A world record and a near-miss for Hussey

In the third match of NatWest Series, Australia’s Mike Hussey got a world record on his name. Hussey was dismissed after making a well compiled 84 (off 83 balls) in this game helping Australia in putting up a decent total. Interestingly it was for the first time that Hussey got out in his career of seven ODIs. Having made his debut against India at Perth in February 2004, Hussey’s scores in one-day internationals have been: 17*, 32*, 65*, 0*,31* and 84. His innings of 65* and 0* were punctuated by a ‘did not bat’ against New Zealand.

Hussey now holds the world record of aggregating most runs from ODI debut before first dismissal. The previous record was held by another Australian Michael Clarke, who aggregated 208 runs before his first dismissal in ODIs.

Hussey,in fact, just missed another world record. Had he gone not out in the match against England, he would have equalled the all-time ODI record of playing most consecutive innings from debut without being dismissed.

The ODI record in this category is held Pakistan’s Iftikhar Anjum, who played six consecutive innings without being dismissed once. In fact Anjum is yet to be dismissed in his ODI career of 12 matches, which consists of six ‘did not bat’ entries.

Hussey,however, now joins five other players who were dismissed for the first time in their career (since debut) after playing FIVE innings. They are West Indians Patrick Patterson and Ian Bishop, England’s Jack Russell,Australia’s Michael Kaprowicz and Bangladesh’s Manjural Islam.

Another high for Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen played a scintillating innings of 91 in the Bristol one-dayer to give Australia their fourth consecutive loss of the tour. Pietersen has now aggregated 649 runs in 10 innings of 13 ODIs at an average of 162.25. Both his aggregate and average are the highest for any player in ODI history after playing exactly 10 innings.
By an odd coincidence the previous record in this category was on the name of Allan Lamb – another South Africa born Englishman. The following table lists the highest run-aggregates after 10 innings in ODIs:

Runs Player        For Mts Inns Ave Hs 100 50
649 KP Pietersen Eng 13 10 162.25 116 3 3
577 AJ Lamb        Eng 10 10 72.13 118 2 2
554 RL Diad        SL 10 10 55.40 121 2 3
525 DL Amiss Eng 10 10 52.50 137 3 0
498 KC Wessels SA 10 10 55.33 90 0 6
494 PN Kirsten SA 10 10 70.57 90 0 5
456 Majid Khan Pak 10 10 45.60 109 1 4
455 NS Sidhu Ind 12 10 45.50 88 0 5
455 Yousuf Youhana Pak 11 10 56.88 100 1 4

Masters of making a comeback

Pakistan seem to have developed a habit of making a comeback in the series after losing the opening Test. In three series of the last four they have played, Pakistan have managed to level the series after suffering huge defeat in the first Tests. Interestingly on all of the three occasions Inzamam-ul-Haq lead from the front,scoring a century on each occasion which settled the issue.

Following are the instances of Pakistan making a comeback in the series to level/win the series after being one-down in the series.

Season  Opp  Venue Tests  Score    Captain
1954     Eng  Eng    4    1-1  AH Kardar
1976-77  Aus  Aus    3    1-1  Mushtaq Mohammad
1994-95  Zim  Zim    3    2-1  Salim Malik
1996-97  NZ   Pak    2    1-1  Saeed Anwar
2001     Eng  Eng    2    1-1  Waqar Younis
2004-05  SL   Pak    2    1-1  Inzamam-ul-Haq
2004-05  Ind  Ind    3    1-1  Inzamam-ul-Haq
2005     WI   WI     2    1-1  Inzamam-ul-Haq

King of LOST matches

Pakistan beat West Indies by 136 runs in Kingston Test to level the series 1-1. The defeat gave Brian Lara an entirely unwanted record on his name. Lara has now appeared in 54 LOST matches for West Indies. With this he joined England's Alec Stewart to share the record of appearing in maximum number of LOST matches. However Lara's defeat-percentage of 46 is much higher than Stewart's 41. Among the contemporary batsmen only fellow countryman S.Chanderpaul (39), New Zealander Stephen Fleming (35) and Sachin Tendulkar (35) are the ones, who can 'challenge' Lara's place on top in this table. Given team's wretched form, it seems highly unlikely that Lara would be toppled from the top in the near future.

Lara has now amassed 4654 runs in matches lost by West Indies; no other player has even managed 3000. Lara is also the only batsman with a dozen Test hundreds in defeats; in fact, no other player has more than eight. Among the top ten run-getters in defeats, Lara's average is also the highest. What more can a batsman do for his side ? Bat from both ends ?

Maximum runs in defeats

Batsman           For  Tests Runs   Ave   100  50
Brian Lara        WI    54   4654  43.09   12  21
Alec Stewart      Eng   54   2993  29.93    -  23
Allan Border      Aus   46   2771  33.39    5  13
Andy Flower       Zim   34   2713  43.06    7  15
David Gower       Eng   42   2581  32.26    4  15
Sachin Tendulkar  Ind   35   2558  36.54    8   9
S Chanderpaul     WI    39   2532  35.17    3  16
Graham Gooch      Eng   42   2423  28.85    3  16
Steve Waugh       Aus   36   2380  37.78    5   9
Mike Atherton     Eng   44   2319  26.35    1  15
Sunil Gavaskar    Ind   34   2314  35.06    6  12

More records for Lara

Even as Brian Lara got out for a duck in the second innings of Kingston Test, his first innings heroics was enough to accord him a world record. Lara has now aggregated 6,006 runs in HOME matches- highest aggregate for any batsman in Test cricket. Lara surpassed England's Graham Gooch's tally of 5,917 runs. Interestingly Lara moved ahead of Gooch in 13 Tests and 29 innings fewer than him.

Leading run-scorers in HOME Test matches:

Runs Batsman   For Tests Inns  Ave. Hs  100s

6006  BC Lara     WI 61  102  61.91 400* 16
5917  GA Gooch    Eng   74  131  46.23  333  15
5743  AR Border   Aus   86  145  45.94  205  13
5710  SR Waugh    Aus   89  140  47.58  170  15
5067  SM Gavaskar Ind   65  108  50.17  236* 16

During West Indies' first innings of Kingston Test Lara also completed his 1,000 runs in the Test matches played at this ground. His aggregate at this ground at the end of first innings reads as 1,075 runs in 17 innings at an average of 67.18.
Lara has now aggregated 1,000 runs on three different grounds. Others are - St.John's (1,632 runs) and Bridgetown (1,339 runs). Lara thus became only the fifth batsman after Australia's Greg Chappell,Allan Border and Steve Waugh and Pakistan's Javed Miandad to aggregate 1,000 runs at THREE different grounds. It is worth mentioning here that Lara has aggregated 986 runs at Port-of-Spain and is all set to soon become the first batsman ever to aggregate 1,000 runs at FOUR grounds.
The 153 in the Kingston Test was the 17th score of 150-plus or more for Brian Lara. He is now just one short of equalling Don Bradman's world record tally of 18.

Most 150s in Test cricket
18 Don Bradman Aus
17 Brian Lara WI
15 Sachin Tendulkar Ind
14 Steve Waugh Aus
12 Sunil Gavaskar Ind

Statistical Annual

Like a large number of fellow statisticians I have often been pained at the absence of a statistical annual, which could give a clear view of the domestic cricket in India season after season. It is very easy to tell who has scored maximum runs in English County Cricket. Pick the latest Wisden or go to Cricinfo record section and you have the answer in seconds. But nowhere you will get the answer as to who has scored the maximum runs in Indian first class cricket or for that matter who has effected most dismissals behind the stumps. Wisden does not have separate statistical section for Indian first-class cricket and Cricinfo’s record section on Indian domestic cricket is a farce. That Cricinfo carries a list of batsmen with highest run-aggregate in Ranji Trophy updated only upto 1998-99 season is a shame in itself.

It is not that there is no cricket annual being published in India. There are two of them. BCCI publishes their own statistical annuals, but what is the purpose behind publishing it, only they can tell. A bulky volume, containing more pages than the Wisden Almanack and almost one and a half time bigger in height, it does not cost a single penny. The Board makes it available free of cost. But the sad part is, it is not made available in the open market, so it is beyond the reach of any cricket-lover. One can get a copy only if he has his links in the BCCI office or state associations [who get two copies each]. It would have made much sense if this annual was made available in the open market after putting a price-tag on it, but then you can not expect these things from BCCI.

Hindu group must be praised for publishing Indian Cricket Annual year after year at an unbelievable low price. Very rich on contents part, this annual offers very little on statistical front. Moreover the editorial staff is not even ready to listen to suggestions for improvement. The scorecards do not carry the essential information like second innings batting order, fall of wicket details, information about debutants etc. The different statistical section normally runs in to dozen of pages, but not always covering all parts of the game. For example, batting records will cover the minute details of every batsmen who has scored 500 or more runs in a Ranji season, but one will not find the best allround performances in a match.

The only Indian annual worthy of being called a statistical annual that I have seen is ACSSI [Association of Cricket Scorers & Statisticians of India] Statistical Annual. The annual compiled and edited by Mohandas Menon carried almost everything one could wish for. But the Association has had its own problems and could not publish any annual since 1990-91.

A consistent cajoling from me has however succeeded in the revival of the annual. I have taken the responsibility of compiling and editing the 2004-05 edition and if everything goes according to the plans, the annual will become a regular feature. Hopefully we will have the feats in domestic cricket properly recognized and suitably penned down.

Anyone, who is interested in contributing in this annual, may contact me at annual2005@gmail.com. All contributions will be properly acknowledged and the contributor will get a complimentary copy [I will personally make sure it is done]. But please send only the original research and the stuff not readily available elsewhere.