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.
Kapil Dev by the numbers, and the country he changed
434 Test wickets and 5,248 runs from a fast bowler India was not supposed to be able to produce, plus 175 not out that won a World Cup.
Kumar Sangakkara by the numbers, and the average nobody mentions
12,400 Test runs at 57.40, which is the highest average of any batter with 10,000 runs except one, achieved while keeping wicket for half of it.
Left-right batting pairs, and why bowling sides hate them
Every single a left-right pair takes mirrors the whole field and moves the bowler's line by a stump and a half. It costs the fielding side; it costs the batters nothing.
Mahela Jayawardene by the numbers, and the 374
11,814 Test runs at 49.84, including a 374 in the highest partnership in the history of the game, from a batter who scored most heavily where the ball turned.
Malcolm Marshall by the numbers, and the best of the four
376 Test wickets at 20.94, which is the lowest average of any bowler with 300 or more, taken by the shortest and fastest of the great West Indian quicks.
Michael Holding by the numbers, and fourteen wickets at the Oval
249 Test wickets from 60 matches, taken by the fastest and quietest bowler of the great West Indian attack, whose run-up umpires could not hear.
MS Dhoni by the numbers, and the parts that are not countable
Two world titles, a Test mace, and a finishing record built on a method — take it deep, then win it — that nobody has successfully copied.
Muttiah Muralitharan by the numbers, and the 800
800 Test wickets, which is 92 more than anybody else, taken by a bowler whose action was tested three times and cleared three times.
Net run rate, and the two rules almost everyone gets wrong
Net run rate decides more qualifications than any other number in cricket, and most explanations of it skip the two rules that actually change the answer.
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.
Ravichandran Ashwin by the numbers, and 537 Test wickets
537 Test wickets and six Test centuries, from an off-spinner who kept adding deliveries to his repertoire for fourteen years because he expected to be worked out.
Richard Hadlee by the numbers, and a bowling attack of one
431 Test wickets at 22.29, taken almost entirely without a supporting bowler at the other end, for a country that had won seven Tests before he arrived.