Awesome purple patches from players through history that don't get much recognition

[AndrewB]

Denis Lindsay scored three centuries and two fifties at 86.75 in five Tests against the 1966/67 Australians

Averaged 22 in his other 14 matches

Bit of a minnow basher I suppose

He also held 24 catches in that series. Lindsay's 66-67 series is one of the examples in the Purple Patches book.

 

[Burgey]

I seem to recall John wroght having a really good back end to his career, where for a 2-3 year period at one point he seemed a much better player than he had been previously. Cba looking it up, it’s juat my impression of the bloke’s career - seemed to get better with age.

 

[Red]

Don Bradman*, averaged something like 99.94 over a span of 52 tests. Insane.

*sorry, thought I might as well seeing as Sobers and Hammond got mentioned...

 

[AndrewB]

I've mentioned it in other threads, but WG Grace scoring 1000 runs and taking 100 wickets in the space of 11 matches at the end of the 1874 season must qualify (including a ridiculous run of 7 matches in which he scores 6 hundreds and took 6 10-fors).

 

[Bolo]

Pollock averaged over 50 with the bat in every calendar year from 2001-2003 (55 overall in 29 tests) while going sub 22 with the ball. This must be one of the best outside of the usual suspects.

Where does this stand in terms of generating sustained consistent atg stats (rather than performances) in both diciplines at the same time?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Lakmal since the beginning of 2018 tbh

Been an amazing transformation by him.

 

[Victor Ian]

David Boon circa 91/93ish. Half his hundreds came here.

 

[Athlai]

Chris Martin in his 49th innings, scored in a SINGLE innings* the same amount as 23.1% of his previous 48 innings.

If Donald Bradman had done the same in his 49th innings he'd have scored 982 runs.
It'd have been the equivalent of NZ's premier batsman Big Daddy Kane scoring 363 runs.

And to think we rarely think of Chris Martin as much of a gun with the bat.





*he scored 12 runs

 

[TheJediBrah]

Ashwin around 2015-16. Viriya even said he was on track to surpass Muralitharan's records lol.

Wasn't he making runs for fun too? I know it was against West Indies and mostly crap teams but he was batting no. 6 in the Test side for a while there wasn't he?

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Mominul Haque's first couple test matches where he averaged over 50

 

[mr_mister]

These examples are far smaller sample sizes, but interesting

George Giffen had one amazing series, but the rest of his career was pretty meh



1894/95 Ashes: 475 runs at 52.77 and 34 wickets at 24.11

Rest of career: 763 runs at 17.34 and 69 wickets at 28.56



Aubrey Faulkner averaged about 65 with the bat across 10 tests over 2 consecutive five match series against England in 09/10(avg 60) and Australia in 10/11(avg 73). In the other 4 test series he played he averaged around 20, with his highest series average coming in at 23. He made about 75% of his total test runs in this 10 test period(played 25 tests total)

He had a typically good series with the ball in 09/10 averaging 22, but in the 10/11 series he averaged 50 as a bowler. It was the only series he averaged higher than 26 as a bowler

So he only had 1 series where he delivered with both bat and ball

 

[h_hurricane]

Glenn Mcgrath had plenty of purple patches with the ball, but this was certainly only one with the bat.

Full Scorecard of Australia vs New Zealand 1st Test 2004 - Score Report | ESPNcricinfo.com

It might have been some pleasure to watch him raise his bat. Also hit the only six of his career.

 

[Burgey]

Not really unrecognised, but Michael Vaughan's 2002-03 Ashes series in a side which really didn't belong on the same park as Australia was amazing, and miles better than the rest of his career.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Not really unrecognised, but Michael Vaughan's 2002-03 Ashes series in a side which really didn't belong on the same park as Australia was amazing, and miles better than the rest of his career.

Vaughan was at that level for a bit before that Ashes series and after it as well. Leading into that series there were big wraps on him given how good his recent form had been. Definitely didn't even come close to that level for the rest of his career though, and an excellent contribution to this thread.

 

[h_hurricane]

Vaughan was at that level for a bit before that Ashes series and after it as well. Leading into that series there were big wraps on him given how good his recent form had been. Definitely didn't even come close to that level for the rest of his career though, and an excellent contribution to this thread.

Remember him having a 600+ series against India just before that Ashes.

 

[h_hurricane]

Did Viv Richards had a purple patch in 1976 and just a very good batsman outside that year ? Yes, going by stats.

Scored 20% of his career runs in that year and "only" averaged 45 outside that year.

His record outside 1976 - 110 tests, 6830 runs @ 45.23. A moderate upgrade over Dilip Vengsarkar.

 

[trundler]

Did Viv Richards had a purple patch in 1976 and just a very good batsman outside that year ? Yes, going by stats.

Scored 20% of his career runs in that year and "only" averaged 45 outside that year.

His record outside 1976 - 110 tests, 6830 runs @ 45.23. A moderate upgrade over Dilip Vengsarkar.

Never go full Borges

 

[Hicheal Michael]

Cook averaged 70 from Brisbane 2010 - Kolkata 2012 (26 tests).

He just got a knighthood, so unsure if it meets criteria.

 

[Test_Fan_Only]

Jimmy Adams in 10 test matches between 19 February 1994 and 13 February 1995 averaged 96.18 and scored 4 of his 6 test centuries.

 

[Dendarii]

In the 7 test matches Brian McMillan played in 1995 he averaged 71.42 with the bat and 24.78 with the ball (career averages 39.36 and 33.82 respectively).