Review of Tests between England and South Africa-Sep 2022-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (50 and above):

Anderson leads with 103, followed by SM Pollock with 91 and Broad with 89.

From the olden days, we have Barnes with 83 and Tayfield with 95.

Barnes has the most fivers (12) followed by Donald with 9.

Barnes also has the most tenners (6) followed by Blythe with 2. No one else has more than 1.

Best innings bowling (including all 8wi and above):

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

The first few places are by SF Barnes and others from the earlier days. Rabada’s 13-144 is the best from recent times.

Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls, maximum 30.00):

Barnes and Blythe have the best bowling averages.

Verity and Goddard have the best economy rates.

Barnes and Rabada have the best strike rates.

Coming to Fielding:

Most dismissals (Minimum 25):

Boucher has the most dismissals and catches, although Evans has the most stumpings. B Mitchell and Kallis have the most catches by fielders.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

Stokes has the most catches (5) as a fielder.

Most match dismissals (7 or more):

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.65):

Boucher and Bairstow have the highest dismissal rates. Stokes has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

All-round performance (overall):

See criteria in table:

Hammond and Kallis have the best differences here.

All-round performance (match):

Minimum 50 and 5wi:

Note the instances of century + 5wi (Sinclair and Faulkner): and 50/10wm (MM Ali, Jul 2017).

Test Fielding Records-1

While batting and bowling records are well covered in most sources of cricket statistics, fielding receives lesser attention (as the data points are only for catches and stumpings). Here we take a closer look at this neglected field.

Most dismissals in an innings (6 and above):

The first keeper to take 6 catches/dismissals in an innings was Wally Grout in 1957-58.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/5449.html

The record was then shared by DT Lindsay, JT Murray and SMH Kirmani, the last instance being in 1975-76.

Wasim Bari then became the first to take 7 dismissals in an innings in 1978-79. He was followed by Bob Taylor (though that was overshadowed by Botham’s 13 wickets + century as well as a total eclipse) in 1979-80. Later Ian Smith and Ridley Jacobs joined the 7-catch club.

Most catches in an innings by a non-keeper (5 and above):

The first non-keeper to take 5 catches in an innings was Victor Richardson, who is nowadays better-known as the maternal grandfather of the Chappells. Some resemblance can be seen:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/7346.html

The second to do so was India’s Yajurvindra Singh on his debut in 1976-77. A total of 12 fielders have now reached the mark of 5 catches in an innings.

Now we look at match performances.

Most dismissals in a match (9 and above):

The first to make 9 dismissals was Australia’s Gilbert Langley in 1956 (Laker’s series).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/6258.html

No one else took 9 in a match until 1979-80, when Bob Taylor took 10 (along with 7 in an innings in the match of Botham and the eclipse).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/21494.html

Before anyone else could cross 10, the new record of 11 was set by RC Russell in 1995-96.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/19500.html

Subsequently several others have taken 10 dismissals (a total of 4 including WP Saha and Sarfaraz Ahmed) and 11 dismissals in a match (a total of 3 including AB de Villiers and Rishabh Pant).

And finally;

Most dismissals in a match by a non-keeper (7 and above):

The first to take 7 catches in a match was Greg Chappell in 1974-75. Unfortunately his grandfather did not see this as he had passed away a few years earlier, although he had lived long enough to see Ian Chappell make a good start in Tests.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/4558.html

And the second was Yajurvindra Singh on his debut in 1976-77.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/36072.html

Unfortunately he played only in 4 Tests.

Several others took 7 in a match. The next record of 8 catches was set by AM Rahane in 2015 (although India lost that Test).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/277916.html

He continues to have that record to himself, although you will see ABD with 8 catches as a fielder. However, he took these 8 catches as a keeper substituting for the injured Q de Kock. He is listed as a non-keeper here as he was not the nominated keeper for this Test.

de Villiers was also the captain in this Test. This was a day-night Test against Zimbabwe which got over in 2 days.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18067/scorecard/1122310/south-africa-vs-zimbabwe-only-test-zim-in-sa-dec-2017-2017-18

Meanwhile, several others took 7 catches in a match. The last was KL Rahul in 2018.