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.
Rahul Dravid by the numbers, and the balls nobody counted
13,288 Test runs at 52.31, and more deliveries faced than any batter in the history of Test cricket. The second number explains the first.
Ricky Ponting by the numbers, and the side he captained
13,378 Test runs at 51.85, and a captaincy record of two World Cups and 48 Test wins, in charge of the strongest side the sport has produced.
Sachin Tendulkar by the numbers, and what they cannot show
200 Tests, 15,921 runs at 53.78, and a hundred international centuries. The records are the least interesting thing about a career that lasted twenty-four years.
Shane Warne by the numbers, and what he did to leg spin
708 Test wickets from a discipline everybody had written off as too expensive and too unreliable for the modern game. The wickets are only half of what changed.
Steve Waugh by the numbers, and the sixteen consecutive wins
10,927 Test runs at 51.06, and a captaincy record of forty-one wins from fifty-seven Tests including sixteen in a row, which nobody has approached.
Sunil Gavaskar by the numbers, and the first ten thousand
10,122 Test runs and 34 centuries, made against the fastest bowling in history, without a helmet, opening the batting for a side that mostly lost.
What counts as an all-rounder, and the four definitions in use
Four definitions are in circulation and only one of them is testable: does the batting average exceed the bowling average. Very few players in history clear it.
The concussion substitute, and why it is unlike any other rule
It is the only rule in cricket that lets a replacement bat and bowl, and it exists because the alternatives were a concussed player continuing or a side playing with ten.
A tie is not a draw, and the difference is not pedantry
A tie means the scores finished level with the match complete. A draw means time ran out. One has happened twice in Test cricket; the other happens constantly.
The forward defensive, and why every coach teaches it first
It is the least glamorous shot in cricket, and every attacking shot on the front foot turns out to be a version of it with the hands released through the ball.
The free hit rule, and why it costs far more than one run
A no-ball in white-ball cricket hands the batter a delivery on which only a run out can dismiss them, and in the last two overs it is worth several times the penalty run.
The run out at the bowler's end, and why it was renamed
It has been legal since 1947 and moved out of the unfair play section in 2022. The objection has never been to the Law, only to the manners around it.