Andrew Samson

That should read batting average over 55 (not 50).

Players with a win % over 60 and a batting average over 50 in Tests as captain:

T Bavuma
969 runs @ 57.00.
90.90% win (P 11, W 10, D 1)

WW Armstrong
616 runs @ 56.00.
80.00% win (P 10, W 8, D 2)

DG Bradman
3147 runs @ 101.51.
62.50% win (P 24, W 15, L 3, D 6)

Min 10 Tests as captain

South Africa have won 5 of the 7 Tests that Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer have played together (1 loss and 1 draw).

In those matches Maharaj has 34 wickets @ 20.58 and Harmer 35 @ 18.94.

Best bowling figures in comeback first-class match having not played for at least 7 years:

9-100 HJ Knutton England XI v Australians at Bradford, 1902 (previous match 1894)

9-144 AG Cremer Rhinos v Southern Rocks at Kwekwe 2025
(previous match 2017)

I have posted a few stats on South Africa A's successful run-chase of 417-5 against India A here:

andrewsamson.substack.com/notes

The new Hick? As a general rule, first-class stats are a reasonable predictor of Test performances.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/the-new-hick

After 7 Tests Senuran Muthusamy has 279 runs at 46.50 and 22 wickets at 26.50.

Only 3 men had more runs at a higher average and more wickets at a lower average than this:

Ian Botham, Jack Gregory and Washington Sundar

Three different spinners taking a 6-for for a team in a series

Eng v WI in Eng 1933 Robins/Langridge/Marriott
Eng v Aus in Aus 1903/04 Rhodes/Bosanquet/Braund
Ind v NZ in NZ 1968 Prasanna/Bedi/Nadkarni
Eng v Aus in Eng 1968 Pocock/Illingworth/Underwood
SA v Pak in Pak 2025 Muthusamy/Maharaj/Harmer

South Africans with 1 000 first-class wickets:

1 417 Mike Procter
1 216 Allan Donald
1 013 Buck Llewellyn
1 000 Simon Harmer

Fastest fifty by a number 11 in Test cricket:

25 balls S Shillingford WI v NZ at Kingston 2014
38 balls K Rabada SA v Pak at Rawalpindi 2025
54 balls PL Symcox SA v Aus Adelaide 1998

Oldest to take 5-for on Test debut:

38 yrs 301 days Asif Afridi Pak v SA Rawalpindi 2025
37 yrs 333 days CS Marriott Eng v WI The Oval 1933

Give and take In one of my favourite Hagar the Horrible cartoons, Hagar is explaining to young Hamlet “Son, in our fast-paced society … stress is unavoidable” and then goes on to say “But when you grow up, it’s bet...

Some wickets are given rather than taken

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/give-and-t...

14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 14 for Bihar in their current Ranji Trophy match against Arunachal Pradesh.

Although he has just 114 runs in 11 first-class innings, he also had a score of 12 aged 12 (the youngest to score his age in first-class cricket) and a score of 13 aged 13.

Is there Hope for Shai? The strap at the bottom of the screen on the TV for the West Indies 2nd innings against India at Delhi had the name ‘Hope’ below that of his partner ‘Chase’.

andrewsamson.substack.com/p/is-there-h...

Lowest all out Test total including two 150+ partnerships:

378 Pak v SA Lahore 2025
402 NZ v Pak Auckland 1973

Most consecutive Test innings without a fifty (all inns batting in top 7):

33 Grant Flower (Zim) 1998-2000
31 Shai Hope (WI) 2019-2025 *
29 Kieran Powell (WI) 2012-2017

* Sequence ended today.

Delano Potgieter is the first player to have shared in two 300+partnerships for the 7th wicket and lower in all first-class cricket.

The 330 he added with Connor Esterhuizen for Lions v Dolphins today broke the SA record of 301 that he had held with Bjorn Fortuin (Lions v Warriors 2019).

Highest conversion rate from 100 to 150 in first-class cricket:

(Min 15 x 100)

68.75% (11/16) Sarfaraz Khan

62.50% (10/16) Yashasvi Jaiswal

60.00% (12/20) Ajay Jadeja

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.