A stats lowdown on the forthcoming Test series between England and Pakistan
S Rajesh12-Jul-2006
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| Wickets | Average | Strike rate | |
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| First innings | 17 | 50.41 | 113.40 |
| Second innings | 22 | 15.18 | 47.09 |
| Batsman | Balls/ runs | Dismissals | Average |
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| Marcus Trescothick | 96/ 75 | 0 | – |
| Ian Bell | 205/ 65 | 1 | 65.00 |
| Paul Collingwood | 113/ 51 | 1 | 51.00 |
| Geraint Jones | 103/ 41 | 1 | 41.00 |
| Kevin Pietersen | 77/ 58 | 2 | 29.00 |
| Andrew Flintoff | 69/ 31 | 2 | 15.50 |
| Andrew Strauss | 8/ 7 | 1 | 7.00 |
A stats preview to the first Test between Australia and India in Melbourne
S Rajesh25-Dec-2007
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The bowling attack looks embarrassingly thin, the opening pair isn’t a settled one and the preparation ahead of the first Test has been far from ideal. Yet, the presence of five maestros, all of whom are almost certainly playing their last Test series in Australia, will give the Indian fans hope of achieving the seemingly near-impossible task of winning the Test series.That, though, might be too lofty a goal: in the last two years, no team has even managed to draw a single game against Australia. The Boxing Day Test in 2005 started a glorious run which has fetched them 14 straight victories, just two short of their own record of 16 which they set under Steve Waugh’s captaincy.The Indians had stopped that run quite spectacularly in Kolkata, and what will give them heart this time too is their record against Australia in the last three series: the series wins are level at one per team, while each side has won four Tests. (Read last week’s Numbers Game column for details on all teams’ performance versus Australia since 2000.)
| Tests | Aus win | Ind win | Draws/ Tie | |
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| Overall | 68 | 32 | 15 | 20/ 1 |
| In Australia | 32 | 20 | 4 | 8/ 0 |
| Last three series | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Bowling has traditionally been a weak link for India, and the Australian batsmen have generally enjoyed plenty of success against them. The one exception to the rule is Adam Gilchrist, who averages less than 30 against them; against no other side does he average less than 42.
| Batsman | Tests | Runs | Average | 100s/ 50s |
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| Matthew Hayden | 11 | 1244 | 62.20 | 3/ 6 |
| Michael Clarke | 4 | 400 | 57.14 | 1/ 2 |
| Ricky Ponting | 15 | 1253 | 52.20 | 4/ 4 |
| Adam Gilchrist | 14 | 659 | 29.95 | 2/ 2 |
In 24 innings against them, he has just four fifty-plus scores, while 11 times he has fallen for less than ten.If his past track record against India is any indicator, though, Gilchrist has a fair chance of scoring runs in the Boxing Day Test – he tends to start a series well against India, but the numbers fade away dramatically as the series wears on.
| Matches | Runs | Average | 100s/ 50s | |
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| 1st Tests | 4 | 295 | 49.16 | 2/ 0 |
| 2nd Tests | 4 | 257 | 32.12 | 0/ 2 |
| 3rd Tests | 4 | 66 | 16.50 | 0/ 0 |
| 4th Tests | 2 | 41 | 10.25 | 0/ 0 |
Overseas batsmen have often struggled in Australia, but the Indian top order has impressive numbers there, with four batsmen averaging more than 50. Rahul Dravid had a poor series in 1999-2000, but more than made up for it with some exceptional knocks on the next tour, in 2003-04. VVS Laxman made his mark in both series, while Sachin Tendulkar has had memorable knocks in each of his three tours, starting with sublime knocks in Perth and Sydney in 1991-92. Sourav Ganguly’s century at the Gabba on the previous tour was the knock which kickstarted the batting line-up, while Virender Sehwag’s scintillating 195 in Melbourne is probably a huge reason why he finds himself in the squad this time.
| Batsman | Tests | Runs | Average | 100s/ 50s |
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| Rahul Dravid | 7 | 712 | 64.72 | 1/ 3 |
| VVS Laxman | 7 | 715 | 59.58 | 3/ 1 |
| Virender Sehwag | 4 | 464 | 58.00 | 1/ 1 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 12 | 1029 | 54.15 | 4/ 3 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 7 | 461 | 38.41 | 1/ 2 |
The Indian bowling wears a far thinner look, though. Anil Kumble had an excellent tour in 2003-04, but his overall average in Australia is 40, while Zaheer Khan only managed five wickets in his two Tests here. Harbhajan Singh averages 24.17 against Australia, with a fantastic haul of 54 wickets from eight Tests, but 53 of those scalps were in India. In his only Test in Australia – in Brisbane in 2003-04 – he finished with match figures of 1 for 169.The Australian attack will be led by Brett Lee, who has a modest record against India – 21 wickets at an average of 31.42 – but he has improved considerably since he last played against them.As if the 14-match winning streak isn’t enough, Australia will look to further another run of wins when the Boxing Day Test gets underway – they have won eight successive times at the MCG, which is second in the all-time list of consecutive Test wins at a venue, next only to the 12 that West Indies put together in Bridgetown, Barbados, during a 15-year stretch from 1978 to 1993. (Read The List for more details.)Going by all the pre-match talk, the pitch is likely to be a good one for batting, but past record here suggests there will be a decisive result: the last draw at the ground was ten years back, when South Africa took on the hosts. In the last 19 Tests at the MCG, only two have been drawn.
From a plumber to a fast bowler, the story of Mitchell Johnson
Dileep Premachandran02-Oct-2007
Mitchell Johnson: “It’s a different level to your state cricket but you needn’t change anything because you’ve got to this mark for a reason” © Getty Images
A couple of months ago Mitchell Johnson packed his bags and got on a flight to Chennai. It was Australia’s off season, but after having spent the World Cup in the Caribbean sitting in the dressing room while his mates went through another undefeated campaign, Johnson was anxious to ensure that he started the new season fully prepared. After all, with Glenn McGrath having traded the 22 yards for the Hall of Fame, there was a new-ball place up for grabs.For Johnson, who can nudge the speedometer up to 150kph when his rhythm’s right, sharing the new ball with Brett Lee would be the culmination of a dream that almost had its requiem three years ago when he was axed from the Queensland squad. For a young man who battled so hard to come back from near-crippling back injuries, it was the most bitter of blows, and one that nearly forced him to turn his back on the game.For a while he drove a plumbing van for a mate but his heart and mind were elsewhere. “When I lost the [Queensland] contract, it was a very tough time for me,” he says. “I did think about what I was going to do with myself. I wasn’t sure if cricket was the answer. But I spoke to friends and family about it and they put me on the right path. I’m glad []. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”Within a year he had made his one-day debut in the Chappell-Hadlee series against New Zealand, and though he has yet to lay his hands on the cherished baggy green, there’s a feeling that the moment is nigh for a 26-year-old that Dennis Lillee referred to as a “once in a generation” bowler nearly a decade ago.With the pacy but erratic Shaun Tait out through injury, Johnson’s main rival for the new ball is Stuart Clark, and the two couldn’t be more dissimilar. In everyday life Clark wouldn’t be out of place in a pinstripe suit, whereas Johnson would blend in perfectly with the surfer boys who congregate on Australia’s Sunshine coast.”I’d love to bowl with the new ball,” he says with a grin. “That’s what I do for Queensland. If I get the opportunity, I’m going to take it. But if I don’t, there are a few things I can still work on with the old ball, like cutters and changes of pace.”Those old-ball tricks have been handed down by one of the masters of a generation past. Lillee and Troy Cooley, Australia’s bowling coach, accompanied Johnson to the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai earlier this summer, and the work they did was mostly geared towards success on the placid pitches of the subcontinent.”The cutters were something I’d never really tried before,” says Johnson, looking back at his initial stints with Lillee at MRF. “I think that’s going to be important here. The pitches are flat, there’s not much bounce. There’s not a hell of a lot for the bowlers here, but if you have those tools, it helps.”His last trip to India, for the Champions Trophy in 2006, highlighted his potential. Against England at Jaipur, he had 3 for 40, and the dismissal of Kevin Pietersen was the perfect fast bowler’s set-up. A wicked lifter jolted Pietersen, and the next ball angled away to take the outside edge. For a while, he drove a plumbing van for a mate, but his heart and mind were elsewhere. “When I lost the contract, it was a very tough time for me. I did think about what I was going to do with myself. I wasn’t sure if cricket was the answer Those were not typical Indian pitches, with some grass and plenty of bounce, but Johnson insists that the short ball still has a role to play in these conditions. “I think it’s very important because you’re testing the pitch to see what it can do,” he says. “The one in Jaipur where I got Pietersen … that might not have bounced on another pitch. It can be a surprise for the batsmen if you bang it into the pitch hard and you get the odd one to bounce a bit more.” At Bangalore in the first game of the current series he got Sachin Tendulkar with a lightning-quick delivery that swung in.Johnson has given a lot of thought to how he’ll bowl in conditions that are vastly different from his stomping ground at the Gabba. “It’s harder to bowl on a flatter pitch, but it brings in your offcutters and your legcutters and your changes of pace,” he says. “But I’m also not going to forget about hitting the pitch hard and getting as much bounce as I can.”Lee is back after missing the World Cup, while Clark has slipped seamlessly into the void left by McGrath. Johnson himself managed a few games alongside McGrath, including in Malaysia last year where he rocked India with a stunning burst of 4 for 11 at the Kinrara Oval. What did he learn from the legend, and from the likes of Lee?”You’ve just got to be yourself,” he says earnestly. “You’re picked in the team for what you do. So just go out there and bowl like you do. Don’t change anything. It’s a different level to your state cricket but you needn’t change anything because you’ve got to this mark for a reason.”State cricket may be a notch below, but the early days at Queensland provided an invaluable education. Among his seniors were Michael Kasprowicz and Andy Bichel, and Johnson is well aware of the success that Kasprowicz had on subcontinental pitches [he won Australia the Bangalore Test in 1997-98 with a spell of 5 for 28].”I’ve spoken to Kasprowicz and Bichel about bowling when I started out with Queensland,” he says. “We’ve talked about India and they basically told me about reverse swing and cutting the ball and all that stuff.”Johnson is rarely without a smile these days, and says he’s “honoured and proud” to be here. And why wouldn’t he be? Instead of possibly installing jacuzzis and fixing leaky faucets, he has resurrected the dreams he had as a teenager. And in the days to come, it’s the batsmen who’ll get that sinking feeling.
Shane Watson’s performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is evidence that he possesses the quality vital to an allrounder – the ability to turn the match with bat and ball
Cricinfo staff30-May-2008
Shane Watson’s performances with bat and ball have made him one of the most valuable players in the IPL © AFP
Only last year Shane Watson was willing to go to any lengths for a remedy to the recurring hamstring injuries that had curtailed his blossoming career. His frustration was so extreme that he was even thinking of getting cow’s blood injected into his hamstrings to make them stronger.The Australian selectors, too, were getting edgy about the future of one of their promising allrounders. Watson missed the Ashes, both in 2005 and in 2006-07 and the frequent breakdowns left a perennial question mark over his future.But, finally, Watson seems to have turned a page. His performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is evidence that he possesses the quality vital to an allrounder – the ability to turn the match with bat and ball. Watson’s won four Man-of-the-Match awards for the Rajasthan Royals in 14 games – only Shaun Marsh, his countryman, has more with five – and he’s been his captain Shane Warne’s go-to man. Today, he delivered once again.Rajasthan were already in a strong position after the Powerplays at 58 for 0 when Watson arrived with the brief of maintaining momentum through the middle overs. “It took me a few balls to understand the wicket and the bounce but after that I got into the rhythm,” Watson said.He scored only 10 off his first 10 balls before deciding to target the inexperienced medium-pacer Yo Mahesh. He swung him for four to long leg and then carted two enormous sixes over the leg-side in the 11th over which cost 20 in all. He combined his muscle with adept footwork against the legspinner Amit Mishra, picking him from outside off stump and depositing the ball into the stands at deep midwicket.Watson’s innings – 52 off 29 balls – ensured that the momentum provided by Rajasthan’s openers was not lost even though both Graeme Smith and Swapnil Asnodkar fell in the same over from Farveez Maharoof. Watson aggressive innings helped set Delhi a target of 193 but it was his opening burst with the new ball that ended the match as a contest.Having gauged that the pitch offered bounce, Watson exploited it effectively, pitching the majority of his deliveries short of a length and beating the batsman with pace and bounce. So potent was his spell that Gautam Gambhir, the tournament’s second highest runscorer, struggled to lay bat on ball. He played and missed four consecutive deliveries before his innings was cut short by a splendid catch at cover off the fifth. Virender Sehwag too was done in by a bumper – top edging a hook – and Shikhar Dhawan pulled another short one to square leg.”We had set strategies and today we wanted to bowl short of length, bowl fast and bowl into the body,” said Warne after the 105-run victory. Watson’s spell of 3 for 10 off three overs was the result of the perfect execution of the plan – 67% of his deliveries (12 out of 18) were on the shorter side.”Throughout the series he has been superb,” Warne said. “He lost a bit of the edge in the last few games but today he was absolutely fantastic and showed his class. He’s a fantastic all-round cricketer and good enough to be in the Australian team.”For now, though, Watson’s immediate goal is another match-winning performance in the IPL finals on Sunday.
Artless yet artful, no cricketer so teased and confused the senses
Rohit Brijnath18-May-2008
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He is considered a cheat, a seller of his soul and his team. Was an Armani-suited sourpuss who let down Sachin Tendulkar when the young tyro was captain. Let his filmstar wife run his life. Had the communication skills of a Benedictine monk. And once outdid himself in Sharjah by holding a press conference during which he sat with his foot on the table, clipping his toenails.This is my favourite cricketer! Perhaps some explanation is due.Much of what is said about Mohammad Azharuddin is true and a lot is not. But where myth met reality was hard to say, for he was hardly willing, or able it seemed, to bare his soul. For a so-called “simple” fellow, a defining term in his young days, he would become the most complex of cricketing creatures.As a young apprentice, it is said, he was reticent, private, locked in a cocoon of shyness, fumbling across a big stage. Only with a bat was he articulate, but even there he was not so much given to prose as to poetry. His beginning was all fairytale: the unknown young Hyderabadi, slim and tall and all whippy strokes, dancing to three centuries in his first three Tests, capturing a national imagination, and unwittingly thrusting himself into a world he comprehended little.A life in Indian cricket is much harder to negotiate than we think. “Small-town boy comes good” makes for a great story, but an arduous journey. Boys from nowhere are suddenly front-page news, invited to a baffling celebrity world, being asked to perform not just on the field but everywhere, every day, and this transition from riding cycles to practice to being owner of a chauffeured Mercedes, all done in the public eye, all so terribly fast, is seductive and scary.There is no one in officialdom to help, no one to show the way or explain this new world; it is stand or fall. India should have learned from Azhar’s mistakes, from Vinod Kambli’s, but still, even now, players are left to their own devices.Family is vital. Friends who are there not merely to massage the ego but brave enough to point out flaws are valuable. What Azhar’s experience was, is hard to say, but perhaps in his later years he lacked direction, for he lost, or seemed to lose, his way. Why, we didn’t, and do not, know.Terse, often rude (yet ironically admired by teams from other shores, for mostly he was a gentleman on the field), scuffling with photographers, his divorce on the front page (“Cricketer leaves wife for actress,” as if this was some unholy sin), he became easy to dislike and we took, most of us, that easy way. In his later years, he did not fit the story we wanted him to be. Barring Harsha Bhogle’s book on him, there is scarcely a piece that revealed him to us.For me, it made him as much repelling as compelling, frustrating but fascinating, this artless yet artful man of silken strokes and stony face. Later, Bhogle would tell stories of how Azhar would slip a personal cheque to players during benefit matches, and it made you rethink, wonder that perhaps there were elements to this clumsy, confounding man that we did not know, or care to.
| Much of what is said about Mohammad Azharuddin is true and a lot is not. But where myth met reality was hard to say, for he was hardly willing, or able it seemed, to bare his soul | |||
He was my favourite because no sportsman ever made me struggle so much, no Indian athlete demanded so much inner debate, no cricketer so confused the senses. As a writer you’d compose a paragraph, delete it, try again, delete, unable to suitably capture his character, explain his motivations.We had a fair idea about Tendulkar, we could explain the once inscrutable Javagal Srinath, we could even comprehend the complex Sourav Ganguly, but Azhar defied glib definition. He challenged the imagination, he forced us to confront our biases (few liked him later on, so criticism was rarely questioned), he tested our intuitiveness, he tried our capabilities as journalists, he made us, all flawed men ourselves, understand the nature of compassion and imperfection.He was my favourite also because he played like from a boy’s dream, with an unhurried, wristy, impossibly careless, intoxicating grace (well, when the bowling wasn’t quick and short), his bat a blade and he a fencer of arcs and angles and cuts and thrusts, not so much tearing apart attacks as slicing them open, standing there as upright and elegant and arrogant as a bullfighter, and even when, incomprehensibly, he whimsically wanted to score off each shot, turning into some passing whirlwind of shot-making, his play could never be called violent, as if such a word was too commonplace to attach itself to such a cultured cricketer. In short, he made you write sentences like this, one collective, bewildered exhale. He was not so much great as he was beautiful.My last long interview with him was when he’d helped take India past Mark Taylor’s Australians in 1998. In Bangalore, in his hotel room, the incongruity of the man was once again evident. The prayer mat next to the designer suits; the six pairs of designer sunglasses next to the amulet. The small-town boy who was never allowed to watch films, now married to an actress; the private man caught in the most public of careers. If it was confusing for us, imagine what it was for him.There is no excuse for him, there cannot be; and he carries alone the responsibility for his sins. But even now, in his disgrace, he returns like an old, familiar ghost to haunt me. A man who did himself no justice. And in some strange way, perhaps, possibly, neither did we.
For 470 minutes over the last two days even the Feroz Shah Kotla’s garish stand at the Tata End didn’t look ugly. For 470 minutes, Laxman cloaked violence with grace and left Australia hopelessly spellbound
Cricinfo staff30-Oct-2008
Fielders don’t matter to VVS Laxman. Their placement and angles become superfluous © AFP
When VVS Laxman plays like he did today, there isn’t a worry in the world. For 470 minutes over the last two days even the Feroz Shah Kotla’s garish stand at the Tata End didn’t look ugly. For 470 minutes, Laxman disguised violence with grace and left Australia hopelessly spellbound.When Laxman plays like he did today, fielders don’t matter. Their placement and angles become superfluous. If there are men blocking his whip through midwicket, he can always hit the ball straight past mid-on – and sometimes mid-off – and time it just as well. Early this morning, Laxman had Michael Clarke, at short extra cover, staring him in the face. One typically crunchy push-drive went straight to him, and Australia’s plan seemed to be working. The next ball was of similar length but Laxman waited for that extra half a second and played the same shot. This time Clarke had no chance. The other fielders would have experienced the same helplessness at various times throughout the day.When Laxman plays like he did today, he is one of the most difficult batsmen to bowl to. Mitchell Johnson can bowl as full and wide as he likes, but Laxman will just flick his wrists and hit the ball from outside off to send it speeding to the long-on boundary. Clarke can come over the wicket and pitch it in the rough as much as he likes, but Laxman will either whip him against the spin or clear his leg and play inside out. Brett Lee can bowl as many bouncers and outswingers as he likes, but Laxman will roll his wrists to keep the pulls down or drive them wristily through the covers. Stuart Clark, the only bowler who managed to keep him quiet, admitted that Laxman, when on song, was the hardest batsman to bowl to. “He’s very wristy, hits to midwicket from outside off stump, although we did plan for that,” Clark said. “He played really well, got on top, and once the momentum went it was hard to get it back.”When Laxman plays like he did today, you leave the ground with memorable shots replaying in your head. He was on 13 yesterday when he played the first one: his front foot came out, his bat met the ball right under his head, and no flourishing follow-through was required. It was a decent delivery from Shane Watson and didn’t deserve the treatment it got.When Laxman plays like he did today, he makes audacious shots look classical. Johnson bowled one wide outside off stump and Laxman’s response – a flick to long-on boundary – would evoke awe, and not outrage, from the purists. The next ball was similar, but a touch shorter, and Laxman late-cut it for four. Two overs later, he picked one up from off-stump and whipped it to the square-leg boundary.When Laxman plays like he did today, he paces his innings superbly. He scored 17 off 19 balls out of the first 50 runs in his 278-run partnership with Gautam Gambhir. Then came the lean period against Clark during which Laxman took 34 balls to move from 50 to 55. And then he took off, reaching his century off 170 balls and scoring his second 100 off only 130, though he hardly ever looked like he was in a hurry. “I’m very satisfied because, after a long time, I got a score more than 150,” Laxman said. “I was getting hundreds but was unable to get big hundreds. Hopefully this will start a process and I’ll get big hundreds.”When Laxman plays like he did today, his opponents are usually Australia. This was his sixth century, his second double, and his fifth score of more than 140 against his favourite team. When he plays his 100th Test, in Nagpur, he would have played 24 matches but scored 33% of his runs against them. Often he has been asked what it is about Australia that brings out the best in him. And often he has said they are an aggressive side which allows him to play his natural game. It shows too, for nearly 36% of his career boundaries have come against Australia.When Laxman plays like he did, he often sets up matches for India, like he did today. The declaration came soon after Laxman’s double-century and then the hard work started in the field for India. Until then there wasn’t a worry in the world.
Stats highlights from the second Test between India and Australia in Mohali
S Rajesh21-Oct-2008
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The Mohali result was a remarkable one for many reasons: it was India’s biggest Test win and Australia’s heaviest defeat against India (both in terms of runs), but almost as significant as the margin of the result was the manner in which the two teams played.The Australian template has always been to play attacking cricket, score quickly, and then strangle the opponents with accurate bowling and tight fielding. Before the series started, Ricky Ponting talked up Australia’s new-age cricket, and said India played the old-fashioned way. He was, quite justifiably, upbeat about Australia’s ability to take quick singles, put pressure on opposition fielders, and deny the opposition batsmen the same luxury with a ring of agile in-fielders.In this Test, though, the role reversal was complete. India scored 783 runs in 1164 balls, a scoring rate of 4.03 per over, while Australia’s run-rate was a poor 2.78. The difference of 1.25 runs per over is the second-highest for a Test involving Australia since 1990. The only occasion the margin was greater was more than ten years back, also against India, in Kolkata, when Australia lost by an innings and 219 runs.
| Opposition | Run-rate | Aus run-rate | Difference | Venue & year |
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| India | 3.98 | 2.32 | 1.66 | Kolkata, 1998 |
| India | 4.03 | 2.78 | 1.25 | Mohali, 2008 |
| West Indies | 3.64 | 2.57 | 1.07 | Adelaide, 1993 |
| Sri Lanka | 3.52 | 2.57 | 0.95 | Kandy, 1999 |
| West Indies | 3.71 | 2.78 | 0.93 | Georgetown, 1991 |
On the singles and dot-balls stakes too, Australia were well behind the home team. India ran 300 singles in the 1164 balls they played, while Australia managed just 113 in their two innings, and the percentage of deliveries off which they took singles was less than half the corresponding number for India.
| Team | Total balls faced | Singles | Percentage | Dot balls | Percentage |
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| India | 1164 | 300 | 25.77 | 737 | 63.31 |
| Australia | 998 | 113 | 11.32 | 799 | 80.06 |
Another statistic that reflects the gulf between the two teams in this match is the runs-per-wicket number. Not only did India score 320 more runs than Australia, they also did it losing seven fewer wickets. Their average of 60.23 runs per dismissal was significantly higher than Australia’s 23.15. In fact, since 1990, only three times has the difference been higher for Australia, but one of those instances – versus South Africa in 1993 – was in a rain-interrupted game in which the numbers were skewed as the visitors didn’t even complete their first innings. Exclude that game, and the top three instances all involve India.
| Opposition | Runs per wkt | Aus runs per wkt | Difference | Venue & year |
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| India | 126.60 | 20.70 | 105.90 | Kolkata, 1998 |
| India | 101.78 | 51.94 | 49.84 | Sydney, 2004 |
| South Africa | 86.00 | 48.86 | 37.14 | Melbourne, 1993 |
| India | 60.23 | 23.15 | 37.08 | Mohali, 2008 |
| West Indies | 60.00 | 29.80 | 30.20 | Georgetown, 1991 |
More stats
A look at how the stats stack up for Pakistan and South Africa ahead of their ICC World Twenty20 semi-final
S Rajesh17-Jun-2009The overall numbersAs you’d expect with a team which has won five games on the trot in the tournament, South Africa have excellent numbers with both bat and ball – they are marginally ahead of Pakistan in both aspects. Neither of the two teams are at the top of the tree in terms of batting stats – West Indies takes that honour – but with the ball South Africa and Pakistan are easily the two best sides in the competition. They have taken the most number of wickets in the tournament so far with 42 and 41, and are the only sides who have conceded less than seven runs per over.
TeamRunsBallsWicketsAverageRun ratePakistan7025593023.407.53South Africa7665902728.377.78
TeamRuns concededBalls bowledWicketsAverageEcon ratePakistan6475764115.786.73South Africa6005734214.286.28The Powerplay oversBoth South Africa and Pakistan have been among the more conservative teams with the bat during the first six overs, scoring at less than eight runs per over. South Africa, though, have been excellent at keeping wickets in hand, losing just three during the Powerplay overs all tournament, and averaging 77 per wicket. Their opening partnership of Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis has been among the best in the competition. Pakistan, on the other hand, have lost nine wickets during the first six overs.
TeamRunsBallsWicketsAverageRun ratePakistan219180924.337.30South Africa231180377.007.70As bowling teams, South Africa have been far superior in the first six, taking 11 wickets – the second-highest, after England’s 13 – at an excellent average and economy rate.
TeamRuns concededBalls bowledWicketsAverageEcon ratePakistan239180734.147.96South Africa1841801116.726.13Wayne Parnell and Dale Steyn have been exceptional in the first six. Mohammad Aamer is the most successful for Pakistan, but he has been relatively expensive, going at seven-and-a-half per over.
BowlerRuns concededBalls bowledWicketsAverageEcon rateDale Steyn6260415.506.20Wayne Parnell4260410.504.20Mohammad Aamer9378423.257.15Abdul Razzaq3136215.505.16The middle overs – 7 to 14Pakistan have been the slightly stronger team overall in the middle overs, scoring at a better rate and taking four more wickets than the South African bowlers.
TeamRunsBallsWicketsAverageRun ratePakistan284235835.507.25South Africa269240833.626.72
TeamRuns concededBalls bowledWicketsAverageEcon ratePakistan2512401615.686.27South Africa2472401220.586.17The star bowler in the middle overs has been Shahid Afridi who has done a remarkable job of taking wickets and keeping the runs in check. In 114 deliveries he has taking eight wickets, an average of less than 15 balls per wicket, at an economy rate of only slightly more than five per over.
BowlerRuns concededBalls bowledWicketsAverageEcon rateShahid Afridi98114812.255.15Saeed Ajmal6060415.006.00Johan Botha7884419.505.57Roelof van der Merwe8290420.505.46Shoaib Malik5542155.007.85The last six oversSouth Africa have been the slightly better batting team in the last six overs, but both have been outstanding with the ball, conceding less than ten runs per wicket, and less than seven per over. That’s ensured that the batting teams have had little momentum towards the end of their innings.
TeamRunsBallsWicketsAverageRun ratePakistan1991441315.308.29South Africa2661701616.629.38
TeamRuns concededBalls bowledWicketsAverageEcon ratePakistan157156188.726.03South Africa169153198.896.62Umar Gul has taken the most number of wickets in the last six overs, but there have been several other star performers from both teams. Saeed Ajmal has been outstanding, both in terms of taking wickets and keeping runs in check, and the same applies to Steyn, Parnell and van der Merwe as well.
BowlerRuns concededBalls bowledWicketsAverageEcon rateUmar Gul656988.125.65Saeed Ajmal526077.425.20Dale Steyn4942412.257.00Wayne Parnell5141412.757.46Roelof van der Merwe243054.804.80How the runs have been scoredThere’s little to choose in the manner in which the two teams have scored the runs in this tournament: the dot-ball percentages are almost equal, but Pakistan have, surprisingly, scored a higher percentage of their runs in singles, twos and threes.
TeamDotsPercentage1s, 2s, 3sPercentage4s, 6sPercentagePakistan20336.3128550.987012.52South Africa21235.9328648.479215.59The extras factorSouth Africa are clearly ahead in his area: they’ve bowled one no-ball and 17 wides, to Pakistan’s eight no-balls and 23 wides.
Sri Lanka’s captain has begun to infuse his side with his own brand of competitiveness, and the results seem to already be starting to show
Jamie Alter01-Sep-2009Two qualities, determination and perfectionism, define Kumar Sangakkara, and he is trying to get Sri Lanka to use the one to attain the other. With four wins and a draw from five Tests this year, Sangakkara’s job as captain has been rather smooth and rewarding, and the cherry on the cake has been Sri Lanka’s elevation to No. 2 on the ICC Test rankings – for only the second time.As soon as Sri Lanka moved to No. 2, though, Sangakkara was quick to point out it meant they weren’t No. 1. His aim is to win every time Sri Lanka take the field “in the right spirit and compete for every minute”. The road ahead, to first try and hold on to second place and then take the step up, is going to be very tough, owing to their international assignments – or lack thereof. But they have the right man to lead them into a new era.Sangakkara has clutched at every opportunity that’s come his way, and his intellect and hunger to sweat it out have given him a cutthroat edge. And though he won’t say as much, he has managed to some extent to transfer this drive to the team as well.Some of the moves have been subtle, some obvious; they have been made on the field and in the back room. Under Sangakkara’s leadership Chaminda Vaas was dropped from the Test side. It clearly signalled a shifting of focus. Behind Sangakkara’s talk of Vaas’ quality and importance to the team lay a strong message: that investment in youth was the way forward. At the same time, the youngsters were put on their toes.Ajantha Mendis, the flavour of 2008, was dropped for the final Test against Pakistan. Mendis was taken out of his comfort zone, and Sangakkara has since turned the heat on him by saying Rangana Herath could be Sri Lanka’s top spinner after Muttiah Muralitharan’s retirement. Having Tillakaratne Dilshan open in Tests proved a smashing success.During the one-day win over Pakistan recently Sangakkara sledged Younis Khan and Umar Akmal, even getting involved in a heated spat with Younis. Sangakkara tried to play it down but there was no denying the mood.Not all of Sangakkara’s on-field moves have worked. At the SSC he was too conservative in his declaration, which was clearly postponed to allow Jayawardene to reach his century. As Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, and even an average Test captain like Rahul Dravid will attest, personal landmarks matter not a jot in the attempt to become good Test sides. Sangakkara was unimaginative with his field placement against New Zealand on days four and five at the SSC, looking on as Jesse Ryder and Jacob Oram went aerial down the ground. He had plenty of runs to work with and could have easily put two men back. On the final day he chopped and changed his bowlers and didn’t allow them to settle. Because Sri Lanka won, such instances may easily be forgotten.
Sri Lanka’s bid to get to No. 1 in the Test rankings is seriously hampered by the number of matches they have scheduled. According to the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, Sri Lanka are scheduled to play only six Tests between now and May 2011
Sri Lanka’s next Test tour is India in December, and Sangakkara’s goal is to turn his side into world-beaters. Traditionally Sri Lanka have been bullies at home but unconvincing overseas, as 18 wins from 94 away Tests indicates. They have never won a Test in India, so improving their overseas record starts with the odds stacked against them.There are internal challenges too. Amid the recent success it has been difficult to ignore how the runs are all coming from four batsmen. Sri Lanka have managed to hide a shaky opening combination for some time due to the runs churned out by Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Dilshan and Thilan Samaraweera.Samaraweera’s last few years have been excellent but he has played 30 of his 54 Tests at home and has struggled in Australia (average 22.66), in England (4.25), and in India (10.50). Sri Lanka have also not found a reliable No. 6, while runs from Prasanna Jayawardene have not been forthcoming.Sri Lanka’s fast bowling is arguably the healthiest it has ever been but Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara will face a big Test in India. The development of this promising new-ball pair is of paramount importance to Sri Lanka in their quest for No. 1. Six of Thushara’s nine Tests have been in the subcontinent; Kulasekara was hammered in England in 2006, in conditions expected to suit him. His bowling average outside home is 223. These are a few of the worries Sangakkara faces as he attempts to lead Sri Lanka into a new era.According to Sangakkara, Sri Lanka are just scratching the surface with their Test performances. “Test cricket is about playing tough teams and trying to win against tough oppositions. If you don’t challenge yourself against the best and if you don’t go out of your comfort zone, you are never going to improve as a side,” he said. “If you are going to stay sheltered and protected and just going to play in conditions that suit you, I don’t think that’s going to do us any good.”Sri Lanka’s first trip to No. 2 came under Marvan Atapattu’s captaincy, and since then they’ve stayed in the top six. “We can’t think we won anything by the performances we’ve shown,” said Sangakkara. “We’ve done really well but the key is to do it consistently day in day out against every side we face. In about two or three years if we keep doing this then we can turn around and say that we are a very good side.”Thilan Samaraweera has been in the form of his life, but the acid test will come away from home•Associated PressThis brings us to Sangakkara’s second massive challenge. Sri Lanka’s bid to get to No. 1 in the Test rankings is seriously hampered by the number of matches they have scheduled. According to the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, Sri Lanka are scheduled to play only six Tests between now and May 2011, three in India over the new year and three against West Indies at home in November-December 2010. Compare that to what top-ranked South Africa have lined up in the same time-frame: four Tests against England at home later this year, three in India in early 2010, followed by four in the West Indies, three against Pakistan, and three more when they host India in late 2010-early 2011. India, just behind Sri Lanka on the table, at third place with an equal number of points, have the home series against Sri Lanka, two Tests against Bangladesh, the three against South Africa, three when they host New Zealand in late 2010, and then the trip to South Africa.How can Sri Lanka possibly hope to keep their spot at No. 2? “It’s a shame we don’t have sufficient Test matches to go up to No. 1 in the rankings,” said Sangakkara, “We would like more Test matches […] if we can get it up to about eight it will be great.” That, however, is unlikely, given Sri Lanka Cricket’s tendency to go for limited-overs arrangements.Jayawardene, Sangakkara’s good friend, has predicted Sangakkara will make his mark on Sri Lankan cricket history as captain. Sangakkara has an acquisitive mindset, which he has attributed to the influence of his first captain, Arjuna Ranatunga. After that magnificent World Cup win in 1996, Sri Lankan cricket peaked but then nosedived, and they have failed to replicate that summit since. Times have changed, but like Ranatunga, Sangakkara has the difficult task of ensuring Sri Lanka don’t rest on their laurels.How well he imbues his side with his own sharp edge won’t depend solely on his own volition, but you can trust Sangakkara to try his hardest. He just doesn’t know any other way.
This was no throttling. It was a heart-attack of a performance and England need a defibrillator if they’re to regain the Ashes
Andrew Miller at Headingley09-Aug-2009Andrew Strauss: ‘That first morning was far from ideal, not knowing the side at 10.30am and a bit of mad rushing around. But as batsmen you’ve got to deal with changing circumstances all the time, so to use that an excuse is not really valid.’•Getty ImagesIt is hard to comprehend that England began the fourth Test on Friday morning with a clear-cut opportunity to seal the Ashes there and then. Leaving aside the chaos that inflicted them before the start of play, England won the toss having stacked their team with bowlers, and so had a glorious opportunity to take advantage of their bravado by batting first in apparently perfect conditions. With enough first-innings runs on the board, they could pile the pressure onto their clearly fallible opponents. Or so the plan went, at any rate.Two days and a session later, the momentum of England’s campaign has hit the buffers, after a defeat as devastating as any they have suffered in the past 20 years. Though Andrew Strauss scoffed at the very notion of “momentum”, and claimed he did not believe that such a concept actually existed in international sport, his opposite number Ricky Ponting had no doubt. Australia, he claimed, held every advantage going into the Oval Test, after a performance that, in his 14-year, 135-Test opinion, could scarcely have been bettered.”You can’t ask for anything more,” he said. “I don’t we could have done anything better in this game. Almost every chance that was created was taken, while everything we’ve done, whether it’s been guys starting their spells or batsmen coming to the crease and starting their innings, have been really sharp and spot on. We’ve grabbed the momentum early in the game and run through it right the way through, and here we are, two-and-a-half days into the Test match, having just played some of the best cricket these group of players have played.”It’s just amazing how quickly things can change in this game,” said Ponting. “It was only at Lord’s a couple of weeks ago that no-one thought we had any chance at all of being able to bounce back this series, and here we are now sitting back doubting everything that England’s been doing. Things have changed pretty quickly. We’ve been in total control this week which is something I’m proud of, but we’ve got to make sure we carry that over into next week.”Strauss, for his part, was eager to avoid being drawn into a discussion about where the balance of power in the series now resides, largely because he recognised it was a chat he was unlikely to enjoy. “If there is such a thing as momentum, it probably has [shifted], but I’m yet to be convinced it means a lot, that word,” he said. “As a team we’ve always come back well after performing badly, and I take some comfort from that. But I also realise that without making sure we don’t make the mistakes we’ve made here, and without making sure we prepare properly, we’re not going to be able to take anything for granted.”Whatever Strauss may think of the nebulous forces at play in this series, it is hard to discredit the evidence of the four matches to date. Australia seized the early advantage at Cardiff, when they reacted to England’s throwaway first innings by grinding and thumping their way to 674 for 6 declared, their highest score in Ashes cricket for 75 years. Yet England wriggled out with a draw, and carried the conviction they showed on that final day all the way to Lord’s, where Australia simply failed to make an appearance until the match was all but over.Duly invigorated by their efforts in that contest, England took command in between the showers at Edgbaston, only for Australia this time to wrestle the initiative, and more, in a final-day performance that began as a rearguard but finished as a statement of intent. Michael Clarke bossed the last-day batting with his second century of the series, and as Andrew Flintoff faded from the reckoning with every passing delivery, so Ponting turned his (and England’s) attention to the contest looming at Leeds before the end of the same week.
It was only at Lord’s a couple of weeks ago that no-one thought we had any chance at all of being able to bounce back this series, and here we are now sitting back doubting everything that England’s been doing. Things have changed pretty quicklyRicky Ponting
“For me, the momentum thing is about what your individual players get out of the game,” said Ponting. “There’s not many of our individuals that have not taken a lot from [this match]. We’re all confident with what we’ve done, but we’ve got to keep a lid on it. It’s one Test match that we’ve played well in in the series, but the real work starts for us when the Oval Test match starts now. We’ve got to have the same attitude we’ve had around the group this week. If we have that then we’ll be very hard to beat.”If Australia marched up the M1 last week with a sense of a battle rejoined after a torrid fortnight of retreat, England’s arrival in Yorkshire was chaotic in the extreme. Their determination to give Flintoff as much time as possible to prove his fitness backfired badly, because it meant at least five of England’s over-inflated 14-man squad remained unsure of whether they were playing, certainly at 5am on the match-day itself, when the entire squad sent 20 minutes shivering in the rain after a fire alarm at the team hotel, and in some cases even as late as half-an-hour before the toss, when Matt Prior’s back spasm caused a further wave of disquiet.”If we use that as an excuse we’re barking up the wrong tree,” said Strauss. “That first morning was far from ideal, not knowing the side at 10.30am and a bit of mad rushing around. But as batsmen you’ve got to deal with changing circumstances all the time, so to use that an excuse is not really valid. You like things to be sorted out earlier than that, but the reality of the situation was that the first session was an awful session, and from there on it was very hard to get back into the game.”To call England’s performance a “choke”, as it would doubtless have been described had South Africa been the side on the verge of conquering the Aussies, does a disservice to that concept as well. As a rule, South Africa’s moments of meltdown have come from positions in which they seemed to be in control. England never for a moment exuded such confident vibes, even as early as the first ball of the match, from which Strauss somehow failed to be pinned lbw. To all intents and purposes, this contest was all over by lunch on the first day. This was not a throttling, it was a heart attack. And England have a fortnight to locate their defibrillator.