4th Innings Batting vs. Australia in Australia (1990-2010)

[HMas]

Given that Australia has been the most dominant team in the last 20 years it is no surprise that batting against Australia in Australia was possibly the hardest proposition faced by batters around the world.

On top of that, batting in the 4th innings of a Test vs. Aus in Aus was an even more arduous task as batters were either in the midst of a huge run chase or fighting a desperate battle to save a Test under immense pressure from the Australians.

Its interesting to take a closer look at how batters around the world have managed to cope with the above over the last 20 years or so.

Here are the 4th innings stats (top 10 in terms of runs scored) of visiting batters to Australia in the period between Jan 1990 and Dec 2009.

Player-------------Mat------Inns------NO-----Runs-----HS-----Ave-----100----50

JH Kallis------------7---------6---------2------275-----101-----68.75----1------2
KC Sangakkara-----3---------3---------0------258------192----86.00-----1------1
GC Smith-----------6---------6--------0------241------108-----40.16----1------1
GA Gooch-----------5--------5--------0------233-------117-----46.60----1-----2
R Dravid------------7---------7--------2------212------72*-----42.40----0-----1
ST Jayasuriya-------4--------4--------0------195-------112-----48.75----1-----0
AB de Villiers--------5--------4--------1------182-------106*----60.66----1-----1
MA Atherton--------7--------7--------1-------179-------87-----29.83-----0----1
AJ Stewart----------8--------8--------2-------165------63*-----27.50----0----1
SC Ganguly----------6-------5---------0-------163------51------32.60----0----1

The following are the 4th innings stats of two of the modern game's greatest batsmen of all time when playing against Australia in Australia.

Player-------------Mat------Inns------NO-----Runs-----HS-----Ave-----100----50

SR Tendulkar--------8--------7--------0------138-------52----19.71------0-----1
BC Lara-------------9--------8--------0------101-------44----12.62------0-----0

Tendulkar's overall Avg vs. Australia in Australia is 58 but that drops to 19 in the 4th innings. Similarly Brian Lara's overall Avg vs. Australia in Australia is 43 but that drops to 12 in the 4th innings.

It's incredible to think that Brian Lara was unable to even get past 50 in eight 4th innings attempts.

[sasnoz]

in 2000 he was horribly out of form and 97 to a lesser extent and in 05 he got some horrible decisions, not a big fan of 4th innings stats steve waughs was pretty bad aswell

[G.I.Joe]

I'm going to have to play the Yuvraj Singh card.

[gwo]

AB's figures horribly inflated cos of Perth (07?)

That said, it was an excellent knock.

Tendulkar the bottom of this list. Quite surprising nonetheless.

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | Cricinfo.com

[Black_Warrior]

Well batting in the fourth innings is generally tougher than batting in any other innings. Add the fact that most of the times, teams are chasing over 400 in the fourth innings against Austraila, add the fact that they are facing Warne, McGill, McGrath, Gillespie, Lee etc. Having said that..I still dont think that it justifies Tendulkar and Lara having this atrocious average..but guess its just one of the things you can put forward as weaknesses when talking about these masters.

[Prince EWS]

Kallis.










Kallis.

[Top_Cat]

Players from visiting sides struggled in matches against one of the best sides in Test history in their own backyard.

Film at 11.

The numbers above don't make me like Kallis either.

[Black_Warrior]

Actually I am truly surprised to see Kallis at the top of that list.. As much as I love the player...he has kind of underperformed against Australia..his average drops to 40 against them..and in matches when they required a big one..like in Melbourne last year..he failed.

[aussie]

Originally Posted by Black_Warrior

Well batting in the fourth innings is generally tougher than batting in any other innings. Add the fact that most of the times, teams are chasing over 400 in the fourth innings against Austraila, add the fact that they are facing Warne, McGill, McGrath, Gillespie, Lee etc. Having said that..I still dont think that it justifies Tendulkar and Lara having this atrocious average..but guess its just one of the things you can put forward as weaknesses when talking about these masters.

I'm not sure if it really is really a weakness. Of my head given that i saw basically all IND & WI tours to AUS since 96/97 i cant remember any circumstances where either WI or IND have an oppurtunity to win a test in AUS batting last, where these masters failed off my head right. Probably just a coincidence.

At least we know with Lara's 153* & Tendulkar 100+ vs ENG @ Chennai 08. That they where/are good in difficult 4th innings chases.

[Top_Cat]

Originally Posted by Black_Warrior

Actually I am truly surprised to see Kallis at the top of that list.. As much as I love the player...he has kind of underperformed against Australia..his average drops to 40 against them..and in matches when they required a big one..like in Melbourne last year..he failed.

I'm no Kallis fan but this is a smidge harsh. His ton at Melbourne was a top-notch rearguard for one so inexperienced and his 60-odd at Adelaide was in a losing cause anyway. Did all he could, his team-mates failed him in terms of pushing for a win.

[Prince EWS]

When one is considered as a failure against a country whose bowlers combined average about 25 over one's career, when one averages 40 against them, one is pretty awesome.

[Top_Cat]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

When one is considered as a failure against a country whose bowlers combined average about 25 over one's career, when one averages 40 against them, one is pretty awesome.

Unless one didn't cash in when one was needed.

[aussie]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

When one is considered as a failure against a country whose bowlers combined average about 25 over one's career, when one averages 40 against them, one is pretty awesome.

Take out the poor AUS attack during the AUS leg of 08/09 series. His average drops to 36.92 vs AUS.

[jeevan]

Given that Tendulkar averages like 90+ batting in the 1st/2nd innings of matches in Australia (with 6 100's,3 50's in 16 innings over 4 tours, so no statistical fluke) , if he had also averaged 40 or 50 in the 3rd/4th innings of a match (instead of ~ 25) - would've been considered minnow-bashing would it not

[Jono]

4th innings statistics make Yuvraj an all-time great.