Most sixes, fours and boundary runs in Test innings and matches

We have looked at the highest Test scores without sixes and fours. Now we look at the counterpart-scores with the most sixes, fours and boundary runs in Tests.

A basic reference would be the highest Test innings scores:

which most fans are generally aware of, including Sehwag’s 319 in 2008 which is the highest for India

We also look at the lesser-known

Highest Test match scores (adding scores of both innings):

While everyone knows about Lara’s record of 400* and earlier record-holders such as Hayden, Sobers and Hutton the record scores in a match are not so well known. The record is held by Gooch (456) followed by Mark Taylor (426) and Sangakkara (424). Gooch and Sangakkara are the only ones to score a triple century and century in the same Test. The highest for India is the relatively old 344 (124 and 220) by Gavaskar in 1971.

We now look more closely at fours and sixes:

For Test innings:

Most sixes:

Akram’s 12 6s has been the record since 1996. He took the record from Hammond (10) made back in 1933.

Sidhu and Agarwal also appear from India.

Holder, Stokes and Agarwal all scored 8 6s in an innings in 2019.

It is interesting to compare the record for most sixes in a Test match:

The record recently passed to Rohit Sharma with 13 6s in his two centuries against South Africa. Before that, Akram’s 12 (in one innings!) was the match record standing since 1996.

Now we look at the most fours in a Test innings:

This record was made over a half-century ago with Edrich’s 52 (plus 5 sixes) against New Zealand in 1965. Next are Sehwag (47 in a score of 293) and Bradman (46 in 334)

The most fours in a Test match:

Edrich is in third place with 52, after Gooch and VVS Laxman (56 in two innings).

The next question one may ask is regarding the most runs in boundaries in an innings and match. This requires putting the Statsguru results into a spreadsheet for further work. This is what we get:

Most runs in an innings in boundaries:

Here we see that the most is 238 (out of 310) by Edrich, being (52*4)+(5*6) = 238. Next come Hayden (218/380) and Inzamam (206/329) before two by Sehwag (202/293 and 198/319). Sehwag indeed has 4 of the top 10 entries here!

And finally, the most runs in a match in boundaries:

Edrich’s 238 in one innings is surpassed only by Gooch’s 266 (56*4 + 7*6) in his two centuries . Sangakkara is third with 232 (from 319+105) and VVS Laxman fourth with 224 (from 59+281).

To sum up:

Highest innings: 400* by Lara in 2004

Highest total runs in a match: 456 by Gooch in 1990

Most sixes in an innings (12 in 257*) by Wasim Akram vs Zimbabwe in 1996

Most fours in an innings (52 in 310*) by JH Edrich vs New Zealand in 1965

Most sixes in a match (13 in 176+127) by RG Sharma vs South Africa in 2019

Most fours in a match (56 in 333+123, 56 in 59+281) by GA Gooch (1990) and VVS Laxman (2001) respectively

Most runs in boundaries in an innings (238 = 52*4 +5*6) by JH Edrich in 1965.

Most runs in boundaries in a match (266 = 56*4+7*6) by GA Gooch in 1990

Remember that Gooch’s 456 runs in this match is the most in any Test or indeed in any first-class match.

Test matches of 2019-Batting

We now look at individual batting performances.

Most runs (500 or more):

The top scorer here is M Labuschagne who had made his debut in 2018 with little impact, but he soon showed his class. The returning SPD Smith came second, while his former deputy Warner did not fare so well.

Others in this list who had made their Test debuts in 2018 or 2019 are RJ Burns, MA Agarwal, TM Head and JL Denly.

Several players made 3 centuries. Labuschagne had the most 50+ scores (10) and the next highest was 7.

Labuschagne scored the most 4s (129) while RG Sharma scored the most 6s (20).

SCJ Broad had the most ducks (5) followed by three others with 4.

Highest innings (125 or more):

One triple by Warner and 6 doubles, including 2 by newcomer Agarwal and one by the rejuvenated RG Sharma. Labuschagne’s highest was 185, but he made a double at the beginning of 2020. The longest innings was 473 balls in Watling’s 205.

Sharma and Smith made centuries in each innings:

Sharma’s 13 6s in the match is a new Test record. The previous record was 12 by Wasim Akram in a single innings:

Highest batting averages (Min 15 innings, all instances):

Labuschagne yet again, with Head and Warner following at a distance.

There are even a couple of single-digit averages by tailenders. This seems to show that Broad’s batting is now negligible.

Highest batting strike rates (Minimum 750 balls faced, all instances):

de Kock leads by a distance over Babar Azam, who also has a large lead over R Taylor. And Watling showed that a low overall strike rate does not prevent one from scoring a double century.

 

 

Yasir Shah the batsman

It is not often that one scores a century at No 8 (or below) against Australia. Yasir Shah is now one of them:

Of these 7, Parore was at no 9 and Read at no 10. Yasir has the second highest score IN Australia, after Prior’s 118. India is represented by current player Saha.

Those who have scored a century at No 8 (or below) for Pakistan:

Asif Iqbal’s 146 was at No 9 and the remaining 12 were at no 8. And Yasir has the highest against and in Australia.

Another interesting point is found when we look at the career batting averages of all who scored at least one century:

(This was before Pakistan’s second innings). The lowest is by the recent West Indian bowler JE Taylor at 12.96, while Yasir Shah is second lowest at 14.06.

Going further down. Harbhajan Singh has the lowest average of 18.22 by those who made at least 2 centuries. And Wasim Akram (22.64) has the lowest by those who made at least 3 centuries.

And Yasir also joins the somewhat longer list of those who scored one or more centuries but no other scores above 50. Here is an earlier list:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/08/30/test-centuries-but-no-fifties-aug-2019/

 

Batting recoveries 3: Doubling the score by the 8th wicket partners

The last post in our series on great batting recoveries covers cases where the 8th-wicket pair doubled the score after the 7th wicket fell. There are 24 such instances; 13 resulted in losses, 4 in draws and 7 in wins.

These matches are tabulated below:

 

The highest such 8th-wicket partnership of 332 by Trott and Broad in that tainted Lord’s match of 2010, where it is very likely that Pakistan’s bowlers deliberately allowed them to add runs to satisfy the requirements of the fixers. The “genuine” highest partnership would then be the 313 by Akram and Saqlain in the only Test ever played at Sheikhpura.

The highest ratio of (8th wkt partnership)/( sum of 1st to 7th wicket partnerships) is 3.255 by Trott and Broad (102/7 to 434/8) followed by 2.423 by Absolom and Lord Harris (26/7 to 89/8). The lowest here is 1.053 by debutants Morkel and Vincent who went from 38/7 to 78/8.

Absolom and Harris did this as early as 1879, unlike the 9th wicket recoveries starting from 1946 and 10th wicket recoveries starting from 1980.

Soon afterwards Absolom became the first (and only?) Test player to be killed by sugar bags (or bananas?) falling from a ship’s crane.Also see https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22972852/the-curious-affair-charlie-absolom

Lord Harris went on to bigger things, not necessarily in cricket. He did, however see England win in all his 5 Tests although he hardly contributed to these victories.

If you look at the ratio of (innings total)/(sum of 1st to 7th wicket partnerships) the highest is 4.333 where Blunt and Dickinson started the recovery from 21/7 to 64/8 which went on to 112. This was New Zealand’s first ever Test and noted for debutant MJC Allom’s hat-trick and 4 wickets in 5 balls. Next is 3.474 by Morkel and Vincent, who started with 38/7 and went to 78/8 and finally 170. This is a little better than 3.255 by Trott and Broad, 102/7 to 434/8 and finally 446.

The lowest is the anemic 1.250 by Pakistan in 2017, going from 36/7 to 78/8 and 81.

Of special note was the England-WI Test of 1966 which witnessed a 200+ stand for the 8th wicket (Graveney and Murray) as well as a 100+ stand for the 10th wicket (Higgs and Snow), taking them from 166/7 to 383/8, 399/9 and finally 527. This ended a series of heavy defeats by the West Indies, and marked the start of the short reign of the maverick captain DB Close.

Rohit Sharma’s twin centuries

Rohit Sharma’s 176 and 127 marks the 86th occasion of two centuries in an innings in all Tests. He is the 70th batsman to achieve this, as several have done so on 2 or 3 occasions.

Among Indian players we have him as the 6th player on the 9th occasion:

Among those who opened in both innings, he is the 24th to do so on the 30th occasion.

He became the first to  score a century in both innings while opening for the first time.

We know that the only two to score centuries in both innings on debut are Lawrence Rowe and Yasir Hameed. They both batted at No 3.

CG Greenidge had a near miss with 93 and 107 on debut vs Ind at Bengaluru on 22/11/1974 where he opened. Similarly for AJ Strauss with 112 and 83 on debut vs NZ at Lord’s on 20/05/2004. Then there was Wajahatullah Wasti who scored 133 and 121* while opening in his second Test, though he had opened in the second innings of his debut Test.

Rohit Sharma had scored 177 on debut vs WI at Kolkata on 06/11/2013 and 111* in his next innings in his 2nd Test. He batted at No 6 in those innings.

He scored 13 sixes in this match (6 +7). This is a record in all Tests, surpassing the record set by Wasim Akram.

The previous record for India was 8 by NS Sidhu in his 124 vs SL at Lucknow on 18/01/1994.

Finally, this was the 58th instance of  scoring over 300 in a Test match. The 8 Indians who have achieved this on 9 occasions are:

 

ODIs between India and Pakistan-2

Hope you have read Part 1.

Now we take up Bowling.

Most wickets (25 and above):

A close bunching at the top, led by the senior W.

No current players.

Best innings bowling (includes all instances of 5 or more wickets):

No performances in the last few years.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls, all instances):

Imran and Kumble lead. Shoaib Malik is the only current player.

The best economy rates are by Akram and Imran.

The best strike rates are by Waqar and Saqlain.

Now to Fielding:

Most dismissals (15 or more):

Led by Moin and non-keeper Azharuddin. Dhoni is next.

Innings dismissals (4 and above):

Mongia is the only one with 5 dismissals. Several non-keepers have 4 catches.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.500):

Moin Khan and MS Dhoni lead, while M Kaif has the best for non-keepers.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria):

Led by the semi all-rounder Ganguly and Imran.

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

Abdul Razzaq has the best figures here, followed by Tendulkar.

 

The importance of Sheikhupura

The city of Sheikhupura in Pakistan was in the news recently:

https://www.geo.tv/latest/192419-sikh-pilgrim-who-went-missing-in-pakistan-found-from-sheikhupura

There is a happy ending as he was promptly deported to India a few days later.

Sheikhupura is on the route from the Atari/Wagah border to Nankana Saheb, where special trains from India run occasionally for the benefit of Sikh pilgrims. The main stations on the way are Lahore and Qila Sheikhupura:

There is a video on Youtube produced by a passenger on of the pilgrim trains, showing it passing through these stations:

Nankana Saheb is not really a major railway station. Timetables of the 1930s and 1940s show it as a wayside station served by two pairs of passenger trains between Lahore and Shorkot Road (now Shorkot Cantt). In recent years an express has started running on this route which stops at Nankana Saheb and several other stations.

Those who follow cricket closely would remember that Sheikhupura had staged two Test matches and two ODIs in the 1990s. The first Test was against Zimbabwe in 1996, where Wasim Akram’s record of 12 6s in his 257 not out is still a world record for an innings. In fact, it was a match record until RG Sharma hit 13 sixes in a match in 2019.

With Saqlain Mushtaq (79) he put on 313 for the 8th wicket which was the new Test record.

This record was surpassed by Trott (184) and Broad (169)’s partnership of 332 against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010. Given the later disclosures of various tricks being played by Salman Butt and his friends, it is quite likely that they were “allowed” to run up large scores.

In that match in 1996 Paul Strang scored a century and took a five-for. He remains the only one from Zimbabwe to achieve this in a Test.

In 1997 this venue hosted another Test against South Africa. Nothing much happened as 3 days were washed out.

While Test matches did not return here, the people of Sheikhupura were more fortunate than their neighbours in Gujranwala. The one Test there (against Sri Lanka) in 1991 saw only one day of play before the weather played spoilsport. There are several other venues in India and Pakistan which have hosted only one Test so far.

Sheikhupura also features in jokes where it is supposed to be the home of Sheikh Pir, who wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare. Tamilians disagree as they say the plays were written by their scholar Seshappa Iyer.

There is a lesser-known Sheikhpura in Bihar state in India, on the Gaya-Kiul route:

Tests between Pakistan and the West Indies-2

Continuing the review. Hope you have seen the first part.

Looking at fielding:

Dismissals (10 and above):

Imtiaz Ahmed has the most stumpings (8), Alexander the most catches by a keeper (25) and Viv Richards the most catches by a non-keeper (23) followed by Greenidge with 19. No current players here other than Younis Khan.

Most catches in an innings (4 and above):

No recent instances. The much-maligned Kamran Akmal did do his share of catching.

Most catches in a match (5 and above):

As above, no instance after 2005 but Kamran Akmal tops the list. Note Imtiaz Ahmed’s consistency.

Highest dismissal rates (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Oddly enough no specialist wicketkeeper appears here as none of them played enough. Richards, Majid and Richardson top the list. You can however see their dismissal rates in the first table above, with Kamran Akmal having  a rate of 2.777 in 9 innings.

All-round performance (overall):

Only these two played enough to meet this modest target.

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

Gayle’s forgotten all-round ability appears here.

Obscure byways of Pakistan cricket

Everyone knows about Bradman’s 99.94 and most cricket fans know about A.G. Ganteaume’s freak average of 112.00 .

But have you wondered who scored the most runs in his Test career without ever being dismissed? The answer is Pakistan’s Afaq Hussain of the 1960s, whom most Pakistani cricket fans may not have heard of:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/38975.html

Cricinfo does not have a picture for him.

Here is a list of those who scored the most runs in Tests without ever being dismissed:

But Afaq played in only 2 Tests and 4 innings. Whom do you you think played the most Tests and innings without ever being dismissed? The answer is another Pakistani player, who is somewhat better known but is not likely to play Tests again:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/39821.html

Here is the list of those who played the most Tests and innings without being dismissed;

Note that this list includes Niaz Ahmed who has been mentioned as the only East Pakistani to have played for Pakistan. He was born in Varanasi, so this may or may not be true.

There have been only three instances of 4 wickets in 5 balls, and Pakistan has been involved in two of them:

Scorecards of these matches:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63211.html

Here Pakistan went from 125/6 to 126/9, with Wasim Bari, Iqbal Qasim and Sikander Bakht being out first ball.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63542.html

Here Akram dismissed tailenders Ambrose and Walsh first ball.

And finally, the lesser known Pervez Sajjad held the record of best Test return for 4 wickets from 1965 to 2013:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/42324.html

He was the the first to reach 4 wickets for 5 runs in 1964-65. This was equalled by England’s Ken Higgs soon afterwards but was not beaten until Zimbabwe’s A.C. Cremer took 4-4 in 2013.