India v New Zealand, 2nd Test, Pune, 24-28 October, 2024.

LOL india

Quality win by the Sheep. 13 wkts to Santner.

Well played the Snoozers. Captain Kirk boldly goes where no part-time spinner has gone before!

So, NZ beat India, SL beat NZ, England beat SL and we’ve just been thumped by Pakistan. Clear who the best Test side in the world is, and it’s the one that got smashed for 800 a couple of weeks ago

Outclassed in every department.

Well done to NZ!

Prior to this test, Mitchell Santner had played 28 tests & taken 54 wickets @ 42.16 with a best of 3/34. Then he takes 7/53 & 6/104. Any other examples of such a massive improvement in best bowling figures after that many tests by a specialist bowler?

Possibly the most obvious example is the mighty Warnie.

After 2 Tests he had 1 wicket at 228.

After his 3rd innings he had 4 wkts at 86.50.

After 5 Tests and 8 innings he had 12 wkts at 41.91.

By the time he went to England (prior to the ball of the century) he stood at 11 Tests, 31 wkts at 30.80.

The rest is LEGEND.

Jimmy Anderson had 62 wickets @ 39.20 after 20 Tests.

Not sure Santner’s quite going to go on and match the top two wicket-taking bowlers in Test history though. In fact “specialist bowler” is perhaps generous…

I was particularly wondering about best bowling figures in an innings so I was looking for someone who had nothing better than a 3 fer after more than 25 tests. Warnie took 7/52 in his 5th test & Jimmy took 5/73 on debut so neither of them could be counted. This clown had a best of 3/34 after 28 tests!

Border had a best of 3/20 after 100 tests & then took 7/46 & 4/50 in his next game but obviously he was selected in the team as a specialist batsman.

Santner has bowled 5242 balls in 29 tests, the equivalent of 30 overs per test & mainly bats at #8 so in my opinion he is primarily a bowler who can be handy with the bat rather than the other way around.

BTW This isn't actually a trivia question as I don't know the answer.

Ray Illingworth

6/29 in his 25th Test previous best a 4fa in his 18th

122 wickets in 61 Tests