Co-creator of CSW, since 1993 the first choice cricket database for many worldwide, and DAFT, harnessing the power of RStudio. ABC Grandstand cricket analyst.
At the rain break, Ban 0-66 off 7 overs, 17 runs ahead of par. When they resume they need an overall run rate of 9.44 to win, when the original run rate required was 9.25. Go figure.
Mins batted in
#AusvInd
679 Khawaja, Head
641 Paine
584 Harris
583 Cummins
564 SMarsh
342 Finch
301 Handscomb+MMarsh
1321 Pujara
897 Kohli
559 Rahane
402 Pant
384 Agarwal (1 Test)
312 Vihari (2 Tests)
300 RSharma (2 Tests)
So Pujara has batted 2 x as long as any Aussie.
My database has just selected the Test team of the decade. It doesn't have emotions or favourites, only data. It just does it.
DWarner
ACook
SSmith
VKohli
KWilliamson
KSangakkara
BWatling
RAshwin
VPhilander
PCummins
JAnderson
Don Bradman batted on 110 different days in Tests, but never on a Sunday. His best days were Friday (1932 runs @ 241.50) and Tuesday (1434 @ 239.00). On no other day did he average 100. He was always dismissed when he batted on a Wednesday, averaging a mere 33.25 on that day.
DWarner needs 125 runs if he is dismissed once in the Sydney Test to finish with a Test average of 45. It's 170 needed if he is dismissed twice.
He also needs 10,993 (if dismissed twice) to match Bradman's Test average. This is less likely.
By popular demand, complete days washed out in Test matches in Australia:
0 Perth (47 Tests)
1 Hobart (14)
2 Adelaide (81)
8 Brisbane (67)
9 MCG (115)
25 Sydney (110)
24 Manchester (+ 2 abandoned Tests)
On losing their sixth wicket today at 136, I mentioned on
@abcsport
that Australia's last four wickets had added an average of 72 runs this summer, and that therefore the Windies would win by 7 runs.
I was wrong. They only added 71, and lost by 8.
Apologies.
Interesting back story to Aus’s decision to field first. An extension of this of course is that India doesn’t get the same intel when they play away, with their players not permitted to play in the likes of the BBL, etc.
Ashwin said "Australia totally deceived me personally, I had a chat with George Bailey during the mid innings, I asked him why didn't you guys bat first like you always do - he answered back, we have played IPL & Bilateral series here a lot - red soil disintegrates but not black
A thread: Warnie once became a subscriber to my database. I spent half-an-hour with him at the SCG installing it on his laptop and showing him how to get the best out of it. I came away 30 mins later thinking, wow, this guy could have been anything.
I’ve been surprised how ineffective Boland has been - he’s had two goes now, but the pitches have neutralised him. I’d bite the bullet and give Neser a chance, which would also shore up the tail end batting. Warner goes, both Green and Marsh play.
That Bairstow century was one of the best I’ve seen, given the context. England on a death spiral, brilliant counter-attack. Got his thumb smashed. Ploughed on. Test cricket at its best.
Since SSmith scored 111 at Dharamsala in 2017, 135 Aussies have walked out to bat in Tests v India. Not one century, a top score of just 79 (MHarris). Only one innings of 200+ balls (UKhawaja). Only eleven 50s, and only two bats with more than one 50. Houston, we have a problem.
Another Test season with
@abcsport
done and dusted for me - had a fabulous time bringing a data component to our popular offerings. Grateful thanks to the ABC for including me in their presentation, especially my on-air colleagues and those working hard for us behind the scenes.
I have witnessed an individual performance here I never thought would be possible. All hail to Shemar Joseph for coming out after being crunched on the foot last night, and ripping through the much-vaunted Australian side to drive his side to victory. Just amazing.
Tim Paine’s name will be etched permanently in Aus cricket history after this. Thrown unexpectedly into the skipper’s role, he has achieved what the 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015 teams couldn’t. Devastating setback at Leeds, stern Eng defence today, but was still able to snatch a win
Australia took six wickets for 26 runs off 33 balls to dramatically change the course of this Test, which looked certain to be an England victory, to a tense draw which only Australia could win at the end. The pressure of Test cricket. Privileged to have witnessed it!
By popular request: washed out days in Australian Tests:
26 SCG
9 MCG
8 Gabba
2 Adelaide
1 Hobart
0 Perth
Sydney's 26 days broken down by 2 on Day 1, 6 (Day 2), 9 (Day 3), 3 (Day 4), 4 (Day 5), and 2 (Day 6)
Note Manchester with 25 wash outs.
KWilliamson, by making 238 today, makes the 306th unique individual score in Test cricket. There are just 95 such scores yet to made between 0 and 400 (BLara). As noted by a few of my friends on here today, 229 remains the lowest such score yet to be made. Next is now 252..
Based on frequencies over the history of Test cricket,
10 wickets in an innings is equivalent to scoring 375,
9w = 317 r
8w = 250r
7w = 200r
6w = 150r
5w = 110r
Strange how those 8w, 7w and 6w match those exact batting milestones!
With M Morkel, JPDuminy, ABdeV, DSteyn and HAmla moving on in recent times,
#RSA
have lost the experience of 49,706 runs and 1,381 wickets over 1,604 International matches. A massive hole in their ranks that won't be easy to replace.
Totally disgusted by events at Cape Town overnight, embarrassed that my country’s team would stoop so low. For me, the conspiracy is worse than the crime. Smith’s position is untenable, others in the “leadership” group too. Unhinged thinking. Undermines all their other complaints
Time to trot out the old stats on complete days of play washed out in Australian Test cricket:
24 Sydney
9 Melbourne
8 Brisbane
2 Adelaide
1 Hobart
0 Perth
My thanks to
@abcsport
for allowing me to be involved with their coverage in one of the most enchanting Test series that I can remember, albeit remotely these last two Tests. Love being involved with these people - and hope that we can work more normally next year!
Todd Murphy yesterday became the 2297th player to bowl in a Test match. With five wickets under his belt, he now ranks 1245th on the all-time list of wicket-takers. Climbing in one day nearly half of a table that has taken 145 years to form is somewhat meteoric.
South Africa lost wickets at the rate of one per 25.8 balls in the Gabba Test. Australia lost wickets at the rate of one per 25.0 balls - that is, more often. Australia's speed of scoring was the difference.
#GabbaTest
A brave Pakistan effort comes to an end after a controversial dismissal enables the Aus bowlers to regroup and tear through the lower order. Full marks to Pakistan for significantly closing the gap after Perth - they are worthy opponents and I am full of admiration for them.
Major milestone ticked off tonight: 612 scored by a team for the first time in Tests, the fourth-lowest such score until now.
The lowest five team totals never made are now 18, 56, 597, 618 and 623
On 17, 18 and 19 January 2001, CPujara, aged 12, scored 306* off 516 balls in 540 mins (9 hours), with 36 fours in a West Zone Under-14 tournament in India. He does this as a habit. What Australian 12-year-old has this opportunity?
So ends a highly entertaining series against a visiting side who made a few too many errors over the journey, but who played with spirit and enterprise that is to be much admired. I just hope they continue to get opportunities to build on what they have learned this summer.
Marnus skating on thin ice here. His Test batting average by chronological quartiles:
58.05
57.48
56.56
31.27
Declines of that quantum tend to be terminal.
The number of Test wickets that PCummins has in excess of JHazlewood on 1 January each year:
2012 +7
2013 +7
2014 +7
2015 -2
2016 -53
2017 -95
2018 -100
2019 -82
2020 -56
2021 -49
2022 -41
2023 -7
today +2
Since Shane Warne's retirement from Tests, 5544 days ago, Aussie leg-spinners have taken 50 Test wickets at 61.00. In the 5544 days before his retirement, they took 913 wickets at 25.86.
Go well, Mitch Swepson!
In my database of nearly 10,000 T20 matches, I have 97 scores of 85, with the quickest being Gilly's 35-ball effort in an IPL match. Laurie Evans has just lowered that to 28 balls.
Final
#CWC19
table, with no more play expected:
12 NZ
11 Aus
11 Ind
10 Eng
*********************
9 SL
9 WI
8 Ban
8 Pak
6 RSA
6 Afg
Semis:
NZ d Eng (washout)
Aus d Ind (washout)
Final
NZ d Aus (washout)
Raising my bat after turning up at Perth tomorrow for
@abcsport
for what will be my 50th Test working for the team. The first one; Hobart, December 1989. Where have the years gone!
I’m coming to the conclusion that poor Will Pucovski will need to find a career that doesn’t involve playing cricket. Heartbreaking for the talented bat. And disappointing for us looking forward to seeing what he could do. But his health has gotta come first.
Kyle Mayers has been playing first-class cricket since 2015, only 32 matches, 1418 runs at 28.93 before this Test, two centuries with a highest of 140. What does a guy with this record find in himself to play an innings in a foreign country like he did today. Just remarkable.
Just had a look at CPujara's early career - by age 22 in all forms of cricket, he had 39 centuries, including 6 double-tons and 4 triples. in the space of a month at 20, he made 386, 309 (under 22 comp) and 302* (fc), the latter followed by 189 and 176 consecutively. Amazing!
Scott Boland took his 7 match wickets for 15 runs off 29 consecutive balls spread over two innings.
W . 1 . 4 3 1 1 . . W . W 1 1 . 3 . W . . . . W . . W . W
Number of Tests played by Australians in Australia's last 100 Tests:
100 NLyon
91 SSmith
87 DWarner
69 MStarc
61 JHazlewood
57 UKhawaja
51 PCummins
40 Marnus
39 THead
33 MMarsh
32 TPaine
Not a bad team!
JLanger wanders out to the practice kit left on the ground in front of me, reaches in and pulls out a shiny Kookaburra, returns to the gate and tosses it to a young lad of around 10. The boy's face is truly a picture!
Reflecting on ARahane’s nice touch in presenting NLyon with a signed shirt for his 100th Test, obviously organised without knowing the match result. Wondering if an Aus side would ever do something like that. To me, a clear example of wonderful respect paid to an opponent.
That’s my summer done with the talented and highly professional ABC and BBC broadcasting teams. Thanks to everyone of them for letting me be part of the coverage - it’s been a lot of fun!
There were 433 Tests in the 2010s, a 6.7% reduction on the number of Tests in the previous ten years, even though we have more Test teams now. Test cricket is being quietly eroded from beneath us, folks....
Kusal Perera - this was the bloke sconed at Canberra, came back to bat in the second innings against advice, given a right working over by the hostile Steyn and Rabada at Durban, and ends up playing one of the great Test innings of all time. What character!
#rsavsl
This season, Scott Boland, a member of Aussie's Test squad, has played 3 Sheffield Shield matches (last ending 19 November), 4 Marsh Cup games (last 11 November) and 3 BBL matches, on 6th, 13th and 15th January. Frustrating for a professional cricketer?