Mahela Jayawardene vs Kevin Pietersen

[Fuller Pilch]

Average against better than median attacks overseas:
Thorpe 44.5
Gower 39.9
Mahela 26.8

How do you define "better than median attacks"?

Jayawardene averages greater than 26.8 everywhere with an average of 62.8 in India! His lowest averages are in NZ and SA but those are both in the high 27s. He's one of the few visiting batsmen with 2 test 100s at Lord's (Vengsakar is the only one with 3).

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Average against better than median attacks overseas:
Thorpe 44.5
Gower 39.9
Mahela 26.8

I remember Thorpe getting a very good 200 in Christchurch in the Astle 222 match but as Cairns was injured that was against Chris Drum, Ian Butler, Craig MacMillan, Nathan Astle, and Daniel Vettori with a half broken back. Our good seamers of that era were all injured so surely that doesn't count in your "stats". All 6 NZ Plunket Shield (1st class) sides have better attacks than that!

 

[BazBall21]

I remember Thorpe getting a very good 200 in Christchurch in the Astle 222 match but as Cairns was injured that was against Chris Drum, Ian Butler, Craig MacMillan, Nathan Astle, and Daniel Vettori with a half broken back. Our good seamers of that era were all injured so surely that doesn't count in your "stats". All 6 NZ Plunket Shield (1st class) sides have better attacks than that!

It was a good innings, but yes was that definitely a weaker than median attack. And it wasn’t even the best innings played in the match ofc.

 

[BazBall21]

How do you define "better than median attacks"?

Jayawardene averages greater than 26.8 everywhere with an average of 62.8 in India! His lowest averages are in NZ and SA but those are both in the high 27s. He's one of the few visiting batsmen with 2 test 100s at Lord's (Vengsakar is the only one with 3).

Hardly surprising or flukey that it’s so low. He was renowned for being below par against quality pace.

A basic explanation of the system:
There is a median Test bowling average and you weight the averages of the bowlers by the balls they bowled in an Innings to determine if it’s a better than median attack.
This means the depth of an attack will be rewarded.

Obviously it’s not perfect, but it’s a very good and handy system so performing as poorly on it as Mahela does is definitely a statistical caveat.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Mahela won a lot of matches.

 

[Jack1]

Pietersen