Continuing our study of Test performances in the year gone by.
Most runs-500 or more:
Babar Azam leads with 1184, while Root, Khawaja and Bairstow also crossed 1000. For India, only RR Pant appears here with 680.
Also note:
Most 100s: 6 by Bairstow, 5 by Root
Most 50+s: 11 by Babar Azam, 9 by Usman Khawaja
Most 4s: 132 by Z Crawley, 128 by Bairstow
Most 6s: 26 by Stokes, 21 by Pant
Highest innings (150 or more):
A good year for double centuries, led by Latham’s 252 at the beginning of the year.Williamson and Warner scored doubles in their last Tests of the year. Only one from India, Jadeja’s 175*.
Best batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Only 7 instances here which meet the cutoff of 20 innings. Khawaja’s average of 67.50 is much higher than the second-placed Root with 45.75.
Best strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, 40.00 and above):
Headed by Bairstow, Stokes and Root, who may be called the main proponents of Bazball.
No one from India here.
However, JJ Bumrah made the Test record for the most runs in an over (35 off England’s SCJ Broad) at Birmingham. The previous record was 28.
This two-test series marked an important landmark, as Bangladesh won their first Test against New Zealand in their 16th attempt. The series was drawn 1-1.
Resultsof all Tests between NZ and BD:
Overall: 17 tests: NZ lead 13-1, 3 draws
In NZ: 11 tests: NZ lead 10-1
In BD: 6 tests: NZ lead 3-0 with 3 draws.
Most runs (minimum 350):
Tamim Iqbal leads with 908, followed by Shakib (763) and newly-retired R Taylor (746).
Highest individual scores (Minimum 110):
TWM Latham’s 252 in the second Test is the highest for NZ against BD, surpassing the 202 by SP Fleming at Chattogram in 2004. Their previous best in NZ was 200* by Williamson at Hamilton in 2019. Also note that Shakib had made 217 at Wellington in 2017.
Incidentally Latham is the first player to score 252 in a Test.
While there is not enough data for meaningful batting averages, we have some strike rates:
Highest strike rates (Min 1000 balls faced, all instances):
Not surprisingly, R Taylor has the highest strike rate. Williamson and Shakib are slightly lower.
Bowling:
Most wickets (Minimum 10):
Vettori (51) is followed by the current trio of Wagner, Boult and Southee.
The most 5wi are 5 by Vettori and 3 by Wagner.
The only 10wm is by Vettori.
Best innings bowling (including all 6wi):
Shakib has BD’s best innings figure of 7-36 at Chattogram in 2008. In this series, Ebadot took 6-46 which is BD’s best innings figure in NZ. The previous best for BD in NZ was 5-166 by Rubel Hossain at Hamilton in 2010.
Best match bowling (7wm and above):
Vettori’s 12-170 at Chattogram is the best performance here.
Ebadot’s 7-121 is BD’s best match figure in NZ. The previous record was 5-88 by Mashraf Mortaza at Dunedin in 2008.
There is not enough data for meaningful bowling averages etc, as Vettori is the only one with over 2000 balls bowled.
Fielding:
Most dismissals (Minimum 8):
McCullum (28) and Watling (26) have the most dismissals.
Watling (26) and McCullum (24) have the most catches by a keeper.
Mc Cullum (4) has the most stumpings.
R Taylor (17) and Sinclair (12) have the most dismissals by a fielder.
Most innings dismissals (Minimum 4):
Imrul Kayes has the most catches by a keeper in an innings (5)
During this series Shadman Islam and TWM Latham both took 4 catches as fielders.
Most match dismissals (Minimum 5):
Watling (7) has the most dismissals by a keeper in an innings (all caught). Next is McCullum with 6.
The most catches by a fielder is 6 by Latham in this series. Next are Sinclair and Shadman with 5.
All-round performance:
50+ and 5wi in a match:
Vettori’s 55*, 76 and 9-133 at Chattogram in 2008 is clearly the best. If he had taken one more wicket, he would have become one of the only five players to score 100 runs and take 10 wickets in a test (The others are Davidson, Botham, Imran and Shakib).
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