Review of India-Sri Lanka ODIs-Jan 2023

India won the series 3-0, being the latest in a series of numerous clean sweeps against Sri Lanka. The highlight was a 317-run victory in the 3rd match, which is the biggest victory margin in any ODI. More on this topic here: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2023/01/15/record-victories-in-odis/

A total of 165 ODIs have been played between these teams.

India has won 96, Sri Lanka 57, 1 tied and 11 no-results.

In India: 39-12-0-3

In Sri Lanka: 30-28-0-6

On neutral grounds: 27-17-1-2

Interestingly, the first ODI between these teams was during the 1979 World Cup in England. Sri Lanka won. India did not win any match in that tournament.

Looking at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

Headed by Tendulkar and Jayasuriya. Kohli is in 5th place.

Kohli has the most centuries (10) followed by Tendulkar with 8. For 50+ scores, Tendulkar has 25 and Sangakkara 24.

Highest innings scores (125 or more):

Headed by 2 double centuries by RG Sharma. His 264 is the record individual score in ODIs. Kohli’s 166* is in 7th place.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 35.00):

Headed by Dhoni with Kohli just behind.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, 75.00):

Note that Sehwag is well ahead of the next (Dhawan and Jayasuriya). Kohli is 5th here.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (Minimum 30):

Headed by Murali (74) and Vaas (70). No recent players here.

No one has taken more than one 5wi, or more than 3 4wis.

Best innings bowling (Includes all 5wis):

Headed by Murali’s 7-30. India’s best is 6-59 by A Nehra.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled and maximum 45.00):

Headed by the unheralded AB Agarkar and BAW Mendis. Kapil and Harbhajan have the best economy rates, and Agarkar and I. Sharma the best strike rates.

Now to Fielding:

Most dismissals (Minimum 20):

Led by Dhoni, with Sangakkara some distance behind. Dhoni also has the most stumpings (25). M Jayawardene has the most catches as a fielder (38).

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

Headed by Dhoni with 5 dismissals. Kaif has the most catches as a fielder (4). This was in the 2003 World Cup and was the WC record until 2015.

Highest dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.450):

Dhoni again, with Sangakkara some distance behind.The best figures by a pure fielder are 0.454 by Mahanama and Raina.

All-round performances :

Overall (see table for criteria):

Mathews heads this list, with the next (Pathan) far behind.

Match performances:

These two performances are clearly the best.

Review of India-Bangladesh Tests

After India’s 2-0 victory, this is the summary of Tests between these teams:

Overall: India leads 11-0 with 2 draws

In India, India leads 3-0 with no draws.

In Bangladesh, India lead 8-0 with 2 draws.

This series was only significant as the second Test was probably the first time that Bangladesh had a significant chance of winning against India.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (250 or more):

Headed by Tendulkar with Mushfiqur Rahim in second place. Other current players near the top are Pujara and Kohli.

Highest innings (100 or more):

The current series was low-scoring, with only 3 scores above 100 with a top score of 110 by Gill. Zakir Hasan scored 100 on debut, as did Aminul Islam in the first Test between these teams.

The most centuries are 5 by Tendulkar and 3 by Dravid. The most scores of 50+ are 6 by Pujara and 5 by Tendulkar.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of averages. For Strike Rates, we have this for a minimum of 1000 balls faced.

We can see that Tendulkar has a big lead over the second-placed Mushfiqur.

Now for’

Bowling:

Most wickets (8 or more):

Zaheer Khan has a big lead over the second-placed I Sharma. Shakib (21 wkts) has the most for Bangladesh.

The most instances of 5wi are 3 by Pathan and 2 by Zaheer Khan. These two are also the only ones to take 10wms.

Best innings bowling (5wi or better):

Note Naimur Rehman’s performance in the first Test between these countries, which remains the best innings bowling for Bangladesh.

Best match bowling (including all cases of 8wm or better):

Note that no Bangladeshi bowler has taken more than 7 wickets in a match.

There is not enough data to get meaningful data for bowling averages etc.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 or more):

Led by Dhoni with Karthik and others close behind. Dravid has the most catches by a fielder. Mushfiqur and Pant.

represent the current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 or more):

Led by Dhoni and Mushfiqur.

Most match dismissals (5 or more):

Dhoni has the top position to himself here. SS Das and SC Ganguly have the most catches as fielders.

All-round match performance (50+ and 5wi):

Only one instance, which marked the highlight of SB Joshi’s Test career. This was in the first Test between these teams.

Review of Zimbabwe-India ODIs (Aug 2022)

This series was the first time India had played Zimbabwe in ODIs since 2016. India won 3-0, following their earlier clean sweeps in 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Summary of all ODIs between these teams:

India leads 54-10 overall and 22-4 in Zimbabwe.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

Tendulkar and Ganguly have almost the same totals. No current players here. The most are by Sikandar Raza (388) and S Dhawan (367).

The most centuries are 5 by Tendulkar and 3 by Ganguly.

The most 50+ scores are 12 by A Flower and 11 by A Campbell

Highest innings (100 or more):

Here there are some new records:

Shubham Gill’s 130 is the highest for India in Zimbabwe (surpassing Tendulkar’s 127* in 1998)

Sikandar Raza’s 115 is the highest for Zimbabwe at home vs India (surpassing E Chigumbura’s 104* in 2015).

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, 30.00):

Tendulkar leads by a large margin, while recent players have not played enough.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):

Yuvraj leads here, while recent players are again absent.

Bowling:

Most wickets (15 or more):

Unexpectedly, Agarkar has the most wickets here. None from recent years.

No one has taken more than one 5wi. The most 4+wi are 4 by Zaheer Khan and 3 by Agarkar.

The most by current players is 14 by AR Patel.

Best innings bowling (includes all 5wi and better):

Newcomer Brad Evans is the only current player here. India’s best bowling is a 6-for by the nearly forgotten A Mishra.

Bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Agarkar has the best bowling average and strike rate. Kumble has the best economy rate.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

A Flower leads by a large margin, and A Campbell has the most catches by a fielder.

Dravid, who played in some matches as a keeper, has the most dismissals for India.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

The most dismissals are 5 by Kirmani and N Mongia, while VVSL has the most (4) by a fielder.

Highest dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):

A Flower leads, while Azharuddin has the best rate by a fielder.

All-round performance (overall):

Minimum 20 innings and 1000 balls bowled:

Only Streak has batted and bowled enough. He does not really qualify to be an all-rounder in these matches.

All-round performance (match):

Minimum 30 runs and 3 wickets:

The best performances here are by Ganguly (2000) and Crocker (1992).

Notes from the Johannesburg Test

This was the 6th Test played by India at this venue and their first defeat:

It is however difficult for South Africa and other teams to chase 200 or even 150 at this venue. Their 243/3 is their highest winning chase here. These are the only times it has happened:

Winning chases over 150 at Johannesburg:

The SA captain Dean Elgar was left on 96 not out at the end. There are several instances of being stranded in the 90s in a winning chase:

While there is only one 99 here, there are 98s by several including SC Ganguly and other famous names such as Hutton, GS Chappell and Atherton.

AL Wadekar was another Indian player who got up to the 90s when the target was reached.

Onwards to Cape Town:

India has never won at this venue. But if one fortress fell at Johannesburg, perhaps another can fall at Cape Town:

India vs SA at Cape Town:

India has 2 draws and 3 losses here.

Shardul Thakur’s record:

Here are the best innings bowling performances in India-South Africa Tests:

SN Thakur’s 7-61 in SA’s first innings was the best for India v SA. The previous best was 7-66 by R Ashwin at Nagpur in 2015. The previous best for India v SA in SA was 7-120 by Harbhajan Singh at Cape Town in 2011.

His match bowling figures of 8-108 were not so impressive.

Markram again

AK Markram has played 28 Tests. 17 were won by SA, 11 lost and none drawn.

His 28 Tests are the most played by anyone who has not seen a draw. Next is GA Lohmann from 19th-century England, whose 18 Tests included 15 wins and 3 losses.

Centuries in the third innings of Tests

Hope you have seen the previous post: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/11/24/centuries-in-the-second-innings-of-tests/

We now look at the third innings:

The most centuries in the third innings is 13 by AN Cook. He reached this record in his last Test in 2018.

Next are Sangakkara (12), followed by Tendulkar, Kallis and Hayden with 10.

Current players : the highest is 7 by Warner, followed by Root and Azhar Ali with 5.

Indian players: the highest is 10 by Tendulkar, followed by Gavaskar (7) and M Amarnath (6).

Those who loved the third innings:

R Subba Row (Eng) made all 3 of his centuries in the 3rd innings.

ADR Campbell (Zim), GC White (SA) and JDB Robertson (Eng) each made their only 2 centuries in the 3rd innings.

Those who hated the third innings:

SC Ganguly (Ind) made 16 centuries, but none in the 3rd innings.

Next are M Vijay (Ind) (12), AG Prince (SA) and TW Graveney (Eng) with 11

Highest scores (on debut) at each batting position in Tests

Previously we looked at the highest scores at each batting position in Tests.

Here we look at the corresponding figures where the player is making his Test debut.

Again, there are several famous names and others who played in a small number of Tests.

No 9 is more of an outlier because Sandhu was considered to be a specialist bowler. Both No 10 and 11 in that table have scored more than him.

Agar has played in less than 5 Tests and has not come close to his 98 on debut.

Ganguly and Dravid were playing in the same Test innings. Until 2021, Ganguly had the highest score on debut while doing so at Lord’s. New Zealand’s Conway has followed him with 200.

And India has the best efforts here at No 6 and No 9.

New Zealand’s first ICC trophy

Those with short memories may think that the WTC is the first win by NZ in a major ICC tournament. It is not. And NZ had beaten India in that final as well.

The Champion’s Trophy started off as the ICC Knockout Championship in 1998 and 2000.

In 2000, all matches were played at Nairobi. In the semi-finals, India won against SA and NZ won against Pakistan.

In the final, India put up 264/6 (with captain Ganguly making 117). The Indian team probably thought they had this trophy in hand when NZ was 132/5 in the 24th over.

However, Chris Cairns and Chris Harris had other ideas.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-knockout-2000-01-61073/india-vs-new-zealand-final-66179/full-scorecard

India at the World Cup over the years-2

With India finishing its commitments at the 2019 World Cup, we look at individual performances in all the World Cups from 1975 to 2019.

Batting:

Most runs (500+):

While Kohli is second, he still has less than half the runs scored by Tendulkar. RG Sharma and Dhoni are next among current players.

Tendulkar and RG Sharma each have 6 centuries. Tendulkar also has the most 50+ scores (21), followed by Sharma with 9. Note Sharma’s conversion rate; he scored a century on 6 of the 9 occasions when he crossed 50. And Dhawan did the same on 3 of the 4 occasions!

Highest innings (95+):

This lists all the centuries and near-centuries. No one had scored an ODI century for India until Kapil did so in 1983. Note Gambhir’s 97 in the 2011 final. No one from either India or WI crossed 40 in the 1983 final.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Some like RG Sharma, Gavaskar and Dhawan miss out as they did not play enough WC matches. Dhoni is in the middle of this table.

Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, all instances):

The names at the top are predictable. And that Dhoni and Kohli (?) are in the middle, with Gavaskar and M Amarnath bringing up the rear.

Bowling:

Most wickets (10+):

The top position of 44 wickets is shared by Zaheer Khan and Srinath, with the former bowling significantly less overs. M Shami has the highest among current players.

No one has more than one fiver. M Shami is the only one with 4 four-fors, followed by Srinath and UT Yadav with 2 each.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 4+ wickets):

The best figures here are by A Nehra (the only 6-for). The highest among current players is 4-16 by M Shami. His 4-40 including a hat-trick is further down.

Bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Zaheer Khan has the best average and best strike-rate, while Kapil Dev has the best economy rate. None of the current bowlers have played enough.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10+):

Dhoni has more than twice the dismissals of the next man Dravid, while regular keeper KS More has the same number of dismissals.

Dhoni has the most dismissals (42), stumpings (8), and catches by a keeper (34). Kohli and Kumble have the most catches by non-keepers (14).

Most dismissals in an innings (3+):

The most dismissals are by Kirmani and Mongia (5 apiece). M Kaif has the most (4) by a non-keeper. He held this World Cup record from 2003 to 2015, when others also took 4 catches in an innings.

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

Dhoni is the highest, followed by Dravid who kept in most of his WC matches. Kohli and Sehwag have the most among non-keepers.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Kapil is the only one from India to reach this standard. Imran and Kallis also reached this, although Botham and Hadlee did not.

Match performance (30 runs and 3 wickets):

Yuvraj is here in his purple patch leading to the Man of the Series award in 2011. He and Shakib are the only ones with 50/5 in the World Cup. Next best is Kapil’s in 1983, although it ended in a defeat.

 

 

 

India at the World Cup over the years-1

1975: Group stage.

1979: Group stage (no wins).

1983: Won, vs WI in finals.

1987: Lost in SF to Eng.

1992: Group stage.

1996: Lost in SF to SL.

1999: Super Six.

2003: Lost in final to Aus. Tendulkar is Man of the Series.

2007: Group stage.

2011: Won, vs SL in finals. Yuvraj is Man of the Series.

2015: Lost in SF to Aus.

2019: Lost in SF to NZ.

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.

 

The new honors boards at Lord’s-1

The topic of honors boards at Lord’s for Tests has been covered in this blog several times.

Now the authorities have announced that they would be adding honors boards for

ODIs and Women’s matches.

We start with the centuries in ODIs at Lord’s:

Here is the entire list of 30 centuries:

A total of 30 centuries have been made here. The highest is 138* by Vivian Richards in the final of the 1979 World Cup. Next is 137 by DL Amiss which was in the very first match of the inaugural match of the World Cup, and another 137 by ME Trescothick in 2001. You can see that Trescothick is the only one to score three centuries here.

Some of the earlier matches were of 60-over duration.

While World Cup matches have been played here in 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1999 (including the finals), none of the Champions Trophy matches in 2004 were played here.

We now list out the centuries in the way they would be listed at Lord’s. They would be in chronological order.

First, the centuries by the home team (15):

The highest is 137 by Amiss and Trescothick. Trescothick has 3 centuries and Gooch 2.

Atherton never scored a Test century at Lord’s, with 99 being is highest in 15 Tests. He does however have a century here in 1995.

There are 4 centuries against India, headed by Amiss’s 137.

Next, the centuries by the visiting team against England (11):

The record score by Vivian Richards is the first such score here.

No one has scored more than one century here.

RT Ponting never scored a Test century at Lord’s, with a top score of 42 in 4 Tests. He does appear here.

No centuries by India here. The highest such score is 90 by SC Ganguly on 5 Sep 2004. Next is 87* by M Kaif in the tri-series final on 13 Jul 2002.

Finally, the centuries by neutral teams (4):

The first is by CH Lloyd in the World Cup final in 1975.

The next two by Mark Waugh and Neil Johnson were in the same World Cup  league match in 1999. Johnson’s 132* is the highest score here.

The highest for India was only 38 by K Srikkanth in the World Cup final on  25 Jun 1983. It was the highest score in that match. This is the only neutral ODI played by India at Lord’s.

In that match, the highest score against India was 33 by IVA Richards.

Next we will look at the 5-fors in ODIs at Lord’s. As you may guess, there are considerably less instances than centuries.

 

 

 

When India held over half the ODI partnership records

At the turn of the century, Indian batsmen held more than half the ODI partnership records. To be precise, the partnerships for the first five wickets plus the 9th wicket.

On 31 December, 1999, these were the partnership records for ODIs:

1st: SC Ganguly and SR Tendulkar, 252 vs SL, Colombo (Premadasa), 07/07/1998

2nd: SR Tendulkar and R Dravid, 331 vs NZ, Hyderabad (Deccan), 08/11/1999

3rd: R Dravid and SR Tendulkar, 237* v Ken, Bristol, 23/05/1999

4th: M Azharuddin and A Jadeja, 275* v Zim, Cuttack, 09/04/1998

5th: M Azharuddin and A Jadeja, 223 v SL, Colombo (Premadasa), 17/08/1997

The other record ODI partnerships on that date were:

6th: MO Odumbe and AV Vadher, 161, Ken v SL, Southampton, 30/05/1999

7th: TM Odoyo and AO Suji, Ken v Zim, 119, Nairobi (Aga), 16/10/1997

8th: PR Reiffel and SK Warne, 160, Aus v SA, Port Elizabeth, 04/04/1994

9th: Kapil Dev and SMH Kirmani, 126*, Ind v Zim, Tunbridge Wells, 18/06/1983

10th: IVA Richards and MA Holding, 106*, WI v Eng, Manchester, 31/05/1984

Note that the 4th and 10th wicket records mentioned above are still the world ODI records at the time of writing (29/10/2017).