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Who are the Fastest-Scoring (and Most Tenacious) Batsmen in Test Cricket? Click Here.

 

 

Longer articles by Charles Davis Click Here

 

 

A list of “Unusual Dismissals” in Test matches

 

Unusual Records. For Cricket Records you will not see anywhere else, Click Here

 

 

 

 

 

  

 2024 and Earlier Entries

 

FOUND: a full score of the Madras Tied Test !

A Bonus Page:

some remarkable first-class innings, re-scored.

 

Link to Travels

 

The Davis Test Match Database Online.

 

Detailed scores for all Tests from 1877 to the 2010s have now been posted. More than three-quarters of Tests include ball-by-ball coverage; virtually all others offer some degree of extended detail, beyond anything previously made available online. 

The starting page is here. An information page outlining this database is here.

Major Test Partnerships (200+) 1877 to 1970.          Major Test Partnerships (200+) 1971 to 1999. 

 

 

Much has been said about records set in the Kingston Test, with West Indies bowled out for 27. Some adds…

Mitchell Starc took four wickets before he conceded his first run. As far as I can see, this has not been done in a Test innings before. Starc’s three wickets in the first over of the innings has only been seen once (IK Pathan’s hat-trick v Pakistan, Karachi 2006).

The match saw only 484 runs off the bat, the lowest total in a 40-wicket Test since 1907.

In the West Indies 27 there were more wickets (10) than there were scoring shots off the bat (9). First time ever in a completed innings in a Test.

 

The innings saw the slowest over rate in Test history for a complete innings – around 55 balls per hour (pending a check of times). One could argue mitigating circumstances.

When West Indies went into bat a few days later in a T20i, they scored 30 for 0 in the first three overs. By the 17th over, they had scored more runs than they did in the whole Kingston Test.

 

 

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In 1974 Gerald Brodribb published a biography of Gilbert Jessop (The Croucher) that included a ball-by-ball summary of Jessop’s famous 104 in the Oval Test of 1902. Brodribb did not name his source, and over many years I have not been able to locate it. Such frustration.

Now Simon Wilde has written a book about ‘Jessop’s Match’. After some clever detective work, he has located the source of the ball-by-ball record. It was not in a daily newspaper, but in “
The Athletic News and Cyclists’ Journal”, a weekly published five days after the event.

Simon says that there will be more news on Jessop in the book, which I am looking forward to seeing.

A screenshot of part of the original report
is here.

 

*********

 

I try to record fielder locations for all catches in Tests. In the Lord’s Test, Washington c Brook v Archer was the first catch by a longstop that I have noted since Tom Horan took a couple in 1879 !

 

I have often thought that longstop would be a useful position in T20 with all those ramp shots, but I haven't seen it in Tests. I don't know if anyone recalls anything similar.

 

 

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Most runs on first day as a Test captain…

PWA Mulder

264

2025

C Hill

191

1910

JE Root

184

2017

AN Cook

158

2009

GT Dowling

135

1968

MA Noble

131

1903

S Gill

127

2025

 

********

 

At Hyderabad in 1983, Javed Miandad faced a hat-trick ball from BS Sandhu and went on to score 280 not out in a partnership of 451 with Mudassar.

Gavaskar probably faced a hat-trick ball to start his 236 at Chennai but I don't have enough detail to be sure. None of the reports I have specifically says so.

I only have ball-by-ball data for about 80-85% of hat-trick balls. If wickets are taken with the last two balls of an over, then either bat could face the hat-trick ball.

 

********

Lowest score never recorded by a team at close of play = 425. Lowest never recorded by an individual batsman = 190.

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20 July 2025

A ‘Prehistoric’ ODI

 

I have written before (as long ago as 2006!) about the intriguing limited-overs match in South Africa in 1967 between the touring Australians and a “Sports Roundup Invitation XI”, effectively a fully-representative South Africa. Although not ‘official’, it has enough hallmarks of a One-Day International to be recognised as the first such match (IMHO).


The match was the last in the tour, and such was the (lack of) status of limited-overs cricket at the time, it did not rate a mention in Wisden or in the tour books written at the time. Reports in Australian newspapers were perfunctory or incomplete. However, a score for this match exists at Cricket NSW and Colin Clowes has kindly sent me a copy. I have now re-scored this into ball-by-ball format.

The match now has ‘list A’ status; it was the first such match played outside of England, also the only such match before November 1969. Apart from historical interest, the match was an unusual one in some respects. Here is an extended scorecard of the match (there are slight uncertainties concerning balls faced due to unmarked byes and leg byes)…

 

South African XI v Australians, 50-over match, Johannesburg 4-Mar-1967

Australians Innings

R

BF

4

6

Min

†RB Simpson

run out

30

34

3

0

50

*WM Lawry

c PM Pollock b Procter

91

83

12

1

96

G Thomas

b PM Pollock

70

86

7

2

115

IR Redpath

c PM Pollock b Lance

10

11

1

0

20

RM Cowper

c Lance b Barlow

14

13

1

0

18

KR Stackpole

b PM Pollock

47

24

6

2

23

TR Veivers

retired hurt

0

1

0

0

2

GD Watson

c Lindsay b McKinnon

15

17

0

0

21

GD McKenzie

lbw b McKinnon

12

18

0

0

25

JM Hubble

not out

13

15

0

1

17

DA Renneberg

not out

6

5

0

0

10

Extras (1 b, 11 lb, 3 nb)

15

Total (8 wickets, 50 overs, 203 minutes)

323

O

M

R

W

nb

PM Pollock

10

0

63

2

1

MJ Procter

8

0

43

1

0

TL Goddard

7

0

59

0

1

PHJ Trimborn

7

2

30

0

1

EJ Barlow

8

0

39

1

0

HR Lance

7

0

56

1

0

AH McKinnon

3

0

18

2

0

South African XI Innings

 

 

R

BF

4

6

Min

A Bacher

c Simpson b Renneberg

15

16

1

0

21

TL Goddard

b Cowper

20

33

2

0

43

BA Richards

c Simpson b Watson

33

27

3

1

32

RG Pollock

not out

132

99

19

1

142

HR Lance

c sub b Renneberg

34

38

6

0

31

†DT Lindsay

c Redpath b Stackpole

35

28

4

2

37

*EJ Barlow

c McKenzie b Stackpole

30

28

5

0

28

MJ Procter

lbw b Stackpole

0

4

0

0

5

PM Pollock

not out

18

21

3

0

25

AH McKinnon

did not bat

PHJ Trimborn

did not bat

Extras (4 b, 5 lb, 1 nb)

10

Total (7 wickets, 48.4 overs, 185 minutes)

327

O

M

R

W

nb

GD McKenzie

10.4

0

53

0

0

JM Hubble

6

0

43

0

0

DA Renneberg

11

0

55

2

1

RM Cowper

6

0

42

1

0

GD Watson

7

0

74

1

0

KR Stackpole

8

0

50

3

0

 

Australia Innings FoW

Wkt

FoW

Ov

Partn

Balls

1

86

RB Simpson

13.1

86

82

2

152

WM Lawry

24.1

66

69

3

180

IR Redpath

29.2

28

31

4

210

RM Cowper

34.1

30

29

5

276

KR Stackpole

40.3

66

39

6

279

G Thomas

40.6

3

3

7

295

GD Watson

45.4

16

28

8

304

GD McKenzie

47.1

9

9

9

(323)

50

19

17

TR Veivers retired hurt at 5 for 276.

 

South Africa Innings FoW

Wkt

FoW

Ov

Partn

Balls

1

32

A Bacher

5.1

32

32

2

56

TL Goddard

10.3

24

33

3

82

BA Richards

13.5

26

20

4

140

HR Lance

23.2

58

57

5

214

DT Lindsay

32.2

74

54

6

278

EJ Barlow

40.6

64

52

7

282

MJ Procter

42.2

4

8

8

(327)

48.4

45

38

 

 

The match was 50 (6-ball) overs a side, with bowlers limited to 11 overs. Although arguably played in a ‘picnic’ atmosphere, there was money at stake; it was taken seriously enough for the keeper Brian Taber to be dropped and Simpson taking the gloves to strengthen the Australians batting. Grahame Thomas of NSW was in the team and scored 70; he had not played in the Tests, but his mere presence in apartheid South Africa is interesting in that he was part-aboriginal – especially in light of the D’Oliveira affair less than two years later. For the South Africans, the first appearance of Barry Richards is notable.

Particularly notable is the free-wheeling scoring. Both teams exceeded 320; there would not be another 50-over List A match like this until the 1990s (Sri Lanka/West Indies in 1995, more than 9,000 List A matches later). If you thought that Bill Lawry could never have scored 91 off 83 balls against Test-class bowling, think again. Lawry, however, was outgunned by Graeme Pollock’s 132 off 99 balls in a single session (100 off 77 balls, 109 minutes), an innings that would impress in any era. Bear in mind the absence of boundary ropes and fielding restrictions.

 

Keith Stackpole hit a ball from fast man Peter Pollock clean out of the ground, but was out next ball. Tom Veivers then came in and appears to have retired hurt first ball; he did not bowl later. The over eventually cost 10 runs even with two wickets (Stackpole, Thomas) plus Veivers’ retirement (1 leg bye, 6, W, RH, 3, W).

 

The match was scored by two women, “Miss P Williams and Miss SR Hall”. Tour scorer M (Mitch?) McClennan is also named, but the score is not in his handwriting. (I believe that McClennan was a South African scorer contracted to score on the tour; he also did 1957-58). An image of a page from the score is here. I have posted before an article on the match by Alf Batchelor.

In a sad coincidence, four of the Australian players (Redpath, Cowper, Stackpole and Renneberg) have passed away in the last few months. Three of them Victorians.

 

 

********

 

At Lord’s England beat India by 22 runs in spite of hitting fewer runs off the bat. There have only been five such Tests…

 

Winning a Test with fewer runs off the bat

Aus v SAf (3), Adelaide Oval 1910/11

South Africa won by 38 runs

South Africa

792

Australia

793

Aus v SL (1), Colombo2 (SSC) 1992

Australia won by 16 runs

Australia

637

Sri Lanka

681

SAf v Aus (2), Sydney (SCG) 1993/94

South Africa won by 5 runs

South Africa

373

Australia

394

NZ v Aus (2), Hobart (Bellerive) 2011/12

New Zealand won by 7 runs

New Zealand

334

Australia

336

Eng v Ind (3), Lord's 2025

England won by 22 runs

England

516

India

527

 

Tests won by runs margin with no follow-on.

 

In the 1992 match, Sri Lanka managed to bowl 53 no balls to Australia’s 19, and lost by 16 runs.

 

 

********

 

 

 

 

 

250 and 150 in a first-class match.

 

Dhruv Shorey, 252* and 150* Delhi v Assam 2022-23

Shubman Gill 269 and 161, Edgbaston 2025

 

Warwick Armstrong came very close in 1920: 157* and 245 in a Sheffield Shield match

 

********

 

At Hyderabad in 1983, Javed Miandad faced a hat-trick ball from BS Sandhu and went on to score 280 not out in a partnership of 451 with Mudassar.

 

Gavaskar probably faced a hat-trick ball to start his 236 but I don't have enough detail to be sure. None of the reports I have specifically says so.

 

I only have ball-by-ball data for about 80-85% of hat-trick balls. If wickets are taken with the last two balls of an over, then either bat could face the hat-trick ball.

 

******

 

11 July 2025

There still seems to be stuff happening in the cricket world, so I shouldn’t stop posting I think.

 

Here is a broad look at a ‘batting decay curve’, the number of innings by recognised batsmen (those with median batting positions 1 to 6) at every level of scoring. I have taken the liberty of including not outs by adding the batsman’s career average to the score (this can be supported statistically, in a broad sense). So an innings of 100 not out by a batsman who averages 50 registers as a score equivalent to 150.

 

Above a score of 50, I have pooled results to smooth the curve. So the point at 110 represents the average of scores 106 to 115. The size of the pool is larger at very high (and rarer) scores. Averaging out at the high end, across a wide pool, can give values less than 1.

 

A graph showing the curve

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

 

The graph is log-linear because the results are exponential, with quite a good fit to a simple exponential decay curve (the trendline is based on data from 15 to 300). Put simply, a batsman’s chances of getting out when he reaches a given score is about 2.6 per cent, and this applies, in a broad sense, at all scores from about 20 all the way to 300 or beyond. Naturally, individual batsmen can and do deviate from this trend, but the averages are fairly consistent.

 

There are some general deviations, though. That 2.6 per cent probability of getting out doesn’t settle down until a score of about 15. In particular, There are more than 4200 ducks which represent about 15 per cent of all innings. Between 50 and 100, the chances of getting out are slightly lower than the long-view average, while from 200 to 250, the chances are a bit higher.

 

********

 

400 runs in a first-class match without a quadruple century

 

456

GA Gooch

333 & 123

England v India, Lord's 1990

 

 

446

AE Fagg

244 & 202*

Essex v Kent, Colchester 1938

 

 

430

S Gill

269 & 161

England v India, Edgbaston 2025

 

 

 

433

AK Perera

201 & 231

Nondescripts v Sinhalese, Colombo PSS 2018-19

 

 

 

426

MA Taylor

334* & 92

Pakistan v Australia, Peshawar 1998/99

 

 

424

KC Sangakkara

319 & 105

Bangladesh v Sri Lanka, Chittagong-D 2013/14

 

 

402

WW Armstrong

157* & 245

Victoria v South Australia, Melbourne 1920/21

 

 

402

D Shorey

252* & 150*

Delhi v Barsapara Guwahati, 2022/23

 

 

 

[Note: EDITED the Perera instance was left out of the original table.]

 

 

 

 

 

“Substitute” bowlers taking a wicket in same over

These bowlers came on after another bowler was injured mid-over, and immediately took a wicket

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

Mahmudul Hasan

Hamza Hotak

Nijat Masood

Ban v Afg (1), Dhaka (Mirpur) 2023

LD Chandimal*

Naveed Zadran

Mohammad Saleem

SL v Afg (1), Colombo2 (SSC) 2023/24

RMMP Rathnayake

JE Root

MA Wood

Eng v SL (1), Manchester (Old Trafford) 2024

 

 

* DM de Silva was also run out in this over

 

 

 

 

16 April 2025

 

More on 1957

 

I mentioned in February the discovery of some Balls Faced figures for the 1957 England/West Indies series, found in the Daily Express newspaper. Previously, I had calculated balls faced figures by re-scoring surviving scorebooks. I have now tabulated these and compared them to the Express figures (where available – not all innings were covered) at the link.

 

The comparison was disconcerting in places, in that there were many differences between the two data sets. In my original analysis, I had already flagged the fact that anomalies, even provable errors, had cropped up in some of the scores. This was not uncommon in scores from this era. Additional uncertainty was created because byes and leg byes were not marked in the scores; I had to estimate their position in a way that preserved the batsmen’s runs scored and sequence of scoring strokes. As a result, balls faced for most large innings contained uncertainties.

Does this mean that the Express figures are more reliable? Prima facie, yes. However, we are not informed how the figures were obtained. There are also innings which the balls faced simply cannot be reproduced using the scorebooks, even if the byes and leg byes are shuffled around. At Lord’s Kanhai’s first innings comes to 65 balls while the Express says 54. While some fudging of the re-score is possible, the score data cannot be stretched enough to produce a figure of 54 balls. In one innings, the Express gives Sobers 33 overs when all other sources say 32.


I have done closer study of the Edgbaston Test, important thanks to the record-breaking May/Cowdrey partnership. My original re-score gave May 625 balls and Cowdrey 621. There were problems with the score, including the fact that on the batting page of the score Cowdrey’s strokes added up to 150 rather than 154. The Express published balls faced came to May for 635  and Cowdrey 610. Playing around with the leg byes, I was able to get the Cowdrey innings down from 621 to 613, but I could not match the 610. Is close enough good enough?

 

If Cowdrey faced 613 balls, then his century came off 527 balls; I previously had 535. The 527 is still the slowest known Test century of all time, although Nazar Mohammad may have exceeded this at Lucknow in 1952-53 (no published figures for Balls faced, but Nazar batted 174 overs to reach 100, to Cowdrey’s 166).

 

An additional problem with this innings is the difference in balls faced by the openers. The rescore gives Peter Richardson 100 balls but the Express says 119, a wide gap. Once again there are identifiable errors in the score, so maybe we should accept the Express numbers. But note that the 119 balls would require about 62 % of the strike to Brian Close’s 38 %, possible but rather unusual for a 32-over partnership.

What figures to use? The scores, which have more problems than usual for a series in England, are probably not as precise as the Express figures. However, apart from the Edgbaston Test, I will not alter my database figures; I will just leave a
link to the table of the differences for others to ponder. Various files for that series, including milestone for score of 50+,  have been modified in the database.


********

 

 

 

I have been alerted to a problem with ball-by-ball files that were posted recently in the online database, wherein the over-by-over bowler figures could be seriously wrong with respect to runs conceded. Other columns did not exhibit any problems, so the actual ball-by-ball data were correct apart from those runs conceded. The problem cropped up especially in Tests from October 2010 to November 2011. These have all been fixed now.

 

 

********

 

I was watching the European Club championships, for a laugh. One team need 65 off the last 17 balls and got them with a ball to spare. One batsman reached 47 off 10 balls but was out next ball trying to reach his 50.

 

********

 

At Bulawayo in January, Sean Williams was given not out caught behind, but then walked (there was no DRS in that Test). I wonder if there are any other examples in recent times. I recall that Ravi Ashwin once walked when there was no appeal.

At Mohali in 1994-95, Brian Lara, on 91, appeared to walk for a caught behind after the umpire said not out. I keep a file of
unusual dismissals where I add such oddities. Suggestions for this file are always welcome.

 

 

********

 

One thing that has become clear in the DRS era is that batsmen frequently do not have a clue whether they are out or not, and even if certain about being not out they can be wrong. There are more than 120 cases of batsmen going to DRS after being given out caught behind, when in fact they had hit the ball. Many of them were probably hoping for some glitch in the DRS, but there must also be many who were just kidding themselves that they hadn't hit the ball.

 

 

Likewise there must be cases of batsmen who think they hit the ball but didn't. Lara may be one of them. Mitchell Marsh appeared to walk before the umpire's decision, after missing the ball at Adelaide in December.

 

 

4 April 2025

 

Back pain is making life a bit of a misery at the moment; I am slowing down. Anyway, here is some broader data on dropped catches over the last eight years on a team basis, drawn from Cricinfo’s ball-by-ball texts.

 

I won’t say much about it; make of it what you will. There is a broad but slight improvement trend in this century, but results for individuals years for particular countries can vary a lot. I am a bit mystified by Pakistan’s good showing in some years. My general impression has been that Pakistan is a weak catching team, but they seem to have spells of very good results. I mentioned recently that I could not find any dropped catches at all in a recent Test involving Pakistan at Multan. That Test was in 2025 and is not included in the data here.

2016

2017

2018

2019

2021

2022

2023

2024

Average 2016-2024

New Zealand

20%

24%

19%

22%

21%

23%

16%

28%

21.5%

South Africa

33%

19%

20%

24%

17%

23%

19%

21%

22.1%

Pakistan

24%

21%

21%

19%

25%

33%

20%

26%

23.7%

Australia

29%

24%

20%

22%

19%

31%

26%

18%

23.8%

India

32%

23%

20%

26%

22%

21%

23%

24%

23.9%

England

32%

24%

24%

24%

23%

19%

25%

22%

24.2%

Sri Lanka

32%

22%

24%

21%

30%

29%

20%

20%

24.8%

West Indies

31%

29%

24%

26%

23%

20%

19%

27%

24.9%

Bangladesh

34%

34%

31%

29%

31%

22%

26%

29.6%

Zimbabwe

30%

33%

25%

33%

30.2%

Ireland

24.2%

Afghanistan

29.4%

All

29.1%

24.4%

22.8%

23.7%

23.6%

25.2%

22.3%

23.6%

24.3%

 

 

Using the Cricinfo bbb texts, I have analysed more than one thousand Tests for dropped catches going back to 2001. (I started this process around 2008 but went back and did some earlier Tests from 2001 on, and a few from 1999 and 2000). I have also obtained drop catch data for almost 400 earlier Tests, the majority involving Australia or England. The total represents drop catch data for about 55 per cent of all Tests.

A reminder that a published survey of this data can be
found here.

 

 

********

 

 

 

 

 

A small adjustment; at Bridgetown in 1983, West Indies target of just one run was reached with a no ball bowled by Kirmani. While Kirmani was (correctly) recorded as bowling 0.1 overs, it can be confirmed that he bowled two deliveries to Greenidge (source, Barbados Advocate) including the no ball from "a run up longer than Michael Holding's". Greenidge did not hit either delivery.

 

https://www.sportstats.com.au/zArchive/1980s/1982WI/1982WI4.pdf

 

********

12 March 2025

 

Four Wickets in Five Balls: a Discovery

 

Coming back from an Antarctic cruise, I found that the ACS Journal has published a little article of mine, on the discovery of a previously unknown case of four wickets in five balls in a Test match, taken by Imran Khan in a Test match at Sialkot in 1985. The discovery was made by my Pakistan contact Shahzad Khan, hence he is listed as lead author.

https://www.sportstats.com.au/articles/Imran4in5.pdf

 

I have rendered the score supplied by Shahzad into ball-by-ball form, as best as I was able. Although the score, like many from the subcontinent in the 1980s, contained anomalies and unexplained inconsistencies, the section containing Imran’s feat was not in doubt.

 

https://www.sportstats.com.au/zArchive/1980s/1985PL/1985PL2bbb1.pdf

 

https://www.sportstats.com.au/zArchive/1980s/1985PL/1985PL2.pdf

 

 

 

********

 

 

 

The England Women managed to drop seven catches in one day on the way to being clobbered by an innings in the Test at the MCG. I can find only one men’s Test team that can top that – Pakistan v England at Faisalabad on 22nd Nov 2005, dropping eight catches and taking only two on the third day of the Test.

 

********

2 February 2025

 

Early Reports of Balls Faced in Tests

 

For many years I have been going back through old newspapers to search for mentions of balls faced by batsmen. I thought I must have nearly exhausted the sources, so I was most surprised to find that the Daily Express newspaper in England had in 1957 included a column for Balls Faced in its published scorecards. This is now the earliest known source to report in this way: earlier sources, which are rare enough, reported Balls Faced in a Notes section (for example, the 1920-21 Ashes). Previously, the earliest Tests for which I had seen Balls Faced reported in this format was in the Rand Daily Mail in South Africa a few months later (against Australia). It remained highly unusual for many years.

 

 

I wondered if this reporting might have been related to Bill Ferguson coming out of retirement to score this series. However, the Express maintained this style right through the series including the 5th Test, even after Ferguson suffered a terrible misfortune after the 4th Test. I haven’t seen a full description of what happened to Fergie, but it appears that he had a bad fall at a hotel in August, was in hospital for quite some time, then died on 22nd  September shortly after being discharged from hospital. He did not score the final Test of the series in August.

 

This was the first year of such detailed reporting in the Express. In 1956, there was a column for minutes batted but not Balls Faced. After 1957, the BF reporting continued up to 1961 for home Tests. They gave up on it for the 1962 Tests, and it is a shame that it didn’t catch on elsewhere.

 

It has created a bit of a problem; the BF data found so far is sometimes  difficult to reconcile fully with my own re-scoring of the traditional scoresheets preserved from this series. I will have to study this more at some stage.

 

The Daily Express has been a paper that has mostly been out of reach in Australia in the past. The extended British Newspaper Archive (subscription required) has been progressively adding more years of this most useful paper to its online service.

 

 

********

 

Compiling some more dropped catch reports, I found up to seven missed chances in a single innings of 234 by Rahmat Shah of Afghanistan against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo last month. This would be a modern-day record, comparable to the all-time high set by Bonnor in 1883. However, some are ambiguous and opinions may vary on which if any should be excluded. Here are the Cricinfo descriptions...

 

10.4^2&Nyamhuri   to Rahmat, 2 runs,dropped by Myers at the gully region! Short of a length   ball angling away with extra bounce, slices it straight to the gully fielder,   tires to reverse cup it and goes through the hands of Myers!,,

 

18.4^•&Muzarabani   to Rahmat, no run,Back of a length ball on the fifth stump line, punches off   the back foot, thick outside edge to the gully fielder, dives to his   left-side and grassed it! Myers is the fielder there, dropped his second   today, both chances were extremely difficult though.,, 

 

28.5^4&Williams   to Rahmat, FOUR runs,dropped again! Quicker length ball cuts it square and   thick outside edge past the first slip fielder, similar to the one Ervine   dropped earlier, shoulder height and slow reaction from the fielder,,  

 

37.2^3&Williams   to Rahmat, 3 runs,chance! Full ball just outside off. Turning away and Rahmat   attempts a drive. Takes the outside edge and goes past the diving first slip   fielder. Down to deep third for three runs with Mavuta's slide stopping the   boundary,,  

 

79.6^1&Williams   to Rahmat, 1 run,dropped! Last ball before the second new ball gets   available! Full ball on middle, Rahmat comes down the track, lifts it down   the V, and Nyamhuri at long-on has misjudged it! He runs in, then tries to   backtrack, and all he can get is a fingertip! Williams looks disappointed and   Shahidi survives,,  

 

92.5^•&Muzarabani   to Rahmat, no run,Muzarabani dropped a sitter! Back of a length ball on the   leg stump, plays the leg glance shot early and finds the leading edge, hits   it straight back to the bowler, easy pickings for the bowler and Muzarabani   fumbles it!,,  

 

116.4^•&Williams   to Rahmat, no run,Another dropped catch? Back of a length ball turning away   on the off stump, plays the square cut late, extra bounce and might have   outside edged back to the keeper, Gumbie failed to grab the ball. The   reaction from Ervine at the first slip position explains everything.,,

 

AND here are the Cricbuzz descriptions. There are certainly some differences...

 

10.4

    Newman Nyamhuri to Rahmat, 2 runs, dropped! Back of a length outside off,   Rahmat cuts and doesn't bother to keep it down. Goes quickly to gully and   Dion Myers fails to hold onto it. Tries to reverse-cup and the ball bursts   through his palms

18.4

    Muzarabani to Rahmat, no run, back of length and wide, Rahmat pushes at it   away from the body and the ball takes a thick edge. Dies down onto the gully   fielder who was leaping forward. Just short  

28.5

    Williams to Rahmat, FOUR, dropped! short on length onto off, Rahmat tries   to cut and gets an edge that flies to the left of first slip. Whizzes past   him before he could react and runs away for four  

37.2

    Williams to Rahmat, 3 runs, slower through the air, Rahmat goes for the   drive and the outside edge beats a diving Ervine to his right at first slip  

79.6

    Williams to Rahmat, 1 run, dropped! A miscued lofted drive from Rahmat   after he shimmies down the track. Nyamhuri backpedals from deep-ish mid-on   and fails to hold onto it as he tries to catch it overhead. Another reprieve   for Rahmat! Williams won't be happy with that  

92.5

    Muzarabani to Rahmat, no run, dropped! Back of length and gets some extra   bounce onto off stump, Rahmat tried to clip it leg side but gets a leading   edge that lobs back to the bowler. A simple return catch put down by the   bowler. Rahmat Shah gets two lives in this over!  

116.4

    Williams to Rahmat, no run, short and extra bounce outside off, goes over   the attempted cut

 

I concluded that the 37.2 “3 runs,chance!” incident was not really a dropped catch. (Some reporters don’t use ‘chance’ to mean  a dropped catch.) That leaves us with six dropped catches in Rahmat’s innings.

 

A couple of little extras on dropped catches...

 

-       When Harry Brook scored 171 at Christchurch, he was missed five times. This equals an England 'record' (again, very much a 'where known' record) of WG Grace (170) in 1886. As often happens, there is some ambiguity about Brooks' tally: one of the misses was called leg bye by the umpire, but was clearly off the bat on replay. If the keeper had made the catch, a review would have overturned the leg bye call, so it should stand as a dropped catch.

 

-       I could not find a single dropped catch in the first Test between West Indies and Pakistan at Multan a few weeks ago. A contact of mine who also follows these things (Garry Morgan) concurs. In the last 20-odd years I think that there are only a couple of other completed Tests where I could not find any misses.

 

I have updated a list of the most fumble-favoured innings in Tests. Naturally, there could be others yet to be recognised…

 

Batsmen dropped most times in a Test innings (where known)

 

7 or 8

GJ Bonnor (87)

Aus v Eng (4), Sydney (SCG) 1882/83

6

Rahamat Shah (234)

Afg v Zim (1), Bulawayo (Queen's) 2024/25

6

CH Lloyd (242*)

WI v Ind (5), Mumbai (Wankhede) 1974/75

5 or 6

WH Ponsford (266)

Aus v Eng (5), The Oval 1934

5 or 6

BF Butcher (209)

WI v Eng (3), Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1966

5

HC Brook (171)

Eng v NZ (1), Christchurch (Hagley) 2024/25

5

WG Grace (170)

Eng v Aus (3), The Oval 1886

5

A Ranatunga (135*)

SL v Pak (3), Colombo1 (PSS) 1985/86

5

AM Blignaut (84*)

Zim v Ind (2), Harare 2005/06

5

HM Amla (253)

SAf v Ind (1), Nagpur 2009/10

5

Taufeeq Umar (135)

Pak v WI (2), St Kitts 2011

5

KS Williamson (242*)

NZ v SL (2), Wellington (Basin Reserve) 2014/15

 

UPDATE: Trevor Bailey was reportedly dropped five times in making 82 against West Indies at Lord’s in 1957.

 

********

 

 

 

At the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, Virat Kohli needed 49 runs of Nathan Lyon's bowling to set a new head-to-head record.

 

However, he managed only 44 runs off Lyon in 5 Tests, taking him to 573 runs, short of the 577 by Steve Smith off Broad. Kohli did manage to top Pujara's take off Lyon of 571 runs.

 

Most would have backed Kohli to take this record, but a combination of Kohli's indifferent form, and Lyon hardly being given a proper bowl, denied him.

 

It is conceivable that they will play one another again.

 

********

 

A few little notes from a day at the cricket...

 

There was a 'double overthrow', although only 3 runs were scored. I know Allan Knott once got a seven this way, but does anyone know of other instances?

 

There were no advertising logos painted on the (hallowed) turf, just one word "Melbourne" at the east end. I wonder if this was a change of policy, or not enough sponsorship.

 

I saw Mike Walsh's name as one of the official scorers. Mike first scored a Test match at the MCG in 1980-81.

 

Eden Gardens’ record for biggest whole-Test crowd still stands, although this match was the biggest accurately-counted match.

 

********

 

As far as long-serving scorers go, Dr Murray Power has been scoring for Ireland since 1976, although full Test matches only started for Ireland much more recently.

 

Apparently the MCG Test was Mike Walsh’s 101st Test as scorer. Amazingly he is only halfway to Bill Ferguson’s tally. I saw an inaccurate number given online for Fergie and took a closer look. Fergie himself claimed that he scored 204 Tests. However, this includes the final test of 1930-31, whereas the surviving score for this Test includes a note that Fergie was ill and there was a stand-in scorer.

So I get 203 Tests, including 1911-12 where Fergie possibly did not have official status. Some sources have Fergie scoring in 1924 (Eng v SAf) and 1931 (Eng v NZ) but he did not score those series.

 

********

 

In the 1982-83 Ashes, Ian Botham either batted or bowled on all 25 days of the five-Test series.

Wally Hammond batted or bowled on 30 days of the 1928-29 series, but there were 33 days play in that series (Timeless Tests).

There were only 21 days in the 2009 Ashes, but Stuart Broad batted or bowled on all of them. Also on 21, VS Hazare in Aus in 1947-48, KR Miller in 1950-51 Ashes, and NAT Adcock SA v Eng 1960.

Jasprit Bumrah turned out on the first 19 days of the recent Australia-India series before his injury ended the sequence.

Haven't checked these numbers thoroughly. Data is from bbb files only.

 

********

13 January 2025

 

Sobers – Separating his Bowling Styles

 

I have been asked a few times over the years about Garry Sobers’ variety of bowling styles and what contribution each style made to his statistics – has anyone compiled any data on this question? I haven’t seen any, so I took a little time and did some research on this.

 

Unfortunately the surviving scorebooks provide almost no relevant information, with no specification of bowling styles at different times. So I turned to detailed newspaper reports and/or film highlights where available – ten series in all. The selected series extended from 1959-60 to 1973, covering 44 Tests in all, more than half of Sobers’ Tests in this period.

 

In a few of the Tests, Sobers took no wickets. In the Tests where he took wickets, I was able to distinguish between pace and spin for all his wickets, almost 150 of his 235 career wickets. Results look like so…

 

      Garfield Sobers – Wickets by Bowling Type (Selected Series)

pace

spin

 

1959-60 (in WI)

0

9

 

1960-61 (in Aus)

7

8

 

1961-62 (in WI)

4

19

 

1963 (in Eng)

13

7

 

1966 (in Eng)

9

11

 

1966-67 (in Ind)

3

11

 

1968-69 (in Aus)

4

14

 

1969 (in Eng)

10

1

 

1970-71 (in WI)

10

2

 

1973 (in Eng)

6

0

66

82

 

(Unfortunately, in most cases I wasn’t always able to glean enough info to distinguish between Sobers’ finger-spin and wrist-spin styles. Sobers said in his autobiography that he stopped bowling wrist spin after 1966 due to shoulder problems.)

 

While this is not necessarily a random sampling of Sobers’ Tests in this period, it is quite a large sample.

 

There were about 15 Tests out of the 44 in which he took wickets with both pace and spin within the same match.

 

There is definitely a historical pattern. While I didn’t do detailed research prior to 1960, what I did see suggested that all Sobers’ early wickets were taken with spin bowling – finger-spin I think (although some reports talk of him bowling “leg breaks” which I take to mean left arm orthodox). Sobers had been selected initially as a spin bowler, but within a few years he was setting world records as a batsman, while his bowling efforts were moderate at best. In 1960-61, he introduced his pace bowling style, probably because the team touring Australia was already stronger in spin than pace. In 1961-62 at home, wickets were more spin friendly and he took most of his wickets accordingly. For a number of years, he mixed his bowling styles with considerable success.

 

In later Tests, after 1968-69 in Australia, the table shows that Sobers bowled less and less spin. This was also evident in detailed film highlights of the World XI matches in 1971-72, where all the bowling that I could see was pace bowling.

 

Here is a second table summarising all of Sobers’ Test wickets. Some estimates are necessary but I think the final result would be reasonably robust.

 

pace

spin

pre-1960

0

31

1959-60 to 1968-69 compiled

40

79

1964 to 1968-69  not compiled

13

19

(estimates)

1969-1974 compiled

26

3

1971-1974 not compiled (24)

21

3

(estimates)

100

135

43%

57%

 

I would stress that I have no information on the number of overs or runs conceded using the different styles in the above tables. Note that Sobers’ bowling average in his spin-only stage up to 1960 was a rather indifferent 45.0 (32 Tests, 40 wickets). His bowling average in his later pace-only Tests from 1969 was 30.9 (20 Tests, 53 wickets).

 

I note that some reporters describe his pace bowling as “medium pace” and others say “fast-medium”. I don’t know if the distinctions are meaningful; others may know more about this.

 

 

*********

 

Sam Konstas, in the MCG Test against India, scored his first 50 runs in Test cricket just 66 minutes into his first Test match, facing 52 balls. Probably the fastest for any player: PP Shaw took about 75 minutes for India in 2018, although that time is only an estimate. Shaw scored 75 before lunch, the most (in a strictly 2-hour session) by any debutant on the first day. LJ Tancred scored 87 before lunch on debut in 1902, in a slightly extended session. Konstas’s 60 runs was also just shy of Rick Darling’s 61 before lunch on debut in 1978.

 

 

********

 

Fewest Balls Faced for an Innings over 60, All Tests

 

R

BF

RR Pant

61

33

Ind v Aus (5), Sydney (SCG) 2024/25

IVA Richards

61

36

WI v Ind (1), Kingston, Jamaica 1983

JA Burns

66

39

Aus v Ind (4), Sydney (SCG) 2014/15

SA Durani

61

40

Ind v Eng (5), Kanpur 1963/64

TG Southee

77

40

NZ v Eng (3), Napier 2007/08

Complete innings only. Others have reached 60 in fewer balls, but they continued batting.

 

********

 

 

 

I have mentioned players with the most run out credits in the past (still led by Jack Hobbs with 19). But what of the players with fewest credits?

 

The only players with more than 100 Tests and no run out credits at all are Ross Taylor (112 Tests) and Matthew Hayden (103)

 

Mark Waugh (128), VVS Laxman (134) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (120) had only one run out credit each.

 

Joe Root in 150 Tests has 3 run out credits. However, two of them are ‘secondary’ in that he is the second fielder listed. Shane Warne in his 145 Tests had the same run out stats as Root (1 primary 2 secondary)

 

It is apparent that run outs by slip fielders are rare.

 

********

 

Something a little different. After some controversy over Mohammad Siraj’s penchant for the ‘celebrappeal’ (wildly celebrating an lbw or caught behind without actually consulting the umpire) I searched some Cricinfo ball-by-ball texts for that word.

 

This was a very quick search not using any other terms, so it probably misses some.

 

Results...

In 170 recent Tests, there were 38 references to "celebrappeal". 17 of the 38 went to review.

 

Stuart Broad was the bowler 11 times, Siraj 5. No one else more than 2.

 

One by Bangladesh was described as "Broad-esque", another "a Broad-level celebrappeal"

 

Of Siraj's five, none were out. Two were reviewed but not out, one would have been out but India decided not to review.

 

Of Broad's 11, only two were given out by the umpire, one of which was overturned on review. One other was given  not out, but overturned on a bowling review. In another of Broad's celebrappeals a run out occurred while Broad was doing his dance.

 

I should add that 18 of the 38 were actually out, so Broad's and Siraj's success rates with their celebrappeals were particularly low.

 

Later: when I extended the search to look at some earlier Tests and found another 12 references to Broad's celebrappeals (6 of them were OUT). The first occurrence of the word seems to be 2015 - Broad again (Durban 2015). That reference says "Broad's celebrappeal was justified this time" suggesting that it was well-known behaviour before that. The word may well have been invented in Broad’s honour.

 

 

********

 

Another rarity: In the Adelaide Test against India, Scott Boland took a wicket with his first ball in the second innings, after having a catch taken off a no ball with his first delivery of the first innings.

 

I can only find two cases of a bowler taking a wicket with his first ball in both innings - Akshar Patel at Ahmedababd 2021 and Zaheer Khan at Mirpur 2007. Suggestions welcome. In Zaheer’s case, it was the very first ball of both innings.

 

********

 

21 December 2024

 

The online database is now complete up to and including the 2010-11 season. I don’t know how much further I will take it: certainly up to 2012, but beyond that, sources independent of Cricinfo/Cricket Archive become progressively harder to find, and so for many Tests I am not adding much to sources already available.

 

I would like to stress that I am happy to supply ball-by-ball Test data to amateur researchers (in line-per-ball Excel format), within reason but free of charge. ‘Reason’ being single series or season, usually, but ask if you would like more.

 

I am also happy to share series from my ODI ball-by-ball data, which is not online. I don’t know if or when any of this will make it to the web. I currently have bbb records for about 800 ODIs from the 20th Century. These data are not evenly distributed; Australian coverage is extensive, matches from the subcontinent far less so. I am hopeful of obtaining more in the future.

 

 

*******

 

Stuck in the 90s

 

Following up an enquiry, I dipped into the data to find out which individual innings involved the most balls faced in the 90s. The data that I have features the following

 

Most Balls Faced in the 90s

BF (90s)

BF On 99

C Washbrook (102)

75

0

Eng v WI (3), Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1950

JB Hobbs (119)

72

16

Eng v Aus (2), Lord's 1926

C Washbrook (114)

68

5

Eng v WI (2), Lord's 1950

MP Vaughan (105)

68

3

Eng v SL (2), Kandy 2003/04

B Mitchell (120)

67

0

SAf v Eng (3), Cape Town 1948/49

Saqlain Mushtaq (101*)

66

17

Pak v NZ (2), Christchurch 2000/01

G Miller (98*)

64

0

Eng v Pak (1), Lahore (Gaddafi) 1977/78

AM Bacher (96)

63

0

SAf v Aus (3), Centurion (Centurion Park) 1996/97

G Boycott (142*)

61

3

Eng v Aus (3), Sydney (SCG) 1970/71

A Flower (112)

60

0

Zim v Eng (1), Bulawayo (Queen's) 1996/97

 

 

Note Washbrook turning up 1st and 3rd, and from consecutive Tests! Washbrook’s 114 off 455 balls is one of the strangest centuries; he also spent 67 balls stuck on his final score of 114, before being dismissed by Ramadhin in his 10th consecutive maiden over. Batting like that seems simply weird today. There seems to have been be a ‘culture’ among many batsmen in the 1950s and 60s that accurate finger-spin bowling could not be hit. Note also that for Washbrook (and for a number of the other innings in the table) the number of balls is plus or minus 2 or 3 due to unmarked leg byes in the scores.

 

 

Most Balls Faced on 99

90s

On 99

GM Turner (101)

43

36

Aus v NZ (2), Christchurch 1973/74

DW Randall (164)

51

28

Eng v NZ (1), Wellington 1983/84

MJ Clarke (161*)

39

25

Aus v SAf (3), Cape Town 2013/14

BA Edgar (127)

45

24

WI v NZ (3), Auckland 1979/80

WR Hammond (200)

36

24

Eng v Aus (3), Melbourne (MCG) 1928/29

A Flower (113*)

34

21

Zim v WI (1), Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 2000

GM Wood (126)

28

21

Aus v WI (3), Georgetown, Guyana 1978

 

Most balls faced on 99 by a batsman who was out for 99 is 17 balls by JG Wright v Eng Christchurch 1991-92.

 

In actual time in the 90s, the most may be ~98 minutes by Saqlain Mushtaq (above). Michael Vaughan’s effort took 87 minutes.

 

There are probably some cases to be found in Tests that haven’t made it into the ball-by-ball database. ‘Slow-scoring’ records like this tend to be more common in the past, when more Tests are missing.

 

At the other end of the scale, I had thought for a long time that no centurion had ever spent only one ball in the 90s. However, last year Ben Stokes managed it at Lord’s against Australia, going from 88 to 100 with sixes off consecutive balls. He went from 78 to 100 off four legal balls plus a wide.

 

If anyone can think of other possibilities not covered, let me know. I checked Jaisimha’s 99 in 504 minutes but I don’t think it would feature. When Nazar Mohammad took almost nine hours to reach 100 in 1952, he actually sped up a bit in the 90s.

 

********

 

There is no precedent for a #10 and #11 (Jasprit and Akash at the ’Gabba) batsmen needing 33 or more runs to save the follow-on, and actually getting them.

 

The most by any team needing to save the follow-on with the 10th wicket is 40 by Bangladesh v Sri Lanka in 2009. The batsmen were #9 and #11.

 

(I only looked at Tests with 200-run follow-on.)

 

********

 

 

In the Test Match Database, quite a few discrepancies have been found in secondary stats (such as minutes batted) between the main scorecards on the one hand and the table of half-centuries on the other. Most of these problems have come from revisions to the main scorecards that I have neglected to transfer through to the 50+ files. For early Tests especially, these problems often derive from uncertainties and conflicts in the reports that match scorecards are based on.

 

I have now been through all the anomalies and I have corrected as many of the conflicts as possible. For example, in the very first Test, I have settled on 210 minutes for an innings of 63 by H Jupp, as per the main scorecard, previously given as 191 minutes in the 50+ file. Most corrections are smaller than this.

Broadly, perhaps three per cent of half centuries have seen corrections. A large majority of the corrections have been to the 50+ files rather than the main scorecards.

 

********

 

My blog has now passed the 20-year mark. The first entry was on 6 November 2004. The early entries are mostly copies of the short columns I wrote for The Age newspaper at the time. I haven't changed the format of the blog much in 20 years, due to lack of computer skills. Now very old-fashioned. So be it.

 

********

 

In the India A match in Melbourne the other day, the first four balls of Australia A second innings were faced by four different batsmen. It went

 

1,W,W,0

 

********

 

 

29 November 2024

 

Nathan McSweeney, making his Test debut against India in the Perth Test, took a catch after just 13 balls were bowled in the match. Sounds rare, but it turns out to be a bit more common than I thought. Here are some other names for catches on Test debut in the first over of the match…

         

HJ Tayfield            0.2

RG Hart                 0.3

IM Chappell           0.3

PJP Burge              0.4

MRJ Veletta           0.4

IG Butler                0.5

         

While ball-by-ball data is incomplete for many Tests, I have reason to believe that the above list is complete.

 

I had a memory of Chris Sabburg, who never played first-class cricket, taking a catch (off Kevin Pietersen) on his first ball as fielding substitute at the ’Gabba in 2013. However, according to an interview with Sabburg on YouTube, he had been a sub for a couple of overs earlier in the day, so that disqualifies him; he came on a second time and took the catch second ball.

 

In innings two of a Test, Allen Lissette in 1955 and Pragyan Ojha in 2009 took a catch off their first ball when fielding on debut. Both had batted earlier in the match.

 

********

 

Here is an example of the pitfalls of producing a table of records based on very incomplete information. When Marnus Labuschagne was out for 2 off 52 balls in Perth, the Fox Sports website (but not the TV coverage) put up a supposed list of slowest Test innings by Australian batsmen…

 

 

Unfortunately this list is based on dodgy information. When I generated a list from my own database, using the same qualification of 50 balls minimum, I got the following…

 

R

BF

R/100b

ST Callaway

1

59

1.7

Aus v Eng (2), Sydney (SCG) 1891/92

WM Lawry

2

55

3.6

Aus v Ind (5), Chennai (Chepauk) 1969/70

M Labuschagne

2

52

3.8

Aus v Ind (1), Perth 2024-25

SNJ O'Keefe

4

98

4.1

Aus v SL (1), Pallekele 2016

AC Bannerman

4

87

4.6

Aus v Eng (1), Sydney (SCG) 1886/87

AC Bannerman

5

~90

5.6

Aus v Eng (2), The Oval 1888

MJ Bennett

3

53

5.7

Aus v WI (4), Melbourne (MCG) 1984/85

KD Mackay

3

51

5.9

Aus v WI (5), Melbourne (MCG) 1960/61

G Giffen

4

60

6.7

Aus v Eng (1), Adelaide Oval 1884/85

TM Chappell

5

69

7.2

Aus v Eng (2), Lord's 1981

G Coulthard

6

80

7.5

Aus v Eng (2), Sydney (SCG) 1881/82

PM Nevill

9

115

7.8

Aus v SL (1), Pallekele 2016

AIC Dodemaide

8

101

7.9

Aus v Pak (1), Karachi (National) 1988/89

 

So there are significant additions. There is also an error in the TV list – Peter Taylor never scored 4 off 66 balls. The online scorecards do show this for St John’s in 1991, but Taylor actually scored 4 off 41 balls, not 66.

 

One reason for this error is that slow-scoring records were often set long ago, and Cricinfo/Cricket Archive lack the needed detail for early Tests. By contrast, fast-scoring records are often quite recent so they do better with that category.

 

********

 

 

 

It was a long wait, but the 100th score of 250 or more in Tests has finally arrived thanks to Joe Root. Root’s 262 came 106 Tests after the previous score of 250 (252 by Tom Latham at Christchurch in 2022). This was equal to the longest pause, in terms of Tests played, between 250s in history: there was also a gap of 106 Tests in the 1980s.

 

Root clocked up the 100th in Multan just half an hour in playing time – 9  overs – ahead of Harry Brook, who went on to 317, which I supposed was the shortest gap between 250s except that the case of Jayawardene and Sangakkara reaching 250 against South Africa in 2006 was extremely similar.

 

Prior to the 106-Test gap, there had been a 53-Test gap going back to Kane Williamson’s 251 in 2020. This represents quite a dearth of giant scores in this decade, maybe an effect of ‘Bazball’. Modern batsmen are so prone to hitting the ball in the air nowadays that it is perhaps not surprising that giant scores have become so rare. Having said that, it is interesting that Root and Brook hit only 3 sixes in their combined 579 runs.

There were 21 scores of 250+ in the 2010s, and 25 in the 2000s decade, but only five so far this decade, which is halfway through.

 

There were six 250s in the space of 25 Tests in 1957-58.

 

 

*********

 

At Chittagong in March, Prabath Jayasuriya was dropped by three Bangladeshi slips fielders off the same ball. Jayauriya was on 6 when he edged a ball off Khaled Ahmed; Shanto at 1st slip missed the chance but it then deflected to Dipu at  2nd and on to Zakir at 3rd, but none of them could hang on.

 

********

 

 

 

 

4 November 2024

 

Why Eleven?

 

There was an interesting question on a ACS chat site a little while back: what is the origin of having eleven players in a cricket team?

 

In truth the answer is lost in the mists of time. The earliest surviving scorecards, from 1744, have teams of eleven, but earlier descriptions of the game generally lack the detail to help with the question of origins. The 1727 ‘Goodwood’ rules for a cricket match in Sussex describes teams of twelve, which complicates things, but it is understood (not sure how) that eleven was the standard.

 

Someone asked the much-vaunted AI, which came up with a completely useless answer.

 

The most satisfying answer offered was from Eric Parker’s History of Cricket, published around 1950. He pointed out how the numbers 11 and 22 crop up (so to speak) regularly in traditional farming practices in England. There are 22 yards in one chain, a common farm measurement; farms possessed a literal chain created for the purpose. Easy to measure out a cricket pitch. There were 10 chains to a furlong (a “long furrow” = 220 yards) and eight furlongs to a mile. An area one chain by one furlong was an acre, being the area that one worker could plough in one day with a team of oxen.

 

The original stumps (two of them in underarm days) were 22 inches high placed five and a half inches apart; the ball was five and a half ounces.

 

I like the connection with the number 22. Beyond that we don’t have a terribly clear idea when the idea of applying it to cricket matches arose.

 

 

********

 

It appears that the protocol for measuring minutes batted has changed, at least as far as online scores go. Drinks breaks are no longer included in batting times. This represents a break with traditional practice. While the change has some logic, that break makes historical comparisons a little harder. Here is a comparison of a recent innings from Pakistan. The CA/CI (Cricket Archive/Cricinfo) times are on the left and exclude drinks breaks. Source BB is a score that includes drinks breaks, and Source C is similar.

 

CA/CI

BB

C

Abdullah Shafiq (102)

265

275

278

Saim Ayub (4)

14

12

Shan Masood (151)

260

272

Babar Azam (30)

100

105

Saud Shakil (82)

274

283

Naseem Shah (33)

98

103

Mohammad Rizwan (0)

13

15

Agha Salman (104)

168

170

Aamer Jamal (7)

15

16

Shaheen Shah Afridi (26)

70

71

Abrar Ahmed (3)

10

11

 

There is potential for confusion if the protocols get mixed, such as when one protocol is used for the whole innings but another for milestones (50s, 100s etc) from different source. The differences in the above data, while sometimes small,  appear to go beyond exclusion of drinks breaks.

 

 

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The Draw Drought

 

One effect of the escalation of big hitting and high strike rates in Tests has been the near-disappearance of drawn Tests. The trend has been particularly strong in the last year. In the last 50-odd Tests, there has been only one Test that was drawn after play on Day 5 (and one other where Day 5 was rained out). That Test, West Indies v South Africa at Port-of Spain in August, had four full sessions lost to bad weather, and other sessions shortened.

 

This was brought home when draws seemed to be a foregone conclusion in two recent Tests; there seemed to be no chance of results after Day 3 at Kanpur (India v Bangladesh, where almost 3 days were lost to weather) and Multan (Pakistan v England, with first innings of 566 and 823), yet both Tests were completed with time to spare.

 

The lack of dull draws is surely welcome, yet with that comes the disappearance of exciting draws. In the last 100 Tests, there has been only one that I would class as a draw with a close finish: at Karachi in 2023 Pakistan (449 & 277/5) v New Zealand (408 & 304/9). Close Tests haven’t disappeared entirely – there was New Zealand winning off the last ball at Christchurch in 2023 against Sri Lanka – but hopes for forcing a draw against the odds are rare now. Nevertheless the preponderance of result Tests means that such Tests that have close finishes still occur fairly regularly.

 

 

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Lawrie Colliver has provided a re-score of an ODI that Australia played in Pakistan in 1988, scored from a newly-discovered video. It was the only ODI that Australia played on that tour, the others being cancelled due to floods and rioting in the aftermath of the assassination of President Zia.

It was a curious match. It finished in a tie – 229

apiece – but  Pakistan was declared the winner on account of losing fewer wickets (7 to 8). As far as I know, it is one of only two tied ODIs decided by this method. It appeared especially odd because, with the scores tied, Pakistan made no attempt to score from the last five balls, bowled by Dodemaide . Presumably they knew that they were ‘ahead’, but it almost came unstuck when a wicket fell off the second last ball. Abdul Qadir faced the last ball and padded it away. A wicket here would have tied the game in wickets as well as runs. Lawrie’s notes describe it as “plumb” but it was given not out, and so Pakistan won.

 

 

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India had a remarkable win in the recent Kanpur Test, coming after more than two days were washed out. It was the first time that a team has started its first innings on the fourth day and won, with the peculiar exception of the Cronje 'Leather Jacket' Test.

 

The fourth day also featured the most wickets on a day with over 400 runs. 437 runs, 18 wickets (85 overs), previously 447/17 (91.4 overs) at The Oval 2013, and 414/17 at Lord's 1931.

It has been well-reported that India’s innings of 285 in 34.4 overs shattered all records for fastest team to 50, 100 and 200.

 

 

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October 2024

 

A Brief History of Rest Days

 

A recent Test in Sri Lanka had a ‘Rest’ day – actually a pause for a national election. Like the handful of Tests in this Century that had such pauses, there were special circumstance involved.

 

The ToSh group had a little discussion about this, and it got me looking into the history of Rest Days. I was surprised by some of the observations.

 

The insertion of days off into Test matches, specifically as rest days, dates only from the 1950s. Prior to that all ‘rest days’ were literal days of rest, i.e., Sundays, with the occasional pause also on Christmas Day. For a long time, playing cricket on a Sunday was severely frowned upon, or even illegal, in Christian countries. Some of the earliest written records of cricket in the 17th Century are court records of people fined for playing cricket on the Sabbath.

 

In England, there were no rest days of any kind prior to 1920. All Tests were three days, commencing early- or mid-week, aligned with County matches. In Australia, Tests were longer and often encompassed the weekend, but days off were always on a Sunday, even if the match started on a Saturday. There is one Test that shows that the idea of simply granting players a day off did not apply in those days: the first Test of 1897-98 at the SCG started on a Monday and went for five days without a break.

 

In 1921, some Tests in England started to straddle the weekend and the Sunday prohibition applied. It was similar in South Africa, where a Test in 1922-23 actually had two consecutive days off, a Sunday and Christmas Day on the Monday. The epic Durban Test of 1939 had two Sundays in addition to the ten scheduled days.

 

The first Tests with Sunday play occurred during England’s first tour of India in 1933-34. When West Indies toured India in 1948-49, there was play on Sundays and the five-day Tests had no rest days. The idea of regular rest days seems to have emerged in the 1951-52 England tour of India, where there was play on Sundays but a day off after Day 3 of each Test.

 

Rest days soon became the norm in the five-day and six-day Tests in Australia and England, but invariably these remained on a Sunday for many years. The West Indies had the same approach; there were also a couple of Tests which had two rest days because they occurred over Easter, pausing for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The last of these was in 1965 (Georgetown).

 

One of the oddest cases was Karachi 1956. There was a rest after Day 3 (Sunday); then on Monday (Day 4) Pakistan dominated and were set 69 to win. Incredibly they scored only 63 for 1 in 46 overs before stumps, and so had to come back. The next day was another rest day (a day of mourning for a political figure) and so they waited till Wednesday to score the needed six runs.

 

Sunday play in Australia was finally introduced in 1968-69 (although not in all Tests). Those Tests with Sunday play had rest days after Day 2 or 3. England did not have Sunday play until 1981, and even then it was irregular with most rest days coinciding with Sunday.

 

After 1986-87, rest days in Australia fade from view, only occurring under special circumstances. New Zealand followed suit. (The special circumstances were sometimes very odd: the Brisbane Test of 1995-96 was paused for a day so that the broadcaster could show the Australian Grand Prix.) Rest days in England remained, when scheduled, on Sundays, before disappearing in the early 1990s. Rest days were dispensed with in South Africa when that country returned to Test cricket in 1992, but they continued to be regularly used in the hotter climes of the subcontinent and West Indies. In a unique occurrence, a Zimbabwe/New Zealand Test in November 1992 was paused for a day so that an ODI could be played. Not exactly a rest day!

 

The pressure of tighter schedules was making its mark, and the last series with normal rest days appears to be New Zealand in West Indies in 1996. There was a rest day in India’s first Test there the following year (on Good Friday), but the other two Tests of the series were so heavily rain-affected that the idea of rest days did not apply.

 

As said earlier, scheduled pauses in Tests since then have only occurred under special circumstances. A day was taken in a Test at Sharjah in 2014 following the shocking death of Philip Hughes, but extra play was added at the scheduled end of the match.

 

Frequency of rest days (Day Prior, Number of Tests)

   1      138

   2      269

   3      510

   4        34

   5         3

 

For the record, here are what can be described as Rest or Pause Days in Tests from the last 30 years.

 

Aus v Eng (2), Melbourne (MCG) 1994/95

Sun 25-Dec-1994

Christmas

Zim v Pak (1), Harare 1994/95

Fri 3-Feb-1995

Rest days scheduled for Fridays in this series?

Zim v Pak (3), Harare 1994/95

Fri 17-Feb-1995

Rest days scheduled for Fridays in this series?

WI v Aus (2), Antigua (St John's) 1995

Tue 11-Apr-1995

conventional rest day

WI v Aus (4), Kingston, Jamaica 1995

Tue 2-May-1995

conventional rest day

Aus v Pak (1), Brisbane ('Gabba') 1995/96

Sun 12-Nov-1995

televised Australian Grand Prix

WI v NZ (1), Bridgetown, Barbados 1996

Mon 22-Apr-1996

conventional rest day

WI v NZ (2), Antigua (St John's) 1996

Tue 30-Apr-1996

conventional rest day

Eng v Ind (3), Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1996

Sun 7-Jul-1996

Wimbledon final

WI v Ind (3), Bridgetown, Barbados 1997

Fri 28-Mar-1997

Good Friday

SL v Zim (1), Colombo2 (SSC) 2001/02

Sun 30-Dec-2001

rest day for presidential election

Ban v SL (1), Dhaka (Mirpur) 2008/09

Mon 29-Dec-2008

rest day for presidential election

Pak v NZ (3), Sharjah 2014/15

Thu 27-Nov-2014

Death of PJ Hughes

Eng v SAf (3), The Oval 2022

Fri 9-Sep-2022

Death of Queen Elizabeth II

SL v NZ (1), Galle 2024/25

Sat 21-Sep-2024

rest day for presidential election

 

 

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Most Runs added after the fall of each wicket (Test innings)

 

Wkt

Runs added

FoW

Final score

1

913

39

Ind v SL (1), Colombo4 (RPS) 1997

952

2

751

7

Aus v WI (5), Kingston, Jamaica 1955

758

3

628

52

Ind v NZ (2), Wellington (Basin Reserve) 2013/14

680

4

593

87

Ind v NZ (2), Wellington (Basin Reserve) 2013/14

680

5

586

94

Ind v NZ (2), Wellington (Basin Reserve) 2013/14

680

6

450

111

NZ v Pak (2), Lahore (Jinnah) 1955/56

561

7

361

166

WI v Eng (5), The Oval 1966

527

8

245

332

Eng v Aus (1), Sydney (SCG) 1903/04

577

9

198

298

Ind v Eng (1), Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 2014

496

 

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Most runs added after a top-scorer was out…

 

At Kingston in 1955 top scorer Neil Harvey (204) was out at 373 and Australia made 758, so that is 385 runs added.

 

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Half of all Test series have been played in the 21st Century, even if one-off Tests are not considered. The proliferation of two- and three-Test series at the expense of fours- and fives- is part of the reason.

 

 

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The England v Australia T20 at Southampton, won by Australia 179 to 151, was the equal highest scoring T20 international where both teams were bowled out in less than their allotted 20 overs.( There was a match between Bangladesh and West Indies in 2018 that also produced 330 runs.)

 

In a 348-run match between Australia and Pakistan on 2 May 2010, both teams were bowled out, but they both played the full 20 overs.

 

 

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At Dhaka in 2004, Irfan Pathan bowled two hat-trick balls to Mohammad Ashraful in the same innings. The first came after Pathan had dismissed Rajin Saleh first ball and Ashraful came to the wicket. The second came when Pathan dismissed Mushfiqur Rahman first ball at the end of an over. Ashraful was still batting and faced Pathan when he started his next over, hitting him for 3.

 

Late in the innings there was another hat-trick ball, bowled by Kumble while Ashraful was still batting, but this time he was at the non-strikers end.

 

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15 September 2024

 

The Slowest Starters

 

In his sixth innings extending over almost 2 years, Mohammad Ali of Pakistan finally scored his first run in Test matches. The stroke for two came off his 52nd ball faced. I decided to make a list to see who had made a slower start…

 

Most balls faced before scoring first career run in Tests.

Batsman

Balls

G Giffen

~62

1881

HH Streak

54

2 innings

1993

Mohammad Ali

51

Multiple Tests

2024

MR Whitney

46

Multiple Tests

1981

SE Gregory

45

2 innings

1890

NC McGarrell

44

2 innings

2001

Subashis Roy

43

Multiple Tests

2017

HJH Marshall

37

2000

TG McIntosh

37

2008

WR Playle

36

1958

GI Allott

36

Multiple Tests

1997

Giffen’s number is uncertain because the analysis is based on (very detailed) newspaper reports. It should be reasonably accurate because most of it comprised maiden overs.

 

Zahir Khan of Afghanistan did not score until his eighth innings, but faced only 29 balls in doing so.

 

Most of the above is extracted from the ball-by-ball database, covering 80 per cent of Tests. Some of the figures are surprising, and probably could not be guessed from the whole innings data; Hamish Marshall is an example – his first Test innings was 40 off 121 balls, from which one would not expect 38 balls to get off the mark. So it is likely that there would be other cases not identified. One would be Sajeewa de Silva (KSC de Silva) in the 1990s, whose possible range is 38 to 52 balls, probably at the lower end of that range.

 

Terry Jarvis of New Zealand scored 9 in 123 minutes in his first Test innings in 1964-65, but no other detail is available.

 

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The Great LBW Drought

 

The 1970-71 series was a watershed in Ashes history, ending Australia’s hold over the urn in the 1960s and ushering in a more evenly contested decade. England won that six-Test series 2–0; apart from Bodyline (1932-33), it is the only time in the past century that England has regained the Ashes in Australia.

 

There were some statistical oddities. Chief among them: not one Australian batsman was given out lbw in the entire series. This remains a sore point among England fans with long memories, although there was also a low count of English victims, just five. There were mitigating factors.

 

Most important was an odd change in the lbw Law (as an “experimental rule”) that was tested out from the Australian domestic season in 1969-70, to 1971. The intent was to discourage pad play by making it easier to be given out doing playing “no genuine stroke”, but the specific wording of the rule had a strange side effect. It reverted ‘standard’ lbws (where a stroke was played) to the pre-1935 Law, making it mandatory for a ball to pitch in line with the stumps, so excluding balls pitching outside off stump. (By 1972, the wording had been modified to restore the pre-1969 criteria for standard lbws, while retaining the new no stroke provisions. This was permanently written into the Laws in 1980.)

 

There had been a dramatic effect, with the incidence of lbw in Australian domestic cricket dropping from 8-9 per cent of dismissals (1967 to 1969) to 4-5 per cent after the rule change, returning to 9 per cent in 1972-73. In the 70-71 Tests, it was only 2.7 per cent. Umpire Tom Brooks may have amplified the effect; he umpired five Tests (plus the abandoned Melbourne Test) but gave only two batsmen out lbw, both English. Incidentally, my father was a 1st Grade umpire in Sydney in those years and knew Brooks, and I remember Dad remarking that Brooks’ instructions were that lbw conditions were always extremely difficult to satisfy.

Lou Rowan was the other prominent umpire in this series (his last Tests). It is fair to say he was regarded as a hostile umpire by Illingworth and his men, and not just for the Jenner/Snow/walk-off incident in the final Test. He also gave just two lbws in five Tests.

 

In that climactic final Test of 70-71 at the SCG, Rowan gave Ray Illingworth out lbw to Dennis Lillee. Surviving video highlights show Illingworth playing no stroke – probably the first batsmen given out under the experimental rule. (Batsmen had been out lbw playing no stroke before often enough, but under standard rules.)

 

The other lbw in the series was given at the MCG, by Max O’Connell, who officiated in two Tests.

 

The table shows the fluctuations in lbws in Test matches brought on by the changes.

 

Incidence of LBWs in Test matches.

wickets

lbw

% lbw

1967

388

41

10.6%

1968

595

71

11.9%

1969

838

100

11.9%

1970

207

18

8.7%

1971

501

24

4.8%

1972

427

67

15.7%

1973

661

72

10.9%

1974

677

73

10.8%

All Test matches, calendar years. “1970” includes some matches before the experimental rule.

 

The experimental rule was followed in England in 1971, in Tests versus Pakistan and India. In six Tests, there were only five lbws, a similar tally to the 70-71 Ashes. Just two of them were against England batsmen. Only one of the five was a ‘no stroke’ lbw (Snow to Gavaskar). The only lbw in the three Pakistan Tests was very last wicket of the series.

 

When normality was restored in 1972, there were 27 lbws in five Ashes Tests in England. Curiously, none of them were of the ‘no stroke’ variety. Today about five per cent of lbws involve the batsman playing no stroke.

 

Incidence of LBW in Australian First-Class Cricket 1966-74

% lbw

1966-67

67

779

8.6%

1967-68

110

1164

9.5%

1968-69

80

1230

6.5%

1969-70

37

866

4.3%

1970-71

49

1068

4.6%

1971-72

78

1104

7.1%

1972-73

98

1061

9.2%

1973-74

85

1018

8.3%

 

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Understanding the Law Change

 

The 1971 L.B.W. Law is illustrated from Wisden of that year. It took me a while to understand it. The Section 39 in bold type is the Law as it had stood for over 35 years. It includes a provision for lbw to balls “pitched on the off-side of the striker’s wicket”. However, in 1971 this paragraph was no longer in force and had been completely superseded by the “experimental rule” in italics. Part (a) of the rule requires the ball to have pitched in line with the stumps, contrary to the provision of Law 39. Though not stated explicitly, it applies to standard lbws. Part (b) – and only Part (b) – allows for balls pitching outside off stump, but applies only to batsmen making no genuine effort to play the ball.

 

A close-up of a text

Description automatically generated

 

I cannot be certain that this reversion to the pre-1935 Law was the intention of the new wording, but it certainly was the effect. It is hard to understand how making standard lbws more restrictive could reduce the amount of pad play, if that was the goal.

 

********

 

 

 

I have endeavoured to update my list of unusual dismissals in Test matches. If anyone can think of cases that I have missed that should be considered, particularly in recent years, let me know. Test matches only.

 

The list now includes the Bairstow brain fade at Lord’s last year.

 

 

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31 August 2024

 

Stroke or no stroke?

 

As a follow-up to my last post, here is some data on batsmen dismissed (bowled or lbw) without playing a stroke. Data is since Cricinfo began archiving text description in 1999. The data for 1999 to 2001 is probably rather patchy.

 

I have noted 247 cases of no stroke bowled dismissals since 1999 (4.2 % of all bowled dismissals) and 301 LBW (5.1 %)

 

Batsman

BWD

LBW

Sum

Inns*

SR Tendulkar

0

8

8

232

KP Pietersen

2

5

7

181

MG Johnson

3

3

6

109

Mushfiqur Rahim

3

3

6

164

Younis Khan

1

5

6

213

AJ Strauss

2

3

5

178

CH Gayle

2

3

5

182

HH Streak

1

4

5

66

JC Buttler

3

2

5

100

LRPL Taylor

3

2

5

196

M Vijay

2

3

5

105

MJ Clarke

4

1

5

198

S Chanderpaul

0

5

5

222

SP Fleming

2

3

5

120

 

*Innings after April 1999

 

TWM Latham has four no stroke BWDs but no LBW, and Brian Lara has four no stroke LBWs but no BWDs. Interesting that neither Lara nor Tendulkar are known to have been bowled this way, but they have 12 LBWs (note Chanderpaul also). However, there is no data for them before 1999. Tendulkar’s lbws include the controversial incident when he was hit on the arm/shoulder trying to duck a McGrath delivery that did not get up.

 

Most innings played without a ‘no stroke’ bowled or LBW: Angelo Mathews of Sri Lanka on 195 and Mark Boucher of South Africa on 183.
UPDATE The cutoff date for the no stroke analysis was July 2024. In his first innings in August, Mathews was out to a no stroke LBW for the first time in his career!

 

 

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No shot lbw in both innings:

KD Mackay, Kanpur 1959-60 (pair of ducks)
MW Gatting, Lord’s 1984 (to Marshall)

BC Lara, Leeds 2000.

 

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In the Wellington Test of 2023 (New Zealand v Sri Lanka) not a single batsman was out bowled or lbw. New Zealand won by an innings. Only one lbw decision was reviewed, the umpire’s not out decision being upheld.

 

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In the Nottingham Test England reached 50 faster than any team before them, on the second ball of the fifth over. Even more notable was the fact that it was done on the first morning of the Test; most previous record-breaking 50s have happened in teams’ second innings when quick runs were required. The relevant section of the Unusual Records  has been updated.

 

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5 August 2024

 

Clean Bowled or Played On?

 

For the last twenty years or more, I have periodically been going through descriptions of ‘BOWLED’ dismissals in Tests to distinguish between ‘clean bowled’ and ‘played on’ dismissals, with ‘no stroke’ dismissals thrown in for good measure. Here is a little statistical study of some of the data for recent years. This does rely on the Cricinfo commentators noticing edges – and this sometimes requires extensive replays – but the descriptions are now so detailed that I would expect that a great majority of cases are noticed.

 

I looked at 668 batsmen out bowled, in 115 Tests. [Bowled dismissals in total account for 18 per cent of all dismissals (more like 25 per cent for tailenders)]. Of the 668, I noted 155 cases of the ball hitting bat first, and a further 35 coming off the pad or other body part. That is 23 per cent off the bat and 5.2 per cent off the pad, giving a total of 28.4 per cent,

 

In another 34 cases (5.1 per cent), the batsmen was recorded as playing no stroke; nearly all of these were clean bowled. There were also a (very) few cases where no stroke was offered, but the ball hit the bat anyway and went onto the stumps.

 

Left-handed batsmen are more likely than right-handed to play on: 34 per cent to 26 percent (total edge or pad). It might be that the line required for a right-handed bowler to bowl a left-hander is more difficult than with a right-handed batsman.

 

There is less difference between left- and right-handed bowlers: 25 per cent (left) and 30 per cent (right).

 

Pace bowlers get 32 per cent of their bowled wickets via edge or pad, whereas spin bowlers get only 19 per cent. The incidence of ‘playing on’ varies between countries, and appears to be associated with the dominance of pace or spin bowling across various countries.

 

 

Played in

Tests

Bowled

edg+pad

% edg+pad

England

19

116

45

39%

New Zealand

11

58

22

38%

Australia

16

94

30

32%

West Indies

11

47

15

32%

South Africa

9

54

15

28%

India

14

106

27

25%

Sri Lanka

11

59

13

22%

Bangladesh

10

52

11

21%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps of more interest is a strong relationship between batting position and a propensity to play on. There is a major difference between top-order and bottom-order bats, presumably linked to much tighter techniques among better batsmen. It is quite hard to get a ball on the stumps through a top batsman’s defence without hitting something on the way.

 

Batting pos

Bowled

edg+pad

% edg+pad

1

72

28

39%

2

69

21

30%

3

74

26

35%

4

62

25

40%

5

61

18

30%

6

59

17

29%

7

64

22

34%

8

41

8

20%

9

66

16

24%

10

56

6

11%

11

42

3

7%

 

One interesting question that is hard to answer is: How many bowled dismissals occur to balls that are not directed at the stumps? The available descriptions often don’t distinguish between playing on with a fine edge (when the ball would probably have hit the stumps anyway) and playing on to a ball that would have missed the stumps. My impression is that the latter is in the majority, but beyond that I wouldn’t hazard a guess. Perhaps the massive CricViz database could offer some clues.

 

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