Review of T20Is between India and Sri Lanka-Jan 2023

India won the most recent T20I series 2-1 at home.

A total of 29 T20Is have been played between these teams.

India leads 19-9 with 1 no-result.

In India, India leads 13-3 with 1 no-result

In Sri Lanka, India leads 5-3

On neutral grounds, India trails 1-3.

We now look at individual performances, starting with Batting:

Most runs (250 runs or more):

Headed by current players MD Shanaka and RG Sharma.

Only 2 centuries have been made, by RG Sharma and SA Yadav.

Regarding 50+ scores, Kohli has made 4 and several others made 3.

Highest innings scores (75 and above):

SA Yadav’s 112* in 2023 is the second highest score here.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings):

MD Shanaka is the only one who has played enough.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 250 balls faced):

RG Sharma has the best strike rate here, closely followed by Shanaka.

Now for Bowling:

Most wickets (8 or more):

YS Chahal leads by a comfortable margin. Chameera is the next highest among current players.

Best bowling (including all 4wi or better):

Headed by Ashwin’s 4-8 in 2016. Newcomer Shivam Mavi had the best figures (4-22) in the 2023 series.

Most dismissals (5 or more):

Led by Dhoni with 18. He also has the most stumpings with 9. Pandya has the most catches by a fielder (11)

Most dismissals in an innings (3 or more):

Headed by Dhoni with 4, while Nissanka has the most for Sri Lanka.

Best match performance (30 runs and 3wi):

Yuvraj Singh is the only one to reach this mark.

Review of India-South Africa T20Is-Oct 2022

The two sides had met before in June 2022, when the 5-match series was drawn 2-2. This time India won 2-1. It was the first time India had won a bilateral series against SA at home. They had won series in SA earlier.

Here is a summary of all T20Is between the sides:

India still trails SA 6-5 at home, but leads 5-2 in SA and 3-1 at neutral venues. And India also won the first T20I World Championship in SA in 2007.

Overall, India leads 13-9.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (200 and above):

Headed by current player RG Sharma with 405 runs. Miller has the highest for SA with 320.

RG Sharma, Raina and Miller are the only ones to score centuries. de Kock has the most 50+ scores with 4.

Highest innings (60 and above):

In this series Miller made 106* in the 2nd match, the highest score in matches between these sides. Rossouw made 100* in the 3rd match. Previously SA’s record against India was 81 by H Klaasen earlier in 2022. The best innings by India in this series was was 61 by SA Yadav.

There is not enough data for meaningful calculation of batting averages and strike rates.

Now for

Bowling:

Most wickets (6 and above):

Led by current player B Kumar with 14 wickets. From SA, three players have 8 wickets each.

B Kumar is the only one with a 5-for. He is also the only one with 2 4-fors.

Best innings bowling (includes all 3wi and above):

B Kumar has the best figures of 5-24 back in 2018. The best in this series were D Pretorius’s 3-26 and Arshdeep’s 3-32.

Meaningful calculation for bowling averages, economy rates and strike rates cannot be done here either.

Now for

Fielding:

Most dismissals (5 and above):

Fielders RG Sharma (10 catches) and SK Raina (9 catches) lead here. The best by a keeper is 7 by de Kock.

Most innings dismissals (3 and above):

Several players have made 3 dismissals. Karthik has made 2 stumpings as a keeper. Miller was the only fielder to take 3 catches in this series. Oddly, no one has made a catch as a keeper.

All-round match performance (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

Two similar performances by Yuvraj and Pretorius, but nothing worthwhile in this series.

Review of Zimbabwe-India ODIs (Aug 2022)

This series was the first time India had played Zimbabwe in ODIs since 2016. India won 3-0, following their earlier clean sweeps in 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Summary of all ODIs between these teams:

India leads 54-10 overall and 22-4 in Zimbabwe.

We now look at individual performances, starting with

Batting:

Most runs (500 or more):

Tendulkar and Ganguly have almost the same totals. No current players here. The most are by Sikandar Raza (388) and S Dhawan (367).

The most centuries are 5 by Tendulkar and 3 by Ganguly.

The most 50+ scores are 12 by A Flower and 11 by A Campbell

Highest innings (100 or more):

Here there are some new records:

Shubham Gill’s 130 is the highest for India in Zimbabwe (surpassing Tendulkar’s 127* in 1998)

Sikandar Raza’s 115 is the highest for Zimbabwe at home vs India (surpassing E Chigumbura’s 104* in 2015).

Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, 30.00):

Tendulkar leads by a large margin, while recent players have not played enough.

Highest strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):

Yuvraj leads here, while recent players are again absent.

Bowling:

Most wickets (15 or more):

Unexpectedly, Agarkar has the most wickets here. None from recent years.

No one has taken more than one 5wi. The most 4+wi are 4 by Zaheer Khan and 3 by Agarkar.

The most by current players is 14 by AR Patel.

Best innings bowling (includes all 5wi and better):

Newcomer Brad Evans is the only current player here. India’s best bowling is a 6-for by the nearly forgotten A Mishra.

Bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Agarkar has the best bowling average and strike rate. Kumble has the best economy rate.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

A Flower leads by a large margin, and A Campbell has the most catches by a fielder.

Dravid, who played in some matches as a keeper, has the most dismissals for India.

Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):

The most dismissals are 5 by Kirmani and N Mongia, while VVSL has the most (4) by a fielder.

Highest dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.500):

A Flower leads, while Azharuddin has the best rate by a fielder.

All-round performance (overall):

Minimum 20 innings and 1000 balls bowled:

Only Streak has batted and bowled enough. He does not really qualify to be an all-rounder in these matches.

All-round performance (match):

Minimum 30 runs and 3 wickets:

The best performances here are by Ganguly (2000) and Crocker (1992).

Review of England vs India ODIs-Jul 2022 (Part 2)

Hope you have read Part 1.

Continuing with individual records

Fielding:

Most dismissals (12 or more):

Led by Dhoni (55) and current player Buttler.

The most by a fielder is 24 by Collingwood.

Most innings dismissals (4 or more):

Dhoni is the only one with 6 dismissals, followed by the forgotten S Viswanath and today’s Buttler. No fielder took 4 or more catches.

Dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, 0.600):

The current player Buttler is followed by Dhoni at a distance. Azharuddin has the highest rate as a fielder, followed by Dravid who was the keeper in some matches.

All-round performance:

Overall (Minimum 20 innings and 1000 balls bowled):

The current player Jadeja has left Kapil and Flintoff far behind,

Match performance (Minimum 40 and 4wi):

In this short list, Yuvraj’s performance would be followed by Pandya’s in this series.

Review of England vs India ODIs-Jul 2022 (Part 1)

India won this series 2-1, after winning the T20I series 3-0.

This summarises all ODIs played between these teams:

India lead England 57-44 in ODIs, although England lead 23-18 for ODIs played in England.

We now look at individual performances.

Batting:

Most runs (600 or more):

The most runs are 1546 by Dhoni and 1523 by Yuvraj, and the highest is 1163 by Bell.

Kohli (1340) has the most by current players.

The most centuries are 4 by Yuvraj, followed by 3 by Kohli and Root.

The most 50+ scores are 12 by Kohli, Raina and Tendulkar. The most for England is 9 by Pietersen.

Highest innings scores (115 and more):

The highest by a current player is 137* by RG Sharma, while the highest in this series is 125* by RR Pant. The highest for England is 158 by Strauss in the 2011 World Cup.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):

Led by Azharuddin by a large margin. Pietersen has the highest average for England, and Jadeja (!) the highest among current players.

Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced and 75.00):

The current pair of Bairstow and Stokes have the highest strike rates, followed by Sehwag and Yuvraj for India.

Now for

Bowling:

Most wickets (20 or more):

The highest are by Anderson and Jadeja. The latter has the highest for India and current players.

The most 5wis are 2 by Harbhajan, and the most 4wis are 2 by several players.

Best innings performances (including all 5wi):

The best performance here is Bumrah’s 6-19 which is the best for Ind vs Eng, surpassing Nehra’s 6-23 (in SA) and K Yadav’s 6-25 in England.

Similarly R Topley’s 6-24 is the best for Eng v Ind, surpassing RS Irani’s 5-26 in 2002

It is also the best for England in all ODIs, surpassing Collingwood’s 6-31 against BD in 2005.

Best bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all cases):

Srinath and current player Jadeja have the best averages. Flintoff has the best for England

The best economy rates are by Kapil and Harbhajan.

The best strike rates are by Jadeja and Srinath.

To be continued.

Most runs in an over, across formats

Starting with T20Is:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284226.html

The record of 36 was first achieved by Yuvraj vs Broad in 2007, and later equalled by K Pollard vs A Dananjaya in 2021. As you can see, they were perfect 6 X 6s without the aid of no-balls and wides. No other batsman from India has scored 26 or more.

Now to ODIs:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/278847.html

This was first achieved by HH Gibbs (SA) vs DLS van Bunge (NL) in the 2007 World Cup. It was equalled by JS Malhotra (USA) v G Toka (PNG) in 2021. Both of these were perfect 6 x 6s.

The best for India is 32 (SS Iyer 31, R Pant 1) vs RL Chase (WI) in 2019.

And for Tests:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/233006.html

Bumrah vs Broad in 2022 would be fresh in your minds. See Footnote 3 in this link

The previous record was 28 by BC Lara (WI) v RJ Peterson (SA) in 2003.

The next best for India is 26 by HH Pandya vs PM Pushpakumara (SL) in 2017.

The only entry before 1980 is the 25 by B Sutcliffe (19) and RW Blair (6) vs HJ Tayfield in 1953-and that was an 8-ball over. There was an human-interest angle here, as Blair had just learnt of his fiancee’s death in NZ’s worst rail accident. And the SA fast bowlers had injured more than one NZ batsman.

History of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup

Results of tournament since it started in 1988 are given below.

India has won this 5 times (2000, 2008, 2012, 2018 and 2022) besides being runners-up in 2006, 2016 and 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-19_Cricket_World_Cup#Results

It is interesting to look at the team sheets of the winners and runners-up to see if the prominent players at the under-19 level did well at higher levels. For instance, Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh played for India in 2000. Yuvraj was the player of the tournament here.

Review of India-Sri Lanka T20Is

This T20I series in July 2021, like the ODI series which preceded it, only taught us that:

India C is better than Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is better than India D.

It was the first bilateral series in any format which Sri Lanka had won against India since July 2008.

A summary of all T20Is between these teams:

22 matches. India lead 14-7 with 1 no result.

In India: India lead 8-2 with 1 NR

In Sri Lanka: India lead 5-3

Neutral: Sri Lanka lead 2-1

A summary of individual performances follows. The number of matches is not enough for meaningful calculation of averages, strike rates and the like.

Most runs (100 or more):

Dhawan moved into the top position ahead of Kohli. MD Shanaka has the most runs by any current SL player.

RG Sharma is the only one with a century, while Kohli is the only one with 4 50+ scores.

Highest innings score (50 or more):

From this bowler-dominated series there is only SA Yadav’s 50.

Most wickets (8 or more):

YS Chahal and PVD Chameera from the current series are at the top. Chahal is the only one with 2 four-fors.

Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 4wi or more):

While the overall record is still Ashwin’s 4-8, it was almost surpassed by Hasuranga’s 4-9 in this series. There is also B Kumar’s 4-22 from this series.

Most dismissals (5 or more):

Dominated by Dhoni, while HH Pandya has the most catches by a non-keeper.

Most dismissals in an innings (3 or more):

Dhoni again.

Best all-round match performances (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

Yuvraj’s 60* and 3-23 is clearly the best. No good performances in this series.

Performances in CWC 2019

Batting:

Most runs (400 runs and above):

Note 5 centuries by RG Sharma, while Shakib Al Hasan has 7 scores of 50+.

Only 1 run separates the leader RG Sharma (648) and runner up DA Warner (647).

Highest innings (95 and above):

Not as high-scoring as the 2015 WC, which had scores of 215 and 237.

Bowling:

Most wickets (12 and above):

Note that MA Starc has 4 hauls of 4wi and above, followed by M Shami with 3.

Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 4wi and better):

Fielding:

Most dismissals (8 and above):

JE Root has the most catches (13) by a non-keeper.

Most innings dismissals (4 and above):

CR Woakes and JM Bairstow have the most catches by non-keepers (4) which equals the existing World Cup record held by several others.

All-round performance:

Overall:

Shakib Al Hasan with 606 runs and 11 wickets is clearly leading here, followed by the less expected all-rounder JDS Neesham.

Match performances (30 runs and 3 wickets):

Only these two. Shakib and Yuvraj Singh (vs Ireland in 2011) are the only two with 50/5wi in a World Cup match.

Man of the Series:  KS Williamson, presumably for his captaincy as well as being the 4th top scorer with 578 runs.

 

India at the World Cup over the years-2

With India finishing its commitments at the 2019 World Cup, we look at individual performances in all the World Cups from 1975 to 2019.

Batting:

Most runs (500+):

While Kohli is second, he still has less than half the runs scored by Tendulkar. RG Sharma and Dhoni are next among current players.

Tendulkar and RG Sharma each have 6 centuries. Tendulkar also has the most 50+ scores (21), followed by Sharma with 9. Note Sharma’s conversion rate; he scored a century on 6 of the 9 occasions when he crossed 50. And Dhawan did the same on 3 of the 4 occasions!

Highest innings (95+):

This lists all the centuries and near-centuries. No one had scored an ODI century for India until Kapil did so in 1983. Note Gambhir’s 97 in the 2011 final. No one from either India or WI crossed 40 in the 1983 final.

Batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Some like RG Sharma, Gavaskar and Dhawan miss out as they did not play enough WC matches. Dhoni is in the middle of this table.

Strike rates (Minimum 500 balls faced, all instances):

The names at the top are predictable. And that Dhoni and Kohli (?) are in the middle, with Gavaskar and M Amarnath bringing up the rear.

Bowling:

Most wickets (10+):

The top position of 44 wickets is shared by Zaheer Khan and Srinath, with the former bowling significantly less overs. M Shami has the highest among current players.

No one has more than one fiver. M Shami is the only one with 4 four-fors, followed by Srinath and UT Yadav with 2 each.

Best innings bowling (including all instances of 4+ wickets):

The best figures here are by A Nehra (the only 6-for). The highest among current players is 4-16 by M Shami. His 4-40 including a hat-trick is further down.

Bowling averages (Minimum 1000 balls bowled, all instances):

Zaheer Khan has the best average and best strike-rate, while Kapil Dev has the best economy rate. None of the current bowlers have played enough.

Fielding:

Most dismissals (10+):

Dhoni has more than twice the dismissals of the next man Dravid, while regular keeper KS More has the same number of dismissals.

Dhoni has the most dismissals (42), stumpings (8), and catches by a keeper (34). Kohli and Kumble have the most catches by non-keepers (14).

Most dismissals in an innings (3+):

The most dismissals are by Kirmani and Mongia (5 apiece). M Kaif has the most (4) by a non-keeper. He held this World Cup record from 2003 to 2015, when others also took 4 catches in an innings.

Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):

Dhoni is the highest, followed by Dravid who kept in most of his WC matches. Kohli and Sehwag have the most among non-keepers.

All-round performance:

Overall (see criteria in table):

Kapil is the only one from India to reach this standard. Imran and Kallis also reached this, although Botham and Hadlee did not.

Match performance (30 runs and 3 wickets):

Yuvraj is here in his purple patch leading to the Man of the Series award in 2011. He and Shakib are the only ones with 50/5 in the World Cup. Next best is Kapil’s in 1983, although it ended in a defeat.

 

 

 

India at the World Cup over the years-1

1975: Group stage.

1979: Group stage (no wins).

1983: Won, vs WI in finals.

1987: Lost in SF to Eng.

1992: Group stage.

1996: Lost in SF to SL.

1999: Super Six.

2003: Lost in final to Aus. Tendulkar is Man of the Series.

2007: Group stage.

2011: Won, vs SL in finals. Yuvraj is Man of the Series.

2015: Lost in SF to Aus.

2019: Lost in SF to NZ.

All-round match performances in the World Cup

Here is a list of all instances of 40+ runs and 4+ wickets in World Cup matches from 1975 up to June 24, 2019:

While some of these figures seem impressive, most of them have come against weak teams (if not minnows, teams which did not go beyond the first round). The exceptions are Flintoff (E v Ire), and Russell (WI v E). We already know that Afg will not be in the second round in 2019.

The only instances of 50/5wi are by Yuvraj Singh (I v Ire, 2011) and Shakib Al Hasan (BD v Afg, 2019).

Both of them have had impressive all-round performances throughout the tournament. Yuvraj was Man of the Series in 2011, when India won. Yuvraj had 362 runs and 15 wickets in 2011. Shakib has (at the time of writing on June 24) 471 runs and 10 wickets. He and David Warner (447 runs) seem to be main contenders for Man of the Series now.

In 1999, L Klusener had 281 runs and 17 wickets which earned him the Man of the Series award. His team lost narrowly in the semi-final.