Review of Pakistan-Sri Lanka Tests (Jul 2022)-Part 1

The 2-Test series was drawn 1-1. This is the overall summary:

Pakistan leads 21-17 overall. They also lead 9-8 for matches in Sri Lanka as well as 9-6 in Pakistan. However they are tied at 3-3 for matches in neutral countries.

We look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (750 or more):

The most centuries are 10 by Sangakkara, followed by 8 by Aravinda and Younis Khan.

The most 50+ scores are 22 by Sangakkara, followed by 14 by Younis Khan.

Sangakkara has the most runs, followed by Younis Khan by some distance.

Mathews and Azhar Ali have the most runs among current players.

Highest innings (150 or more):

Matches between these teams have generally been high-scoring, with a triple century by Younis Khan and 250+ by Jayasuriya follwed by several other double centuries. The highest score in this series was 160* by A Shafique (that too in a 4th-innings chase).

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, 30.00):

Sangakkara’s average of 74+ is considerably more than the next (Inzamam with 59+). Mathews and Karunaratne have the highest averages among current players.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced, 45.00):

Unexpectedly, the highest strike rate was 70+ by Sarfaraz Ahmed followed by Dilshan at 63+. Babar Azam and Karunaratne have the best figures among current players.

To be continued: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/08/01/review-of-pakistan-sri-lanka-tests-jul-2022-part-2/

Ollie Pope’s fielding record

Ollie Pope is one of the regulars in England’s team, although he was dropped for the 4th Test at Sydney. However, he acted as a substitute wicket-keeper when both Buttler and Bairstow were injured. In doing so he had a share in two Test records in fielding:

Most catches in an innings by a substitute fielder:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283627.html

Most catches in a match by a substitute fielder:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283623.html

It should be noted that dismissals by keepers and non-keepers have been mixed up here.

In the innings records, WP Saha and OJ Pope both took 4 dismissals in an innings as keepers, while Younis Khan was a fielder. Interestingly, Saha and Pope both achieved this at Sydney a year apart.

In the match records, Saha and Pope are the only keepers with 4 dismissals.

The fielders with 4 catches in a match are Gursharan Singh, Younis Khan, V Sehwag and JM Bird.

And KS Bharat (3 dismissals) is the only one in these two lists who is yet to play a Test.

It may be recalled that he is one of only 3 substitutes to make a stumping.

Stumped by a substitute-a rare occurrence.

Review of Bangladesh-Pakistan Tests (Dec 2021)

Tests between these sides have invariably been one-sided, as you can see in this list below:

Pakistan has won 12 of these 13 Tests with one draw.

In Bangladesh, Pakistan leads 7-0 with 1 draw.

In Pakistan, Pakistan leads 5-0.

The one exception to heavy defeats was at Multan in 2003 where Bangladesh came within one wicket of defeating Pakistan. Inzamam (in his home town) was able to scrape through a 1-wicket win here.

We now look at individual scores, starting with Batting:

Most runs (minimum 400):

Azhar Ali has the highest total among current players, followed by Shakib Al Hasan.

The most centuries are 3 by M Hafeez and Younis Khan. The most 50+ scores are 7 by Habibul Bashar (who had only one century). Next are Taufeeq Umar and Shakib with 5 each.

Highest innings (minimum 100):

Abid Ali and Liton Das scored centuries in the just-concluded series.

Yasir Hameed scored centuries in both innings on his Test debut, but never made another century.

There is not enough data (minimum 20 innings) for calculating batting averages.

But we can find batting strike rates (for those with a minimum of 1000 balls faced).

Younis Khan leads 4 Pakistani players here.

Now for Bowling.

Most wickets (minimum 10 wickets):

Current player Taijul Islam (22) has the most for Bangladesh, although Danish Kaneria has the most with 34. Umar Gul also has 22. Newcomers Sajid Khan and SS Afridi are also here.

Best innings bowling (all 6wi and above):

Sajid Khan’s 8-42 is now the best in this series, surpassing Danish’s 7-77.

Taijul Islam now has the best innings figures for Bangladesh (7-116) surpassing Shakib’s 6-82.

Best match bowling (including all 8wm):

Here Sajid Khan’s 12-128 is second to Danish’s 12-94.

In this series, Taijul Islam had the best figures for Bangladesh (8-205).

Best bowling averages-not enough data as no one has bowled 2000 balls.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (Minimum 8):

Rashid Latif has by far the most dismissals (26). Next is Khaled Mashud with 9.

Among fielders, Azhar Ali and Younis Khan have 8 each. Mahmudullah has 7.

Innings dismissals (Minimum 4):

Match dismissals (Minimum 5):

Rashid Latif again leads with 7 dismissals, while Shadab Kabir had 5 as a fielder.

All-round match performance (Minimum 50+ and 5-for):

Here we have the best performance by a Bangladesh player, with Shakib scoring 144 and taking 6-82).

Centuries in the fourth innings of Tests

Hope you have seen the previous post:

Centuries in the third innings of Tests

Finally, we look at centuries in the fourth innings:

It is clearly more difficult to make a century in the fourth innings than the other innings. The most centuries here is by Younis Khan (5), while 4 others have scored 4 each (GC Smith, RR Sarwan, RT Ponting and SM Gavaskar).

Among current players there are KS Williamson (3), AK Markram, BA Stokes and several others with 2.

Among Indian players, there are Gavaskar (4) and Tendulkar (3).

Those who loved the fourth innings:

W Watson (Eng) made both his centuries in the fourth innings.

No one else has scored 2 or more centuries in the fourth innings and none in other innings.

The next best is 2 out of 4 by JB Stollmeyer.

Those who hated the fourth innings:

There is a long list of prominent batsmen who scored many centuries but none in the fourth innings.

This is headed by SR Waugh (Aus) with 37 centuries. Next are SPD Smith (Aus) with 32, M Yousuf (Pak) with 24, JE Root and V Sehwag with 23.

It is just possible that Smith and Root will score a century in the fourth innings in the future. Or Smith may cross Waugh’s record of 37.

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.

 

Rail Quiz no 3

Today we move to the railways of Pakistan.

This station serves a small city in Khyber-Pakhtunwa (formerly NWFP). Today the city may be famous for a leading cricketer who was born there:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-pakistan-2016/content/current/player/43652.html

Also see this article: http://www.radiotnn.com/mardan-railway-stations-reopening-not-possible-in-near-future/

The station has not seen any train traffic since 2007. But once it held an unusual record for the railways of South Asia. What was this record?

If you can’t think of the answer right away, read the above article again and also check its location on Google Maps etc. (No, this has nothing to do with Abbottabad and its most famous resident).

Souroshankha Maji got it right-Mardan was, for many years, the northern-most junction in South Asia. This will be apparent from the map of the “Pakistan Western Railway” which probably dates from the mid-60s, when the railway network was virtually at full strength. The closure of lines started some years ago, starting with the minor branch lines in Sind and the NG lines close to the Afghan borders.

(From “Couplings to the Khyber”, PSA Berridge, 1969)

(Note: the metre gauge lines are not shown distinctly in this map, though the narrow gauge lines are. At that time the MG lines ran from Hyderabad (or maybe Mirpur Khas) to Khokhropar, the Jamrao-Pithoro loop and Mirpur Khas to Nawabshah.)

As you can see, Durgai was then the northernmost station in South Asia. It did exist prior to partition, so it was the northernmost station in British India as well. The Mardan-Charsadda branch was built in the 1950s, making Mardan the northern-most junction in South Asia.

Since around 2000 the Nowshera-Durgai and Mardan-Charsadda branches have been closed-even though Mardan is the second largest town in Khyber-Pakhtunwa, ahead of better-known places such as Abbottabad. A study of the current Pakistan timetable shows that the branch from Attock City Jn to Basal Jn is still open, thus making Attock City Jn (formerly Campbellpur Jn) the northern-most junction in South Asia. Next would be Taxila Cantt Jn (formerly Taxila Jn) which still has a branch to Havelian.

Nowshera (formerly a junction) would appear to be the northern-most station in Pakistan today, considering that the Peshawar-Landi Kotal line has been closed for several years.

In the mean time Sopore (followed by the larger Baramulla) have become the northern-most stations in South Asia. However, the Kashmir valley line is not yet linked to the rest of the Indian Railways network, whose northernmost point remains at Katra, with the slightly larger town of Udhampur a little further south.

Udhampur was the terminus for several years, but the  station has rather primitive facilities compared to Katra’s showpiece station.

And this is the southern end of the Kashmir valley railway, close to the 11 km long Pir Panjal tunnel.