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27 November 2022 I have updated the “hotscore”: the fastest-scoring batsmen in Test cricket.
It is more than a year since the last update, but this stat does not change
rapidly, because most batsmen have a characteristic scoring rate that does
not change as much as batting average. I have also updated the
“adjusted” list, which is restricted to top and middle order batsmen, and
adjusts the rates for batsmen of different eras, based on the scoring standards
of those times. Batsmen from the current century, in the era of smaller
grounds and bigger bats, have had their rates rather discounted, levelling
the playing field, I would say. Virender Sehwag, for instance, has been
reduced from a raw rate of 82.2 r/100b down to 73.5. He still holds down #1
spot, however. The list excludes lower-middle-order wicketkeepers and
allrounders, who have become more prominent in open lists over the years. The list is a little different
to the original posted in 2019. Maybe because it is a bit more inclusive.
Wicketkeepers who batted #6 or above are included. |
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6 October 2022 A Welcome
Breakthrough It has certainly been
frustrating, over the years, that among all the old Test scores that have come
to light, scores for the two Tied Tests (Brisbane 1960 and Madras 1986) have
never been found. Recently there has been a
welcome breakthrough. Lawrie Colliver, editor of the Australian Cricket
Digest annual, has obtained a complete videotape of the final session of the
Madras Tie. Lawrie has made a linear scoresheet from it, covering one of the
most dramatic sessions in any Test match, at a level of detail never reported
before. I have written a little article
on this. It is a little long so I am linking to it rather than place it here.
I have also updated some relevant pages of the database, including the full
score of that final session. One thing to add, about the
rumours of a scoring error in that match, and that some thought that
Australia may have actually won the match. However, Lawrie found no errors in
the scoring during that climactic last session, so that both teams must have
known throughout how the match stood and what the target was. There is a
slight oddity, though. The videotape starts with the score 193 for 2 off 57
overs, which appears to have been the score at tea (stated in Indian
newspapers such as Times of India). However, Wisden states that the tea score
was 190 for 2. I will leave that question open. The Last Session at Madras: a
New Account. The famed Tied Test in Madras (Chennai) in 1986 is so familiar
that it is rather surprising, and sad, that no original score for the match
survives. The Australian touring team did not return with a scorebook, and
nothing can be found in Indian archives, although scores for the other two
Tests of that series exist. The match was not broadcast on Australian
television (the final day clashed with the Brownlow Medal!); the few
surviving video highlights are fragmentary, and the upshot is that many
details of the match have been obscured. Recently there has been a
breakthrough. Lawrie Colliver, editor of the Australian Cricket Digest
annual, has obtained a complete videotape of the final session of the match.
Lawrie has made a scoresheet from it, covering one of the most dramatic
sessions in any Test match, at a level of detail never reported before. This report of the final
session is drawn largely from Lawrie’s re-scoring of the video… In stifling Madras heat, 40
degrees with high humidity, the Test scheduling was limited to 5.5 hours per
day (2+2+1.5), with a minimum of 82 overs. The final day was extended to 87
overs, because the ‘final hour’ applied a minimum of 20 overs at the time
(reduced to the current 15 overs in 1991). The required over rate was effectively
impossible in those conditions, and the final day ran long over time. The
crowd size was reported at 25,000 to 30,000. Border had declared overnight,
setting India a task of 348 runs in 87 overs. It was a challenging
declaration, even ‘sporting’, and right from the start India batted with
purpose. Kris Srikkanth led off with a fluent 39
off 49 balls before he was out in the 17th over. From 1 for 94 in 29 overs at
lunch, Mohinder Amarnath and Sunil Gavaskar maintained momentum until
Amarnath was out for 51 in the 41st over. The tea score was 2 for 193 off 57
overs, Gavaskar 84, Azharuddin 14. With 155 to win off 30 overs, at this
point the video begins. The bowling for the climactic
final session was left mostly in the hands of Ray Bright and Greg Matthews.
Matthews, in his Baggy Green, bowled unchanged from the southern end, while
Bright too bowled for most of the session. In the fifth over, with Gavaskar
on 90, Bright missed a caught & bowled chance, only to have Sunny caught
by Jones off the very next ball. Young CS Pandit hit his first two balls for
four and stayed ahead of the clock until drinks were taken, ten overs into
the session, at 230 for three. The ‘final 20’ overs were signalled with 118
runs to win. This last ‘hour’ must have been
one of the most exhausting in any Test match. There were all sorts of delays;
multiple drinks breaks called for by both teams, Bright and Matthews changed
their shirts. Disputes broke out between the teams, some involving umpire Dotiwalla. Meanwhile, Azharuddin hit Matthews for six,
but was caught for 48 off Bright in the next over, the 72nd of the innings.
When first innings century-maker Kapil Dev was out in the next over Indian
hearts sank, but Pandit and Shastri kept the runs coming without pause. There
were two sixes by Shastri in two Matthews overs, but the last ball of the
latter over (the 77th) saw Pandit out for 39, made at a run a ball. Chetan
Sharma also scored well, bringing up 300 in 351 minutes; a difficult caught
& bowled chance was dropped by Matthews and went for four. It could have
been a turning point. Bruce Reid relieved Bright for
four overs, with little result. A new ball was available but apparently not
taken, and Reid bowled without a slip field. With only 17 needed in four
overs with four wickets in hand, the match was slipping away. Border’s final
gambit was to bring Bright back on, and immediately Sharma and More were
dismissed, in the 84th over. Eight down, fourteen to win in three overs.
Shastri now had to contend with farming the strike as well as the scoring
pressure. Yadav clobbered Matthews for six but was bowled on 344 in Bright’s
last over. Bright had gone from 2 for 88 to 5 for 94 in two overs,
transforming the match once again. The last over fell to Matthews, with four
to win; it was Matthews’ 40th over of the day, bowled in that debilitating
Madras heat. Shastri managed two and one,
but last man Maninder Singh could not squeeze out the winning run. With one
ball still to bowl, a hopeful lbw appeal by Matthews was given out by umpire Vikramraju with such startling speed that Shastri did not
realise it. Matthews and the team rampaged around with Shastri and Maninder
standing rather dazed and confused. Lawrie Colliver reports that the last
19.5 overs had taken one hour 58 minutes; the day as a whole took over seven
hours playing time, finishing after 5:40 pm. Lawrie also reports that, based
on the video, the scoring in the final session is completely accurate. Since
that day, there have been rumours that an error was discovered in the scoring
and Australia had really won (Dean Jones once told me that he believed this).
However, no error can be seen in the final session, and both teams knew
exactly how the target stood throughout. A final comment on Matthews. As
far as I can find, no other bowler in the last 50 years has bowled a spell of
40 overs unchanged in a single day. There have been longer spells, but always
extending across a couple of days. Matthews took ten wickets in the match and
scored 71 runs for once out; there is no parallel for such a performance
failing to win a Man of the Match award, which was shared by Jones
(deservedly) and Kapil (absurdly). Balls faced by batsmen from this account
sometimes vary from online scores. Notably, Chetan Sharma faced 25 balls not
38, Shastri 36 balls not 40, and Gavaskar 163 balls not 168. ******** More Detail on New Ball Records I have updated a years-old list
of the longest-delayed taking of a new ball in Tests. The list now includes
the number of runs involved. There are notes also on the largest innings
(team and individual) without any new ball being taken, and the most runs
scored before a new ball was taken. Naturally, data is not
available for all Tests, but there would not be a lot of cases to add to
these lists. Prior to 1900, new balls were not always made available, and
such matches are excluded.
England scored 528-3 declared
in 112 overs against Bangladesh at Lord's in 2005, with no new ball taken. England scored 519 off 160.5
overs with no new ball taken at Manchester in 1990. Sri Lanka took a new ball at
527 at Mumbai in 2009 (over 105). Sehwag had already made 293. Sehwag also scored 254 in an
innings of 77.2 overs at Lahore in 2006. Sehwag's are the highest known
individual innings uninterrupted by a new ball. The link with more data is
here. ******** |
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During a recent
holiday I obtained some more scores from the Wellington Cricket Museum
archive. Most of them were Tests already covered by Cricinfo ball-by-ball
records, but there were also seven ODIs from World Cups in 1979, 1983 and
1987 that could be re-scored. I now have
unpublished scores for 1584 Test matches from non-online sources, 35 of which
are 'reconstructions' of early matches from published sources. For an
additional 539 Tests, I only have Cricinfo (or other) online ball-by-ball
records. There are an additional about 480 Tests from the Cricinfo era for
which I also have independent scores or digital records. There are about 350
Tests prior to the Cricinfo era (pre 1999) with no known scorebook. Traditional paper
scores as official scores are starting to disappear. New Zealand's Test
matches have been recorded electronically-only since 2018. This is
unfortunate as secondary info that I like to record, such as times of day,
are often only found in traditional scores. ******** A question came up
about innings where the batsmen were out exactly in their batting order. This
was an area that uncovers some problems in online scores. This was my answer… I can confirm 5
instances from my data... Aus v Eng (3),
Adelaide Oval 1911/12 Aus 2nd inns Eng v SAf (2), Johannesburg (Ellis) 1948/49 Eng 2nd inns SAf v Aus (1), Johannesburg (Wanderers) 1966/67 SAf 2nd inns Eng v NZ (3),
Lord's 1978 Eng 1st inns Pak v Eng (2),
Manchester (Old Trafford) 2001 Pak 2nd inns In the 1978
instance, the online scorecards are incorrect with regards to the order of
dismissal. Online scores have Taylor out before Botham, but Botham was
actually out first. According to online
scorecards, there is another instance Eng v SAf (4), Cape Town 1909/10 Eng 2nd inns However, on further
checking, this appears to be incorrect, as the batting order in online
scores, with Woolley batting before Fane, needs to be corrected; Fane
actually batted before Woolley. A reported 1965
instance in West Indies (Georgetown) is also incorrect. In that innings,
Lawry batted #1 and Simpson #2. The online scorecard is incorrect. Lawry and Simpson
were the first opening pair to regularly swap places between first and second
innings. Most (but not all) Australian opening pairs have done the same
since. Online scorecards frequently miss this. ******** |
18 August 2022 Bowlers: the “Quick” and the
“Slow”, more data. I wrote a little item last
year, for an Australian magazine, on the time taken by individual bowlers to
get through an over, and mentioned it in a blog post in March 2021. I then
seem to have forgotten about it. It might be of interest to expand the number
of bowlers being reported. There is more exposition on how
this was all calculated at the link to the article, as well as discussion of
the changes between the two eras. Note that the averages for bowlers excluded
overs that were uninterrupted by things like DRS and Drinks breaks. That
article focuses on Australian bowlers, but I have prepared the following
lists covering a range of bowlers from different countries. Modern Bowlers: average time
for an over. (“slowest” and “fastest”)
Times are given in decimal
fractions of minutes, not minutes:seconds. I really should extend this to
cover intervening decades as well, but there is a lot of data entry involved.
In time. |
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No wides were
called in eight Tests in 1961-62 when England toured India and Pakistan.
There were 21,708 balls bowled. In contemporaneous
Tests, there had been 10 wides in the 1961 Ashes series, and there were 19 in
the 1961-62 South Africa v New Zealand series. The had been only
one wide in the five-Test 1960-61 India v Pakistan series. I wonder if an
aversion to calling wides was some sort of ‘cultural’ thing among
subcontinental umpires. ******** In the second Test
at Galle, Dinesh Chandimal hit 6 and 6 off consecutive balls to go from 189
to 201, thus spending only one ball in the 190s. I'm pretty sure that this is
a first in the 190s and even in the 90s there is no precedent. When I looked
at centuries some time ago I found some cases of batsmen hitting consecutive sixes to reach
a century; however, all were already on 90 or more when they did so. ******** There have been
only 19 Australian Test teams where all 11 players were representing NSW or
Victoria at the time. The last such Tests were the first four of 1949-50 in
South Africa; the players were all born in NSW or Vic, and played for those
states. In the fifth Test, Geoff Noblett of South Australia played. Leeds 1948 also had
11 players born in the two states, although Bradman was playing for South
Australia at that point. ******** |
14 July 2022 The Most
Expensive Ball Ever Bowled Stuart Broad attracted a fair
amount of notice at Edgbaston by conceding a record 35 runs off a Test over.
It also appears that he set a record for most runs conceded trying to bowl a
legal delivery: 4 wides + 6 off no ball + 4 = 16 runs. It could have been
worse; Broad was lucky that the four was not also called a no ball. Bumrah hit the next delivery for four also, so that would
have taken the total to 21 off one ball, passing the 20 runs conceded off one
ball by Roger Telemachus in an ODI at Joburg in 2005. The previous runs conceded
record, where known, was 13 conceded by Saurav Ganguly at Hamilton in 1998-99
: 4n,4n,n,n,1, with Craig McMillan facing. Twelve runs were scored off one
ball bowled by Joel Garner at the MCG in 1984-85 -- 2n,n,n,n,n,3n,3 ; this
would be 14 runs under modern scoring protocols. Here is some gathered data on
the most such runs. I have taken the liberty of converting the runs into
modern scoring for instances before 1999. Most runs conceded off one Legal
Ball (Test matches):
All cases are from the
ball-by-ball database, so other cases might have been missed. However, I
think that there would be very few others before 1967, which was the year the
no ball Law changed and no balls became much more common. The most conceded
before 1966 is 11 off DVP Wright at
Lord’s in 1938 (2+nb, 6+nb, 1), and a similar instance off Alec Bedser at Lord’s in 1953. The 12 runs hit by Michael
Holding off one legal ball by Bob Willis in 1984 appears to be the record for
one batsman. ******** Recently Derbyshire, or its
captain (Billy Goldleman), declared twice and, in
between, declined to enforce the follow-on, and still managed to lose to
Sussex. I did a bit of a search and found some 13 similar matches. To be
clear, they all met the following criteria: Team 1 declared twice Team 2 first innings was all
out more than 150 runs behind. Team 2 won. For example, in 1978-79 Western
Province (460/9 and 219/3) lost to South African Universities (181 and
500/7). The full list is Middlesex-Essex v Surrey and
Kent, Kingston-upon-Thames 1947 Surrey v Hampshire, The Oval
1961 Nottinghamshire v Lancashire,
Worksop 1961 India v Sri Lankans, Hyderabad
1964/65 Kent v Australians, Canterbury
1975 Transvaal B v Griqualand West,
Johannesburg 1976/77 Western Province v South
African Universities, Stellenbosch-US 1978/79 Derbyshire v Northamptonshire,
Derby 1982 Zimbabwe Inv XI v South African
Academy, Harare-S 1998/99 Tasmania v New South Wales,
Hobart 2003/04 Eagles v Lions, Kimberley
2009/10 Wellington v Central Districts,
Wellington 2009/10 Otago v Northern Districts,
University Oval, Dunedin 2017 There are a good deal more
cases where Team 2 declared more than 150 runs behind, or forfeited its 1st
innings. Mostly, these are better categorised as contrived results. ******** I have found (or more
correctly, been alerted to) a problem with the balls faced data in my
ball-by-ball Test records online, in that wides were often being counted as
balls faced for individual batsmen. Specifically, the problem was with the
compiler in the over-by-over batting data. The actual ball-by-ball sequences
in the bowling sections are correct, as are the balls faced data in the
standard scorecards. I have now corrected a great
majority of the problem Tests, with a few to go from the 1960s. It’s worth noting that there
are some sources, especially from the 1980s, that included wides as ball
faced in the batting data anyway. There is actually a case to be made for
doing this. However, I prefer to exclude wides, and this is standard protocol
now. ******** |
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19 June 2022 Until now, the Test Match
Database has not had any proper ‘Player Register’ with career details of
individuals. To address this, I have started to include pages that show some
of these details; these have been attached to each series. An example is
here. In time, I will create pages for every historical series. Currently,
data is in place for recently-posted series (2002-2003), and for pre-War
series (1877-1939). The presented information by
necessity has had to be limited (one line per player). However, I have
included data for individual batsmen’s scoring speeds. Some of this is
estimated, but it is based on knowledge of about 90 per cent of balls faced
and 99.5+ per cent minutes batted. Note that there are some very inaccurate
figures for past players, with respect to scoring speed, to be found in some
online sources. Recently I saw a figure of 63.6 runs/100 balls for Sunny
Gavaskar in Tests. His actual scoring speed was around 45. I have included players’ ages
for each series. I have decided to leave this blank for players from Pakistan
and Bangladesh; I consider a lot of year of birth data from these countries
to be unreliable. ******** |
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Australia won the
three-Test series in Pakistan by winning in the final session of the series
after drawing the first two Tests. This has only happened once before (in any
country), when England won in Karachi in 2000 with only 2.3 overs to spare
after drawing the first two Tests. ******** Batsmen reaching
milestones at low team totals… Data is incomplete
for many early ODIs, but Jayasuriya reached 50 out of 53 (off 17 balls) in an
ODI at Singapore in 1995-95. There were 3 sundries with Kaluwitharana
not out on 0. In Tests, Clifford
Roach scored 50 out of 54 at Bridgetown in 1929-30, since matched by Chris
Gayle (Port of Spain 2014) and Tamim Iqbal (Wellington 2017). Gayle actually
hit a two to go from 49 to 51 out of 55 while Tamim hit a three to go from 49
to 52 out of 56. David Warner
reached 100 out of 122 in his century before lunch at the SCG in 2017. This question comes
up from time to time, so I have added a list to my Unusual
Records page. ******** |
21 April 2022 First-Class FoW; Some New Stats Some notes on the recording of
Falls of Wickets The listing of Falls of Wickets
(FoW), as a part of scorecards, is such a familiar
sight that it might be a surprise that for a long time such detail was often
not seen in publications. FoW can be found in original
scores going back more than 150 years; however, this data did not always make
into newspapers or other published reports, particularly in England. The
Times did not routinely list FoW for Tests
until 1928. While Wisden followed suit for some Tests from
the 1930s, it did not routinely report FoW for
county matches until about 1952. In Australia, the practice goes
back rather further, with FoW listed, as a defined
section, in Test match scores from the beginning of the 20th Century,
but apparently not before. It is notable that a complete
set of FoW for all past Tests was included in Roy
Webber’s Playfair Book of Test Cricket in 1951. Webber must
have done a fair amount of research to put that together, since the data was
largely absent from Wisden; he would have been helped by some
Australian newspapers. The book’s successors, now the Wisden Book of
Test Cricket, have continued with this. In the wider realm of
first-class cricket, data for older matches still contains gaps. There must
have been a lot of research to gather what is now known, but still there are
perhaps nine per cent of matches before 1970 for which FoW
data is absent or very patchy. This includes most matches before the Test
era. FoW data is about 99 per cent complete since
1970, but I might add that not all of f-c cricket matches have full scores
anyway; for example, some matches in Sri Lanka in the 80s and 90s, a time of
civil war and upheaval, are represented by ‘potted’ scores only. The practice of naming the
batsmen out at each FoW, allowing the easy
identification of batsmen in partnerships, is relatively a more recent
phenomenon. It has only become widespread in the electronic era from the
1990s, although Bill Frindall was ahead of the game in the 70s with his
published Test cricket scores for various series, continued in the Daily
Telegraph Cricket Year Books in the 1980s. Researchers have gone
back through some types of old matches, notably Tests and Sheffield Shield
matches, to make such identifications, although I have found that this data
can be a bit unreliable; from my own research, I have made over 400 changes
to online identifications of batsmen out in Test matches. Apart from Test and Sheffield
Shield, batsman ID in FoW is something of a blank
area in first-class cricket before about 1995. Even quite recently, data can
be incomplete, with almost ten per cent missing from online scores since
2013, notably for matches in Pakistan. Statistics of Major First-Class
Partnerships This is something of an
introduction to a piece of research that I have done on identifying the
batsmen in major partnerships in f-c cricket. The potential field is vast, so
I have been limited to looking at partnerships exceeding 200. Even then there
are over 7,000 known partnerships. It would be nice to be extend the analysis
to all century partnerships, but with over 65,000 to go through, it would be
rather overwhelming. It also becomes more difficult to be sure about batsman
ID the smaller the partnership gets. You would think that it would be easy
for partnerships over 200, and indeed it is in most cases, but even at that
level there are so many uncertain ones that time gets consumed. Apart from matches for which FoW is missing entirely, there is some uncertainty
introduced by the incidence of batsmen retiring hurt. This adds imprecision,
but I have decided to include these (if they can be identified), and just
list the two major batsmen when it happens. It appears to happen in less than
two per cent of major partnerships, and in many of those there was a two-man
200+ partnership anyway. Firstly, the numbers of
partnerships. These are the ones I have identified; the numbers will be
mostly but not absolutely complete. Bear in mind that the data I have
gathered may not represent all known data. It is not really clear to me
why there are fewer opening stands than subsequent wickets. Number of Known 200+ Stands in
First-Class Cricket
I have searched for the lowest
scores made by batsmen involved in a (two-man) 200-run partnerships. The list
is led by the freak partnership between the Hazare brothers in 1943-44. Vivek
Hazare’s 21 in five and a half hours represents probably the most extreme sustained
slow scoring in f-c cricket. Lowest scores by players
involved in 200+ stands.
‘Retired hurt’ partnerships
excluded. These are the final scores by
the batsman rather than their contribution to the partnership, although I
think they may be the same in each of these cases. There may be others who
contributed fewer runs to a major stand, but who ended up with more than 40
runs in total. Generally, it is not possible to identify these. This list does not include the
strangest double-century partnership of all, 246 unbroken between M Nayyar (101*)
and K Bhaskar Singh (12*) for Delhi in 1991. There were 180 runs included in
this stand thanks to penalty runs for a slow over rate (throughout the match)
by Bombay – so it is not a real 200 stand, but I leave it in anyway, because
it is so curious. The dataset allows, I think for
the first time, identification of batsmen involved in major partnerships. Most double-century stands
in first-class cricket (individuals).
On reflection, it is not too
surprising to see Sutcliffe topping Hobbs. Sutcliffe was a slower batsman; in
fact in Tests his average innings length rivals Bradman. This means that
there was a higher chance of large numbers of runs being added while he was
batting. Filtering for triple-century
stands produces this list
Curiously I get only five for
Hobbs and four for Hammond. Both tended to score faster than their batting
partners, and so accumulate fewer giant stands. For 400+ stands, I get 3 for
Rahul Dravid and 2 for various others. However, one of Dravid’s included a
retired hurt. For batting pairs, I get the
following… Most major stands by batting
pairs (all wickets)
The 200+ stands include the
300+ stands. I think that the dominance of
Holmes and Sutcliffe in this statistic was already known; all of their stands
were for the first wicket and so could be very easily identified. There was a lesser-known pair,
FB (Frank) Watson and Ernest Tyldesley, who matched Sutcliffe and Holmes in
making four 300+ stands, although they only had six 200+ stands in total. I
didn’t find any pairs involved in more than one 400+ stand. Frank Worrell and Ravi Jadeja
have both been involved in two 500+ partnerships during their respective
careers. ******** |
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Most ‘dismissals’
with no balls since 2000: updated
list. This depends on the
accuracy of Cricinfo texts and my ability to search them. Apart from ‘caught
off no ball’ and ‘bowled by a no ball’, it includes cases of "lbw to no
ball" that may be a matter of opinion or uncertainty. Bowler M Morkel 13 KAJ
Roach 13 I
Sharma 12 B Lee 11 ST
Gabriel 11 Z
Khan 7 RA
Jadeja 7 Wahab
Riaz 6 A
Flintoff 6 SL
Malinga 6 VD
Philander 6 K Rabada 6 ******** Wicket with first
ball in Test cricket. This list has one
or two differences with other published lists. Bowler TP
Horan 1882 A Coningham 1894 WM
Bradley 1899 EG
Arnold 1903 AEE
Vogler 1905 JN
Crawford 1905 GG
Macaulay 1922 MW
Tate 1924 M
Henderson 1929 HD
Smith 1932 TF
Johnson 1939 KR
Miller 1945 R Howorth 1947 Intikhab Alam 1959 RK
Illingworth 1991 NM
Kulkarni 1997 CJ
Drum* 2000 MKGCP Lakshitha 2002 NM
Lyon 2011 RMS Eranga 2011 DL Piedt 2014 GC
Viljoen 2015 *In Drum’s case it
was actually his second delivery, following a no ball to start. Horan was not
playing in his first Test, but it was his first time bowling. ******** Kraigg Brathwaite faced 673 balls in the Bridgetown
Test just completed. This is the most known for a West indies
batsman in a Test, but there is another contender. The number can only
be estimated, but Frank Worrell faced a similar number of balls at Kingston
in 1952-53. Some years ago I came up with an estimate of 674 balls for
Worrell (237 & 23); Brathwaite faced 673. Worrell's actual figure is
probably in the 650-700 range, but exact figures were never recorded. ******** |
23 March 2022 Warne and McGrath Sreeram suggested that I should
write something about Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne and their head-to-head
records against the best batsmen of their time. For those interested here is
the updated data. I can't say it is very flattering to Warne, particularly
looking at the very best (Tendulkar, Lara). It's probably avoided by most
commentators, but the reality is that top batsmen generally do much better
against spin (even the best spinners) than against pace bowlers. Spinners do
have something of a disadvantage in that when top-order batsmen fail, it is
sometimes before the spinners come on. Nevertheless, the difference is stark.
Warne, it should be remembered, was effectively crowned Greatest Bowler Of
All Time by Wisden in 2001 – he was the only full-time bowler among the “FIVE
CRICKETERS OF THE [20TH] CENTURY” – when his career still had
years to run. Yes he was a great bowler, but IMHO Warne was not even the best
bowler in his team. McGrath and Warne: head-to head
against top batsmen
Note: averages are strictly
player v player; e.g., Kallis scored 167 runs off McGrath’s bowling, with 6
dismissals, average 27.8, and 354 runs off Warne’s bowling, with 7
dismissals, average 50.6. ******** I have been looking more
closely at Barry Valentine’s ball-by-ball work on Ashes Tests from 1920 to
1961, and made a log of all the dropped catches that were mentioned. For the
first time, this allows a long-term view of trends in this very difficult
area of statistics. Without further ado, here are some numbers, compared to
the recent data that I have been collecting over the last two decades.
Percentages are calculated using the numbers of catches and stumpings in the
relevant Tests. Historical Missed Chances
(Ashes Tests)
Includes missed stumpings, but
not run outs. A couple of points: reporting
styles changed in the 1950s, becoming more interpretive and less rigorous in
terms of straight out facts. In some series such as 1956 there is a dearth of
reports of dropped catches off tailenders; it may well be that some
relatively unimportant chances have been left out of reports. For the 1960s,
there is currently very little data. I hope this can be improved in time. While we should not read too
much into every bump in the trend, there is a clear trend of improvement over
many years. There is also some more work to
be done on Tests from the 70s to the 90s. The percentage in the 70s may have
been around 30%, but more work on that is needed. I have some data from
Frindall for these decades but need to work on it more. I have edited the ball-by-ball
records of Ashes Tests from 1920 to 1961 to include dropped catches, and
included columns in the half-centuries detail files to include dropped catch
data. Examples here and here. ******** Here is a list of most balls
faced by a batsman in the fourth innings of a Test…
******** |
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8 March 2022 Shane Warne The news here – recently
dominated by War (Ukraine), Flood (NSW and Qld) and Pestilence (Covid) – has
been pushed aside by the very untimely death of Shane Warne. There are
already mountains of articles on the subject; I have little to add, except to
notice that Warne’s “larger than life” personality features in commentary at
least as much as his cricketing achievements, perhaps more so. A quiet introverted version of
Warne would have had less impact on the game, even with just as many wickets.
My own opinion: it is possible to be both a very great player and to be
overrated. Plus a couple of little stats… · Warne’s name appears on
standard Test scoresheets (Batting, Bowling, dismissals section and FoW) more times than any other player (Jimmy Anderson is
second). · During his bowling spells in
Tests, Warne’s bowling partners took more wickets than he did. That is, 723
wickets were taken by other bowlers when Warne bowled the previous over, vs
708 taken by Warne himself. Run outs excluded. · I have a theory that Warne was
congratulated, in person and by name, more times than any other person in human
history. He got a “bowled Shane!” from Ian Healy and others for maybe 50% of
the 50,000 balls he bowled in international cricket. Absolutely impossible to
prove of course. A couple of articles of mine
from some years ago on the subject of Warne… A Tale
of Two Spinners. (2006) Some
comments on Shane Warne’s
Test career (2007) ******** When Joburg was
in the Wars Here are some more notes on the
extraordinary circumstances and events surrounding the Johannesburg Test of
1895-96. Thanks to Robin Isherwood for information. The tour and its scheduling was
impacted in late December 1895 by what is known as the ‘Jameson Raid’, a
military incursion from Rhodesia into Transvaal by supporters of Cecil
Rhodes. It was hoped that the raid would trigger an uprising against the Boer
government in Transvaal, but it failed in that objective. It was undoubtedly
a precursor to the Boer War (1898-1902). Another difficulty for the
cricketers, not entirely unrelated to the above, was the deep antipathy
between cricket authorities in the Cape and Transvaal. This is evident from
both sides, in comments in newspapers at the time, and there was a lack of
cooperation between the two groups. Nevertheless, Lord Hawke’s team ventured
inland in mid-February, apparently having scheduled a match against Transvaal
for the 22nd. Then on February 19, while the
team was playing a scheduled minor match in Bloemfontein, a gigantic explosion occurred in Johannesburg.
More than 50 tons of dynamite, on five rail trucks, detonated in a rail yard,
killing scores of people and leaving a crater up to 50 feet deep and 250 feet
long. Houses hundreds of yards from the blast were destroyed and the shock
wave damaged most of the buildings in the city. One witness described “a vast
black and gold cloud rising like a colossal mushroom into the blue”, which
must be one of the first descriptions of a Mushroom Cloud. The exact
circumstances of the explosion were difficult to ascertain, since everyone
directly involved had been killed. The nearby Wanderers Ground was
given over to triage and treatment of hundreds of the injured. Prior to the explosion, it appears
that a Test match had been added to the schedule, either replacing the
Transvaal match or, more likely, to be played afterwards. It is not entirely
clear, but in any case the match on the 22nd could not take
place. The team passed through Johannesburg and witnessed the devastation,
and arrangements were made to move on to Pretoria instead. The Test match,
possibly slated for the 26th, was pushed back to Monday 2nd March. When the Test started the
buildings around the Wanderers were still being used as a makeshift hospital,
an extraordinary circumstance indeed. “The Wanderers Hall, which was actually
a pavilion, still stank of iodoform and was full of wounded” (Hayward’s History
of Transvaal Cricket). As a sidelight, Robin tells me
that referring to the Ground as the “Old Wanderers” is incorrect, since the
ground was never known by that name. Known just as the Wanderers Ground, it
was closed to make way for the expansion of Johannesburg railway station in
the 1940s. The current “Wanderers” further to the north was opened in 1956
and should be referred to as “Wanderers Stadium”. I am making some changes in
my database to reflect this. ******** |
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George Lohmann’s
wicket sequences across two Tests in 1895-96 in South Africa… Five wickets in six
balls. Six for 2 in 13
balls. Seven for 2 in 19
balls. Nine for 2 in 31
balls. Ten for 4 in 38
balls. Twelve for 4 in 44
balls. These figures are
gleaned from press reports; the number of balls for six wickets or more are
not necessarily exact. Note that Lohmann
bowled in minor matches between the two Tests, so the figures apply to Test
(and first-class) cricket only. There was drama in
Johannesburg between the two Tests. On February 19, there was a massive
explosion in a railway yard when as much as 50 tons of dynamite detonated,
apparently accidentally; more than 80 people were killed and windows were
shattered throughout the city. The English players
were in Bloemfontein at the time. The scheduled tour match against Transvaal
in Johannesburg on the 22nd was cancelled and a Test was then
scheduled, but it did not start until March 2. This was the first Test match
played in Johannesburg, a place that had been open farmland less than a
decade earlier. The explosion was
not mentioned in Wisden. There is mention of “disturbances” in
Transvaal, but this refers to military skirmishes in December that were
precursors to the Boer War. The disturbances had delayed the team’s venture
into the South Africa inland. In this tour, RM
Poore was asked by the England manager if he would join the England team to
replace HT Hewitt, who had returned home. Poore, though, chose to play for
South Africa instead. ******** |
21 February 2022 Dropped catches
report 2021 I have completed an analysis of
dropped catches in Tests in calendar year 2021, drawn from Cricinfo’s ball-by-ball texts. There were 289 missed
chances found in 44 Tests. Overall, 23.9% of chances were
missed, including missed stumpings (run outs not included), which was almost
identical to the 24.1% in 2019-20 (with fewer Tests,
I combined the data for 2019 and 2020). The averages move from year to year,
but there has been a slight, if irregular, improvement in catching over the
20 years that I have been doing this analysis. From 2004 to 2008 the average
was 25.8%; in the last 5 years, 24.4%. For 2021, New Zealand had the
best catching record, a result that is consistent with widespread impression
of that team’s fielding. Although rankings do vary from year to year –
sometimes unaccountably – New Zealand, South Africa and Australia have been
the top three teams averaged over the last five years, just as they are in
2021.
After several good years,
Pakistan slipped considerably in 2021; Sri Lanka was similar. West Indies
fielding has been improving. England’s ordinary performance confirms the
impression from the recent Ashes series. A few records from the last 20
years of data… Batsmen missed most times AN
Cook 78 (Sangakkara and Sehwag on 67) Batsman with highest % misses:
J Blackwood 39% (Sehwag 37%, Ross Taylor 36%), minimum 50 chances. In the field, Cook also missed
the most catches with 81. Much of his early career was spent fielding at
short leg, which is the most difficult position for taking catches. Bowlers with most missed
chances: Anderson 129, Broad 127 (up to and including calendar year 2021, so
not including the last couple of Ashes Tests). Zulfiqar Babar of Pakistan
suffered a rate of 52% of the 58 chances missed off his bowling, including
stumpings. Mohammad Rafique had a rate of 44%. Graeme Smith dropped only 15%
of his possible catches in the slips during his career. Among keepers receiving more
than 100 chances, Mark Boucher had a miss rate of 10.3% and AB de Villiers
10.4%. (de Villiers drop rate as non-keeper was a somewhat more typical 21%.)
At the other end of the scale, Mushfiqur Rahim missed 31.5% of his 113
chances. Most misses by a keeper: MS
Dhoni missed 66 chances in his Test career (18.3%). Note that keeping to spinners
is more difficult, and results in more missed chances, than keeping standing
back. The usual caveats apply with
regards to dropped catch data. A chance can be a matter of opinion, and it
can be possible to overlook instances when searching the texts. Nevertheless,
my search method has been consistent for 20 years (actually it goes back to
2000, but I haven’t analysed all Tests in the early years because the texts
sometimes lacked detail). ******** I mentioned Barry Valentine’s
work on Ashes series in my last post. Looking at his work on the 1924-25 series, it became
apparent that there were problems with my own analysis, that was carried out
quite some years ago and has been online for a few years. I have now
corrected the problems and posted new versions of the data. A core problem was that I was
relying on copies of Bill Ferguson’s scores; the originals are kept at
Cricket NSW. Although made by Ferguson himself, these scores are handwritten
copies made after the event, and there are signs that they were made
hurriedly. A good deal of secondary information, including info on separation
of bowling spells and session scores, and byes and leg byes, is missing. Fortunately,
it turns out that Fergie’s running sheets for this series exist at Lord’s,
and copies have even been posted online by the National Library of
Australia. Until a few years ago, I was not aware of existence
of the 1924-25 linear scores: they are the earliest surviving Ferguson
running sheets (earlier ones, going back to 1909, have been lost, although
traditional-style scores survive). Anyway, there are quite a lot
of differences between Fergie’s re-copied scores and his running sheets, so
going back to the latter has led to changes to some balls faced figures,
lunch and tea scores, and ball-by-balls records. Mostly these are not
substantial changes, but they are numerous. Even the very first over of the
series required changing – the running sheets (0,0,1bye,1bye,1,0,1,0) and the
Cricket NSW score (0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0) do not agree. While doing this upgrade, I
have also included information on dropped catches, for this series and for 1928-29. For this I have
Valentine’s work to thank. I have also re-done my analysis
of the 1958-59 series, again thanks
to Valentine’s work. In this case, the score copies that I had obtained many
years ago had been very hard to read in places, being multigenerational
copies via microfilm. Valentine managed to obtain better-quality copies, and
I have used his analysis. Likewise, I have revised the 1954-55 series for similar
reasons. ******** |
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I wonder if this
has any parallels: an active first-class cricketer who was murdered during a
Test match that he had attended the day before. From Barry Valentine
(referring to the last day of the 1st Test of 1920-21)... "In mourning
for the death of Dr. C.J. Tozer, DSO, the flags round the ground were flown
at half-mast, and the Australian players all wore black arm bands. Newspapers
report that he “was shot dead in a private house to which he was attached in
his private capacity”. Claude Tozer had been in the Army Medical Corps
wounded in France, and was a leading NSW batsman. In early December at Brisbane
he scored 51 and 53 for an Australian XI v MCC. On 20 December he attended
the Test. Next day he visited the home of a patient, Mrs. Mort, with whom he
had been having an affair, and when he told her was going to marry another
woman, she shot him in the head and chest and tried to shoot herself. She was
later found not guilty by reason of insanity." There is a
Wikipedia page of murdered cricketers. If I have read it correctly, Tozer was
the only one who was an active first-class cricketer at the time of his
death. UPDATE: Sreeram
reports the case of Nauman Habib, who was shot three days after playing in a
first-class match. ******** |
7 February 2022 Over rate in
extremis Some years ago I put
together an analysis of the opening partnership of
Grace and Scotton at The Oval in 1886 (first day).
The stand was worth 170 and when Grace was out at 216, he had also made 170.
I recently had reason to take another look at this innings, and I have to
admit that I found considerable problems with my analysis. I have re-done the work and the
numbers have changed. (There is no surviving scorebook, so putting together
an over-by-over account, from newspaper accounts, is fraught with
uncertainty. The results can only be regarded as approximate.) A wider access
to old British newspapers has helped, and there are also detailed reports of
the day in some Australian newspapers, although they were published weeks
after the event – having been sent by mail rather than telegraph. One peculiar thing about the
day is that it appears that the over rate before lunch was very different to
the over rate afterwards. Almost impossibly so, I thought, to the extent that
I had glossed over it previously. Yet there are multiple lines of evidence
suggesting it. The scoring rate was initially exceedingly slow, and the
bowlers Giffen and Garrett stormed through their
four-ball overs. There were 52 overs in the first 65 minutes, with only 20
runs scored, and 80-82 overs in 112 minutes before lunch, taken at 56 for 0. Giffen was taken off before lunch after bowling 36 overs
for 22 runs. These stats are supported by independent sources. This represents almost 180
balls per hour! This is the fastest over rate that I have heard of
(equivalent to bowling 180 six-ball overs in a six-hour day), and bear in
mind that the fielders changed end 80 times. Maiden overs must have been
completed in a minute or even less. After lunch, Grace went on the
attack and the over rate ‘plummeted’ to about 133 balls per hour. The over
rate seems to have been very sensitive to the scoring rate. Statistically, the innings was
particularly noted for the slow, often immobile, scoring of Scotton. It has been previously recorded that he had
stayed on a score of 24 for 67 minutes; the reconstruction estimates that he
faced about 70 balls. Remarkably, however, it appears that this was not
actually Scotton’s biggest stall of the innings.
Before lunch, Scotton scored a three in the ninth
over, and did not score again until (about) the 60th over,
facing about 80 balls in the interim. Thanks to the extreme over rate before
lunch, this only took about 50 minutes. Ultimately, Scotton
faced about 290 balls for his 34 runs, still the slowest innings of its size
in all Test cricket. I have posted the revised
reconstruction. There are still many uncertainties – among other things, the
sources sometimes conflict – but I hope that readers can accept that. ******** I have begun to include some
data on dropped catches into my online material, for selected series – at
this point restricted to scores of 50 or more. An example is here. This will only be available
for a minority of series for 2000 and 2001, but I anticipate being much more
complete from 2002 onward. I have also accumulated dropped
catch data for about 350 Tests in the 20th century, a
sizeable number although still only about a quarter of the century’s Test
matches. Some of this is thanks to Barry Valentine, who has made some deep
dives into Ashes series between 1920 and 1961, using a wider array of sources
than I did in my work. Barry has been kind enough to send me copies of his
work; the analysis of a single series can run to more than 200 pages. Among
the data is mention of dropped catches wherever they can be found. I have analysed Tests from 2021
for missed chances and will report on that shortly. In the meantime here is a list
of batsmen who were missed most times in an innings, perhaps the first time
such a list has been attempted. This list is subject to the usual caveats
about dropped catches, and of course it is probably incomplete. Most missed chances in a
batsman’s innings – where recorded
Suggestions for additions to
this list would be welcome. UPDATE: Lawrie Colliver tells
me that Clive Lloyd was dropped six times in his 242* at Mumbai in 1974-75.
His source lists all six in detail. Actually I think I had read that
somewhere but had forgotten. ******** |
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After Pat Cummins
declared in Sydney when Leach took wickets with consecutive
balls, I looked for earlier Tests where a declaration was made
with a bowler on a hat-trick... Eng v WI (1),
Bridgetown, Barbados 1935 SAf v WI (3), Bridgetown, Barbados 2001 Aus v WI (3),
Bridgetown, Barbados 2003 Aus v SAf (2), Melbourne (MCG) 2005/06 ******** Most bowlers faced
by a batsman in Tests: Tendulkar faced
about 300 bowlers, and Murali bowled to about 390 batsmen. In both cases,
there are maybe 10 opponents included, but for whom data is uncertain. ******** Batting through a
day most times… If you exclude days
with less than 50 overs (300 balls) and exclude the final days of Tests with
a definite result, then the leaders are AN Cook 15 G Boycott 11 KC Sangakkara 9 L Hutton 9 MA Atherton 9 This stat favours
openers, partly because openers are the only batsmen who can bat through Day
1 of a Test. ******** After a bit more
research into 12th men, I have found that Upul Chandana of
Sri Lanka has passed Andy Bichel and now leads 20
to 19. There are also several other Tests played by Sri Lanka around that
time where Chandana may have carried the drinks, but no 12th man names can be
found. Official Australian
scores still usually have names for 12th man in them, but for most teams the
idea has become obsolete. ******** In a number of
Tests from 2013 to 2015, Australian teams had eight players born in NSW.
There are also a number of earlier instances. At Perth in 2002,
Australia had 5 from (born in) NSW and one each from Qld, Vic, SA, WA, Tas
and Northern Territory. That is from a file
I made in 2016, which I have not updated. ******** |
12 January 2022 Scott Boland’s
Flying Start Scott Boland must think this
Test cricket game is a bit of a lark. So much for taking several years to
adapt to the highest level of the game. I have made several list
showing some of Boland’s noteworthy achievements already, including a list of
bowlers who were fastest to take their first 10 Test wickets, in terms of
balls bowled. Fewest balls for first 10 Test
wickets
I don't have Hirwani's Test ball-by-ball, but I figure that after
taking 8 in his first innings in 18.3 overs, he took wickets in each of his
first two overs in the second innings, leading to the estimate of 120 balls.
Perhaps readers have more info on that. I'll admit that I hadn't heard
of Sipamla. The 239 balls comprise his entire
career to date. I expect that the data is
largely complete. If anyone can think of candidates for the Top 10 who are
not there, let me know. Fewest balls to reach six
wickets in an innings, after first coming on to bowl.
Boland also
equalled the record for fewest balls to reach five wickets in an innings,
after first coming on to bowl - 19 balls. Shared with Toshack
1947-48 and Broad in
2015. Six wickets in (the space of)
fewest balls
Appropriate updates have been
made to the Unusual Records section. ******** The First Boundary Hits I mentioned last month the
matter of the introduction of boundary fours in first-class cricket, an
innovation that predates Test cricket. There is also the related concept of
five runs or six runs for hits over the boundary. Here are some notes on this
subject: some of this information has been provided by Shane Hicks. The notes are by no means a
full study, but are presented as is. It is not a particularly easy area to
research, but it does seem that, while some very early examples have been
found, it has been hard to find more. So it seems that the awarding of five
or six for big hits in the 1860s was unusual. · In the 1860s, boundary fours
began to be recorded at larger grounds (with defined boundaries) in England.
A curious exception was Trent Bridge, where most boundaries were awarded 3
runs and the batsmen changed ends. · There is an interesting phrase
in a report of an 1865 match at the MCG, saying that Ned Gregory's hits to
the fence scored "four, as per agreement". The use of that phrase
suggests that it was a novel idea. · There is a reference in
the Nottinghamshire Guardian in 1865 to Richard Daft hitting
a six out of the Trent Bridge ground. Daft also hit boundary threes and
boundary fours in the same innings. · A batsman named Coates was
awarded six for a “brilliant hit outside the fence beyond long off” in an
intercolonial match at the · At an intercolonial match
between Victoria and New South Wales at the MCG in early 1870, a report makes
reference to hits to the "pavilion fence" counting 3 and the
"ring fence" counting 4. · There is a reference to Charles
Bannerman hitting a ball over the chains for five in an intercolonial match
in 1874-75 (MCG). I haven’t found any earlier references to such fives in
Australia. In this case, the captains agreed before play started that hits
over the fence would count for five; this suggests that it was not standard
practice. I noted two hits for five at the MCG in 1870 by Wardill,
but it appears that both were all-run. · A (minor match) report from December 1877
mentions all runs being “run out”, so boundary fours were not in universal
even after the advent of Test cricket. |
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