Cricket writing, from our own data
Cricket records, rules explained and notes on the daily puzzles. Written from our own dataset, never rewritten from a news site.
Slower balls explained: cutters, knuckle balls and the carrom ball
Four ways to take pace off a delivery without changing the arm speed, plus the one on the list that is not a slower ball at all and never was.
Clive Lloyd by the numbers, and the decision that built a dynasty
7,515 Test runs and a captaincy of 74 Tests, in which he decided that four fast bowlers and no spinner was the answer and was proved right for fifteen years.
Courtney Walsh by the numbers, and 519 wickets from durability
The first bowler to reach 500 Test wickets, taken across seventeen years and 132 Tests by somebody who almost never broke down and almost never bowled badly.
Cricket ground dimensions, and why no two are the same
The pitch is fixed to the inch and the boundary is a range of twenty-five yards, which is why the same shot is six at one ground and caught at another.
Curtly Ambrose by the numbers, and the spells that ended matches
405 Test wickets at 20.99, including 7 for 1 in Perth and 6 for 24 in Trinidad, from a bowler whose length was almost impossible to leave or to drive.
Dale Steyn by the numbers, and the best strike rate of the modern era
439 Test wickets at 22.95, taken every 42 balls, which is the fastest strike rate of any bowler with 400 wickets in the history of the game.
Death bowling, and why it is the hardest job in cricket
The last four overs cost roughly three runs more per over than the middle, and the bowler is asked to do it with five fielders out and a set batter swinging.
Dennis Lillee by the numbers, and the back that should have ended it
355 Test wickets at 23.92 from 70 matches, taken by a bowler who broke his back at 24, was told he would not bowl again, and then took 300 more.
Dew, and why it decides more night matches than rain
Dew makes the ball wet, the spinners harmless and the outfield fast, and it appears on no scorecard. At some grounds it is worth more than the toss.
Don Bradman by the numbers, and the four runs that mattered
An average of 99.94 across 52 Tests, which is roughly twice anybody else. He needed four runs in his last innings to finish on a hundred and made none.
Extras explained: byes, leg byes, wides and no-balls
Four kinds of extra, and the only distinction that matters is whether the bowler is charged for it. Two of them are, two are not, and the reason is fault.
Glenn McGrath by the numbers, and the length he never left
563 Test wickets at 21.64, taken almost entirely by bowling the same ball on the same spot for fifteen years, at a pace nobody would call fast.