Review of New Zealand-Sri Lanka Tests (2023)-Part 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

Headed by Muralidaran, while current player Southee has the most for NZ.

Best innings bowling (6wi or better):

Headed by Vettori, but no good performances since 2018.

Best match bowling (includes all 9wm or more):

Herath has the best figures here, though there are no good performances since 2018.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):

Southee has the best bowling average and strike rate. Muralidaran has the best economy rate.

Now for Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 and above):

Headed by Watling. Williamson has the most dismissals among current players. P Jayawardene has the most stumpings, and SP Fleming the most catches as a fielder.

Best innings figures (5 dismissals or more):

Headed by IDS Smith and Watling.

Best match figures (6 dismissals or more):

Headed by Watling, followed by Lees and IDS Smith.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.600):

Headed by Tillakratne and the Bazball Man.

All-round performances:

No one has a good overall record.

Match performances:

Vettori has the best performance, followed by Vaas.

Review of NZ vs SL Tests (2023)-Part 1

New Zealand won the series 2-0, which had the effect of denying Sri Lanka a place in the WTC final. India benefited from this.

A total of 38 Tests have been played between these teams.

NZ leads 18-9 with 11 draws.

In NZ, NZ leads 13-2 with 6 draws in 21 matches.

In SL, NZ trails 5-7 with 5 draws in 17 matches.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

Led by current player KS Williamson. Other current players near the top are Latham and Mathews.

Williamson has the most centuries (5). He also has the most 50+ scores (10) whele several have 9.

Highest individual scores (175 or more):

Williamson (215) has the highest score in the current series, followed by Nicholls with 200*. There have been several scores above 250.

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

Williamson’s average is far more than that of second-placed Fleming. Mathews has the highest average for SL.

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

The highest strike rate is 61.04 by Aravinda de Silva, just above that of Sangakkara. Williamson and Latham have the highest SR from current players.

To be continued.

Zeroes and big scores in Tests

In the first Test at Chittagong, Angelo Mathews became the first to score a zero and 199 in the same Test.

There are also a number of batsmen who scored a zero and double century in the same Test.

Here is the list for scores of 150 and above:

There are also 190s by GB Legge of long ago and SP Fleming. However, the record here is by Shoaib Malik with 245. Next is Ponting’s 242 which is the highest score by anyone in a losing Test side.

From India, the highest scores include 163* by ML Apte and 152 by NR Mongia. (Also GR Viswanath’s 0 and 137 on debut).

There are several cases of 0s and 99s.

Here is the full list of zeroes and scores between 95 and 99:

There are 6 cases of 0 and 99, including Pankaj Roy and (most recently) Misbah-ul-Haq and Babar Azam.

Some, like van der Dussen and WV Raman did not make a Test century. The former still has time to rectify this.

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/

Centuries in the first innings of Tests

Here we see the table of those who scored the most centuries in the first innings:

Ponting (21) is followed by Kallis and Tendulkar with 20. Next are the two Steves, Smith and Waugh with 17. From India, others with 10+ centuries are Dravid (15), Gavaskar (11), Pujara (10) and Sehwag (10).

Current players with 10+ centuries are SPD Smith (17) and Pujara (10).

Those who loved the first innings:

JM Bairstow (Eng) made all his 6 centuries in the first innings.

AF Rae (WI) and Wasim Raja (Pak) made all 4 of their centuries in the first innings.

Also note SP Fleming (NZ) who made 8 of his 9 centuries in the first innings. And KC Wessels (Aus/SA) made 5 of his 6 centuries in the first innings.

Those who hated the first innings:

Taufeeq Umar (Pak) made 7 centuries but none in the first innings.

WW Armstrong (Aus) similarly had 6 centuries, and MG Burgess (NZ) had 5.

To be continued.

Test captains compared-fielding

We now look at the fielding figures for Test captains. This includes both keepers and non-keepers.

Most dismissals (35 and above):

Led by Dhoni (211) followed by non-keepers GC Smith (152) and Fleming (132) and current keeper Paine (101)

Fine-tuning:

A Flower and AJ Stewart had captained both as keepers and as non-keepers. Sangakkara and AB de Villiers never captained as a keeper.

Most catches by WK: 187 by Dhoni, almost double the next (97 by Paine).

Most stumpings: 24 by Dhoni, followed by Sherwell (16 from long ago)

Most catches by non-keeper: 152 by GC Smith, 132 by Fleming. The highest for India is 59 by Kohli

Most dismissals in an innings (5 and above):

Rashid Latif and Dhoni have the most dismissals (6).

Among non-keepers, the highest is 5 by VY Richardson, Fleming, GC Smith, Sammy and SPD Smith.

5 is still the world record for catches by a fielder in an innings. It is shared by several others. VY Richardson was the first to achieve this. He is better known as the (maternal) grandfather of the Chappells.

Most dismissals in a match (7 and above):

Here the record is 10 by Sarfaraz Ahmed, who had a relatively short spell as captain.

For non-keepers, it is 7 by Fleming. This was a share in the world record until AM Rahane took 8 catches.

And the most stumpings appear to be 3 by Dhoni in 2010.

Highest dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, and 0.65):

Here the results are a little surprising: Paine (2.244) followed by Sarfaraz (2.200) and Alexander. Dhoni is next.

Among fielders, the leader is SPD Smith(1.187) followed by DJG Sammy (1.075). Dravid (0.702) has the most for India.

You may also like to see this, which has the same dateline in May 2021.

Wicket-keepers who captained in Tests (Revised in May 2021)

ODI debuts for and against India

ODI debuts by Indian players were highlighted in the first match, both in batting and bowling.

ODI debuts by India (minimum 40 runs):

KL Rahul is the only player from India to score a century on ODI debut. Before that, RV Uthappa’s record of 86 stood for several years.

This table also gives the strike rate for the innings. Indeed, the highest rate is 187 by KH Pandya, far ahead of the previous record of 127 by Azharuddin back in 1984-85.

This list includes several who served India well, and others who vanished quickly. For instance, Khurasiya scored 57 on debut and played in only a few ODIs after that.

Now we look at those who scored 40 or more on their ODI debut which was against India:

The highest is 90 by SP Fleming, who also scored 90+ on his Test debut. Some other famous names here include Wade, du Plessis, RB Richardson and YJ Bairstow. Others such as CS Cowdrey and Moxon did not last long.

Now we look at ODI debuts by Indian players, with a minimum of 3 wickets in an innings:

We see that MP Krishna’s 4-54 is the best by an Indian player on ODI debut, surpassing the long-forgotten NA David’s 3-21 in 1997.

David’s 2.62 is also the best economy rate here, followed by ST Banerjee’s 3.00. The worst is 6.66 by C Sharma, just ahead of Krishna’s 6.61.

Prominent names here include Pandya junior, DR Doshi and even BS Chandrasekhar.

Finally, we look at those who took 3wi on their Test debut which was against India.

The best here is 5-28 by BD’s Taskin Ahmed, just ahead of AA Donald’s 5-29. Donald and maybe Henry and Styris are the only others who lasted long enough.

The best economy rates are 2.50 by FA Rose and 3.16 by SA Thomson. The worst is 6.30 by SB Styris.

Analyzing Test captaincies – 6

Finally we look at captains with the most wins, most losses and most draws.

Most wins (14 and more):

Here, and in the rest of the post, we will see that the toppers will generally be those who captained in the most Tests. GC Smith with 53 wins had captained in the most Tests (108). RT Ponting is next with 47 wins.

Among current players, V Kohli has the most wins (33). That is also the most by an Indian captain.

Most losses (12 and more):

Unsurprisingly, it is also headed by GC Smith with 28 losses. Next is SP Fleming with 27.

Among current captains, JO Holder has the most losses (19). For India, MAK Pataudi leads with 19.

Most draws (12 and more):

For a change, this is headed by another captain AR Border with 39 draws (including 1 tie). Next is SM Gavaskar with 30. He was well known for his defensive captaincy. Like Border, he had a weak Test team most of the time. GC Smith is third with 27.

Among recent captains, AN Cook leads with 13 draws.

A small consolation for Steve Smith

During the third SA-Aus Test at Cape Town, SPD Smith perhaps became the first Test captain to be sacked in the middle of a match and told to hand over charge. However, he may draw small consolation from setting a minor fielding record.

These records are as of April 1, 2018. The ICC World XI v Aus Test is not counted.

Most catches in an innings by a captain (5 and above):

While wicketkeeper captains Latif and Dhoni have taken 6 catches in an innings, Smith equalled the non-keepers record for captains with 5 catches, along with VY Richardson, SP Fleming, GC Smith and DJG Sammy. There are a few non-captain fielders such as Yajurvindra Singh and AM Rahane who have also taken 5 catches in an innings.

We also look at match fielding performances by captains (6 dismissals and above):

While keeper Dhoni has the record of 9 dismissals (in his last Test), SP Fleming has the record of 7 for non-keeper captains. Smith has taken 6 catches in this Test and in one earlier match. In this case Rahane has the record for 8 catches by a non-keeper, though he was not captaining in that Test.

Finally, we look at overall fielding performances by captains (70 dismissals and above):

While Dhoni has the highest number of dismissals, he is followed by several non-keepers led by GC Smith and SP Fleming who have over a hundred catches. Steve Smith is fairly high up here, sandwiched between MA Taylor and Lara.

 

 

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.