Review of West Indies-India T20I matches (July 2017)

Only 8 T20I matches have been played between these countries:

West Indies lead India 5-2 with one no-result. In the West Indies, they lead 2-1.

Looking at individual batting performances:

Most runs (75 and above):

Evin Lewis leads with two centuries, while KL Rahul scored the only other century. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli join Lewis in scoring over 200 runs. Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni have played in the most matches (7).

Highest innings (40 and above):

Lewis made the highest score for West Indies, surpassing his 100 scored less than a year ago. He also surpassed the series record of 110* by Rahul in the same match last year. KD Karthik made the only other score above 40 in the recent match.

Highest batting averages and strike rates (minimum 5 innings batted):

Kohli has the highest average as well as strike rate. Lewis has batted in only 3 innings and hence does not appear here.

Now for bowling:

Most wickets (5 and above):

Dwayne Bravo leads here, followed by Jadeja.

Best innings bowling (3wi and above):

Sammy has the best bowling here, while Mishra has the best for India. No one took 3wi in the recent match.

Best bowling economy rate (minimum 5 innings bowled):

Ashwin has the best economy rate, although Dwayne Bravo has the best average as well as strike rate.

Turning to fielding:

Most dismissals (4 and above):

Dhoni leads here, while Kohli and Rohit have the most catches for non-keepers.

Most innings dismissals (2 and above):

Lendl Simmons has the most dismissals (3), which was as a non-keeper. No keeper has made more than 2 dismissals in an innings.

All-round performances:

Overall (see criteria):

Dwayne Bravo (again!) is the only one who qualifies.

Match performance (Minimum 30 runs and 3 wickets):

This performance during the 2009 World T20 Championship is one of the finest T20I match performances of all time, as we see here:

Probably it would be second only to that of Watson, while the other three instances were against weak opponents.

 

Records for all West Indies-India ODI matches-2

Continuing from https://abn397.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/records-for-all-west-indies-india-odi-matches-1/ where we looked at the records after the ODI series which concluded on July 6, 2017.

Bowling figures: 20 or more wickets:

Walsh heads the list, closely followed by Kapil and Kumble. Jadeja (29) and U.Yadav (25) have the most wickets among current players.

M Dillon is the only one with two fivers. Rampaul has the most four-fors (4) followed by Shami with 3.

Best innings bowling (including all 5-fors):

Kumble has the best analysis of 6-12, while the lesser-known Patterson has the best (6-29) for the West Indies. Only JO Holder’s 5-27 is here from the current series.

Bowling averages (minimum 1000 balls bowled):

Surprisingly the non-regular bowler Viv Richards has the best average. He seems to have done particularly well as a bowler against India.

The best economy rate is 3.17 by Marshall and the best strike rate 28.4, again by Richards. Jadeja has the best average among current players.

Fielding (12 or more dismissals):

Dhoni (40) is followed by Dujon (38) at the top. Dhoni has the most stumpings (12) followed by More with 10. Dujon has the most catches by a keeper (34) while Richards (26) and Hooper (25) the most catches by non-keepers.

Best innings fielding (4 and more):

Ramdin is the only one with 5 dismissals and 5 catches as keeper. Dravid has the most catches (4) by a non-keeper.

Best dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings and 0.400):

Ramdin has the highest average, followed closely by Dhoni and Jacobs. Richards has the highest for non-keepers

All-round overall performance (see the criteria):

Richards tops again, ahead of Hooper and Kapil who were more typical all-rounders.

All-round match performance (40 runs and 4 wickets):

Only Richards has achieved this.

 

 

Records for all West Indies-India ODI matches-1

With the present series concluding on July 6, 2017, India’s 3-1 victory meant that the West Indies had not won a bilateral series against India since 2006. West Indies had won that series 4-1 at home. The last time they won a bilateral series against India in India was a generation ago in 1987-88, with a 7-1 margin. That seems to be the only 8-match bilateral ODI series ever played.

The results of all ODIs between these teams are summarized here (cancelled and abandoned matches are not counted):

West Indies still lead 61-56 overall and 20-14 at home, besides 26-24 in India. Only on neutral grounds does India lead at 18-15.

Starting with batting records:

Most runs (750 and above):

While Tendulkar leads, Kohli is now in second place. His century in the final match enabled him to leapfrog over the totals of some older prominent players. Yuvraj, Dhoni and none of the current WI players can also be seen here.

Kohli, Tendulkar and Gayle have scored 4 centuries each. For 50+ scores, Tendulkar leads with 15 followed by Kohli with 13 with Chanderpaul and Sarwan level on 12.

Highest innings (110 and above):

While Sehwag has by far the highest score of 219, only Kohli with 111* is here from the current series.

Batting averages (minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Kohli and Dhoni lead this table, with Yuvraj further down. Greenidge leads for the West Indies, closely followed by Sarwan.

Strike rate (minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Sehwag leads here, closely followed by Richards. Kohli and Dhoni are close behind, while M Amarnath and Shastri are unsurprisingly at the bottom for all those who batted for at least 20 innings.

To be continued.

 

Review of Tests between the West Indies and Pakistan-2

Continuing our review of all Tests between these teams, after the conclusion of the recent series.

Bowling-20 or more wickets:

Imran and Akram top the list, with Walsh having the most wickets for the West Indies. Among current players there are Yasir Shah (46), Bishoo (36) and Gabriel (25). The most 5wi are 6 by Imran and 5 by Yasir Shah. No one has taken 10wm more than once.

Best innings bowling-all cases of 6wi and above:

While Croft and Imran have the best innings figures for their teams, Yasir Shah’s 7-94 and 6-63, Mohammad Amir’s 6-44 and Gabriel’s 5-11 are from the just-concluded series. The second best figures of 8-49 were by Bishoo in the series in the UAE last year.

Best match bowling-all cases of 9wm and above:

Gabriel and Yasir Shah recorded 9-wicket hauls in this series, although the overall record of 12-100 was set by Fazal Mahmood long ago. Bishoo and Yasir Shah had  10-wicket hauls last year in the UAE.

Bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls)-all instances:

Croft has the best bowling average with Marshall and Wasim Akram close behind.

Of current players, Yasir Shah and Bishoo can be seen here.

The best economy rates are 2.05 by Gibbs and 2.36 by Fazal Mahmood.

The best strike rates are 39.6 by Waqar Younis and 41.7 by Croft.

Fielding: 12 or more dismissals:

The record of 29 dismissals was set by Alexander long ago, though Kamran Akmal and Moin Khan are second with 25. The most stumpings is by Imtiaz Ahmed (8) and most by non-keepers 23 by Viv Richards and Younis Khan. Dowrich and Sarfraz Ahmed are slowly moving up.

Best innings fielding: 4 or more dismissals:

The record of 5 is shared by DL Murray, Moin Khan and Kamran Akmal (twice). The most by non-keepers is 4 by Mathias, Logie and Taufeeq Umar.

Best match fielding: 5 or more dismissals:

The much-maligned Kamran Akmal has the record of 9 dismissals, while Imtiaz Ahmed holds the record of 3 stumpings. The most catches by non-keepers is 5 by Logie, Taufeeq Umar and Younis Khan. Younis achieved this in the 2nd Test of this series.

Best dismissal rate (20 or more innings):

No wicket-keepers figure in this list as none of them played enough. The best dismissal rate is by Younis Khan followed by Viv Richards.

All-round performance (see criteria in table):

Even with these modest criteria, only Imran Khan qualifies with a respectable total of 775 runs and 80 wickets.

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

Oddly enough, Imran did not achieve this but the then captain Mushtaq Mohammad’s all-round performance is one of the finest for Pakistan. And we are reminded of Gayle’s lesser-known bowling capability.

 

 

 

Review of Tests between the West Indies and Pakistan-1

Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies in 2016-17 was historic in more than one way. Besides the overly sentimental last Test series for Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, this was the first time that Pakistan had won a Test series in the West Indies. Pakistan had won series in Pakistan and neutral venues before. But their best results in the West Indies had been draws; 1-1 in 1987-88, 2005 and 2011. Until their 2-1 victory this time.

Here is a summary of all Tests between the two countries:

As we can see, Pakistan has consistently done better at home and in neutral venues, but not in the West Indies. There was a long gap between 1959 and 1975 when these teams did not meet.

We start with the batting records:

Most runs (500 and above):

Among current players, Younis Khan has the highest with 1030 followed by Azhar Ali, Misbah-ul-Haq and RL Chase.

M. Yousuf has the most centuries (7) followed by Inzamam and Lara with 4. M. Yousuf also has the most scores of 50-plus (10) while several others have 9. The most by a West Indies player is 9 by Viv Richards.

Highest individual scores (125 and above):

While Gary Sobers’s former world record has pride of place, it is followed by Hanif Mohammad’s ultra-defensive 337 from the same series. From the current series only Chase (131) and Azhar Ali (127) qualify.

Best batting averages (minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Wasim Raja surprisingly tops this, while only Younis Khan is here from current players. Many prominent players such as Mohammad Yousuf, Gary Sobers and Misbah did not play enough innings. But you can see their averages in the first table above.

Enough for now. Will look at bowling, fielding and all-round records in the next post.

 

Saved by the last wicket

The West Indies players Gabriel and Chase should have remembered that no less than 22 Tests ended as a draw when the last wicket pair held on:

In some cases there were only a handful of runs to make for victory. The India-WI match of 2011 ended up as a draw with scores level (not a tie because all wickets had not fallen). England in 1963 also came close to victory with 5 runs to get. But in most cases a heavy defeat was averted because the last wicket did not fall.

They included some draws which critically influenced the result of a series. Take the last entry

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/667899.html

where the No 10 and 11 batsmen Eranga and Nuwan Pradeep survived for a draw.

In the 2nd and final Test of that series, No 11 James Anderson got out with one ball left. Thus Sri Lanka won the Test and the series.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-sri-lanka-2014/engine/match/667901.html

There are quite a few other cases where these 10th-wicket stands were critical. Like the one between Dhoni and Sreesanth in 2007, where India went on to win the series 1-0.

Interestingly the first such Test drawn by the last wicket pair was by India in 1946, with the long-forgotten Sohoni and Hindlekar at the crease:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62663.html

The above list is for the 4th innings where 9 wickets were down and the match ended with a draw. There have also been numerous cases where matches were drawn when 9 wickets in the third innings were down when the side was facing a possible defeat if the last wicket fell.

This cannot be directly be pulled out of Statsguru as in the above table. But all such 10th wicket survivor stories in the 3rd innings can be found below:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;innings_number=3;orderby=start;result=4;size=200;type=team;view=innings;wicketsmax1=9;wicketsmin1=9;wicketsval1=wickets

Ignore the declarations. Also, in many cases there would not have been enough time for the opponents to make a large number of runs. Maybe we can count cases where the potential target was less than 50 runs.

The narrowest escape would be this one of England vs SA in 1998, where England’s total in two innings exactly equaled SA’s total of 552. SA would have needed just 1 run to win, but England’s last pair of Croft and Fraser spent enough time to ensure that SA would not be able to bat even one ball:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63806.html

England’s escape at Cardiff in 2009 is also there, when Australia needed 13 runs to win.

While we are on this topic, also see the list of one-wicket victories. There have been only 12 in all Test cricket:

 

The real Knights of cricket

We have grown accustomed to hearing jokes about Sir Ravindra Jadeja. Let us see who are the genuine Knights of cricket.

Firstly, the British sovereign proclaims someone a knight based on the recommendations of the government of the day. The gentleman concerned would be a citizen of the U.K. or one of the other countries which presently regard the British sovereign (presently Queen Elizabeth II) as their head of state. The countries of interest here are Australia, New Zealand and some (but not all) of the countries of the West Indies. Canada is also included, although it has not produced any famous cricketers yet. Those countries who do not regard the  Queen as the Head of State include many Commonwealth countries such as India and its neighbours, besides South Africa. This should make it clear:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_headed_by_Elizabeth_II

So here is a list of those who were knighted for their services to cricket, besides some cricketers who were knighted for other reasons:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cricketers_who_were_knighted

Another article on cricketing knights from the West Indies:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/26392726

Another general article which summarizes the topic:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/60096.html