here it is...........
Inzi's milestone, and top-order baiters
S Rajesh
December 5, 2003
Perhaps numbers do never reveal the full story, but they tell a large part of it fairly well. Every Friday, The Numbers Game will take a look at statistics from the present and the past, busting myths and revealing hidden truths.
Inzi on a roll
The third one-day international between Pakistan and New Zealand was fairly unspectacular, but it was a special occasion for Inzamam-ul-Haq, who joined a select – but fast growing – band of players to have played 300 one-day internationals. Of the seven players in the list, six are from the subcontinent, which is a fair indication of the sizeable number of one-dayers played by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. (Steve Waugh, with 325 matches over a 16-year career, is the only exception.)
Five of the six subcontinent players are batsmen, and a comparison of their batting stats are quite revealing. All of them show a distinct preference for batting in the subcontinent, but the contrast in most stark for Inzamam: an average of 29.55 shoots up to over 50 when playing on the flat pitches of the subcontinent. Six of his eight centuries have been scored there, with four of them coming in Sharjah. It's an entirely different story when he plays in Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand – in all four countries, he averages below 30.
Batsmen from the subcontinent in the 300-ODI club
In subcontinent Outside
Career Ave ODI Runs Ave(1) ODI Runs Ave(2) Diff (2-1)
Tendulkar 45.14 190 7869 47.69 131 4816 41.52 -6.17
Inzamam 38.98 148 5485 50.32 152 3871 29.55 -20.77
Azharuddin 36.92 221 6229 38.21 113 3149 34.60 -3.61
Aravinda 34.90 189 6146 38.65 119 3138 29.33 -9.33
Jayasuriya 31.96 184 5685 33.64 124 3487 29.55 -4.09
Inzamam in countries outside the subcontinent
In Matches Runs Ave 100s 50s
Australia 37 732 20.91 - 2
New Zealand 18 453 25.16 - 4
England 22 517 28.72 - 4
South Africa 26 668 29.04 1 4
Crumbling against pace
Not only did New Zealand get walloped in two of the first three one-dayers against Pakistan, an old weakness resurfaced as well. Mohammad Sami's amazing burst of 5 for 2 at Lahore, as New Zealand crumbled from 155 for 4 to 157 all out, was only the latest in a spate of collapses that the New Zealanders have suffered against Pakistan in recent years.
In fact, in Sami's debut Test, at Auckland in 2000-01, New Zealand collapsed just as spectacularly, losing their last eight wickets for 10 runs, with Sami taking five of those wickets to end up with the Man-of-the-Match award. In the one-dayers which preceded the Tests on that tour, New Zealand had been at the receiving end of another blitz at the same venue, this time by Shoaib Akhtar, who took 5 for 19 – his career-best ODI figures at the time – and destroyed the tail, as New Zealand lost their last five wickets for seven runs.
Shoaib wasn't quite done, though. When New Zealand came to Pakistan for that ill-fated tour in 2002 which was curtailed due to a bomb blast, Shoaib wrecked more havoc. In the first ODI, he surpassed his Auckland performance, taking 6 for 16 at Karachi. Less than two weeks later, New Zealand –reeling from Inzamam's mighty triple-hundred – succumbed meekly to yet more Shoaib thunderbolts, as his 6 for 11 doomed them to a humiliating innings defeat in the only Test of the series. That was also Shoaib's first – and so far his only – Test against New Zealand. Add Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis to the list and, as the table below shows, New Zealand have had more than their fair share of problems against Pakistan's pace attack.
New Zealand - clueless against Pakistan's pace
Tests ODIs
Ave v NZ Career Ave Ave v NZ Career Ave
Shoaib Akhtar 1.83 25.09 18.36 21.58
Waqar Younis 19.60 23.56 15.84 23.84
Wasim Akram 17.01 23.62 18.54 23.52
Mohammad Sami 30.62 44.23 17.00 22.98
Top-order baiters
The scalp of a No. 11 batsman is – at least statistically – worth just as much as that of a top-order player, but ask any top-class bowler and he'll tell just how much more satisfying it is to dismiss a recognised batsman. So who are the bowlers who have the highest percentage of wickets comprising of the top six batsmen? Among bowlers with at least 250 Test wickets, Allan Donald leads the way, with Brian Statham and Glenn McGrath following closely. In fact, very little separates the top 10 in this list, among whom Derek Underwood is the only spinner. Imran Khan (top-order percentage of 63.26) and Waqar Younis (62.73) just miss out on a top ten spot, while Bishan Bedi (62.03) is the second-highest spinner in the list at No. 14. As the table below indicates, the leading modern-day spinners' tallies are made up of a significant number of tail-end victims.
Best bowlers against the top order
Wkts % of top six victims
1 Donald 330 67.27
2 Statham 252 66.27
3 McGrath 430 66.05
4 McDermott 291 65.98
5 Willis 325 65.54
6 Underwood 297 64.65
7 Kapil 434 64.29
8 Ambrose 405 63.70
9 Lillee 355 63.38
10 Marshall 376 63.30
Where some of the modern-day bowlers figure in the list
Rank Wkts % of top six victims
Waqar 12 373 62.73
Pollock 13 310 62.58
Kumble 20 358 59.50
Muralitharan 22 459 56.21
Akram 23 414 56.04
Warne 24 491 55.40
S Rajesh is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo.
© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd
Bond out, Astle aint playing, Fleming also doubtful.. what the heck :smack:
