Andrew Samson

How much is too much? Workload management is all the rage in cricket these days.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/how-much-i...

22 for 222 Alert readers of the Notcher’s Natter will have noticed a piece of trivia at the end of the last post about Brian Close holding the record for most Tests missed during a career.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/22-for-222

The leading wicket-taker for this season's County Champions Nottinghamshire was Brett Hutton with 38.

This is the joint fewest wickets taken in a season by the leading wicket-taker for a County Championship winning team, equalling Dougie Brown's 38 for Warwickshire in 2004.

Kyle Verreynne is the first man to win the County Championship and the World Test Championship in the same season ... and he hit the winning run in both.

Josh Tongue 'rabbit pie' numbers, i.e. bowling to batters at 8 or below in first-class cricket in 2025 in England are 22 wickets at an average of 8.40.

The next most '8-11' wickets is Jack Leach - 17 @ 13.52
The next best average of those with 10 or more wickets is George Hill - 15 @ 10.46.

Bumrah and the Rhino Ah, but did the team win?

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/bumrah-and...

Join the ACS. I can recommend that.

To convert or not to convert Substack informs me that this is the Notcher’s Natter’s 50th post.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/to-convert...

There are five higher totals regardless of wickets.

Highest first-class total in which one bowler took all the wickets (min 7 wkts):

608-7* Midd v Hants Lord's 1919 - AS Kennedy 7-202
607-7* NZ A v SA A Potchefstroom 2025 - T Ndwanda 7-206

Their Natural Game Featuring Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler's natural game:

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/their-natu...

I found it amusing that Rubin Hermann, despite scoring 158* and 109 in the first 2 matches of SA A's 3-match one-day series v NZ A, was not even the leading run-scorer in the series. His brother, Jordan, who got a 1st-ball duck in the 1st game, then made 101*and 186* to end on 287 to Rubin's 280.

Highest % of team total conceded by one bowler in an ODI:

55.47% S Baker (0-76 out of 137/3) Eng v SA 2025
54.31% D Chameera (4-63 out of 116) SL v Afg 2023

Min total 100

Keepers who bowl Starring the remarkable George Brown

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/keepers-wh...

The 77-run over When people are asked what is the most number of runs to come off one over, thoughts turn immediately to Tilak Raj and Malcolm Nash who both conceded 36, to Ravi Shastri and Garry Sobers respectively

The most runs conceded off one legitimate ball in first-class cricket is 67 in contrived circumstances. See here:

www.espncricinfo.com/story/the-77...

Oshane Thomas conceded 22 runs off one legitimate ball in a CPL match on Tuesday: NB, Wd, NB+6, NB+6, 6.

This is the most I know of in an authentic case in professional cricket.

Roger Telemachus conceded 21 off one ball in the ODI at Johannesburg in 2006: NB+4, NB+1, NB+4, NB+6, 2.

Bits on Bobby Bobby Simpson, one of the most influential figures in Australian cricket, passed away two weeks ago.

open.substack.com/pub/andrewsa...

Koo… Koo… Kookaburra… Two Following up from last week’s post on the Kookaburra ball in the County Championship, I am sure that you would like to know how individual players have done in these matches.

A bit more on the Kookaburra ball:

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/koo-koo-ko...

Eclectic scores I discovered many years ago, while perusing first Guiness Book of Records I saw, that golf has a concept of an eclectic score.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/eclectic-s...

Koo… Koo… Kookaburra English cricket’s guiding light is the Ashes, and particularly the Ashes in Australia.

Some numbers on the Kookaburra ball in the County Championship:

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/koo-koo-ko...

Biggest innings victory by a team losing 3 or fewer wickets in a first-class match:

551 Goa (727-2*) beat Arunachal Pradesh (84 & 92) at Porvorim, 2024

359 New Zealand (601-3*) beat Zimbabwe (125 & 117) at Bulawayo, 2025

349 Karachi Blues (548-2*) beat Sargodha (106 & 93) at Karachi, 1994

Root overtakes Tendulkar You don’t need to be paying a lot of attention to know that Joe Root, having passed Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting during the Old Trafford Test against India, is now the second highest...

World record for Root as he overtakes Tendulkar:

open.substack.com/pub/andrewsa...

Bowling average plummets On 23 February 1992, I was at a match at SuperSport Park (then Centurion Park) in Centurion (then Verwoerdburg) between Titans (then Northern Transvaal) and Warriors (then Eastern Province).

A look at big improvements in bowling averages:

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/bowling-av...

140 runs and 13 wickets in a County Championship match:

159, 9-37 & 6-128 MS Nichols Ess v Glos Gloucester 1938
115 & 26, 6-51 & 7-93 R Ahmed Leics v Derbs Derby 2025

Before-and-Afters with Bumble, Beamon and the boys At the 1968 Olympics, Bob Beamon famously shattered the long jump world record by 55 cms, his 8.90 metres obliterating the previous best of 8.35.

Here is a look at some big increase in batting averages:

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/before-and...

Tom Hartley (130, 5-99 & 6-116) for Lancashire v Gloucestershire at Cheltenham is the first player to score a century batting at number 10 and take 10 wickets in a first-class match.

Highest total in first-class cricket without byes or leg-byes:

647 Tasmania v Victoria at Melbourne 1952
625-8* Middlesex v Northamptonshire at Northwood 2025
615-4* Arunachal Pradesh v Hyderabad Secunderabad 2024

First-class innings where both openers were dismissed for ducks and numbers 3 to 5 all scored 100s:

Karnataka v Assam at Mumbai 2016
Leicestershire v Derbyshire at Derby 2025

A review of reviews “Back in my day …”, is a catchphrase of mine and older generations and possibly some younger ones as well.

Stats on DRS

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No. The 26 was at Auckland in the same series.