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 India-South Africa ODIs-Oct 2022: Part 1

India won the home ODI series against South Africa 2-1, after losing the away series 3-0 earlier in 2022. They also lost the first match of the series by a small margin before winning the next two by convincing margins.

Here we summarise all the ODIs between the two teams. India was the first team to play international matches against South Africa after their return in 1991-92. India had also won that series 2-1.

Summary of all ODIs between these teams:

South Africa leads overall and at home, while India leads at home and is almost at par at neutral venues.

Individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Tendulkar has many more runs than the second-placed Kallis. Kohli has the most among current players.

The most centuries are 6 by de Kock and de Villiers, followed by 5 by Tendulkar.

Dravid has the most 50+ scores (14 with no century), followed by Kallis, Kirsten and Tendulkar with 13.

Highest innings (115 and above):

Headed by Tendulkar again.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 25.00):

Here Kirsten is just above Kallis and Kohli.

Kohli and Dhawan have the best among current players.

Batting strike rate (Minimum 500 balls faced, 70.00):

Here de Villiers is far ahead of the the next two Sehwag and Miller. Miller and Dhawan have the highest strike rates among current players.

To be continued: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/10/16/review-of-india-south-africa-odis-oct-2022-part-2/

Review of India-South Africa T20Is-Oct 2022

The two sides had met before in June 2022, when the 5-match series was drawn 2-2. This time India won 2-1. It was the first time India had won a bilateral series against SA at home. They had won series in SA earlier.

Here is a summary of all T20Is between the sides:

India still trails SA 6-5 at home, but leads 5-2 in SA and 3-1 at neutral venues. And India also won the first T20I World Championship in SA in 2007.

Overall, India leads 13-9.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Headed by current player RG Sharma with 405 runs. Miller has the highest for SA with 320.

RG Sharma, Raina and Miller are the only ones to score centuries. de Kock has the most 50+ scores with 4.

Highest innings (60 and above):

In this series Miller made 106* in the 2nd match, the highest score in matches between these sides. Rossouw made 100* in the 3rd match. Previously SA’s record against India was 81 by H Klaasen earlier in 2022. The best innings by India in this series was was 61 by SA Yadav.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of batting averages and strike rates.

Now for

Bowling:

Most wickets (6 and above):

Led by current player B Kumar with 14 wickets. From SA, three players have 8 wickets each.

B Kumar is the only one with a 5-for. He is also the only one with 2 4-fors.

Best innings bowling (includes all 3wi and above):

B Kumar has the best figures of 5-24 back in 2018. The best in this series were D Pretorius’s 3-26 and Arshdeep’s 3-32.

Meaningful calculation for bowling averages, economy rates and strike rates cannot be done here either.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (5 and above):

Fielders RG Sharma (10 catches) and SK Raina (9 catches) lead here. The best by a keeper is 7 by de Kock.

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

Several players have made 3 dismissals. Karthik has made 2 stumpings as a keeper. Miller was the only fielder to take 3 catches in this series. Oddly, no one has made a catch as a keeper.

All-round match performance (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

Two similar performances by Yuvraj and Pretorius, but nothing worthwhile in this series.

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 England and South Africa-Sep 2022-Part 1

England won the 3-test series 2-1, with all three Tests finishing within 3 days of play. The 3rd Test at the Oval lost the first day due to the weather and the second day to the queen’s demise, but still finished soon after the start of what was the scheduled 5th day. Stokes was the last English captain of the Elizabethan era. Earlier, SA won by an innings in the first Test and England won by an innings in the second Test.

A summary of Tests between these teams:

The upper table is for all tests since the beginning. England leads by a large margin both at home and abroad. This is not surprising as SA was a weak team for many of its earlier Tests, when they only played against England and Australia.

I thought it would be more useful to look at the record after SA returned to Tests in the 1990s. Here, England still leads at home and abroad but with a narrower margin.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (1200 and above):

As we will see in the later tables, many of the aggregate records are from the pre-1990 period. Thus Kallis has the most runs of the post-1990 batsmen but is fifth overall. Next is GC Smith (6th overall).

Kallis has the most centuries (8), followed by several others with 7.

B Mitchell has the most 50+ scores (23), followed by Hammond and HW Taylor with 20. The most by a recent player is 16 by Kallis.

Highest individual scores (180 and above):

Here, the top few scores are from recent players. None from this low-scoring series.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 40.00):

GC Smith has the highest average among recent players, followed by Amla. However, the highest averages are by Hammond and Hobbs from the early days.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 45.00):

Here Stokes leads by a good margin over de Kock. None of the pre-1990 players are here.

To be continued:

Notes on the 2nd Test between England and South Africa, 2022

The two-Test series is now poised 1-1, with both matches finishing within 3 days with innings defeats.

Manchester continued to be an unlucky venue for SA as England leads 5-1 with 4 draws. SA won only in 1955.

The third Test is scheduled for Sep 8-12 at the Oval. Here England leads 7-1 with 7 draws. SA won only in 2012.

AK Markram played his 33rd Test, none of which were drawn. He has seen 20 wins and 13 losses.

Anderson became the first to play 100 Tests at home. Next is Tendulkar with 94.

Tendulkar has played the most Tests (200), followed by Anderson with 174. That is, naturally, a record for England.

Also see: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/08/25/most-tests-home-away-and-neutral/

Anderson also became the first to take 100 wickets in Tests between England and SA, Here are the top few:

SM Pollock, Donald and Barnes are next. Broad has 82, but is unlikely to cross his partner’s total.

New Zealand-South Africa Tests, 2022 (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/03/05/new-zealand-south-africa-tests-2022-part-1/

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The current players here are Wagner and Rabada.

Steyn has the most fivers (6), followed by CS Martin and M Ntini with 4 each.

Steyn is the only one with two tenners.

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

In this series we have MJ Henry taking 7-23 in the first Test as a record for NZ v SA, surpassing JR Reid’s 6-60 at Dunedin in 1964.

Best match bowling (including all 9wm and better):

Here Henry has 9-55, which is NZ’s second best match bowling performance against SA. CS Martin’s 11-180 figured in NZ’s first home victory against SA in 2004.

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

Headed by Steyn and Tayfield. No current players here. Also note Vettori’s poor performance.

Steyn and Tayfield have the best averages.

Tayfield and Reid have the best economy rates.

Steyn and CS Martin have the best strike rates.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 and above):

Headed by Waite and Boucher, who are far ahead of the others. Boucher has 49 catches to Waite’s 47, although Waite has the most dismissals.

No current players here. GC Smith (18) has the most catches by a fielder.

Most innings dismissals (5 and above):

de Kock appears twice, while several other keepers have 4 dismissals in an innings. No fielder has more than 3 catches in an innings.

Most match dismissals (6 and above):

Several keepers have made 7 dismissals in a match. The best by a current player is 6 by Blundell. GC Smith took 5 catches as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.40):

Waite heads this list by a large margin, followed by Boucher. GC Smith has the best rate for a fielder.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria in table):

With these criteria, JR Reid has the best overall performance, far ahead of Vettori.

Match (fifty and five-for):

Only two instances, and MJ Henry’s performance is the best here. His fifty came at No 11.

New Zealand-South Africa Tests, 2022 (Part 1)

The series was drawn 1-1 after NZ’s unexpected win in the first Test. It was only the second Test win for them at home. The previous win was in March 2004 at Auckland. They have never won a Test series against SA, though some have been drawn. Their best performance was probably the 2-2 draw in SA in 1961-62.

Summary of all Tests between these teams:

We can see that SA has historically done better.

Now for individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Led by Kallis, while Williamson is the only current player here.

Kallis has the most centuries-6

Kallis also has the most 50+ scores (12) followed by Amla (11).

Highest innings (125 and above):

While there are several large scores from the past, the highest from this series was 136* by SA newcomer K Verreynne. Williamson is also in this list although he did not play in this series.

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

Headed by DJ McGlew from the past. No current players here.

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

Headed by GC Smith. This list also includes Williamson and Elgar.

To be continued at https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/03/06/new-zealand-south-africa-tests-2022-part-2/

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.

Cape Town in the 4th innings (Revised on Jan 12, 2022)

As there is a lot of interest in my earlier post from 2020, I am giving a list of all 4th-innings scores of 150 and above at Cape Town for all Test teams. This may help you to assess the chances of SA (and India) in the ongoing Test.

All scores of 150 and above in the 4th innings of Tests at Cape Town:

From this table, we can see that:

The highest winning score is 334/6 by Australia in 2002.

The highest drawn score is 354/5 (chasing 441) by the West Indies in 2004.

The highest losing score is 335 (chasing 408) by South Africa against New Zealand in 1962.

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.

de Kock’s misfortune

This refers to the 2nd Test between Pakistan and South Africa at Rawalpindi, which was played on 4-8 Feb 2021.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-in-pakistan-2020-21-1242968/pakistan-vs-south-africa-2nd-test-1243018/full-scorecard

Needing 370 to win, SA made a reasonably good start. Things started going wrong when Markram was dismissed at 241/4. Captain Quinton de Kock came in, and was promptly dismissed first ball by Hasan Ali, becoming one of this bowler’s five victims in the innings and ten in the match.

It must be particularly mortifying for a captain to be dismissed first ball in the 4th innings of a difficult chase. Let us see how many times it has happened.

While the number of balls in an innings have not always been recorded before 2000, we presume that most golden ducks have been recorded.

Golden duck by captain in 4th innings:

This includes all cases (win, loss, tie, draw).

23 such cases ending with Q de Kock. Many prominent captains appear here, such as Sobers, Greg Chappell (twice), Atherton, Ganguly, Inzamam and more recently Kohli and Root.

What if the team won in the chase despite the captain getting a golden duck? See this list:

That was a very short list of two. And they were relatively less prominent captains.

Now see when teams have tied or drawn in the chase when the captain got a golden duck:

5 such instances. The one involving Sobers was not in the second Test which India won, but the 5th one which India came close to winning (thanks partly to Gavaskar’s 124 and 220).

And finally, cases when teams have lost in the chase when the captain got a golden duck:

16 such cases, ending with de Kock. He is in distinguished company, along with his contemporaries Kohli and Root.