Test cricket returns to Pakistan

The last Test in Pakistan was scheduled to be played from March 1 to 5, 2009.

There was no play after the second day. A contemporary report:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22788732/sl-cricketers-injured-terror-attack

And the scorecard, for what it is worth:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/13778/scorecard/388994/pakistan-vs-sri-lanka-2nd-test-sri-lanka-tour-of-pakistan-2008-09

Since then, Pakistan has played Tests only away or at neutral venues (mainly in UAE, also 2 in England). There have been a small number of T20Is and ODIs played in Pakistan in the past few years:

T20Is in Pakistan since March 2009:

ODIs in Pakistan since March 2009:

It is also apparent that any Pakistani player who made his Test debut since 3 March 2009 would never have played at home until now. They are:

It can be seen that these 46 players include the present captain (Azhar Ali) and the previous captain (Sarfaraz Ahmed) who made their debuts in 2010, besides key players such as Asad Shafiq and Shan Masood. There is also Fawad Alam who made his debut in Sri Lanka in 2009 but has not played any Test since that series, but may well play in the forthcoming series.

And there are others such as Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Amir who came and went without ever playing in a home Test.

You can see a review of past Tests between Pakistan and Sri Lanka here:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2017/10/13/review-of-pakistan-sri-lanka-tests/

Note that their last meeting was in the UAE in late 2017, when Sri Lanka won 2-0. They were among the very few teams to beat Pakistan in a series in the UAE.

 

Best bowling figures in defeats

Keshav Maharaj’s 9-129 and match figures of 12-283 (along with Theunis de Bruyn’s maiden century) were South Africa’s only saving grace in their loss in the second Test at Colombo (SSC). We now look at the best bowling figures by losing teams in Tests.

Best innings bowling in defeats (including all instances of 8wi and above):

Maharaj’s 9-129 is the fourth-best performance here in a list headed by Kapil Dev’s 9-69. It may be recalled that Noreiga’s 9-95 is the best for WI in all Tests, and that it came in India’s first Test win over the West Indies.

The previous best for South Africa was Hugh Tayfield’s 7-23 in 1950, which can also be seen above.

Valentine and Krejza were making their debuts. Krezja played only in one more Test. Valentine made his debut with Ramadhin, and the two ensured that England lost the remaining 3 Tests of the series.

Best match bowling in defeats (including all instances of 11wm and above):

Here Maharaj’s 12-283 is somewhat down the list which is headed by Srinath’s 13-132 in 1999. The previous best for South Africa was AE Hall’s 11-112 in 1923, which can also be seen above.

Krejza, Hall, Burke and Valentine were making their debuts. Only Valentine got an extended run.

Review of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests in Feb 2018-2

Continuing our review of all Tests between these teams until now.

Fielding:

8 or more dismissals:

The lesser-known P Jayawardene has the most dismissals, most catches by a keeper and most stumpings. The better-known M Jayawardene has the most catches by a fielder. Mushfiqur is catching up.

Innings fielding (4 or more dismissals):

Dickwella equalled the record of 5 during this series. Sangakkara and Soumya have 4 catches as fielders.

Match fielding (5 or more dismissals):

P Jayawardene has the record of 7, while M Jayawardene and Soumya have 5 catches as  fielders. Dickwella has the best figures from the current series.

Dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings fielded, all cases):

Sangakkara has the highest here, as P Jayawardene did not play enough matches here. Mushfiqur has done almost as well as Sangakkara. Among non-keepers the highest rate is inevitably by M Jayawardene.

All-round performances

Overall-see criteria in table:

Shakib is the only all-rounder with respectable figures. Vaas did not play enough in these matches.

Match performances (50 and 5wi):

The one-man army Shakib Al Hasan again. His absence in this series must have hurt Bangladesh a lot.

Review of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests in Feb 2018-1

With the premature conclusion of the 2nd Test at Mirpur (Dhaka), Sri Lanka won the 2-Test series 1-0. The last series between these teams was less than a year ago when Bangladesh drew 1-1 in Sri Lanka.

20 Tests have been played between these teams. Sri Lanka leads 16-1 with 3 draws.

In Bangladesh, Sri Lanka has played 8 Tests and lead 6-0 with 2 draws.

In Sri Lanka, the 12 Tests have resulted in the hosts leading 10-1 with 1 draw.

Batting records:

Most runs (500 and above):

Sangakkara has the most centuries (7) followed by M Jayawardene and Ashraful with 5 each. For scores of 50+, Sangakkara again leads with 14, followed by Dilshan (8) and M Jayawardene, Mushfiqur and Samaraweera with 7 each.

Highest individual scores (125 and above):

Sangakkara scored 319 and 105 in the same Test, becoming only the second (after Gooch) to score a triple century and century in the same Test. In this series we also saw Mominul Haque scoring 176 and 105, becoming the first from Bangladesh to score centuries in both innings of a Test. His 176 was the highest by Bangladesh against Sri Lanka at home, surpassing the 136 by Ashraful in 2006. However Mushfiqur’s 200 at Galle in 2013 remains the highest for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings):

Sangakkara has an average more than double that of runner-up Ashraful.

Batting strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced):

However, Dilshan and M Jayawardene have the highest strike rates, with Dilshan having a much higher figure than the runner-up.

Bowling figures:

Most wickets (15 and above):

Muralitharan leads followed by Herath and then Shakib, with the first two far ahead of the rest. MDK (Dilruwan) Perera and a few other current players also figure on this list.

As you may expect, Muralitharan has the most 10-fors (4) and 5-fors (11). Herath is the only other one with a 10-for.

Best innings bowling ( 5wi and above):

Note Muralitharan’s dominance here. From the current series we only have Dananjaya who was making his debut.

Best match figures (7wm and above):

Muralitharan dominates this list as well, while Dananjaya has the best match figures by a debutant for Sri Lanka. Taijul’s 8-159 is the best for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka, surpassing the 6-154 by Shakib at Colombo in March 2017. The best for Bangladesh in Bangladesh was 6-204 by Shakib at Chittagong in Dec 2008. His absence in this series seems to have made a lot of difference.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls):

Muralitharan has the best bowling average, economy rate and strike rate. Herath and Shakib follow at a distance.

To be continued.

 

Sri Lanka’s tour of India

Here is a short summary of Sri Lanka’s cricket performance in India:

Tests: 17. India lead 10-0, 7 draws.

ODIs: 48. India lead 34-11, 3 with no result. Sri Lanka has never won a bilateral series in India-though they did beat India twice during the 1996 World Cup on their way to the trophy.

T20Is: 5. India lead 3-2, and won the only bilateral series between the teams.

The triple clean sweep

The triple clean sweep in all 3 formats of cricket has been recorded once before, when Pakistan visited Australia in 2009-10. Australia won the Tests 3-0, the ODIs 5-0 and the single T20I (admittedly by only 2 runs). You can see the details here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2009%2F10;view=season

The second Test was won by the comparatively narrow margin of 36 runs.

Then came the ODIs:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2009%2F10;view=season

The first 4 ODIs were rather one-sided although Australia won the 5th one by 2 wickets.

And finally:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2009%2F10;view=season

Australia won this by just 2 runs, making it a 9-0 sweep. Remember that this was in their home country.

Nothing like this was achieved until India visited Sri Lanka in 2017:

Tests 3-0 with Sri Lanka losing by big margins:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2017;view=season

ODIs 5-0, all by handsome margins except one win by 3 wickets:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2017;view=season

And the T20I by a good margin:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2017;view=season

Thus India emulated Australia’s 9-0 triple clean sweep, with somewhat bigger margins of victory. But unlike Australia, they achieved this away from home.

Salute Virat Kohli and his men.

Kohli captained all 9 matches, but faced a bewildering array of captains:

Tests: Herath, Chandimal, Chandimal

ODIs: Tharanga, Tharanga, Kapugedara, Malinga, Tharanga

T20I: Tharanga

In contrast, the Australian captain Ponting faced M. Yousuf in the three Tests and 4 of the 5 ODIs, when Afridi came in for the last one. In the T20I it was Clarke vs Shoaib Malik.

Tail piece:

Earlier, India won a T20I series 3-0 in Australia in early 2016 which was believed to be the only clean sweep by a visiting team in Australia in any format of cricket in a series of at least 3 matches:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/category/australia-t20/

Lowest scores in ODIs and related stuff

Zimbabwe’s 54 all out would have had cricket’s number-men looking for records of lowest scores in ODIs. This was not the lowest score in ODIs or even the lowest score by Zimbabwe in ODIs.

Tables are for data as on 28/02/2017

Here is a list of lowest ODI scores (below 60):

It can be seen that this is the lowest total against an Associate team.

Live link for ODI scores of 80 and below: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283987.html

Scorecard for the recent match, which came in a Duckworth-Lewis chase:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/1079250.html

The record for the lowest ODI score is 35, also set by Zimbabwe in 2004:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64890.html

Note that Sri Lanka’s innings of 9.2 overs and 39 minutes are probably records for a winning side in an ODI.

Indian fans would remember their team’s 54 as well, which was probably India’s most humiliating ODI defeat:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65900.html

Humiliating particularly because one player (Jayasuriya) scored over 3 times India’s total. It was the heaviest ODI defeat at that time, though it has since been surpassed several times. India has also inflicted similar defeats on Hong Kong and Bermuda. Afghanistan has also been on the receiving end (against Australia in 2015).

ODI victory margins of 225 runs and above:

Live link for all wins by 180 or more runs: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283902.html