Review of England-West Indies Tests-1

The England-West Indies series of 2017 was won by England 2-1. It marked a comeback of sorts for the West Indies who won their first Test in England since 2000. They have not won a Test series in England since 1988, which was termed as a politically incorrect “dark greywash” as they won only by 4-0, instead of the 5-0 “blackwash” margins in 1984 and 1985-86.

Since then the West Indies have won some series against England at home, but never in England. They did draw in 1991 and 1995.

We now look at overall performances:

The West Indies still enjoy an overall 55-48 lead, though they do seem to enjoy a strong home advantage.

Coming to individual performances:

Batting:

Most runs (1000 or more):

Only Cook among current players has crossed 1000, besides Chanderpaul from recent times.

Sobers has the most centuries (10) followed by Headley and Richards (8 each). A few English players including Cook have made 6.

Richards and Sobers have the most fifty-plus scores (23) followed by Chanderpaul with 21. Boycott has the most for England (20).

Highest innings (175 or more):

Lara and his two world records at St John’s lead the way, while Sandham’s 325 was the first-ever triple century in Tests. Cook’s 243 is the only innings in this list from the current series, while Root had made 182* in 2015.

During the current series SD Hope made 147 and 118*, his first two Test centuries. Oddly enough they were the first instance of centuries in both innings at Headingley in over 500 first-class matches.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 35.00):

Inevitably, Cook and Chanderpaul are the only current and near-current players here.

Bowling:

Most wickets (35 or more):

Dominated by the long-serving Ambrose and Walsh. Anderson and Broad are further down.

The most 5wis are 8 by Ambrose and 7 by Gibbs. Trueman has the most for England with 6.

The most 10wms are 2 by Ambrose, Gibbs, Trueman and Valentine. Valentine’s 11-wicket haul was on debut, in the only Test the West Indies lost in the epochal 1950 series.

Best innings bowling (including all cases of 7wi and above):

Anderson’s career best 7-42 is here along with Stokes’s from this series.

Best match bowling (including all cases of 10wm and above):

This includes Anderson’s 9-73 from the current series. There is also CS Marriott’s 11-wicket haul in his only Test, which is the only case of a bowler taking 10 or more wickets in his only Test.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, 35.00 or less):

Again dominated by the WI fast bowlers of the 1980s. though Anderson and Broad also figure here.

Garner (17.93) and Ambrose (18.79) have the best averages.

But the spin pair of Valentine (1.78) and Ramadhin (1.84) have the best economy rate.

Marshall (45.5) and Holding (46.7) have the best strike rates.

To be continued.

 

 

 

 

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First two centuries in the same Test

Scoring centuries in each innings of a Test is not too rare. It has been done on 82 occasions. Three have achieved this in three Tests: Gavaskar, Ponting and Warner. And several others have done it twice. You can see the full list here:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=start;qualmin1=2;qualval1=hundreds;size=200;template=results;type=batting;view=match

The first to achieve this was Warren Bardsley in 1909, and the most recent was Shai Hope in his team’s unexpected victory at Leeds.

Bardsley and Hope are among the few who scored their first two centuries in the same Test. We look at these in more detail:

The 11 instances are listed above, along with some points of interest.

As mentioned above, Bardsley was the first to score two centuries in the same Test.

Moroney, Wasti, Yasir, Fulton and now Hope made their only two centuries in the same Test. And Hope is the only one who is likely to play more Tests.

Rowe and Yasir scored two centuries on debut. The latter never made any other centuries. Rowe was the third (after KD Walters in 1968-69 and SM Gavaskar in 1970-71) to score a century and double century in the same Test. Since then others have also achieved this, with Gooch and Sangakkara going further with a single and triple.

Hazare’s second century came in a follow-on.

Mendis’s twin 105s represent the highest amongst identical scores made in each innings of a Test. There is also Misbah with 101 and 101*, which are not quite identical.

If you check with Statsguru, you will find that CAG Russell (Eng v SA in 1922-23) is the only one who scored two centuries in his last Test. Technically this applies to Hope as well at the time of writing, but he can hope to play many more Tests.

The selectors certainly had faith in him as he crossed 40 for the first time in his 7th Test and 50 in his 9th Test (though he got up to 90 that time).

Tail piece-incredible as it may seem, no one else had scored centuries in each innings of a first-class match at Leeds-not Bradman, nor Yorkshire stalwarts such as Sutcliffe, Hutton and Boycott.

More about this from Steven Lynch’s column on Sep 5, 2017:

“Is it true that Shai Hope was the first to score two centuries in the same match at Headingley? asked Brian McKenzie from Barbados
Remarkably, it is correct: in scoring 147 and 118 not out in his first match at Headingley, Shai Hope achieved what no one else had managed in 533 previous first-class matches on the ground. Yorkshire greats like Herbert Sutcliffe and Geoffrey Boycott played 61 and 59 times at Headingley respectively, but never managed two hundreds in the same game. Hope, of course, was nearly pipped to the honour by Kraigg Brathwaite, who followed his first-innings 134 with 95 in the second. According to the BBC scorer Andrew Samson, the ground that has now staged most matches without anyone making twin centuries there is Weston-super-Mare, with 191.”

 

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 6-1 margin. That was a 7-match series along with a separate ODI for a benefit, which the unwary may consider as an 8-match series.

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.