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.

Batting on all 5 days of a Test

This is one of the obscure records which cannot be found through Statsguru. It is however listed in the statistics section of Cricinfo. This is how it stands on the evening of Feb 7, the 4th day of the Zim-WI Test at Bulawayo:

Now KC Brathwaite and T Chanderpaul have batted on all 4 days so far, and will resume batting on the 5th morning. So they will also be added to this list. This will be the first occasion when two batsmen have batted together on all 5 days of a test.

India is well represented here by Jaisimha, Shastri and Pujara.

Other notes: Gary Ballance scored a century on debut for Zimbabwe. He had earlier scored 4 centuries for England. He joins Kepler Wessels in scoring centuries for two countries.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/gary-ballance-232438

Also see:https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283699.html

for a full list of those who played Tests for two countries.

Update: Brathwaite and Chanderpaul were duly added to the list above:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283161.html

Review of India-Bangladesh Tests

After India’s 2-0 victory, this is the summary of Tests between these teams:

Overall: India leads 11-0 with 2 draws

In India, India leads 3-0 with no draws.

In Bangladesh, India lead 8-0 with 2 draws.

This series was only significant as the second Test was probably the first time that Bangladesh had a significant chance of winning against India.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (250 or more):

Headed by Tendulkar with Mushfiqur Rahim in second place. Other current players near the top are Pujara and Kohli.

Highest innings (100 or more):

The current series was low-scoring, with only 3 scores above 100 with a top score of 110 by Gill. Zakir Hasan scored 100 on debut, as did Aminul Islam in the first Test between these teams.

The most centuries are 5 by Tendulkar and 3 by Dravid. The most scores of 50+ are 6 by Pujara and 5 by Tendulkar.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of averages. For Strike Rates, we have this for a minimum of 1000 balls faced.

We can see that Tendulkar has a big lead over the second-placed Mushfiqur.

Now for’

Bowling:

Most wickets (8 or more):

Zaheer Khan has a big lead over the second-placed I Sharma. Shakib (21 wkts) has the most for Bangladesh.

The most instances of 5wi are 3 by Pathan and 2 by Zaheer Khan. These two are also the only ones to take 10wms.

Best innings bowling (5wi or better):

Note Naimur Rehman’s performance in the first Test between these countries, which remains the best innings bowling for Bangladesh.

Best match bowling (including all cases of 8wm or better):

Note that no Bangladeshi bowler has taken more than 7 wickets in a match.

There is not enough data to get meaningful data for bowling averages etc.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 or more):

Led by Dhoni with Karthik and others close behind. Dravid has the most catches by a fielder. Mushfiqur and Pant.

represent the current players.

Most innings dismissals (4 or more):

Led by Dhoni and Mushfiqur.

Most match dismissals (5 or more):

Dhoni has the top position to himself here. SS Das and SC Ganguly have the most catches as fielders.

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

Only one instance, which marked the highlight of SB Joshi’s Test career. This was in the first Test between these teams.

Review of Pakistan-England Tests (Dec 2022)-Part 1

England inflicted a rare 3-0 victory in an away series when they defeated Pakistan in this series.

This was the only time Pakistan has lost a home series by 3-0 or more. Only Australia and India have avoided clean sweeps at home by 3-0 or more.

Looking at the overall records of Tests between England and Pakistan:

Total Tests 89, England lead 29-21 with 39 draws

In England: 56 Tests, England lead 24-12 with 20 draws

In Pakistan: 27 Tests, England lead 5-4 with 18 draws

Neutral venues: 6 Tests, England trail 0-5 with 1 draw

Looking at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs, minimum 800:

Led by Cook and Inzamam. Root and Azhar Ali are there from this series, which marked the latter’s retirement from Tests. The most centuries are 6 by M Yousuf, followed by Cook and Inzamam with 5. The most 50+ scores are 15 by Inzamam.

Highest innings, minimum 175:

Nothing in the past few years except Crawley’s 267 in 2020.

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 40.00):

Headed by M Yousuf and Saleem Malik, with AJ Stewart having the best average for England. Root represents current players.

Best batting strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, SR above 50):

Headed by Pietersen, Root and Inzamam. Root represents current players.

To be continued:

Review of Australia-West Indies Tests-Part 2

Hope that you have read Part 1.

Continuing with individual performances in

Fielding:

Most dismissals (40 and above):

Led by Dujon (86 dismisals) and Healy (78). Dujon’s tally included 2 as a fielder.

The most stumpings are 9 by GRA Langley, and the most catches as a fielder are 45 by ME Waugh.

Most dismissals in an innings (5 and more):

RD Jacobs is the only one with 7 catches in an innings, followed by AT Carey with 6 more recently. No fielder has taken more than 4 catches in an innings.

Most dismissals in a match (7 and more):

DA Murray, Jacobs and Carey have all taken 9 in a match. However, no fielder has taken more than 6 in a match.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.700):

Led by Jacobs, with Gilchrist and Grout close behind. The best by a fielder is by RB Simpson, followed by ME Waugh.

All-round performances:

Career (see criteria in table):

Sobers, Worrell and Marshall have the best performances here.

Match (Minimum one 50+ and one 5wi):

A long list. Of special note are those with a century and 5wi: Atkinson and Miller.

And those with a 50 and 10wm: AK Davidson, and the non-regular bowlers Border and Bevan.

Davidson was the first to score over 100 runs and take 10 wickets in a match. Only 3 others (Botham, Imran and Shakib) have done this.

Debut bowling records by and in Pakistan

Best bowling figures in an innings by Pakistani players on Test debut:

We see that Abrar Ahmed is in 3rd position here, after Mohammad Zahid (1996) and Mohammad Nazir (1969). Most of these bowlers had short Test careers. Perhaps Abrar will fare better. Bilal Asif’s 6-36 is the best for a Pakistani debutant in an away (rather, neutral) Test. Arif Butt’s 6-89 is the best for a Pakistani debutant in an away Test.

We also see the best innings figures by any bowler on Test debut in Pakistan:

Abrar Ahmed is third on this list as well. Also note England’s WG Jacks in the first Test of this series.

After England’s second innings, we look at the revised records for match bowling.

Best match bowling on debut for Pakistan:

Abrar Ahmed’s 11-234 is the second-best for Pakistan, after Mohammad Zahid’s 11-130. We also see that Aizaz Cheema’s 8-103 is the best for a Pakistani debutant in an away Test.

Best match bowling on debut in Pakistan:

Here, too, Abrar comes second after M Zahid. The best performance by a visiting bowler on debut was 6-85 by RMH Cottam in 1969.

Most Tests: home, away and neutral

At the start of the 2nd Test between England and South Africa at Manchester, it was mentioned that JM Anderson was the first to play 100 Tests at home.

This is true. Let us also look who has played the most Tests overall, away and neutral.

These figures include all those playing in the Manchester Test of 2022, and do not include the ICC XI v Aus Test of 2005.

Most Tests (125 or more):

Tendulkar (200) is followed by Anderson (174) and SR Waugh (168). The next from India is Dravid (163).

Also: Anderson (174), Broad (158), Warne (144) and VVS Laxman (134) have played the most Tests without ever captaining their sides.

Most Tests at home (60 or more):

Anderson leads with 100, followed closely by Tendulkar (94), Broad and Ponting (91 each). the next from India is again Dravid (70).

Most Tests away (other than neutral venues), 60 or more.

Tendulkar leads with 106, followed by Dravid with 93. Next is Chanderpaul with 81. Ponting, Anderson and Broad are further down.

And finally,

Most Tests at neutral venues (7 or more):

As you may guess, Pakistani players dominate this list starting with Asad Shafiq (30), Azhar Ali (29) and Younis Khan (28).

The highest by a non-Pakistani player is 8 by R Herath, followed by several others with 7. These include some NZ players who played in the WTC final against India in England in 2021.

Summary of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests-2 (after May 2022 series):

Hope you have seen Part 1.

We now proceed to

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and above):

Muralidaran has 89 wickets, far ahead of the others. Next are Herath and Shakib. Also note AM Fernando’s 13 wickets in 2 Tests in this series.

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

Led by Herath, with the next three by Muralidaran.

Nayeem Hasan’s 6-105 was the best by BD against SL, surpassing Shakib’s 5-70 in 2008. Also note AM Fernando’s 6-51 in this series.

Best match bowling (Including all 9wm and above):

Headed by Muralidaran and Herath. None from Bangladesh here. AM Fernando took 10-144 during this series.

Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls bowled):

Includes Shakib and Taijul from this series.

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

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10 and above):

Led by P Jayawardene with Dickwella and Sangakkara close behind.

Mushfiqur Rahim has the most dismissals from BD

P Jayawardene has the most stumpings (8) and M Jayawardene the most catches by a fielder (17).

Dickwella has the most catches by a keeper (24).

Most dismissals in an innings (4 and above):

Mushfiqur and Dickwella have made 5 dismissals in an innings, but not in this series. However Dickwella took 4 catches twice in this series.

Sangakkara and S Sarkar have taken 4 as a fielder.

Most dismissals in a match (5 and above):

Again headed by P Jayawardene with 7.

M Jayawardene and S Sarkar have taken 5 catches as fielders.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.600)

Headed by Sangakkara, with M Jayawardene heading the fielders.

Finally,

All-round performance

Overall (see criteria below):

Shakib (611 runs and 38 wickets) is the only one who qualifies.

Match (50 and 5wi):

All the instances are by Shakib.

Summary of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Tests-1 (after May 2022 series):

Sri Lanka won 1-0 with one draw.

Overall summary:

We see that Bangladesh is yet to win against Sri Lanka at home, although they have won one Test in Sri Lanka.

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Sangakkara has the most centuries (7) and most 50+ scores (14). Mushfiqur has 10 50+ scores.

Several current players starting with Mushfiqur Rahim are here.

Highest innings (150 and more):

Mathews made the highest score in this series (199). He became the first to score 199 and a duck in the same Test. Several have made 99 and a duck.

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

Sangakkara has by far the highest average, with current player Mushfiqur having the second highest.

Highest batting strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced):

Dilshan has by far the highest strike rate, while current player Tamim Iqbal has the highest among Bangladesh players.

To be continued.

See Part 2

Jadeja’s all-round feat

Here is a list of all instances of a century and 5wi in a Test by Indian players.

Decide if Jadeja’s is the best such feat.

Of the 6 instances, 3 are by Ashwin.

Here is list of the alternative all-round feat of a fifty and 10wm by Indian players:

Here we see that Jadeja is one of only 2 Indian players to achieve this.

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/