Association of Cricket Statisticians & Historians

And there they go... Jammu & Kashmir have won the Ranji Trophy, thanks to a 291-run first-innings lead over Karnataka in the drawn final.
#RanjiTrophy #JammuAndKashmir

Barring a miracle from Karnataka tomorrow - knocking over the last six wickets cheaply then chasing down 500 in less than a day - Jammu & Kashmir are on course for their first Ranji Trophy title. Quite a turnaround for a team which took 23 years to win their first match in the tournament!

England's win over New Zealand gives Pakistan a glimmer of hope - but the narrowness of the margin means NZ have retained a significantly higher net run rate, so Pakistan will have to beat Sri Lanka by a large margin in order to overtake them.

There are few Test cricketers who have played less than 25 Test matches who are considered ‘great’. Graeme Pollock is one of those. He played just 23 Test matches for South Africa. His brilliant left handed batting yielded 2,256 runs at 60.97 (7 tons). Happy 82nd birthday today.

At least that makes the Group 1 permutations simple: South Africa are through, West Indies and India are in a direct play-off for the other semi-final spot, Zimbabwe are out.

If WI vs India is rained off, WI will qualify by virtue of better NRR in their two completed matches.

Sri Lanka are out, and Pakistan are on the brink - they need to beat SL in their last match, hope New Zealand lose to England and that the combined margins of the two are enough to overhaul NZ, who are currently far ahead of them on net run rate.

That's England in the SFs - since the washout between NZ and Pakistan makes it impossible for two other teams to reach the same number of points. Pakistan aren't definitely out yet, but they would need to beat SL and hope that NZ lose at least one of their remaining two matches.

Players with a Test triple century and T20I century:

Mahela Jayawardene
David Warner
Chris Gayle
Brendon McCullum
Harry Brook

Gayle (South Africa) and Brook (Pakistan) did both against the same opponent.

The Super Eights start with one "no result" and three big wins. That leaves Sri Lanka, India and Zimbabwe all almost certainly needing to win their remaining two matches to qualify for the semi-finals, since if it comes down to net run rate it won't be favourable for them.

Well, Evans and Ngarava certainly had their fun, but nonetheless that is Zimbabwe's heaviest defeat in a T20I.

Players involved in more than one tenth wicket partnership of 40+ in T20Is:

Josh Little and Barry McCarthy (Ireland - both partnerships with each other)
Richard Ngarava (Zimbabwe)

Zimbabwe's worst T20I defeat by a runs margin is 100, against Australia in 2018 and equalled against India in 2024. They're in danger of breaking that here.

Highest T20I totals with no century:

286/5 Zimbabwe v Seychelles 2024
260/6 Sri Lanka v Kenya 2007
256/5 Denmark v Gibraltar 2022
256/5 West Indies v Ireland 2025
254/5 New Zealand v Scotland 2022
254/6 West Indies v Zimbabwe 2026

Hope for Arunachal Pradesh!

Jammu & Kashmir played their 1st first-class match in 1960. Their first win was in their 99th match in 1982, the most matches any team has taken to get their first win. They draw 8 and lost 90 of their first 98 matches, 61 by an innings.

Today they reached the Ranji Trophy final for the first time.

Returning to @acscricket.bsky.social ‘s new book on Jack Walsh it is worth saying that he was also a handy bat scoring 7247 1st class runs at 17.76. Before 2nd World War Walsh played for Sir Julien Cahn’s XI in England, New Zealand & what is now Sri Lanka taking over 600 wickets. Some life.

Players with three innings in the T20 World Cup, all of them ducks:

Ashish Nehra (India) 2010-16
Roger Mukasa (Uganda) 2024
Abhishek Sharma (India) 2026

The latest @ACScricket ‘Lives in Cricket’ book is out today. ‘Jack Walsh - The Conjurer’ is the fascinating story of Australian born left-arm wrist spinner, Jack Walsh who took 1,190 first class wickets at 24.55, mainly for Leicestershire. Buy a copy from acscricket.com

The only remaining uncertainty is the second spot in group A - Pakistan are best placed to take it, but if they slip up against Namibia it would allow USA to qualify in their place. Netherlands' chance is theoretical only, since they would need to beat India by a massive margin.

Despite there being matches still to play, all the qualifiers from groups B, C and D are already confirmed: Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies, England, South Africa, New Zealand. India are through in group A and all but certain to finish top.

We forgot to mention the consequences of "no results". Zimbabwe only needed one point from their last two games so the washout is enough to put them through. Australia and Ireland are out.

Only three teams in T20Is have started their innings with a century partnership yet still been bowled out:

Bangladesh 101/1 (11.2) -> 143ao (19.5) vs Zimbabwe, 2024
Turkey 158/1 (9.2) -> 237ao (19.3) vs Bulgaria, 2025
Australia 104/1 (8.3) -> 181ao (20) vs Sri Lanka, 2026

Group D - South Africa are through, and New Zealand will join them unless Canada pull off an upset. If that happens, any of the remaining teams could theoretically still qualify, including Canada themselves if they also beat Afghanistan.

Group C - West Indies and England are through, so the last two matches are for pride only. It doesn't even matter which way round the top two teams finish, since the Super 8 groups are based on pre-determined seedings not place in the group stage.

Group B - Sri Lanka are through, Zimbabwe need at least one win from their remaining two matches. If they lose both then Australia or Ireland have chances to qualify if they can raise their NRR high enough.

Qualification permutations:

Group A - India are through, Pakistan need to beat Namibia to join them. If Pakistan lose, they will be out and USA will almost certainly qualify - unless Netherlands cause a massive shock by beating India by a big enough margin to raise their NRR.

One of our social media team attended a Black History Month event a couple of years ago featuring Holding. "Mikey" (as he appeared in the Teams call) gave some fascinating insights into his cricketing career, and at times shocking ones of his experiences of racism.

If they want to keep up that record, they'll be relying on Ireland and SL both doing them a favour by beating Zimbabwe - and even that might not be enough, since if Ireland beat Zimbabwe by a big enough margin it's possible they might qualify, knocking both Zim and Aus out.

The last time Australia failed to make it past the first group stage was in 2009 when the groups were of three and they lost to West Indies and (again) Sri Lanka. There have been a couple of times since when they were seeded into the second group stage and lost then.

Another great West Indian celebrates his birthday today: After our Desmond Haynes 70th splurge, today’s recipient is Michael Holding. 249 wickets in 60 Tests at 23.68. In 102 ODI’s 142 wickets at 21.36. Born 16.2.54 in Kingston, Jamaica. Happy 72nd Birthday ‘Whispering Death’.