Sri Lanka-Pakistan Tests-2023-Pt 2

Hope you have read Pt 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Fielding:

Most dismissals (20 or more):

Headed by Moin Khan, closely followed by Sarfraz Ahmed and M Jayawardene.

The most stumpings are by Sarfraz (8), followed by Dickwella (7).

M Jayawardene (37) and Younis Khan (33) have the most catches by fielders.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

LD Chandimal has the most (6) here.

Most match dismissals (7 or more):

Headed by P Jayawardene (9 dismissals), followed by Kamran Akmal and LD Chandimal with 8.

No fielders here.

Best dismissal rate (0.600 or more):

Sarfraz Ahmed leads by a large margin, with Moin khan in second place. M Jayawardene has the best dismissal rate by a fielder.

All-round performance:

Overall:

Only Wasim Akram has a good all-round performance.

Match performance:

Saqlain and Akram appear to have the best performances here.

Batting recoveries 3: Doubling the score by the 8th wicket partners

The last post in our series on great batting recoveries covers cases where the 8th-wicket pair doubled the score after the 7th wicket fell. There are 24 such instances; 13 resulted in losses, 4 in draws and 7 in wins.

These matches are tabulated below:

 

The highest such 8th-wicket partnership of 332 by Trott and Broad in that tainted Lord’s match of 2010, where it is very likely that Pakistan’s bowlers deliberately allowed them to add runs to satisfy the requirements of the fixers. The “genuine” highest partnership would then be the 313 by Akram and Saqlain in the only Test ever played at Sheikhpura.

The highest ratio of (8th wkt partnership)/( sum of 1st to 7th wicket partnerships) is 3.255 by Trott and Broad (102/7 to 434/8) followed by 2.423 by Absolom and Lord Harris (26/7 to 89/8). The lowest here is 1.053 by debutants Morkel and Vincent who went from 38/7 to 78/8.

Absolom and Harris did this as early as 1879, unlike the 9th wicket recoveries starting from 1946 and 10th wicket recoveries starting from 1980.

Soon afterwards Absolom became the first (and only?) Test player to be killed by sugar bags (or bananas?) falling from a ship’s crane.Also see https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22972852/the-curious-affair-charlie-absolom

Lord Harris went on to bigger things, not necessarily in cricket. He did, however see England win in all his 5 Tests although he hardly contributed to these victories.

If you look at the ratio of (innings total)/(sum of 1st to 7th wicket partnerships) the highest is 4.333 where Blunt and Dickinson started the recovery from 21/7 to 64/8 which went on to 112. This was New Zealand’s first ever Test and noted for debutant MJC Allom’s hat-trick and 4 wickets in 5 balls. Next is 3.474 by Morkel and Vincent, who started with 38/7 and went to 78/8 and finally 170. This is a little better than 3.255 by Trott and Broad, 102/7 to 434/8 and finally 446.

The lowest is the anemic 1.250 by Pakistan in 2017, going from 36/7 to 78/8 and 81.

Of special note was the England-WI Test of 1966 which witnessed a 200+ stand for the 8th wicket (Graveney and Murray) as well as a 100+ stand for the 10th wicket (Higgs and Snow), taking them from 166/7 to 383/8, 399/9 and finally 527. This ended a series of heavy defeats by the West Indies, and marked the start of the short reign of the maverick captain DB Close.

ODIs between India and Pakistan-2

Hope you have read Part 1.

Now we take up Bowling.

Most wickets (25 and above):

A close bunching at the top, led by the senior W.

No current players.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 5 or more wickets):

No performances in the last few years.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls, all instances):

Imran and Kumble lead. Shoaib Malik is the only current player.

The best economy rates are by Akram and Imran.

The best strike rates are by Waqar and Saqlain.

Now to Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

Led by Moin and non-keeper Azharuddin. Dhoni is next.

Innings dismissals (4 and above):

Mongia is the only one with 5 dismissals. Several non-keepers have 4 catches.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.500):

Moin Khan and MS Dhoni lead, while M Kaif has the best for non-keepers.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria):

Led by the semi all-rounder Ganguly and Imran.

All-round match performances ( 30 runs and 3 wickets):

Abdul Razzaq has the best figures here, followed by Tendulkar.