Review of SA-WI Tests (2023) Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances:

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

Led by Pollock, while Walsh has the most for WI. Ntini has the most 5wis (5) while he and Nel are the only ones with 10wm.

Roach and Rabada are the only current players.

Best innings bowling (All cases of 6wi or more):

Headed by Ntini and Rose. Rabada’s 6-50 is the best from current players.

Best match bowling (All cases of 8wm or more):

Headed by Ntini and Nel. Rabada again has the best (8-94) among current players.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls):

No current players here. Walsh has the best bowling average and economy rate, while Nel has the best strike rate.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

Headed by Boucher and Jacobs. J da Silva has the most dismissals by current players. Kallis has the most by a fielder.

Best innings dismissals (4 or more):

Headed by current player J da Silva.

Best match dismissals (6 or more):

Again headed by current player J da Silva.

Innings dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Jacobs and Boucher have the best figures here, with Cullinan having the best for fielders.

J da Silva is not here as he has not played enough.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Kallis is the only one who qualifies.

Match performances (50+ and 5wi):

Again, Kallis is the only one who qualifies.

Review of India-South Africa ODIs-Oct 2022: Part 2

Continuing with the statistical summary of ODIs between India and South Africa.

Hope you have read Part 1: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/10/15/review-of-india-south-africa-odis-oct-2022-part-1/

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (15 and above):

The most by current players is 24 by Kuldeep Yadav and 22 by YS Chahal.

No one has more than one 5wi.

3 players have 3 instances of 4wi.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 4wi):

SB Joshi’s 5-6 was the best in his short ODI career.

Kuldeep Yadav’s 4-18 at Delhi in this series is the best for India against SA at home. The previous best was 4-25 by Kumble at Wankhede in 1996.

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

Donald and Pollock have the best averages. But no current player has bowled enough.

Kumble and Pollock have the best economy rates

Donald and Pollock have the best strike rates.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Boucher (42) is closely followed by Dhoni (41). Dhoni has the most stumpings (11).

The most catches by a fielder is 23 by Kohli. Also note the “hybrid” de Villiers with 9 dismissals as keeper and 8 as fielder, totalling 17.

de Kock (25) has the most for current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

Boucher is the only one with 5 dismissals. GC Smith and Bavuma have taken 4 catches as fielders.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.500):

Headed by Boucher. Kohli has the best rate by a fielder.

Finally, all-round performance:

Career performance (see criteria in table):

Cronje’s occasional bowling puts him at the top here, far ahead of Tendulkar. Strangely, Kallis does not qualify here.

Match performance (Minimum 30 runs and 3 wickets):

There are several instances here, but the best would clearly be by Kallis (Nov 2006) followed by Kallis again (Feb 2010). Honourable mention to Klusener.

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).

Review of Tests between India and South Africa-2

Hope you have read part 1:

Review of Tests between India and South Africa-1

Continuing with individual performances in

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Boucher leads by a large margin (60) followed by de Villiers (40).

de Villiers has the most catches by a fielder (25) besides 15 catches as a keeper. Next among fielders is Kallis with 23. Note that K Verreyne has 14 in just 2 Tests.

Current players here include Saha, de Kock, Pujara and Rahane.

Most dismissals in an innings (5 or more):

Saha (twice), de Kock and newcomer Verreyne represent the current players.

Most dismissals in a match (7 or more):

Saha has the most, with 5 catches in each innings. Other current players are de Kock, Pant and Verreyne.

Most dismissals per innings (Minimum 20 innings, 0.60 or more):

Boucher leads by a large margin over Dhoni.

Apart from the “hybrid” de Villiers who played both as a keeper and fielder, GC Smith has the highest dismissal rate among fielders.

Rahane is the only current player here.

Finally: All-round performance:

Overall performance (see criteria in table):

Only SM Pollock can be called a genuine all-rounder. Kallis is not here as he bowled less than 2000 balls against India.

Match performance (at least 50+ and 5wi+):

The best of these match performances seems to be by N Boje.

Tail piece:

AK Markram has now played 29 Tests. 18 of them were won by SA and 11 were lost. None were drawn. He thus continues to hold the record for playing in the most Tests without a draw. Next is England’s GA Lohmann of long ago who played in 18 Tests (15 wins, 3 losses).

Review of Tests between India and South Africa-1

The series in 2021-22 resulted in a 2-1 win for South Africa, after India won the first Test. India has failed to win a Test series in SA, although they have won at least one series in all other countries. The best India has done there is an 1-1 draw in 2010-11. The 2021-22 series followed the pattern of 2006-07 where India won the first Test but lost the next two.

Here is an overall summary of Tests between these two countries:

SA leads India 17-15 overall. Both sides appear to have strong home advantages.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

Led by Tendulkar and Kallis.

These two have the most centuries (7)

Amla, Kallis and Tendulkar have the most 50+ scores (12).

From the above table, the best by current players is 1236 by Kohli, followed by Rahane, Pujara and Elgar with 800+. RG Sharma is further down.

Highest innings (125 or more):

The highest by current players are 254* by Kohli, followed by double centuries by MA Agarwal and RG Sharma. But no one crossed 125 in this series.

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

Kallis has the highest average, followed by Kohli at some distance. Other current players here are Rahane, Elgar and Pujara.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):

Sehwag and Azharuddin lead here. Among current players there are RG Sharma (in 3rd place), Kohli and Rahane. Also note Dravid at the bottom of this list.

Bowling performances:

Most wickets (12 or more):

Led Kumble, followed by Steyn and Srinath at a distance. Ashwin (56) has the most by a current player, followed by Shami, Rabada and Jadeja. Also note M Jansen with 19 in his debut series.

The most 5-fors are 5 by Steyn and Ashwin. No one has taken more than one 10-for.

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

The best performance was an 8-for by Klusener on his debut.

Current players here include SN Thakur, Ashwin and Ngidi.

Thakur’s 7-61 in this series is the best for India against SA, surpassing the earlier record of 7-66 by Ashwin (Nagpur, 2015) and 7-120 by Harbhajan (Cape Town, 2011) which was India’s best in SA.

Best match performances (includes all 8wm and more):

Led by Ashwin and Donald with 12-fors, and 10-fors by Steyn, Pollock and V Prasad.

Current players here include Ashwin, Jadeja and Ngidi.

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

Headed by Donald and Jadeja (!) Current players here include Jadeja, Shami, Ashwin and Rabada.

The best economy rates are by Pollock and Jadeja.

The best strike rates are by Steyn and Shami.

To be continued.

Highest batting averages at each batting position-Tests (Part 2, No 6-11):

Hope that you have seen Part 1.

Now we look at batting averages from 6 to 11, with separate working for 6-8 and 9-11.

To be continued, where the batting averages across positions are found. While Bradman is first at 99.94, the next few are not obvious.

Review of Pakistan-South Africa Test series-2

Hope you have seen Part 1:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/review-of-pakistan-south-africa-test-series/

Continuing with individual performances in bowling:

Most wickets (20 and more):

Steyn is far ahead of the others. Rabada is the only current player here.

Best innings bowling (6wi and above):

Nothing from the current series. Oddly, KJ Abbott played only two Tests.

Nauman Ali took 5-35 (on Test debut) in the first Test. This is now the best for P v SA in Pakistan, surpassing the 5-46 by D Kaneria in 2003-04.

Best match bowling (all instances of 9wm and above):

Note Hasan Ali from the current series. His 10-114 is now the best for P v SA in Pakistan, surpassing the 8-210 by Abdur Rehman in 2007-08.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Pollock and Steyn lead here, with Kaneria having the best average among Pakistani players.

Kaneria and Pollock have the best economy rates.

Steyn and Pollock have the best strike rates.

Fielding: Most dismissals (10 and above):

Boucher has by far the best figures here. The best by non-keepers are 23 by GC Smith and 21 by Younis Khan.

de Kock and Elgar represent the current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

The best by a non-keeper is 4 by Taufeeq Umar.

Most match dismissals (6 and above):

de Villiers has 11 dismissals which is a share in the world record. No instance from the current series. The best by a non-keeper is 6 by Taufeeq Umar.

Best dismissal ratio (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500 and above):

Headed by Boucher and de Villiers. The best by non-keepers are by Younis Khan and GC Smith.

All-round performance (see conditions in table):

Only Pollock and Kallis qualify here.

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

Only the lesser known PS de Villiers and Pollock.

Review of SA-SL Tests-2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We now move on to Bowling:

Most wickets (10 wickets and more):

Muralitharan is far ahead of the others, while Steyn leads current players with Philander close behind.

Muralitharan has the most 10-wicket hauls (4) while no one else has more than 1. He also has the most 5-fors with 11, when no one else has more than 3.

Best innings bowling (6wi and above):

Maharaj has the best analysis which came in the last series between these teams. There is nothing from the current series.

Best match bowling (8wm and above):

While there are a few performances from the 2018 series here, there are none from this series.

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

Expectedly it is headed by Muralitharan. The best economy rate is also by him, while Steyn has the best strike rate.

Now for fielding:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Boucher heads this list by a large margin. He has the most stumpings and catches by a keeper. Kallis has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

Boucher heads this again, while Kallis has the most by a non-keeper.

Most match dismissals (6 and above):

de Kock heads this list, while Kallis again has the best by a non-keeper. de Kock is also the only current player here.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.400):

Headed by Boucher and Kallis. Amla is the only current player here.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Only SM Pollock makes the cut.

Match performance:

No one has a fifty and five-for in the same match. However, we can find some who have made 50 runs and taken 5 wickets in a match:

Pollock and Kallis would have the best performances here.

 

 

 

Review of South Africa-Zimbabwe Tests

A summary of all Tests between these countries:

SA has won 8 out of 9 Tests, including all 4 played at home and 4 out of 5 played away. Zimbabwe’s best performance can thus be said to be the Test at Bulawayo starting on 14 Sep 2001 (just after 9/11!) which was drawn.

We quickly go through the main individual performances:

Most runs (200 and above):

Andy Flower’s performance in a weak team is particularly creditable. He and Kallis are the only ones with more than one century.

Highest innings scores (90 and above):

Andy Flower again, highlighting his lone battle with 142 and 199* in a losing cause.

Most wickets (8 and above):

The first three names are no surprise. Zimbabwe bowlers hardly figure here, particularly since their team sustained several innings defeats.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi and above):

Donald’s performance in the first Test between these teams remains unsurpassed. And Bryan Strang’s performance in the same Test is still a record for Zimbabwe.

Best match bowling (6wm and above):

As above, Donald’s record stands since 1995. And no Zimbabwe bowler appears here (again, because of the numerous innings defeats).

Most dismissals (5 and above):

As one would expect. Interestingly four non-keepers share the record of 5 catches.

Best innings fielding (3 or more dismissals):

As expected, though Sibanda’s presence as the lone Zimbabwe player is strange.

Best match fielding (4 or more dismissals):

Note the absence of any Zimbabwe players here, and GC Smith’s record among non-keepers.

Overall all-round performance (see criteria below):

The best all-rounder on both sides, while Pollock and Streak did not play enough in these matches.

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

There is no instance of 50+5wi in these matches, so the criterion is reduced to 50 runs and 5 wickets in the match. Here again it is Kallis all the way with Pollock playing a minor role.