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| The best performances, so no Australian players made the cut. |
Many of the worlds' best players over the last year appear on this list, but sometimes a selection acknowledges an obscure cricketer who had five big days and would otherwise be forgotten. I've put 11 performances because there are 11 players on a cricket team. Although if you tried to make a team out of this list, it's quite unbalanced, so 11 is actually quite arbitrary.
Also England played way more Test matches than anyone else, so they are usually involved.
Honourable Mentions
There were some close calls.
Early in December, Indian Karun Nair scored 303* in only his second career Test match against a demoralised England.
This surpassed Pakistan's Azhar Ali scoring 302* against the West Indies in October as the highest Test score of the year.
When Azhar scored his triple, Devendra Bishoo took a relatively respectable 2/125 as Pakistan amassed 3/579 declared. He then followed it with 8/49 in the second innings to bowl Pakistan out for 123 and give his team a chance.
Jumping back to January, South Africa and England were evenly poised in the 3rd Test, after scoring 313 and 323 respectively. Then Stuart Broad took 6/17 as England bowled South Africa out for 83, and the game finished abruptly with an easy 4th innings chase for England. Broad has a knack for wiping out Test teams like this out of nowhere.
Broad's new ball partner James Anderson bowled 5/16 and 5/29 against Sri Lanka in May, yet wasn't even the best performer in the match (see #4 below).
Later in the year, South Africa would bowl Australia out for 85, then 161. But that was Vernon Philander, Kyle Abbott and Kasigo Rabada in a pack, rather than an individual effort.
Finally, the best Aussie performances:
- Adam Voges made 239 against New Zealand join February. Less than one year on, his Test career appears over.
- Mitchell Starc stood out during the Aussies poor series in Sri Lanka, taking 5/44 and 6/50 in a heavy defeat in the 2nd Test. He also had a pretty decent last day in the Boxing Day Test.
The Best Performance List
In chronological order:
1. BEN STOKES - 258 & 26; 1/100
2nd Test, South Africa v ENGLAND at Cape Town, 2-6 January
Stokes scored 258 off just 198 balls, the fastest 250 in Test cricket history. He also shared in the largest 6th wicket partnership ever (399, with Jonny Bairstow scoring 150*). It was the start of a year where Stokes emerged as the best seam-bowling all-rounder in the world, also scoring a century and taking a five-for in the Test series against India where England were badly beaten.
2. KAGISO RABADA - 7/112 & 6/32
4th Test, SOUTH AFRICA v England at Centurion, 22-26 January
Rabada's haul saw South Africa win the dead rubber by 280 runs, a small consolation after losing to England on home soil. They were the best match figures by a fast bowler this year. Rabada built on this performance by recently terrorising the fragile Aussie batting order on their home grounds. He looks like the natural successor to Dale Steyn as leader of the Proteas attack.
3. BRENDON MCCULLUM - 145 & 25
2nd Test, NEW ZEALAND v Australia at Christchurch, 20-24 February
Coming in at 3/32 on a lively wicket in this last Test, McCullum opted to do what he does best - outrageous attack. He reached the fastest century in Test cricket history after 54 balls, eventually falling having scored 145 off just 79 balls. New Zealand lost the match, but both the century and the result seemed like an appropriate end to a great career.
4. JONNY BAIRSTOW - 140 & 9 catches
1st Test, ENGLAND v Sri Lanka at Leeds, 19-21 May
Bairstow has broken Test records in 2016 for most dismissals and runs by a wicketkeeper. His high point was this match on his Yorkshire home ground. His 140 helped push England from a dangerous position to a total of 298. His 140 was ultimately more runs than Sri Lanka managed in either completed innings. Nine of the 20 Sri Lankan wickets to fall were caught by Bairstow too, mostly off James Anderson (see honourable mentions).
5. JOE ROOT - 254 & 71*; DNB & 1/0
2nd Test, ENGLAND v Pakistan at Manchester, 22-25 July
After England lost the first Test in the series, Root took charge in the second at Old Trafford, making a career best 254 to set up a huge first innings lead, then smashing an unbeaten 71 off just 48 balls to setup the declaration target. England bowled Pakistan out in 70 overs to win by a huge 330 runs. Root even managed to bag a wicket off a solitary over to cap off a remarkable performance.
6. RANGANA HERATH - 4/49 & 5/54
1st Test, SRI LANKA v Australia at Pallekele, 26-30 July
Herath's haul of nine wickets here really set the tone for the series against Australia. The Aussies actually started well, bowling Sri Lanka out for 117 first up, but were then completely mugged by the roly-poly Herath. His match haul of 9/93 came from 58.3 overs, an economy rate well under 2 runs per over, as Australia tried and failed to survive on their way to an 106 runs defeat.
Herath would actually take more wickets (6/81 & 7/64) in the third Test, but by then it just seemed inevitable he would decimate the Aussie batting order to establish a Sri Lankan series whitewash. Herath also took 13 in a Test match against Zimbabwe too.
7. MEHEDI HASAN MIRAZ - 6/82 & 6/77
2nd Test, BANGLADESH v England at Mirpur, 28-30 October
In the first Test, the debuting Miraz took 6/80 on day one to catch England by surprise, before the visitors recovered to win by 22 runs as expected. But in the second Test, Bangladesh could not be denied an historic Test win, with Miraz spinning them to victory with six wickets in each innings. It was a stunning series debut for a bowler that turned 19 between the two Test matches.
8. KRAIGG BRAITHWAITE - 142* & 60*
3rd Test, Pakistan v WEST INDIES at Sharjah, 30 October - 3 November
A rare away victory for the modern West Indian side - their first outside Bangladesh since 2007 - came on the back of Braithwaite becoming the first opening batsmen in cricket history to be not out in both innings of a Test match. In the first innings he batted over eight hours to carry his bat for 142*. In the second innings his 60* anchored a nervy chase of a small target of 153 which was faltering at 5/67 early on.
9. GRAEME CREMER - 4/142 & 0/67; 102* & 43
1st Test, ZIMBABWE v Sri Lanka at Harare, 30 October - 3 November
Zimbabwe's dragged this Test well into the last hour, going so close to an unlikely draw against a Sri Lankan team coming off smashing Australia 3-0. Their unheralded captain Graeme Cremer was the unlikely almost hero. He was the home sides best bowler, with 4/142 from his leg-spin, as Sri Lanka amassed 537. Then batting at 8, he made a maiden Test century to push Zimbabwe past the follow-on mark. Finally with Zimbabwe needing to bat out just over one day on a wearing wicket to draw, Cremer faced 144 balls in nearly three hours of resistance to take them within seven overs of saving the match. Before this Test, his batting average had been 10.75
10. VIRAT KOHLI - 167 & 81
2nd Test, INDIA v England at Visakhapatnam, 17-21 November
Kohli actually made three double centuries against three different opponents (West Indies, New Zealand and England) in 2016, but his double act in this match was arguably his best performance. England had got the better of a draw in the first Test in the series. Kohli's 167 put them on the back foot in the second Test, then his 81 (out of 204) ensured India didn't squander their big first innings lead and set England over 400 to win. From this win, the gap between the two teams only grew as India won the series 4-0.
4th Test, INDIA v England at Mumbai, 8-12 December
If not Ashwin's 12 wickets here to secure a series victory, it could've been his 13 against New Zealand in October on this list. or perhaps his century and seven wickets in an innings all-round performance against the West Indies in July could have been included instead. All told he managed eight five-fors and two hundreds in twelve tests in the calendar year. Ashwin was undoubtedly the best Test cricketer in the world in 2016.
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