Riches galore for batsmen, misery for bowlers

A total of 5279 runs were scored for the loss of 113 wickets - an average of 46.72; the batsmen helped themselves to 17 hundreds, while the bowlers managed only four five-fors and had to wait, on an average, 88.2 balls per wicket. Whichever way you look at it, this was a series completely dominated by batsmen, with little joy for bowlers. The batsmen averaged 43.50 in this series (excluding extras), which is the second-highest in a series in the Caribbean. The only instance of a higher series average is when South Africa toured there in 2004-05 in a series in which 44.18 runs were scored per wicket. The number of centuries scored is second-highest in a series in the West Indies.

The home team won't mind those numbers - they won their first series since 2004, and their first against a team other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe since June 2003 - but in terms of compelling cricket, there wasn't much to recommend throughout the series.

West Indies held firm through tricky passages in the second Test and the last one, but England will feel they might have, with some luck, returned home with a 2-1 result in their favour. They were one wicket short of victory in Antigua, and two short in Port of Spain. Thanks to those two collapses, West Indies' runs per wicket is lesser than England's. In fact, most of the numbers favour the England team, despite the final series result not going their way - they've also scored more centuries and fifties.

The partnership stats further reinforce the dominance of bat over ball. Apart from the odd blip, most of the top-order wickets put together meaty partnerships: West Indies had a reasonable average for the first wicket despite Devon Smith's ordinary form, while England's top two were prolific. England's only problem was the No.3 slot, where they tried two batsmen (and a nightwatchman), but met with little success. West Indies struggled similarly when Ryan Hinds batted at the No.4 slot: with 41 runs in three innings, he gave the slot no solidity at all.

The highest batting average was almost the same (104 for England, 104.33 for West Indies), but the difference was that while Ravi Bopara batted just one innings for that average, Ramnaresh Sarwan played the entire series. It's his highest average in a series in which he's played more than two Tests. It was also the highest aggregate by any West Indian since Brian Lara scored 688 in three Tests against Sri Lanka in 2001-02.

There used to be a time when the West Indies used to be an excellent venue for fast bowlers, but those days are long gone. In this series, fast bowlers toiled hard for their 63 wickets, averaging almost 48. Spinners were only slightly better, thanks largely to Graeme Swann, who took 19 wickets at 24.04, easily the best bowling average from both teams. (Click here for the series averages of England, and here for those of West Indies.)

Though the batsmen dominated the bowlers overall, there were a few interesting head-to-head contests where the bowlers came out on top. Swann had a complete hold over the hapless Devon Smith, but perhaps more surprisingly, Stuart Broad had excellent numbers against Shivnarine Chanderpaul, conceding only 26 runs and dismissing him thrice from 114 deliveries.

The main spinners from both teams, Swann and Sulieman Benn, both had uneven stats against the right- and left-hand batsmen. Benn preferred bowling to the right-handers, as you'd expect, while Swann was much better against the lefties (though that was also because West Indies' right-hand club largely consisted of Sarwan, who averaged 63 against him).