7 Tests

AY Patel (Bombay, 1988)-10

N Puna (Surat, 1929)-3

JA Raval (Gujarat, 1988)-24

IS Sodhi (Ludhiana, 1992)-17

2. Indian-sounding name, not born in India:

DN Patel (Kenya, 1958)-37

JS Patel (New Zealand, 1980)-24

R Ravindra (New Zealand, 1999)-1

Those of Gujarati origin just outnumber the others. Badcock, Sodhi and Ravindra are the exceptions.

Among these players, it was Nairobi-born Dipak Patel who played the most Tests for New Zealand. He was a member of the 99 Club, and finished with 1200 runs and 75 wickets. Next are JA Raval and JS Patel who played 24 Tests each.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/dipak-patel-38118

After the WTC Final

This is what the final table of the WTC looked like. Note that the recent WI-SA series was also part of the WTC. Clearly these teams were not anywhere near the top 2:

We also look at the ICC ranking tables on June 24:

Here NZ is just ahead of India. There are some differences in the lower rankings.

It may happen that Zimbabwe (or even Afghanistan) will take Bangladesh’s place in the next cycle.

A quick look at the main statistical highlights of the WTC Tests (Remember that they started in 2019):

Most runs (750 or more):

Strangely the first few positions are from those whose teams did not reach the final. Rahane and R Sharma are in 5th and 6th place.

Highest scores (150 or more):

Kohli and Williamson are in 3rd and 4th place.

Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, 25.00):

Again, the best from India and NZ is in 6th place (Rahane), followed by MA Agarwal and Kohli. Pujara’s decline is clear.

Williamson is not here is he batted in less than 20 innings.

Most wickets (20 or more):

Ashwin has the most wickets, followed closely by Australia’s Cummins and England’s Broad. Southee and Jamieson have the most from NZ.

We can also see that Ashwin, Lyon and AR Patel each took 4 five-fors, and that Broad, Lyon, Jamieson, Embuldeniya and AR Patel each took a ten-for.

Best innings bowling (includes all 6wi or more):

Along with the lesser-known Embuldeniya, Ashwin also took a 7-for. There are startling figures of 5-7 by Bumrah, 5-8 by Hazlewood and Root (!) which were both against India.

Best match bowling (includes all 9wm or more):

AR Patel has the best figures here followed by Jamieson and the newcomer Jayawickrama. Ishant Sharma and Ashwin are also here.

Bowling average (Min 2000 balls, all instances):

Broad and Ashwin have the first two places here.

For economy rate, it is Hazlewood and Ashwin.

For strike rate, it is Broad and Southee.

Jamieson does not appear here as he has not bowled enough in the WTC matches.

Most dismissals (15 and above):

Watling bowed out in 4th place. Pant has the next highest. He also took the most stumpings (6). Root has the most catches by a fielder (34).

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

de Kock is the only one with 6 catches, and Stokes and Thirimanne the only fielders with 5.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

Paine and de Kock dominate here. No fielder has taken more than 6 catches.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.65):

Paine and Watling lead. SPD Smith and Root have the most by fielders.

Overall all-round performance (see criteria in table):

Jadeja and Stokes (with Holder a distant third) did the best here. But there is no one from NZ.

Match all-round performances (fifty plus 5wi):

The best performances here are by Ashwin (100/5wi) and Broad (50/10wm).

Player of the series? Perhaps Williamson. He did not make the most runs, but how he made them was more important (notably in the final):

Flashback: When Virat met Kane in 2008

They first met as opposing captains in another semi-final long ago in Kuala Lumpur in February 2008, when India won by 3 wkts (by D/L):

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8368/scorecard/317005/india-under-19s-vs-new-zealand-under-19s-semi-final-icc-under-19-world-cup-2007-08

Future internationals in this match included Worker, Williamson, Southee, CJ Anderson and Boult from NZ and Kohli, SS Tiwary, MK Pandey and Sir Ravindra Jadeja (though he was a minor nobleman at that time) from India.

In the other semi-final SA won against Pak.

In the final, Ind won against SA by 12 runs (again by D/L):

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8368/scorecard/317016/india-under-19s-vs-south-africa-under-19s-final-icc-under-19-world-cup-2007-08

SA’s future internationals included Rossouw, Reza Hendricks and Parnell (captain).

Now for the semi finals-2

As you know, the first semi-final between India and New Zealand is at Manchester on July 9. There is a reserve day on Jul 10. And then DLS.

If no decision is reached even then, India proceeds to the final on the basis of points in the group stage.

Now let us look at how India and New Zealand have done at this venue in past ODIs.

India has played 10 matches here, winning 5 and losing 5.

Here are the results (for World Cup matches only):

1975: Lost to NZ

1979: Lost to SL

1983: Won vs WI

1983: Won vs Eng (Semi final)

1999: Won vs Pak (Super 6)

2019: Won vs Pak

2019: Won vs WI

5 wins on the trot at Old Trafford.

New Zealand has played 7 matches here, winning 2, losing 4 and 1 no-result.

In World Cup matches:

1975: Won vs Ind

1979: Lost vs Eng (Semi final).

1999: Lost vs Pak (Semi final);

2019: Won vs WI

Indifferent performance, though they did beat India in 1975 🙂

 

 

Bevan Congdon R.I.P. – and his Indian connection

Bevan Congdon, who was one of New Zealand’s major players in the 1960s and 1970s, died a few days ago a day before his 80th bithday.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/36611.html

Victories for New Zealand were few and far between in those days. At that time even India always considered them to be a lesser team. His tenure as captain included NZ’s first win against Australia in 1974, and earlier his 175 came close to bringing his team to an improbable win against England, making 440 and losing by 38 runs:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17229/scorecard/63108/england-vs-new-zealand-1st-test-new-zealand-tour-of-england-1973/

That was then the highest fourth-innings score in a loss, though it has since been surpassed.

Congdon was a part-time medium pacer. His best bowling and all-round performance came in a Test against India at Auckland in early 1976. By then Glenn Turner was captain. India won this Test, which was significant in several ways.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17181/scorecard/63156/new-zealand-vs-india-1st-test-india-tour-of-new-zealand-1975-76/

Congdon scored 54 and 54 besides taking 5-65. Apart from this:

Surender Amarnath scored a century on debut. Like his father, he never made a Test century after his debut.

Gavaskar won his first Test as captain and made a century as well. He was standing in for BS Bedi who made his debut as captain in the second Test of the series.

Prasanna’s 8-76 remains the best innings bowling for an Indian bowler in a Test outside India. His match figures of 11-140 were then the best for India outside India, though the record now stands at 12-104 by BS Chandrashekhar against Australia at Melbourne in early 1978. Chandrashekhar would not have minded getting a king pair in that match.

But India did not win that series against New Zealand. The 2nd Test was drawn with India in a weaker position. And the third Test saw the then little-known Richard Hadlee taking 7-23 (and 11-58) in bringing about an innings victory for NZ.

 

Review of New Zealand-West Indies Tests-2

Continued.

Fielding

Most dismissals (15 and above):

The only current player is Ross Taylor, who has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Innings dismissals (4 and more):

Only Dowrich from the current series. Fleming and the Crowe brothers each took 4 catches as non-keepers.

Match dismissals (6 and more):

None from the current series. Fleming has the most dismissals for a non-keeper.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.400):

Ramdin heads the list, though many keepers did not play enough Tests. Hence this table is dominated by non-keepers.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria below):

The modest criteria are met by two of the all-time greats.

Match performance (50 and 5wi):

Interestingly, the relatively rare feat of a fifty and 10 wickets in a match has been recorded three times here.