Benedict Bermange on Graham Napier's astonishing innings and the Sky Sports team's averages!
Benedict's back with more Twenty20 and ODI stats
Sky Sports' cricket stats man Benedict Bermange has teamed up with skysports.com to bring you statistical highlights from our cricket coverage of the past week.
The glorious game will be brought to you in numbers every week as Benedict unearths relevant historical facts that have arisen from the past seven days in the world of cricket.
He will also be on hand to answer your statistical cricketing questions, be it about an existing record, player, team, ground, umpire, laws of the game or whatever your query may be.
If something has been puzzling you, or you have come across a fact or stat during Sky Sports' cricket coverage that you must have verified to cure your insanity, then ask Benedict.
Or if you've been stumped by a quiz question down the local, just email Benedict here or fill out the comment form at the bottom of the page and he will answer your questions.
Napier on fire
This week's highlight was undoubtedly the astonishing innings of Graham Napier at Chelmsford.
| Score |
Player |
For |
Against |
Venue |
Season |
| 152 |
GR Napier |
Essex |
Sussex |
Chelmsford |
2008 |
| 141 |
CL White |
Somerset |
Worcestershire |
Worcester |
2006 |
| 116 |
GA Hick |
Worcestershire |
Northamptonshire |
Luton |
2004 |
| 116 |
IJ Thomas |
Glamorgan |
Somerset |
Taunton |
2004 |
| 116 |
CL White |
Somerset |
Gloucestershire |
Taunton |
2006 |
|
However, he was not quite able to overtake Brendon McCullum's undefeated innings of 158 for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Bangalore Royal Challengers at Bangalore in the IPL this April.
In his innings, Napier hit sixteen sixes, which smashed the previous competition record of nine. Here are the most sixes in a Twenty20 Cup innings:
| Player |
Team |
Against |
Venue |
Season |
Runs |
6s |
| GR Napier |
Essex |
Sussex |
Chelmsford |
2008 |
152 |
16 |
| MA Ealham |
Notts |
Yorkshire |
Nottingham |
2004 |
91 |
9 |
| CL White |
Somerset |
Gloucestershire |
Taunton |
2006 |
116 |
9 |
| GA Hick |
Worcestershire |
Norhamptonshire |
Kidderminster |
2007 |
110 |
8 |
|
On this occasion, he did set a record for all Twenty20 cricket, surpassing McCullum's thirteen sixes in his above innings.
The sixteen sixes equalled the record for all senior cricket, set by Andrew Symonds in his innings of 254 not out for Gloucestershire against Glamorgan at Abergavenny in 1995.
Essex's total of 242 for three is the second-highest ever in the Twenty20 Cup, just eight runs behind the record, which was also live on SKY back in 2006:
| Score |
Team |
Against |
Venue |
Season |
| 250-3 |
Somerset |
Gloucestershire |
Taunton |
2006 |
| 242-3 |
Essex |
Sussex |
Chelmsford |
2008 |
| 228-5 |
Somerset |
Gloucestershire |
Taunton |
2005 |
| 227-4 |
Gloucestershire |
Somerset |
Bristol |
2006 |
| 227-6 |
Worcestershire |
Northamptonshire |
Kidderminster |
2007 |
|
Sussex then suffered the ignominy of the heaviest-ever defeat in the competition's six-year history, going down by 128 runs, surpassing Somerset's 117-run victory over Gloucestershire in the Taunton match above in 2006.
Expensive Kirtley
Spare a thought for James Kirtley. His four overs cost 67 runs - the most in the history of the competition. In fact, he has two of the three worst bowling analyses:
| Figures |
Player |
Team |
Against |
Venue |
Season |
| 4-0-67-0 |
James Kirtley |
Sussex |
Essex |
Chelmsford |
2008 |
| 4-0-65-2 |
Matthew Hoggard |
Yorkshire |
Lancashire |
Leeds |
2005 |
| 4-0-63-1 |
James Kirtley |
Sussex |
Surrey |
Hove |
2004 |
| 4-0-61-0 |
Andrew Davies |
Glamorgan |
Gloucestershireshire |
Bristol |
2006 |
| 4-0-60-0 |
Steve Kirby |
Yorkshire |
Lancashire |
Leeds |
2004 |
| 4-0-60-1 |
James Anyon |
Warwickshire |
Gloucestershire |
Birmingham |
2006 |
|
One day wonders
Despite losing the third One Day International at Bristol, Stuart Broad bowled his ten overs for just 14 runs. The last time an England bowler bowled his full quota of overs so economically in a One Day International was back in January 2003 when James Anderson bowled his ten overs against Australia at Adelaide for just twelve runs.
India's victory over Hong Kong by 256 runs in the fourth match of the Asia Cup is the second-largest margin of victory ever in a One Day International. The only greater victory was their win over Bermuda by 257 runs at Port-of-Spain in the World Cup last year.
Shaun Marsh scored 81 on his One Day International debut for Australia against West Indies at St Vincent. This is the second highest score ever by an Aussie batsman on his ODI debut:
| Score |
Player |
Against |
Venue |
Season |
| 94 |
Phil Jaques |
South Africa |
Melbourne-Col |
2005/06 |
| 81 |
Shaun Marsh |
West Indies |
Arnos Vale |
2007/08 |
| 91 |
Kepler Wessels |
New Zealand |
Melbourne |
1982/83 |
| 74 |
Mark Cosgrove |
Bangladesh |
Fatullah |
2005/06 |
| 73 |
Michael Slater |
South Africa |
Melbourne |
1993/94 |
|
Bangladeshi Abdur Razzak took his 100th ODI wicket in his 69th ODI when he dismissed Khurram Khan of the UAE at Lahore. Only Saqlain Mushtaq (53) and Shane Warne (60) among fellow spinners have reached the landmark in fewer matches. And by a quirk of fate, he took exactly the same number of matches as near-namesake Abdul Razzaq of Pakistan!
Suresh Raina's century in the Asia Cup match with Hong Kong came from just 66 balls, the second-fastest by an Indian in ODIs, surpassed only my Mohammad Azharuddin's 62-ball effort against New Zealand at Vadodara in 1988.
In the same game, MS Dhoni stumped three Hong Kong batsmen from the bowling of Piyush Chawla, the fourth instance of three batsmen being dismissed stumped by the same bowler and keeper combination in ODI history:
| Wicketkeeper |
Bowler |
Match |
Venue |
Date |
| Salim Yousuf |
Salim Malik |
Pakistan v New Zealand |
Lahore |
2 Nov 1990 |
| Healy |
Warne |
Australia v South Africa |
Faisalabad |
18 Oct 1994 |
| Kaluwitharana |
Jayasuriya |
Sri Lanka v Australia |
Galle |
22 Aug 1999 |
| Sangakkara |
Muralitharan |
Sri Lanka v South Africa |
Colombo |
14 July 2000 |
| Dhoni |
Chawla |
India v Hong Kong |
Karachi |
25 June 2008 |
|
