I had it brought to my attention what I thought to be unfairly a while back that Sachin Tendulkar was over-rated because he had never made 500 runs in a series.
I immediately thought that this must have been incorrect since his career average was over 50 and with 10 innings in a five-Test series, surely some of his aggregates would have been higher than others.
There have in fact been more than 200 instances of players scoring over 500 runs in a series and some of the greats such as Donald Bradman (7), Brian Lara (7), Sunil Gavaskar (6), Garfield Sobers (6), Ricky Ponting (5), Virat Kohli (4), Steve Smith (3) and Rahul Dravid, Alastair Cook and Viv Richards (2 each) have accomplished the feat on multiple occasions.
It turns out that while it has been done on occasions in fewer than five Tests the vast majority of times it has been done were in series of five or more and Tendulkar played in only three of these in his career spanning 200 matches.
It was really just a unique set of circumstances working against him. So 493 was his highest Test series aggregate.
This doesn’t, of course, undermine his record in any way and I was slightly peeved that someone had demeaned his record without bothering to properly qualify their claim.
There are, of course, several other statistical anomalies, such as Kurtis Patterson’s Test batting average of 144.
It got me thinking, however, as to what a “great” series with the bat actually looks like. And to be honest the results were surprisingly disappointing.
I compiled the records of the players who in the history of Test cricket have played more than 50 matches and averaged over 50.
There are 30 of them in all, ranging from Jack Hobbs who debuted in 1908 up to Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson who are still playing. I was tempted to leave Bradman out of the analysis as he is so clearly an outlier but doing so does entail losing some objectivity as cases could then be made for leaving out other players such as the three current ones listed above who have not completed their careers unlike the other players.
They represent nine of the 12 Test-playing nations with only Afghanistan, Ireland and Bangladesh not contributing a player.
I thought surely this represents the generational talents that have played the game. Others may have claims to be included in such a definition, but it would be hard to make a case to leave any of these players out and in providing a sample of nearly 6000 innings between them the results should also be statistically significant from such a sample.
• The average five-Test series aggregate for this group of players is 407 runs.
• They batt on average 8.47 times per series
• They will have had 1 not out (1.09).
• They will have scored less than 25 on four (3.66) occasions,
• between 25 and 50 twice (1.68),
• between 50 and 100 twice (1.73)
• and made – wait for it – one century (1.28).
• In fact the 30 greatest players to play the game averaged only five centuries for every four five-Test series they competed in.
Just by way of completion, they will have scored a duck on just over 5% of occasions, a century on just over 15% of occasions and the average conversion rate of 50s to 100s is just over 40% with only three players exceeding 50%.
Sachin Tendulkar. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
They will be bowled or LBW on just over 33% of dismissals, out caught on just under 61% of occasions and out every other conceivable way including handling the ball 6% of the time.
They will remain undefeated in 10.84% of innings.
There are of course huge variances against these figures on an individual basis.
This amazed me. I think I was expecting compiling the records that these giants of the game have would entail two or three centuries per series and far fewer failures.
This is clearly not to undermine the greats of the game who I have and still do hold in the highest esteem but more to recognise that like all of us much of their careers were not leaping from one success to the next and that they too have had to strive to achieve their hard-earned status within the game.
It was not just a career of one great innings after another or even of one great series after another. It is probably their ability to rise above the inevitable failures that separate them from the batters among the 3862 other players to have played Test cricket.
By extension then to quote Mark Twain, there are three types of lies – lies, damn lies and statistics.
In the following hypothetical case a player has just completed a series having scored 350 runs at an average of 50 and is being considered as a possible candidate for player of the series.
Following sound but unspectacular efforts in the first three Tests, a message is sent out that the captain wishes to declare shortly and that he should attempt to lift the run rate.
In a short cameo better suited to a T20, he is dropped three times off difficult chances including a final one on the boundary which rolls over the rope enabling the captain to declare at his desired total.
In the second innings, chasing a moderate total for victory, a confident LBW is turned down and having used all their reviews the bowling side though disappointed can do nothing. TV replays show the ball cannoning into off stump. He pushes the next ball into the legside for the winning run.
He is fortunate to be at the wicket compiling a sound innings on a docile pitch nearing a comprehensive victory in the last Test and sets off for a quick single to win the match. The ball is thrown in from cover point and the bowler sloppily breaks the stumps without full control of the ball with the batter short of his ground.
None of these dismissals would have changed the outcome of the matches had they been successful. With each subsequent one though their average would have dropped to 44, then to 39 and finally to 35, where his position in the side for the next match would have been the point of much discussion.
Yep ….. lies, damn lies and statistics!!
SCGhttps://https://ift.tt/dHcUVzP lies, damn lies and statistics can’t prove Tendulkar was over-rated
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