Sachin Tendulkar leads the list of run-scorers and century-makers in Tests, but Ricky Ponting has a chance to catch up © AFP

How far ahead is the top player in any list is a key to answering the question of whether a high mark set by a player will be reached. I have taken a few Test batting measures and created a table of the Top-100, subject to qualifying criteria, and assigned each position a percentage relative to the top position. A perusal of these tables will give an idea of the degree of permanence of the top places.

Since I normally can only show 5/6 tables in any article to make the same readable, I will do the Test Batting now and follow with one on Test Bowling.

If an active player is at the top of an all-time list, he/she keeps on widening the gap on the second placed player, unless the top two or three are also active. This is true of the aggregate type of measures. On the other hand in performance related measures, it does not matter since it is possible for later players to catch up with the particular measure.

The tables are shown in a standardised format. The first five entries are shown to get an idea, not just of the top entry, but also the ones immediately following the top. Then the 50th entry, exactly at mid-point, is shown to get an idea of the % drop. Finally the 100th entry is shown to get a further idea of the table's distribution of the key measure.

1. Table of Batting averages (minimum 200 runs)

SNo.Batsman                Cty Mat Inns  No   Runs   Avge     %

  1.Bradman D.G            Aus  52   80  10   6996  99.94  100.0
  2.Pollock R.G          ~ Saf  23   41   4   2256  60.97   61.0
  3.Headley G.A            Win  22   40   4   2190  60.83   60.9
  4.Sutcliffe H            Eng  54   84   9   4555  60.73   60.8
  5.Barrington K.F         Eng  82  131  15   6806  58.67   58.7
...
 50.Gilchrist A.C        ~ Aus  96  137  20   5570  47.61   47.6
...
100.Butcher B.F            Win  44   78   6   3104  43.11   43.1

This is the mother of all tables. The second placed player is nearly 40% off, making this, with almost exception, the most difficult performance measure to be breached. Over 10 Tests, yes, but over a career, positively no. Readers might recollect that Kallis is the one with the second highest 80-innings streak in history with an average of 76.41 which itself is 24% off Bradman's figure. Gilchrist at no.50 is at 47.6%, below the 50% mark. Butcher, at no.100 has a 43.6% value, indicating the bunching of players after the 50th position.

To view the complete list, please click here.

2. Table of Runs per Test (minimum 2000 runs)

SNo.Batsman                Cty Mat    RpT     %

  1.Bradman D.G            Aus  52  134.5  100.0
  2.Headley G.A            Win  22   99.5   74.0
  3.Pollock R.G          ~ Saf  23   98.1   72.9
  4.EdeC Weekes            Win  48   92.8   69.0
  5.Lara B.C             ~ Win 131   91.2   67.8
...
 50.Fredericks R.C       ~ Win  59   73.5   54.6
...
100.Thorpe G.P           ~ Eng 100   67.4   50.1

As compared to Batting average, this table is a more even one. The difference between Bradman and the second player is only 26%. Also the 50th batsman is well above 50%. In fact, the 100th player, Thorpe, himself is above 50%.

To view the complete list, please click here

3. Table of Career runs scored

SNo.Batsman                Cty   Mat   Runs      %

  1.Tendulkar S.R          Ind*  159  12773   100.0
  2.Lara B.C             ~ Win   131  11953    93.6
  3.Ponting R.T            Aus*  136  11341    88.8
  4.Border A.R           ~ Aus   156  11174    87.5
  5.Waugh S.R              Aus   168  10927    85.5
...
 50.Richardson R.B         Win    86   5949    46.6
...
100.Mudassar Nazar         Pak    76   4114    32.2

An '*' next to the team indicates that the player is still active.

This table is the most intriguing of all. Tendulkar is ahead of the retired-Lara by over 6%, a comfortable margin. However the next player, Ponting is still active and he is about 11% behind. The key questions are whether Tendulkar would score enough runs to make the aggregate beyond Ponting's reach or Ponting would succeed in chipping away at the difference. BCCI's generally lukewarm scheduling of Tests is another factor. From now to retirement, Ponting would have to play around 16-18 Tests more than Tendulkar to overtake the master. No crystal-gazing is possible. Probably the odds are against it.

Richardson, like Gilchrist in Batting average table, is at 50th position with 46.6%. Then note how the % drops off basically because this is a longevity measure. Mudassar, in the 100th position, has an aggregate below a third of Tendulkar's.

To view the complete list, please click here

4. Table of Centuries (minimum 10)

SNo.Batsman                Cty     100s      %

  1.Tendulkar S.R          Ind*     42    100.0
  2.Ponting R.T            Aus*     38     90.5
  3.Lara B.C             ~ Win      34     81.0
  4.Gavaskar S.M           Ind      34     81.0
  5.Waugh S.R              Aus      32     76.2
...
 50.Sutcliffe H            Eng      16     38.1
...
100.Hussey M.E.K         ~ Win*     10     23.8

I normally do not do any analysis of centuries since I feel it is an over-rated measure. However it is one measure which many people talk about and I have done this table for those interested.

As compared to the Runs scored table, Ponting and Lara have interchanged places, indicating Ponting's penchant for reaching three figures. He is only 4 centuries behind Tendulkar. Ponting's century frequency is once in 3.6 Tests and Tendulkar's is 3.8 Tests. This slight difference, and the fact that there is a difference of below 10%, generates a gut-feeling within me that Ponting might at least equal whatever Tendulkar finishes with, in 100s, if not runs.

To view the complete list, please click here

5. Table of Zeroes scored (Min 20)

No.Batsman            Cty  Inns Zeroes    %    Freq

 1.Walsh C.A          Win   185   43   100.0   4.30
 2.McGrath G.D        Aus   138   35    81.4   3.94
 3.Warne S.K          Aus   199   34    79.1   5.85
 4.Muralitharan M     Slk*  159   33    76.7   4.82
 5.Ambrose C.E.L      Win   145   26    60.5   5.58
 6.Dillon M           Win    68   26    60.5   2.62
 7.Martin C.S         Nzl*   72   25    58.1   2.88
 8.Morrison D.K       Nzl    71   24    55.8   2.96
 9.Chandrasekhar B.S  Ind*   80   23    53.5   3.48
10.Danish Kaneria     Pak    71   23    53.5   3.09
11.Waugh S.R          Aus   260   22    51.2  11.82
12.Atapattu M.S       Slk   156   22    51.2   7.09
13.Waqar Younis       Pak   120   21    48.8   5.71
14.Ntini M            Saf*  113   21    48.8   5.38
15.Harmison S.J       Eng*   86   21    48.8   4.10
16.Bedi B.S           Ind   101   20    46.5   5.05
17.Atherton M.A       Eng   212   20    46.5  10.60

This is a tribute to those wonderful breed of players who provide great entertainment to many. When Chris Martin starts to bat, his first run is looked forward to and applauded as enthusiastically as another batsman's 100th run. Barring three specialist batsmen, the other 14 are all wonderful bowlers, but mostly ineffective but entertaining batsmen.

Walsh leads with 43 ducks. McGrath follows him about 20% behind. Where is Martin. He is there in 7th position. Another 50 innings and he would cross Walsh.

I have done this table on the number of zeroes. The frequency is also shown. The table could as well have been on this figure, in which case Martin would have been, sorry to disappoint my favourite Kiwi readers, in second position, just behind Dillon.

A table of the highest individual scores reached does not belong to this analysis since that is a specific single innings event and does not warrant such a comparison. For 10 years, no one might reach 400 and in one week, two batsmen might go past it. However just for interest there is a 5% gap between the best and the next best score.

As requested by Richard Mackey I have added a table of Runs per innings also. This will be a fairer one for the middle order batsmen.

6. Table of Runs per Innings (minimum 2000 runs)

SNo.Bataman                Cty Mat    RpI      %

  1.Bradman D.G            Aus  52   87.4   100.0
  2.Pollock R.G          ~ Saf  23   55.0    62.9
  3.EdeC Weekes            Win  48   55.0    62.9
  4.Headley G.A            Win  22   54.8    62.6
  5.Sutcliffe H            Eng  54   54.2    62.0
...
 50.Lloyd C.H            ~ Win 110   42.9    49.1
...
100.Graveney T.W           Eng  79   39.7    45.4

Who else but Bradman on top and a slight re-distribution of the second to fifth positions.

You can download the complete file by using the following link.

http://www.thirdslip.com/misc/perrpi.txt

Or please click here.

I will do the Bowler tables next week.

There were two very good suggestions to the above referenced article which were worth following up. One was by Arjun to have the datum of 80 innings (Bradman's career) and see what is/was the best streak in players' career. The other was Abhi/Kris's suggestion that I could look at the career in three parts, rather than two, since in most careers there is a slow start, a spurt and a slow finish. I have completed these two tables and presented these here.

The usual criteria apply. For the first table, the minimum is 80 innings and a batting average exceeding 25.00. For the second, I have retained the mid-point limits of 4000 runs and 45 Tests as the cut-off for batsmen.

Test Batsmen: Analyzing the three career splits

SNo.For Batsman         |<---Career---->|Start-third| Mid-third| End-third
                        |Mat  Runs  Avge|Runs   Avge|Runs  Avge|Runs   Avge
                        |               |           |          |
  1.Aus Bradman D.G     | 52  6996 99.94|2229  96.91|2643 97.89|2124 106.20
  2.Eng Sutcliffe H     | 54  4555 60.73|1805  78.48|1537 56.93|1213  48.52
  3.Eng Barrington K.F  | 82  6806 58.67|2111  54.13|2379 62.61|2316  59.38
  4.Win EdeC Weekes     | 48  4455 58.62|1602  66.75|1643 63.19|1210  46.54
  5.Eng Hammond W.R     | 85  7249 58.46|2519  58.58|2396 61.44|2334  55.57
  6.Win Sobers G.St.A   | 93  8032 57.78|2781  61.80|2783 60.50|2468  51.42
  7.Eng Hobbs J.B       | 61  5410 56.95|1773  57.19|2019 63.09|1618  50.56
  8.Eng Hutton L        | 79  6971 56.67|2193  56.23|2661 59.13|2117  54.28
  9.Aus Ponting R.T     |136 11341 55.87|2535  40.89|4530 68.64|4276  57.01
 10.Slk Sangakkara K.C  | 85  7308 55.36|1951  47.59|2258 48.04|3099  70.43
 11.Pak Mohammad Yousuf | 82  7023 54.87|1712  40.76|2273 56.83|3038  66.04
 12.Saf Kallis J.H      |131 10277 54.66|2678  43.19|4209 67.89|3390  52.97
 13.Ind Tendulkar S.R   |159 12773 54.59|3617  50.24|5202 63.44|3954  49.42
 14.Aus Chappell G.S    | 87  7110 53.86|2310  53.72|2394 53.20|2406  54.68
 15.Slk Jayawardene D.P.|107  8750 53.35|2653  49.13|2469 46.58|3628  63.65
 16.Win Lara B.C        |131 11953 52.89|3884  54.70|3504 44.92|4565  59.29
 17.Pak Javed Miandad   |124  8832 52.57|3074  53.93|2817 52.17|2941  51.60
 18.Ind Dravid R        |134 10823 52.54|3772  54.67|4001 61.55|3050  42.36
 19.Zim Flower A        | 63  4794 51.55|1310  43.67|1488 46.50|1996  64.39
 20.Ind Gavaskar S.M    |125 10122 51.12|3951  53.39|3362 54.23|2809  45.31

        Average                    45.91       44.28      46.84       45.10
   (for all 101 batsmen)

The average of the averages figures indicates a clear move up of 5.7% from the first third to second third and a clear drop of 3.8% from the second to the third. Remember that these are on the grand average figure. Individual batsmen have clear move up and move down patterns.

Barrington, Hobbs, Hutton, Ponting (in a big way), Kallis (huge variations), Tendulkar, Dravid (again in a big way) are amongst the ones who have clearly identified low, up, low patterns.

Note the consistency across the complete career of Greg Chappell and Javed Miandad.

Sobers and Gavaskar are amongst those who have had great starts but fallen off drastically.

Bradman, Lara, Sangakkara, Mohammad Yousuf and Flower are those who have finished their careers very strongly.

To view the complete list, please click here.

Test Batsmen: By average sustained in 80+ innings

SNo.For Batsman                Start       Finish    Inns No Runs   Avge
                            Ins  Year     Ins  Year

  1.Aus Bradman D.G           1 (1928) to  80 (1948)  80  10 6996  99.94
  2.Saf Kallis J.H           82 (2001) to 161 (2006)  80  19 4661  76.41
  3.Aus Ponting R.T          87 (2002) to 178 (2006)  92  14 5904  75.69
  4.Win Sobers G.St.A        28 (1958) to 111 (1968)  84  13 5283  74.41
  5.Ind Dravid R             66 (2000) to 149 (2005)  84  14 4809  68.70
  6.Eng Barrington K.F       34 (1961) to 121 (1968)  88  12 5154  67.82
  7.Pak Mohammad Yousuf      42 (2000) to 122 (2006)  81   7 5008  67.68
  8.Ind Tendulkar S.R        69 (1996) to 148 (2002)  80   8 4782  66.42
  9.Eng Hutton L             42 (1947) to 123 (1954)  82  11 4687  66.01
 10.Aus Hayden M.L           23 (2001) to 102 (2004)  80   8 4744  65.89
 11.Eng Hammond W.R          15 (1928) to  97 (1936)  83  12 4672  65.80
 12.Aus Waugh S.R            82 (1993) to 176 (1999)  95  23 4699  65.26
 13.Slk Sangakkara K.C       61 (2004) to 142 (2009)  82   6 4899  64.46
 14.Aus Border A.R           88 (1982) to 168 (1988)  81  14 4295  64.10
 15.Win Lara B.C            126 (2000) to 205 (2005)  80   2 4985  63.91
 16.Eng Hobbs J.B            15 (1910) to  95 (1930)  81   5 4827  63.51
 17.Pak Inzamam-ul-Haq       91 (1999) to 175 (2005)  85   9 4795  63.09
 18.Win Chanderpaul S       123 (2004) to 202 (2009)  80  17 3947  62.65
 19.Eng Sutcliffe H           1 (1924) to  80 (1934)  80   9 4425  62.32
 20.Pak Javed Miandad        72 (1982) to 152 (1989)  81   6 4604  61.39

Leaving the colossus outside the discussions, there is a surprise in the second position. I have kept repeating myself many a time. In all the discussions centering around Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting, Kallis has been ignored completely. People point to his lack of wicket-taking ability, forgetting the outstanding batting skills. He and Ponting are the only two batsmen who have averaged over 75 in a consecutive 80+ innings stretch. These two are closely followed by Sobers whose stretch obviously includes the 365*.

Dravid's purple patch comes next, followed by the recent stretch of Yousuf and the mid-career brilliance of Tendulkar. Hutton (not including his 364) and Hayden (including his 380) complete the top-10.

It can be seen that the 80+ innings stretch averages of the last 15 batsmen in the table are within 6 runs.

To view the complete list, please click here.

Test Batsmen: By average sustained in exactly 80 innings

SNo.For Batsman                Start       Finish   Inns No Runs   Avge
                            Ins  Year     Ins  Year

  1.Aus Bradman D.G           1 (1928) to  80 (1948) 80  10 6996  99.94
  2.Saf Kallis J.H           82 (2001) to 161 (2006) 80  19 4661  76.41
  3.Aus Ponting R.T         102 (2003) to 181 (2006) 80  13 5048  75.34
  4.Win Sobers G.St.A        28 (1958) to 107 (1968) 80  12 4969  73.07
  5.Ind Dravid R             96 (2002) to 175 (2006) 80  12 4652  68.41
  6.Pak Mohammad Yousuf      42 (2000) to 121 (2006) 80   7 4884  66.90
  7.Ind Tendulkar S.R        69 (1996) to 148 (2002) 80   8 4782  66.42
  8.Aus Hayden M.L           23 (2001) to 102 (2004) 80   8 4744  65.89
  9.Eng Hutton L             44 (1947) to 123 (1954) 80  10 4555  65.07
 10.Eng Barrington K.F       27 (1961) to 106 (1966) 80  11 4462  64.67
 11.Slk Sangakkara K.C       61 (2004) to 140 (2009) 80   6 4740  64.05
 12.Eng Hammond W.R          15 (1928) to  94 (1936) 80  11 4416  64.00
 13.Aus Border A.R           88 (1982) to 167 (1988) 80  14 4220  63.94
 14.Aus Waugh S.R            77 (1993) to 156 (1998) 80  18 3963  63.92
 15.Win Lara B.C            126 (2000) to 205 (2005) 80   2 4985  63.91
 16.Eng Hobbs J.B            15 (1910) to  94 (1930) 80   5 4753  63.37
 17.Win Chanderpaul S       123 (2004) to 202 (2009) 80  17 3947  62.65
 18.Eng Sutcliffe H           1 (1924) to  80 (1934) 80   9 4425  62.32
 19.Pak Inzamam-ul-Haq      100 (2000) to 179 (2006) 80   8 4470  62.08
 20.Pak Javed Miandad        73 (1982) to 152 (1989) 80   5 4578  61.04

Arjun Hemnani wanted a table in which the stretch is exactly equal to 80 innings. I have created a different table and displayed the same here.

It can be seen that the exactly-80-innings average is slightly lower than that when more than 80 innings are considered since there is more flexibility in the extra innings. A below-average stretch can be more than made up with a very good sretch.

The tables look somewhat similar.

	Younis Khan's average in the second half of his Test career is 55.7% more than his average in the first half © AFP

In the past few posts, we have compared Test batsmen (and bowlers) with their peers; with batsmen batting at specific batting positions; with one's own team members. Now we will be looking inward. Let us compare a Test batsman/bowler with himself. I will look at the two halves of the player careers and do a comparison between these two (mostly dissimilar) periods.

The usual criteria apply. This is just to ensure that the career is sufficiently long. I have taken 4000 runs and 45 Tests as the cut-off for batsmen and 150 wickets and 45 Tests as cut-off for bowlers. These two sets of twin conditions ensure that bowlers such as Barnes do not get into the picture. Most of the top keepers get in.

Only the batting average and bowling average are used for comparison. These two are the most trusted of all measures and will provide a very good platform for a clear understanding of a Test players' career.

Test Batsmen: Analysing the two career halves

SNo Cty Batsman         |<----Career---->|<--1st Half->|<-2nd Half>| % Chg
                        |Tests Runs  Avge|Mt Runs  Avge|Runs   Avge|
                        |                |             |           |
  1.Pak Younis Khan     |  63  5260 50.10|32-2033 39.10|3227  60.89| 55.7%
  2.Zim Flower A        |  63  4794 51.55|32-2013 41.94|2781  61.80| 47.4%
  3.Aus Redpath I.R     |  66  4737 43.46|33-1813 35.55|2924  50.41| 41.8%
  4.Nzl Wright J.G      |  82  5334 37.83|41-2123 31.22|3211  43.99| 40.9%
  5.Aus Chappell I.M    |  75  5345 42.42|38-2219 35.22|3126  49.62| 40.9%
...
 53.Eng Hobbs J.B       |  61  5410 56.95|31-2733 56.94|2677  56.96|  0.0%
...
 97.Aus Hayden M.L      | 103  8626 50.74|52-4714 58.92|3912  43.47|-26.2%
 98.Eng Smith R.A       |  62  4236 43.67|31-2255 51.25|1981  37.38|-27.1%
 99.Win Kallicharran A.I|  66  4399 44.43|33-2582 52.69|1817  36.34|-31.0%
100.Aus Gilchrist A.C   |  96  5570 47.61|48-3073 59.10|2497  38.42|-35.0%
101.Aus Harvey R.N      |  79  6149 48.42|40-3830 61.77|2319  35.68|-42.2%

Younis Khan has achieved the highest jump from the first half to second half, an astounding 55.7%. His average has improved from 39.10 to 60.89. Note that in his last 31 Tests he has scored at higher than 100 runs per Test.

Andy Flower has improved from 41.94 to 61.80, an increase of 47.4%, that too playing in a weak team. Ian Redpath, John Wright and Ian Chappell have also finished their careers very strongly.

For consistency one need not look beyond Jack Hobbs. He has only a second decimal difference in his second half average to the first half. Steve Waugh and Andrew Strauss are close to achieving this perfection.

Gilchrist's huge fall, from 59.10 to 38.42 is understandable considering that he had an explosive start and fell off drastically towards the end. What is surprising is the fall of Neil Harvey, who dropped his average from 60+ to 35. This is quite inexplicable. He scored 15 of his 21 hundreds in the first half of his career. Gilchrist, on the other hand, scored 9 of his 17 hundreds in the first half of his career. However he was dismissed for many single digit scores, quite a few 0s included, during the second half.

Note how Hayden, R Smith and Kallicharan have also fallen off.

To view the complete list, please click here.

Test Bowlers: Analysing the two career halves

No Cty Batsman          |<----Career---->|<-1st Half-->|<2nd Half>| % Chg
                        |Tests Wkts  Avge|Mt Wkts  Avge|Wkts  Avge|
                        |                |             |          |
 1.Eng Laker J.C        |   46  193 21.25|23-  78 29.95| 115 15.35| 48.8%
 2.Eng Bedser A.V       |   51  236 24.90|26- 100 33.87| 136 18.30| 46.0%
 3.Pak Iqbal Qasim      |   50  171 28.11|25-  65 35.78| 106 23.41| 34.6%
 4.Nzl Hadlee R.J       |   86  431 22.30|43- 192 26.17| 239 19.19| 26.7%
 5.Nzl Morrison D.K     |   48  160 34.68|24-  73 39.53|  87 30.61| 22.6%
 6.Slk Muralitharan M   |  129  783 22.22|65- 337 25.48| 446 19.76| 22.5%
...
38.Aus McKenzie G.D     |   60  246 29.79|30- 126 29.81| 120 29.77|  0.1%
...
66.Win Gibbs L.R        |   79  309 29.09|40- 176 24.56| 133 35.09|-42.9%
67.Pak Mushtaq Ahmed    |   52  185 32.97|26- 105 27.51|  80 40.14|-45.9%
68.Win Hall W.W         |   48  192 26.39|24- 119 22.15|  73 33.29|-50.3%
69.Eng Botham I.T       |  102  383 28.40|51- 231 23.46| 152 35.91|-53.1%
70.Eng Lock G.A.R       |   49  174 25.58|25- 104 20.13|  70 33.67|-67.2%

Laker moved from an average spinner to Lohmannish figures in the second half, no doubt aided by the 19 for 90 at Manchester. That is nearly 50% improvement. Similar with Alec Bedser, who had totally different career halves. What about Richard Hadllee, with sub-20 average in the second half of his career. Again Muralitharan's last 64 Tests have had sub-20 average and an average of 7, yes, you read it correctly, 7 wickets per Test.

McKenzie was like Hobbs, averaging almost the same figure in his two halves. Saqlain Mushtaq and McDermott are in the middle group.

Look at the last five, especially Ian Botham. He was a shadow of himself, increasing his average by over 50%. Lock's figures are still more astounding. An average of 20.13 moving to 33.67 and below 3 wickets per Test. Possibly he played the supporting role to Laker quite often as happened at Manchester in 1956.

To view the complete list, please click here.

This blog is going nowhere with readers following a single agenda, whatever be the subject matter of the article. I have had complaints from serious readers that the purpose of the articles is lost. Hence a firm reminder that only relevant comments will be published. Henceforth I will not and readers should not forget that the purpose of the blog is to come out with new analytical efforts. I myself have been guilty of side-tracking into irrelevant and/or non-cricketing issues. Remind me, gently or otherwise, to remove the offending comment or response.