Test # 1826 & #1827 Records : Series Victories for Australia and South Africa

Test #1826 England in Australia Ashes 2006-07(5th Test) at SCG, Sydney.

The New Year did not change the fortunes of England and India as they both lost the final match of their test series without giving any fight whatsoever. At least England can have a sigh of huge relief that next time when they try to regain Ashes, their chief tormentors Shane Warne and Glen McGrath will not be around and Justin Langer will not be there to annoy them with his long standing partnership with Matthew Hayden. They all played their part in the final test match. Warne top scored for Australia in their first innings, McGrath took a wicket with the last ball he bowled in test cricket and Justin Langer was there when Hayden hit the winning runs as Australia registered their historic fifth win of the five match Ashes series. Ricky Ponting fulfilled his dream of thrashing England 5-0 and thereby becoming only the second captain in Ashes history to handover a whitewash to their arch rivals. Warwick Armstrong led Australia for the first ever whitewash 86 years back. Though England was recovering from the War at that time they did have a much better team under JWHT Douglas than Flintoff’s army.

India’s loss was even more embarrassing as they won the first test after bowling out South Africa for a paltry 84 and then went on to lose the next two test matches. Their defeat marks the eighth instance of a team losing a three test series after winning the first test. Last time it happened India was on the other side of the table as they won that 2000-01 test series destroying the ‘final frontier’ dream of Steve Waugh. Not only was the test series against South Africa turned out to be a total embarrassment for India but also the batting of Sachin Tendulkar, who for a while batted in such a fashion even the likes of Chetan Chauhan, Yahspal Sharma and Parveen Amre may have felt very annoyed.

Following are some of the statistical highlights of the first two test matches of the year 2007:

England’s 5-0 whitewash is only the second whitewash in Ashes history, they being at the receiving end in the prior whitewash too. Warwick Armstrong led Australians in 1920-21 inflicted the first one. In all there are nine 5-0 series victories in test history, England having the dubious distinction of being the sufferer on no less than four different occasions. They lost two back to back test series by 5-0 margin at the hands of Viv Richards’ mighty West Indians in mid eighties. Following is the list of all nine 5-0 whitewashes in Test history.

Australia beat England in Australia 1920/21
Australia beat South Africa in Australia 1931/32
England beat India in England 1959
West Indies beat India in West Indies 1961/62
West Indies beat England in England 1984
West Indies beat England in West Indies 1985/86
South Africa beat West Indies in South Africa 1998/99
Australia beat West Indies in Australia 2000/01
Australia beat England in Australia 2006/07

2007 Ashes saw four of the key members of the dominant Australian teams of the last fifteen years announcing their retirements from the test cricket. Each of them is undoubtedly a hall of fame cricketer in his own right. Of course, the Giants of the Australian bowling attacks for the past one and half decades, Warne and McGrath, who accounted for 1271 wickets during their combined test careers, will be impossible to be replaced anytime soon. Following table lists the test career figures of the four Aussies Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Justin Langer & Damien Martyn.

Player	Warne, Shane Keith	McGrath, Glen Donald	Langer, Justin Lee	Martyn, Damien Richard
Matches	145	124	105	67
innings	199	138	182	109
Not Out	17	51	12	14
Runs	3154	641	7696	4406
H.S	99	61	250	165
Bat.Average	17.33	7.37	45.27	46.38
100s	0	0	23	13
50s	12	1	30	23
0s	34	35	11	7
90s	2	0	2	3
Catches	125	38	73	36
Overs	6784	4874.4	1	58
Mdns	1761	1471	0	16
Runs	17995	12186	3	168
Wickets	708	563	0	2
Best	8 for 71	8 for 24	0 for 3	1 for 0
5WI	37	29	0	0
10WM	10	3	0	0
Bow.Average	25.42	21.64	N/A	84
S.Rate	57.49	51.95	N/A	174
E.Rate	2.65	2.5	N/A	2.9
Test Debut	vs India at Sydney 1991/92	vs New Zealand at Perth 1993/94	vs West Indies at Adelaide 1992/93	vs West Indies at Brisbane 1992/93
Last Test	vs England at Sydney 2006/07	vs England at Sydney 2006/07	vs England at Sydney 2006/07	vs England at Adelaide 2006/07

An interesting record that both Shane Warne and Glen McGrath holds in test cricket is that they are the only two bowlers in test cricket to have dismissed 100 or more batsmen for a duck.

Glenn McGrath took his tally of test victims to 157 from 30 tests against England. Only Shane Warne (195 in 36), Dennis Lillee (167 in 29) and Curtly Ambrose (164 in 34) have taken more wickets against them. Warne’s tally is the most by any bowler against a single Test opposition. He also has the most wickets by any bowler against New Zealand (103) and South Africa (130). He has the highest number of wickets by any bowler against West Indies, with 110 victims.

Warne also leaves the test cricket scene with more victories (92) than any other player in history. He is one of the 15 cricketers in history to have figured in 50 or more test wins. As shown in the following list, this particular category is dominated by Australians, with no less than 11 players , three of them still playing.

Player	Mat	Runs	HS	BatAv	100	50	Wkts	Best	BowlAv	5w	Ct	St
Warne SK	92	1830	86	18.30	0	8	510	8 for 71	22.47	27	86	0
SR Waugh	86	6460	200	69.46	25	25	31	5 for 28	29.25	1	65	0
McGrath GD	84	432	61	7.85	0	1	414	8 for 24	19.19	18	27	0
RT Ponting*	78	6909	257	65.80	26	25	2	1 for 0	62.00	0	96	0
ME Waugh	72	4794	153*	48.91	15	28	23	3 for 40	47.52	0	117	0
JL Langer	70	5229	250	48.41	15	19	-	-	-	-	58	0
AC Gilchrist*	69	4199	204*	55.98	14	22	-	-	-	-	278	31
ML Hayden*	64	5652	380	57.09	21	19	0	-	-	0	92	0
IVA Richards	63	4300	291	52.43	12	22	9	2 for 24	63.11	0	69	0
DL Haynes	60	4041	167	45.92	10	20	-	-	-	-	36	0
CG Greenindge	57	4653	226	54.74	14	18	0	-	-	0	63	0
IA Healy	55	2135	161*	33.35	2	11	-	-	-	-	202	17
MA Taylor	52	3812	219	45.92	11	22	-	-	-	-	101	0
CA Walsh	52	345	30*	8.21	0	0	239	7 for 37	19.72	10	12	0
AR Border	50	3186	200*	51.38	5	23	18	6 for 46	21.11	1	66	0

Following table lists all the active players who are closer to figuring in 50 test victories.

Player	Mat	Runs	HS	BatAv	100s	50	Wkts	Best	BowlAv	5w	Ct	St
MV Boucher	48	1697	125	32.63	2	11	-	-	-	-	207	9
Inzamam-ul-Haq	48	4597	329	77.91	17	19	-	-	-	-	40	0
JH Kallis	47	3653	177	60.88	11	20	120	6 for 54	23.40	3	62	0
SM Pollock	47	1388	111	31.54	1	4	214	6 for 30	18.20	9	41	0
B Lee	46	685	64	18.51	0	2	174	5 for 30	29.25	5	14	0
DR Martyn	44	3054	161	54.53	10	16	2	1 for 0	41.50	0	27	0

**Damien Martyn’s name included in this table , though he is retired from test cricket , just to show how vital his contribution was for the Aussies. He figured in as many as 44 test wins missing the chance to be among the cricketers with 50 or more test wins by just six victories. It is also worthwhile noting the fact that last 69 Aussie wins came while John Buchanan coached them. He too coached his last test match as he already announced that he will be stepping down from his position at the end of the World Cup 2007. What a coching career he had, He started his stint with 15 consecutive test wins in 1999 and finished his phenomenal job with 12 straight wins winning 69 of the 90 tests he guided the Kangaroos.

The greatest bowing combination of all-time, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne played a Test together for the first time 13 years back, against New Zealand at Perth. There was no indication then of what a deadly combination they were going to become. McGrath, making his debut, finished with 3 for 142, while Warne toiled very hard for 40 overs claiming just a solitary wicket in the drawn game. Since then, in the 104 Tests that the two have played together, they accounted for 1001 wickets with Warne claiming 513 and McGrath 488, Australia have won 71 of those matches and have lost just 16. That’s a hallmark of match winning performers.

With a wicket with the last ball in test cricket , Glen McGrath becomes the 16^th Australian and 101st cricketer to have claimed a wicket with the last delivery he bowled in test cricket. 30 Englishmen, 16 South Africans, 8 West Indians, 10 New Zealanders, 7 Indians, 5 Pakistanis, 6 Sri Lankans, 2 Zimbabweans and 1 Bangladeshi have all played their last test and claimed a wicket with their final delivery in test cricket.

Player	Victim	Vs	Venue	Series	Test Seq
CTB Turner	H Philipson	Eng	Sydney	1894-95	t0045
H Trumble	EG Arnold	Eng	Melbourne	1903-04	t0082
JV Saunders	SF Barnes	Eng	Sydney	1907-08	t0100
GR Hazlitt	H Dean	Eng	The Oval	1912	t0129
RB Minnett	SF Barnes	Eng	The Oval	1912	t0129
AA Mailey	H Strudwick	Eng	The Oval	1926	t0167
PM Hornibrook	WR Hammond	Eng	The Oval	1930	t0198
LE Nagel	Nawab of Pataudi Sr	Eng	Sydney	1932-33	t0220
LJ Johnson	PK Sen	Ind	Melbourne	1947-48	t0295
CL McCool	MG Melle	SAf	Port Elizabeth	1949-50	t0322
AK Davidson	AC Smith	Eng	Sydney	1962-63	t0537
DK Lillee	Sarfraz Nawaz	Pak	Sydney	1983-84	t0974
DW Hookes+	NS Yadav	Ind	Adelaide	1985-86	t1032
TM Alderman	AL Logie	WI	St John's	1990-91	t1170
AIC Dodemaide	SD Anurasiri	SL	Moratuwa	1992-93	t1196
GD McGrath	JM Anderson	Eng	Sydney	2006-07	t1827

Note : Cricketers who have still not announced their retirement and have claimed a wicket with the last ball they bowled as of today are not included while considering for this statistic. Some of the players took a wicket with the last ball they bowled in test but not necessarily in their final test. David Hookes’ was such a case for Australia.

For the first time in test cricket more than fifty percent of the wickets fallen in a completed test match involved a wicket keeper. As many as fifteen of the 30 wickets that fell in this match were claimed by Wicket Keepers with Adam Gilchrist accounting for nine of them and Chris Read six. The previous best was 15 out of 32 in the test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Hamilton in 1990/91. Kiwi glovesman Ian Smith dismissed eight batsmen behind the wickets and Hasan Tilakaratne claimed seven victims for Sri Lanka.

Of the 96 wickets that fell in the 5-test series, Australia’s strike bowlers Stuart Clark (26 @ 17.04), Shane Warne (23 @ 30.35), Glen McGrath (21 @ 23.95) and Brett Lee (20 @ 33.20) accounted for as many as 90 and Andrew Symonds chipped in with 2 important wickets at a crucial time. Remaining 4 were run-outs. This is the first time that four bolwers claimed 20 or more wickets in a 5-test series and only second time in test history that four bowlers could claim 20 or more wickets in any test series. The only time It happened prior to this was when CEL Ambrose(21), KCG Benjamin(23), IR Bishop(27) and CA Walsh(26) took 97 wickets amongst them against England in England in 1995 in 6-test drawn series.

Chris Read for the 3^rd time in his career claimed 6 victims behind the wickets thus joining Mark Boucher of South Africa as the only wicket keepers to have done so in test cricket.

Test #1827 India in South Africa 2006-07(3rd Test) at Newlands, Cape Town.

When India bowled out South Africa for a paltry 84 and registered a thumping victory in the first test, their first in South Africa, no one would have bet against them that they would lose the series by 2-1 margin. But as South Africa came out of their overconfident and complacent nature of dealing with the underdogs India, their batsmen coped the Indian attack much better and their bowlers made sure that none of the Indian statwarts get settled and score big. The final result of 2-1 which is only the eighth time that a side registered a come-from-behind series victory kept their record of not losing a test series to India. Following is the list of all come-from-behind wins in a 3-test series.

England against Australin in England 1888
South Africa against New Zealand in South Africa 1994/95

Pakistan against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe 1994/95

Sri Lanka against Pakistan in Pakistan 1995/96

Sri Lanka against New Zealand in Sri Lanka 1998/99

England against Sri Lanka in in Sri Lanka 2000/01

India against Australia in India 2000/01

South Africa against India in South Africa 2006/07

Note :The first Ashes series was won by IFW Bligh's XI in Australia 1882/83 2-1 margin after losing the first test in three test series. However one more test was arranged after England won the series which was won by Australia , hence the series was not considered for the statistical point of view.

While scoring the twin half centuries (94 & 55) South Africa’s Graeme Smith crossed the 4000 run mark in test cricket. He is 97^th cricketer to do so and joins four other South Africa batsmen to aggregate 4000 or more runs in test cricket.

Player	Country	Tests	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg	S/R
Border, A R	Australia	156	265	44	11174	205	27	63	50.56	40.98
Kallis, J H*	South Africa	105	177	28	8176	*189	24	41	54.87	42.80
Kirsten, G	South Africa	101	176	15	7289	275	21	34	45.27	43.35
Gibbs, H H*	South Africa	83	142	8	5865	228	14	24	43.77	50.37
Cullinan, D J	South Africa	70	115	12	4554	*275	14	20	44.21	48.93
Smith, G C*	South Africa	52	91	5	4119	277	11	17	47.90	59.97

When Jacques Kallis caught Wasim Jaffer of the bowling off Dale Steyn, he took his hundredth test catch. His victims also include 4 catches he took while playing for ICC World XI at Sydney in October 2005. Following is the list of all cricketers who have taken 100 or more catches in test cricket excluding wicket keepers.

Player	Country	Career	Tests	Catches
Waugh, M E	Australia	1991-2002	128	181
Lara, B C*	West Indies	1990-	131	164
Fleming, S P*	New Zealand	1994-	104	159
Taylor, M A	Australia	1989-1999	104	157
Border, A R	Australia	1978-1994	156	156
Dravid, R *	India	1996-	107	147
Warne, S K*	Australia	1992-	145	125
Ponting, R T*	Australia	1995-	110	124
Chappell, G S	Australia	1970-1984	87	122
Richards, I V A	West Indies	1974-1991	121	122
Botham, I T	England	1977-1992	102	120
Cowdrey, M C	England	1954-1975	114	120
Hayden, M L*	Australia	1994-	89	118
Hooper, C L	West Indies	1987-2002	102	115
Jayawardene, D P M*	Sri Lanka	1997-	85	113
Waugh, S R	Australia	1985-2004	168	112
Hammond, W R	England	1927-1947	85	110
Simpson, R B	Australia	1957-1978	62	110
Sobers, G S A	West Indies	1954-1974	93	109
Gavaskar, S M	India	1971-1987	125	108
Azharuddin, M	India	1984-2000	99	105
Chappell, I M	Australia	1964-1980	75	105
Thorpe, G P	England	1993-2005	100	105
Gooch, G A	England	1975-1995	118	103
Kallis, J H*	South Africa	1995-	105	103

Wasim Jaffer, while hitting the third century of his test career became the 49^th Indian and 428^th cricketer in test history to have aggregated 1000 or more runs in a test career. At the end of the third test his record reads as :

Player	Country	Tests	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg	S/R
Jaffer, W*	India	17	32	0	1068	212	3	6	33.38	45.43