I am working on a set of Test pages that may in the future lead to a large project. I have created some extended statistics for Test from a selected period (the 1940s) to see how they look. Having almost no skill in these matters, I don’t know how it will come out. Any feedback will be welcome.

Modifications will occur, so be patient as it is developed. Ball-by-ball pages have been added where available (most Tests). By putting two overs to a line, Test files can be kept well below 10 pages. Maybe it is not the easiest thing to read, but such stuff is for more dedicated fans.

There is also extra detailed information of falls of wicket for some series.

As far as I can see, no country has fielded an identical ODI XI more than two years apart. Sri Lanka had identical teams in these two ODIs, 682 days apart...

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/74/74463.html

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/79/79166.html

Sri Lanka used the same XI ten times in 1996, which was the team that won the World Cup.

In Tests, West Indies fielded identical XIs in two Tests 1059 days apart, from 1988 to 1991. The same XI played in nine other Tests in between, giving the most appearances by an identical XI. Of course, West Indies used other combinations in this period as well.

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Batsmen making Test centuries after being dropped on 0 (since 2001): AB de Villiers AJ Stewart AN Cook DR Martyn DS Lehmann Habibul Bashar Inzamam-ul-Haq KC Sangakkara KP Pietersen MEK Hussey ML Hayden SR Tendulkar RT Ponting.

Hayden and Inzamam appear twice. The highest score made by someone dropped on 0 is 270 by Sangakkara at Bulawayo 2004. Tendulkar was dropped on 0 when he made his highest Test score (248*). Hussey (195) was dropped first ball (debatable). de Villiers (164) was also dropped first ball.

[As always, some dropped catches are debatable, and others might not have been recorded.]

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Most expensive maiden overs: at Wellington in 1977/78, the first over of the match, bowled by Bob Willis, was a maiden costing ten runs: eight byes and two no balls.

In an ODI at Cuttack in 2008, Irfan Pathan bowled a maiden over with eight leg byes.

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I did do a calculation recently that in since 2013 teams batting first, for the full 50 overs, reached the halfway score point early in the 32nd over, on average. This is a slight shift from earlier times, where the halfway was indeed about 30 overs.

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Victor Trumper once scored 50 runs off nine balls bowled by one bowler. It was in a first grade match in October 1907 (not first-class, but quite a high level) during an innings of 89 in 35 minutes for Paddington v Waverley. The bower was Rose, and the hits were 4,4,6,6,6,6 (in one over) then 6,6,6.

The account is unclear but it seems very likely that Trumper faced ball(s) in between the two overs. Other sources say that Trumper faced ten balls from Rose, with a dot ball in the second over, but the Sydney Mail of 30 October 1907 says explicitly…

“In Rose's following over, Trumper was brought face to face with him at the fourth ball, and he hit three more sixers off the three remaining balls, which gave a total of a half century off nine balls received in succession from Rose."

17 March 2015

Bland

I have been trying to blog something about the World Cup. Of course, there are many possibilities but I struggle for inspiration, I’m afraid. Cricket is becoming disengaged from its traditions, and it gets harder to compare the players with their predecessors, particularly in the one-day game.

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Some rough notes on deaths and serious injuries in cricket…

In first-class cricket, fatal incidents like Philip Hughes are extremely rare. In Australian first-class cricket, Hughes is the only batsman to be struck by a fast ball and die as a result. Overseas, there are a couple of others: George Summers in England in 1870, and Abdul Aziz in Pakistan in 1959. (Aziz was struck in the chest by a slow bowler, and may have had a heart condition. Legend has it that the scorebook listed Aziz in the second innings as “Absent dead”). Very few if any others.

There have been a few incidents that looked similar to Hughes. Justin Langer was struck in the same area in 2006, first ball, and spent a little time in hospital. Only a few weeks before Hughes, Ahmed Shahzad was struck in the same area, in a Test match, and suffered a fractured skull. He did not retire hurt because he fell on his stumps and was out hit wicket.

Fielders have also died, on rare occasions, after being struck. Raman Lamba, who played for India, died after being struck (without a helmet) while fielding at short leg in a first-class match in Dhaka in 1998.

There have been near-fatal injuries to Test batsmen. In 1929, Jock Cameron, captain of South Africa, was unconscious for several days after being struck by Harold Larwood. In 1974, tailender Ewan Chatfield was struck in the temple by Peter Lever, collapsed and stopped breathing. He was revived by a quick-thinking physiotherapist who rushed onto the field. Chatfield went on to have a successful Test career. In 1979, Rick Darling was struck in the chest by Bob Willis, couldn’t breathe, and had to be revived.

There would be more incidents in minor cricket, but I haven’t seen a list of such cases in Australia.

Deaths from other causes have occurred in first-class cricket, and some senior cricketers have died while playing minor matches, including Ian Folley of Lancashire who was struck in the eye. In that case, the injury required surgery but was not itself life-threatening; Folley’s death during surgery was due to medical negligence. Wilf Slack was a Test cricketer who died on the field (heart attack in a minor match in Africa), also Wasim Raja of Pakistan (at age 56 in a minor match). Andy Ducat, who had played one Test, dropped dead during a minor match in 1942. Maurice Nichol, age 29, of Worcestershire died (during the night) of a heart attack during a 3-day first-class match in 1934. The match continued without him! There have been deaths in car accidents during matches including Charles Bull in 1939.

Perhaps the strangest was the death of Frederick Prince of Wales in 1751. Frederick was the heir to the British throne and a keen cricketer. His death from a lung abscess supposedly resulted from being hit by a cricket ball, although this is unproven.

There have also been deaths of umpires during matches, including Syd Buller (in 1970) who had been a survivor of the Charles Bull car crash. An umpire in Israel was killed by a cricket ball just a few weeks after Hughes’ death.

On debut in 1975/76, the first two balls bowled to Graham Yallop were bouncers; the first one knocked his cap off. In 1978, Yallop became the first batsman in Tests to wear a helmet, although they had been used earlier in Packer’s ‘World Series Cricket’ (firstly by Dennis Amiss). A serious injury to David Hookes, trying to hook an Andy Roberts’ bouncer in the early days of World Series Cricket, stimulated the adoption of helmets. Cricket helmets had been made in the 1960s (for Australia in the West Indies in 1965) but were never used.

In club cricket in the 1980s, helmets were little used.

For some years in the 70s and 80s there was a prohibition on ‘intimidatory’ bowling in the Laws of Cricket. However, the definition of that was left up to the umpires, and one or two bouncers (or even more) per over generally did not initiate a warning. From about 1986, there was a specific limit of one bouncer per over in One-Day Internationals. This was extended to Test cricket in 1991 (after a heavy bouncer onslaught by West Indies against England in April 1991), but was relaxed to two bouncers per over in 1994.

I have a few scoresheets from the 70s and 80s that mark when bouncers were bowled. I have only taken a quick look, but for the West Indian pace attack, one per over was not uncommon but two was a little unusual. More than that was very unusual. One problem with such stats is in the definition of a bouncer: a ball that rises fast towards the chest may be more dangerous that a very short ball at the batsman’s head, but may not count as a bouncer.

Some statistics follow on the historical incidence of batsmen retiring hurt in Tests. This is not a direct measure of bouncers but gives a general idea. Note that many batsmen who are hit do not retire hurt, and others retire hurt for other reasons (Michael Clarke notably). However you can see how the frequency of retired hurt increased substantially with the increase in the number of fast bowlers (and their aggressiveness) in the 1970s and 1980s. The numbers began to decline again in the late 1980s as the use of helmets and other protection became more widespread. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the incidence of retired hurt was higher against the West Indies bowlers than other countries.

In the last five years, retired hurt rates continued to fall. I am not sure why this is. The rate is now so low that bowlers are now more likely to retire hurt than batsmen.

Historical Rate of Batsmen Retiring Hurt in Tests (numbers Retiring Hurt per 10 Tests)

	RH per 10 Tests	RH	Tests
1877-1914	0.60	8	134
1920-1939	0.79	11	140
1945-1959	1.80	39	217
1960s	1.37	25	182
1970-74	2.44	21	86
1975-79	2.67	32	120
1980-84	2.63	36	137
1985-89	1.64	21	128
1990-94	1.18	18	153
1995-99	1.48	29	196
2000-04	1.05	27	257
2005-09	1.30	27	207
2010-14	0.60	12	199

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I can find only one case of a bowler taking a wicket, and then losing his own wicket, off consecutive balls in a Test match. At the MCG in 1937, Bill O’Reilly dismissed Hedley Verity to finish off England for 76 on a sticky wicket. He was sent in to bat immediately as a nightwatchman, but fell to the first ball of the innings, c&b Voce. Too bad Voce wasn’t the man that O’Reilly had dismissed: that would have been a neat symmetry.

There are various cases of the converse, that is a batsman being out, then taking a wicket with the next ball of the match (first ball of the next innings). That is more common because opening bowlers are often tailenders and so frequently are last man out.

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Longest Career without a Man of the Match Award (since 1985)

Test

Moin Khan	69
PD Collingwood	68
D Ramdin	64
ADR Campbell	60
HAPW Jayawardene	58
FH Edwards	55
Habibul Bashar	50

ODI

NR Mongia	140
Khaled Mashud	126
DJ Richardson	122
Saeed Ajmal	111
IDS Smith	98
KS More	94

Historical list of fastest ODI 100s: Some early standards were set by Majid Khan, 100 off 88 balls in ODI #14, and Clive Lloyd, 100 off 82 balls in ODI #33. The next advance was very likely 100 off 72 by Zaheer Abbas in ODI #163. That and the rest can be found in Cricinfo's list of fastest 100s.

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Reaching a century off the last ball of an ODI innings: It happens occasionally. In 2011, Kane Williamson was 93 with one ball to play, and got his 100 thanks to 4 off a no ball and then 3.

DM Bravo also reached 100 off the last ball

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/480/480418.html

There are earlier cases.

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A wicket with first ball and last ball of an ODI innings:

There is Daryl Tuffey in 2001

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/71/71684.html

Nuwan Kulasekera took a wicket with the first ball and ran out a batsman with the last ball in 2009. He bowled the last over

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Score.../247/247209.html

Chaminda Vaas did it in this match:

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/63/63968.html

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Jim Laker bowled at least 674 balls to Frank Worrell without ever taking his wicket. There is data missing for one Test (Headingley 1957) but Laker probably did very little bowling to Worrell in that match.

Ray Illingworth probably bowled a similar number of balls to Garry Sobers, but data is quite incomplete here.

John Gleeson bowled 639 balls to John Edrich in 19 innings without a dismissal (data complete).

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12 February 2015

Never So Many

I have a posted a graph of the crowd trends in Australia over the last 50-odd years (sorry I can’t seem to embed it on this page). The figures are for daily average attendance, and so are not so much affected by fluctuations in the numbers of matches from year to year. The average uses smoothed data for 4-year intervals, to smooth out the bumps caused by Ashes years.

To better reveal underlying trends, World Cups are not included in the graph. Offseason matches were also excluded.

In spite of much doomsaying, Test match attendances have been rising more or less continuously in Australia for more than a quarter of a century. Attendances have basically doubled since 1980. Certainly there were times before 1980 when crowds were bigger, but back then there were fewer Tests, and fewer of them were played in smaller venues like Hobart and Perth.

Another striking feature is that attendances at Test matches are now exceeding limited overs internationals (ODI + T20i), even on a daily basis. For a full 4-year period, this has occurred the first time since ODIs became fully established in the calendar in 1979. This is partly due to a softening of support for ODIs during this century, but is something that would have been almost unimaginable 30 years ago, before Twenty20, when the doomsayers thought that ODIs would destroy Test cricket.

More than balancing the drop in ODIs has been a surge in interest in the franchise-based game, in the form of Twenty20 (Big Bash and so forth). As hard as I find it to get personally interested in this aspect, its success is always very welcome as long as it is not at the expense of the Test game.

The Big Bash attracted 823,000 people to the game this summer (might I recommend an excellent new website “Australian Sporting Attendances” that make this data easy to access), and it might have been even more if they had not scheduled the Final in Canberra. Once the World Cup is over, cricket will have had its biggest season ever in Australia. This is heartening at a local level, since A-League soccer has been moving in on cricket’s turf, so to speak. Good to see both thriving.

And now they are predicting a TV audience of a billion people for the upcoming India/Pakistan game in Adelaide in the World Cup, rivalling the Soccer World Cup final.

And yes, Test cricket is under threat and strain in other places, but that is a story for another day.

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Readjusting a Record

For some time I have listed Manchester 1936, the second session if the second day, as the highest-scoring 2-hour session in Test cricket, with 240 runs. This was based on a newspaper report that India was 69/0 at tea, after England (400/6 at lunch) declared at 571/8. Looking at a wider range of newspapers now online, this now seems unlikely. [Side note: the slow but sure extension of old newspapers available online is revolutionising this sort of research. In the past, I have actually made multiple trips to the British Library, 20,000 km round trip, to do such research, but even then I missed some of the reports I can now get online. The British Library was also not an easy place to do research for those with time constraints.]

The reports are not fully consistent. However, it appears that England declared at 3:50 and the Indian innings started at 4:04. India batted about 145 minutes before stumps at 6:30, Mushtaq Ali reaching 100 in 139 minutes and 105 out of 190 overnight. There was therefore no time for a tea break in this innings: it must have been taken between innings; unusually early, but it seems to be the case. This leaves us with 171 runs before tea and 190 after. The day remains the most productive in Test history with 588 runs. Unfortunately, none of the myriad sources gives the number of overs bowled during that day.

Perhaps the reported ‘tea’ at 69/0 was a drinks break after an hour, or at 5pm. At that ime, tea breaks were generally taken on the field in England and would have looked a lot like extended drinks breaks.

Mushtaq Ali’s innings needs to be added to the list of centuries in a session, even if the session was an extended one.

This re-establishes Australia’s 236/2 at Johannesburg in 1921 as the most productive 2-hour session in Tests.

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While I have them on hand here are some stats on the decline in caught and bowled dismissals. After reading about how the power in superbats can represent a hazard to infielders and umpires, I took a look at the proportion of catches in ODIs that are taken by the bowler. If balls are getting hit harder, you might expect fewer to be caught by the bowler. Indeed, there is a clear historical trend.

% catches in ODIs taken by the Bowler
1986-1990   7.8%
1991-1995   7.9%
1996-2000   7.9%
2001-2005   6.1%
2006-2010   5.7%
2011-2015   5.1%

C&B figures were very steady up to 2000 and then suddenly dropped (coinciding with the first Superbats) and continued to drop. For 2014-15, the figures have been even lower, at an all-time low of 4.2%. This is evidence that C&Bs in ODIs are getting harder to take.

In Tests there is a somewhat similar pattern, although less pronounced. C&B in Tests is somewhat lower, perhaps because far more catches go to the slips. The figure for 2011-15 of 3.4% is an all-time low. In three Tests so far 2015, there has been only one C&B in 61 catches.

Reaching a century in style: At Harare in 2002, Inzamam went from 68 to 102 in eight strokes, with 44644444 (not in consecutive balls). However, the six included overthrows.

Various players have seven, but most of the strokes came after reaching 100. At Napier in 2009, Laxman went from 77 to 105 with seven 4s. his scoring from 60 to 105 was 444414444444

Shakib al Hasan is the only player in my database to score more than 50 consecutive runs entirely in boundaries (going from 4 to 56 in 12 strokes at Hamilton in 2010).

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Since I have been logging dropped catches in Tests since 2001, the bowler with most catches dropped is Harbhajan Singh with 99, followed by Danish Kaneria with 93, up to July 2014. Spin bowlers tend to have a lot of chances go to short leg, which is the hardest position for catchers. Spinners also get more caught and bowled chances, which have a high drop rate.

Jimmy Anderson leads pace bowlers with 70.

While such data by nature is not rock solid (as others will point out at length) I consider the great majority of dropped catches to be clearly defined and the stats useful, if a little imprecise.

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Dominating scoring in an ODI: Gordon Greenidge reached his 100 out of 128 at Auckland in 1987

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/48/48414.html

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The following captains have taken the last wicket (for their team, not the last wicket of the match) AND scored the winning run in the same Test:

R Benaud, Lahore 1959
AR Border, SCG 1989
Shakib al Hasan, Grenada 2009.

Captains who scored the winning run most times: it is a tie between GC Smith, GS Chappell, and RT Ponting, each with four.

41 captains have hit the winning run in a Test match.

18 January 2015

The Official Ratings for Test Batsmen

For quite a few years now, perhaps a quarter of a century, a quasi-official player ratings system has been in place. It changes name regularly, along with sponsors, and is currently known as the Reliance ICC Player Ranking. If memory serves, its first manifestation, in the late 1980s, was the Deloitte Rankings.

The website with the current rankings embraces a mountain of data, with complete rankings, on a daily basis, available going back to the beginning, for various types of Men’s and Women’s international cricket. What is lacking there is any sort of deeper analysis. So I did a bit of downloading. Daunted by the volume of daily data, I downloaded month-by-month data for Test batsmen, going back to 1958. I could (and perhaps should) go back further, but I feel that the methodology works less well when matches are more infrequent, and there is a lack of genuinely competitive teams as one goes back further.

I leave it to others to argue the utility of the ratings. I would say, though, that the principle of weighting performances in favour of recent results is consistent with ratings methods in other sports, and does maintain an up-to-date feel.

Anyhow, some stats. Here are the most appearances at #1 by leading players

Most months as #1 batsman, since 1958

		Appearances	#1
G.S. Sobers	WI	240	122
I.V.A. Richards	WI	198	82
B.C. Lara	WI	191	43
S.R. Tendulkar	IND	289	40
G.A. Gooch	ENG	228	32
K.C. Sangakkara	SL	169	28
S.R. Waugh	AUS	214	26
R.T. Ponting	AUS	204	24
Javed Miandad	PAK	204	23
P.B.H. May*	ENG	45	20
S.M. Gavaskar	IND	191	19
J.H. Kallis	SA	192	18
A.R. Border	AUS	181	15
K.F. Barrington	ENG	127	15
G.M. Turner	NZ	167	14
C.G. Greenidge	WI	197	12
S. Chanderpaul	WI	250	12
R.B. Richardson	WI	138	12
A.B. de Villiers	SA	121	12
M.L. Hayden	AUS	132	10
K.D. Walters	AUS	182	9
G.R. Viswanath	IND	157	9
R.G. Pollock	SA	82	9
H.M. Amla	SA	105	9

*incomplete career.

(Sobers’ stats include appearances before 1958. He did not reach #1 until 1960.)

Sobers’ domination reflects the superiority of his performances in a time when scoring was generally not very high, and the great length of his career. Remarkably, his peak rating of 938 in January 1967 came at a time when he was also winning “Bowler of the Match” awards. He last held top ranking in March 1974, exactly 20 years after his debut and 14 years after his first #1 in 1960 (it is interesting that scoring 1115 runs in ten innings at an average near 200 in 1958 did not get him to #1). As for Richards, at his best I remember him as the most dominating batsman of his time, and unmatched since.

Another way of filtering the data, that might allow better comparison, would be to eliminate months where the player was #1 but did not play. This gives us months where a player actively held onto the top ranking.

#1 and played (retain)
GS Sobers	28
IVA Richards	27
SR Tendulkar	16
KC Sangakkara	15
BC Lara	14
GA Gooch	12
SM Gavaskar	12
SR Waugh	12

The next table shows players who actively regained #1 position most times.

Regain/lose
SR Tendulkar	11
BC Lara	9
IVA Richards	8
KC Sangakkara	8
AR Border	7
GS Sobers	7
JH Kallis	7

This data reflects battles royal for top position between Tendulkar and Lara, sustained over a number of years, and also between Richards and Border.

More stats:

· The highest rating since 1958 is 942 by Ricky Ponting in 2006.

· The highest rating for a player who was not #1 is also Ponting, 936 for #2 spot in December 2007, behind Sangakkara on 938.

· Most players with simultaneous ratings in the 900s: four in November 2007. Sangakkara ranked #4 with a rating of 900.

· The lowest rating for a #1 player is 736 by Ian Chappell in August 1973. Chappell, who had just one month as #1, reached a rating of 811 two years later, but never regained #1.

· Biggest lead for a #1 player is 140 by Sobers in Dec 1968. The only other players with 100 leads were Richards (peaking at 110), Gooch (100) and Steve Waugh (121 in Jan 1997).

· Most appearances at #2: 49 by Rohan Kanhai. For the reason why, see Sobers (above).

Finally some stats on Top 10 appearances, as a percentage of career. Interesting to see Kanhai besting Sobers on this measure.

	Months in Top 10	% career in Top 10
I.V.A. Richards	175	88.4%
A.R. Border	159	87.8%
Javed Miandad	179	87.7%
R.B. Kanhai	176	86.7%
G.S. Sobers	195	81.3%
R.B. Richardson	108	78.3%
B.C. Lara	147	77.0%
G.S. Chappell	109	70.3%
J.H. Kallis	134	69.8%
K.C. Sangakkara	114	67.5%

Finally finally, a word on Tendulkar. It is surprising that his rating never reached 900, peaking at 898 in 2002. More than 20 batsmen since the 1950s have reached higher ratings than this. Tendulkar spent a 53-month period outside the Top 10, from 2005 to 2009. Even so, he made 170 appearances in the Top 10. Perhaps his signal achievement was regaining #1, briefly in 2010, and then again in 2011 (tied with Kallis), more than 20 years after his debut. His appearances at # 1 spanned more than 16 years, surpassing even Sobers.

In Tests, the highest 'combined' average of hat-trick victims is 136.2 by IK Pathan in 2005-06 (Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf). Damien Fleming's hat-trick in 1994-95 totalled 129 and was notable in that the third victim, Salim Malik, had scored 237. This is the only case of the third man in a hat-trick having scored more than one run, and Fleming's total of 302 runs scored (by the batsmen) is the highest by a considerable margin.

It wasn't quite hat-trick, but Bill Voce once dismissed O'Brien, Bradman and McCabe in four balls.

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There was a 21+ hour spell of continuous Test cricket on 10/11 March 2001. West Indies/South Africa day 2 at Georgetown ran from 14:05-21:15 GMT. NZ/Pak day 3 at Auckland ran from 21:00-05:30 GMT thanks to a long extension to make up time lost on the previous day. India/Aust day 1 at Kolkata ran from 04:00-11:30 GMT.

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In the Melbourne Test, India reached a score of 402 before the first extra was recorded. This has no known precedent. In the 4th Test of 1957/58 at Johannesburg, Australia (401) reached 399 before the first and only extra of the innings, a leg bye. In that innings, there had been two no balls, but as they were scored from, they didn’t register as extras at the time. Australia (575) reached 371 with no extras (or no balls) in a Melbourne Test in 1947/48.

7 January 2015

‘Shortest Longest’ Innings

Cuan McCarthy, a South African fast bowler, still has claims on being the least effective Test batsman. In 24 innings, he scored 28 runs with a highest of 5. His longest innings (probably) was a 20-ball duck at Old Trafford in 1951. (Data is missing for one of his innings, but it was probably fewer than 20 balls).

Similarly, Bert Ironmonger (21 innings) had a longest known innings of 20 balls. Some data is missing but not likely to change this figure.

Jack Saunders, an Australian bowler from the early 1900s, batted 23 times but almost never for more than 15 minutes. However, there was one innings (2 runs) that may have been longer than that, but data is missing. Balls faced data is very patchy for his career. His only innings in double figures was 11 off 12 balls.

Bruce Reid batted 34 times with the longest being 32 balls. For longer careers, Chris Martin holds sway, with a longest innings of 34 balls.

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The Fastest Bowling of 2014

I surveyed Cricinfo's texts for 33 Tests in 2014, and it exemplified the problems in this area. There were about 1500 balls with reported speeds, only a small percentage of the 78,000 or so bowled. However, the highest of 157 kph, by Dale Steyn at Galle, was doubtful. Here is the text

[41.5 Steyn to Thirimanne, no run, teaser outside off to lure the batsman into a drive, Thirimanne doesn't bite and the speed gun says that ball was 157kph! Really did not look that fast]

Otherwise there was nothing above 153 kph (Morne Morkel 152.7 at Port Elizabeth; Mitchell Johnson registered 152 in the same match). The fact that these were in the same match might raise suspicions about calibration.

It would be possible to study the data a lot more deeply, but I am not sure it is reliable enough, or complete enough, to be worth it.

I saw Shaun Tait the other day, still going around in the T20 Big Bash. He is still firing them in at above 150 kph.

On reports that Richie Benaud is struggling with skin cancer:

I do recall about 10 years ago going to a function where there were quite a number of old-time Australian Test cricketers from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Seeing them in the flesh, I was struck by the observation that they all had one thing in common: weather-beaten skin. All of them had spent much too much time in the summer sun without the skin protection that is essential for us pale people.

There was an obsession with a 'healthy tan' back then. Australians from those times now have the highest rates of skin cancer in the world.

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No bowler has taken wickets with both the first ball and the last ball of a completed Test match, but Imran Khan (the original) came close. At Kandy in 1986, Imran dismissed Sidath Wettimuny with the second ball of the match, and later finished the match off by dismissing Jayananda Warnaweera, Pakistan winning the match by an innings.

There are 50 cases of a bowler taking both the first and last wickets of a completed Test. Brett Lee, Imran Khan and Waqar Younis all did so three times.

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At this point in time, there have now been 115 Test matches (including draws) since a player from a losing side won a Player of the Match (PoM) award.

There have been seven Tests in that time where a player from the losing side either scored more runs than the PoM (if the award went to a batsman), or took more wickets (if the award went to a bowler); awards for all-round performances were excluded from this part of the analysis.

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I figure that Wasim Akram bowled 20 hat-trick balls in Tests. 18 of them were unsuccessful. On other occasions Wasim took wickets with consecutive balls, but they were his last balls in the match, so there was no hat-trick ball. It's hard to check everyone, but there are no other contenders apart from Murali with 17 unsuccessful hat-trick balls.

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In India, bowlers seem to be in for nothing but toil and trouble in ODIs, especially at the hands of the Indian batsmen. Some stats: since 2011, teams batting first in India average 282, in other Test-playing countries it is 243. India averages 246 away and 299.7 (!) at home. Other teams that have played in India average 270 in India and 241 elsewhere.

(Uninterrupted games)

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Hitting the Winning Run in ODIs: since 1999, although data is not quite complete, there is no doubt about the leader. I found 24 cases for MS Dhoni, with no one else more than 12. Does not include matches that ended with extras.

Dhoni has been not out at the end of an ODI 38 times. (Of course, sometimes his batting partner hits the winning runs.) India lost only one of those games; on that occasion, against Pakistan, India was all out, so Dhoni has never been left not out at the end of 50 overs in a losing cause, at least when batting second.

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1 December 2014

The Least Desired Record

Shortest interval between last international appearance and date of death.

	Days		Died
GF Grace	14		1880
PJ Hughes	46	*	2014
BC Hollioake	53	*	2002
HB Cameron	74		1935
WW Whysall	81		1930
DJ Pringle	112	*	1975
OG Smith	162		1959
KJ Wadsworth	179	*	1976
DLS de Silva	301	*	1980
Manjural Islam Rana	356	*	2007
FW Milligan	360		1900
NBF Mann	366		1952

* indicates ODI appearance

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The Hot 100 for 2014

I have updated the lists for fastest and slowest scoring Test batsmen. As in past years, these lists change only slowly, but there is one new important entry, with David Warner qualifying for the first time, and making a spectacular entrance at #6 with a rate of 73.4 runs per 100 balls. We now have what appears a final rate for Virender Sehwag, who has held #2 spot just ahead of Adam Gilchrist.

Moving up the charts is Stuart Broad, who has scored at a Jessopian 113 r/100b in 2014, and gains 5 places, after losing some ground in 2013 thanks partly to an innings of 6 off 77 balls in an attempted match-save. Broad, however, has scored only one half-century in his last 48 Test innings. In better form was Brad Haddin, whose high and fast scoring since the last instalment sees him move from #53 to #42.

Lists for slowest scorers and most tenacious batsmen (longest average innings) don’t change much, but Faf du Plessis now qualifies for the latter list and is the highest-ranked present-day batsmen, for now at least. The evergreen Chanderpaul has moved up the list, averaging 148 balls per dismissal since the last assessment in 2013 and is now ranked #29.

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A regular feature of cricket commentary is the knell of articles proclaiming the decline and end of Test cricket. Maybe one day they will be right, but I am more than old enough to remember how in the 1980s One-Day cricket was swamping and destroying Test cricket in Australia. Some destruction: last December saw the all-time record cricket crowd, at the MCG, and it was in a Test. Earlier than that, Ashes Test in England in the 1970s were often played before half-empty stands.

In any case, the present situation in India, which has a monkey grip on the game’s finances, remains troubling. Test crowds there are poor to indifferent. Yet there is other evidence that Test cricket retains its fascination. You would think that Cricinfo, for example, would go wherever the interest goes, but Test cricket is not losing its place at Cricinfo, in my estimation.

Anyway, some stats. On Cricinfo, a recent Test in Dubai, before mostly empty stands, received 30 articles that attracted over 1150 comments from readers. (This is even though it involves Pakistan, a nation with intractable problems that cannot even host international cricket anymore.) I compared that to the final of the Champions League Trophy, a major match in the Indian T20 sledgehammer that is supposedly destroying Test cricket. The match got nine articles in Cricinfo that attracted a total of 179 comments.

There are still a lot of genuine Test cricket fans out there. It would certainly be interesting to see which matches get the most page visits at Cricinfo.

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Some more notes on tea intervals in early Tests.

Prior to 1914, 15-20 minute tea breaks in Australia were normal, but very variable in timing. There was usually no formal tea break if a change of innings occurred after lunch, and sessions as a result could last 2.5 hours or more, in a five-hour day. When Victor Trumper scored a 133 in a 'session' after tea in 1910/11, he batted 154 minutes and 47 overs.

Some reports of early Tests in Australia mention tea breaks taken on the field. Tea breaks occurred in Australia from the very early in the piece. I have noted a tea break on the first day of the 1878/79 Test when Australia was 40/3 after England was out for 113. The 1877 Tests prior to that had rather truncated hours and late lunch breaks.

Brodribb and others describe tea breaks being employed in England in the 1890s. However, I have never noted any references to mid-innings tea breaks in Test match reports from England prior to 1902. Tea breaks of a sort seem to have been taken if there was a change of innings during the afternoon. 15-minute tea breaks are evident in the scorebook of the 1905 series and thereafter.

Hours in the 1905 series appear to be : 11:30 (day 1) or 11:00 (other days) to 1:30; 2:15 to 4:30; 4:45 to 6:30.

Between the wars in England, more often than not, morning sessions were 2.5 hours, 45 minutes lunch, then 2 hour sessions with 15 minutes for tea. The first day was half an hour shorter than this. There were variations on this theme.

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Fewest runs in an uninterrupted drawn Test (5 days): It can be hard to tell whether a Test has had no interruptions at all. The Karachi Test of 1977/78 (769 runs) was uninterrupted, except for a visit by President Zia on Day 3. The scheduled hours were 5.5 per day, and the 5th day was called off an hour early (for 'lack of interest') .

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/37/37783.html

For a Test with 6-hour days, there was Cape Town 1992/93, 795 runs, which appears to be uninterrupted…

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/56/56784.html

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Lowest total at which a #4 batsmen reached 100 (remarkable): last year Mominul Haque reached 100 when his team was 128 at Chittagong against New Zealand.

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Score.../582/582017.html

This is quite close to the record for opening batsmen, by Chris Gayle (125, see 30 October 2013)). In 1967, Asif Iqbal once reached 100 when Pakistan was 194 for 8, and he batted at number 9!

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/29/29083.html

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An curious event towards the end of the Pakistan innings in the Test vs Australia in Dubai (1^st Test). Sarfraz Ahmed was out to the last ball before tea and the not out batsman Zulfiqar Babar retired hurt and did not resume after tea. Thus two new batsmen appeared for Pakistan post-tea.

At Hamilton in 1996, GR Loveridge retired hurt on the same ball that DN Patel was out (over 78 ball 3). Until Dubai, this was unique.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/wis.../content/story/153558.html

There was a case where Rahul Dravid retired hurt on the same ball as the bowler (Dillon).

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There are two players who have scored four centuries in a row against one opponent, while playing innings against other countries during the sequence.

HM Amla v India 2010 (253*, 114, 123*, 140)

Shoaib Mohammad v New Zealand 1989/90 (163, 112, 203*,105)

31 October 2014

The Slowest Days: A Surprising Analysis

There are record lists for the fewest runs in a “full” day’s play: Cricinfo has one here. It is distorted by the changing norms for over rates and length of daily play, varying over history and between countries. I was surprised to find that the record-holder, 95 runs in about 290 minutes play at Karachi in 1956, was a day with only 67.5 overs, vastly atypical for its time, and way below the standards for a ‘complete’ day even now. The next on the list, 104 runs in the equivalent Test in 1959/60, contained a mere 65 overs (that one was not strictly a complete day, as proceedings were interrupted by a visit and presentation to US President Eisenhower).

[The over counts are from my database: they are not available anywhere else.]

I thought it might be more useful to present the slowest days in term of runs per 100 balls. I simply set the bar at 67 overs or more, and didn’t worry too much about whether the days were absolutely complete or interrupted. Remarkably, the record-setting day in 1956 only scrapes into the list at about number 40, and the 1959 Test, even if it had qualified (too few overs), would not be in the top 100. Anyway, here is list of slowest day’s play. Some days were decidedly incomplete, but all had more than 67 overs. I have appended notes that help show whether a day was ‘complete’ or not.

Slowest Test Days, Minimum 67 Overs

			Day		Day Runs		Day Wkts		Day Overs		R/ 100B
	WI v Ind, Bridgetown, Barbados 1962		5		83		8		91.3		15.2		match ended before stumps
	WI v Eng, Bridgetown, Barbados 1954		3		128		7		114		18.7		5-hour day
	Aus v Eng, Brisbane ('Gabba') 1958/59 (8-ball ov.)		4		106		8		69		19.2		5-hour day
	Eng v NZ, Leeds (Headingley) 1958		3		81		11		70.1		19.3		rain interruptions
	Aus v Eng, Sydney (SCG) 1881/82 (4-ball ov.)		2		119		9		153.2		19.4		5-hour day
	Saf v Aus, Johannesburg (Wanderers) 1957/58 (8-ball ov.)		4		119		2		75.2		19.8		5.5 hour day
	WI v Ind, Bridgetown, Barbados 1962		4		152		4		127.3		19.9		5-hour day
	Pak v Ind, Peshawar (Club) 1954/55		1		129		6		106		20.3		5.5-hour day?
	NZ v Pak, Auckland 1964/65		1		161		8		131		20.5		6-hour day
	Ind v Eng, Kanpur 1963/64		3		136		3		109		20.8		5.5 hour day
	Aus v Eng, Melbourne (MCG) 1891/92		4		188		12		149.5		21.0		4.5 hour day
	Eng v Aus, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1956		5		121		8		96.2		21.0		match ended before stumps
	Aus v Eng, Brisbane ('Gabba') 1958/59 (8-ball ov.)		3		122		6		72.1		21.2		5-hour day
	Saf v Eng, Port Elizabeth 1956/57 (8-ball ov.)		3		122		8		72		21.2		5.5 hour day
	NZ v WI, Auckland 1951/52		3		101		7		79.4		21.2		5.5 hour day
	Saf v NZ, Durban (Kingsmead) 1953/54 (8-ball ov.)		4		127		8		74.1		21.4		5.5 hour day
	SL v SAf, Colombo2 (SSC) 2014		5		121		7		94		21.5		5.2 hours
	Ind v Pak, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) 1986/87		5		110		2		85		21.6		5.5 hour day
	Pak v Eng, Hyderabad (Pak) 1977/78 (8-ball ov.)		3		123		9		70.6		21.8		5.5 hour day
	Eng v NZ, Leeds (Headingley) 1958		5		97		7		74.2		21.8		Rain
	Ind v NZ, Bangalore 1988/89		3		136		6		104		21.8		6-hour day
	NZ v Saf, Wellington 1952/53		3		150		11		114.4		21.9		5.5 hour day
	Pak v Eng, Dhaka 1961/62		4		134		9		102		21.8		5.5 hour day
	Ind v Aus, Chennai (Nehru) 1959/60		4		112		8		85		22.0		match ended before stumps
	Pak v NZ, Karachi (National) 1955/56		1		145		8		110		22.0		5-hour day
	Pak v Aus, Karachi (National) 1988/89		4		115		8		87		22.0		5.5-hours play
	Aus v Eng, Sydney (SCG) 1884/85 (4-ball ov.)		1		97		8		110		22.0		5-hour day, rain
	Aus v Saf, Adelaide Oval 1993/94		5		111		7		83.5		22.2		match ended before stumps
	Saf v NZ, Johannesburg (Ellis) 1953/54 (8-ball ov.)		2		130		14		73.3		22.2		5.5 hour day
	Saf v Eng, Port Elizabeth 1956/57 (8-ball ov.)		2		136		14		76.1		22.3		5.5 hour day
	Pak v NZ, Dhaka 1955/56		5		151		7		112		22.5		5.5 hour day
	Aus v Eng, Melbourne (MCG) 1978/79 (8-ball ov.)		2		122		14		67.1		22.7		6-hour day
	Pak v Ind, Dhaka 1954/55		2		165		10		120.2		22.9		5.5 hour day
	NZ v Saf, Wellington 1952/53		4		114		8		82.5		23.0		5.5 hour day
	Eng v Saf, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1955		3		144		5		104		23.1		15' lost
	Pak v Aus, Karachi (National) 1956/57		1		95		12		67.5		23.5		5-hour day
Ind v Aus, Kolkata 1964/65		2		137		9		96.5		23.7		5.5 hour day
Saf v Ind, Cape Town 1992/93		5		111		5		78		23.7		match ended before stumps

This is certainly a record that is largely frozen in time, but it is interesting to see South Africa making an addition to the list earlier this year, on a day when Sri Lanka proved it was still possible to bowl at reasonable over rates if a team was motivated enough.

The leader here, when Gibbs took his spell of 8/6, was a day that actually ended before tea, but still contained 91 overs.

Some of the days on the “fewest runs” list are absent here, and would struggle to make the Top 100 in a “fewest runs per over” list.

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Most consecutive balls without a boundary by Australian teams.

279 SCG 1886/87

275 The Oval 1882

273 Dubai 2014

One more over by Smith and Johnson would have taken this one. Mind you, Mitchell Johnson would have to be one of the least likely batsmen to be involved in such a record.

Most by any team

379 balls (255 minutes) New Zealand at the WACA 1985/86.

Bear in mind this is a “where known” record. There might be others in the missing Tests. However, the missing Tests tend to be in the subcontinent and West Indies, where boundary hitting has historically been easier and such records are unlikely to be set.

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There are 220 cases of two bowlers sharing a combined 10 wickets in a Test innings. Murali and Vaas shared the wickets five times (Murali eight times in all). Oddly, McGrath and Warne never did. (Warne twice with Brett Lee). Jack Saunders did it six times in his career of only 14 Tests, with different bowlers.

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Six runs with helmet penalties…

Australia got 6 byes including helmet penalty at Karachi in 1994/95
Henry Olonga got a seven from a defensive prod including helmet penalty at Bloemfontein 1999/00. The other runs were overthrows run after the ball hit the helmet.
Daniel Vettori got a single plus helmet penalty, The Oval 1999.
Shane Watson similar at Brisbane in 2010, but the penalty went to extras.

Also,
A single to Hashim Amla plus 5 penalties when Sehwag kicked a ball over the boundary, Kolkata 2010.
six wides by Shakib al Hasan Chittagong 2014

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Australia scored only 9 runs in a batting powerplay in the recent series against Pakistan. It is close to the record, for a powerplay starting after over 20, for a side batting first. I found one case of 7 runs by Bangladesh against New Zealand in 2007. Overs 30 to 34.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/nzvbdesh/engine/match/300426.html?innings=1;view=commentary

This appears to be one of the first games to include a 'batting' powerplay. In earlier games, selected powerplays were selected by the fielding side and were almost always used in the first 25 overs.

For a side batting second there were just 6 runs by South Africa against Sri Lanka last year

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/549/549721.html

One difficulty in comparison is that powerplay rules have changed arbitrarily, from year to year. The current requirement for powerplay before over 40 reduces the scoring compared to the days when one was almost always taken in the last few overs. Overall, powerplays are less important than most commentators assume.

At Kandy in 1994, Wasim Akram opened the bowling in the second innings and started with eight maidens in a row. Four wickets fell, three of them to Waqar Younis. Wasim conceded his first runs off the last ball of his ninth over.

Trevor Goddard also once bowled his first eight overs as maidens, at Johannesburg in 1970, but he did not open the bowling, and it was not an unbroken spell.

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Most runs in a maiden over: I don't know for sure, but the first over of this Test was a maiden that cost 10 runs

There were 8 byes and 2 no balls, which made it a maiden under the protocols of the time. It was an 8-ball over.

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Highest score by a batsman not winning Man of the Match. Sangakkara once made 287 and missed the MoM award (Jayawardene 374). Jayawardene (240) and Samaraweera (231) both missed the MoM award at Karachi in 2009, won by Younis Khan.

Michael Clarke (230) is one of the only 220+ batsman to miss out to another batsman who made less then 200 runs in the match (du Plessis 78 and 110*), at Adelaide in 2012.

There was no MoM award at The Oval in 1976. It would have been an interesting decision between Richards (a brilliant 291) and Holding (14 wickets on a perfect batting track). I wonder if others can think of Tests like where the decision would have been difficult.

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Alonzo Drake took 15 wickets for 51 in 15.5 overs in what was to be his second last first-class match in 1914. War had been declared a few weeks earlier and this was one of the last fc matches in England until 1919. A few days later all remaining matches of the season were cancelled.

I read in Wikipedia that Drake was rejected for War service on grounds of ill-health and died in 1919 aged 34.

I should add that one William Brown took 15 wickets in 92 balls (23 x four-ball overs) in his only 'first-class' match, in Hobart in 1858. It is one of those matches that stretches the definition of fc cricket a bit too far, in my opinion.

3 October 2014

The Extreme Overs

I have been collating all examples of 20 or more runs in an over (Tests) that I can find. The cases found in my database are augmented by some others listed in Test Cricket Lists (Dawson and Wat). This source has a few from Tests not covered by my database. There are probably other unidentified cases (TCL itself misses about 30 cases that I found within the database) but I suspect that well over 90% of actual cases are by now listed.

There are now more than 150 known cases (if sundries are included), 26 of them from eight-ball overs. About half the cases are from this century; not surprisingly, it has become more common in the modern era of smaller grounds and superbats, assisted also by the change in law that added extras runs for hits off no balls. Of the 152, 104 involve one batsman scoring 20 runs or more; in the others, runs were more evenly shared between the batting partners. There are no cases of two different batsmen both scoring ten or more runs in an over.

There is opportunity for a few stats. The leading batsman in the list is Adam Gilchrist with eight cases. In six of those, Gilchrist personally contributed 20 or more. This places him well above others. Botham and Lara each have five cases; Lara personally contributed 20 three times, Botham two. Shahid Afridi has ~~three~~ four and Nathan Astle three such overs. In Astle’s case, all three came in the same famous innings of 222 in 2002 (in one of the three overs Astle was assisted by Chris Cairns).

For bowlers, Matthew Hoggard suffered four times. Jeff Thomson also conceded 20 or more in an over four times, but note that two of these were eight-ball overs.

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I have posted an article I wrote for the new Australian cricket journal Between Wickets here. It is entitled “The Statistician as Collector” and describes some of the efforts I have undertaken to amass my database, and some of the more interesting oddities I found. The article has been added to my “Longer Articles” register.

Let’s hope this journal gets going. There are far too few published outlets for good cricket writing any more.

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I mentioned a while back that my father (more than 40 years ago) was an umpire for the M.C.C.C., that is the Mexico City Cricket Club, formed mostly of expat Brits. Here is a photo from 1969 of the scene during a match, from Dad’s collection. Rather idyllic I would say, rather as cricket is supposed to be. My mother and younger sister are in the photo, showing their customary level of interest in the game. The location would be hard to guess, to put it mildly. There are Australian gum trees in the background, which are common in that part of Mexico.

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A question was asked about most consecutive fours in ODIs and T20i.

Sehwag hit seven 4s in a row, spread across 4 overs (overs 8-11), against New Zealand in 2001, in Colombo.

Gilchrist hit six 4s in a row against England in 2003. One of them appears to be all run.

Afridi once hit 4,4,6,4,4,4,wide,4,4 against Bangladesh in 2010.

In T20i I can only find one, and it would be impossible to guess. SO Tikolo hit six 4s off consecutive (legal) balls against Canada in a WT20 qualifier in 2013. However, there were two wides in the sequence.

In the last 1000 ODIs, for teams batting first and batting the full 50 overs, the average halfway point has been early in the 31st over. The median v. similar (Ov 30).

However, this doesn't quite mean that teams will likely double their score after 30 overs, because some will be bowled out before 50 overs are up.

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In ODIs since 1999, I count 61 stumpings off wides (although some data is missing, mostly for minor countries). Most bowlers have no more than one, but Harbhajan and Shoaib Malik have five each.

Dhoni leads the keepers with six, the underrated Taibu five.

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Highest team scores topped by an individual batsman: in Tests, Pakistan's 328 all out at Kingston in 1958 was topped by Sobers' 365*. In fc, Ponsford's 437 beat Queensland's 2nd innings 407.

In ODI, Calum MacLeod’s 175 here

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Score.../597/597388.html

Michael Jones adds that Phil Hughes recently set the List A record, 202 for Australia A v South Africa A 201.

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If you combine the international formats, Ponting leads with 79 run out credits (12 Test, 65 ODI, 2 T20i). Figures for Rhodes are incomplete (70+) but he would not match Ponting's overall total, although he would surpass Ponting in run outs per match. Hobbs' known total for Tests is 19.

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4 September 2014

The Elusive First Wicket Record

Some interesting correspondence from Shahzad has identified some subtle errors in an ‘official’ score that has some bearing on a record recently in the news.

The record is ‘most runs conceded before first Test wicket’. Pankaj Singh of India recently made a strong if undesired run at this record, a run that ended when he dismissed Joe Root at Old Trafford. Singh had conceded 274 up to that point, a total exceeded only by RGCE Wijesuriya.

The exact number conceded by Wijesuriya in 1985 has been hard to pin down. I had made an estimate of 283 or 284 before Shahzad eventually came up with an exact number of 285, one that didn’t quite fit in with my estimate or the official score. However, Shahzad informed me that Wijesuriya’s dismissal of Abdul Qadir was the ninth wicket of the innings, not the eighth, and occurred on a score of 290 not 288. The official version needs to be modified. My estimate had been based on that official version and newspaper reports that showed that the last five runs of the innings were all scored off Ratnayake by Wasim Akram.

Shahzad also tells me that Wijesuriya also bowled 3.1 not 3.4 overs in the second innings, which was completed in 16.1 not 16.4 overs.

So an improved list can now be produced….

Most Runs before First wicket in Tests

	Runs	Balls
RGCE Wijesuriya	285	561
Pankaj Singh	274	418
JC Alabaster	273	513
JJ Warr	265	551
DB Pithey	252-257	~490
AG Kripal Singh	235	651
DR Tuffey	232	303

Anwar Hossain Monir conceded 307 runs in Tests without taking a wicket (348 balls).

Unknown: Rusi Surti conceded perhaps 250-260 runs before his first wicket. Conceivably, up to 275 runs (very unlikely). Probably >400 balls.

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A New Head-to-Head scoring record: Namitha and others have alerted me to a new leader in the Player v Player scoring stakes. Kumar Sangakkara has now scored 531 runs (by my count) off the bowling of Saeed Ajmal, taking over from Gooch v Kapil (517) and Sutcliffe v Grimmett (515±). The revised list is here. Ajmal has dismissed Sanga only four times, for an average of 132.8. It is a characteristic of the very best modern batsmen that they score freely off spin bowlers. Sanga averages 70 off spin bowling and 52 off pace. Even so, his scoring off Ajmal is extraordinary given that Ajmal is the best spinner going around today. Sangakkara’s record appears to be worse off part-time spinners than major spinners, although Shane Warne also kept him in check (av 31.8).

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MOST Fives in Tests: Strictly speaking, in Tests it is ten by 19th-century Australian George Bonnor, but they were all "six-hits" that only counted five in those days. Otherwise, the highest is nine by Geoff Boycott and Steve Waugh. While there are gaps in the data, it is complete for these two, and there are no other likely candidates to exceed them.

The only known case of three 5s in a match is by Bruce Laird at Adelaide in 1980. All were 1+4 overthrows.

Virender Sehwag (8586 runs) never hit a five in a Test match.

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Progressive career wickets records

1877	A Shaw	8
1877	TK Kendall	14
1879	FR Spofforth	17
1882	GE Palmer	28
1882	FR Spofforth	32
1883	GE Palmer	43
1884	FR Spofforth	56
1884	GE Palmer	69
1887	FR Spofforth	94
1895	J Briggs	96
1895	CTB Turner	101
1895	J Briggs	103
1896	GA Lohmann	112
1899	J Briggs	118
1904	H Trumble	141
1914	SF Barnes	189
1936	CV Grimmett	216
1955	AV Bedser	236
1963	JB Statham	242
1965	FS Trueman	307
1976	LR Gibbs	309
1984	DK Lillee	355
1987	IT Botham	373
1990	RJ Hadlee	431
1994	N Kapil Dev	434
2001	CA Walsh	519
2004	M Muralitharan	532
2007	SK Warne	708
2010	M Muralitharan	800

Recently we saw Mark Craig become the first batsman to hit his first ball in Test cricket for six. So I had the idea of searching for batsmen who hit their last ball for six. Only one was found: Wayne Daniel at Port of Spain in 1984. Daniel’s six came off Tom Hogan and was followed immediately by a declaration. Daniel scored only 46 runs in Tests, but, if I recall, he did hit another notable six, off the last possible ball to win a One-Dayer in World Series Cricket, one of the first day/night matches.

Other batsmen have hit a six as their last scoring shot, but not off their last ball. Some hit a six and were out next ball.

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Which Test batsman has seen the most batsmen dismissed at the other end? Chanderpaul on 493 and Dravid on 453 are the only ones over 400. Angelo Mathews has 101 off 44 Tests, but Glenn Turner had 128 in his career of 41 Tests, and a few others with fewer than 50 Tests are also ahead of Mathews. (Bruce Mitchell 128 in 42 Tests, Herbie Taylor 121 in 42, Khaled Mashud 119 in 44) . Notable is George Headley: 85 in only 22 Tests.

18 August 2014

No Need to Run

As part of that new world record 10^th-wicket partnership at Trent Bridge, Jimmy Anderson hit 81 with 17 fours. Keith Walmsley recently asked me if anyone had hit as many fours in such a score before. The short answer is no: there is no precedent for hitting 17 fours in a complete innings as low as 81. However, Tim Southee did hit more runs in boundaries – 70, comprising four 4s and nine 6s – in his volcanic 77 on debut in 2008. I have put together a list of the most boundary-rich complete innings at each level of boundary-scoring, from 48 runs to 100.

	Score	Boundary runs	4, 6

RS Kaluwitharana	51	48	12, 0	SL v Zim, Colombo2 (SSC) 1997/98
SC Ganguly	60	50	11, 1	Ind v SAf, Johannesburg (New Wanderers) 1996/97
Younis Khan	58	52	13, 0	Pak v Aus, Colombo1 (PSS) 2002/03
CH Gayle	62	54	12, 1	WI v Eng, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 2004
MN Samuels	65	56	11, 2	WI v Ind, Kolkata 2013/14
CH Gayle	72	58	13, 1	WI v Ind, Antigua (St John's) 2006
CH Gayle	66	60	15, 0	WI v Pak, Sharjah 2001/02
DPMD Jayawardene	71	62	14, 1	SL v Ind, Chennai (Chepauk) 2005/06
V Sehwag	74	64	16, 0	Ind v Zim, Delhi (FSK) 2001/02
N Boje	82	66	15, 1	SAf v Zim, Centurion (Centurion Park) 2004/05
JM Anderson	81	68	17, 0	Eng v Ind, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 2014
TG Southee	77	70	4, 9	NZ v Eng, Napier 2007/08
ME Trescothick	90	72	15, 2	Eng v Aus, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 2005
ML Hayden	97	74	14, 3	Aus v Ind, Kolkata 2000/01
CH Lloyd	95	76	19, 0	WI v Eng, Kingston, Jamaica 1981
Shakib Al Hasan	100	78	15, 3	Ban v NZ, Hamilton 2009/10
AB de Villiers	98	80	20, 0	SAf v Zim, Cape Town 2004/05
RB Richardson	102	82	19, 1	WI v Eng, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 1986
AJ Tudor	99	84	21, 0	Eng v NZ, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1999
GJ Gilmour	101	86	20, 1	Aus v NZ, Christchurch 1976/77
PJ Hughes	115	88	19, 2	Aus v SAf, Durban (Kingsmead) 2008/09
IVA Richards	114	90	21, 1	WI v Eng, Antigua (St John's) 1981
DL Vettori	127	92	20, 2	NZ v Zim, Harare 2005
CL Cairns	120	94	10, 9	NZ v Zim, Auckland 1995/96
AJ Lamb	125	96	24, 0	Eng v Aus, Leeds (Headingley) 1989
DL Vettori	137	98	23, 1	NZ v Pak, Hamilton 2003/04
VVS Laxman*	124	100	25, 0	Ind v NZ, Napier 2008/09

Complete innings only. Innings in bold form a ‘critical path’: in that no other innings contains as many boundary runs in a lower score.

*Laxman scored 60 out his last 64 runs in boundaries.

It is curious that only two players, Chris Gayle and Daniel Vettori, appear more than once.

…And now for something almost completely different, here are batsmen who went from 50 to 100 without a boundary hit.

		4s (1st 50)
PA Gibb	Eng v SAf, Durban (Kingsmead) 1938/39	2
WR Hammond	Eng v SAf, Durban (Kingsmead) 1938/39	3
AR Morris	Aus v Eng, Melbourne (MCG) 1946/47	4
GP Thorpe	Eng v Pak, Lahore (Gaddafi) 2000/01	1
HP Tillakaratne	SL v WI, Galle 2001/02	3
G Kirsten	SAf v Ban, East London 2002/03	8

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Rangana Herath recently ended a 553-Test ‘drought’ by taking nine wickets in an innings (9 for 127) against Pakistan at Colombo SSC, only the ninth bowler to do this in the first innings of a Test. I wonder whether the drought is coincidence, or the result of captains trying to avoid over-extending bowlers in the modern game. There were eight cases in the first 500 Tests, before 1960. As it happens, just last week I was making a list of bowlers who took nine in an innings, in a single bowling spell without being taken off. Herath did not do so, but about half of the bowlers who have taken nine or ten in an innings did so.

Nine or more wickets in an unbroken bowling spell

GA Lohmann	Eng v SAf, Johannesburg (Old Wanderers) 1895/96	14.2-6-28-9
JC Laker	Eng v Aus, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1956 (1^st inns)	8.4-3-20-9
HJ Tayfield	SAf v Eng, Johannesburg (New Wanderers) 1956/57	37–11-113-9
JM Patel	Ind v Aus, Kanpur 1959/60	35.5-16-69-9*
N Kapil Dev	Ind v WI, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) 1983/84	30.3-6-83-9
Abdul Qadir	Pak v Eng, Lahore (Gaddafi) 1987/88	37-13-56-9
A Kumble	Ind v Pak, Delhi (FSK) 1998/99	26.3-9-74-10

Probable…
SF Barnes	Eng v SAf, Johannesburg (Old Wanderers) 1913/14	?

*Changed ends

The Kapil case is curious. Kapil himself was captain, and in spite of taking 9 for 83 was criticised for over-bowling himself. He did not win the Man of the Match award, and India lost the Test.

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The following West Indies team won six (out of 11) Test matches
CEL Ambrose
PJL Dujon
CG Greenidge
DL Haynes
CL Hooper
AL Logie
MD Marshall
BP Patterson
IVA Richards
RB Richardson
CA Walsh

An Australian team in 2005 won five (out of 9). The Australian team in the last Ashes series won all five matches it played without change.

In the recent Colombo Test, JP Duminy scored 6 runs off 123 balls (3 off 58 + 3 off 65). No one has finished with so few runs while facing so many balls in a Test match before. RO Jenkins scored 8 runs (4 and 4) off 141 balls at Lord’s in 1950. JT Murray scored 3 runs (0 and 3*) off 101 balls in the Sydney Test of 1962/63.

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Most dismissals by a wicketkeeper a single bowler in first-class cricket: for all bowlers there was 356 by Ames off Freeman, 320 by FC Huish of C Blythe, and 307 by D Hunter off W Rhodes. For fast bowlers, GO Dawkes made 252 dismissals off the bowling of HL Jackson. The better-known combinations of Binks and Trueman had 238.

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India bowled 76 overs after tea on the second day at Lord's in 1932, after an early tea for a change of innings. The session took about 3 hours.

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Sticking to one end: the batsmen did not change ends in the first 38.5 overs of Australia's 2nd innings at Old Trafford in 1948. Arthur Morris batted throughout, but there was a wicket at the other end in the 12th over. There were numerous bowling changes and 56 runs.

Cyril Washbrook once played out 10 consecutive maiden overs from Sonny Ramadhin at Lord's in 1950. The most extraordinary thing was that he was on a score of 114 at the time. He did not change ends for 134 balls (28 runs, mostly by the batsmen at the other end) at which point he was out.

31 July 2014

A Bookend for Most Balls in a Day

Like the earlier table of most balls faced in a day, the individual record for most balls bowled is rather ‘fossilised’, dating from the era of reasonable over rates. In particular, there was a period after the War where some captains just put off-spinners on in a ‘set and forget’ mode, and occasionally one would trundle through 50 or more overs in a single day. Remarkably, the top two totals were established by two different bowlers on the same day in the same match.

Most balls bowled in a day (individual bowlers)

	Bowler	Day
360	AMB Rowan	3	Saf v Eng, Port Elizabeth 1948/49
328	NBF Mann	3	Saf v Eng, Port Elizabeth 1948/49
328	HJ Tayfield	1	Saf v Eng, Cape Town 1956/57
312	AL Valentine	4	Eng v WI, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1950
312	HJ Tayfield	3	Eng v Saf, The Oval 1955
307	TR Veivers	5	Eng v Aus, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1964
306	R Tattersall*	2	Eng v Saf, Lord's 1951
302	NBF Mann	4	Saf v Aus, Durban (Kingsmead) 1949/50
304	LR Gibbs	5	Aus v WI, Melbourne (MCG) 1960/61
300	NBF Mann	1	Eng v Saf, The Oval 1947
300	AL Valentine	1	Eng v WI, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1950
300	JC Alabaster	4	Saf v NZ, Port Elizabeth 1961/62
294	S Ramadhin	4	Eng v WI, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1950

Not including no balls or wides

*2 innings (follow-on)

Tom Richardson almost certainly bowled 300 or more (up to 320) balls on the first day at Old Trafford in 1896.

Most by a modern bowler: 282 by Murali v Zimbabwe at Galle 2001/02 (day 3).

Most known by a pace bowler: 288 by CF Root, Old Trafford 1926. However, note Richardson above.

Tayfield’s 328 was in an unbroken spell, as was Veivers’ 307.

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A Very Peculiar Pattern

I noticed that there had recently been very few new entries to a table of the “Most Boundaries in a Test Half-Century” table in Unusual Records. Grouping the list historically produced a curious pattern. There was a sudden surge in extreme boundary hitting after 2000. Fair enough, that was the advent of the super bats, but strangely, the surge has not persisted, with only ~~one~~ two new entries in the last 5 years. Can’t really suggest a reason why.

Batsmen scoring 46 or more runs their first half-century: historical cases

1975-79	2
1980-84	4
1985-89	2
1990-94	1
1995-99	3
2000-04	13
2005-09	3
2010-14	1 2

Other cases: 1905,1965, 1971.

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Slowest Test innings for each score

0 off 77 balls	GI Allott	NZ v Saf, Auckland 1998/99
1 off 68 balls	JW Guy	NZ v SAf, Durban (Kingsmead) 1961/62
2 off 73 balls	CEH Croft	WI v Aus, Brisbane ('Gabba') 1979/80
3 off 100 balls	JT Murray	Eng v Aus, Sydney (SCG) 1962/63
~~4 off 115 balls~~	~~H Sutcliffe~~	~~Eng v Saf, Leeds (Headingley) 1929~~

4 off 95 balls RO Jenkins Eng v WI, Lord’s 1950

14 July 2014

Busy Days

Apologies for being ‘off-air’ for a while. My father passed away in Sydney and so it has been a busy time for our family. Anyway, here are a few comments about Dad that touch on cricket statistics…

My father Alan, who was a first-grade umpire in Sydney from 1961 to 1977, took me to a Test match on a visit to Melbourne when I was four year old. It was the day that there were over 90,800 people there (West Indies, 1961). So I contributed to a Test match world record. Sadly, I cannot actually remember the event, but it must have had a lasting impact on me. Unfortunately I was not there when the record was broken last Boxing Day, although I did go the next day. I wonder how many people went to both. I still consider these to be the records for crowds at cricket match, and I do not regard the rough ‘estimates’ for certain matches in Calcutta, which supposedly exceed these, to be reliable.

Dad was well-known enough as an umpire to be on a first-name basis with Bob Simpson, who gave us a lift home one day from an (away) match. I was very impressed but tongue-tied. Simpson was captain of Western Suburbs club – Pratten Park was walking distance from our home – and had retired, far too early, from the Australian captaincy just a short time before. He was arguably still the best batsman in Australia, and he spent a number of years terrorising club-level bowlers before being recalled to the Australian captaincy at the age of 40 (with great success).

Our family later lived in Mexico for a while, where Dad was official umpire for the M.C.C.C., that is the Mexico City Cricket Club, formed mostly of expat Brits. Highlight of that time, for me, was the visit of the 1970 England World Cup football team, having a day off. They played a one-day match against the MCCC, and absolutely thrashed them, as you might expect from a group exceptional athletes. I managed to procure the autographs of most of them on a postcard, which I now have framed (famous names: the Charlton brothers, Bobby Moore, Gordon Banks, etc etc, even Alf Ramsay)

Dad worked for Qantas, and later took part (as umpire) in tours of club teams to India and elsewhere. Many years ago he told us he was umpiring a match in Malaysia, of all places, when Garry Sobers was out first ball, but later took five wickets in five balls (it was a minor game). I recall Dad producing a press clipping, from Malaysia, of the match.

This last recollection has puzzled me, but to my amazement Cricket Archive actually has the match online here. It confirms everything Dad told me. There is also a match report here. The puzzle is the date: 1964 was before I thought Dad was touring as an umpire, so that is a surprise.

Perhaps his strangest umpiring experience was in Sydney when both teams refused to play during a significant partial solar eclipse in 1976, hiding in the dressing room and refusing to come out for fear of the 'radiation'. Dad and the other umpire just waited at the wicket for them to come out again. Simpson was involved again. The teams were fined and the match deleted from career records, including a century from Simpson himself. It was the only match where the teams behaved like this: I myself was playing nearby, in a very minor league, and it never occurred to us to stop playing during the eclipse. I have an odd memory of my shadow splitting into two.

UPDATE: many thanks to those who sent messages of condolence. It is actually very touching to receive such messages from people I have never met.

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Speaking of busy days, I have made a list of the most balls faced by an individual batsman in a day of Test cricket. It is one of those records that is pretty much ‘frozen’, because the decline in over rates makes the facing of more than 375 balls in a day near impossible now.

Most Balls Faced in a Day’s Play, where known.

Balls faced	Batsman	Day		Runs	Final Score
423	AC Bannerman	3	Aus v Eng, Sydney (SCG) 1891/92	67	91
421	DG Bradman	2	Aus v Eng, Leeds (Headingley) 1934	271	304
420	DG Bradman	1	Aus v Eng, Leeds (Headingley) 1930	309	334
417	C Washbrook	4	Eng v WI, Lord's 1950	114	114
414	B Mitchell	4	SAf v Eng, The Oval 1947	188	189
410	EAB Rowan	1	SAf v Eng, Leeds (Headingley) 1951	160	236
405	MC Cowdrey	4	Eng v WI, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1957	78	154
401	H Sutcliffe	3	Eng v Aus, The Oval 1926	141	161
396	L Hutton	1	Eng v Aus, The Oval 1938	160	364
395	W Bardsley	1	Aus v Eng, Lord's 1926	173	193
395	WM Woodfull	2	Aus v Eng, Lord's 1930	155	155
390	CP Mead	1	Eng v SAf, Durban (Kingsmead) 1922/23	128	181
390	PBH May	4	Eng v WI, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1957	172	285*
385	WR Hammond	3	Eng v Aus, Sydney (SCG) 1928/29	168	251
381	RB Simpson	2	Aus v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1964	156	311
376	WH Ponsford	2	Aus v Eng, Leeds (Headingley) 1934	159	181

Woodfull’s is the only innings to be completely contained in the day’s play. Nazar Mohammad batted through a day of 750 balls in 1952, scoring just 66 runs, but his share of the strike is unknown. Although the list above may not be complete, there are not many other candidates from the missing matches.

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A few more notes on the position of 12^th man: There is no official position of 12th man; there are many hundreds of cases of teams not having a recognised 12th man. Touring teams in particular often never name one, simply using squad members as substitutes when required. There are also many cases of a 12th man being identified but not being present at the match; he is released to play elsewhere and substitute duties given to local club cricketers.

In most recent Tests it is not possible to identify the 12th men. One team that still names its 12th men is Australia.

Nathan Hauritz and Ken Archer both made six appearances as 12^th man before their respective Test debuts.

I have identified about 1150 different cricketers who have been named as 12th man in Tests up to 2011. Of these, about 300 were 12th man before later going on to play Test cricket. Another 150 approx never played Tests in a first XI.

Exact numbers would depend on the definition of 12th man. Simply acting as substitute fieldsman should not count. If a team names a squad of 12 before a match, I regard the one missing out as 12th man even if he plays no part in proceedings.

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Adding 100 runs after retiring hurt

	Runs added	RH score	Final
DCS Compton	141	4	145*	Eng v Aus, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1948
PLJ Dujon	104	35	139	WI v Aus, Perth (WACA) 1984/85
SM Gavaskar	127	39	166*	Ind v Aus, Adelaide Oval 1985/86
M Azharuddin	103	6	109	Ind v Saf, Kolkata 1996/97

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I have upgraded the Unusual Records section to allow fast linking to a record directly from the Table of Contents. Try it.

Saving the hat-trick: Some batsmen seem to find themselves facing a hat-trick ball more than others. I get 10 for Brian Lara, just ahead of 9 for Alan Border and Steve Waugh. None succumbed to the pressure, although Lara was once second man in a hat-trick. That batting powerhouse Courtney Walsh gets an honourable mention with 8 hat-tricks saved. Walsh once took a Test hat-trick, but he was never part of one as a batsman, in spite of making ten golden ducks.

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Wasim Akram took wickets in six consecutive overs against West Indies at Antigua in 2000.

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/69/69799.html

At the MCG in 1967, Garth McKenzie opened the bowling took a wicket in each of his first five overs.

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Highest rate of catches by a fieldsman off a specific bowler: M Jayawardene off Murali, 77 catches in 96 Tests together (=0.80 per match), ahead of Taylor /Warne 51 in 66 Tests (0.77). In combination, Sobers and Gibbs made 47 catches off the other’s bowling in 60 Tests together, a combined rate of 0.78. Sobers took 39 catches off Gibbs’ bowling, and Gibbs 8 off Sobers.

Minimum 25 catches.

29 May 2014

Dropped Catches: 2014 Report

In August last year I described how there had been a quantum jump (or should I say quantum fall) in the rate of dropped catches in 2012 compared to earlier years. Over the previous decade, the rate of dropped chances had hovered in the range 25-27%, but dropped suddenly to 23.5% for calendar year 2012.

I have now updated the survey for 2013 and up to the present, and the rate, while still remaining low, has bounced back a little to 25.0%. The increase is partly down to Bangladesh returning to larger numbers of Tests – they played very few in 2012 – and more Tests played by Bangladesh drives up the overall rate. Though Bangladesh has improved, recording a drop rate of 36% in the past 15 months, as against a disastrous 45% back in 2011, they are still dead last.

Even so, there is still an underlying improvement going on. Australia recorded a drop rate of 18.7%, the lowest annual figure by one team seen since the surveys started in 2001. New Zealand also came in under 20%, a rare achievement. Both teams could have been beaten by South Africa: however, South Africa have had a poor 2014, as reflected in their results in the series against Australia, where South Africa dropped 13 catches and took only 26, whereas Australia dropped 6 and took 35. This drove South Africa’s 2013/14 rate up to 21%.

About two-thirds of Australia’s missed chances were described as difficult or tough in the available texts, as opposed to one-third of Bangladesh’s chances.

The team with the biggest improvement is West Indies. From 2001 to 2009, West Indies’ drop rate was consistently above 30%. This fell to 27% in 2010-2011, and now is at a world-class 22%. Sri Lanka has gone in the other direction: percentage drop rates in the mid 20s about 10 years ago have ballooned out to 35% in the past couple of years. India, too, has had its worst year since the surveys began: 32.8%.

I noticed in the stats that Chris Rogers has yet to drop a catch in Test cricket, while his partner David Warner has taken the last 20 chances that have come to him, and has dropped only two chances (one of them debatable) out of 26 in his career so far.

There is a new leader in the ‘all-time’ individual list – all-time meaning since 2001. MS Dhoni has now missed 61 chances (dropped or missed stumpings), passing Adam Gilchrist and Rahul Dravid, who recorded 55 each since I have been doing surveys. In Dhoni’s defence, he does have to do a lot of keeping to spinners; keeping to spinners is the true Test of a wicket-keeper. There is nevertheless a gap between Dhoni (19% missed chances) and Gilchrist (14%). Most keepers are between these two figures, although Mark Boucher, at 10%, represents a gold standard.

Here are the rates for 2013+2014 for each country.

% Missed Chances by Country 2013 and 2014 – Test Matches

Australia	18.7%
New Zealand	19.8%
South Africa	21.1%
West Indies	22.1%
England	24.9%
Zimbabwe	25.4%
Pakistan	28.1%
India	32.8%
Sri Lanka	35.6%
Bangladesh	36.0%

The usual caveats regarding dropped chance statistics should be recognised. Some chances will always be a matter of opinion as to whether they should be included, and text searches for cases are bound to miss some (probably not many now). I tend to take a harsh view of chances for inclusion; incidents described as half-chances or ‘technical’ chances are included, as are incident where chance pass between keeper and slips or between fielders who react poorly. Even so, I am of the opinion that most chances are clear-cut, and the statistics provide useful comparisons.

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As an addendum to the recent list of bowlers ‘head-to’head’ hat-tricks, here is a list of bowlers who have dismissed a batsman twice in a Test, with the only balls he bowled to that batsman.

Bowlers Dismissing a Batsman Twice in a Match with only Two Balls

Bat	Bowl
WH Ashley	J Briggs	SA v Eng , Cape Town 1889
JT Willoughby*	GA Lohmann	SA v Eng, Port Elizabeth 1895/96
TA Ward*	TJ Matthews	SA v Aus, Manchester 1912
EG Hayes*	JH Sinclair	SA v Eng, Cape Town 1905/06
C Wesley*	JB Statham	Eng v SA, Nottingham 1960
JA Snow	KD Boyce	WI v Eng, The Oval 1973
CM Old	DK Lillee	Eng v Aus, Melbourne (MCG) 1976/77
GB Troup*	RJ Shastri	NZ v INd, wellington 1980/81
MS Atapattu	GRJ Matthews	Aus v SL, Colombo2 (SSC) 1992
Ata-ur-Rehman	DH Brain	Zim v Pak, Rawalpindi (Cricket Stadium) 1993/94
Mohammad Wasim	DW Fleming	Aus v Pak, Rawalpindi (Cricket Stadium) 1998/99
BKV Prasad	Shoaib Akhtar	Pak v Ind, Kolkata 1998/99
DPMD Jayawardene	Wasim Akram	SL v Pak, Dhaka 1998/99
BC Lara	SE Bond	WI v NZ, Auckland 2005/06
Javed Omar*	Z Khan	Ind v Ban, Dhaka (Mirpur) 2007

These are the only balls the bowler bowled to that batsman in the matches in question.

Matthews bowled Atapattu with the only two balls he bowled to him in Test cricket.

*King Pair.

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Run Out for 99 going for a second or third run.

Mike Atherton was run out for 99 going for a third run at Lord's in 1993. However, he had turned back. Batsmen run out for 99 going for a second run:

JEF Beck NZ v SAf, Cape Town 1953/54

JH Kallis SAf v Aus, Melbourne (MCG) 2001/02

AD Mathews SL v Ind, Mumbai (Brabourne) 2009/10

At Adelaide 1932, Don Bradman's last partner Thurlow was run out in attempting a second run, leaving Bradman on 299*. Matthew Sinclair's partner Astle was run out going for a second run when Sinclair was on 199. Sinclair batted on to make 214 on debut.

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In 2012, Marlon Samuels bowled 102 overs in a row in Tests without bowling a maiden, spread across 5 Tests. Shahid Afridi once bowled 97 in a row, and Mohammad Ashraful 88.

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Here's a strange one. The most balls between wickets for any Test bowler is 822 balls by Maurice Tate in 1929. The most balls bowled by a bowler who was never hit for six in his career is also Maurice Tate with 12,523. (Keith Miller bowled 10,461 balls.)

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Most sixes off one bowler in a single Test innings. I didn't think anyone could exceed the 9 off Paul Strang, all hit by Wasim Akram in 1997, but Rangana Herath conceded 10 in one innings at Mumbai in 2009: four by Sehwag, one by Dravid, and five by Dhoni. 10 is also the maximum for a match. India made 726.

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22 May 2014

A New Cricket Stat: The Head-to-Head Hat-trick

Here’s one that can only be divined from ball-by-ball records: cases of a bowler dismissing the same batsman with three consecutive balls that he bowled to him, a head-to-head hat-trick. Of necessity, this has to span multiple matches, and in some cases, multiple years. Both batsman and bowler could have been (and probably were) involved in other dismissals, involving different opponents, in the meantime. It is also possible for other matches involving both players to interpose, if the bowler did not bowl to that batsman in those matches. For example, Chris Old and Bishen Bedi both played at Edgbaston in 1974, after the Lord’s Test; both batted and bowled, but Old did not bowl to Bedi in that match.

There are likely to be other cases, not covered by the bbb database. Such cases would be near-impossible to ferret out and confirm. I was surprised to find no pre-War cases.

Bowlers Dismissing the same batsman with three consecutive balls in Tests

Note: this means that the bowler did not bowl a single ball to that batsman in between the dismissals.

Bowler	Batsman
RR Lindwall	AV Bedser (11)	Aus v Eng, Melbourne (MCG) 1950/51
RR Lindwall	AV Bedser (2)	Eng v Aus, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1953
RR Lindwall	AV Bedser (1)	Eng v Aus, Lord's 1953

CM Old	BS Bedi (0)	Eng v Ind, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1974
CM Old	BS Bedi (0)	Eng v Ind, Lord's 1974
CM Old	BS Bedi (0)	Ind v Eng, Delhi (FSK) 1976/77

VA Holder*	JR Thomson (6)	Aus v WI, Adelaide Oval 1975/76
VA Holder*	JR Thomson (0)	Aus v WI, Melbourne (MCG) 1975/76
VA Holder*	JR Thomson (0)	WI v Aus, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 1978

DK Lillee*	J Garner (7)	Aus v WI, Melbourne (MCG) 1981/82
DK Lillee*	J Garner (0)	Aus v WI, Melbourne (MCG) 1981/82
DK Lillee*	J Garner (1)	Aus v WI, Sydney (SCG) 1981/82

J Garner*	KJ Hughes (4)	Aus v WI, Brisbane ('Gabba') 1984/85
J Garner*	KJ Hughes (0)	Aus v WI, Adelaide Oval 1984/85
J Garner*	KJ Hughes (0)	Aus v WI, Melbourne (MCG) 1984/85

Waqar Younis	HH Streak (14)	Pak v Zim, Rawalpindi (Cricket Stadium) 1993/94
Waqar Younis	HH Streak (1)	Pak v Zim, Rawalpindi (Cricket Stadium) 1993/94
Waqar Younis	HH Streak (1)	Pak v Zim, Lahore (Gaddafi) 1993/94

PAJ DeFreitas	KR Rutherford (37)	Eng v NZ, Lord's 1994
PAJ DeFreitas	KR Rutherford (0)	Eng v NZ, Lord's 1994
PAJ DeFreitas	KR Rutherford (7)	Eng v NZ, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1994

J Srinath	PR Adams (1)	Ind v Saf, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) 1996/97
J Srinath	PR Adams (0)	Ind v Saf, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) 1996/97
J Srinath	PR Adams (1)	Ind v Saf, Kanpur 1996/97

SM Pollock	SK Warne (1)	Aus v Saf, Melbourne (MCG) 1997/98
SM Pollock	SK Warne (12)	Aus v Saf, Sydney (SCG) 1997/98
SM Pollock	SK Warne (0)	Aus v Saf, Adelaide Oval 1997/98

Wasim Akram	M Jayawardene (50)	Pak v SL, Lahore (Gaddafi) 1998/99
Wasim Akram	M Jayawardene (0)	Pak v SL, Dhaka 1998/99
Wasim Akram	M Jayawardene (1)	Pak v SL, Dhaka 1998/99

AR Caddick	CEL Ambrose (3)	Eng v WI, Manchester (Old Trafford) 2000
AR Caddick	CEL Ambrose (0)	Eng v WI, Leeds (Headingley) 2000
AR Caddick	CEL Ambrose (0)	Eng v WI, The Oval 2000

SJ Harmison*	Mashrafe Mortaza (0)	Eng v Ban, Lord's 2005
SJ Harmison*	Mashrafe Mortaza (0)	Eng v Ban, Lord's 2005
SJ Harmison*	Mashrafe Mortaza (1)	Eng v Ban, Chester-le-Street 2005

*last three balls bowled by the bowler to that batsman in Tests

Srinath/Adams came from the 3rd, 4^th and 5^th balls Srinath bowled to Adams in Test matches; Pollock/Warne came from the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th balls Pollock bowled to Warne. Caddick dismissed Ambrose four times in five balls that he bowled to him.

Defreitas’ hat-trick represented his only dismissals of Rutherford, in 209 balls that he bowled to him, conceding 83 runs.

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

I happened upon a case where Dale Steyn bowled a delivery that went for five wides, and followed it with a wicket (Harbhajan lbw) next ball. From one extreme to the other. It happened very recently also, with Mohammed Shami and Trent Boult. I wondered how often it happens and came up with the following (before 1998 the search included four wides)

Five (or Four) Wides Followed by a Wicket

Bowler	Bat
Imran Khan	DI Gower	Pak v Eng, Lord's 1982
MA Atherton	DB Vengsarkar	Ind v Eng, The Oval 1990
SP Jones	CH Gayle	Eng v WI, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 2004
CD Collymore	MJ Hoggard	WI v Eng, Chester-le-Street 2007
DW Steyn	Harbhajan Singh	SAf v Ind, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) 2007/08
MG Johnson	JP Duminy	SAf v Aus, Sydney (SCG) 2008/09
WD Parnell	V Sehwag	SAf v Ind, Nagpur 2009/10
Mohammad Aamer	AN Cook	Pak v Eng, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 2010
Mohammed Shami	TA Boult	Ind v NZ, Wellington (Basin Reserve) 2013/14

The absence of cases before 1980 is rather surprising. I have 577 Tests before 1980 in ball-by-ball form, but not a single example was found.

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No one has batted on 5 separate days of a Test in a single innings. Perhaps the closest was Herschelle Gibbs who scored 211* (rain-affected) at Christchurch in 1999 and was not out at the end of the day on the first four days. He would have batted on day 5 had not Cronje declared overnight.

Here is a list of individual innings that spanned four playing days of a Test match: 13 cases. I think that only 3 - Hanif, Jayasuriya, and Younis - were not rain affected.

ID Craig (38) Aus v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1956

CC McDonald (89) Aus v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1956

Hanif Mohammad (337) Pak v WI, Bridgetown, Barbados 1958

GStA Sobers (226) WI v Eng, Bridgetown, Barbados 1960

FMM Worrell (197*) WI v Eng, Bridgetown, Barbados 1960

RJ Shastri (111) Ind v Eng, Kolkata 1984/85

DM Jones (157) Aus v Eng, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1989

ST Jayasuriya (340) SL v Ind, Colombo4 (RPS) 1997

HH Gibbs (211*) SAf v NZ, Christchurch 1998/99

V Sehwag (254) Ind v Pak, Lahore (Gaddafi) 2005/06

RS Dravid (128*) Ind v Pak, Lahore (Gaddafi) 2005/06

JN Gillespie (201*) Aus v Ban, Chittagong 2005/06

Younis Khan (313) Pak v SL, Karachi (National) 2008/09

The longest innings in elapsed time is 4 days 21 hours by Bruce Mitchell (58) at Brisbane in 1931. He did not bat on all the days, though.

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In Tests, 20 bowlers dismissed Tendulkar on their Test debuts, beginning with Waqar Younis and ending with AJ McKay, who was playing his only Test. NC Johnson is the only bowler to dismiss Tendulkar twice on debut. He did so with consecutive balls to Tendulkar.

The following bowlers dismissed Tendulkar with the first ball they bowled to him in Tests

AJ Traicos
Shoaib Akhtar
PT Collins
MA Starc
SPD Smith

There may be others from the 1990s; data is incomplete. Steve Smith dismissed Tendulkar with the only ball he ever bowled to him in international cricket. Equally extraordinary is Pedro Collins, who dismissed Tendulkar with the first TWO balls he bowled to him in Tests, in two different matches.

Peter Taylor and Peter McIntyre got Tendulkar out without ever conceding a run to him.

A numerical omen? Martin Crowe was out for 299 after tea on the final day at Wellington in 1991; New Zealand had gone to tea on a score of 599 off 199 overs.

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Most wickets in the first over of an ODI innings… I get 39 times by Chaminda Vaas (29 definite and 10 probable), 33 for Shaun Pollock (26 definite and 7 probable) and 30 for Wasim Akram (14 definite and 16 probable). No one else has more than 20.

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At Rawalpindi in 2004, Asim Kamal batted for 18 overs without changing ends. There were 107 runs scored during that time (second innings, overs 33 to 51). At the other end, the batting was shared by Mohammad Yousuf (as Yousuf Youhana), who was out and replaced by Shoaib Akhtar. There were three no balls and 104 off the bat. I don't know for sure if that is a record, but it is far more than any other case I can find, and more than I would have expected for such a record. At Lord’s in 1982, Kapil Dev and Madan Lal added 62 without changing ends.

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The highest complete team score in first-class cricket that did not include a century is 609 by Namibia in 2010. However, there is a case of a team reaching an even higher score before anyone scored a century. At The Oval in 2007, India was 632 for 9 with no centuries, just before Anil Kumble reached 100. Kumble finished with 110* in a total of 664. I don't know if the 632 is a first-class record; that would be a hard one to work out.

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8 May 2014

New Light on the Slowest Hundreds

In 2012 (17 October) I posted a list of the longest Test innings based on the number of overs batted. This, I think, is an excellent way to compare innings in the absence of complete balls faced figures, since it is easier to reliably calculate or estimate elapsed overs than balls faced by individuals. In that spirit, I have put together a list of the slowest centuries, in overs elapsed for the first 100 runs.

Slowest to reach 100, in overs batted

Overs batted			Balls faced
174	Nazar Mohammad	Pak v Ind, Lucknow (University) 1952/53	520(est)
166	MC Cowdrey	Eng v WI, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1957	535
157	DJ McGlew	Saf v Aus, Durban (Kingsmead) 1957/58	485
152	AJ Watkins	Eng v Ind, Delhi (FSK) 1951/52	480
151	Hanif Mohammad	Pak v Eng, Dhaka 1961/62	448
150(est)	JW Guy	NZ v Ind, Hyderabad (Ind - LBSS) 1955/56	448(est)
143(est)	Hanif Mohammad	Pak v Ind, Bahwalpur 1954/55	427(est)
143	PE Richardson	Eng v SAf, Johannesburg (New Wanderers) 1956/57	440
139	Mudassar Nazar	Pak v Eng, Lahore (Gaddafi) 1977/78	419

Eight-ball overs converted

This establishes Nazar’s innings as the slowest Test century, in terms of the amount of cricket that had to be played for him to reach 100. Cowdrey probably faced more balls, but he faced an unusually high amount of the strike, and so comes in at a lower over count than Nazar. The innings by Nazar’s son, Mudassar, only ranks ninth in this list, but is still given as the slowest Test century in some other lists (which can only be described as seriously incomplete).

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Most runs in the first over of a Test innings. These figures are from the database, which covers only about 80% of Tests, so there could be others. The innings number is at the end of each line. The Gough and Sohag overs contained extras. The Hall over had no extras but was 8 balls. Bob Simpson hit the 18 runs, still the only one to do so in a Test (surprisingly).

Runs		Bowler	Inns
18	WI v Aus, Melbourne (MCG) 1960/61	WW Hall	4
18	Eng v Aus, Edgbaston 2001	D Gough	2
18	Ban v WI, Mirpur 2012/13	Sohag Gazi	1
16	NZ v WI, Antigua (Richards) 2012	CS Martin	2
15	Saf v NZ, Bloemfontein 2000/01	AA Donald	2
14	Eng v Aus, Adelaide Oval 1970/71	JA Snow	2
14	NZ v SL, Dunedin 1996/97	SB Doull	3

Sohag's over was his first in Test cricket.

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Ever been out early on and thought if you had just one more chance, you could make a hundred? Well here are a few batsmen in Tests who did score a century after being out earlier that same day. Naturally, all cases were follow-ons.

VVS Laxman	Out for 59, and 109* on the way to 281	Ind v Aus, Kolkata 2000/01
VS Hazare	Out for 116, and 102* on the way to 145	Ind v Aus, Adelaide Oval 1947/48
JH Sinclair	A duck and a century (104) on the same day	Saf v Aus, Cape Town 1902/03

Aamer Sohail was out for 32 and 99 on the same day at the Gabba in 1995.

Most runs in one day by a batsman who batted twice: 161 (158* and 3) by Mohammad Ashraful, v India Chittagong 2004/05. When Aubrey Faulkner made 122* against Australia at Old Trafford in 1912, he was told to keep the pads on to open when South Africa followed on, only to make a second-innings duck. That was on the same day that TJ Matthews took his two famous hat-tricks.

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A note on the covering of wickets in Australia.

RS Whitington wrote that Tests in Australia used fully covered wickets from 1947/48 (v India) onwards. I don’t think this is correct. Photos and articles in newspapers from that season suggest that only the ends of the pitches were covered, to protect bowlers’ run ups once play had commenced. The outcomes of Tests in that season, and for a few years thereafter, also suggest that ‘sticky’ wickets remained a problem up to 1951/52, and the playing surface would have to be uncovered for this to happen regularly. Pitches were fully covered in 1952/53 (v South Africa), and I believe that this was the first such season.* In England, where wet wickets did not often turn ‘sticky’, full covering of wickets was not introduced until 1979.

Whitington also said that new balls were available after 40 (eight-ball) overs in 1947/48. However, the earliest new balls recorded in the scores from that season were after the 41st over (several times). 41 overs is closer to the English standard of the time of 55 six-ball overs. The option of 200 runs may also have applied. In the previous season of the Ashes series of 1946/47, the old new ball rule of 200 runs seems to have still applied.

*UPDATE: Alastair Lynch pointed me to references that show covered pitches being used throughout the 1951/52 series v West Indies. I think I had heard that before, and the references confirm it to be true, but I had trouble understanding the Adelaide Test of that season, where 22 wickets fell on the first day on a wet, sometimes unplayable pitch, with one end worse than the other. How could that happen with a covered pitch? There was also the fall of 19 wickets on the first day of the final Sydney Test. Perhaps the techniques of covering pitches in these early days were poorly developed, and mistakes occurred. In the Adelaide case, the pitch covering was said to have exacerbated the problems by preventing drying before play started.

Peter Lyons subsequently emailed to say that Ray Robinson, in the Cricketer Spring Annual of 1952, wrote that the wicket covering in 1951/52 was “inadequate” and that the agreement to cover wickets was regretted by the West Indians. Evidently, the standards of the covers improved in 1952/53.

The Adelaide Test, incidentally, was the Test where Australian captain Lindsay Hassett pulled out through injury, only to be made 12^th man, Sid Barnes was selected and then unselected for “reasons other than cricket”, leading to a law suit, and Phil Ridings was selected but then somehow ended up not playing. Ridings never did play Test cricket, although he was elevated to (long-serving) Australian selector only 12 months later.

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Undertaking the funeral of a team mate. The funeral of Victor Trumper in 1915 was undertaken by the W. Carter company. Ray Webster tells me that Hanson 'Sammy' Carter (Australian wicketkeeper at the time) indeed did work as an undertaker in the family business, founded by his father Walter. Walter had been a carpenter who was injured at work and was unable to continue his career, and started another business.

Hanson was therefore involved in undertaking the funeral of a Test match team mate, presumably a unique situation for an active Test cricketer.

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At Multan in 1980/81, West Indies lost 3 wickets for one run in a single ‘session’ of play. Only 10 minutes play was possible after tea on the third day, the West Indies going from 84/2 to 85/5. Rain intervened, and limited play to 10 more overs on the final two days.

Here is an odd coincidence for the numerologists out there...not only did Murali take exactly 800 wickets in Tests, but he dismissed exactly 300 different batsmen. Kumble is next with 263 different batsmen in Tests, Warne 236. No one has dismissed exactly 100 or 200 different batsmen in Tests.

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Shakib al Hasan scored 52 consecutive runs entirely in boundaries, during an innings of 87 at Hamilton in 2010. He went from 4 to 56 with 10 fours and two sixes. Strangely, this was the same match that saw Martin Guptill scoring 56 without hitting a four (he did hit 3 sixes, though). Apart from Shakib, I don't know of anyone else with a sequence of 50 runs or more entirely in boundaries. Botham once scored 50 out of 51 in his famous 149 at Leeds 1981.

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Yasir Hameed faced 24 consecutive deliveries in an ODI at Rawalpindi in 2003. That appears to be the most since 1999 ( I don't have earlier data)

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There was a time when the follow-on margin was only 80 runs and it was compulsory. An extreme case in 1880 (Yorkshire 109 v Derbyshire 26 all out)

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/2/2393.html

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15 April 2014

A Scoring Pioneer

Sreeram and others have been piecing together information on early forms of advanced scoring techniques. This was brought on by the puzzle mentioned last year (14 May) of occasional reports of balls faced in Australian cricket prior to 1907, including Alec Bannerman’s epic 91 off 612 balls in 1892 (reported in The Argus and some other papers). All the instances before 1907 were at the SCG. It now appears that the scorer responsible in all cases was one J.G. Jackscohn.

Jackscohn (note spelling) was a scorer at the SCG from 1887 to 1895, and then again from 1905 (he lived in northern NSW in between). Ray Webster (in Story of a Cricket Country) notes that he even received a medal from Lord Sheffield for his scoring in 1891/92(!) His name is spelled Jackson in some early references.

My interpretation of the reports is that Jackscohn kept a separate tabular sheet when scoring, recording balls faced and runs scored by each batsman off each bowler in separate boxes. These appear to be “tables” (mentioned in a 1906 article) rather than linear sheets. This would explain how Wisden got that isolated reference to the balls faced by Bannerman specifically off Attewell in his 91, but did not mention balls faced for the whole innings. While it is possible to determine how many balls were faced off each bowler from linear sheets, it is not especially easy; counting them up would have to be done carefully. A tabular format would make it simple.

Jackscohn died in 1931 aged 84. There is an obituary in The Referee that I presume Ray used in his account.

Sreeram has uncovered a number of references to Jackscohn’s work in the Trove database, including one that says he was sole scorer for that Sydney Test in 1891/92. Another is that 1906 note on Jackscohn’s methods. It would be a wonderful thing if some of these old Tables could be found.

Bill ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, the instigator of systematic linear scoring, would almost certainly have encountered Jackscohn and his methods at some stage. I don’t think their methods were the same, but Fergie may well have been inspired to develop his system by Jackscohn’s work.

The mystery remains of the source for a few balls faced figures (and pioneering wagon wheels) in a Melbourne Test of 1907/08. See 27 Dec 2012.

Most runs off the “same ball”:

At Hamilton in 1998/99, Saurav Ganguly made five attempts to bowl the third ball of his fifth over, the first four being no balls. Craig McMillan hit the first two for four, and also hit a single off the fifth delivery. In all, 13 runs accrued off this ball, McMillan scoring nine. The over went 0,4n,4n,n,n,1,1,0,4. This took place shortly after the one-run penalty for a no ball was extended to include no balls that were scored from.

Under this system, Joel Garner would have conceded 14 runs from “one ball” at the MCG in 1984/85. (2n,n,n,n,n,3n,3: see entry for 12 Dec 2011)

In the run torrent that was the ODI at Joburg in 2005 (872 runs in 100 overs), Roger Telemachus conceded 20 runs while trying to bowl the ‘first ball’ of the 48^th over. The sequence of five deliveries was 4n, 1n, 4n, 6n, 2 (faced by Ponting and Symonds). The whole over cost 28.

The most on record for T20 internationals is 15 runs (6n, 1n, 6) bowled by Izatullah Dawlatzai of Afghanistan against England in the World T20 in 2012. The over cost 32 runs even though it included a wicket.

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I wonder if anyone with an identical twin played Test cricket before Lisle Nagel, who played one Test in the 1930s. His brother Vernon played for Victoria. They supposedly once swapped places undetected during a club match.

I understand that Rose and Liz Signal are identical twins (not sure); they played together for New Zealand Women in a couple of Women's Tests in 1984.

Isobel and Cecelia Joyce play ODIs for Ireland Women's team, although they have only been doing this since 2011.

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Speaking of twins, Andrew Symonds once ran out Hamish and James Marshall in the same ODI, at Auckland in 2005. It turns out there was a precedent: Saqlain Mushtaq and the Waugh twins, SCG in 2000.

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/.../Scorecards/69/69222.html

I can find only one case of brothers being run out in the same Test match, GB Studd and CT Studd in 1883 (SCG). Different fielders were involved.

Ian and Greg Chappell were both run out by Viv Richards in the first World Cup Final in 1975.

Mark was run out when running for injured #11 Craig McDermott, with Steve left on 99 not out at Perth 1994/95.

Evan Gulbis recently scored 229 for Tasmania, the highest score by a #8 batsman in Australian first-class cricket. He also more than doubled his previous first-class career run total of 217 runs in 17 innings. This was not the highest, however.

Alan Richardson of Warwickshire scored 91 in his 32nd first-class innings, having previously totalled 82 runs in 31 innings.

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/4/4606/4606.html

CC Passailaigue had scored 229 runs before he made 261 in his fourth innings. IS Lee had also made 229 career runs before he scored 258 in his ninth innings.

RL Pratt scored 80 in his 27th fc innings, having failed to reach double figures at his first 26 attempts.

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Among the many records set in the New Zealand/ India Test at Wellington – New Zealand scoring 680 in the second innings – was this oddity. Ishant Sharma took 6/51 and 0/164 – his best and worst innings returns in Tests, the latter being the worst bowling return for any bowler who took five or more in the other innings. Notable previously is Botham 8/103 and 0/117 at Lord's 1984. The latter was his worst innings return in Tests, the former was his second best.

Phil Tufnell 6/25 and 1/150 at the Oval 1991 is also an interesting one.

New Zealand batted through a day’s play losing only one wicket. Historically, there are 12 cases of no wickets falling in days of 88 overs or more. The most overs is 83 eight-ball overs faced by Hobbs and Sutcliffe in 1924. Oddly, no pair has batted through an uninterrupted day Test since 2008, or 2006 if you exclude Bangladesh.

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The longest (as opposed to highest) single innings with no extras whatsoever is 191.5 overs by Australia (236) at MCG 1891/92. This applies to all fc cricket. The highest is 647 by Victoria v Tasmania in 1952. I have mentioned this elsewhere, but it is a curiosity that both Maddocks (271) and Hallebone (202 on first-class debut) were fill-in players who were dropped for the next match. This gives an indication of Tasmania’s cricket status at the time.

21 March 2014

What’s a Duckworth Lewis?

Here’s a short analysis of historical Duckworth/Lewis results in ODIs. I haven’t said much on this subject in the past, but Arnold D’Souza reminded me that there is a brief entry in my blog from 23 Jan 2005, and again in 2006. I think that the conclusion from my early reading was that the system made a lot of sense, but it needed accuracy in the detail if it was to be fair. A lot of that detail is not publicly available, although I did once get hold of an early list of ODI tables as they stood about 10 years ago. The system has been modified multiple times since then. If readers know of accessible sources for specifics of modern ODI D/L tables, I would be interested.

Anyway, here is an historical summary of D/L results, according to whether the winner batted first or second. The system came in to full use in ODIs only in 2000. For whatever reason, it was applied to only a few matches in that year.

	Bat 1st Win	Bat 2nd Win
to 1999	4	5
2000-02	14	4
2003-04	11	5
2005-06	0	13
2007-08	12	20
2009-10	12	11
2011-12	5	21
2013-14	8	7

As I noted in my posts years ago, there was quite a severe imbalance in favour of teams batting first for the first few years after the widespread adoption of D/L. Between 2000 and 2004, D/L awarded the match to the team batting first 25 times to 9 times for the team batting second. Based on binomial theorem and a theoretical even probability, the chance of such a skewed distribution in 34 trials is well under 1 per cent.

[Going on memory here, I did find some oddities with the tables. For example, the tables seemed to imply an average last wicket partnership of 14, when the real average is 9.]

According to Wikipedia, D/L changed the system in 2004 and incorporated more sophisticated computer input. Was this behind the extraordinary reversal in 2005-2006? (At one point, fourteen consecutive D/L matches went to the team batting second, and 26 out of 32. Try doing that tossing a coin: we are in thousand-to-one territory here). The fluctuations in fortunes since then also look strange. The system still does favour teams batting second, although less strongly than in 2005-07. It remains possible that teams batting second can anticipate impending D/L intervention, and adjust tactics before D/L begins to be applied, so gaining an advantage. If rain is possible, teams batting second may keep an eye on the ‘par’ score, and try to keep ahead of it.

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When six was the new five

Going through some old reports I noticed something about the awarding of sixers. I had thought that the awarding of six runs for all hits over the boundary was finally instituted in 1910; prior to that it could be four, five or six runs, rather depending on umpire's whim.

However, I have found that in all Tests in Australia and South Africa from 1905 onwards (15 Tests up to 1910), all known hits over the boundary scored six runs. Only in England did this not apply; the few known hits in 1907 apparently scored four runs, as had most in 1905, but things seemed to be changing. In 1909, all known hits scored six, bar one by Trumper at the Oval that scored five, and a four to Tibby Cotter.

The 1910 change in the Laws seems to be largely recognition of a fait accompli.

Incidentally, I found that Warwick Armstrong, in his 133 at the MCG in 1907/08, hit two consecutive balls over the boundary for six, off Braund. I believe that this is the first such instance in Tests, even if you include earlier Tests where they scored four and five. In all Tests, the next clear-cut case is by CL Vincent off AP Freeman at Headingley in 1929. It's probably still rare in Tests at the MCG, if you limit it to proper hits over the fence, rather than the rope. Mike Hussey was the last to do it there, off Andre Nel, in 2005/06.

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Following a question on Ask Steven, I looked for cases of two bowlers taking wickets in the same over (one bowler retiring hurt). [I wrote something about replacement bowlers taking wickets on my blog last year. Scroll down to 20 June 2013, or search for "Wickets by Substitute Bowlers". There is a case of a replacement bowler Craig McMillan, taking two wickets in what was left of the over, at Harare in 2000/01.]

I couldn’t find any cases of wickets falling to two different bowlers. The nearest thing was at ~~Port-of-Spain in 2008~~Mumbai in 2002: Rahul Dravid retired hurt on the same ball as the bowler Dillon went off injured. Harbhajan was out first ball to Cuffy when the over continued.

Only a couple of bowlers have taken a wicket and gone off injured in the same over. One odd one was Murali at Harare in 2004. He took a wicket with the last ball of one over and another with the first ball of his next. He was on a hat-trick, but could not continue. The replacement did not take a wicket. Murali came back later but did not manage a (very unusual) hat-trick. Another bowler who took a wicket and went off injured in the same over was CK Langeveldt at Cape Town in 2005.

Using replacement bowlers to complete an over only dates from the 1980s.

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The longest Test career of a player whose debut innings remained his highest score was Darren Gough (58 Tests, highest score 65). Gough never exceeded his previous highest score: the player who surpassed his previous best score most times was Dilip Vengsarkar, on eleven occasions.

Alec Stewart made his highest Test score of 190 at Edgbaston in 1992. He played 115 subsequent Tests (202 innings) without improving on that score.

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Ultimate Strike: Most Consecutive balls faced by one batsman in a Test innings (where known)

33	Saqlain Mushtaq	Pak v Eng, Faisalabad 2000/01	Batting with Danish Kaneria
30	GAR Lock	Eng v WI, Georgetown, Guyana 1968	Batting with PI Pocock
29	R Benaud	Aus v Eng, Melbourne (MCG) 1958/59
29	JH Kallis	SAf v WI, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 2010

17 February 2014

Following the Follow-On

When New Zealand declined to enforce the follow-on when leading by 301 runs in the recent Auckland Test, it created a mild flurry of debate. Some hold that enforcing the follow-on is an essential tactic. The stats, surprisingly perhaps, suggest otherwise.

I looked at follow-on situations in Tests over the past 20 years, and excluded Bangladesh and Zimbabwe matches. There were 108 follow-on opportunities; 69 were enforced, and 39 not enforced. Average runs (rounded) for the teams involved were…

	All	F.O. Enforced	Not Enforced
Team 1 runs	509	528	462
Team 2 runs	217	217	216
Lead	291	310	246

A key thing to remember is that any team leading by 200 runs is in a dominant position, and will very likely win, whether or not the follow-on is chosen. There is not much point citing specific matches anecdotally to try to prove a point.

Given that the “enforced” category teams were more dominant, you might expect them to win more matches. However, the opposite is the case. Teams enforcing the follow-on won 72.5% of the matches, while teams not enforcing it won 82%. The rest of the matches were draws, except for one (famous) case where Australia enforced the follow-on at Kolkata in 2001 and lost. So even though teams enforcing the follow-on tend to have bigger leads (310 to 246), they are less likely to win.

One possible factor is that high-scoring matches on really easy pitches tend to be drawn, and the follow-on is more likely to be enforced in such cases. Naturally, higher scoring matches are more likely to be drawn. However, even when we compare “like with like”, the advantage of not enforcing remains. If we filter out the higher-scoring matches, by including only matches where the combined first innings is less than 800, and the lead less than 300, not enforcing still has a significant lead, with 92% wins vs 79% for the enforced cases.

There may be other factors in play – perhaps the enforced cases were more rain-affected (I don’t know) – but the bottom line is that enforcing the follow-on is not statistically supportable in terms of outcomes.

This was all a bit of a surprise to me, since the modern tendency is for teams batting fourth to win more matches than they lose. Teams not enforcing also often face the problem of the declaration: most captains like to create a safe buffer, which takes time, and one would think would increase the chances of a draw. When the subordinate teams bat again, they do better second time around when they follow-on than when they do not (296 runs to 277); however, the difference is not huge.

The figures do support a contention I made years ago: if you want to maximise your chances of winning, declare before a score of 500. A risk arises of losing (Freddie Flintoff must have had nightmares over Adelaide 2006/07), but the probability of a draw falls even more.

Of course, New Zealand did eventually win that Auckland Test. One wonders if the follow-on had been enforced: with India at 240/3, would New Zealand’s tiring bowlers have been able to power on and finish the job? Maybe yes, but India may have finished with more than 366, in a match they only lost by 40 runs.

For Australia, it hardly matters. Basically, when they lead by 200, they win, follow-on or no follow-on. Australia has won 27 out if the last 29 when it had a follow-on option; the only exceptions were a drawn match with almost 3 days of rain, and the freak turnaround of Kolkata 2001.

The last team to trail Australia by more than 200 and genuinely force a draw was Pakistan in 1994/95 when everyone's favourite player Salim Malik made 237. Since the 200-run follow-on margin was introduced in the 60s, Australia has won every time it has not enforced the follow-on (17 matches).

The main worry for captains contemplating the follow-on is the prospect of over-extending the bowlers; burnout can affect both the match at hand and matches to come.

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Fastest Maiden Test centuries, balls faced to 100:

GL Jessop 76
PW Sherwell ~100
D Denton ~100
RR Lindwall 88
R Benaud ~75
RJ Hadlee 88
K Srikkanth 97
JR Murray 88
CL Cairns 86
L Klusener 100
SM Pollock 95
DR Smith 93
MS Dhoni 93
JE Taylor 97
MG Johnson 86
S Dhawan 85
Mominul Haque 98

Kapil Dev reached 102 off 101 balls with a boundary.

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New Zealand wicket-keeper/captain Lee Germon did not concede a bye for the first 1242 runs of his Test career. Other clean starters include TE Blain 1062, RG de Alwis 955 runs. (AP Binns up to 1000 runs, exact number uncertain). Germon had a remarkable Test debut: not only did he concede no byes, he captained his team on debut (no one has done this since, except in the first Test for Bangladesh) and he top scored in both innings.

For records at any stage of career, the probable maximum without byes, in terms of runs or balls, is 2431 runs (5426 balls) by Mark Boucher spanning 7 Tests in 1999/99. He finally conceded a bye, off Paul Adams, at Auckland in 1999 after New Zealand had been batting for 190 overs (including follow-on). Strangely, he conceded four byes off the very next ball. Adam Parore went bye-free for a long period in 1994/95. Unfortunately one of the necessary scorebooks is missing: the number of runs is in the range 2274-2373 (around 4100 balls). There is an oddity about this case as well; just a few Tests later, Parore was replaced as keeper but remained in the team as a batsman. He was replaced behind the stumps by the aforesaid Lee Germon.

Incidentally, number of balls without byes is probably more appropriate than number of runs. The longest single Test innings without byes is 268 overs: New Zealand 543/3 at Georgetown 1972, TM Findlay keeper.

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There was an extraordinary innings by Victoria against New South Wales in a recent Shield match. Victoria lost its first 6 wickets for 9 runs, with the first four batsmen making ducks. The latter is unprecedented in Australian first-class cricket, the former has not been seen since 1881. [Once again, the folly of using nightwatchmen (two in this case) is demonstrated.] The sensations did not end there, with Glenn Maxwell coming in and scoring 127 off 102 balls. A century by a #8 when the first seven did not get to double figures has happened before (not in Australia), but never when so few runs were scored by the first seven batsmen (10 runs in Maxwell’s case). For precedents, or near-precedents, here is an interesting one.

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Consecutive first-class innings without a duck

	Inns	Ending
MC Cowdrey	148	1965
G Boycott	142	1975
CS Baker	135	1914
GL Berry	135	1937
LB Fishlock	135	1951
DI Gower	135	1986
WRD Payton	133	1927
MTG Elliott	128	2004
L Hutton	127	1952
FA Lowson	126	1954
BJ Hodge	126	2006
FE Woolley	124	1933
EH Hendren	122	1934
SJ Cray	121	1950
GT Dowling	121	1972
MJ Smith	120	1978

Up to mid 2013.

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Rajan Chawla on Ask Steven asked about streaks of singles in Test matches. While I have it on hand here's some extremes...

Longest sequence of singles by an individual batsman... DA Marillier (52) scored his last 38 runs in singles at Chittagong in 2001. In his next innings, his first two scoring shots were singles, giving 40 in all.

Most singles to start an innings... 15 by Bruce Dooland MCG 1946/47 and Warren Bardsley MCG 1924/25.

Biggest complete innings in singles only, 12 by 4 players

AI Taylor Joburg 1956/57

GM Wood MCG 1988/89

RS Dravid Ahmedabad 1999/00

SH Curnow Joburg 1930/31

Dravid was run out going for his 13th single.

Longest sequence in partnership: 29 singles, plus a wide and a bye, by GA Hick and GP Thorpe, Karachi 2000. This was in the final session of the match, which England won with 3.3 overs to spare and became the first team to beat Pakistan in a Test in Karachi.

This is from my database, which covers only about 80% of Tests.

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Man of the Match in their last Test match. I believe that Jason Gillespie was the only one of these who was dropped from the team. Goodwin left Zimbabwe to live in Australia: the others retired, although Sarfraz may have been ‘tapped on the shoulder’.

IR Redpath	Aus v WI, Melbourne (MCG) 1975/76
GS Chappell	Aus v Pak, Sydney (SCG) 1983/84
Sarfraz Nawaz	Pak v Eng, Lahore (Gaddafi) 1983/84
SM Gavaskar	Ind v Pak, Bangalore 1986/87
MW Goodwin	Zim v Eng, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 2000
JN Gillespie	Aus v Ban, Chittagong 2005/06
SE Bond	NZ v Pak, Dunedin (Unversity) 2009/10

Up to and including 2010

22 January 2014

An Early Switch-Hit

There are various claimants to the invention of the reverse sweep or switch-hit (not necessarily exactly the same thing). There is mention of Mushtaq Mohammad, or going back further, Percy Fender or Plum Warner. Generally, the claims do not have a lot of hard evidence. However, Sreeram has uncovered an incontrovertible example from a Test in 1921. In the Manchester Test, Fender employed the shot, as described in The Times…

“Mr. Armstrong kept the runs down at one end by bowling a couple of feet outside the leg stump. Mr. Fender was the more resourceful of the two batsmen, for, in dealing with Mr. Armstrong, he contrived at times to get away and place the ball on the deserted off side. He once shifted hands on the handle of the bat and pulled him back-handed across the wicket to the place where cover-point generally stands.”

Fender’s shot was also described in some detail by Charlie Macartney in an article 16 years later, so it must have made an impression.

The shot was made in the midst of some controversy. England had attempted to declare their innings closed in what was a rain-shortened match, only to be stymied when Armstrong pointed out that this was against the rules of the time. When England was forced to resume, Armstrong, who had bowled the last over before the interruption, bowled again. Apparently, calls from the crowd that this was about to happen were ignored by the umpires. Fender’s switch-hit occurred shortly thereafter, apparently gathering 2 runs, but the exact ball is uncertain.

As I said in an earlier post, I’m sure I read of such a shot in the 1909/10 MCC series in South Africa, (although I can’t find it now). Viv Richards definitely played the shot at Mumbai in 1975. Many inventions are made independently by different people, and I daresay the reverse sweep is one such.

UPDATE: Steve Pittard has emailed with a case from 1870. It is not completely clear that this batsman changed his stance as the ball was being bowled, or during the run up.

Kent were shot out for 20 at the Oval in 1870, with their latecomer William Yardley - ‘had not arrived 0’ - trying to make amends in the 2nd innings by way of a cunning plan. Opening the batting, as fast bowler Walter Anstead came in to bowl, the ambidextrous Yardley - able to throw 75 yards left handed – reversed his normal right handed stance and leathered the ball, only narrowly missing the nearby fielder Southerton at point, who now was an aunt sally at effectively silly mid on . In fairness Yardley had enigmatically warned Southerton that should he see him suddenly change stance to make himself scarce but he had merely laughed. The next ball Yardley successfully repeated the trick with Southerton this time dropping spread eagled to the ground. This greatly amused Yardley though the Surrey supporters were incensed; shouting “Not cricket! Not cricket”. Yardley, a thespian and later notable playwright, had turned the proceedings into a farce and when Anstead was withdrawn from the attack the crowd hissed and hooted him like a pantomime villain. Anstead later returned to clean bowl Yardley for 14 and with his innovation ultimately proving to no avail - Kent lost by an innings - one imagines the incident was dismissed as a bit of nonsense

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Being There

Alastair Cook was around for 59.5% of England's runs in the 2010/11 Ashes series, which appears to be the most for a 5-Test series. Shoaib Mohammad batted during 82.3% of Pakistan's runs in a 3-Test 1990 series against New Zealand. Brad Haddin's efforts in the 2013/14 series are surely exceptional for someone batting down the order.

DSBP Kuruppu batted in 100% of Sri Lanka's runs in a one-off Test against New Zealand in 1986/87.

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Here’s two bowlers who had catches missed off their first ball in Test cricket: David Warner (Brisbane 2012, Brownlie dropped by Pattinson) and RP Singh (Shoaib Malik dropped by Kumble) in Faisalabad 2006. My database doesn't have much on this category before 2002.

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They took their first Test wicket with their last ball in Test cricket

IJ Siedle

DW Hookes

~~M Venkataramana~~

MV Boucher

RM Poore

S Amarnath

SV Nayak

W Barber

WB Rankin (to date)

WHB Frank

Mohammad Talha

Wilf Barber (2 balls in 1935) came closest to taking a wicket with his only ball in Test cricket.

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Most runs by a batsman while partner(s) scored 0

67	Mohammad Yousuf	Ind v Pak, Multan 2003/04
66†	SJ McCabe	Aus v Eng, Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1938
65	AC Gilchrist	Aus v SAf, Cape Town 2001/02
64	KC Sangakkara	SL v NZ, Christchurch 2006/07
64	BB McCullum	NZ v Aus, Adelaide Oval 2008/09
63	WG Grace	Aus v Eng, The Oval 1886
59	GAR Lock	Eng v WI, Georgetown, Guyana 1968

†The last 66 runs of the innings, in a partnership of 77 with LO Fleetwood-Smith (5). No extras were scored.

Yousuf batted with more than one partner.

McCullum’s innings included a partnership of 50 with IE O’Brien, the largest complete Test partnership where one partner contributed 0 runs.

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The most Tests by a player who never hit the winning run is 145 by Shane Warne. Among top batsmen, Graham Gooch never did so in his whole career of 118 Tests. Kumar Sangakkara hit the winning run for the first time in his 119th Test, so in effect he ties Gooch.

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In the 2013/14 Ashes, Kevin Pietersen averaged 29.4, and still topped England’s averages among those who played all five Tests. This is the first time that a team in a full-length Ashes series has had no batsman averaging over 30 in the full series. (Ben Stokes averaged 34.8, but played in only four Tests.) Here is a list of such “Worst Best” averages historically.

Worst Best Ashes Batting Average

		Best Avge
England	2013/14	29.4	KP Pietersen
Australia	1956	30.1	JW Burke
Australia	1911/12	32.4	WW Armstrong
Australia	1978/79	32.6	GN Yallop
England	1930	34.0	WR Hammond

Qualification: players who played all Tests in a series. 5- or 6-Test series only. In 1930, H Sutcliffe averaged 87.2 but played in only 4 Tests.

Tendulkar Head to Head

After a couple of requests, I am posting a complete set of Sachin Tendulkar’s player-v-player stats in Tests at the link below. There was an earlier version of this in 2012, but that had a few problems, which I have painstakingly ironed out, I hope.

Such data requires ball-by-ball records, and unfortunately this is not available for some of Tendulkar’s Tests in the 1990s. In such cases, I have substituted estimates based on the runs scored by Tendulkar and the runs conceded by the bowlers in the innings in question. Where this happens, the data is labelled “Est”. For some bowlers such as Muralitharan, there is a combination of such data with real ball-by-ball data. For those who demand exactitude, sorry, but it is the best I can do.

For Tendulkar, bbb data is complete for all Australia, England and South Africa bowlers.

http://www.sportstats.com.au/tendulkarheadtohead.html

24 December 2013

Man of the Match in Tests

I have calculated the most successful Man of the Match winners as percentages of matches played. The concept of a single ‘official’ (usually sponsored) award spread gradually from 1975/76 (Brisbane, Greg Chappell) through the 70s and 80s. In those years, there were many Tests for which no record of an award can be found, so I have only used recorded matches in the calculations

	MoM	Award Made (Tests)
Imran Khan	12	59	20.3%
RJ Hadlee	10	51	19.6%
Wasim Akram	17	100	17.0%
M Muralitharan	19	126	15.1%
CEL Ambrose	14	95	14.7%
JH Kallis	22	161	13.7%
PA de Silva	11	83	13.3%
MG Johnson	7	53	13.2%
KC Sangakkara	15	114	13.2%
MD Marshall	10	77	13.0%
IT Botham	12	96	12.5%
SK Warne	17	145	11.7%

Vernon Philander currently has 5 out of 18.

My data may not conform exactly to Cricinfo. I have found a few awards that are not in the Cricinfo system.

Historical Note: prior to 1975, there were player awards handed out for some Tests, including England in 1967 and 1968, separate awards for batsmen and bowlers. There were various awards made in Tests in India from 1969 to 72, again with multiple awards for a given Test. The 1966/67 India v West Indies series had player awards. Garry Sobers won both the batting and bowling awards at Calcutta, so could claim to be the first true awarded “Man of the Match”. However, for a Test in 1964 in Pakistan, there is a newspaper mention of Asif Iqbal being “Man-of-the-match”; this may have been just a turn of phrase, not an official award.

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When Ross Taylor made 217 not out at Dunedin recently, he might reasonably have expected to be the highest scorer of the match. However, he may have been surprised when was edged out by ~~Dwayne~~ Darren Bravo’s 218, when West Indies batted a second time. I made a list of the highest scores made that, like Taylor’s, were surpassed by an opponent later in the match.

Highest individual scores surpassed (subsequently) by an opponent in a Test match…

267 by PA de Silva, exceeded by MD Crowe 299, Wellington 1990.

240 by DPMD Jayawardene, (also 231 by TT Samaraweera), exceeded by Younis Khan 313, Karachi 2008.

217* by LRPL Taylor, exceeded by DM Bravo 218, Dunedin 2013.

216* by E Paynter, exceeded by SJ McCabe 232, Nottingham 1938.

214 by LR Rowe, exceeded by GM Turner 223*, Kingston 1972.

A few statistical morsels

Most consecutive 5WI in first-class cricket: ten by AP Freeman in 1930.

Most consecutive 10WM: eight (believe it or not) by Tom Richardson in 1895. WG Grace once got seven in a row, in 1874.

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I once looked for the maximum number of consecutive balls scored from in Tests. The answer wasn't very interesting, only 16 in a row (23 runs) by Rashid Latif during an otherwise unremarkable innings of 47 off 42 balls at Sharjah in 2001/02.

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There are more than a dozen players in first-class cricket who have taken a wicket in their only over. At least two of them took a wicket with their only ball, BN Khanna and MM Agasti.

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Mitchell Johnson was twice on a hat-trick in the same innings in the Adelaide Test. This got me looking at the database...

Last bowler to be on a hat-trick twice within the same innings in Ashes Tests: KR Miller Brisbane 1946/47.

Last Australian bowler in all Tests: GD McGrath v West Indies Brisbane 2000/01.

Last bowler in all Tests: Chaminda Vaas v NZ Wellington 2004/05.

Only bowler to take wickets with consecutive balls three times in an innings (where known) J Srinath v South Africa at Ahmedabad 1996/97.

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There are over 40 triple-wicket maidens in complete overs in the database, (covering 80% of Tests). Last one found: Ben Hilfenhaus v India at Perth 2012. No one has more than 2 (Caddick, Vettori, McGrath, DJ Brown).

There are other cases of 3 in an over where the over was incomplete.

At the other end of the scale, Kallis once took 3 wickets in an over while conceding 10 runs (6 0 W 4 W W).

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Sunday Play in Australia

In first-class cricket, regular Sunday play commenced in 1967/68, same year as in Tests. Brian Booth, a devout Christian, played only one match in 1968/69 and then retired because he did not wish to play on Sundays. Adelaide was the last center to introduce Sunday play.

Prior to 1967, there was Sunday play in some Shield matches in Brisbane and Perth. The first was QLD v WA at the Gabba in 1964/65. It was introduced as "the answer to declining attendances". If only.

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Most runs in international cricket in any 31-day period. Sanath Jayasuriya hit 881 runs for 22 July to 20 August 1997. Aravinda de Silva’s best was 842. Graham Smith has 822 for 3 July to 2 August 2003. I believe that these are the only ones above 800 in a 31-day period. Next is Zaheer Abbas on 792.

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Chris Gayle, at Edgbaston in 2004, took 5 wickets and scored 82 runs on the same day (the fourth). I can find (if I programmed by search correctly) only two other cases of 50 runs and five wickets on the same day. Jimmy Sinclair took 6/26 and made 59* on the first day at Cape Town in 1898/99, and Wes Hall scored 50* and took 5/20 on the second day against India at Port of Spain 1962.

Perhaps the most notable other is Shakib al Hasan of Bangladesh who took 4/40 and scored 97 on the fourth day at Khulna against West Indies in 2012. The wickets, however, were tailenders in a score of 648.

Bill Edrich (Manchester 1947) and Garry Sobers (Sydney 1969) scored over 100 runs and took 3 wickets on the same day.

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Graham Swann’s abrupt retirement means that he conceded 22 runs off his last over in Test cricket. This is not quite a record. Derek Stirling conceded 24 runs in the last over of his Test career, at the Oval in 1986. 4, 6, 4, 6, 0, 4 courtesy Ian Botham.

Mark Gillespie's last over in Tests conceded 20 runs in 2012, but he may play again.

Of course, there is no law that says that Swann cannot play Tests again. Others have 'retired' in the heat of the moment and regretted it afterwards. Whether Swann would be welcomed back I don't know.

28 November 2013

More Simple Stats that are Hard to Find

I have been extracting some more statistical information from the Cricinfo texts – yes, it is painstaking – to get some baseline stats on catches and other dismissals. Here is a summary list of the location of catches, based on nearly all Tests from 2002 to 2013.

keeper	31.4%
1slip	8.7%
2slip	6.1%
3slip	2.2%
4slip	0.2%
Slip*	8.0%
gully	5.2%
3man	0.5%
point	5.2%
cover	4.1%
mid-off	3.9%
bowler	3.9%
mid-on	4.5%
midwicket	5.0%
short leg	5.2%
square leg	3.8%
fine leg	2.2%

* “Slip” in this context generally refers to slip fieldsman for spin bowlers.

The locations are based on descriptive names of locations given in the texts, so there are no hard and fast rules, and different commentators may have different definitions. But mostly, this should be a useful baseline for comparison of dismissal locations between from country to country and team to team, and even individual players.

There is also potential for historical comparison (but not now), especially using Bill Frindall’s old England scores, which describe locations. [A slight complication is that Frindall sometimes used categories of locations that did not directly compare to standard definitions when categorising run-scoring. In Frindall’s runs-scoring records, there is no “point” or “square leg” area. The boundary between categories is perpendicular to the pitch and goes right through the middle of what others would regard as point and square leg. This problem is also seen in Cricinfo’s batting charts.]

I have also looked at bowled dismissals in little more detail. About 17% of batsmen were out bowled since 2002, a figure that has remained reasonably steady since about 1990, but well down on earlier times. About 26% of batsmen out bowled edged or hit the ball onto the stumps (at least to the extent that it was noticed), and a further 4% were bowled off the pads (less than I would have thought), so only 70% of batsmen out bowled are ‘clean’ bowled. It would be interesting to know how many of those who played on did so to a ball that would not have hit the stumps. This is hard to say: I would estimate roughly about half, or a bit more, based on reading a lot of descriptions. Overall, then, maybe 15% of batsmen out bowled were out to balls that were not directed at the stumps.

About 55% of batsmen out bowled were playing a defensive stroke, 37% appeared to be attempting to score, and the remaining 9% were playing no stroke at all. Of course, sometimes there is grey area around the definitions. The percentages for top batsmen seem to be quite similar.

In general, this underscores that it is quite hard to bowl a batsman in a defensive frame of mind. Perhaps only one wicket in 11 falls this way, perhaps three per Test.

Slightly more batsmen are out lbw than bowled, 18% to 17%. This is quite interesting given that the lbw law is so difficult to satisfy. For every batsman out clean bowled, there must be several who are hit on the pad by a ball directed at the stumps, but who are not out thanks to the various technicalities such as the ball pitching outside leg stump.

There seems to have been little change in the incidence of lbws since the advent of the Decision Review System. About 17.5% of all dismissals from 1999-2004 were lbw, rising marginally to about 18.1% since 2009.

Perhaps half of batsmen out lbw are playing defensive shots. It is rather hard to be more precise from the descriptions. It appears that only about 3% of lbws are ‘no shot’ dismissals, quite a difference from the 9% who are out bowled this way.

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Three wickets and ten runs in an over (Tests): JH Kallis Melbourne 2005/06: 60W4WW

An over at Kandy 2001/02 that required three bowlers. Dillon bowled two balls and was injured; Stuart bowled two beamers that were called no ball and he was banned; and the over was completed by Gayle.

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Some recent data (from Andrew Samson) shows that Jonty Rhodes is a challenger for Ricky Ponting for most run out credits in ODIs. We now know of 62 credits for Rhodes and 65 for Ponting. In five other run outs when Rhodes was fielding, the fielder is not identified. In 'primary' credits, Ponting is still probably the leader, currently at 64 to 59.

Rhodes played 245 ODIs to Ponting's 375, so his run out rate per match is superior.

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Openers in Tests who dominated the scoring. Highest % runs by players reaching 100:
80.2% 101 out of 126: GA Gooch, Eng v Ind, Chennai (Chepauk) 1981/82
80.0% 100 out of 125: CH Gayle, WI v SAf, Cape Town 2003/04
79.8% 103 out of 129: WG Grace, Eng v Aus, The Oval 1886
78.1% 100 out of 128: V Sehwag, Ind v Aus, Adelaide Oval 2007/08

30 October 2013

Some Simple Stats that are Hard to Find

The Cricinfo ball-by-ball texts for Test matches now extend for nearly 15 years, and about 30 per cent of all Tests. Oddly enough, some of the early ones seem to have disappeared from the Cricinfo site (or at least I cannot find them). In other matches from earlier than 2005, the original rich descriptive texts have been replaced by simple records of scoring. It is still possible to find some of the original versions online via Google archive; I am not sure if all can be found this way.

Never mind, I have been around long enough to have kept just about all of them. One possible reason that Cricinfo is not keen on keeping the early ones available is that they are not very reliable. They were only intended as descriptive commentary rather than rigorous scorekeeping, and gaps do occur. Nevertheless, they can be used for some general statistics that it is not possible to find any other way.

I have been I have been trawling through the Cricinfo ball-by-ball texts for data on appeals in Test cricket. I have analysed the whole 14+ years for mentions of appeals, and the last 100 Tests in more detail.

I found descriptions of more than 20,000 unsuccessful appeals. About 30 appeals per match. If you add up lbw, caught behind, stumpings and catches at short leg, you get a figure for successful appeals. The ratio is around to 2.6 to 1, unsuccessful appeals outnumbering the successful. Putting it another way, about 28% of appeals are successful.

The most appeals attributed to a bowler are 860 by Muralitharan. Not surprising given that he took more wickets than anyone during the analysis period. The most by a fast bowler is 415 by Zaheer Khan.

More interesting is the fact that, in number of appeals, the top five places, and eight out of the top 10, are taken by spin bowlers. The leading appealers in this dataset are

Most appeals by bowlers 1999-2013

	Appeals	Wkts	Appeal wickets				Success
			lbw	Cwk	st	Cs.leg
M Muralitharan	860	597	127	37	37	48	22%
A Kumble	713	406	112	21	18	34	21%
Harbhajan Singh	592	406	68	30	14	70	24%
Danish Kaneria	509	261	44	32	19	13	18%
SK Warne	444	393	82	42	20	20	27%
Z Khan	415	295	60	72	0	3	25%
DL Vettori	390	306	66	32	12	26	26%
MS Panesar	356	164	43	11	4	10	16%
WPUJC Vaas	334	272	87	61	0	1	31%
AF Giles	301	142	20	10	9	10	14%

Giles and Panesar are the least successful appealers in the top 30. Almost all bowlers with high rates of appealing, and low success rates, were spinners. Pace bowlers had an average successful appeal rate of 34%, spinners 21%. The bowlers with the highest success rates – the most selective appealers – are two of the greatest: Glen McGrath and Dale Steyn with 46% success.

I found it interesting that Shane Warne had a higher success rate than other spinners. I always thought that Warne was a very canny appealer. He had an ability to sense which decisions might be difficult for an umpire, or where an umpire might be prone to errors, and he saved his most intense appeals for these occasions. His appeals when the outcome was obvious, or frivolous appeals, were rather less vocal.

Looking at recent data more closely (100 recent Tests, about 2,900 appeals), I found that about 79% of appeals were for lbw, about 11% for caught behind and 7% for other catches, with other types making up the balance. There were fewer appeals for short leg catches (4% of the total) than I expected. There were even a couple of appeals (unsuccessful) for obstructing the field. Success rates: only 20% for lbw appeals, 53% for stumpings, and 65% for caught behind. It would be interesting to know what percentage of lbw appeals were balls that would have hit the stumps, but were rejected on ‘technical’ grounds of where the ball pitches or struck the pad. Alas, this is not really possible from the text description.

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11 October 2013

Hot 100 Update

I have re-calculated the Hot 100 – the fastest- and slowest-scoring batsmen in Test cricket – and posted it here. I have added a new column showing the change from last year, which, as in previous years, is not much. In spite of a loss in form, Virender Sehwag has held his edge in second place just ahead of Adam Gilchrist. The Top Ten remains unchanged. It is clear that individuals have specific natural scoring rates that do not vary much, or at least vary much less than their batting averages. Poor scoring affects batting average far more than average scoring speed; a duck will bring down the batting average but have almost no effect on average scoring speed.

In spite of the speeding up of the game with super bats and smaller grounds, Sehwag remains the only modern specialist batsman who scores faster than Victor Trumper did more than a century ago.

Bowling Frustration

I have updated my notes on 'dismissals' off no balls in Tests since 1999. There are now 170 cases, although there are almost certainly others that I have missed. The bowler with the most is Morne Morkel with ten. This list for bowlers, as it stands, is

Most ‘dismissals’ off no balls since 1999

M Morkel	10
B Lee	7
DW Steyn	5
PT Collins	5
GD McGrath	4
I Sharma	4
KAJ Roach	4
PM Siddle	4
Rubel Hossain	4
SL Malinga	4
Z Khan	4

The luckiest batsman is Rahul Dravid with six cases; no one else has more than three. These figures include some “lbw off no ball” incidents that may be debatable.

Some extremely lucky batsmen have been firstly dropped and then dismissed off a no ball in quick succession. Early on during a world record partnership of 624 at Colombo in 2006, Kumar Sangakkara (on 7) was dropped at cover by Rudolph off Dale Steyn, and in the same over Steyn bowled Sangakkara with a no ball. Sangakkara went on to score 287, and the next wicket fell 603 runs later.

Two cases of batsmen being dropped, and being dismissed by a no ball, off consecutive deliveries: SC Ganguly at Mohali (off Mohammad Sami) 2004, and Michael Vaughan at Old Trafford 2005 (off Glenn McGrath).

At the SCG in 2004, Brett Lee twice had batsmen dropped, and also caught off no balls, in the same over (Chopra in the 1^st innings and Sehwag in the second).

Snippets

Most runs before lunch on the first day by a #3 batsman:

112 Macartney 1926

105 Bradman 1930

80 Watson The Oval 2013

76 Kanhai 1960/61, Richards 1979/80 (both at Adelaide)

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Changing averages: I looked at first days of Tests where at least 450 balls were bowled. Between the Wars the average number of runs on these days was 305; since 2000 it is 285 runs. However the average number of balls bowled on the days surveyed has fallen from 650 to 524. There are complications. Before the War, days were 5 hours in Australia and up to 6.5 in England. Also, the practice of extending days when time is lost on previous days, is relatively recent

16 September 2013

Head-to-Head Stats at Last

Cricket has an intriguing mix of team and individual aspects, but at its heart are one-on-one contests between bowler and batsman. As such, the absence of extensive data on individual player-versus-player contests is quite a glaring gap in Test statistics. There is some data to be found, of course, with regards to bowlers who frequently dismissed particular batsmen. This stat, led by Glen McGrath’s 19 dismissals of Mike Atherton, has been published or reported from time to time. However, the converse – the batsmen who made most runs of individual bowlers – is a much more elusive stat.

Even traditional style scores are little help here. One needs ball-by-ball records. Fortunately, such records for those opponents who faced each other most often (mostly in Ashes Tests) are now in most cases complete. However, up to recently there was a frustrating gap in the database. I knew that Graham Gooch’s record against Kapil Dev was a top contender, but one Test, the ‘Jubilee’ Test at Bombay in 1980, was missing. The score of this match has now been found at Lord’s, and Benedict Bermange kindly sent me a copy.

Re-scoring this Test resulted in the elevation of Gooch/Kapil to #1. However, it is a close-run thing. Here is the list as it stands:

Individual Player v Player: Most Runs, all Tests

Bat	Bowl	Inns	Wkts	Balls	Runs	Av

GA Gooch	N Kapil Dev	33	11	960	517	47.0
H Sutcliffe	CV Grimmett	28	7	1748	515	73.6
AR Border	IT Botham	41	12	1245	506	42.2
AR Border	JE Emburey	36	5	1189	504	100.8
BC Lara	SK Warne	28	7	774	501	71.6
JB Hobbs	AA Mailey	21	9	813	501	55.7
L Hutton	RR Lindwall	38	9	1070	499	55.4
DPMD Jayawardene	Harbhajan Singh	21	4	755	494	123.5
DG Bradman	WR Hammond	29	3	876	493	164.3
DI Gower	GF Lawson	33	14	874	485	34.6
WR Hammond	CV Grimmett	25	6	1232	483	80.5
MA Atherton	CA Walsh	41	17	1166	479	28.2
*Javed Miandad*	*N Kapil Dev*		7		470**	67.4
AR Morris	AV Bedser	36	18	1386	466	25.9

**Javed off Kapil is an estimate only.

Note that “Inns” denotes only those innings where the batsman actually faced the bowler.

The pairing of Herbert Sutcliffe and Clarrie Grimmett runs second by just two runs. Unfortunately, there is some uncertainty here, because a couple of the source scores, particularly the Oval 1926, contain anomalies and errors that may have a small effect. This applies to Hobbs/Mailey as well. Ultimately there is uncertainty as to the top position, but it is an interesting list nevertheless.

There are relatively few recent opponents. The fact is that, even though players are playing more Tests, the number of Tests against specific opponents is not rising much: careers are spread out over more opponents than before. Hence the domination of Ashes Tests, which remain the most common head-to-head contests. Perhaps then, it is surprising that Bradman is not higher on the list. The reason is that few major England bowlers had a complete career overlap with Bradman. One who did, Hedley Verity, sometimes got the better of the Don (398 runs at 49.8 off Verity’s bowling), a fact that has probably been under-emphasised previously, and is quite remarkable when you think about it.

There are a few ‘unknown’ contests that might belong on the list. The most prominent one is shown: Javed off Kapil. Most of the Tests for this pairing are not available ball-by-ball. The estimate shown is partly based on a calculation of the number of runs scored by Javed in matches where Kapil was bowling, as a proportion of the runs conceded by Kapil. Since Kapil was an opening bowler and Javed tended to bat middle order, the real value is more likely to be a bit lower than the calculated estimate.

A few incidental records:

· The most runs scored by a batsman off a bowler without ever being dismissed is 278 by Viv Richards off John Emburey. John Edrich scored 271 runs off Johnny Gleeson in Ashes Tests without losing his wicket.

· The highest known average is a similar case: 278 runs for once out by Kumar Sangakkara off Umar Gul.

· Bradman scored 243 runs off Vinoo Mankad in a single series without being dismissed.

· Greg Matthews bowled Marvan Attapattu with the only two balls he ever bowled to him.

· Steve Smith dismissed Sachin Tendulkar with the first and (so far) only ball he has bowled to him in Tests.

· Grimmett dismissed Xenophon Balaskas of South Africa five times in Tests while conceding two runs.

· Tim May bowled 54 balls to Mark Illott without conceding a run, dismissing him three times.

· Ashwell Prince faced only 19 balls from Bryce McGain, but scored 48 runs.

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One of the most dramatic final innings in Tests happened in faraway Bulawayo in 1996, when England chased 205 to win off 37 overs. With five wickets down and England needing three to win of the last ball, Nick Knight was run out for 96 going for a third and winning run, leaving the scores tied but the match drawn, the first time there had been such a result (repeated recently in a India/West Indies Test). There are a few statistical curiosities from this innings (drawn from the scorebook) and match that show how knife-edges such matches are:

· England would have won the match under a rule change that was introduced less than 2 years later. Prior to the change, a no ball attracted a one run penalty only if there were no other runs scored; in 1998 this was changed so that an extra run was added in all cases. At Bulawayo, England scored off five no balls and Zimbabwe two. This would have given England three extra runs under the rule change, and the match.

· In the final innings, Umpire Dunne called a 7-ball over in the second over, bowled by Olonga. The error had extra impact in that Olonga then bowled a wide and so had to bowl the seventh ball again, only to see it hit for four by Knight.

· The fourth ball of the final over was a “very wide” ball bowled by Streak, but umpire Robinson declined to call it. Everyone else, including the bowler, later agreed it should have been called a wide.

Thanks to Benedict Bermange for supplying a copy of the score from Lord’s.

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20 August 2013

Gluttons for Punishment

It is quite well established that Narendra Hirwani bowled the longest bowling spell in Test matches, 59 overs at The Oval in 1990. Less well-known is the most expensive bowling spell. Which bowler conceded the most runs in a continuous spell without being taken off? Most very long spells were sustained because the bowler was very economical. Hirwani was a bit of an exception and conceded 137 runs in his spell, so this is a pretty impressive candidate for most runs. But there a couple of spells in the database that were even more expensive. At Bulawayo in 2003/04, Ray Price (5 for 199) bowled a sustained spell in an innings where Brian Lara went to town (191 off 203 balls). Price’s first spell lasted 33 overs, and he took 3 wickets for 157. After two overs off for the new ball, Price returned to bowl another 10 overs for 42 runs. Price conceded six sixes, four from Lara and two from Wavell Hinds.

Curiously, the next on the list was also for Zimbabwe and at the same ground: Adam Huckle, 5 for 146 off 32 overs against New Zealand in 1997/98. Hirwani is next, followed by Danish Kaneria 2 for 130 off 32 overs at the WACA in Perth in 2004/05.

The database covers only about 80% of Tests, so there might be other cases out there.

The bowler with greatest number of bowling spells in one innings was Maurice Tate (65.1-12-153-1), with 15 separate spells at the Oval in 1930, when Australia scored 695 in 256 overs.

Anil Kumble took all ten wickets in a single spell. Bowlers taking nine in a spell include Lohmann, Laker (first innings at Old Trafford, not second), Tayfield and Abdul Qadir.

Is Catching Improving?

I have completed a survey of dropped catches in Tests for the year 2012, which extends previous surveys that started in 2001, based on Cricinfo’s ball-by-ball texts. There is a surprising result in the percentages. After years of relatively steady figures, in the range 25-27% chances missed, the incidence of misses fell to 23.5% in 2012.

Looking closer, part of the explanation is the near disappearance of Bangladesh from the Test scene in the year 2012. Bangladesh has always been the most generous contributor of dropped catches, reaching 45% in 2011, and overall catching figures improve if Bangladesh is excluded. Even so, this only explains about one-third of the fall from 26.9% to 23.5% from 2011 to 2012. Another factor is a remarkable improvement in the catching from the West Indies. West Indies players missed a steady 31-32% of chances from 2001 to 2009. This fell to 24% in 2011, and to 20% (!) in 2012. West Indies has gone from being one of the poorest teams to being one of the best. Pakistan has also improved out of sight, from the 30s down to 23%.

Australia led with only 18.5% misses, which appears to be the best one-year figure for any team in these surveys.

There are always niggling worries with the data. It relies on Cricinfo reporters reliably mentioning missed chances, and on being able to reliably detect the references in the long texts. The method I use is to use a macro that automatically flag mentions of dropped catches in the text, searching for more than 30 synonyms or euphemisms that are used by the reporters, and then checking each flag individually.

I don’t know if anything has changed in the reporting. It seems to be much the same, and just as detailed as before. It will be interesting to see if the recent figures are maintained.

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Some Notes on Six-Hitting in Tests

Shane Warne conceded 174 sixes (data complete). He has recently been overtaken by Vettori on 183. However, even though data for Murali is incomplete, there are records of 189 sixes hit off him. There are 12 other sixes unaccounted for in Murali's career; he would have shared them with the other bowlers. Murali conceded maybe 40% of Sri Lanka's sixes in Test that he played, so a fair estimate would be 195 sixes conceded in his career.

The only other bowlers registering more than 100 sixes are Harbhajan Singh 157, Danish Kaneria 121, and Anil Kumble with at least 120 (data incomplete for Kumble).

The very first sixes: early hits over the boundary were only awarded five or even four runs. The first such hit is credited to Charles Bannerman off James Lillywhite in the second Test match played, at the MCG in 1877. The first hit over the boundary to register six runs (“out of the ground”) has sometimes been credited to Joe Darling off Johnny Briggs during an innings of 178 at Adelaide in 1897/98.

However, prior to Darling, there were several genuine hits over the boundary in Tests in South Africa that were awarded six runs. The first I have noted was by AJ Fothergill off A Rose-Innes at Port Elizabeth in 1889. George Ulyett made a similar stroke in the same match. Jimmy Sinclair hit two genuine sixes at Cape Town in the 1895/96 series, and AJL Hill also hit one in that match.

Technically, the first 'six' in Test cricket was by HH Massie at MCG in 1881/82, whose hit for six included three overthrows. I don’t know how many players have since hit a six without the ball reaching the boundary, but it must be very few.

24 July 2013

A few titbits on fast scoring in ODIs

It is extremely difficult to score off every ball for long, and it is almost certain that there have been no major innings where a batsman has scored off every ball, even if you count extras as scoring balls and ignore dismissals. Younis Khan scored off all 18 balls he faced in this ODI in 2002

There were no dot balls in Kevin Pietersen's 39 off 23 balls in this match but there was a leg bye and a dismissal.

Most runs successfully chased down in the last 2 overs of an ODI: 29 by Zimbabwe to beat Bangladesh at Harare in 2006. For 3 overs there was 37 by South Africa against New Zealand at Cape Town 2000, and for 5 overs, 60 by Zimbabwe against India at Faridabad 2002. These are from data since 1997, and that data contains gaps (6% of games).

Batsmen on the field throughout a Test

		Result	Days
Nazar Mohammad	Pak v Ind, Lucknow (University) 1952/53	I	4
JH Edrich	Eng v NZ, Leeds 1965	I	3
G Boycott	Eng v Aus, Leeds (Headingley) 1977	I	4
DL Haynes*	WI v NZ, Dunedin 1979/80	W	5
Taslim Arif	Pak v Aus, Faisalabad 1979/80	D	4
DSBP Kuruppu	SL v NZ, Colombo3 (CCC) 1986/87	D	5
Shoaib Mohammad	Pak v NZ, Karachi (National) 1990/91	I	5
MA Taylor	Aus v SAf, Melbourne (MCG) 1993/94	D	4
GW Flower	Zim v Pak, Harare 1994/95	I	4
BA Young	NZ v SL, Dunedin 1996/97	I	4
HH Gibbs	SAf v NZ, Christchurch 1998/99	D	5
MS Atapattu	SL v Zim, Bulawayo (Queen's) 1999/00	D	4
MS Atapattu	SL v Eng, Galle 2000/01	I	5
ML Hayden	Aus v Zim, Perth (WACA) 2003/04	I	5
RS Dravid	Ind v Pak, Lahore (Gaddafi) 2005/06	D	5
AN Cook	Eng v Ind, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 2011	I	4

Qualification: Test completed, or drawn with play on at least four days. Generally, it is not known if substitute fieldsmen were used; *Haynes was definitely substituted for a significant period.

Most Overs on the Field in a Test Match (at the crease or fielding)

Total overs	Batting	Fielding
685	236	449	PGV van der Bijl	SAf v Eng, Durban (Kingsmead) 1938/39*
605	300	305	H Sutcliffe	Eng v Aus, Melbourne (MCG) 1924/25*
602	290	312	WR Hammond	Eng v Aus, Adelaide Oval 1928/29*
585	238	347	H Sutcliffe	Eng v Aus, Melbourne (MCG) 1928/29*
550	256	294	RB Simpson	Aus v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1964
539	272	267	B Mitchell	SAf v Eng, The Oval 1947
519	241	278	A Sandham	Eng v WI, Kingston, Jamaica 1930*
507	255	252	PBH May	Eng v WI, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1957
504	320	184	Hanif Mohammad	Pak v WI, Bridgetown, Barbados 1958
493	295	198	Hanif Mohammad	Pak v Eng, Dhaka 1961/62
481	256	225	EAB Rowan	SAf v Eng, Leeds (Headingley) 1951
448	241	207	G Boycott	Eng v WI, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 1974
445	240	205	H Sutcliffe	Eng v Aus, The Oval 1926*
432	229	203	A Sandham	Eng v SAf, Durban (Kingsmead) 1922/23*
409	227	182	B Mitchell	SAf v Eng, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1929
398	225	173	MA Taylor	Aus v Pak, Peshawar (Niaz) 1998/99
395	243	152	SP Fleming	NZ v SL, Colombo1 (PSS) 2002/03
381	294	87	L Hutton	Eng v Aus, The Oval 1938

*Timeless Tests. Eight ball overs converted to six-ball equivalent. Generally, it is not known if substitute fieldsmen were used.

Most Overs at the Crease in a Test Match

Overs at the crease
320	Hanif Mohammad	Pak v WI, Bridgetown, Barbados 1958
300	H Sutcliffe	Eng v Aus, Melbourne (MCG) 1924/25*
295	Hanif Mohammad	Pak v Eng, Dhaka 1961/62
294	L Hutton	Eng v Aus, The Oval 1938*
290	WR Hammond	Eng v Aus, Adelaide Oval 1928/29*
272	B Mitchell	SAf v Eng, The Oval 1947
256	EAB Rowan	SAf v Eng, Leeds (Headingley) 1951
256	RB Simpson	Aus v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1964
255	PBH May	Eng v WI, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1957
243	SP Fleming	NZ v SL, Colombo1 (PSS) 2002/03
241	A Sandham	Eng v WI, Kingston, Jamaica 1930*
241	G Boycott	Eng v WI, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 1974
240	H Sutcliffe	Eng v Aus, The Oval 1926*
238	H Sutcliffe	Eng v Aus, Melbourne (MCG) 1928/29*
236	PGV van der Bijl	SAf v Eng, Durban (Kingsmead) 1938/39*
229	A Sandham	Eng v SAf, Durban (Kingsmead) 1922/23*
227	B Mitchell	SAf v Eng, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1929
225	MA Taylor	Aus v Pak, Peshawar (Niaz) 1998/99

*Timeless Tests. Eight ball overs converted to six-ball equivalent.

Bowlers who took a wicket in their first over most often

Bowl
GD McGrath	27
JH Kallis	23
SM Pollock	21
SK Warne	20
CS Martin	19
IT Botham	18
JM Anderson	18

20 June 2013

A Rare Pause

As the recent England/ New Zealand Test series faded away at Headingley, the New Zealand tailenders failed to score for the last 68 balls of the match. This is the longest known spell without scoring (off the bat) since 1964, when some Australian batsmen conspired to face 78 dot balls in a row at Calcutta. At Headingley, there was one wide during the scoreless spell.

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The subject of the biggest six hits has become a perennial favourite, a question that is as intractable as it is popular. Without suggesting this can be resolved, here is a contribution, from the Sun-Herald newspaper in October 1963, concerning a famous innings by Victor Trumper in 1902/03. At Redfern Oval in a club (1^st grade) match, Trumper hit 335 in 165 minutes (less time searching for six lost balls) with 22 ‘fives’, shots that would count for six today. Under the scoring system at the time, a batsman lost the strike by hitting the ball over the boundary. Trumper and his partner Dan Gee at one point hit six fives off an over, three each, taking turns. Trumper’s score remains the record for Sydney 1^st Grade cricket.

Anyway, one of Trumper’s shots smashed a second-storey window in a factory across the street from the ground. The article illustrates the shot, which was estimated at 150 yards (135+ metres). One good thing about this one, unlike earlier, more dubious, claims for massive hits, is that its trajectory was definitely known, since the window was broken. Personally (checking against Google Earth) I think that 150 yards is a slight exaggeration, but it was certainly a mighty hit.

Wickets by Substitute Bowlers

From time to time (once in every ten Tests, roughly) a bowler cannot complete an over, usually due to injury. Traditionally, such overs were left unfinished, but since the 1980s another bowler has been called on to complete the over. In a few rare cases, this bowler takes a wicket before the end of the over. Here is a list of such cases

Batsman	Bowler	Replacing
JC Adams	RT Ponting	SR Waugh	Aus v WI, Brisbane ('Gabba') 1996/97
A Flower, ML Nkala	CD McMillan	CL Cairns	NZ v Zim, Harare 2000/01
MJ Horne	PA de Silva	M Muralitharan	SL v NZ, Colombo2 (SSC) 1998
Harbhajan Singh	CE Cuffy	M Dillon	WI v Ind, Mumbai (Wankhede) 2002/03
LPC Silva	DJ Bravo	JE Taylor	WI v SL, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 2008

McMillan, uniquely, managed two wickets. Bravo’s wicket came after Taylor was barred from bowling, following a beamer at a tailender. Harbhajan was out first ball, possibly confused by a unique case of batsman (Dravid) and bowler (Dillon) both retiring hurt after the same ball.

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Recently, there was a discussion at Cricinfo about the most no balls bowled by a bowler in a Test match, which had Ramanayake at Colombo in 1992/93 leading the way. The numbers presented were rather incomplete; here is a more rigorous analysis…

Willis bowled 34 no balls in all at Edgbaston 1981; four of them were scored from. This is the most I know of. Most in an innings is 32 by Wasim Akram at Old Trafford 1992, 3 of them scored from, but he didn't get a second innings. Seems to be an 'English conditions' thing.

Strangely, the online score for Ramanayake at Colombo is incorrect; he registered 24 no balls not 26, plus six that were scored from.

Most no balls in a match (including those with runs off the bat)

34	RGD Willis	England	Eng v Aus, Birmingham (Edgbaston) 1981
33	BP Patterson	West Indies	WI v Aus, Perth (WACA) 1988/89
32	Wasim Akram	Pakistan	Pak v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1992
31	PIC Thompson	West Indies	WI v NZ, Bridgetown, Barbados 1996
30	RGD Willis	England	Eng v Aus, Lord's 1981
30	CPH Ramanayake	Sri Lanka	SL v Aus, Colombo2 (SSC) 1992
30	WPUJC Vaas	Sri Lanka	SL v Pak, Lahore (Gaddafi) 2001/02

(This table has been edited; previous references to Jeff Thomson were in error)

Rest of the World Again

To follow up the item last month on Dennis Lillee against the World XI in 1971/72, here are some figures for the famous innings of Garfield Sobers at the MCG in the same series. They turned up in Australian Cricket magazine in Feb 1972, but I doubt if they have been otherwise published.

Runs	Balls	Mins
50	70	69
100	129	135
150	231	261
200	274	330
250	320	373
254	323*	376

*The original table gives a figure of 373

Partn		Sobers	Total
4	Pollock G, 8	23	31
5	Greig, 3	32	37
6	Engineer, 14	20	34
7	Intikhab, 15	50	71
8	Pollock P, 54	129	186

Off each Bowler

	4s/6s	Runs	Balls
Lillee	8	54	69
Massie	7	49	68
Watson	0	12	21
Jenner	6	44	49
O'Keeffe	10/2	83	103
Stackpole	1	7	5
Chappell, G	1	5	8

Sobers had been dismissed second ball by Lillee in the previous match in Perth, and first ball in the first innings in Melbourne, so by the time the second innings came around, he really had something to prove against the “six foot Perth bank officer”, as one newspaper described Lillee. Sobers scored effortlessly off every bowler in the second innings, as the head-to head figures show. The innings was very fast but not superfast: Bradman had on several occasions reached 200 faster, although he had rarely matched Sobers speed from 200 to 250. Comparisons were made with Bradman’s own 254 (370 balls) at Lord’s in 1930, and Graeme Pollock’s 274 (413 balls) in 1970; Sobers was faster than both. The only innings of Bradman’s that was clearly faster was his 244 off 275 balls at the Oval 1934. Bradman himself was uncharacteristically effusive about Sobers’ innings, describing it as the finest he had seen in Australia.

It was a speed of scoring that Sobers had demonstrated before in Australia, being similar to his 132 at the Gabba in 1960/61 and two centuries he scored in 1968/69. Sobers’ five centuries against Australia came in an average of 125 balls, significantly faster than his 100s elsewhere, which typically took 200 balls.

There is no parallel in Test cricket for a player scoring a double century in one innings and being out first ball in the other. At Hyderabad in 1972/73, Dennis Amiss made 158 in the first innings, and a golden duck in the second. Dudley Nourse in 1935/36 and Viv Richards in 1984/85 combined double centuries with second ball ducks.

Another curiosity from that series: Greg Chappell, who eventually dismissed Sobers with his medium-pacers, had unaccountably been dropped to 12^th man in the first two matches. Once back in the team, he scored 115* in Melbourne, 197* at the SCG, and 85 at Adelaide Oval. The same day as Sobers’ completed his 254, Chappell was caught off Bishen Bedi when a full-blooded sweep shot ricocheted off Norman Gifford’s ankle and ballooned to Sobers at mid-on. Gifford had to be helped from the field.

14 May 2013

Pace ‘Battery’

Recently I have done a compilation of batsmen retiring hurt in Test matches. I found 306 cases up to now, 195 of whom later returned to the crease. This statistic has varied quite a lot over the years, rising to 25 cases per 100 Tests in the 1970s and 80s, but falling again as protective equipment improved, levelling out in the last 20 years at 10-12 cases per 100 Tests. Batting is now, if anything, less dangerous than bowling: the rate of bowlers retiring injured in mid-over is now about the same as for batsmen, and it is more likely that an injured bowler will not bowl again in the innings.

The compilation allows some statistics, although they are limited by the comparative rarity of the incidents. The batsman with the most retired hurts is DB Vengsarkar with six, a tally now threatened by Chris Gayle with five. A more novel aspect is the identification of bowlers who ‘retired’ batsmen. Here is a list of the bowlers most responsible.

Bowler	Batsmen retired hurt	Tests	per 100

CA Walsh	9	132	6.8
RJ Hadlee	8	86	9.3
WW Hall	7	48	14.6
DK Lillee	6	70	8.6
FS Trueman	6	67	9.0
MD Marshall	6	81	7.4

Hadlee was not really regarded as a particularly dangerous bowler, but the figures suggest he was worthy of respect in this area as well. Hall’s reputation is confirmed, and the above figures do not include incidents such as Hall cracking Colin McDonald’s ribs in the Tied Test (McDonald continued batting). One bowler, not on the list, had a rate similar to Hall: Colin Croft, who was perhaps the most feared of the 80s Windies pacemen, retired four batsmen in a short 27-Test career.

Note that there are qualifications to this data. Some batsmen retire hurt (or ill) for reasons other than the bowler. I have tried to winnow these out of the data (indeed, ‘pulled muscle’ is a leading cause of retirement) but some may remain. There are maybe a dozen cases where the bowler, if one was responsible, has not been identified, most of these before 1980.

Sachin Tendulkar, incidentally, has never retired hurt in a Test match.

Meanwhile, in the Rest of the World

Speaking of feared fast bowling, I found in an old Australian Cricket magazine an analysis of Dennis Lillee’s 8 for 29 at Perth against “Rest of the World” in 1971/72. Now, this wasn’t a Test match, but it was certainly the next best thing, and the list of victims include some very big names: Gavaskar, Greig, Sobers, Lloyd (if this was not like “real Test cricket”, as some said, then the same surely applies to many actual Test matches, then and now). Anyway, Lillee’s analysis is intriguing in that it includes sequences of wickets that are unmatched in Test cricket. This includes five wickets for no runs in nine balls, and six wickets for no runs in 15. It is said that when Sobers came out to bat, he had never seen slips (five slips and two leg slips) and keeper standing so deep, and asked why. “You’ll find out” answered Rod Marsh, who caught Sobers two balls later off a particularly fierce length ball.

The full analysis is worth recording (I presume for the first time online). Lillee bowled 7.1 eight-ball overs

0 0 0 W 0 0 0 2 (Gavaskar c Marsh wk)

4 2 0 4 W 0 4 0 (Engineer c & b)

0 4 0 0 0 1 0 4

0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 W 0 W 0 W 0 (Greig c Stackpole 3^rd slip, Sobers c Marsh wk, Hutton c McKenzie leg slip)

W 0 W 0 0 0 0 0 (Intikhab c Sheahan cover, Cunis c Stackpole 3^rd slip)

W (Lloyd c Marsh wk)

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Here are some snippets recently gathered. Some of these were published on the Ask Steven Facebook page…

Tests won in the last possible over are very few. I count only four (plus two Tied Tests) and that includes the Cronje Test and one won by the bowling side (Port-of-Spain 1935). Port-of-Spain 1968 finished at 5:27 and almost certainly had time for one more over.

Of the few, England hit 8 runs in the last over to win at Durban in 1948/49, an eight ball over. Only three came off the last six balls. At Kingston 1983, WI needed five off the last over and hit 1+6 off the first two balls.

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Precursor: Nathan Astle is famous for doing an ‘Alletson’ in a Test match, when he scored 222 off 168 balls at Christchurch in 2002. Here is an earlier Astle special: at Bridgetown in 1996, Astle outscored JTC Vaughan 102 to 24 in a fifth wicket stand of 144. Astle hit 17 fours and 2 sixes during the partnership, while Vaughan hit no boundaries at all.

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Alan Border once had a sequence of 51 innings (Sydney 1989 to Colombo 1992) where he did not hit a century, yet averaged 50.8. Border is certainly the only batsman to average over 50 for 50 innings in a row without hitting a century.

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At Hamilton in 2010, Martin Guptill became the only Test batsman to hit a Test half century that included sixes but no fours.

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Colin Cowdrey played 246 dot balls from Sonny Ramadhin in his 154 at Edgbaston 1957. Bob Simpson played 203 from TW Cartwright when he made 311 in 1964.

Wisden way back in 1893 recorded that Alec Bannerman (91) had scored off only 5 balls out 204 that he faced from William Attewell at the SCG 1891/92. The strange thing about this report, which appears to originate in the Melbourne Argus, is that no one was doing linear scoring in those days, and balls faced was, apart from this one instance, an unknown concept. A mystery.

In any case, the report is wrong. When I re-scored the surviving score into linear form (which took many hours even with computer help) I confirmed the 204 balls, but found that Bannerman had scored off 8.

Sadly, there is no data available for Hanif's monumental 337.

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There are about 107 instances of a batsman reaching a Test century during a 10th wicket partnership. Among the century-makers the lowest scores at the fall of the ninth wicket were

13 : P Willey(100*) Eng v WI, The Oval 1980

16 : NJ Astle(102*) NZ v Eng, Auckland 1996/97

27 : JM Taylor(108) Aus v Eng, Sydney (SCG) 1924/25

27 : MEK Hussey(122) Aus v SAf, Melbourne (MCG) 2005/06

29 : RA Duff(104) Aus v Eng, Melbourne (MCG) 1901/02

31 : BF Hastings(110) NZ v Pak, Auckland 1972/73

32 : Harbhajan Singh(111*) Ind v NZ, Hyderabad (Uppal) 2010/11

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I wonder how often a disparity like this happens. At Karachi in 1997/98, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq were bowling in tandem to Carl Hooper and Brian Lara. They bowled seven overs each; Mushtaq took 0 for 67, while Saqlain at the other end took 1 for 5, finishing with the wicket of Lara. Hooper made 50 runs in these overs, and 47 of them came off Mushtaq; Hooper went on to a century off 80 balls. Mushtaq was spelled, but the run flow continued off Azhar Mahmood for a couple of overs. Between them, Mushtaq and Azhar conceded 87 runs at the Pavilion end, while Saqlain was conceding seven runs at the University Road end.

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When Mahela Jayawardene made 99 against West Indies at Galle in 2001/02, not only was he run out going for his 100^th run, but earlier in the innings he appears to have been docked a run for ‘one short’. He was batting with Kumar Sangakkara at the time, but it is not recorded which of the batsman was called for the short run. Sri Lanka made 590 in that innings, including a partnership of 154 for the sixth wicket between Tillakeratne and Samaraweera that included only two boundaries, and a spell of 215 balls without a boundary. Maybe the “Super Bats” hadn’t made it to Sri Lanka at that time.

Strangely enough, on the same day, DA Marillier made 38 runs in a row entirely in singles, during his 52 against Bangladesh at Chittagong.

9 April 2013

The Man Who Faced 115 Balls for 0

Looking around for long spells of Test batsmen failing to score, I came across Tony Lock, who in the West Indies in 1954, faced 115 balls in a row without scoring, spread across three Tests. At Kingston, Lock’s last 18 balls were scoreless; at Bridgetown, he scored 0 off 45 and 0 off 22; at Georgetown, he finally broke this ultimate of ducks when he hit Alf Valentine for two off his 32^nd ball.

I have made a list of known cases of extreme scorelessness including those spread over multiple innings

Balls Faced without score	Batsman	Tests
115	GAR Lock	3 Tests	1954
95 (est.)	B Mitchell	single inns	Brisbane 1931/32
92	AC Bannerman	2 inns	Sydney 1886/87
90	GI Allott	3 Tests	1999
85	B Mitchell	single inns	Joburg 1938/39
81	TE Bailey	single inns	Leeds 1955
80	JT Murray	single inns	1962/63
79	GW Flower	2 inns	Harare 2000
76	B Sutcliffe	2 Tests	Manchester 1958
75 (est.)	WH Scotton	single inns	The Oval 1886
74	CG Rackemann	single inns	SCG 1990/91
74	C Washbrook	2 Tests	1950
74	WL Murdoch	2 Tests	1883
74	DK Morrison	4 Tests	1993
72	JSE Price	6 Tests (!)	1964+
71	TG Evans	2 Tests	1947
70 (approx.)	WL Murdoch	2 Tests	1883

Price is an intriguing case. After starting his career with a solid 32 in India, he scored only two runs in his next ten Tests, including none at all in South Africa in 1964/65. He wasn’t completely without opportunity, as the number of balls faced shows, but his 5* at Lord’s in 1971 represented his first Test runs since 1964.

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I have posted an article on run outs in Test matches, as published in the Cricket Statistician in 2012. Find it here.

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GM Turner (101) spent 36 balls on 99, ~~3^rd~~ second Test 1973/74, first innings. He needed only three balls for his 100 when he reached 99 in the second innings. However, he spent 52 balls in the 90s in that second innings 110*, but ‘only’ 43 in the first innings.

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I can find only two cases of a bowler taking wickets with consecutive balls but against different countries. Geoff Miller (v Pakistan, Australia 1982), and Monty Panesar (Australia, West Indies 2007). Neither got three in three.

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Brian Lara scored 30 runs in the first four overs of the West Indies first innings at Headingley in 1995, even though he batted at #3.

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Four New Balls in one innings: There are a handful of recorded cases from days when new ball intervals were shorter, although data is incomplete. It happened twice in one match at Leeds in 1951. More recent was Port-of-Spain 1954, not West Indies 681 but England's reply of 537. Those Tests in the WI back then were 6 days, but only 5 hours per day. Note that the new ball rules have varied a lot over the years.

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In a three-Test series in India in 1992/93, Graham Hick had most runs, best batting average, most wickets, best bowling average, highest score, best match bowling, and most catches for England. This was not necessarily a good sign; England was thrashed.

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There are 12 cases of same player having most match runs and most match wickets for a team in a Test, some of them washed out draws, but none where that applies to all four innings. At Johannesburg 1957/58, Richie Benaud top scored in 1st innings and had best bowling in both innings, but Australia needed only one run to win in the second innings. At Christchurch 1977/78, Botham 'top scored' in both innings (second was incomplete), and had best match bowling, but Bob Willis took more wickets in the second innings.

11 March 2013

End of Days Myth?

Michael Clarke at Hyderabad became the first Test captain to declare an innings closed, and then lose by an innings. That much was noted widely, but I thought I would look into the reason for the declaration, which was to give India a ‘difficult’ short session of batting at the end of the first day. Do batsmen really struggle in that situation, or is it another cricketing myth?

I took 95 cases of teams batting six overs or less at the end of a day of more than 80 overs, on days 1, 2 and 3, since 1998. I compared them to the results for all teams in innings 2 or 3 (over 1300 innings). I subdivided the results into teams batting 1 to 2 over, 2 to 3 overs, 3 to 4 etc. The table compares the average number of wickets falling under the two scenarios: end of day start versus normal start.

Average number of wickets falling in early overs.

	Wickets per innings
Number of overs	End of day	Normal
1 to 2	0.22	0.20
2 to 3	0.35	0.29
3 to 4	0.47	0.39
4 to 5	0.35	0.50
5 to 6	0.38	0.58

There is a slightly elevated chance of getting a wicket if you leave a team four overs or less to bat at the end of the day. However, this advantage is reversed for teams given five or six overs. Overall, the effect is weak, and the fluctuations are probably due to chance and the somewhat restricted sample size. Overall, it is very hard to see any significant advantage to putting a team in to bat for the last few overs of the day.

Still, the perception of advantage must be strong: it is still tried regularly. It could be because of the natural insecurities of batsmen. They feel that they have a lot to lose and little to gain when asked to bat for just a few overs; in reality, they generally cope well.

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A Very Short History of Matting Wickets in Tests

All Tests in Australia and England have been on turf. I have notes on 59 Tests elsewhere that were on matting, mostly in Pakistan and South Africa. All Tests in South Africa before 1930 were on matting, the last being Johannesburg 1931 (thanks to Robin Isherwood for the intel). The situation in the West Indies is less clear. The only pre-War Tests in the Caribbean known to be on matting were at Port-of-Spain, but there may have been others. Bridgetown and Kingston 1934/35 appear to have been on turf. The last Test on matting in West Indies was Port-of-Spain 1954.

Only two matting Tests are known in India, Lucknow 1952/53 and Kanpur 1958/59. The odd thing about the latter is that an earlier Test in Kanpur was on turf. It appears that all Tests in Pakistan before 1960, except at Lahore and Peshawar, were on matting wickets. The last matting Test ever played was Pakistan against Australia at Karachi in 1959.

You might be surprised at how at much work is required to produce prosaic research like this.

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Some more comments that I placed on the Ask Steven Facebook page follow.

Taking of new ball has varied quite a bit in the past, and was as early as 55 overs in the 1940s. The lowest score for a second new ball that I know of is 80/3 for West Indies bowling against England at Bridgetown in 1954. It was taken in the 73rd over, so England were scoring at barely one run per over. The lowest known score for a new ball after 80 overs or more is 103/6 in the 81st over, England bowling against New Zealand at Leeds in 1958.

At Joburg in 1938, Hedley Verity conceded his first boundary with his 478th ball of the match. He was then taken off, much too expensive I suppose.

Spanning multiple matches, Alan Davidson bowled 522 balls in a row without being hit for four, in South Africa in 1957/58. The sequence spanned three matches.

Only one Test batsman has ever scored a half-century without having batted in the first innings. Richard Hutton, son of Sir Len, made 58* in the second innings for England v Pakistan at Lord’s 1971. The match was largely a washout: England had declared the first innings at 241/2 to try to precipitate a result, but there was no real chance. Hutton was given a chance to play his first Test innings on the final afternoon. [I have excluded the ‘Cronje’ Test in 2000 from this analysis.]

UPDATE: Days after I wrote this, after Hutton’s record had stood for more than 40 years, Kithuruwan Vithanage of Sri Lanka scored 59 against Bangladesh without having batted in the first innings.

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A question arose about bowler’s switching arms and bowling with opposite to normal hand. Gerald Brodribb's Next Man In it provides six or seven instances of bowlers doing that in fc cricket, but is not specific about Tests: CEM Wilson, J Harry, RG Marlar, Hanif Mohammad (1954 & 1967 tours of England), H Jarman, J Whitehouse, V Marks and 'occasionally' Peter Bowler, and GA Gooch. It turns out that the right-handed Hanif tried this at an important juncture in Test history. Here is an eyewitness account from the Barbados Advocate from 2 Mar 1958:

"Hanif appeared at the northern end as a relief bowler. Walcott singled off his second ball and Sobers now faced Hanif, who changed to round the wicket and bowled left hand slows. Sobers pushed him to long off for a single to tie Hutton's 364 and Walcott hit the next ball for a mighty six..."

"Facing Fazal next over his first was a wide, the next ball rapped Sobers on the pads and Fazal roared a leg before appeal to umpire Ewart who turned it down. Fazal blared [sic] at the umpire an

d delivered the next ball without his run. Sobers pushed to cover for a single and bedlam broke loose..."

A Pakistan contact, Shahzad, tells me that Hanif’s one Test wicket was bowling conventionally. (Source: Hanif himself). The only other note I have of a Test bowler switching arms is Graham Gooch in his last over of the drawn Test at Calcutta in 1981/82.

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Bradman, of course, gathered his 6996 runs in only 80 innings. To find an innings sequence with more than 6996 runs, you have to go to Ricky Ponting, 7026 in 116 innings, finishing with 123 in Test #1887, which was his 200th innings.

13 February 2013

Some of these remarks are ones I made on the ‘Ask Steven’ Facebook page.

Most One-on-One Dismissals in First-Class Cricket

The answers are a bit strange. Against Bradman, no one did better than Grimmett, with 10 dismissals, which is a little odd considering they played for the same teams far more often than they were opposed. In all FC cricket, the answers go WAY back. This is because in the days before county Championship, there were fewer players and teams, but they played one another very often. William Hillyer dismissed James Dean 59 times, and Alfred Mynn had similar success against Thomas Box. Most of this happened in the 1840s. Hillyer dismissed Box 56 times. The most I can find in modern cricket (all forms) is 29 by Marshall against Gooch.

If my calculations are correct (not guaranteed), Hillyer played against Box 140 times and against Dean exactly the same number. Mynn played 129 against Box, and 99 against Dean. These are remarkable numbers considering that none of them played more than 300 fc matches. I should add that the Hillyer/Box 140 and other totals would include matches where they played on the same side.

Personally, I am dubious about many matches of this era that have been granted fc status, but that is another issue.

The Slowest Sessions: A More Complete List

I have revised some earlier work on the lowest-scoring sessions (12 Dec 2011), to take account of the fact that there are generally a lot fewer overs being bowled in a session than once was the case. I have also discovered new candidates for the slowest two-hour session. On the final day of a Test in Colombo in 1983, New Zealand ‘advanced’ from 50/3 to 76/3 in the post-lunch session, producing just 21 runs off the bat. This was the innings where Martin Crowe, suffering from a fractured thumb and food poisoning, took two hours to reach five and 156 balls to get to double figures. Crowe hit just four runs off 90 balls in the session in question, the fewest known for any individual (and even that included a single off the first ball of the session). This is one fewer that Arshad Khan scored in a session at the same ground in 2000; Khan was supporting Wasim Akram, who scored 63 at the other end.

The fewest runs table has been divided into two: the first lists sessions of thirty overs or more, the nominal minimum nowadays. The second shows complete sessions that saw only 24-30 overs. Once again, it is a New Zealand team in Sri Lanka currently in the ‘yellow jersey’ (Morutawa 1992). In this session Lankan spinner Warnaweera returned figures of 13-11-5-0, one of the runs being a no ball. New Zealand was happy to draw the match, which was their first after their hotel in Colombo had been hit by a big terrorist bomb. I hadn’t realised before that they had not called off that tour.

Fewest Runs in a Full Two-Hour Session (where known)

Runs	Off bat		Day	Sess	Wkts	Deliveries
26	25	SAf v Aus, Brisbane ('Gabba') 1931/32	5	3	3	276
26	26	Pak v Ind, Peshawar (Club) 1954/55	4	1	3	240 (est.)
26	21	NZ v SL, Colombo (SSC) 1983/84	5	2	0	193
27	23	Eng v Ind, Chennai (Nehru) 1963/64	3	2	0	240
27	26	Aus v Eng, The Oval 1956	5	3	5	229 (108’)
28	28	Aus v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1956	5	1	0	220 (115’)
29	26	Eng v Ind, Lord’s 1986	4	3	4	191(114’)
30	27	Eng v Aus, Perth (WACA) 1978/79	1	1	2	193
30	28	SAf v Aus, Adelaide Oval 1993/94	5	2	4	198

Minimum 30 six-ball overs. Does not include weather-interrupted sessions, or those with change of innings.

Sessions that fell a few minutes short of two hours have been included, but not 60- and 90-minute sessions, which were commonplace in some countries before 1980. At Brisbane 1958/59, England scored 19 off 168 balls in 90 minutes before lunch on the fourth day. England scored only 27 in 39 overs before lunch on the third day at Bridgetown in 1954, but it was still only a 90 minute session(!).

At Trent Bridge 1934, England scored 26 off 232 balls in the final session of the match before being all out.

Fewest Runs in a Full Two-Hour Session (24-30 overs)

Runs	Off bat		Day	Sess	Wkts	Deliveries
25	20	NZ v SL, Morutawa 1992/93	5	1	2	171
26	25	Pak v SL, Sharjah 2011	5	3	1	168
26	24	NZ v WI, Antigua (Richards) 2012	5	1	2	157
27	?	Ind v Pak, Lahore 1984/85	3	2	4	168*
28	26	Pak v WI, Karachi 1986/87	5	1	2	146†
29	28	Ind v WI, Kingston, Jamaica 2006	1	1	2	175
29	28	Aus v Eng, Manchester (Old Trafford) 1981	3	1	3	169
30	25	Eng v Aus, Adelaide Oval 2006/07	5	1	4	170

*Time uncertain

†17-minute injury break

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At Edgbaston in 1999, Alex Tudor and Nasser Hussain hit 22 boundaries in a partnership of 98. There were four sundries. I would be very surprised if any partnership of less than 100 would have more boundaries. Tudor hit 21 in his score of 99*, the most boundaries by anyone not making a century, and Hussain 10 fours in 44 is the most known in a score of less than 45. Sobers hit 10 boundaries in 43 at Bridgetown in 1955.

The partnership scoring strokes (leaving out sundries) were 44144444444444414414344444.

UPDATE: The first 103 runs of a partnership between VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh at Napier in 2009 contained 23 fours. Laxman scored 60 out of his last 64 runs in boundaries.

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Shane Warne saw 750 wickets (including run outs) fall at the other end after he bowled the previous over. Warne took 708 wickets plus 20 run outs during his overs, so it is quite interesting that his bowling partners took more wickets than he did. His main bowling partner was Glenn McGrath. McGrath took 563 wickets (plus 15 run outs while he was bowling), but saw 533 wickets from his bowling partners including run outs. I have 528 for Murali, but Sri Lanka data is incomplete before 1998; he is very unlikely to exceed Warne. The numbers above are not absolutely guaranteed.

Laker took 18 of his wickets at Old Trafford after Lock had bowled the previous over, (interesting in that Laker bowled quite a few overs in tandem with other bowlers as well). For Laker's other wicket, Lock came on to bowl in the next over.

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At the end of the SCG Test in 1946, the Australian team had a combined batting average of 80.02 (career runs by the team members, divided by dismissals). Highest for modern teams is 50.75 for India at Colombo in 2010, fractionally ahead of Australia at the SCG in 2008/09, at 50.74.

Most Runs in First-Class Cricket by non-Test Players

1	A Jones	36,012
2	JG Langridge	34,378
3	GL Berry	30,225
4	KG Suttle	30,225
5	PA Perrin	29,709
6	BF Davison	27,453
7	J Seymour	27,237
8	KS McEwan	26,628
9	DE Davies	26,564
10	CEB Rice	26,331
11	MJ di Venuto	25,200
12	DM Young	24,555
13	MR Hallam	24,488

16 January 2013

Five Wickets in Seven Balls in Test Cricket

Never been done? Depends how wide you cast the net. No bowler has taken five wickets in fewer than 13 balls in all Tests, as far as I know, but if you look at just Ashes Tests, there is one strange case. Jason Gillespie took five wickets in seven consecutive balls against England. How could such a thing have gone unnoticed? Here’s how…

At Perth in 1998/99, Gillespie took three wickets with the last four balls of his 15^th over, and added another (Alan Mullally) with the second ball of his next over, finishing off England’s second innings. Four wickets in six balls is rare enough, and was noticed at the time (William Bates at the MCG way back in 1883 is the only other case I know of in Ashes Tests). However, in spite of his match figures of 7 for 111, Gillespie was bumped to twelfth man for the next Test in Adelaide, and was injured (or perhaps ignored) for the final two Tests of the series. He played eleven Tests against other countries before his next appearance in the Ashes at Edgbaston in 2001. With his first ball of that series, he dismissed Marcus Trescothick. Hence five in seven, albeit spanning more than two years. I wonder if there are other cases involving different pairs of countries. I would be surprised to find anything so extreme.

Earthquake Stops Play

There is a curious little note in the official scorebook for the Wellington Test of 1991/92 (NZ v Eng). In New Zealand’s first innings, listed among the interruptions, is “4 mins/ earthquake”. Unfortunately it does not say exactly when this happened, or even which day. The innings stretched over 3 playing days; the earthquake probably happened on the Saturday while Wright was batting. None of the usual sources mention the event; I checked the New Zealand Herald but no mention (although the Sunday edition was not on the microfilm). A contact in Wellington was also unaware; he went to the match but was not there every day. He did say he remembered the England fast bowler David Lawrence’s career-ending breakdown on the fifth day when his kneecap broke in two; the ‘snap’ was audible all round the ground.

The Basin Reserve is no stranger to earthquakes, and the ground actually owes its existence to one. When Wellington was first settled, the Basin area was a shallow lagoon. There were plans afoot to dredge it into a harbour in 1855 when a huge earthquake raised the land level almost 2 metres and turned the lagoon into a swamp. Once they had dusted themselves off, the resourceful locals changed their plans, drained the swamp, and made a cricket ground. The 1855 earthquake was probably much bigger than the 2011 quake that devastated Christchurch.

The Worst Bowling Average

The recent appearance at the Sydney Test of Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Pradeep (given the confusing name of ANPR Fernando at CricketArchive) raised a question about the worst bowling averages. Pradeep went into the match with a Test batting average of 0.5 and a bowling average of 345.0, surely an unprecedented combination. Pradeep scored 26 runs and took 2 for 114 in the Test, which represents something of a breakthrough, relatively speaking. By conceding 58 runs before his first wicket, Pradeep’s bowling average briefly topped 400, peaking at 403 before he dismissed Mitchell Johnson. Only a few bowlers have ever suffered such an average. Rawl Lewis of West Indies reached 414 in 2008. Indian bowler Rusi Surti had an average of 458 at one stage in 1962, but that was topped by Khaled Mahmud of Bangladesh whose average peaked at 480 in 2003. There is one other bowler whose exact worst average is not determined, the West Indian all-rounder and slow bowler Frank ‘Freddie’ Martin.

Martin went into the Adelaide Test of 1930/31 with a bowling average of 417 and took 3/91, finally breaking his drought with the wicket of Don Bradman, no less. Australia scored 42 runs after Bradman was out for 152, so at an absolute minimum, Martin’s average reached 466. However, of the 42 runs, press reports mention 13 runs specifically hit off other bowlers and eight off Martin (who bowled throughout); the other runs were not reported. This gives Martin a minimum of 479 and a likely range of 485 to 495 runs conceded before he got Bradman. Martin almost certainly is the record-holder.

Martin rather redeemed himself in the final Test of that series by scoring a century (123* off 364 balls) and dismissing Bradman for 43 at a crucial stage of the match. West Indies won the match in probably the biggest Test upset ever.

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I came across an unusual and unsung achievement in a Test in 1992. In New Zealand’s first Test in Zimbabwe, Mark Greatbatch scored 88 and 87 in dashing style, facing only 187 balls. He reached 50 off 39 balls in the first innings and off 48 in the second. It is remarkably rare to reach two fifties in a Test at faster than a run per ball. The only other certain cases I know of are Nathan Astle at Bridgetown in 1996 (45 & 45 balls) and Tillekeratne Dilshan at Galle against New Zealand in 2009 (30 and 35). A number of players have come very close, the most notable being Sehwag, also at Galle, with fifties off 50 and 49 balls.

Jack Hobbs may have done it at Durban way back in 1910, but we can only estimate balls faced for that Test. There are no other likely candidates from the old days.