A day of numerous records for Sangakkara

On the third day of Kandy Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Kumar Sangakkara scored an unbeaten 222 - his second double century in successive innings.Sangakkara had also made an unbeaten 200 in Sri Lanka's only innings in second Test at P.Sarvanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. With this Sangakkara became only the fourth batsman in Test cricket history to score double centuries in successive innings after England's Wally Hammond, Australia's Don Bradman and India's Vinod Kambli. Hammond had done so on two occasions. The following table has the details:

Double centuries in successive innings
Batsman         Score Opponent    Venue         Season
WR Hammond (Eng) 251  Australia   Sydney        1928-29
                 200  Australia   Melbourne     1928-29
WR Hammond (Eng) 227  New Zealand Christchurch  1932-33
                 336* New Zealand Auckland      1932-33
DG Bradman (Aus) 304  England     Leeds         1934
                 244  England     The Oval      1934
VG Kambli (Ind)  224  England     Mumbai WS     1992-93
                 227  Zimbabwe    Delhi         1992-93
KC S'kara (SL)   200* Bangladesh  Colombo PSS   2007
                 222* Bangladesh  Kandy         2007

This was sixth double century of Sangakkara's career, which puts him at top in level with Marvan Atapattu among Sri Lankans. Only Bradman, Lara and Hammond have scored more double centuries than Sangakkara. Sangakkara's frequency of scoring double centuries is second best after Don Bradman (who else!) among all batsmen who have scored at least five double centuries in a career.

Most double centuries in a career
200s  Batsman           Inns Inns/200
12 DG Bradman (Aus)      80    6.66
9  BC Lara (WI)         232   25.78
7  WR Hammond (Eng)     140   20.00
6  KC Sangakkara (SL)   110   18.33
6  MS Atapattu (SL)     152   25.33
6  Javed Miandad (Pak)  189   31.50
5  R Dravid (Ind)       185   37.00

Sangakkara's 222 runs in third day's play are the most scored by a Sri Lankan batsman in a single day's play. The previous record was held by Aravinda de Silva.

Most runs in one day by a Sri Lankan batsman

                                                               Day
222 (0-222*) KC Sangakkara v Bangladesh  Kandy         2007    3rd
206 (0-206)  PA de Silva   v Bangladesh  Colombo PSS   2002-03 2nd
203 (0*-203*) PA de Silva  v New Zealand Wellington    1990-91 2nd

Sri Lanka made 470 runs for the loss of four wickets in third day's play. This is the sixth best performance by a side in a day's play. The world record is also held by Sri Lanka. No points for guessing who the opposition was.

Most runs in one day - by one team
509-9 SL  32-0 to 541-9  Bangladesh    Colombo PSS 2002-03 2nd
503-2 Eng 28-0 to 531-2d South Africa  Lord's      1924    2nd
494-6 Aus 494-6          South Africa  Sydney      1910-11 1st
475-2 Aus 475-2          England       The Oval    1934    1st
471-8 Eng 471-8d         India         The Oval    1936    1st
470-4 SL  30-0 to 500-4  Bangladesh    Kandy       2007    3rd

Fastest fifties in Test cricket

Fighting a lost battle in the second Test at Mirpur Mohammad Ashraful decided that enough was enough and put Indian bowling attack to sword.Almost all bowlers were hit to all corners of the ground in the highly entertaining innings of 67 which lasted for only 46 minutes. Ashraful faced 41 balls in all and hit 12 fours and two sixes. During the course of his innings Ashraful raced to his fifty in just 27 minutes and off 26 balls.

Ashraful's fifty is now the fastest ever in Test cricket history in terms of minutes and second (joint) fastest in terms of balls. The accompanying tables have the details.
Fastest Test fifties (by minutes)

Mins  Batsman                Countries    Venue      Season  
27   Mohammad Ashraful (67)  Ban v Ind   Mirpur      2007
28   JT Brown (140)          Eng v Aus   Melbourne   1894-95
29   SA Durani (61*)         Ind v Eng   Kanpur      1963-64
30   EAV Williams (72)       WI  v Eng   Bridgetown  1947-48
30   BR Taylor (124)         NZ  v WI    Auckland    1968-69

Fastest Test fifties (by balls)

Balls  Batsman  Countries  Venue  Season
24   JH Kallis (54)          SA  v Zim   Cape Town   2004-05
26   Shahid Afridi (58)      Pak v Ind   Bangalore   2004-05
26   Mohammad Ashraful (67)  Ban v Ind   Mirpur      2007
27   Mohammad Yousuf (50)    Pak v SA    Cape Town   2002-03

Notes:
- Australia's VT Trumper is shown at some places with a time of 22 minutes for his fifty during his innings of 63 against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1902-03. However Trumper took no less than 45 minutes for his fifty.

- Some sources show England's IT Botham with a 26-ball fifty against India at Delhi in 1981-82. Botham actually took 28 balls to do so.

Two world records for Dhoni

Wicketkeeper batsman MS Dhoni got himself a couple of world records by scoring an unbeaten 139 in the third and final Afro-Asia Cup match on Sunday.

Coming into bat with Asia XI tottering at 72 for five, Dhoni added 218 runs (off just 178 balls) with skipper Mahela Jayawardene for the sixth wicket establishing a new partnership record for this wicket in one-day internationals.

The previous record of 165 runs was set by Australia's Brad Haddin and Mike Hussey against West Indies at Kuala Lumpur in September 2006 and also between New Zealand's Brian McCullum and Craig McMillan against Australia at Hamilton in February 2007.

Dhoni then went on to surpass the record of scoring the highest individual innings by a number seven batsman in one-day internationals. Interestingly the previous record was set just four days ago by Shaun Pollock in the first match of this series.

Pollock had broken the record of India's Mohammad Kaif. Another Indian has got it back, though while doing so he was representing Asia XI and not Team India.

Highest innings by number 7 batsman in ODIs

Runs      Batsman           SR   Opponent    Venue            Date 
139* MS Dhoni (Asia XI)  143.29 Africa XI    Chennai       10 Jun 2007
130  SM Pollock (Afr XI) 118.18 Asia XI      Bangalore     06 Jun 2007
111* M Kaif (Ind)         99.10 Zimbabwe     Colombo (RPS) 14 Sep 2002
100* JM Kemp (SA)        112.35 India        Cape Town     26 Nov 2006
100  HP T'ratne (SL)      94.33 West Indies  Sharjah       16 Oct 1995
94*  SS Dighe (Ind)       97.91 West Indies  Harare        07 Jul 2001
89   Abdul Razzaq (Pak)  222.50 New Zealand  Wellington    17 Jan 2004
88*  MEK Hussey (Aus)    157.14 New Zealand  Christchurch  10 Dec 2005
87*  M Kaif (Ind)        116.00 England      Lord's        13 Jul 2002
87   Kapil Dev (Ind)     135.93 West Indies  Nagpur        08 Dec 1987
86*  BB McCullum (NZ)     94.50 Australia    Hamilton      20 Feb 2007
86   Wasim Akram (Pak)   113.15 Australia    Melbourne     23 Feb 1990
86   JR Murray (WI)      111.68 England      The Oval      26 May 1995
85   SB Styris (NZ)      104.93 West Indies  Gros Islet    08 Jun 2002

Run-out on 98 or 99

Sourav Ganguly made a grand comeback into Indian ODI side in the Nagpur one-dayer against West Indies. Playing his first game in more than 16 months Ganguly was all set to score a sparkling century when Dwayne Smith's direct hit found him short of his crease at non-striker end.

Ganguly thus joined the select band of cricketers who have suffered the ignominy of getting run-out on 98 or 99. It is obvious that most of the players don't take sharp singles when so close to the three-figures mark. Surprisingly barring Ganguly and Morgan (about whom not much is known), all others are known to be excellent runner in between the wickets. Morgan was making his ODI debut and created a scene on the ground after getting run-out for which he was severely reprimanded later.

Runs Batsman  Teams   Venue Season
99 ST Jayasuriya SL v Eng  Adelaide  2002-03
99 GC Smith      SA v SL   Centurion 2002-03
99 AC Gilchrist  Aus v SL  Centurion 2002-03
99 EJG Morgan    Ire v Sco Ayr       2006
98 RS Mahanama   SL v Ind  Mumbai    1986-87
98 SC Ganguly    Ind v WI  Nagpur    2006-07

Most runs in one over in Test cricket

Munaf Patel has been the pick of Indian bowlers in the ongoing St. Kitts Test taking three wickets out of the five to fall in West Indies’ innings including the prized scalp of Brian Lara. But he entered the record books for wrong reasons on day two as he was carted for six consecutive fours in one single over by Ramnaresh Sarwan. This provided only the fifth instance in Test cricket history of a batsman hitting six boundaries in one over.
India's Sandeep Patil was the first batsman to perform this feat in Test cricket. Patil did so off the bowling of England’s Bob Willis at Manchester in 1982.One of the fours came off a no-ball (third ball of the over) with one ball not scored off.

New Zealand's Craig McMillan became the first batsman to hit a boundary of every ball of an over when he hit five fours and a six off Pakistan’s Younis Khan at Hamilton in 2000-01.

West Indies Brian Lara emulated McMillan by hitting South African Robin Peterson for four fours and two sixes at Johannesburg in 2003-04. Another West Indian Chris Gayle scored six consecutive fours of English paceman Matthew Hoggard at the Oval in 2004.

Sarwan, in fact, had the opportunity to have his name in a separate league of his own, but he missed it by failing to score off any runs of the seventh ball of Patel’s over, which was there as a gift as Patel had over-stepped while delivering the sixth ball of this dreadful over. Had he scored another boundary off this ball, Sarwan would have created a new world record of most number of runs and boundaries in one over.

Most boundary shots off consecutive balls in an over:

Six

Craig McMillan (NZ) off Younis Khan (Pak) at Hamilton in 2000-01
Brian Lara (WI) off Robin Peterson (SA) at Johannesburg in 2003-04
Chris Gayle (WI) off Matthew Hoggard (Eng) at The Oval in 2004
Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI) off Munaf Patel (Ind) at St. Kitts in 2006

Five

Denis Lindsay (SA) off Johnny Gleeson (Aus) at Port Elizabeth in 1969-70
Rodney Redmond (NZ) off Majid Khan (Pak) at Auckland in 1972-73
David Hookes (Aus) off Tony Greig (Eng) at Melbourne in 1976-77
Krish Srikkanth (Ind) off Bob Holland (Aus) at Sydney in 1985-86
Mohammad Azharuddin (Ind) off Lance Klusener (SA) at Calcutta in 1996-97
Marcus Trescothick (Eng) off Mkhaya Ntini (SA) at Birmingham in 2003


There have now been fourteen instances of 24 or more runs being scored off a single over. However only a few are simple and straightforward with most of the instances needing detailed explanations about questions of eight and six-ball overs, overs including extras, no-balls which at the time were not debited against the bowler and other such issues.

To make things plain and simple, let us limit ourselves to only those instances when 24 or more runs were scored in an over without any help from extras.The maximum runs scored in one eight ball over are 25. New Zealand's Bert Sutcliffe and Bob Blair hit South African spinner Hugh Tayfield for so many runs at Johannesburg in 1953-54.

Apart from Sarwan, ten other players have hit 24 runs in six-ball over. They are West Indian Andy Roberts, Brian Lara and Chris Gayle, Sandeep Patil and Kapil Dev of India, England's Ian Botham, New Zealand's Ian Smith and Craig McMillan and Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana and Shahid Afridi.


Most runs in a single over in Test cricket:

Eight-ball over
25 (66061600)
Bert Sutcliffe & Bob Blair (NZ) off Hugh Tayfield (SA) at Jo'burg in 1953-54
24 (2x6,3x4)
John Morrison (NZ) off Imran Khan (Pak) at Karachi in 1976-77

Six-ball over
28 (466444)
Brian Lara (WI) off Robin Peterson (SA) at Jo'burg in 2003-04
27 (666621)
Shahid Afridi (Pak) off Harbhajan Singh (Ind) at Lahore in 2005-06
26 (444464)
Craig McMillan (NZ) off Younis Khan (Pak) at Hamilton in 2000-01
24 (462660)
Andy Roberts (WI) off Ian Botham (Eng) at Port-of-Spain in 1980-81
24 (4440444)
Sandeep Patil (Ind) off Bob Willis (Eng) at Manchester in 1982
24 (464604)
Ian Botham (Eng) off Derek Stirling (NZ) at The Oval in 1986
24 (006666)
Kapil Dev (Ind) off Eddie Hemmings (Eng) at Lord's in 1990
24 (244266)
Ian Smith (NZ) off Atul Wassan (Ind) at Auckland in 1989-90
24 (444426)
Yousuf Youhana (Pak) off Nicky Boje (SA) at CapeTown in 2002-03
24 (444444)
Chris Gayle (WI) off Matthew Hoggard (Eng) at The Oval in 2004
24 (4444440)
Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI) off Munaf Patel (Ind) at St. Kitts in 2006

-A leg-bye came off Botham's last ball, thus 25 runs were made in the over.
-The third ball of Willis' over was a no-ball, however it was not debited against the bowler's analysis as per the rules prevailing at that time.
-The sixth ball of Munaf’s over was a no-ball.


There has been one more instance of 25 runs scored in one over. England's Andrew Caddick conceded so many runs in the Christchurch Test against New Zealand in 2001-02, but only 23 runs came off the bats of Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns. There was a dot ball in that over and Caddick bowled a no-ball off which one leg-bye was taken. As a result two runs were added to the total.

The world record for most runs in an over is held jointly by West Indian allrounder Garfield Sobers and Indian batsman Ravi Shastri, who both scored six consecutive sixes in first class matches.

Follow-on in Test cricket

When Rahul Dravid asked West Indies to bat again after bundling out the hosts for a paltry 215 and gaining a first innings lead of 373, it provided only the 25th instance of an Indian captain enforcing the follow-on on the opposition.

Overall it was the 269th instance of a side enforcing the follow-on in Test cricket. England have imposed this ignominy on most number of occasions on the opponents -91, followed by Australia (66), West Indies (30) and India (25).

England, however, have also been at the receiving end on most number of occasions – 51 times, followed by Australia and New Zealand (39 apiece), South Africa (37) and India (28).

Australia are the only country to lose a Test after asking opposition to follow-on. They lost by 10 runs at Sydney in 1894-95 and at Leeds by 18 runs in 1981 – both times to England and then to India at Kolkata in 2000-01 by 171 runs.

Coming back to India, there is a great disparity in India’s performance at home and abroad wrt enforcing the follow-on. At home India have enforced the follow-on 18 times, winning 12 and drawing 6. In seven instances India have won 3 and drawn 3.The break-up of AWAY instances - two in England (at The Oval in 1990 and Leeds in 2002), one in West Indies (at Kingston in 1970-71), one in Australia (at Sydney in 1985-86), one in Pakistan (at Multan in 2003-04) and one in Bangladesh (at Chittagong in 2004-05).

Out of 24 previous instances of enforcing the follow-on, India managed a lead of 300-plus five times (winning four and drawing one), between 250 and 300 five times (winning four and drawing one) and less than 250 fourteen times (winning seven and drawing seven). 8 wins in 10 games where India enforced the follow-on after gaining a lead of 250 is a high success rate by any yardstick.

The two draws managed by the opposition despite India getting a first innings lead of 250 or more came at Delhi in 1978-79 when India did not have sufficient time at their disposal to dismiss the West Indies second time in the match (more than seven hours was lost due to rain) and at the Oval when England fought hard to score 477-4 in a high scoring match. On all other eight occasions India did not even need to bat again in the match and won quite comfortably by innings margin.

With Chris Gayle- top-scorer in three innings for West Indies in this series – already back in the pavilion and two days to go in the Test on a pitch of variable bounce, it will need a miraculous innings from Lara or some divine help for West Indies to earn a draw from here onwards.

A new first for Team India

India's remarkable run in ODIs has given them a golden opportunity to achieve a new milestone.Jamshedpur one-dayer will be India's 615th ODI. In the 614 previous games, India have won 293 and lost 294. In addition 3 games were tied and 24 were abandoned. Thus India stand a chance to first equal their tally of defeats and then surpass it with their tally of wins if they continue their winning streak in the series.

Among the regular ODI playing countries only Australia (378 wins/219 losses),Pakistan (340 wins/274 losses), West Indies (291 wins/216 losses), South Africa (216 wins/124 losses) and England (211 wins/203 losses) have won more games than they have lost. New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Kenya all have more games under lost column than the won column.

Never before India's tally of wins has equalled or exceeded their tally of losses, not even when they looked invincibles. As one can observe from the table given below, which lists India's win-loss record after three major tournaments (when Indian team was supposed to be in their best form) India did not have an impressive win-loss record even after grand success in 1983 World Cup in England and 1984-85 World Championship of Cricket in Australia.The gap between losses and victories was narrowed down after 2002-03 World Cup in South Africa, but it was never as close as it is today.

                             M    W   L   T  NR
1983 World Cup               48  18   30  0   0
1984-85 World Championship   74  28   43  0   3
2002-03 World Cup           534 250  260  3  21

Flintoff’s rare distinction

Andrew Flintoff got a very intriguing record on his name in the Mohali Test that almost went unnoticed. Flintoff had a presence there at the crease for sometime on each and every day of the Test, which is a very rare occurrence in Test cricket.

Flintoff was unbeaten on 4 at the end of first day’s play when rain and bad light allowed only 50.3 overs. He was still unbeaten on 26 at the end of rain-curtailed second day,when only 14.3 overs were bowled in the day. On the third day he was dismissed on 70 in England’s first innings total of 300. India batted thereafter and were dismissed for 338 on the fourth day after lunch. A batting collapse against Indian spinners forced Flintoff’s entry to the crease towards the closing stages of the fourth day and he remained unbeaten on 16 at the close of play. On fifth and final day Flintoff took his score to 51 and was the final England wicket to fall.

The feat of batting on each day of a Test (of at least five days duration) has been achieved only five times before in the history of Test cricket spanning about 135 years and 1788 Tests. The following table has the details.

Batsman      Scores         For  Vs    Venue     Season
ML Jaisimha  20* &  74    Ind Aus   Calcutta   1959-60
Made 2,18,0,59 &15 runs on the first,second,third,fourth & fifth days
G Boycott   107  &  80*   Eng Aus   Nottingham 1977
Made 1, 86, 20, 12 & 68 runs on the first, second, third, fourth & fifth days
KJ Hughes   117  &  84    Aus Eng   Lord's     1980
Made 47, 35, 35, 38 & 46 runs on the first, second, third, fourth & fifth days
AJ Lamb      23  & 110    Eng WI   Lord's     1984
Made 13, 10, 30,79 & 1 runs on the first, second, third, fourth & fifth days
RJ Shastri  111  &   7*   Ind Eng   Calcutta   1984-85
Made 26, 0, 82, 3 & 7 runs on the first, second, third, fourth & fifth days
A Flintoff  70  &  51    Eng Ind   Mohali     2005-06
Made 4, 22, 44, 16 & 35 runs on the first, second, third, fourth & fifth days

Yuvraj's hot streak

In his last seven innings (starting from Kolkata ODI vs South Africa) Yuvraj has made a score of at least 35, which is a new Indian record. The previous best sequence for India was of six consecutive innings, jointly held by Sanjay Manjrekar (in 1991), Virender Sehwag (in 2002) and Sachin Tendulkar (twice – in 2003 & 2003-04).

Eight more batsmen - Australia's Graham Yallop and Geoff Marsh, England's Geoff Boycott and Graham Gooch, West Indian Gordon Greenidge, New Zealand's Glenn Turner, South Africa's Jacques Kallis and Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf – have also made 35-plus scores in 7 consecutive innings. Yuvraj, however, has the chance to extend his streak and get past the tally of following four who have had a longer streak:

Inns  Batsman       Year               Sequence
9  Javed Miandad    1987    78,78*,74*,60,52*,113,71*,68,103
9  Sanath J'suriya  2002    36,49,97,46,71,102*,36,42,74
8  Marvan Atapattu  2000    119*,57,77,41*,42,62,100,62
8  Graham Gooch     1987-88 92,61,115,35,43,142,57,43

7  Yuvraj Singh     2005-06 53,49,39,82*,79*,37,107*

Two world records for Dhoni

Indian wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni got two world records on his name during the fifth and final one-dayer against Pakistan at Karachi.

By remaining unbeaten on 77,Dhoni lifted his career batting average to 53.95, which is the highest for any batsman having scored at least 1,000 runs in one-day internationals. Dhoni moved ahead of Australia's Michael Bevan.

Highest career average in ODIs:
(Min.1000 runs)

Batsman     For Mts  Runs  Hs   Avg  100 50
MS Dhoni    Ind  35  1133 183* 53.95   2  6
M Bevan     Aus 232  6912 108* 53.58   6 46
Z Abbas     Pak  62  2572 123  47.62   7 13
V Richards  WI  187  6721 189* 47.00  11 45
G Turner    NZ   41  1598 171* 47.00   3  9
M Clarke    Aus  74  2237 105* 46.60   2 15
G Greenidge WI  128  5134 133* 45.03  11 31
R Sarwan    WI   88  2817 104* 44.71   2 17
D Jones     Aus 164  6068 145  44.61   7 46
B Dippenaar SA   94  3075 125* 44.56   3 24
S Tendulkar Ind 362 14146 186* 44.20  39 72
J Kallis    SA  229  7954 139  44.18  13 56

Dhoni took only 56 balls to score his unbeaten 77. At the end of Karachi ODI, his career strike-rate stands at 108.73 (runs per 100 balls), which is the highest for any batsman in the history of ODIs. Dhoni displaced Pakistan's Shahid Afridi from the top position in the list of batsmen with highest career strike rate. Interestingly Dhoni is the only one in the following list to also maintain an average of 50-plus.

Highest career strike-rate in ODIs
(Min.1000 runs)

Batsman       For    Mts Runs   Hs    SR    Avg   100
MS Dhoni      Ind    35  1133  183* 108.73  53.95  2
Shahid Afridi Pak   219  4819  109  108.51  23.97  4
IDS Smith     NZ     98  1055   62*  99.43  17.29  0
V Sehwag      Ind   141  4220  130   97.82  32.21  7
RL Powell     WI    109  2085  124   96.66  24.82  1
AC Gilchrist  Aus   234  7985  172   96.37  36.46 14
Kapil Dev     Ind   225  3783  175*  95.07  23.79  1
A Symonds     Aus   141  3491  156   92.01  37.94  4
IVA Richards  WI    187  6721  189*  90.20  47.00 11
L Klusener    SA    171  3576  103*  89.91  41.10  2
A Flintoff    Eng    98  2601  123   89.75  35.14  3
ST Jayasuriya SL    354 10512  189   89.06  31.85 19
N Boje        SA    115  1414  129   88.70  26.67  2
Wasim Akram   Pak   356  3717   86   88.28  16.52  0
MJ Clarke     Aus    74  2237  105*  87.55  46.60  2
Yuvraj Singh  Ind   142  3781  139   86.14  34.68  6
AB Agarkar    Ind   155  1123   95   85.98  16.51  0
SR Tendulkar  Ind   362 14146  186*  85.98  44.20 39

Team batting second winning by runs!

In a limited-overs game, side batting first wins by runs and that batting second by wickets. This is what we all have seen over the years and how it is written in the record-books -of course excepting the rare instances of a side conceding a match. Even when the result was made on the basis of run-rate in case of rain / weather interruptions, it was only in line with the established cricketing convention.

Not any more. Duckworth – Lewis method, supposedly the best method to reset targets in ODIs, has changed all this. Now the team batting second can be declared winner in terms of runs as was the case in the first ODI at Peshawar between India and Pakistan.

Chasing a victory target of 329, Pakistan were cruising along having made 311 for seven after 47 overs, when play had to be abandoned because of bad light. Pakistan were seven runs ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis requirements at that stage and won the match by run margin. Under the old ruling, they would have been declared winner on run-rate or by 3 wickets.

Surprisingly this is not the first instance of this kind in ODIs. We take a look at all the instances when a side won a match by runs while batting second:

Batted 1st Batted 2nd  Venue         Date        Result
NZ  182-9  SL  155-5  Hamilton    8 Feb 2001  SL - 3 runs
WI  300-5  Ind 200-1  Rajkot     12 Nov 2002  Ind - 81 runs
Pak 243-8  SA  221-6  Faisalabad  7 Oct 2003  SA - 13 runs
Zim 211-6  SL  144-4  Bulawayo   20 Apr 2004  SL - 12 runs
SA  175-9  Eng 103-3  Jo'burg    30 Jan 2005  Eng - 26 runs
Ind  328   Pak 311-7  Peshawar    6 Feb 2006  Pak - 7 runs 

Ususual dismissals in ODIs

In the first one-day international between India and Pakistan in Peshawar , Inzamam-ul Haq provided only the third instance in ODI history of a batsman getting out obstructing the field, when he intercepted a throw from Super sub Suresh Raina with his bat to avoid being run-out.

Others to suffer this fate in ODIs are:
1. Rameez Raja (99), versus England at Karachi in 1987-88. He intercepted the ball with his bat to avoid being run-out while taking a second run off the final ball of Pakistan's innings to complete his hundred.

2. Mohinder Amarnath (28) versus Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad in 1989-90. He kicked the ball out of bowler Arjuna Ranatunga's reach to avoid being run-out.

There have been two instances of a batsman being dismissed 'handled the ball'. They are:
1) Mohinder Amarnath (15) versus Australia at Melbourne in 1985-86. He pushed away a turning ball from Greg Matthews that spun back towards his wicket.

2) Daryll Cullinan (46) versus West Indies at Durban in 1998-99. He was given out on West Indian skipper Brian Lara's appeal after playing Keith Arthurton into the ground and catching the rebound with his right hand.

Note: In both these modes, the bowler does not get the credit for dismissing the batsman.

Irfan’s unique hat-trick

Irfan Pathan became 33rd player in cricket history and only the second Indian to claim a Test match hat-trick, when he dismissed Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf off the fourth, fifth and sixth ball of his first over in Karachi Test. The first and only other Indian to make a hat-trick is Harbhajan Singh, who did so against Australia at Kolkata in 2000-01.

A total of 36 hat-tricks have now been made, with Australia's Hugh Trumble, Thomas Matthews and Pakistan's Wasim Akram performing this feat on two occasions each.The country-wise break-up of hat-tricks:
Australia - 10
England - 10
West Indies - 4
Pakistan - 4
New Zealand - 2
India - 2
South Africa - 1
Sri Lanka - 1
Zimbabwe - 1
Bangladesh - 1

India is the only country against which no hat-trick has been made in Test cricket till date.The break-up of countries against which hat-tricks have been made:
Australia - 8
England - 5
West Indies - 5
Pakistan - 5
S.Africa - 5
Sri Lanka - 4
Bangladesh - 2
New Zealand - 1
Zimbabwe - 1

Irfan Pathan's feat of claiming a hat-trick in the first over of a match is unparallaled in the Test chronicles. The previous record of 'earliest' hat-trick in a Test was held by Sri Lanka's Nuwan Zoysa, who claimed a hat-trick in second over of the match against Zimbabwe at Harare in 1999-00 (his first over in the match). However Zoysa's hat-trick is unique in the way that it came off first three balls he sent down in the match.

A match of mighty sixes

The Faisalabad Test will always find a special mention in the annals of Test cricket for a number of reasons. The batsmen from either side took full advantage of the flattest track one would ever see and made runs with the ridiculous ease. 1702 runs were scored in the match for the loss of 28 wickets – a daily average of more than 340 runs and less than six wickets! A total of 15 centuries were made in the match – six by batsmen and nine by bowlers.

More remarkably, as many as 27 sixes were hit in the Test – 18 by Pakistan batsmen (6 by Shahid Afridi, 5 by Mohammad Yousuf, 3 by Shoaib Akhtar, 2 by Abdul Razzaq and one apiece by Inzamam-ul-Haq and Younis Khan) and 9 by Indians (4 by MS Dhoni, 2 apiece by Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh and one by Zaheer Khan).

The 27-sixes in the match established a new world record of most number of sixes hit in a Test match. The previous record was of 23 sixes in a match between hosts New Zealand and England at Christchurch in 2001-02. The accompanying table has the details:

Most sixes in a Test
6s Countries Venue Season
27 Pak (18) v Ind (9) Faisalabad 2005-06
23 NZ (13) v Eng (10) Christchurch 2001-02
22 Pak (10) v NZ (12) Karachi 1976-77
19 WI (18) v Eng (1) St.John's 1985-86
19 Ind (8) v Pak (11) Madras 1986-87
19 Aus (17) v Zim (2) Perth 2003-04
19 NZ (14) v SA (5) Auckland 2003-04
19 Pak (14) v Eng (5) Faisalabad 2005-06
18 Eng (16) v Aus (2) Birmingham 2005
17 SA (11) v WI (6) Cape Town 2003-04

The 18 sixes hit by Pakistan batsmen in their two innings in the Faisalabad Test (11 in the first and 7 in the second) also equalled the existing world record of most sixes hit by a side in a Test match. The details:

Most sixes by a side in a Test
6s Countries Venue Season
18 WI v Eng St.John's 1985-86
18 Pak v Ind Faisalabad 2005-06
17 Aus v Zim Perth 2003-04
16 Eng v Aus Birmingham 2005
15 Pak v NZ Lahore 2001-02
14 SL v NZ Auckland 1990-91
14 NZ v SA Auckland 2003-04
14 Pak v Eng Faisalabad 2005-06

The Number Game

from the fifth day of Faisalabad Test:

0 – Number of wickets taken by Harbhajan Singh in the series after bowling 81 overs and conceding 355 runs.

4 – Number of centuries scored by Younis Khan in last four Tests against India, becoming only the fourth batsman to score four consecutive centuries against a particular country after Don Bradman (twice v England), Neil Harvey (v South Africa) and Jacques Kallis (v West Indies).

12 – Number of centuries scored in first two Tests of this series – 6 at Lahore and 6 at Faisalabad. This equals the existing world record of most centuries in first two Tests of a series. Interestingly the previous two occasions also involved India – v England in 1990 and v Sri Lanka in 1997.

77.52 – Average runs scored per wicket in this series so far.

236 – Rahul Dravid’s batting average in this series.

446 – runs conceded by Anil Kumble in two Tests in this series.

984 - Younis Khan’s career aggregate against India in just 5 Tests and 9 innings.

1078 – Pakistan’s aggregate in their two innings – the second highest for any side in all Tests after England’s 1121 against West Indies at Kingston in 1929-30.

1702 – Runs scored in the Faisalabad Test- seventh highest in all Tests and highest between India-Pakistan.surpassing the 1492 (for the loss of 32 wickets) by a long way at Bangalore in 2004-05.

Fastest 100s by wicketkeepers

Cricinfo has mentioned MS Dhoni's 93-ball hundred as the fourth fastest by any wicketkeeper. As per my records, it is the seventh fastest. Here it is:

Balls Keeper (Score) Countries Venue Season
81 Kamran Akmal (102*) Pak v Ind Lahore 2005-06
84 AC Gilchrist (122) Aus v Ind Mumbai 2000-01
84 AC Gilchrist (113*) Aus v Zim Perth 2003-04
86 AC Gilchrist (162) Aus v NZ W'ton 2004-05
88 JR Murray (101*) WI v NZ W'ton 1994-95
91 AC Gilchrist (138*) Aus v SA Cape Town 2001-02
93 MS Dhoni (116*) Ind v Pak Faisalabad 2005-06

The Number Game

from the third day of Faisalabad Test

0 – Number of centuries scored by Indian wicket-keepers against Pakistan before MS Dhoni’s hundred

2 – Number of centuries scored by Dravid against Pakistan as captain, equalling Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian record.

4 – Number of sixes hit by MS Dhoni – more than any other Indian wicket-keeper in an innings against Pakistan.

9 – Century partnerships between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman – 5 for fifth wicket, 2 for fourth wicket and one each for second and third wickets.

21- Number of times Dravid has been involved in a run-out – third most by any player in Test cricket after Allan Border (29) and Steve Waugh (27). Dravid himself has been run-out on 9 occasions, while on 12 occasions partners had to suffer.

28 – Previous highest score by an Indian wicket-keeper in debut innings against Pakistan (at Chennai in 1986-87).

60.07- Average partnership runs between Dravid and VVS Laxman. The pair has so far aggregated 2463 runs in 46 innings.

66.25 – Dhoni’s batting average in Test cricket – highest by any ‘specialist’ Indian wicket-keeper. He moved ahead of Dilawar Hussain, who had a career average of 42.33

93 – number of balls taken by MS Dhoni to reach his hundred – fastest by an Indian wicket-keeper and seventh fastest by any wicket-keeper in Test matches.

160- unbroken partnership between Dhoni and Irfan Pathan for the sixth wicket – highest for India against Pakistan bettering 143-run partnership between Mohammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev at Kolkata in 1986-87.

435.4 – Number of overs after which Rahul Dravid left the ground for the first time in this series.

The Number Game

From the second day of Faisalabad Test

3 – Number of times Pakistan have made 500 runs in last 3 innings – 636 for 8 decl vesrsus England at Lahore, followed by 679 for 7 decl against India at Lahore and 588 in Faisalabad.

4 - Number of wickets taken by RP Singh – second best figures by any Indian pacer on first appearance against Pakistan (Best : 5 for 104 by Manoj Prabhakar at Karachi in 1989-90).

6 - The consecutive dismissal as caught for Virender Sehwag on Pakistan soil.

11 - Number of times Anil Kumble has conceded 150 or more runs in an innings – most by any bowler in Test cricket.

14 - Number of ducks scored by Danish Kaneria in just 44 Test innings.

47- Runs scored by Shoaib Akhtar – his highest in Test cricket beating the 38 against England at Lahore in December 2005.

116- Runs scored by Shahid Afridi in boundaries alone – 20 fours and six sixes

The Number Game

A different way of looking at cricket stats!

Day 1, Faisalabad Test


0 – Number of wickets taken by spin duo of Kumble and Harbhajan. For the second successive time in the series, this pair has gone wicket-less on the opening day.

3 – Number of left-arm pacers played by India. First such instance in Indian Test cricket history.

22- Runs conceded by Irfan Pathan in one single over to Inzamam & Afridi. The sequence – 1,0 (no ball), 4, 0, 6, 6, 4.

55 –Number of Tests after which India were playing with 5 specialist bowlers. The last instance was against Zimbabwe at Nagpur in Nov. 2000 (Srinath, Zaheer, Agarkar, Sunil Joshi, Sarandeep)

56 – Number of boundaries hit by Pakistan batsmen (52 fours and four sixes)

64 – Runs scored by Pakistan batsmen in just 7.5 overs bowled with the second new ball.

107 – Average by which Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf together have aggregated runs for the third wicket partnership (750 runs in just seven innings).

252 –RP Singh’s Test cap number for India

379 –Pakistan’s total at close of play – highest score made in Pakistan on the first day of a Test (Previous best : 356 for two by India at Multan in 2003-04).

One-Day Internationals in 2005

A total of 107 one-day internationals were played during the calendar year 2005, including the seven Combined XI games.

The year started with Tsunami relief fund match between a World XI and an Asian XI at Melbourne. Buoyed by the success of this match, ICC also granted official status (amid strong protests from statisticians the world over) to the three-match series between Asia XI and Africa XI in South Africa in August and between Australia and World XI in Australia in October. These matches, however, could not generate as much interest.

South Africa ended the year with 18 wins out of the 24 games they played this year- a winning percentage of 75. In fact they did not lose a single match in 20 consecutive matches at one stage and it was only towards the end of the year that their copybook was blotted when the five-match series against India ended in a 2-2 draw.

Australia,like in Test cricket, ended with most wins but second to South Africa in terms of winning percentage. Pakistan and India were ranked third and fourth respectively.

Click on the following link for complete article

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2006/jan/10odis.htm

Test Cricket in 2005

A total of 48 Tests were played between ten Test playing nations in the calendar year 2005, out of which 36 produced result. And yes, there was also a farce in the name of Super 'Test' between Australia and an ICC World XI, which was accorded the official status by the ICC -- clearly because of commercial reasons.

This 'Test' has been included in this statistical analysis, though yours truly strongly believes that such hotch-potch games must never be considered at par with real Test match cricket.

India ended the year with 5 wins and one loss out of 8 games, which gave them a winning percentage of 62.50 -- the highest for any team in the year. Australia, though, ended with most wins in the year, but they also played most number of games.

Click on the following link for the full article:

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2006/jan/03stats.htm

ICC revises definitions of Test & ODI matches

Fellow ACS member Kendix David - the man behind ICC's cricket rating - has been kind enough to inform about ICC's recent decision to change the definitions of OFFICIAL Test and ODI.This, I feel,was necessary after continuing critism from leading cricket statisticians world over. This is what David wrote in his email:

"In the light of a series of recent ICC decisions to grant official status to matches involving the top six Associates as well as matches in the Johnnie Walker Super Series, the Tsunami Appeal and Afro/Asian Cup matches, ICC recognised the need to update its definitions of Test and ODI matches

The alternative to ICC updating its definitions would have been for the status of every 'non-traditional' match to continue to be considered on a case-by-case basis. ICC's preference was that future decisions be taken according to specified criteria rather than on an ad hoc basis.

Accordingly, at the recent meeting of the ICC's Executive Board in Sydney, a detailed paper on this subject was considered and, following a debate, a new set of definitions was duly agreed. It should be noted the Executive Board, which is the ultimate decision making body in the game, is comprised mainly of the Chairmen of each of the ten Full Member countries.

The paper debated by the Board stated that the "views of the Association of Cricket Statisticians have been sought on this matter and the feedback and views received have been incorporated".

As the governing body of world cricket, ICC maintains it has every right to determine for itself which matches are deserving of official status.

The definitions of Test and ODI cricket have now been broadened and may well be wider than many ACS members would have liked. Nevertheless, at least there is now improved clarity, which itself should be welcome.

It was pointed out to ICC that some statisticians would still choose not to include these additional matches in their published records. The ICC responded that they "would have no objection to the 'traditional' Test and ODI matches being recorded as a subset of all official Test and ODI matches".

There are two areas where the Executive Board has taken an interim decision and undertaken to review it in two years' time. These relate to the Asia Cup and Afro/Asian matches.

ODI Item B (iv) below relating to the ICC Trophy may require some elaboration. My understanding is that the top 6 Associate status runs from the end of one ICC Trophy to the start of the next one. The five ICC Trophy matches to be given official status will thus all be those played by teams who at the time are guaranteed a top 6 finish and will thus be ODI countries for the next four years.

Members with any queries on the interpretation of these new regulations should feel free to contact me and I will attempt to resolve any queries through a subsequent posting..

The full wording of the new definitions of Test and ODI matches is as follows.

Test matches are those which:


A) Are played in accordance with the ICC Standard Test Match Playing Condition and other ICC regulations pertaining to Test matches; and

B) Are between:

i) Teams selected by Full Members of the ICC as representative of the Member Countries (Full Member Teams) Note: This refers to the Senior National teams not "A" teams or age-group teams; or

ii) A Full Member Team and a composite team selected by the ICC as representative of the best players from the rest of the world. (The Johnnie Walker Super Series Test Match will fall into this category).

ODI matches are those which:

A) Are played in accordance with the ICC Standard One Day International Playing Conditions and other ICC regulations pertaining to ODI Matches; and

B) Are between:

i) Any teams participating in and as part of the ICC Cricket World Cup or ICC Champions Trophy; or

ii) Full Member Teams; or

iii) A Full Member Team and any of the Associate/Affiliate Member teams whose matches have been granted ODI status (i.e. the top 6 Associates/Affiliates); or

iv) Any of the Associate/Affiliate Member teams whose matches have been granted ODI status (i.e. either as a top 6 Associate/Affiliate or as an Associate/Affiliate competing in the final, semi finals, 3rd and 5th place play offs of the ICC Trophy ); or

v) A Full Member Team and any Associate/Affiliate match played as part of the Asia Cup. This provision would be reviewed after two years.

vi) A team selected by the African Cricket Association and the Asian Cricket Council and played as part of the Afro/Asia Cup. This provision would be reviewed after the conclusion of the 2007 event.

vii) A Full Member Team (or a Top 6 Associate/Affiliate) and a composite team selected by the ICC as representative of the best players from the rest of the world (The Super Series 1 day matches would fall into this category)."

Interestingly Bill Frindall - the renowned cricket statistician - is not at all impressed with ICC's decisions. This is what Frindall replied when yours truly asked for his opinion.

"It's a classic case of moving goalposts to suit one's own convenience, in this case after the event(s) concerned have taken place.

It will not affect my excluding composite matches from the main Test and LOI records."

Clearly we haven't heard the last word on this tussle.

Two wides & a no-ball

Two wides and one no-ball, this was all what Indian bowlers and fielders conceded as extras in the sixth one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Rajkot. It was a refreshing change from the past when Indians would invariably give away a lot of runs in byes and leg-byes. Not to forget the numerous wides and no-balls sent down by our bowlers.

The three extras in Sri Lankan innings are the least conceded by India in any ODI equalling the performance of 1982-83 squad against Pakistan at Lahore. There have been three instances of four extras and another seven of five extras conceded by India in an innings.

Rajkot match provided only the fourth instance of Indian fielders not conceding any bye or leg-byes in opposition's total of 150 or more. The other three instances have been - v Pakistan at Sharjah in 1991-92, v West Indies at Harare in 2001 and v Sri Lanka at Colombo in 2002-03.

Incidentally the ODI record of least extras conceded by a side in opposition's all-out total of 150 or more is held by South Africa. In a Morrocco Cup match at Tangier in 2002, South Africa conceded only one extra (one wide) in Pakistan's total of 188.

Plethora of records for Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni set a plethora of records during his brilliant innings of 183 not out in the third one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Jaipur. Some major are:

- When he reached 50, Dhoni became first Indian wicketkeeper to score a fifty against Sri Lanka in India. Interestingly, he held the previous highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper against Sri Lanka in India with his 38 at Nagpur on October 25, 2005.

- When he reached 100, he became first wicketkeeper to score two separate hundreds on Indian soil. By reaching three-figure mark, he also provided the first instance of wicketkeepers from the opposing sides scoring a hundred in the same match.

-When he reached 146, he established the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper against Sri Lanka, obliterating Rahul Dravid's 145 at Taunton on May 26,1999.

-When he reached 149, he achieved his highest score in ODIs as well as the highest ever innings by an Indian wicketkeeper, beating his own 148 against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam on April 5, 2005.

-When he reached 154, he achieved the highest score by a batsman in ODIs batting second, expunging West Indian Brian Lara's 153 against Pakistan at Sharjah on November 5, 1993.

-When he reached 155, he set a new record of highest score by a wicketkeeper against Sri Lanka, bettering Australia's Adam Gilchrist's 154 at Melbourne on February 7,1999.

-When he reached 170, he set a new world record of highest individual innings by a batsman at number 3, bettering West Indian Brian Lara's 169 against Sri Lanka at Sharjah on October 16, 1995.

-When he reached 173, he established a new world record of highest score by a wicket-keeper in ODI history surpassing Australia's Adam Gilchrist's 172 against Zimbabwe at Hobart on January 16, 2004.

-The last six to end the match was Dhoni's tenth in the match -- a new Indian record of most sixes, beating the tally of seven sixes by Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly (twice). Only Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi have hit more sixes than Dhoni in an innings (11 apiece).

-The tenth six also took Dhoni's run-aggregate in the match in boundary shots to 120 (10 sixes and 15 fours) -- a new world record. The previous record was jointly held by Pakistan's Saeed Anwar against India at Chennai on May 21, 1997 and New Zealand's Lou Vincent against Zimbabwe at Hobart on August 24, 2005.

- His innings of 183* is now the highest ever by any batsman against Sri Lanka in ODIs. He joined fellow-countryman Sourav Ganguly, who also registered an identical score (but was dismissed) at Taunton on May 26,1999.

-This was the third time he ended a match with a six. The earlier such occasions were -- against the West Indies at Dambulla on July 31,2005 and against Zimbabwe at Harare on September 4, 2005.He now holds the Indian record of ending a match (on a winning note) with a six on most occasions.

He was previously at level with Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar with two such instances each.

- Dhoni took his career strike-rate to 108.90 at the end of this match -- highest by any batsman in ODIs (having batted in at least 20 innings). He went ahead of Pakistan's Shahid Afridi, who has scored his runs at a rate of 108.20 runs per 100 balls.

-At the end of this match, Dhoni's average is a staggering 49.73 -- the highest by any Indian batsman (having scored at least 500 runs in a career). He moved ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, who averages 44.67.

STATISTICIANS AT LOGGERHEADS WITH ICC

Super Series suffers status static

Even as the International Cricket Council (ICC) is going hoarse, shouting from rooftops about how successful the Super Series in Australia has been, some noted statisticians have taken umbrage to the entire show being given official status, and have accused the ICC of adopting double standards.

Englishman Bill Frindall, one of the world's top statisticians, has refused to take the performances in Super 'Test' and three one-day matches between World XI and Australian XI into his records. Explaining his reasons, Frindall says: "This Superfluous Series should most definitely not be given Test match or limitedovers international status. These games are not internationals and the ICC's own regulations confirm that only Full Members of the ICC can participate in Test matches.

"Conglomerates such as World XI teams most certainly do not qualify. It is quite ridiculous that a player should be able to represent two Test teams concurrently."

The crux of Frindall's argument is that there have been, in the past, several matches played between an international select XI and a national team, like the one between and India-Pakistan combine and Sri Lanka, just before the 1996 World Cup, when Australia and the West Indies refused to visit the island nation due to security concerns. Those records were never officially recognised, so doing the same for the Super Series matches smacks of double standards.

"The ICC's main committee was far from unanimous in this controversial decision," Frindall adds. "The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians was consulted and opposed official status being given to this junket. "I will not be including the current matches in any records supplied to the BBC or published in the 'Playfair Cricket Annual'. Thankfully some of the players are embarrassed by the ICC's decision, Adam Gilchrist having publicly declared his unease with it."

It is understood that the ACS, though initially opposed to the whole idea, finally succumbed to pressure from the ICC and from members within, the ones who have tie-ups with cricket websites and publications, and finally fell in line to accept the Super Series figures as official.

"There are a great many statisticians around the world who are as outraged by this nonsense as we are," Frindall adds.

"The ICC has become totally subjected to the power of the dollar... even some World XI players didn’t regard it as a Test match," he says.

A world record for Warne

The wicket of Marcus Trescothick on the fifth and final day of Oval Test was something special for Shane Warne since it gave him a world record.

Trescothick’s was Wicket # 168 for Warne against England in his 31st Test, which put him ahead of countryman Dennis Lillee in the list of bowlers capturing most wickets against a particular country. Lillee had taken 167 wickets in 29 Tests - also against England. Warne, at the end of series, has taken 172 wickets in 31 Tests.

Earlier in this series, Warne had achieved the world record of taking most wickets in a country other than his own. Already the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, Warne is also the only bowler to have taken 100-plus wickets against three different countries with 172 wickets against England, 103 against New Zealand and 101 against South Africa. One wonders how many more records will Warne end up with, whenever he decides to retire from the game!

The following table lists the leading wicket-takers against a particular country in Test cricket:

Bowler     For   Wkts   Vs     Tests   Ave   Best  5 10
SK Warne    Aus  172  England    31   22.30  8-71  10 4
DK Lillee   Aus  167  England    29   21.00  7-89  11 4
CEL Ambrose WI   164  England    34   18.79  8-45   8 2
IT Botham   Eng  148  Australia  36   27.66  6-78   9 2
CA Walsh    WI   145  England    36   25.40  6-74   5 1
H Trumble   Aus  141  England    31   20.89  8-65   9 3
CA Walsh    WI   135  Australia  38   28.68  6-54   4 0

Series of Flintoff’s all-round brilliance

England have regained the Ashes for the first time since 1986-87. If one were to choose a single English player who made the biggest impact on the series, it can not be one other than Freddie Flintoff.

Making his first appearance in the Ashes contests, Flintoff gave one of the best all-round performance in a series in the history of the Test cricket. That it was after a gap of more than 30 years a player scored 400 runs with the bat and at the same time captured 20 wickets with the balls speaks volumes of Flintoff’s awesome talent.

Flintoff is only the second English all-rounder and seventh in Test cricket annals to achieve the grand double of 400-plus runs and 20-plus wickets in a series. Tony Greig is the only other Englishman in this very short list. Greig, incidentally, was also the last player to have done so before Flintoff. West Indian Gary Sobers remains alone in performing this feat twice.

Allrounder   For   Vs   Season Mts Runs  Ave  Wkts  Ave
G Giffen    Aus*  Eng  1894-95  5  475  52.78  34  24.12
GA Faulkner SA *  Eng  1909-10  5  545  60.56  29  21.90
JM Gregory  Aus*  Eng  1920-21  5  442  73.66  23  24.17
KR Miller   Aus   WI * 1954-55  5  439  73.17  20  32.05
GStA Sobers WI *  Ind  1961-62  5  424  70.66  23  20.57
GStA Sobers WI    Eng* 1966     5  722 103.14  20  27.25
AW Greig    Eng   WI * 1973-74  5  430  47.78  24  22.63
A Flintoff  Eng*  Aus  2005     5  402  40.20  24  27.29

* Series venue

Australia follow-on after 17 years

On the third day of the fourth Test in Nottingham, England brought an end to Australia's long-lasting streak of not facing a follow-on.

The last team to enforce follow-on on Australia was Pakistan under Javed Miandad at Karachi in September 1988. Australia went on to lose that Test by an innings margin.

Since then, Australia have played a record 190 Tests in almost 17 years without suffering the ignominy of following-on even once.

The following table gives details of longest streaks of Tests a side has gone between following-on.South Africa's instance is inclusive of the 22 years between 1970 and 1992 when they played no Test cricket.

Tests Country            Sequence                Period 
                                               (Yrs-Months)
190 Australia   v Pak,Faisalabad,Sep 1988 to   16-11
                v Eng,Manchester,Aug 2005
75 India        v NZ,Dunedin,Feb 1990 to       11- 1
                v Aus,Mumbai WS,March 2001
72 South Africa v Aus,Durban,Jan 1967 to       32-11
                v Eng,Port Elizabeth, Dec 1999
69 Pakistan     v Aus,Brisbane,Nov 1983 to      9- 5
                v WI,Port-of-Spain,Apr 1993 
68 England      v Aus,Sydney,Feb 1898 to       22-10
                v Aus,Sydney,Dec 1920
63 West Indies  v Eng, Bridgetown, Apr 1992 to  7- 8
                v NZ, Hamilton,Dec 1999

Gilchrist becomes leading run-scoring wicket-keeper in Test cricket

Australia’s Adam Gilchrist became the leading run-scorer wicket-keeper in the history of Test cricket during the just concluded Manchester Test against England. Gilchrist ended the Test with a tally of 4,572 runs to go ahead of England’s Alec Stewart’s run-aggregate of 4,540 runs in 82 Tests (although Stewart played in 133 Tests, he kept wickets in 82 Tests only).

Interestingly Gilchrist needed 11 Tests and 42 innings fewer than Stewart to surpass his aggregate. Gilchrist now holds the records of scoring maximum runs, hitting most hundreds. Gilchrist’s batting average is also the highest for any wicket-keeper who has aggregated more than 500 runs in a career. Zimbabwean Andy Flower is the only other wicket-keeper to end up with 10 or more hundreds and a batting average of 50-plus.

The accompanying table lists the leading run scoring wicket-keepers in Test cricket:

Runs  Keeper        For  Tests Ave    100s 50s
4572  AC Gilchrist  Aus   71   53.79   15  20
4540  AJ Stewart    Eng   82   34.92    6  23
4404  A Flower      Zim   55   53.71   12  23
4389  APE Knott     Eng   95   32.75    5  30
4356  IA Healy      Aus  119   27.40    4  22
3633  RW Marsh      Aus   96   26.52    3  16
3146  PJL Dujon     WI    79   31.46    5  16
3007  MV Boucher    SA    84   30.68    4  18
2759  SMH Kirmani   Ind   88   27.05    2  12
2611  FM Engineer   Ind   46   31.08    2  16
2581  Moin Khan     Pak   66   28.68    4  14
2577  RD Jacobs     WI    65   28.32    3  14
2479  AC Parore     NZ    67   26.95    2  11
2439  TG Evans      Eng   91   20.50    2   8
2387  LEG Ames      Eng   44   43.40    8   7
2336  JHB Waite     SA    49   30.34    4  16
2300  KC S'kkara    SL    35   41.82    6   7
2010  Imtiaz Ahmed  Pak   38   30.45    3  11

Most sixes hit against Australia in a Test series

The five sixes hit in England’s second innings of Manchester Test took their series aggregate of sixes to 26 (four sixes were hit in the first Test at Lord’s,16 in the second Test at Birmingham and six in the third Test at Manchester).

This is now the most number of sixes hit by any side against Australia in a Test series. The previous record was of 23 sixes hit by South Africa in four match series in 1966-67.

The following table lists the most sixes hit against Australia in a Test series:

6s For           Season    Venue       Tests
26 England       2005      England       3#
23 South Africa  1966-67   South Africa  5
22 South Africa  1969-70   South Africa  4 
22 India         1997-98   India         3 
22 West Indies   2002-03   West Indies   4
21 New Zealand   1999-00   New Zealand   3

# still continuing

A world record for Muralitharan

The wicket of India's Irfan Pathan in the opening match of Indian Oil Cup tri-series helped Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan register a new world record.

Pathan's wicket was the 368th wicket for Muralitharan in one-day internationals. He also has taken 549 wickets in Tests to register a combined aggregate of 917 wickets in international cricket.

With the wicket of debutant Venugopal Rao he extended his tally to 918, the highest combined aggregate for any bowler in international cricket -- toppling Pakistan's Wasim Akram from the apex position.

The following table lists the leading wicket-takers in all forms of international cricket -- Tests, ODIs and Twenty20:

Total Bowler           For Tests  ODIs Twenty20 
918   M Muralitharan   SL   549   369    - 
916   Wasim Akram      Pak  414   502    - 
880   Shane Warne      Aus  589   291    - 
836   Glenn McGrath    Aus  508   323    5 
789   Waqar Younis     Pak  373   416    - 
784   Anil Kumble      Ind  461   323    - 
746   Courtney Walsh   WI   519   227    - 

Note: The performances in Tsunami relief match between a World XI and Asian XI have not been taken into account.

Nehra or Agarkar ?

The Indian team for tri-series in Sri Lanka has been announced.The five wise-men of Indian cricket have preferred Ashish Nehra over Ajit Agarkar for the Tri-Series in Sri Lanka, however a look at the performance of these two players since 2003 World Cup portrays a different picture altogether.

This is how two players have performed since 2003 World Cup:

Bowler   Mts Wkts  Ave.  Best  4W  SR     RpO  W/M
Agarkar  25   40  23.53  6-42  2  28.00  5.04  1.60
Nehra    21   29  34.52  4-72  1  37.31  5.55  1.38

Agarkar is the second most successful Indian bowler in this period after Irfan Pathan, who has taken 47 wickets after playing in four matches more than Agarkar. Agarkar’s average is the best among the regular bowlers (who have taken at least 5 wickets in this period) and so is his strike rate. Agarkar’s economy rate, though not as impressive as one would like, is the best among the Indian pacers (who have played at least 5 matches). Also Agarkar’s 6 for 42 against Australia in VB Series match is the best performance by an Indian bowler in this period. And he is the only Indian pacer to take two four-wicket hauls (Sachin Tendulkar also has two four-fers with his mixed kind of stuff).

Clearly if any pacer deserves to be there in Sri Lanka, it has to be Agarkar. But selection committee had different opinion and that is what matters most!

BCCI puts byte into scoring

The cricket scoring in Indian domestic matches is ready for a radical change from the coming season. Noting the proceedings of the game by putting dots, crosses, circles etc. in the notebooks is soon going to be a thing of past. The notebooks that scorers will now carry will be the computer kind, and the mouse will replace their blue, black, red and green pens and pencils. The Association will be providing the laptops to BCCI panel scorers. This system of computer scoring will be started in all the domestic matches in 2005-06 season. BCCI also intends to link and upload all match information on its website, which is set to be launched soon.

The scoring in cricket matches has gradually progressed to its modern sophisticated pattern wherein all the latest technology is put to immense use. Since the modest beginning by William Davies (Circa 1832) Cricket's first scorer. Cricketing world has produced some outstanding, innovative scorers around the world. In India, under the banner of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Scorers of India (ACSSI) has produced some outstanding Scorers as well as Statisticians to meet the challenges.

Keeping in sync with modern-day cricket, a two-day workshop on computer scoring was conducted on July 9 and 10 in Bangalore. A total of 42 scorers of the 75 BCCI panel scorers selected by their cricket associations attended the workshop where the finer techniques of the scoring software were taught to the scorers. The software Scorite is prepared by Stump Vision, which is run by Dinesh Kumble – brother of Indian cricketer Anil Kumble. The profession version of Scorite is an improvement on the old version and contains the Wagon-Wheel of the individual batsman as well as the Bowler versus Batsman information.

The two-days workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Greg Chappell, the former Australian Test cricketer and present coach of the Indian team. In his inaugural speech he mentioned that he learnt to maintain his own score at a very early age and continued the same in his Test career. Mr.Brijesh Patel the Test cricketer, host and Hon. Secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association complimented the scorers for the minute details in balls, minutes etc while scoring. The computer will assist further and will be very useful in the development of the game, especially for the Under-14 and Under-16 level, where the details are difficult to obtain. Theo Braganza, Convener and Hon. Secretary of the ACSSI mentioned that this would solve many problems in India like language, colour pens used for a particular ball, symbols, tallying and finally would produce far more details that one can imagine. In the closing ceremony Test cricket Anil Kumble presented the Anandji Dossa Award to the scorers who stood first in the 1997 and 2004 BCCI examinations, P.Jayapal from Bangalore and Nilesh Deshpande from Nagpur respectively. In his speech he mentioned that very few cricketers maintain their scores, he too learnt to keep scores at an early age. He advised the scorers that on a bad performance when the cricketer is returning to the pavilion it is very frustrating to hear his score being announced to the press and requested to wait till the cricketer is in the pavilion or keep the announcements low.

Before the computer workshop, BCCI also held Examination for Scorers at Kolkata from June 27th to July 1st and at Kanpur from July 3rd to 7th.These 5-days courses included the basic duties of the scorers, the Laws of cricket pertaining to scoring, scoring the box and linear method,calculations for scorers and statisticians, the Duckworth-Lewis method for rain interrupted matches, filling the BCCI score sheets, elementary computer scoring and a practice session in scoring from an actual match. This was followed by the practice test from an actual match and a written test. Scorers from the East, Central and North zones attended including those who did not clear the BCCI Examination held at Ahmedabad in 2004 from Saurashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Hyderabad, Vidarbha cricket associations. The faculties were: Dinar Gupte (Course Director) from Baroda, Blessington Thomas from Hyderabad, P.Jayapal from Bangalore, Ramesh Parab, Vivek Gupte and Theo Braganza (Convener) from Mumbai. Thirty-five scorers attended at Kolkata and 41 at Kanpur. The passing percentage was 80% and those successful will be added to the 75 BCCI panel scorers after the results are declared by the BCCI.

Rakesh Sanghi - well-known scorer from PCA - who attended the workshop at Banglaore, welcomed Board’s initiative, but was of the view that associations should bear the cost of the software. He wondered how many scorers could afford to spend around Rs. 6,000 for 30 match sheets, when the match fee is not very attractive.

Blessington Thomas, one of the faculties, was of the view that it would have been better had this workshop been conducted during the Refreshers Course at Ahmedabad (earlier this year), so that by this time scorers would have gained some knowledge about the Software and would have benefited immensely.He also showed concern about the lack of quality scorers in North, Central and the Eastern parts of the country wherein we have language, accent problems.

All said and done, no one is denying the fact that this is a step in right direction. These courses and workshop are definitely will be a new boost to scorers and will assist in forming an additional panel of scorers and assist in the network for the BCCI and their site to upload scoresheets immediately after the match, which will be accessible to the media, statisticians throughout the world.

Statisticians stumped by new rules

The International Cricket Council seems to have developed the knack of inviting the wrath of cricket statisticians. In recent times, every single decision it has taken -- having an impact on cricket statistics -- has not gone well with the custodians of cricket statistics and records.

ICC's latest ruling that allows a player to be replaced with a substitute during the course of a match has made statisticians wonder if there is any end to this nuisance.

Read more
http://snipurl.com/fy6v

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.

Longest losing streak for West Indies

West Indies, by losing the third ODI against Pakistan at Gros Islet, recorded their worst sequence of losses in one-day internationals. This was their ninth loss at a trot, which ‘bettered’ their previous record of eight consecutive defeats in 1999-00 season – all under Brian Lara’s captaincy. The accompanying table lists all instances of five or more consecutive defeats for West Indies.

Mts From       To              Captain
9 v Pak 01-02-2005  v Pak 22-05-2005 BC Lara (1)
                                     S Chanderpaul (8)
8 v Pak 14-10-1999  v NZ  11-01-2000 BC Lara
5 v Eng 19-05-1988  v Pak 18-10-1988 IVA Richards
5 v Pak 14-10-1989  v Aus 21-10-1989 IVA Richards (3)
                                     CG Greenidge (2)
5 v Pak 09-11-1990  v Aus 09-03-1991 DL Haynes (3)
                                     IVA Richards (2)
5 v Aus 13-03-1991  v Eng 27-05-1991 IVA Richards
5 v SL 20-10-1995   v Aus 01-01-1996 RB Richardson (4)
                                     CA Walsh (1)
5 v SA 27-01-1999   v SA  07-02-1999 BC Lara (2)
                                     CL Hooper (3)
5 v Pak 23-04-2000  v Zim 16-07-2000 JC Adams #
5 v SA 02-05-2001   v SA  12-05-2001 CL Hooper

# excludes one rain abandoned match

Meet the new Indian coach

Probably world’s best coach technically. The 56-year old Australian has a flair for the big occasion. He scored a century in his first and final Tests, scored centuries in both innings of his debut Test as captain and in between established a reputation as one of the finest thinkers of the modern game.

Failed in 2000 for talking more about his pay-cheque than his vision for Indian cricket. Since travelled to MRF Pace Academy and National Cricket Academy and interacted with coaches and players. Was shortlisted by West Indies too but yet again money proved to be an impediment. Changed South Australia’s fortunes. Once suggested that Sachin should open in Tests.He has also written a brilliant book on coaching, 'Greg Chappell on Coaching: The Making of Champions.'

Sourav Ganguly, Indian skipper, had approached Chappell to try and iron out deficiencies in his technique against quick bowlers and the rising ball just before India's last tour of Australia.

Chappell seemed to have special liking for India as his five scores in Test cricket read as : 204,36,52,76 & 0.

His best performance in ODIs also came against India – 5 for 15 at Sydney in 1980-81

Chappell in Facts & Figures
Full name Gregory Stephen ChappellBorn August 7, 1948, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia
Age 56 years Major teams Australia, Queensland, Somerset, South Australia
Type : Right-hand middle order batsman & Right-arm medium pace / leg-break bowler
First-class debut : South Australia v Victoria at Adelaide,1966-67
Last first-class match: Queensland v Western Australia at Perth, 1983-84
Test debut: v England at Perth, 1970-71
Last Test: v Pakistan at Sydney, 1983-84
ODI debut: v England at Melbourne, 1970-71
Last ODI: v Sri Lanka at Colombo (SSC), 1982-83

Career highlights:
-Scored a century in his very first Test innings (108 v England at Perth,1970-71).
-Scored a century in his last Test innings (182 v Pakistan at Sydney, 1983-84).
-Remains the only player to score Test centuries in both innings on captaincy debut (123 & 109* v West Indies at Brisbane in 1975-76).
-Beat West Indies 5-1 in his debut series as a captain
-Led Australia to 8 series wins in his captaincy as against 3 losses.
-Was the top scorer 13 times in an all-out innings. Only Allan Border performed this feat on more occasions (15) as an Australian captain (after playing 68 innings more).
-Wisden Cricketer of the year 1973
-In the year 2002 he was inducted into the prestigious Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
...and the last one
-He was infamously involved in the underarm bowling incident in the New Zealand-Australia One-day International on February 1, 1981. Greg Chappell, the captain, ordered his brother, Trevor Chappell, to bowl with an underarm motion, thus ensuring the Australian team would win the match and avoid a tie.

Frindall takes on the ICC

Bill Frindall, world's most respected cricket statistician, is not taking the Tsunami relief fund match in to his records. He is not going to include the Super Series Test and ODIs scheduled to be played between World XI and Australian XI either. And he has the reasons to defy ICC's dictat.

Infact ICC's decision of granting official status to Tsunami relief fund match had not gone well with the statisticians the world over. Most of the statisticians are against this ruling if the views expressed by the members of Association of Cricket Statisticians (England) on the internet forum mean anything.

However the ACS could not take any hard stand against ICC's decision - for the reasons better known to itself. Also some renowned statisticians did not take long to accept ICC's ruling despite being fully aware that it defies all logic and common-sense. May be some commercial reasons were also responsible for this. Those, who fell in the line with ICC, expressed the view that being the governing body ICC is free to do whatever it thinks is right.

Yours truly is totally against this view. Even if you buy this arguement, then how come these statisticians flouted ICC's ruling over first-class status to matches played in South Africa by rebellion sides. Wasn't ICC the governing body then? Clearly there is something more than what meets the eyes.

Frindall, as he has always done, didn't mince a word while criticising ICC for its ineptitude. Playfair Cricket Annual is the best selling cricket annual in the world and in its 2005 edition, Frindall, as the editor, has not included the Tsunami relief match alongwith the rain abandoned NatWest match between West Indies and New Zealand last year. The NatWest match was a strange case as ICC flouted its own rulebook in deciding when a match actually commences.

This is what Frindall wrote in his editorial for the Playfair-"That they (ICC) are proposing to confuse matters further by giving Test match status to a ‘super test’ between Australia and the Rest later this year beggars belief. For a decade after the 1970 England v Rest of the World series ‘Wisden’s records bore a grumbling appendix of those five games – and that rubber at least had the excuse of replacing a series cancelled for political reasons. Logic dictates that ‘international’ records should be exactly that – ‘contests between nations’. Perhaps a compromise would be to segregate matches involving conglomerate teams in to a separate Super Test compartment. For the same reason, the recent Tsunami Appeal game between Asian and World XI in Melbourne should not be included in the annals of Limited-Overs Internationals – and is excluded from records in this publication. Exceptionally admirable though it was in conception, the game was little more than an exhibition thrash. While enjoying the occasion hugely, none of the participants, and there were rather too many, seemed to care a hoot about the result. Another piece of gross meddling produced the crass decision to regard the toss as the start of a match. This is contrary to Law 16, which clearly states that the umpire’s call of play heralds the start."

Charlie Watt, Australia's renowned statistician, has also taken the stand on similar lines. These two have made it clear that they are not going to include such matches in their matches at any cost. ICC is feeling the heat, it is clear from the fact that ICC issued a media release clarifying its position.Earlier it was not even bothered to reply when several statisticians approached it.

This issue is not over yet. You will hear and read a lot on this subject in the progress to the Super Series matches. Keep looking at this place for the updates.

A Test of records & milestones

The St.John's Test was a statistician's delight as a plethora of records were established on the fifth and final day. Some of them are:

West Indies’ total of 747 is the seventh highest in Test cricket and HIGHEST against South Arica. The previous highest total against South Africa was 654 for 5 by England at Durban in 1938-39.

The combined aggregate of both sides’ first innings in St.John’s Test was 1335 runs [South Africa (588-6d) and West Indies (747)]. Only once before a higher combined aggregate has been recorded in Test cricket history. In the Colombo (RPS) Test in 1997-98, the combined aggregate of first innings of Indian and Sri Lankan teams was 1489 [India (537-8d) and Sri Lanka (952-6d)].

A total of 1462 runs were scored in the match at the loss of 17 wickets @ 86.00 runs per wicket, which is the fifth highest in all Test cricket.

South Africa’s total is the highest first innings total by a side successfully overhauled by the opponent in the second innings of the match. The previous highest such total posted was 537 for 8 declared by India against Sri Lanka in 1997-98 as Sri Lanka went on to score world record 952 for 6 declared.

Eight hundreds were scored in the Test– four from each side. In fact at least one hundred was scored on every day during the Test - two on each of the first three days and one on fourth and fifth days. The eight hundreds is now a new world record of most hundreds in a single Test. The previous record was of seven hundreds made on three separate occasions.

All eleven South African players bowled in West Indies innings during the St. John’s Test with wicket-keeper Mark Boucher ending with the best bowling average for South Africa in the match. Boucher became first South African and only the ninth wicketkeeper in Test history to take a wicket.

A total of 17 centuries were scored in the series – 9 for West Indies and 8 for South Africa. This is the joint third highest number of centuries scored in a Test series.

Gayle breaks new ground

Chris Gayle rewrote the record books on the fourth day at the Antigua Recreation Ground in St. John’s. The lanky West Indian opener became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score a triple-century against South Africa. Before Gayle, the record of playing highest individual innings against South Africa was held by Australia’s Don Bradman with an unbeaten 299 at Adelaide in 1931-32.

A total of 20 triple centuries have now been scored in Test cricket by 18 batsmen. The country-wise break-up : 6 for Australia,5 each for England and West Indies,2 for Pakistan and one each for Sri Lanka and India. Don Bradman and Brian Lara are the only batsmen to have done so twice.

Seven triple tons have been scored in the Caribbeans followed by England (6), Pakistan (3), Australia (2),New Zealand (1) and Sri Lanka (1), St. John’s is now at level with Leeds as the ground where most triple centuries (3) have been scored.Bridgetown and Kingston have seen two triple centuries apiece.

Highest scores against each country
Against    Score Batsman        For  Venue       Season
Australia  364  L Hutton        Eng  The Oval    1938
England    400* BC Lara         WI   St.John’s   2003-04
S.Africa   317  CH Gayle        WI   St.John’s   2004-05
W.Indies   337  Hanif Mohammad  Pak  Bridgetown  1957-58
N.Zealand  336* WR Hammond      Eng  Auckland    1932-33
India      340  ST Jayasuriya   SL   Colombo RP  1997-98
Pakistan   365* GStA Sobers     WI   Kingston    1957-58
Sri Lanka  299  MD Crowe        NZ   Wellington  1990-91
Zimbabwe   380  ML Hayden       Aus  Perth       2003-04
Bangladesh 261* RR Sarwan       WI   Kingston    2004

Kallis surpasses Kirsten

Jacques Kallis became the leading run-scorer for South Africa during his innings of 147 in the first innings of St.John’s Test against West Indies. Already the highest run-scorer for South Africa in shorter version of the game, Kallis surpassed Gary Kirsten’s aggregate of 7,289 runs in Test cricket. Incidentally Kallis did so in 8 Tests and 21 innings lesser than Kirsten. With his 147 Kallis also became the leading century maker for South Africa breaking the previous record of 21 centuries also held by Kirsten.

 
Performance against each opponent:
Opp Tests Inns NO Runs Hs Ave 100 50  0
Aus  12  23  2  685 101  32.62  1  4  1
Eng  20  32  2 1412 162  47.07  5  6  4
Ind   6  11  4  579 121  82.71  1  4  -
NZ    9  15  3  817 160  68.08  3  3  1
Pak   8  12  -  456 105  38.00  1  2  -
SL   12  21  2  639  87  33.63  -  5  1
WI   18  32  8 1856 177  77.33  7  9  2
Zim   6   7  3  679 189*169.75  3  3  -
BD    2   2  2  214 139*  -     1  1  -
TOTAL93 155 26 7337 189* 56.87 22 37  9
home 49  78 14 3855 177  60.23 12 21  4
away 44  77 12 3482 189* 53.56 10 16  5

Kallis’ record in ODIs
Mts Inns  NO  Runs   Hs  Ave.  100  50  0
210  201  36  7495  139  45.42  13  51 10