Two gladiators, 22 yards, five days

This is a special analysis using ball-by-ball data which was compiled recently by Milind and me. For readers who might have come in recently, let me reiterate Milind's outstanding contributions in extracting the ball-by-ball data for all Tests matches, from Test #1546. In turn, I have extracted the key elements, formed my own binary database and done a number of analyses. However, without Milind's stellar efforts, this entire exercise would have been a non-starter, like an Mbangwa innings.

Until now I have analysed the head-to-head confrontations across these 550 Tests and specific team contests, such as the Ashes series. In this analysis I have looked at the huge database, from the perspective of a single Test. Some fascinating facts emerge and offer us hitherto-unavailable insights. The unit of data in this analysis for me is a bowler-batsman combination in a single innings or Test. The analysis centres around the balls bowled, runs scored, scoring rate and percentage of balls bowled in the innings. The wickets captured is not relevant for this analysis since we have gone to the lowest level and there can only be one wicket capture per innings and two wicket captures per Test. Whether the bowler dismissed the concerned batsman or not is (almost) completely irrelevant. I am also not sure whether the boundaries information is relevant. It is obvious that MS Dhoni would have hit Nathan Lyon for quite a few and Faf du Plessis hit virtually nothing off Lyon. Actual number of boundaries probably does not mean much.

I considered doing a similar analysis for the Tests #1-#1545 through extrapolation and post tables in this article itself, but I realised that it was a lot more complex than I envisaged and would warrant a separate article. For some innings such as Len Hutton's 364 at the Kennington Oval in 1938, I have the actual balls faced by Hutton and this analysis would then have required a single extrapolation amongst the Australian bowlers, based on actual balls bowled by each of them. On the other hand, for Hanif Mohammad's 337 in Bridgetown in 1958, I do not have the balls-played information and I would have to do two levels of extrapolation. First one, to determine how many balls Hanif would have faced among the Pakistan batsmen and then, to determine how many balls Hanif would have faced off each West Indies bowler. Hence there is need for two clearly delineated threads for that article. So that analysis would be done in a separate article.

Let us now see the tables.

Single innings HtH: Ordered by balls bowled

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Sc Rate
1810	2006	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	221	125	56.6
1563	2001	RW Price	JH Kallis	189	68	36.0
1909	2009	M Muralitharan	Younis Khan	187	111	59.4
1641	2003	M Muralitharan	SP Fleming	185	95	51.4
2061	2012	NM Lyon	F du Plessis	172	20	11.6
2006	2011	Saeed Ajmal	TMK Mawoyo	166	73	44.0
1979	2010	Abdur Rehman	AB de Villiers	164	74	45.1
2034	2012	MS Panesar	Azhar Ali	163	66	40.5
1696	2004	GJ Batty	BC Lara	161	130	80.7
1743	2005	A Kumble	Younis Khan	161	88	54.7

This table of maximum balls bowled by a bowler to a batsman is headed by a very unlikely bowler. Nicky Boje bowled 221 balls to Mahela Jayawardene during the batsman's magnificent innings of 374 against South Africa in Colombo in 2006. This is not surprising since the two Sri Lanka maestros scored 661 of their team's 756 runs. In second place is another unlikely bowler, Ray Price, who bowled 189 balls to Jacques Kallis, interestingly, in Kallis' innings of 189 against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in 2001. In third place is Muttiah Muralitharan's effort against Pakistan at Karachi, when he bowled 187 balls to Younis Khan, who scored a triple-hundred at Karachi in 2009. Muralitharan's tally of 187 balls against Stephen Fleming at Colombo follows next. Then comes the recent bowling stint by Lyon against du Plessis during the latter's defensive match-saving classic of 110 at Adelaide Oval. Look at the scoring rate of this marvellous innings. It is of interest to see that all ten head-to-head confrontations featured here are by spinners. It is understandable. Nowadays even medium pace bowlers rarely bowl more than 40-50 overs in an innings.

Single innings HtH: Ordered by runs scored

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Sc Rate
1977	2010	S Randiv	CH Gayle	154	143	92.9
1696	2004	GJ Batty	BC Lara	161	130	80.7
1810	2006	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	221	125	56.6
1909	2009	M Muralitharan	Younis Khan	187	111	59.4
1600	2002	DL Vettori	Inzamam-ul-Haq	114	109	95.6
1966	2010	S Randiv	SR Tendulkar	153	105	68.6
2074	2013	NM Lyon	MS Dhoni	85	104	122.4
1870	2008	PL Harris	V Sehwag	108	100	92.6

This table is ordered by runs scored. Chris Gayle, during his epic innings of 333 against Sri Lanka in Galle, scored an amazing 143 runs off Suraj Randiv. Note the wonderful strike rate. And this haul was out of the 183 runs conceded by Randiv. Next comes Brian Lara, who, during his watershed innings of 400 in St John's, Antigua, took 130 runs off Gareth Batty. It is interesting to note that Batty conceded only 185 runs in this innings. We have already talked of Boje v Jayawardene. Jayawardene took 125 runs off Boje. Again we see only spinners occupying all the bowlers featured here. Marvel at Lyon v Dhoni, about which I will speak more in the next table.

Single innings HtH: Ordered by scoring rate (Min 100 balls or 100 runs)

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Sc Rate
2074	2013	NM Lyon	MS Dhoni	85	104	122.4
1600	2002	DL Vettori	Inzamam-ul-Haq	114	109	95.6
1977	2010	S Randiv	CH Gayle	154	143	92.9
1870	2008	PL Harris	V Sehwag	108	100	92.6
1933	2009	Harbhajan Singh	DPMD Jayawardene	102	89	87.3
2046	2012	Abdur Rehman	KC Sangakkara	104	84	80.8
1696	2004	GJ Batty	BC Lara	161	130	80.7
2095	2013	P Utseya	Younis Khan	108	84	77.8
2003	2011	S Sreesanth	AN Cook	103	80	77.7
1634	2002	SCG MacGill	MP Vaughan	102	79	77.5
1661	2003	RW Price	ML Hayden	116	89	76.7
2027	2012	I Sharma	MJ Clarke	121	92	76.0
....
1563	2001	CW Henderson	DD Ebrahim	115	18	15.7
2006	2011	RW Price	Younis Khan	112	17	15.2
2061	2012	NM Lyon	F du Plessis	172	20	11.6
1585	2002	M Muralitharan	SV Carlisle	121	11	9.1

This table is ordered on scoring rate. I have selected confrontations which contained either 100 balls or 100 runs. The recent blitzkrieg of Dhoni in Chepauk is still fresh in everyone's memory. If ever a captain made a statement and placed a marker, this was the occasion. Facing 380, India were 196 for 4 and one would have expected a war of attrition. Instead Dhoni scored a 265-ball innings of 224. Lyon bore the brunt of this effort, conceding 104 off 85 balls: the only effort in these 550 Tests of a better-than-run-a-ball effort with the said criteria.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, in his masterpiece of 329 at Lahore in 2002, took Daniel Vettori for a nearly run-a-ball 114 runs. Gayle also plundered Randiv for 143 runs in 154 balls. Suddenly we see two medium pace bowlers here. S Sreesanth against Alastair Cook, during the latter's 294 at Edgbaston in 2011 and Ishant Sharma, against Michael Clarke, during his triple-century in Sydney in 2012, during those two disastrous tours: both went above an average 75 runs per wicket.

Since this is a table on strike rates I have presented the other end also: the low scoring rates. Muralitharan tied Stuart Carlisle down completely, allowing only 11 runs in 121 balls at Galle in 2002. Similarly Lyon's effort against du Plessis also was similar. Although one must admit that du Plessis was the winner. Price was very good against Younis Khan, although it must be conceded that Younis played a match-winning innings.

Single innings HtH: Ordered by % of bowler balls for inns (Min 100 balls)

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	InnsBowlerBalls	%
2009	2011	TM Dilshan	Taufeeq Umar	134	192	69.8%
1735	2005	Enamul Haque jnr	T Taibu	144	222	64.9%
1639	2003	VC Drakes	RT Ponting	124	198	62.6%
1971	2010	Wahab Riaz	IJL Trott	102	164	62.2%
1952	2010	A Mishra	HM Amla	148	240	61.7%
1786	2006	Mohammad Rafique	WU Tharanga	118	192	61.5%
2027	2012	I Sharma	MJ Clarke	121	198	61.1%
1572	2001	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	135	222	60.8%
1913	2009	PL Harris	PJ Hughes	113	186	60.8%
2037	2012	CS Martin	AN Petersen	102	168	60.7%
1748	2005	UDU Chandana	L Vincent	102	168	60.7%
1640	2003	Enamul Haque	HH Dippenaar	119	198	60.1%

These tables are ordered by the percentage of balls to a specific batsman as compared to the balls in the innings. For some inexplicable reason, this table is headed by a non-regular bowler. Tillakaratne Dilshan bowled 32 overs and he bowled 22 of these to Taufeeq Umar at Abu Dhabi in 2011. Then comes Enamul Haque, who bowled nearly 65% of the innings balls to Tatenda Taibu in Dhaka in 2005. Another unlikely bowler, Vasbert Drakes, bowled 62% of his spell to Ricky Ponting in Port-of-Spain in 2003. Probably the most significant of these entries is Muralitharan's 61% of his spell to Lara during Lara's double hundred at the SSC in Colombo in 2001. More about this later as we move the analysis from single innings to single Test.

Single Test HtH: Ordered by balls bowled

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Sc Rate
1641	2003	M Muralitharan	SP Fleming	265	118	44.5
1572	2001	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	240	164	68.3
2061	2012	NM Lyon	F du Plessis	227	34	15.0
1810	2006	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	221	125	56.6
1743	2005	A Kumble	Younis Khan	208	123	59.1
1735	2005	Enamul Haque jnr	T Taibu	202	101	50.0
2058	2012	R Ashwin	AN Cook	195	80	41.0
1563	2001	RW Price	JH Kallis	189	68	36.0
1909	2009	M Muralitharan	Younis Khan	187	111	59.4
1952	2010	A Mishra	HM Amla	187	65	34.8

This table is one after my heart. It is headed by two of the greatest confrontations between bowler and batsman in modern Test cricket. Both involved Muralitharan, bowling at home, against two wonderful, if contrasting, left-handers. The first was during 2003 when New Zealand toured Sri Lanka. Fleming was absolutely outstanding in the first Test played at the P Sara Oval, Colombo. He scored 343 runs in 710 balls and faced Muralitharan for 265 out of these. He was not dismissed in the match. He played Murali with circumspection, scoring only 118 runs.

One of the greatest contests ever was enacted during the completely one-sided tour of Sri Lanka by West Indies during 2001. The teams played three Tests, which were won by margins of ten wickets, 131 runs and ten wickets. The West Indians, barring Lara, had no answer for Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas. Lara made scores of 178, 40, 74, 45, 221 and 130. The last Test features in this table. Muralitharan v Lara at the SSC, Colombo. Murali bowled 240 balls but could not dismiss Lara even once. Lara scored 164 runs at more than four runs per over. This was a contest the gods would have stopped to watch.

Lyon against du Plessis was an equally stirring contest. Where it lacked excitement like the first two, it did not lack in intensity. Two lesser lights were at work. Lyon, yet to be established. du Plessis, on debut for South Africa. du Plessis had one of the best debut Tests ever for a batsman by battling for 535 balls and 188 runs (less relevant) and saved South Africa. Out of this, Lyon bowled 227 balls but could not breach du Plessis' defence even once. The scoring rate was a lowly 15.0 but really did not matter.

Single Test HtH: Ordered by runs scored

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Sc Rate
1572	2001	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	240	164	68.3
1977	2010	S Randiv	CH Gayle	154	143	92.9
1696	2004	GJ Batty	BC Lara	161	130	80.7
1810	2006	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	221	125	56.6
1743	2005	A Kumble	Younis Khan	208	123	59.1
1973	2010	NM Hauritz	SR Tendulkar	168	121	72.0
1641	2003	M Muralitharan	SP Fleming	265	118	44.5
1909	2009	M Muralitharan	Younis Khan	187	111	59.4
1600	2002	DL Vettori	Inzamam-ul-Haq	114	109	95.6
1966	2010	S Randiv	SR Tendulkar	153	105	68.6
1852	2007	Danish Kaneria	SC Ganguly	177	105	59.3
2074	2013	NM Lyon	MS Dhoni	85	104	122.4
1850	2007	Sohail Tanvir	W Jaffer	119	101	84.9
1673	2003	SCG MacGill	R Dravid	174	101	58.0
1735	2005	Enamul Haque jnr	T Taibu	202	101	50.0
1870	2008	PL Harris	V Sehwag	108	100	92.6

Lara leads the Runs scored table, with 164 runs. Then comes Gayle's 143 off Randiv, already discussed. Lara's 130 runs off Batty follow afterwards. The next two entries are those of Jayawardene and Younis Khan. Sachin Tendulkar makes a rare appearance in these tables with a rich haul of 121 runs off Hauritz in Bangalore during 2010. Younis Khan makes a second appearance in the top-ten with his compilation of 111 runs off Muralitharan during his epic 313 in Karachi. Incidentally, this match produced 1400 runs for 13 wickets in the first innings.

Single Test HtH: Ordered by scoring rate (Min 100 balls or 100 runs)

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Sc Rate
2074	2013	NM Lyon	MS Dhoni	85	104	122.4
1600	2002	DL Vettori	Inzamam-ul-Haq	114	109	95.6
1977	2010	S Randiv	CH Gayle	154	143	92.9
1870	2008	PL Harris	V Sehwag	108	100	92.6
1850	2007	Sohail Tanvir	W Jaffer	119	101	84.9
1696	2004	GJ Batty	BC Lara	161	130	80.7
1973	2010	NM Hauritz	SR Tendulkar	168	121	72.0
....
2014	2011	HMRKB Herath	Misbah-ul-Haq	172	36	20.9
1672	2003	M Muralitharan	GP Thorpe	159	33	20.8
1974	2010	DL Vettori	VVS Laxman	166	28	16.9
2061	2012	NM Lyon	F du Plessis	227	34	15.0

Dhoni's onslaught against Lyon leads this table also since this confrontation passes the 100-balls or 100-runs test. Inzamam-ul-Haq's clinical dismembering of the usually accurate Vettori follows next. He scored at 95.6. Gayle's 82.9 against Randiv is next. Then comes the brutal innings of Virender Sehwag in Chennai. During his better-than-run-a-ball innings of 319, he scored exactly 100 runs off 108 balls against Paul Harris. One could say that Harris did well, considering that Sehwag scored 211 runs off the other bowlers in 196 balls. There is a surprise entry of the normally sedate Wasim Jaffer against Sohail Tanvir at Eden Gardens in 2007. This table is quite close to the single innings table.

At the other end, unsurprisingly, du Plessis against Lyon props up the table, with a scoring rate of 15. VVS Laxman, facing a disastrous 15 for 5 against New Zealand at Motera, Ahmedabad in 2010, understandably was quite slow against Vettori. Graham Thorpe's two innings were also match-saving efforts.

Single Test HtH: Ordered by % of bowler balls in Test (Min 100 balls)

Test	Year	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	TestBowlerBalls	%
1786	2006	Mohammad Rafique	WU Tharanga	158	246	64.2
1981	2010	XJ Doherty	AN Cook	172	293	58.7
1994	2011	HMRKB Herath	IJL Trott	152	264	57.6
1810	2006	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	221	390	56.7
1572	2001	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	240	438	54.8
1973	2010	NM Hauritz	SR Tendulkar	168	311	54.0
1977	2010	S Randiv	CH Gayle	154	290	53.1
1743	2005	A Kumble	Younis Khan	208	402	51.7
1696	2004	GJ Batty	BC Lara	161	312	51.6
1799	2006	Mohammad Rafique	JN Gillespie	150	291	51.5
1952	2010	A Mishra	HM Amla	187	366	51.1
1641	2003	HDPK Dharmasena	SP Fleming	169	336	50.3
1678	2003	A Kumble	RT Ponting	173	344	50.3

Tharanga faced 64.2% of the balls bowled by Mohammad Rafique at Shaheed Chandu Stadium, Bogra in 2006. Cook, while scoring 67 and 235 at the Gabba, Brisbane in 2010, faced 58.7% of the balls bowled by Doherty. In his historic double effort, Lara faced 54.8% of the balls bowled by Muralitharan. A very significant entry is to be found later. Jason Gillespie against Mohammad Rafique. Not Gillespie the bowler, but Gillespie the batsman. Gillespie, confirming his position as the best late-order batsman ever, during his farewell innings of 200*, faced 150 of the 291 balls bowled by Rafique in Chittagong in 2006.

At some suitable time in future, depending on when I would be doing the series wrap-up of Pakistan-South Africa, I will do an analysis, similar in intent, but totally different in methodology, of the first 1545 Tests for which ball-by-ball data is not available.

After sending this article for publication, the news of the little maestro's retirement broke. I salute one of the greatest cricketers who ever took the field from the bottom of the heart. Tendulkar was a true gentleman, on and off the field, and was a role model extraordinaire. I will come out with a two-part analytical tribute to the extraordinary cricketer on whose shoulders the word "great" sits very lightly, starting November 24.

One of the best cricket news recently has been Afghanistan's qualification to the 2015 World Cup. They are a much-loved team and possibly the best-supported among the Associates. I love both the Ireland and Afghanistan teams and would be quite happy to see both these charismatic teams make it to the second round. Add to this mix, Netherlands (why cannot they persuade Ryan ten Doeschate to play for them since there will be no T20 bash scheduled at that time) and Scotland (UAE is a team with 11 expatriates - not my cup of tea), the tournament will be colourful.

I have created a document file containing all the qualifying performances. There are 242 Innings-level selections and 61 Test-level combinations. To download/view this document, please CLICK HERE.