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

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

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.

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

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.

Join the ACS. I can recommend that.

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

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

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.

A bit more on the Kookaburra ball: andrewsamson.substack.com/p/koo-koo-ko...

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

World record for Root as he overtakes Tendulkar: open.substack.com/pub/andrewsa...

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

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

Stats on DRS open.substack.com/pub/andrewsa...

India lost by 22 runs at Lord's having conceded 36 byes to England's 3. 3 others have lost a Test by a lower margin than byes differential conceded: Aus (byes 31-10) lost to Eng Sydney 1894 by 10 runs Aus (14-1) lost to SA Sydney 1994 by 5 runs SL (16-7) lost to SA Kandy 2000 by 7 runs

12 England batters were out 'bowled' in the current Test match. This is the most in a Test since 13 New Zealanders were bowled v England at Dunedin in 1955.

There has never been a better time to join the ACS. Subscription rates have been held for years making membership great value with access to ACS website, ACS publications, ACS journal, ACS online forum, ACS auctions. Go to acscricket.com to sign up. #cricketcounts

Wiaan Mulder is the first player to score a 300, take 3 wickets and take 3 catches in a first-class match.

The big scores open.substack.com/pub/andrewsa...

Teams that have lost a wicket to the first ball of the innings replying to a first innings total of 600+: Ban v Ind Mirpur 2007 (in reply to 610-3*) SL v Ind Kanpur 2009 (642 all out) Zim v SA Bulawayo 2025 (626-5*)