T20I performances of 2021 – Pt 2

Hope you have read Part 1.

We continue our study of the T20I performances in the calendar year 2021, counting only the matches between teams which had Test or ODI status in the past.

Bowling figures:

Most wickets (15 or more):

Newcomer Hasaranga de Silva and T Shamsi have the most wickets (36), followed by Mustafizur (28). No one from India has taken 15 or more wickets.

There are 5 instances of 5wi and 8 instances of 4+wi.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 5wi and more):

The lesser-known JN Frylinck has the best figures. Next is AC Agar, who is better known for his 98 at No 11 on Test debut.

Also note the startling figures of 4 for 2 by AU Rashid.

No one from India is in this list.

Bowling averages (minimum 500 balls bowled):

Only one bowler reaches this cutoff. Hasaranga has bowled a few overs less but has a better average of 11.63 (see the first table above).

Fielding figures:

Most dismissals (10 or more):

The most dismissals are 24 by M Rizwan and 21 by MS Wade. The most catches by a fielder is 17 by Babar Azam. However, the most stumpings are 5 by JS Buttler. Rizwan’s 24 dismissals include 22 as keeper and 2 as fielder.

The most catches by an Indian player are 11 by SA Yadav.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

From the lesser teams. Erasmus’s 4 catches were as a fielder.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500)

Led by MS Wade, while Fakhar Zaman has the best by a fielder.

All-round match performance (30 runs and 3 wickets):

2 of the 4 performances are by Shakib Al Hasan, although MR Marsh’s performance is the best followed by Shakib’s against PNG. MR Marsh was also Man of the Match in the T20I Cup final with 77*

T20I performances of 2021 – Pt 1

A review of team and individual performances in T20Is in the calendar year 2021.

As discussed here, for any meaningful comparison, we should not consider all T20Is but only those of a reasonable standard (i.e. those who have or had Test or ODI status in the past). These are:

1. Afghanistan
2. Australia
3. Bangladesh
4. Bermuda
5. Canada
6. England
7. Hong Kong (HK)
8. India
9. Ireland
10. Kenya
11. Namibia
12. Nepal
13. Netherlands
14. New Zealand (NZ)
15. Oman
16. Pakistan
17. Papua New Guinea (PNG)
18. Scotland
19. South Africa (SA)
20. Sri Lanka (SL)
21. United Arab Emirates (UAE)
22. United States of America (USA)
23. West Indies (WI)
24. Zimbabwe

We first look at the performance of teams:

Among the teams which have played at least 10 matches, Pakistan has the best W/L ratio followed by South Africa and England. Zimbabwe brings up the tail with Ireland just above it.

Now for individual performances, starting with Batting

Most runs (300 and above):

Note that Mohammad Rizwan has by far the most runs, with his team-mate Babar Azam in second place. No one has scored more than one century. Rizwan has the most 50+ scores (13), followed by Azam (10).

The most runs by an Indian player are 424 by RG Sharma, in the middle of the table above.

Highest innings (80 and above):

Led by Babar Azam (122). The best for India is 80* by V Kohli.

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

Inevitably headed by Rizwan, whose average is almost double that of the runner-up Azam. Nobody from India has played enough.

Highest strike rate (Minimum 250 balls faced, all instances):

Here WI’s E Lewis leads, followed by RG Sharma. No one else from India. The Pakistani pair of Rizwan and Azam are in the middle.

To be continued.

The trouble with T20I statistics

It is not difficult to get the usual T20I statistics from Statsguru.

The question is that whether matches between ALL the 60-odd T20I teams need to be considered for meaningful statistical comparisons. Especially when many of the teams have little cricketing tradition, and are not showing any worthwhile performances against the experienced teams.

T20I women’s matches have been even more one-sided, with numerous instances of single-digit totals such as 6 all out.

Is there a way in which we can extract meaningful statistics for “major” T20I matches from Statsguru? Yes.

Borrowing ideas from Playfair’s annual, whose statistics section only counts matches where one of the teams is a Test or ODI team:

I am considering only T20I matches where BOTH teams have played Tests and ODIs at some time. (This is important as there are several teams such as Canada, Bermuda and Kenya which earlier had ODI status, but now do not.)

After removing the multi-national teams such as ICC XI and Asia XI (and removing the defunct East African team), we get the following 24 teams which are considered for “useful” T20I statistics:

1. Afghanistan
2. Australia
3. Bangladesh
4. Bermuda
5. Canada
6. England
7. Hong Kong (HK)
8. India
9. Ireland
10. Kenya
11. Namibia
12. Nepal
13. Netherlands
14. New Zealand (NZ)
15. Oman
16. Pakistan
17. Papua New Guinea (PNG)
18. Scotland
19. South Africa (SA)
20. Sri Lanka (SL)
21. United Arab Emirates (UAE)
22. United States of America (USA)
23. West Indies (WI)
24. Zimbabwe

In the next post, I will give the summarized statistics for the “relevant” T20Is in the calendar year 2021. The last two matches were in the series between the USA and Ireland, which was drawn 1-1.