Review of Aus-SA Tests, 2022-23 Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now take up Bowling records:

Most wickets (Minimum 50 or more):

Warne has the most wickets, with Grimmett following at a distance. Recent players Steyn and MG Johnson are next. Grimmett (8) and Warne (7) have the most 5wis. Grimmett (4) also has the most 10wms, followed by MG Johnson and Warne.

Best innings bowling (including all 7wi):

MG Johnson is the only one with an 8wi.

Best match bowling (including all 10wm):

Grimmett has 2 of the best 3 performances here.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Grimmett and Whitty have the best averages, Goddard and Grimmett the best economy rates, with Whitty and Steyn having the best strike rates.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (25 or more):

Boucher has the most dismissals, although Oldfield has the most stumpings. Ponting (35) and de Villiers (34) have the most catches by fielders.

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

Grout and Lindsay were once Test record-holders in this category.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

de Kock is the only recent player at the top.

Best dismissal rate (0.650 or more):

Headed by Lindsay and Haddin. The best by a pure fielder is 0.964 by RB Simpson, although the “hybrid” de Villiers is a little higher at 1.085.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria below):

MG Johnson is a little ahead of TL Goddard.

Match performances (50+ runs and 5+wi):

The best performances include 100/5wi (Kelleway and Benaud) and 50/10wm (Steyn).

Test players and umpires who died in 2022

These are the Test players who died in 2022:

And those who have umpired in Tests. These include matches where the person was TV umpire.

Finer points about Test captaincy-Part 2

Next, we look at those who played the most Tests without ever captaining their side:

Headed by England’s long-running JM Anderson with 160 Tests. (Actually, it has gone up to 162 in December 2022).

Next is his English teammate SCJ Broad with 146. Then there is the late SK Warne, whose record of 144 stood for several years.

Other prominent players here include Laxman (134), Muralitharan (132) and Mark Waugh (128).

While Anderson and Broad are expected to play a few more Tests, there are other active players such as NM Lyon (110), CA Pujara (96) and DA Warner (96) who will also add to their tally. However, there are no players from Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Zimbabwe here.

Next, we come to those who played the most Tests captaining their side in all of them:

This may sound impossible to the average cricket follower of today. But we have:

Most of them, starting with PW Sherwell and GC Grant, are from the early days of their country’s Test history. The one glaring exception is LK Germon, who captained New Zealand in all his 12 Tests in 1995-97. Apparently no other player of the team at that time was felt capable.

Many others got their captaincy not exactly on merit, often due to the bias in favour of amateurs and nobility in earlier times (e.g. Lord Harris, Calthorpe, Bligh and the prince Vizianagram). Or racial preferences where only players from certain races were thought fit to be captains (notably in the West Indies, and until recently in South Africa).

The Dickwella phenomenon

Niroshan Dickwella is sometimes the subject of jokes involving his surname, but has attracted the attention of cricket enthusiasts for his puzzling inability to score a century.

Let us first look at:

Most 50+ scores without a century (8 and above):

Dickwella tops this list with 22 fifties, going far ahead of the previous record held by India’s CPS Chauhan which stood since 1981 until the 2020s. MA Starc is the only other current player here, and may yet make a hundred near the end of his Test career.

Also note Shane Warne whom we will meet again in this post.

Now we look at the

Most runs without a century (1500 and above):

Dickwella is 2nd here after Warne. Chauhan is in 3rd place. Other current players here are Southee and Starc.

Next we look at:

Highest batting averages without a century (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):

This is headed by the lesser-known Asim Kamal, who made 99 on his Test debut. Dickwella is further down this list, in 10th place. His neighbours include current players C Green (Aus), HE vd Dussen (SA) and Faheem Ashraf (Pak). S Gill (Ind) also has an average above 30.

Still, Dickwella has made 96 in a Test. But there is a surprisingly large number of Test players whose top score is between 96 and 99:

9 players have a top score of 99, besides AJ Tudor who was left on 99 not out in a winning 4th-innings chase. Similarly there are many with 96, 97, 98 and 99. There are a few current players here such as MA Starc (again !), van der Dussen, Nauman Ali and newcomer J Overton who made 97 in his debut innings. They are followed by W Sundar and N Dickwella.

But the current players who have not made a Test century yet should not lose heart. Some have made their maiden centuries after a long wait. (This list may not be exhaustive):

Most and least wins in Test matches

These are for all Tests up to 30 Sep 2022 (except the ICC XI v Aus Test in 2005).

A total of 1888 players have played in 5 or more Tests.

It is easy enough to see who have seen the most wins. That is given in the next table. Naturally, this depends on how many Tests the player got to play in.

The first 4 are from the great Australian teams of the mid-1990s to the 2000s, headed by RT Ponting with 107. Next is SK Warne with 91.

The best by a current player is JM Anderson in 6th place with 78, followed by his partner SCJ Broad in 8th/11th place with 72.

The best by an Indian player is also 72 by SR Tendulkar (sharing the 8th/11th position with Broad, Gilchrist and Mark Waugh).

But it is more interesting to see those who did the best on a percentage basis, as we will see below.

These are those who have seen wins in all of their Tests.

It is a short list with only 4 names. The first name may not be familiar to many cricket followers of today.

Eldine Baptiste, who played in a strong West Indies team of the 1980s, saw wins in all 10 of his Tests. There are three others with 100% records in 5 Tests, and they are not particularly well-known.

GJ Bailey was more successful in limited-over matches than in Tests, and had captained Australia in 29 ODIs. His only Tests were in the Ashes whitewash of 2013-2014.

KA Archer is the elder brother of the better-known RG Archer.

Lord Hawke was a rather undistinguished batsman but got Test opportunities mainly because only amateurs could captain England in those days.

Now we look at a longer list of 38 players who saw wins in at least 75% of their Tests:

Note current players such as AR Patel and J Yadav who have 5 wins and 1 draw, giving a win percentage of 83.33 %. The only other Indian player with 5/6 is KK Nair.

And what about those who saw the least wins ?

A total of 165 players did not see any win in their careers of 5 Tests or more.

Here we list those who played 12 or more Tests without seeing a win:

The first name of B Sutcliffe of New Zealand is rather unexpected, as he was probably NZ’s best batsman for most of his 42-Test career. NZ did win a few Tests during his career, although he missed those matches. After him there is BC Strang of Zimbabwe who played in 26 Tests.

No current player here. The most Tests by an Indian player are 18 by BK Kunderan followed by 12 by PG Joshi.

Next we will take up the cases of most and least losses, followed by the cases of most and least draws.

Review of Australia-Sri Lanka Tests (July 2022)-Pt 1

The series was drawn 1-1, with sudden collapses on the final day of play in both Tests.

Summary of all Tests between these teams:

While Australia leads 20-5 overall, it leads only by 7-5 in Sri Lanka. And Sri Lanka trails 13-0 in Australia.

Coming to individual performances;

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

Headed by M Hussey with 994 with Ponting and M Jayawardene close behind. Mathews (692) and Chandimal (579) have the most runs among current players.

The most centuries are 5 by Hussey, and the most 50+ scores are 8 by Clarke, Ponting and Sangakkara.

Highest innings (125 or more):

Chandimal’s 206* in the second Test is the highest for SL v Aus, surpassing Sangakkara’s 192 in Aus in 2007 and Kusal Mendis’s 176 in SL in 2016. This was a reatively low-scoring series, with the only other score of note being 145* by SPD Smith.

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

Headed by Ponting and Sangakkara. The current players have not played enough.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 40.00):

Headed by ST Jayasuriya and Hayden. Chandimal and Mathews are the only current players here.

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 or more):

Headed by R Herath with 66, followed by the better-known Warne and Muralidaran. Starc and Lyon have the most among current players. Newcomer P Jayasuriya makes this list after only one Test. The most 5-fors are 6 by Herath and Starc, and 10wms 2 by Starc and Warne.

Best innings bowling (6wi or more):

Headed by Kasprowicz and R Herath. P Jayasuriya’s 6-59 and 6-118 came on his debut.

Best match bowling (9wm or more):

Headed by R Herath’s 13-wicket haul in 2016 and P Jayasuriya’s 12 on debut in the second Test here.

That was the best match figures for any Sri Lankan player on debut. This is covered in more detail here:

10 wickets on Test debut (July 2022)

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

Headed by Herath and Warne, with Muralidaran just making the cut.

Herath has the best average and strike rate, while Vaas has the best economy rate. Muralidaran was relatively less successful against Australia.

To be continued.

Australia-England series review-2

Hope you have seen the first part:

Australia-England series review-1

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (90 or more):

Headed by Warne and Lillee. Current players are headed by Broad (131), Anderson (112) and Lyon (101).

Best innings bowling (including all 8wi or more):

Headed by Laker. SCJ Broad is in 4th place with 8-15 in 2015. No one else from recent times, unless you count McGrath’s 8-38 in 1997.

Best match bowling (including all 12wm or more):

Laker heads this table as well, with Massie’s freak debut in second place. From recent years the best is 12-246 by Warne in 2005.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, 25.00 or less):

Here we do have some current players such as PJ Cummins (20.75) and Hazlewood (24.45).

Lohmann has the best bowling average (13.01), Attewell the best economy rate (1.31) and Ferris the best strike rate (42.2)

Now we look at

Fielding:

Most dismissals (40 or more):

Headed by RW Marsh (148), though there are several current players such as Paine, SPD Smith and Bairstow. The specialist stumper Oldfield has 31 stumpings besides 59 catches. Among fielders, the highest is 61 by GS Chappell. Current players include SPD Smith (46).

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

Several keepers have taken 6 in an innings. No fielder has more than 4. Oldfield has 4 stumpings.

In this series, Carey and Billings each took 5 catches on debut.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

Several keepers have taken 9 in a match. Also note GS Chappell’s 7 as a fielder. He was the first Test player to achieve this, although several others have equaled this (and India’s Rahane has taken 8).

In this series AT Carey took 8 dismissals on debut. All 8 were catches, which is a record in all Tests. Others have taken 8 on debut but included one or more stumpings.

See https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/12/11/alex-careys-records-in-the-brisbane-test/

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.75):

Headed by Gilchrist and Haddin, with Bairstow, Buttler and SPD Smith from current players. LC Braund has the best (0.973) among pure fielders.

All-round performances:

Career figures (see criteria in table):

KR Miller leads by a large margin. Stokes represents the current players.

Match performances (50 and 5wi):

A long list. The best would be those with 100/5wi (JM Gregory, Botham) and with 50/10wm (W Bates, Trumble and Woolley).

Kings of the fourth-innings chase (Revised-Sep 2021)-Pt 2

Continued from: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/09/24/kings-of-the-fourth-innings-chase-revised-sep-2021-pt-1/

We now look at the bowlers who have been most successful in winning matches in the fourth innings.

Most wickets (35 and above):

Warne leads with 103, followed by late developer Herath and McGrath.

Herath has the most five-fors (11) followed by Muralitharan (7)

Current players are headed by Lyon (68 wickets), Broad and Ashwin.

The most wickets by Indian players are by Ashwin (65), Kumble (51) and Ishant Sharma (45).

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

The best here is 10-74 by Kumble. (Laker’s 10-wicket haul was in the third innings). Then there is 9-86 by Sarfraz Nawaz which included a spell of 7-1.

The best innings figures in recent times include 8-60 by RL Chase in 2019 and 8-63 by R Herath in 2016.

India is represented by Kumble and debutant Hirwani. (Another famous debutant Bob Massie had bowled in the third innings).

Finally we look at career figures for bowling in the fourth innings of wins:

Best bowling averages in wins in the 4th innings (Minimum 1500 balls bowled):

These are all the 25 bowlers who crossed the cutoff of 1500 balls bowled.

McGrath leads here with 14.24, followed by Herath, Ashwin and Kumble.

The best by current players are Ashwin (16.03), MM Ali, Starc , Ishant Sharma, Broad, Anderson and a few more with 1500+ balls bowled.

The best averages for India are by Ashwin, Kumble, Ishant Sharma, Jadeja and Harbhajan.

The best economy rates are by Illingworth (1.70) and Jadeja

The best strike rates are by Waqar Younis and MM Ali (32.9 with Waqar slightly ahead).

1000 runs in Tests without a fifty

For a long time, Waqar Younis was the only who had crossed this barrier. Later. “GOAT” Lyon caught up, and now Kemar Roach:

There are as many as 54 Test players who have made 1000 runs without scoring a century. Some have managed a century practically at the end of their Test career (e.g. Kumble, Vaas).

Today there are three players with 2000 runs and no centuries:

Warne’s 3000+ looks safe here, unless Dickwella plays long enough without a century. He does hold the record of 18 fifties without a century, ahead of Chauhan with 16.

Chetan Chauhan R.I.P.

Chetan Pratap Singh Chauhan (1947-2020) appears to be the first international cricketer to fall victim to Covid-19.

At the time of his death, he was a state minister in Uttar Pradesh. He had earlier been a member of the Lok Sabha (Parliament).

A quick look at his cricketing career :https://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/27619.html

He started on a low key in 1969 against New Zealand. By 1973 he had appeared in 5 Tests without a fifty, and most cricket followers in India thought they would not see him play Tests again. However, strong domestic performances got him a place on the 1977-78 tour to (Packerized) Australia. He made a century in a tour match, 88 and 32 in his comeback Test and was then a regular in the side until 1981. Openers who followed him (such as Srikkanth) usually failed to match his consistency.

He did possess an odd record of the most Test runs without a century. He was the first to score 2000 without a century, and held this record until Shane Warne crossed it in March 2002 and went beyond 3000 until he ended with a top score of 99.

Here is a list of those who crossed 1000 without a century. Many of them are tailenders (including many regular No 10s and 11s) who played enough Tests to reach 1000:

(Up to Jul 31 2020. Does not include the ICC XI v Aus Test).

We can see that Warne and Chauhan are the only ones to cross 2000 without a century. The current player N Dickwella will probably join them soon. But he would probably prefer to score a century and get off this list!

The lowest average here is by JM Anderson (9.68) followed by Waqar Younis (10,20)

Waqar and NM Lyon are the only ones to cross 1000 without a fifty. Lyon has a slightly better average of 12.27.

Chauhan has the most 50s here (16) and is followed by Dickwella with 15 and Mackay with 13.

We take a look at the

Same players ranked by batting averages (for averages above 20):

This table is headed by the relatively unknown BM Laird (an opener), KD Mackay (all-rounder) and TD Paine (wicketkeeper). Chauhan is 4th on this list. There are several other Indian players in this category who averaged above 20, ranging from Surti to Abid Ali.

Finally, let us look at

Indian opening batsmen (who played at least 20 innings at No 1 or 2):

The first two names are easily guessed, though you might not have expected Shastri and Gambhir to be the next two. Chauhan does not fare too well here, being 20th out of 28. However he is above some well-known names such as Pankaj Roy and K Srikkanth.

Even non-flashy openers have a place, although they often do not get a long enough run.

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.

 

 

 

Centurion Test-some obscure facts

JM Anderson took Elgar’s wicket with the 1st ball of a Test (and the series).

Taking a wicket with the first ball of  a match is rare enough to merit a separate list:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283164.html

Anderson is playing in his 150th Test. This by itself is no big deal. But he extends his record of the most Tests without ever captaining his side. Next in line is Warne (144) and Broad (playing his 135th Test) and VVS Laxman (134).

AK Markram is playing his 20th Test. His previous 19 Tests included 11 wins and 8 losses and no draw. He holds the record of the most Tests played without a draw. Next is old-timer GA Lohmann (18 Tests, 15 wins, 3 losses) followed by current player KK Jennings (17/12/5) and Alok Kapali (17/0/17). Jennings may play in the future.

Update: Markram played in his 20th Test at Centurion which SA won. So he extended his record to 20 Tests without a draw (12 wins and 8 losses).

ALSO-6 of the playing 11 for England have a given name starting with J: Anderson, Archer, Root, Denly, Buttler and Bairstow. Would this domination by one letter be a record? Maybe there have been Pakistani teams with more players with names starting with M?

Another oddity: South Africa now have two different Test players named D Pretorius. The earlier Dewald P played 4 Tests in 2002-2003 as a pace bowler:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/46784.html

Today Dwaine Pretorius, a pace bowling all-rounder, made his debut:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/327830.html