The recent Test series was won by the West Indies 1-0 with one draw.
A total of 12 Tests have been played between these teams. West Indies leas 8-0 with 4 draws.
In The West Indies, the home team leads 4-0. In Zimbabwe, the west Indies lead 4-0 with 4 draws.
We now look at individual records, starting with Batting:
Most runs (750 or more):
Brathwaite has the most runs (335) among current players.
Gayle and H Masakadza have the most centuries (2) R Sarwan has the most 50+ scores (3).
Highest innings (125 or more):
In this series, T Chanderpaul made the highest score (207*) in matches between these teams, surpassing Lara’s 191 in 2003. Brathwaite made 182. GS Ballance scored a century on debut for Zimbabwe after earlier scoring 4 centuries for England.
Now for Bowling:
Most wickets (12 or more):
Newcomer G Motie is in third place with 19 wickets.
S Shilligford has the most 5wis (3)
Best innings bowling (including all 5wi or more):
G Motie has the best and third-best innings figures.
Best match bowling (for West Indies against all teams, 11wm or better):
Motie’s 13-99 is the third best match bowling for the West Indies. It is also the best for a West Indian spinner, surpassing the 11-152 by Ramadhin in 1950.
Best match bowling (West Indies and Zimbabwe), 8wm or better:
G Motie’s 13-99 is the best for matches between these teams, surpassing S Shillingford’s 10-93 in 2013.
Most dismissals (8 or more):
RD Jacobs has the most dismissals (16). Current player J da Silva is in third place with 10.
Most innings dismissals (4 or more):
Current player CR Ervine has the most catches by a fielder (4)
Most match dismissals (4 or more):
Current keeper has the most match dismissals (6). K Powell has the most by a fielder (5).
Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his Test debut in 1994. His son Tagenarine followed in late 2022.
Shivnarine became one of the leading Test batsmen for the West Indies for 20-odd years. So there was much anticipation when his son made his Test debut.
His scores in his first three Tests were 51 &45, 47 &17 and 207* & 15. That is 382 runs at 76.40
Compare this with Shivnarine’s first 3 Tests: 62, 19 & 50, 77 & 5 which is 213 runs at 42.60
Also, we note that Junior scored a double century in his 3rd Test about 60 days after his debut.
In contrast, Senior scored his first century in his 19th Test 3 years after his debut. The first of his two double centuries came in his 79th Test after 11 years. Another example of how the next generation did things in a hurry.
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.
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.
The Test series between Sri-Lanka and the West Indies was won by the hosts 2-0. This meant that the West Indies was yet to win a Test (let alone a series) in Sri Lanka. This is summarized here:
This also means that Sri Lanka leads 11-4 in all Tests between these teams.
We look at individual figures in Batting:
Mostruns (Minimum 400):
The most centuries are 5 by Lara and 3 by Sangakkara
The most 50+ scores are 8 each by Sangakkara and Sarwan.
Among current players, the most are by Karunaratne (568) closely followed by Brathwaite (563).
Highest innings (Minimum 125):
The highest scores in the current series were 155* by DM de Silva and 147 by FD Karunaratne.
Batting averages are not here since no one has 20 or more innings.
But we do have Batting strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced):
Headed by Lara and M Jayawardene. FD Karunaratne has the highest SR among current players.
The West Indies has had many levels of aristocracy, such as Baron Constantine and Sir Frank Worrell. And the calypso men such as Lord Kitchener, Lord Beginner and Lord Relator.
So the tabloids in Barbados may well refer to Kyle Mayers as Lord Mayers of Chattogram.
(They might also be interested in what their heroine Rihanna says about India 🙂 )
Also his partner Nkrumah Bonner whose parents must have named him after the Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah.
Both of them have been prominent in domestic cricket for a while, but would probably not been on this tour if not for Covid.
Here are some of the records set during the chase of 395:
Most runs on debut (innings scores):
5th position here among the 6 who scored 200+
Most runs in a match on debut:
4th among the 12 who have made 200 in their debut match. Yasir Hameed did not score a century after making two on debut. Others such as Foster, Umar Akmal and Kuruppu did not last long, and Rowe somewhat under-performed though he played Tests up to 1980. He did make 302 against England in 1974.
Most runs in 4th innings on debut:
Mayers does top this list, surpassing India’s AA Baig who had provided a small silver lining to the 5-0 sweep in 1959. None of the other debutants except Yasir Hameed figured in successful chases.
Highest partnerships in successful chases (not only for debutants):
6th in this all-time list. No other instance where both were debutants. Gilchrist was playing his 2nd Test.
Most runs in unbeaten innings in successful run chase:
Here too Mayers is far ahead of the rest. No one else scored a century under these conditions. Next in line is a recent player Bancroft who was part of the Smith-Warner axis and probably will not play again.
This list also includes Lloyd, Lewis and Gimblett against India, besides Gavaskar for India against the West Indies. Maybe in some cases they hit the winning runs, but we need to check accounts of the match or commentary transcripts if available. It can be seen that Mayers did hit the winning run (a single).
Finally, we look at the cases of unbeaten 100+ scores in successful run chases (all instances, not only debutants):
Here Mayers is second only to Greenidge. India has Tendulkar and VVS near the bottom. There are also Haynes, Richards and Mark Taylor against India. But the next highest debutant after Mayers is Bancroft, as described above.
Tail piece: The WI captain Kraigg Brathwaite recorded his first win. His first 5 Tests as captain were losses.
In the ongoing Test at Kingston, India registered a somewhat rare triumph of a fifty at No 9 along with a century partnership.
Fifty plus by No 9 batsmen from India:
Ishant Sharma’s 57 is a little below the middle. There are several Indians above him, led by J Yadav who vanished as quickly as he got into the team. Even a century at no 9 does not help.
Century partnership for the 8th wicket by India:
Again, the partnership of 112 by Vihari and Ishant is a little below the middle. There is one against WI a little higher (120* by Dravid and Sarandeep in 2002).
For the sake of comparison, we also look at:
Fifty plus at No 9 against the West Indies:
Here, too, Ishant is a bit lower than the middle. The highest for India is 79 by Kunderan in 1966-67. The highest for India in the West Indies is 68 by BS Sandhu. Oddly enough, Sandhu’s 71 against Pakistan in 1982-83 is the best on debut by a No 9 in all Tests.
Century partnerships for the 8th wicket against the West Indies:
The Vihari – Sharma partnership is the 8th highest here, while the 120* by Dravid and Sarandeep is the 6th highest. The highest partnership of 217 was part of one of the more remarkable comebacks in all Tests, when Brian Close captained for the first time:
Only a few days ago we noticed that Bangladesh had finally got a Test ranking (8th) higher than that of the West Indies (9th). It was therefore hoped that Bangladesh would be competitive in the 2-Test series in the West Indies starting on July 4.
That did not happen, as Bangladesh was dismissed for 43 before lunch on the first day of the series at North Point. The main wrecker was Kemar Roach (5-1-8-5 with an injured knee).
In the following tables I have considered 9 or 10 wickets down, to cover cases where teams batted one man short.
This is the lowest score by Bangladesh in all Tests:
It also has the lowest number of balls in any Test innings by Bangladesh (112), the next lowest being 152 for their 62-run effort in 2007.
It is also the lowest Test score by any side since 2000 ( the list shows scores below 75)
However, they lasted for 112 balls which is higher than that for Australia (108 balls for 47 in 2011) and 111 balls for 60 in 2015).
And you can see that 43 all out is fairly low down in the all-time Test lows (below 50). India was dismissed for 42 (one man absent) in 1974.
We also look at the all-time Test lows by balls faced (less than 120 balls):
The all-time low is 75 balls by SA for 30 all out in 1924. The NZ team which made 26 all out did survive for 162 balls and thus does not appear here. India’s record low of 102 balls for 42 can be seen here.
The Bangladesh team’s 112 balls is one more than Australia’s 111 balls for 60 in 2015 and 108 balls in 2011, which are the lowest in recent years.
Finally we look at the lowest scores in the first innings of the match (below 60);
Bangladesh’s 43 today is the 3rd lowest here, and the lowest since 1946.
Also note that England won after being dismissed for 45 in 1887.
And the lowest number of balls faced in the first innings of the match (below 120):
Here Bangladesh has survived for one ball more than Australia’s famous 60 in 2015, which is the record.
And the 43 is the lowest Test score in the West Indies:
We see that WI’s total is among the lowest in all T20Is, but still ahead of the record of 39 all out by Netherlands in 2014, in the course of the T20I World Championships. Their previous lowest was 79/7 against Zimbabwe in 2010, which you can see in the above total. The previous lowest all-out total was 101 against Sri Lanka in 2009, in the course of the T20I World Championship.
Pakistan recorded its joint-highest T20I total, as it had also made 203/5 against Bangladesh at Karachi in 2008. This is however not too high in the all-time list of high T20I scores, which is headed by Australia’s 263/6 against Sri Lanka in 2016.
Highest T20I totals by Pakistan:
And Pakistan also recorded its highest margin of victory:
It can be seen that it is the second-highest margin (by runs) in all T20Is, surpassed only by Sri Lanka’s demolition of Kenya in the first T20I World Championship. It is also the largest victory margin in matches between full members. Pakistan’s previous record was 103 runs against New Zealand in 2010.
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