A study of converting Test fifties into hundreds-1

The ability to convert fifties into hundreds is useful in Tests, even more than converting centuries into double centuries. The “conversion rate” has not received much attention in statistical studies in the past.

If your career includes a score between 50 and 99 but no century, your conversion rate is 0%

If you have no score between 50 and 99 but one or more centuries, your conversion rate is 100%

Most Test batsmen will fall between these extremes (unless they never crossed 50).

Take Virat Kohli. He has 27 Test innings between 50 and 99. Oddly enough he also has 27 centuries.

So he has crossed 50 a total of 27+27 = 54 times, and has gone past 100 on 27 occasions. This is a conversion rate of (27/54)*100 = 50%.

One more example: Sachin Tendulkar has 68 innings between 50 and 99, besides 51 centuries.

So he crossed 50 a total of 68 + 51 = 119 times. His conversion rate is (51/119)*100 is 42.86%

Similarly, we can find Don Bradman’s conversion rate to be (29/(29+13)*100 = 69.05%

Let us now look at studies of all Test players up to Sep 30, 2021.

There are 56 players who have a 100% conversion rate, who have no score between 50-99 plus one or more centuries. The first few are:

RS Bopara is the only one with 3 centuries without any score between 50 and 99.

The next 5 have made 2 centuries, including Wasti who made both his centuries in the same Test.

And then there are 50 others who crossed 50 only once but went on to make a century, ranging from A Lyth to Yasir Shah. KK Nair has a triple century, while D Lloyd and B Kuruppu have doubles. There are a surprisingly high number of players who scored a century on debut and failed to cross 50 afterwards.

For a short time, Fawad Alam had made 4 centuries without a fifty. The record is by GA Headley of long ago, who made 6 centuries before making a fifty.

After crossing the 56 who have a 100% conversion rate with the help of one century, we get:

(This has a cutoff of 55%)

Fawad Alam leads with 5/6 or 83.33%, followed by JF Reid (of the 1980s) and Azhar Mahmood with 75%.

Current players here are Fawad Alam, Najmul Hussain Shanto, Abid Ali and SC Williams (Zimbabwe).

From India there is only S Dhawan and VG Kambli.

If you take those who have scored 10 or more centuries, only Bradman (69.05%) and Headley (66.67) have crossed 55%. The next few are Walcott (51.72), Azharuddin (51.16) and MJ Clarke (50.91)

Here is a complete list of those who scored 10 or more centuries at a conversion rate of 45% or more:

The only current players in this elite group are Kohli and SPD Smith (and M Hafeez from the recent past).

India is represented by Azharuddin, Kohli, Shastri (!) and Umrigar.

(Note that Hayden’s century and other scores in the ICC XI v Aus Test in 2005 have not been counted).

Let us look more closely at current players with 10+ centuries and conversion rates 35+

V Kohli 50.00

SPD Smith 46.55

DA Warner 44.44

Mominul Haque 44.00

D Elgar 43.33

KS Williamson 42.11

CA Pujara 36.73

LD Chandimal 35.48

TWM Latham 35.48

Azhar Ali 35.29

R Taylor 35.19

Note the absence of JE Root (31.51), BA Stokes (29.41), AM Rahane (33.33) and F du Plessis (32.26)

Certainly this last list has some surprises which contradict common perceptions about the heavy scorers of today.

In Part 2, we will look at the other end of the scale-those with the lowest conversion rates.

Batting averages in the first and second innings of Tests-September 2021

Hope you have seen this one:

Batting averages across innings-September 2021

In the first innings alone, we have:

The cutoff here is 55.

Bradman is still at #1, with over 100. Next are current player SPD Smith and another Australian in AL Hassett.

Ross Taylor, David Warner and F du Plessis are other current players here, though not in the top 10.

Among Indian players, Tendulkar is 9th here. Others are Sehwag, Dravid and Sidhu.

The Test record of 400* by Lara was in the first innings, besides the earlier records of 364 by Hutton and 334 by Bradman.

In the second innings, we have:

The cutoff here is still 55.

Bradman yet again leads, followed by current player KS Williamson and Mohammad Yousuf.

Other current players in the top ten are JE Root (4) and V Kohli (5).

Going further down, the other current players here are SPD Smith (besides AB de Villiers and AN Cook if you stretch a little).

From India, there is Kohli followed by Sehwag, Dravid, Gavaskar and Tendulkar.

The highest score here is 374 by M Jayawardene, while the old Test records of 365* by Sobers and 336* by Hammond are also here.

Current players seem to have done a little better here than in the first innings.

Will take up the third and fourth innings next. The results are somewhat different.

Batting averages across innings-September 2021

No Test matches for a while, so we can do some overall reviews.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, 50.00):

Mr 99.94 is well known, but No 2 has already been forgotten. No 3 is fast closing in on No 2’s 61.87. The only other current player in the top 10 is No 6 with 60.80.

The highest for India is by VG Kambli (!) at 54.20. Something similar to the case of AC Voges.

From India, there are also Tendulkar, Dravid, Gavaskar and Kohli.

Among current players, there are SPD Smith, M Labuschagne, KS Williamson, V Kohli and JE Root (who just manages 50+).

In following posts we will look at batting averages across innings.

Kohli and the ducks

Kohli’s golden duck in the first Test is attracting attention. Let us look at the long relationship of Indian captains and ducks.

First, the summary of all ducks scored by Indian Test captains:

These are arranged in order of ducks scored in the entire career as captain. (See the last column).

Did you notice that Kohli has crept ahead of Dhoni’s record of captaining India in 58 Tests?

Kohli, Dhoni and Pataudi have the most ducks. While Ganguly, Azharuddin and Gavaskar captained in more Tests than Pataudi, they had considerably less ducks.

Pankaj Roy is one who scored a duck in his only Test as captain.

NJ Contractor played the most Tests (12) without ever making a duck.

Vizianagaram oddly enough did not make a duck in 3 Tests although his batting average was only 3.50

Now for golden ducks:

Kohli has the most (3) while a few others have 2.

Now for silver ducks (out 2nd ball):

Kohli has 2 along with Pataudi and Bedi, while Dhoni has 3. Bedi in fact had a pair of silver ducks, which one may call a “queen pair” to match the king pair for one who is out first ball in each innings. That was during John Lever’s unique debut (50 +10wm).

Finally, bronze (brazen?) ducks (out 3rd ball):

Dhoni has 2, while Pankaj Roy had one in his only Test as captain.

Summary of India-Sri Lanka ODI matches

With this 2-1 victory, India continued its dominance of bilateral ODI series against Sri Lanka. The last such series in Sri Lanka in Aug 2017 was a 5-0 win by India (with similar results in Tests and T20Is).

Sri Lanka has never won an ODI bilateral series in India.

Overall summary of results:

Trivia note: the first ODI between these teams was won by Sri Lanka in the 1979 World Cup.

Batting:

1000 and more runs:

Also see that the most centuries are 8 each by Kohli and Tendulkar, and the most 50+ scores are 25 by Tendulkar and 24 by Sangakkara.

The highest total by those who played in this series is 1111 by Dhawan, although Kohli has the most by current players.

Highest innings (120 and more):

While the world record of 264 remains with RG Sharma, there is no other century in this series.

Batting averages (Min 20 innings and 25.00):

Kohli is second here followed by other current players such as Mathews and RG Sharma. But no one who played in this series is here.

Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, 75.00):

S Dhawan is second on this list, and is the only one here who played in the current series. RG Sharma and Kohli follow him.

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 and above):

The only one with two five-fors is RR Singh. The only only one with 4 four-fors is BAW Mendis. I. Sharma is among those with 3.

The only one on this list who played in the current series is B Kumar at the bottom.

Best innings bowling (including all 5wi and above):

No such instance from this series, although Bumrah and B Kumar are there from earlier series.

Bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Among current and near-current players, there are Mathews, T Perera and R Jadeja.

The best averages are by Agarkar and BAW Mendis.

The best economy rates are by Kapil and Harbhajan.

The best strike rates are by Agarkar and I Sharma.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 and above):

Dhoni has the most catches and stumpings. The most catches by a non-keeper are by M Jayawardene.

Most dismissals in innings (4 and above):

Dhoni is the only one with 5 dismissals, while M Kaif is the only non-keeper with 4 catches. Saha is the only other keeper from recent times.

Best dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings, 0.400)

Dhoni again leads here, while Kohli has the best among current players.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Somewhat unexpectedly, Mathews and IK Pathan turn out to be the best all-rounders here.

Match (30 runs and 3 wickets):

The best performances here are by Ganguly, RR Singh, Thushara and Prabhakar.

Test captains with the most wins, losses and draws

Most wins (15 and above):

GC Smith has the most Tests, so it is not surprising that he has the most wins (53) Next are Ponting (47) and S Waugh (41). One can see (from the last column) that S Waugh, Bradman and Ponting have the highest win percentage.

The most wins by Indian captains are 36 (Kohli, 5th overall), 27 by Dhoni (10th ) and 21 by Ganguly (19th).

Current captains here are Kohli (36), Root (26), and Williamson (22).

Most losses (13 and above):

GC Smith again heads this list, closely followed by SP Fleming and Lara who led relatively weak teams.

The highest by Indian captains are 19 by Pataudi (11th overall), 18 by Dhoni (12th) and 15 by Kohli (19th). Also 14 by Azharuddin and 13 by Ganguly.

Current captains here are Root (19), Kohli (15) and BRM Taylor (13).

Most draws (13 and above):

Headed by Border (39), Gavaskar (30) and GC Smith (27).

For India the highest are 30 by Gavaskar (2nd overall), 23 by Kapil (8th) and 19 by Azharuddin (11th). Also 15 by Ganguly.

No current captains here. The most recent is AN Cook (13) who finished his term of captaincy in 2016.

Test captains with the best win-loss ratios

Here we have the raw data for all Test captains. Naturally the W/L ration is undefined for those with no losses:

Here we have everyone who captained in 2 or more Tests without a loss.

This list is headed by WW Armstrong of a century ago with 10 Tests including 8 wins and 2 draws, followed by DB Close (7 Tests, 6 wins and a draw).

Those with an all-win record are A Bacher, today’s Babar Azam and Lord Hawke who all captained in 4 Tests.

Also note AM Rahane with 5 Tests, 4 wins and a draw.

However, this list would be more meaningful if it was restricted to those who captained in 10 or more Tests.

Here we get:

As mentioned earlier, WW Armstrong is the only one here with no losses. Next come Jardine, Bradman and Steve Waugh. Waugh has the highest ration for those who captained in 25 or more Tests.

From India, V Kohli is the only one.

Test captains compared-batting

The first of a series comparing Test captains by their basic skills rather than captaincy.

Data up to May 15, 2021. The ICC XI Test of 2005 is not included.

Most runs (2500 and above):

After all, Graeme Smith has played the most Tests as captain.

Kohli is in 4th position, the best for Indian players as well as current players. Root and SPD Smith are some distance behind, and Gavaskar still further behind.

Most centuries (6 and above):

Graeme Smith again. Kohli is in second place here and will probably overtake him. SPD Smith is next among current players. Gavaskar with 11 is next among Indian players.

Fifty-plus scores (18 and above):

Here is Graeme Smith yet again. Kohli is in 8th position here, which is the highest both for Indian players and current players. Root and Gavaskar are some distance behind.

Highest individual scores (225 and above):

Led by Lara with his world record 400*. Kohli with 254* is the first among Indian players and current players. Williamson (251) and Karunaratne (244) are next among current players. Kohli’s 243 is the second highest for Indian captains.

Highest batting average (Min 20 innings, 50.00):

Bradman’s 101.51 is far ahead of the next, who is SPD Smith with 70.36. Williamson (62.81) and Kohli (58.60) are the next among current captains. Tendulkar and Gavaskar are further down.

Highest strike rates (Min 1000 balls faced, 50.00):

Exact figures for balls faced are lacking for some who played before 2000. However, it should be clear that Kapil Dev would have the highest strike rate.

Shakib Al Hasan has the highest among current players, although he may not captain his side again. Even SPD Smith may come back.

Kohli can be said to have the highest strike rate among undisputed present captains.

India vs England T20I series in Mar 2021

After winning the Test series 3-1, India went on to win the T20I series 3-2. All 5 matches were played at the Narendra Modi Stadium (earlier Motera stadium) in Ahmedabad.

A summary of all T20Is between these teams is given below. At the start of the series the 14 matches were split 7-7. Now India leads 10-9.

We now look at individual records, starting with Batting.

Most runs (100 and more):

Kohli is far ahead of the second-placed Buttler.

While RG Sharma and Rahul have scored a century apiece, Kohli has the most fifty-plus scores (4) followed by Buttler and RG Sharma each with 3.

Highest innings (60 or more):

Buttler (83*) and Malan (68) surpassed the previous record for England in India which was 56 by AD Hales in 2012-13.

Kohli 80* after 77* and 73* surpassed the previous record for India in India which was 71 by KL Rahul in 2016-17.

Most wickets (6 and more):

Chahal (12) and Jordan (10) now have the most T20I wickets for their teams, followed by Pandya with 9.

Best innings bowling (3wi and better):

No major innings figures in this series

Most dismissals (5 and above):

Dhoni still holds the record for the most dismissals (12) followed by Kohli with 9 (as a non-keeper).

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

While Dhoni has the most dismissals (5), the highest by a non-keeper is 4 by Rahane in 2014.

Best all-round performance (overall):

HH Pandya appears to have the best overall performance.

Best all-round match performance (20 runs and 2 wickets):

Pandya’s performance in 2018 appears to be the best here.

Statistics of Aus-Ind T20Is-Dec 2020

India won this series 2-1 and continued their dominance over Australia in this format, as you can see here:

Unusually for India, this dominance exists even when playing away matches.

The 4 neutral matches were all in the T20I World Championships.

We now look at individual performances.

Most runs- 100 and above:

The top 4 all played in this series. Kohli continues his reign at the top. Finch and Maxwell are next, but far behind. Dhawan completes the top 4.

Maxwell and Watson scored a century apiece. Kohli has 7 scores above 50, followed by RG Sharma, Yuvraj and Wade with 3 apiece.

Highest scores-50 and above:

The highest scores in this series are 85 by Kohli and 80 by Wade, both in the third match.

The number of innings played is not enough to compute the averages accurately. But we can look at the strike rates.

Highest strike rates-minimum 250 balls faced:

Maxwell and Kohli have almost identical strike rates.

Most wickets-5 and above:

While Bumrah did not play in this series, he still leads with 15 wickets. Zampa (9) has the best haul among those who played in this series. Jadeja (8) and Chahal (6) follow.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 3wi):

The best figures in this series were 3-22 by Henriques and 3-23 by newcomer Swepson.

Note that the best performance here (Ashwin’s 4-11) came in a World Championship match at a neutral venue.

Most dismissals (4 and above):

Dhoni clearly leads here, with Kohli taking the most catches among non-keepers.

Best innings fielding-3 or more dismissals:

Dhoni expectedly leads (along with Paine), while Behrendorff has the most among non-keepers.

All-round match performances (minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

The best here is by Watson, while Henriques joined this list during this series.

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.

Review of NZ-India ODIs-1

New Zealand won the series 3-0, the first such whitewash for India in ODIs for a long time.

We start with a listing of match results since the beginning of 2019:

India did win 4-1 in New Zealand just over a year ago. Then they lost to them in the World cup semi-final, and then the 3 matches in Feb 2020.

Here is the overall record of ODIs between these teams:

India still has an overall lead of 55-49 and 26-8 at home, while NZ leads 25-14 at home and marginally leads 16-15 at neutral venues. Certainly a strong home advantage on both sides. But India had won there in 2019.

Now for individual records, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 and above):

Taylor and Kohli are now in 2nd and 3rd place, though well below the first-placed Tendulkar. Williamson and Guptill are the other current players here.

Sehwag has the most centuries (6) followed by Tendulkar, Kohli and Astle with 5 apiece. The most scores of 50+ are 13 by Kohli and Tendulkar,  followed by 11 by R Taylor.

Highest innings (110 and above):

Tendulkar has the two highest scores made a decade apart. Kohli’s 154* is the highest score by current players. But this series had fewer large individual scores, the highest being 112 by KL Rahul.

Highest batting averages (Min 20 innings, 30.00):

Kohli has the highest average here, with Dhoni (?) and Taylor the next highest among current players. Williamson and Rohit Sharma are also here.

Highest batting strike rate (Min 500 balls faced, 75.00):

The first two, Sehwag and Kapil, are at some distance from the next few. Kohli, Latham and Taylor lead among current players. Guptill and other current players are also seen here.

To be continued.