CWeb Investigations

[Goughy]

There may be a similar, older thread to this but I was wondering about a couple of things and thought some people way want to help dig deeper.

- KP averages over 10 fours and over 1 six a test. How common is it? and how many names can we get that have done it

- The Don averaged 99.94 for his 52 test career. What are the best averages by any player for any 52 consecutive tests. eg Ponting averages over 70 in his last 52. (Im sure this info is available somewhere)

If people are bored, have a go at looking at the 2 points and we can see what we can come up with.

Also, anyone got another question to ask the CWebbers to look into as a thought exercise, please post it.

 

[superkingdave]

OTTOMH Gilchrist, Cairns, Flintoff, Afridi, Rafique

 

[Goughy]

Gilchrist No
Cairns No
Flintoff No
Afridi No
Rafique No

Ive no idea how many have (if any), it may be less likely than I first thought

 

[superkingdave]

well i can't think of any others that would be close to 1 six per game, or at least any that average enough to hit 10 fours a game so i reckon KP is the only one.

Think he'll dip below 10 fours in this series tbh

 

[silentstriker]

Dhoni?

 

[Goughy]

Dhoni?

Like a lot of them, he has enough 6s but not enough 4s.

Hayden is very close but also comes up short.

Gayle also does not do it

 

[silentstriker]

Sehwag has 598 fours but only 41 sixes in 49 matches, so he is sort of close.

 

[silentstriker]

This is a good one though, can't think of anyone else.

 

[Perm]

I was thinking Gilbert Jessop but then realised how difficult it was to hit a 6 back when he was playing, he only struck 3 in the 18 games he played.

 

[Great Birtannia]

Hussey is two sixes short, he has the 4s well covered.

 

[nightprowler10]

Afridi has double the amount of sixes, but falls short of the 10 4s.

 

[nightprowler10]

- The Don averaged 99.94 for his 52 test career. What are the best averages by any player for any 52 consecutive tests. eg Ponting averages over 70 in his last 52. (Im sure this info is available somewhere).

Yeah, Ponting averages close to 72. Yousuf is just over 65.

 

[Matt79]

There may be a similar, older thread to this but I was wondering about a couple of things and thought some people way want to help dig deeper.

- KP averages over 10 fours and over 1 six a test. How common is it? and how many names can we get that have done it

- The Don averaged 99.94 for his 52 test career. What are the best averages by any player for any 52 consecutive tests. eg Ponting averages over 70 in his last 52. (Im sure this info is available somewhere)

If people are bored, have a go at looking at the 2 points and we can see what we can come up with.

Also, anyone got another question to ask the CWebbers to look into as a thought exercise, please post it.

Another way to phrase the question re: Bradman would be: Bradman maintained an average of 99.94 over an 18 year career - what's the second best average of anyone who played test cricket for that long?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Hussey is two sixes short, he has the 4s well covered.

Hussey is 3 sixes short. He's in his 12th game and only has 9.

 

[Goughy]

Another way to phrase the question re: Bradman would be: Bradman maintained an average of 99.94 over an 18 year career - what's the second best average of anyone who played test cricket for that long?

Thats actually an interesting question.

You got any names?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Thats actually an interesting question.

You got any names?

Sobers comes to mind at 57podd. Fairly certain he played for at least 20 years.

 

[Matt79]

Hobbs is the only one that comes to mind, certainly his FC career was that long, not sure about tests...

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Wally Hammond played from 1927 to 1947, and averaged 58.46. He's top of the list.

Hobbs and Sobers both average very close to Hammond and played for 22 and 20 years respectively. Len Hutton played for 18 years and averaged 56.67. The last two that average over 50 from 18+ year careers are Steve Waugh, 51 over 19 years, and Denis Compton, 50 over 20 years. Viv Richards is quite close, with 17 years of test cricket and a 50 average. There are a few more guys in the 45+ average range with long careers, including Bruce Mitchell (20), Geoff Boycott (20), Clive Lloyd (18) and Bob Simpson (21). Technically Simpson is the longest serving 45+ average player after Hobbs, since he retired for some time from test cricket and then returned during the Packer era for a brief period, at 41 years of age.

Among current players, Tendulkar and Lara are in their 17th and 16th years of test cricket respectively, and average 55 and 53. Assuming you count full years rather than exact dates, Tendulkar will be in his 18th year of test cricket in a bit over a month.

 

[Matt79]

That's a pretty amazing effort by Sachin and BC isn't it - especially considering they didn't have a 4 or 6 year interruption in the middle of their careers due to a war, and the increased density of scheduling these days.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

That's a pretty amazing effort by Sachin and BC isn't it - especially considering they didn't have a 4 or 6 year interruption in the middle of their careers due to a war, and the increased density of scheduling these days.

Yeah. Tendulkar is quite amazing, considering how young he still is. Lara might make it to 18 yet, as well.

Warne and Muralitharan are both in their 14th years of test cricket, coming up on 15, as is Justin Langer, while McGrath has one year less. The most experienced bowler in the business is Anil Kumble however, who has been playing since 1990 like Lara.

18 years is understandably a rarer achievement among bowlers, particularly seamers. Among people who bowled enough to take 200 wickets, Sobers has an impressive 20 years, but Imran Khan dwarfs all the other seamers with 21 years, from 1971 to 1992. The only other bowler with 18 years under his belt is Lance Gibbs. Quite a few of the longest serving bowlers are all-rounders though, presumably because they could keep their place longer on the back of their batting, with the likes of Imran hardly bowling in their later years.

Chandrasekhar, Underwood, Chris Cairns (weirdly), Botham, Wasim, Hadlee, Kapil, Walsh and Kumble have all played 15+. Given that Walsh was a medium pacer in his later years and Imran hardly bowled after the late 80s, no genuine fast bowlers have ever really lasted 15 years. 12 or 13 seems to be about the limit, with the likes of Lillee and Marshall in that range, though Waqar Younis made 14.