From WISDEN
The announcement of Neil Fairbrother’s retirement means
cricket will lose one of its great finishers. Fairbrother’s unflappable
nudging and nurdling made him one of the first finishers to be seen
in one-day internationals, and the Wisden Wizard shows that he
remains one of the best.
There is a big difference between finishing in the first and second innings of a one-dayer, and where these men really earn their corn are
in run-chases, where there is no place to hide if the game is to be won.
So, who are the men who average the most in matches where their side
have won batting second? Fairbrother himself averages a mighty 81,
while Michael Bevan’s average of 98 will surprise nobody who has seen him rescue lost causes time and time again.
But it is another, less heralded left-hander who leads the way. Russel
Arnold has batted in 13 successful Sri Lankan run-chases and averages
a staggering 147. That owes much to 10 not-outs, but these should not be sneezed at. The true finisher will always see the job through to the bitter end.
Apart from that there are the usual suspects - Graham Thorpe and Peter
Kirsten - and a few unlikely ones as well: Geoff Boycott averaged 55 for
England when they won batting second, and quite what Kumara Dharmasena is doing in second place is anyone’s guess.
And you might have heard the odd debate about where Nasser Hussain
should bat in England’s one-day side; his average when England win
batting second (64.16) suggests those former players in the press-box
might have had a point after all.
Using criteria:
[adjust query] type of match: One-Day Internationals
match result: won match
batting/fielding first: fielding first
qualifications: innings batted >= 10
sorted by: batting average
player team span mat inns no runs hs- ave 100s 50s 0s
RP Arnold SL 1998-2002 22 13 10 442 91* 147.33 0 3 1
HDPK Dharmasena SL 1994-2001 43 10 9 106 28* 106.00 0 0 0
MG Bevan Aust 1994-2002 59 38 22 1464 107- 91.50 3 10 2
PN Kirsten SA 1991-1994 11 11 5 508 86* 84.66 0 5 0
HH Dippenaar SA 2000-2002 14 11 5 494 79* 82.33 0 5 0
GM Turner NZ 1975-1983 10 10 4 491 114* 81.83 1 4 1
NH Fairbrother Eng 1987-1999 21 18 11 568 113- 81.14 1 4 0
Rashid Latif Pak 1992-2002 39 10 7 225 47- 75.00 0 0 0
BC Lara WI 1991-2002 56 54 18 2585 153- 71.80 7 14 2 GP Thorpe Eng 1994-2002 26 21 9 849 82- 70.75 0 9 0 WJ Cronje SA 1992-2000 54 43 19 1682 94- 70.08 0 15 1 GS Chappell Aust 1971-1983 21 21 10 770 125* 70.00 1 5 2
MD Crowe NZ 1983-1995 32 32 11 1470 107* 70.00 2 12 1
AR Border Aust 1979-1994 58 46 20 1815 105* 69.80 1 18 0
A Ranatunga SL 1982-1999 62 56 27 2007 131* 69.20 1 13 3
SP Fleming NZ 1994-2002 32 30 12 1230 116* 68.33 3 8 0
Javed Miandad Pak 1978-1996 54 45 20 1656 116* 66.23 1 14 1
SR Tendulkar Ind 1990-2002 81 78 20 3826 134- 65.96 13 19 3
DM Jones Aust 1984-1994 34 32 13 1237 102* 65.10 1 11 0
Inzamam-ul-Haq Pak 1992-2002 68 56 24 2067 118* 64.59 3 14 2
N Hussain Eng 1997-2002 19 19 7 770 95- 64.16 0 8 1 Saeed Anwar Pak 1990-2002 59 57 13 2785 131- 63.29 9 17 4
CG Greenidge WI 1975-1991 52 51 11 2482 133* 62.05 6 16 1
MS Atapattu SL 1992-2002 42 40 13 1652 132* 61.18 1 14 1
Zaheer Abbas Pak 1974-1985 12 11 2 549 113- 61.00 2 3 0