Review of England-New Zealand Tests-2023 (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Bowling:

Most wickets (50 or more):

Headed by Sir Richard. He is followed by three current players (Broad, Anderson and Southee) with Boult and Wagner a little further down. Sir Richard also has the most 5-fors (8).

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi or better):

None in recent years.

Best match bowling (including all 10wm or better):

Note the top two by Underwood (and 3 of the top 4 performances).

The only recent one is Leach’s 10-for in 2022.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, 30.00 or better):

Underwood’s average is by far the best. Boult, Anderson and Broad are also seen here.

Underwood has the best bowling average, economy rate and strike rate. In second place are Willis, Illingworth and Caddick respectively.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (25 or more):

Parore and Bob Taylor have the most dismissals. SP Fleming has the most by a non-keeper. TG Evans has the most stumpings. From recent years there are Blundell and Root.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

C Read is the only one with 6 dismissals in an innings. There is only Blundell from recent years.

Most match dismissals (6 or more):

Blundell is among the three keepers with 8 catches in a match. Allan Lamb has the most (6) by a fielder

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.700 or better):

Here, Ian Smith has the best average followed by Parore and Watling. Fleming has the most by a fielder. Latham and Root represent current players.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria in the table):

Headed by Botham, followed by Hadlee and Cairns at a distance.

Match performance (50 and 5wi):

Many entries here. Of special note are those with a century and 5wi, including Botham (1978 and 1984).

Those with a 50 and 10wm include Greig, Hadlee (1986) and Nash. Nash was the first to achieve this at Lord’s.

Review of India-New Zealand ODI series-Jan 2023

India won the series 3-0.

A total of 116 ODIs have been played between these teams,

India have won 58, New Zealand 50, ties 1, no result 7

In India: 29-8-0-1

In NZ: 14-26-1-4

Neutral 15-16-0-2

Note the strong home advantage for both teams.

Looking at individual performances, starting with Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

The most centuries were 6 by Sehwag, followed by three players with 5 (Tendulkar, Kohli and Astle). The most 50+ scores were 13 by Kohli and Tendulkar, followed by 11 by R Taylor.

Highest innings scores (115 or more):

In this series, S Gill’s 208 became the highest for India against NZ, surpassing Tendulkar’s 186* in 1999. That was at Hyderabad, though on another ground.MG Bracewell’s 140 was the highest for NZ in India, surpassing NJ Astle’s 120 in 1999. Conway’s 138 also surpassed the old record.

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

Headed by Kohli with Latham close behind.

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

Headed by Sehwag with Kapil Dev close behind.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Srinath is far ahead of the second-placed Kumble. Southee has the most among current players.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi):

SE Bond is the only one with a 6-for. Next is A Mishra. K Srikkanth is the only one with 2 five-fors.

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

The best averages are by Srinath and Hadlee.

The best economy rates are by Hadlee and Kapil

The best strike rates are by Srinath and Southee.

Next is Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Headed by the lesser-known NR Mongia, who also has the most stumpings. Latham has the most from current players, and R Taylor has the most catches by a fielder

Best innings fielding (4 or more dismissals):

Several have made 5 dismissals in an innings. Similarly for 4 catches as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):

Again headed by NR Mongia.

All-round performances:

Overall performances (see criteria in table below):

Only one player qualifies here,

Match performances:

Only one player qualifies, and he was an occasional bowler.

Review of Pakistan-New Zealand Tests after 2022-23 series (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now proceed to Bowling records for Tests between these teams.

Most wickets (25 or more):

It is not surprising to see Waqar and Wasim at the top, and that Sir Richard has the most for New Zealand.

The most 5wis are 6 by Wasim followed by 5 by Waqar. Several players have two 10wms.

Southee has the most by current players.

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi or better):

The best figures are the most recent here, 8-41 by Yasir Shah who is not currently in the team. Also note Mohammad Zahid’s 7-for on debut in 1996. The best by NZ was by the lesser-known C Pringle

Best match bowling (including all 10wm or better):

Yasir Shah’s 2018 performance also tops this list. KA Jamieson has the next best performance in recent years. Mohammad Zahid took 11 wickets on debut.

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

The two Ws again. Note the unusually poor average of Vettori.

The best economy rates are Pervez Sajjad and HJ Howarth.

The best strike rates are by Wasim and Waqar.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

The most dismissals are by recent player BJ Watling, followed by current player Sarfaraz Ahmed. Sarfaraz also has the most stumpings (6) and recent player R Taylor has the most catches as a fielder (29).

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

Headed by Wasim Bari (7), followed by Adnan Akmal with 6.

Bari’s 7 was then a world record for innings dismissals.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

Headed by Rashid Latif and BB McCullum with 9.

Best dismissal rates (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Headed by BJ Watling. The best by a fielder is by another recent player R Taylor.

All-round performances(Minimum 20 innings and 2000 balls):

Only Intikhab Alam makes the cut.

All-round match performances (Minimum 50 runs and 5wi):

The best performances are by Mushtaq Mohammad and MD Craig.

Mushtaq and DS Atkinson are the only ones to score a double century and take a 5wi in a match.

MD Craig’s 50/10wm was the highlight of a short career. Also note Sodhi’s performance in the latest series.

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.

The “double” of a fifty+ and 10wm in the same Test.

Hope you have read the related piece https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/the-double-of-a-century-and-5wi-in-the-same-test/

We now look at the converse: a fifty-plus and ten wickets in an innings in the same match.

This is a little rarer than the earlier case. It has occurred 30 times, compared to 33 times for the earlier case.

Multibaggers are rarer here. We have 3 instances by Sir Richard Hadlee and 2 by Shakib Al Hasan. That’s all. Botham is here, but only for one instance. Ashwin, Sobers and Mushtaq are not here. But there are others such as Bevan and Border who would not usually be considered to be all-rounders.

The most recent instance was by Stuart Broad during one of the Covid Tests of 2020.

Earlier we saw that Bruce Taylor was the only one to score a century and take 5wi on debut. That was against India in 1965.

There is only instance of someone scoring a 50+ and taking 10 wickets on debut. This was John Lever for England v India in 1976. What is even stranger is that India’s S Venkataraghavan appeared in both of these Tests.

Among current and recent players there are MM Ali, SCJ Broad, RA Jadeja, Dilruwan Perera, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan and DW Steyn. The only other player from India is Kapil Dev (who never made a century and 5wi together).

Also note AK Davidson, who scored 44 and 80 and took 11 wickets in the tied Test in 1960. He was the first to score over 100 runs and 10 wickets in a match. He had this record to himself until Botham scored a century and took 13 wickets against India in early 1980. Imran Khan and Shakib later followed with a century and 10 wickets in 1983 (against India, who else?) and 2014 (against Zimbabwe).

The other double: 50 + 10 wkts in a match

Most of those who follow Test cricket know about the double of a century and 5wi in a match. This has been done 32 times, with the last occasion being the present WI player Roston Chase in 2016.

The lesser-known double is that of 50 and 10wm, which is slightly rarer and has been done on 30 occasions. Stuart Broad joined this list in the 3rd Test against West Indies in 2020.

This seems to be a little harder to achieve compared to the other double. Sir Richard Hadlee is the only one to do it 3 times and Shakib Al Hasan the only one to do it twice. Kapil, Botham and Imran duly appear here. “Sir” Jadeja is the only other player from India here.

In a mirror of Bruce Taylor’s 100 + 5wi against India on his debut in 1965, only one player John Lever has  managed 50 + 10 wm also against India in 1976. Oddly enough S Venkataraghavan was in India’s team on both occasions.

There are some odd cases here involving players who were not generally considered all-rounders, such as Qadir, Border, Bevan and Steyn. And others who had short careers such as Lever, Nash and Craig. But most of the big names of the past few decades are there.

The elite group with a century and 10-for includes Botham, Imran, Shakib and honorary member Davidson with 100 runs and 10-for.

Broad achieved this in the nick of time, taking the last wicket of the match to complete his tenner.

Review of NZ-India ODIs-2

Hope you have seen Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The Karnataka pair of Srinath and Kumble lead.

No one has more than one 5-for. Srinath and Southee have two 4-fors.

Southee (30) and Boult (24) have the most wickets amongst current players.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 5wi):

SE Bond has the best figures of 6-19, during his relatively short career. No good individual performance in this series, although Boult had 5-21 in 2019.

Bowling averages (Min 1000 balls, all instances):

Southee is the only current player here, though close to the bottom.

Srinath and Hadlee have the best bowling averages.

Hadlee and Kapil have the best economy rates.

Srinath and Nehra (!) have the best strike rates.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

The forgotten NR Mongia has the most dismissals (36) and most stumpings (12).

However McCullum (25) has the most catches by a keeper, followed by Mongia and Dhoni with 24 each.

R Taylor (19) has the most catches by a fielder, followed by SP Fleming (18).

Most dismissals in innings (4 and above):

The record is 5 dismissals, while a number of fielders have taken 4 catches. The only such instance recently was KD Karthik’s 4 catches as a keeper in 2019.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.500):

NR Mongia leads again. Vengsarkar (!) has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

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

While notable all-rounders such as Kapil, Hadlee and Vettori have played in these matches, the only one with a creditable record is the “bits-and-pieces” all-rounder CZ Harris.

All-round match performance (Min 40 runs and 4 innings):

Another surprise: the only such performance is the unheralded K Srikkanth, whose bowling ability seems to have been a well-kept secret. His 70 and 5-27 back in 1988-89 was probably India’s best all-round feat in ODIs against all countries at that time.

Review of Australia-New Zealand Tests-2

Hope that you have read part 1

Continuing with the individual performances.

Bowling:

Most wickets (25 or more):

Sir Richard Hadlee and SK Warne are far ahead of everyone else. The former has the most 5-fors (14) and 10-fors (3)

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

Hadlee again has the best performance. Strangely enough no Australian bowler has taken more than 6wi. Predictably that was Warne.

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

Hadlee still again, followed by Vettori. Hadlee’s 15-1243 is the best of New Zealand against all teams. He also scored a fifty in that match, and took 33 wickets in that 3-Test series in Australia in 1985-86.

Best bowling average (Min 2000 balls, all instances):

Here Lyon just edges in ahead of Hadlee. Chatfield has the best economy rate and Lyon the best strike rate.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (20 or more):

RW Marsh is far ahead of the next. Border has the most (31) dismissals by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (5 or more):

Marsh is among those with 5 dismissals. No non-keeper has 5 catches.

Most match dismissals (7 or more):

Gilchrist has the most dismissals, while no non-keeper has 7 catches.

Best dismissal rate (Min 20 innings, 0.600):

Marsh predictably leads this table. The highest dismissal rate by a non-keeper is by MA Taylor.

All-round performance (Overall):

See criteria in table.

Warne and Hadlee lead. Warne’s Test highest of 99 came against New Zealand.

All-round match performance (fifty and 5-for):

Hadlee’s 54 and 15 wickets takes pride of place here. Dodemaide’s 50 and 5wi came on his debut, while he failed to make either in the rest of his career.

 

 

 

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.

Involved in all ten dismissals in an innings (updated in 2021)

If you are reading this, you would be aware that bowlers have taken all ten wickets in an innings on three occasions-Jim Laker in 1956, Anil Kumble in 1999 and Ajaz Patel in 2021.

You may have imagined that there must have been some other instances where someone took wickets and catches when added together totaled ten. This thought may have occurred to many in the Ind vs Eng Test at Chennai, when “Sir” Ravindra Jadeja took 7 wickets and 3 catches in the 3rd innings: http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-england-2016-17/engine/match/1034817.html

However, this was not so. Look at the scorecard of this innings carefully:

Jadeja took 7 wickets, missing out on Bairstow, Dawson and Rashid. He did catch Bairstow and Rashid but was NOT involved in the dismissal of Dawson. His third catch was the caught-and-bowled dismissal of Jennings. So he had a hand in 9 of the 10 dismissals.

To identify all these cases, we look at the instances of

10 wickets (no doubt)

9 wickets plus 1 or more catches

8 wickets plus 2 or more catches

7 wickets plus 3 or more catches (e.g. Sir Ravindra)

There are no instances of 6 wickets and 4 or more catches.

These cases are summarized below:

By the process used in Jadeja’s example we identify only FOUR (now FIVE)  such cases: Laker, Kumble, A. Patel, Hadlee and Tayfield where the bowler had a hand in all ten wickets. The match scorecards can be seen here:

Laker: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62814.html

Kumble: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63829.html

Hadlee: http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/engine/match/63415.html

Tayfield:http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62823.html

The cases of Laker, Kumble and Patel need no explanation.

In Hadlee’s case, he caught Lawson off VR Brown’s bowling to add to his 9 wickets.

In Tayfield’s case, he caught Insole off Goddard’s bowling to add to his 9 wickets.  His second catch was of Cowdrey (caught and bowled).

And this list does include a genuine knight in Sir Richard Hadlee, unlike the unrecognized knight from Saurashtra.