NZ-SL Test review (Aug 2019)-2

Continuing from Part 1

Bowling:

Most Wickets (15 or more):

Muralitharan dominates, but current players such as Southee and Boult are slowly catching up. Southee overtook Vettori as top wicket-taker for NZ during this series.

Best innings bowling (6wi or more):

Vettori has the only 7-wicket haul here. Boult and Southee did well in the 2018 series.

Best match bowling (9wm or more):

While there are several 10-wicket hauls, the only recent good performance was 9-107 by Boult in 2018. Sir Richard Hadlee is here from the early days.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

For once, Southee is ahead of Muralitharan in bowling average. We can also see that the best economy rates are by Murali followed by Southee, and that the best strike rates are by Southee followed by Boult.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 or more):

Here Watling leads although he has played relatively fewer matches. P Jayawardene has the most stumpings.

The next two places go to Tillakratne and Mc Cullum who were not keepers in all their matches. The most by a non-keeper is 23 by Fleming. Current players including Williamson and Taylor can also be seen here.

Innings dismissals (5 or more):

While IDS Smith has 7 catches in an innings, no non-keeper has reached 5.

Match dismissals (6 or more):

Watling is the only one with 9 dismissals. The most by a non-keeper is 7 by Tillakratne, which was a share in the world record for some years. He also took 7 catches as a keeper on another occasion.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Tillakratne heads this table, with dismissals both as a keeper and non-keeper. Next is McCullum, another “hybrid”. The best figures by a non-keeper are by SP Fleming.

Watling is not here as he has not played enough. Williamson and Taylor have the best figures among current players.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

The only true all-rounders Vettori and Vaas can be seen here.

Match performance (50 and 5wi):

Vettori and Vaas again. Vettori has the relatively rare feat of a fifty plus 10 wickets.

 

Review of NZ – SL Tests-1

This is the first Test series to be completed under the World Test Championship (although the Aus-Eng series started earlier and in in progress as this is written). As the 2-Test series was drawn 1-1, NZ and SL each got 60 points.

A total of 36 Tests have been played between these sides. New Zealand leads Sri Lanka 16-0 with 11 draws.

In New Zealand, the hosts lead 11-2 with 6 draws in a total of 19 Tests.

In Sri Lanka, however, New Zealand trails 5-7 with 5 draws in a total of 17 Tests.

Going to individual performances, starting with

Batting

Most runs (500 or more):

Williamson and Latham are rising swiftly up this table, although the current Sri Lankan players are some distance away.

Highest innings (110 or more):

The highest score in this series was Latham’s 154, although he had made two larger scores in the previous series in 2018.

Strangely enough, the highest scores between these teams for NZ (299 by Martin Crowe) and SL (267) were in the same Test in 1991.

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

Fleming and (surprisingly) Mathews lead this table. R Taylor is the only other current player here.

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

After Aravinda and Sangakkara, there are R Taylor, Williamson and several other current players.

To be continued.