Epic head-to-head confrontations in a Test series

After a tumultuous three-week period, I now return to analyses that are not centred on an individual. No one is going to get worked over these tables. Life may be less exciting but also less exacting.

One of the jewels in the database crown of mine is the Test ball-by-ball data, expertly mined by Milind. The reason why I come back to this data every time is my realisation that without Milind's path-breaking work, this important segment of data would have been still-born. I had done an all-encompassing analysis of the 500-odd Tests, I had done a single-Test-based analysis and I had covered a current series or two. But the one major lacuna in my coverage is a look at all the Test series for which we have the ball-by-ball data available. This article fills that gap.

Around 210 Test series have complete ball-by-ball data. Many of these are three-Test series, quite a few are two-Test series, some are longer series with four and five Tests and about ten comprise of one-off Tests. I initially thought that I would restrict the analysis to Test series in which three or more Tests were played. But that would have meant that about 100 series would have been excluded. It clearly seemed wrong to me, especially as there were some notable performances in two-Test series. For instance Amit Mishra bowled 326 balls to Hashim Amla in a two-Test series. So I decided that I would set up stiff cut-off criteria and let this natural process take care of the matter: a decision that has worked very well.

With this simple preamble, let us delve into the tables.

For the "Balls bowled" analysis I have taken 180 balls as the cut-off. This ensures that significant performances in the two-Test series have a chance of getting in. A player-to-player duel with 30 overs of bowling is something very significant. This is justified by the presence of two such contests in the featured table.

Ordered by balls bowled (300+ balls featured)

SeriesNo	Year	Home	Away	#	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	527	286
639	2012	Ind	Eng	4	R Ashwin	AN Cook	510	221
495	2003	Aus	Ind	4	A Kumble	RT Ponting	398	204
618	2011	Pak	Slk	3	Saeed Ajmal	KC Sangakkara	368	141
495	2003	Aus	Ind	4	SCG MacGill	R Dravid	346	218
516	2004	Saf	Eng	5	SM Pollock	AJ Strauss	336	121
483	2003	Slk	Nzl	2	M Muralitharan	SP Fleming	329	131
516	2004	Saf	Eng	5	M Ntini	AJ Strauss	328	156
595	2010	Ind	Saf	2	A Mishra	HM Amla	326	99
519	2005	Ind	Pak	3	A Kumble	Younis Khan	325	170
559	2007	Ind	Pak	3	A Kumble	Misbah-ul-Haq	320	125
639	2012	Ind	Eng	4	PP Ojha	AN Cook	317	147
595	2010	Ind	Saf	2	Harbhajan Singh	HM Amla	316	139
633	2012	Slk	Pak	3	Saeed Ajmal	KC Sangakkara	312	147
466	2002	Win	Ind	5	Z Khan	S Chanderpaul	309	123
546	2006	Slk	Saf	2	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	301	183
466	2002	Win	Ind	5	J Srinath	S Chanderpaul	300	110

At the top is what I believe one of the greatest contests in the history of Test matches. A fading team, West Indies, visit Sri Lanka, who are almost invincible at home, with their five-star bowler in great form. Brian Lara gets some support from Ramnaresh Sarwan and from no one else. The inevitable follows: a 3-0 win for Sri Lanka. However, in this gloom for West Indies is a bright star - Lara's 688 runs in the three Tests, made in 1226 balls. Lara faced 36% of the balls faced by West Indies and scored 40% of runs. Nearly half the balls faced by Lara were bowled by the other giant, Muttiah Muralitharan. Lara's strike rate was a healthy 54.3, resulting in an amazing accumulation of runs. How can anyone not get moved by these numbers? Two Goliaths have an almost fight-until-death contest and one emerges a clear winner. However, to give the other genial giant his credit, his team won the series 3-0 and he played no mean part in this win with 24 wickets. The only higher aggregate in a three-Test series has been Graham Gooch's 752 runs in the 1990 home series against the Indian tooth-less attack. There is simply no comparison.

The next highest entry is of recent vintage, but no less valuable. R Ashwin v Alastair Cook during the England tour of India in 2012 had the counter standing at 510, just a few balls short. This was a more even contest since Ashwin dismissed Cook four times. However, we have to say that Cook probably won the contest since the bowler strike rate was a somewhat-high 127 balls. That England won the series 2-1 was in no measure owing to this mastery by their premier batsman over India's premier bowler. Let us not forget that this was also an away contest for Cook. Then after a gap of well over 100 balls comes the Kumble-Ponting contest in Australia. We have to say Ponting was on top in this contest.

Note the presence of 13 spinners in this table of 17 entries. Readers should not forget that these are only featured entries and the complete tables are in the downloadable file.

Ordered by balls per wicket (High-250+ featured)

SeriesNo	Year	Home	Away	#	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Wkts	BpW
618	2011	Pak	Slk	3	Saeed Ajmal	KC Sangakkara	368	1	368.0
639	2012	Ind	Eng	4	PP Ojha	AN Cook	317	1	317.0
633	2012	Slk	Pak	3	Saeed Ajmal	KC Sangakkara	312	1	312.0
546	2006	Slk	Saf	2	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	301	1	301.0
548	2006	Aus	Eng	5	SK Warne	PD Collingwood	287	1	287.0
559	2007	Ind	Pak	3	Danish Kaneria	SC Ganguly	281	1	281.0
614	2011	Eng	Ind	4	SCJ Broad	R Dravid	265	1	265.0
545	2006	Eng	Pak	4	Danish Kaneria	AN Cook	265	1	265.0
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	527	2	263.5
618	2011	Pak	Slk	3	HMRKB Herath	Azhar Ali	259	1	259.0
495	2003	Aus	Ind	4	AB Agarkar	RT Ponting	254	1	254.0
560	2007	Slk	Eng	3	MS Panesar	DPMD Jayawardene	252	1	252.0
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	B Lee	ME Trescothick	250	1	250.0

Since this an analysis of balls bowled, I have also created a table ordered by the bowler strike rate: the high ones. To say that Kumar Sangakkara mastered Saeed Ajmal is an understatement: 368 balls for one wicket clearly tells the story. Pragyan Ojha toiled similarly in the England series. He was the supporting bowler to Ashwin and could not make much of an impression on Cook: 317 balls and a single dismissal. A year later, now at home, Sangakkara repeated his mastery over Ajmal. That makes it 680 balls in two years that Ajmal bowled to Sangakkara and only two of these deliveries resulted in dismissals.

For the Runs scored tables, I have 100 runs as the cut-off.

Ordered by runs scored (160+ runs featured)

SeriesNo	Year	Home	Away	#	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	527	286
639	2012	Ind	Eng	4	R Ashwin	AN Cook	510	221
495	2003	Aus	Ind	4	SCG MacGill	R Dravid	346	218
495	2003	Aus	Ind	4	A Kumble	RT Ponting	398	204
546	2006	Slk	Saf	2	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	301	183
487	2003	Eng	Saf	5	M Ntini	ME Trescothick	255	179
559	2007	Ind	Pak	3	Danish Kaneria	SC Ganguly	281	177
626	2011	Aus	Ind	4	R Ashwin	MJ Clarke	249	173
496	2003	Saf	Win	4	FH Edwards	HH Gibbs	230	172
519	2005	Ind	Pak	3	A Kumble	Younis Khan	325	170
608	2010	Aus	Eng	5	GP Swann	MEK Hussey	295	168
614	2011	Eng	Ind	4	I Sharma	KP Pietersen	206	166
604	2010	Ind	Aus	2	NM Hauritz	SR Tendulkar	225	161

Lara leads this table with his historic duel against Murali. He scored 286 runs off Murali. Let us look at this number again. If a batsman scored 286 runs in a three-Test series, we would conclude that he has had a pretty good series, with 96 runs per Test and probably over 50 in average. These runs were scored off a single bowler, that too the best bowler in the side. Cook follows next with his series-winning runs against Ashwin last year. The 221 runs were the important cog in the successful wheel that was England. During the 2003 away series Rahul Dravid scored 218 runs off Stuart MacGill. In this table there are a few pace bowlers off whom quite a few runs were scored, Makhaya Ntini leading the group of three.

Ordered by batting average (High-140+ runs featured)

SeriesNo	Year	Home	Away	#	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Wkts	Avge
546	2006	Slk	Saf	2	N Boje	DPMD Jayawardene	301	183	1	183.0
559	2007	Ind	Pak	3	Danish Kaneria	SC Ganguly	281	177	1	177.0
614	2011	Eng	Ind	4	I Sharma	KP Pietersen	206	166	1	166.0
581	2009	Pak	Slk	2	Danish Kaneria	TT Samaraweera	246	159	1	159.0
487	2003	Eng	Saf	5	JM Anderson	GC Smith	174	157	1	157.0
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	B Lee	ME Trescothick	250	154	1	154.0
637	2012	Aus	Saf	3	M Morkel	MJ Clarke	164	154	1	154.0
548	2006	Aus	Eng	5	SK Warne	PD Collingwood	287	151	1	151.0
495	2003	Aus	Ind	4	AB Agarkar	RT Ponting	254	148	1	148.0
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	WPUJC Vaas	BC Lara	242	148	1	148.0
639	2012	Ind	Eng	4	PP Ojha	AN Cook	317	147	1	147.0
633	2012	Slk	Pak	3	Saeed Ajmal	KC Sangakkara	312	147	1	147.0
626	2011	Aus	Ind	4	I Sharma	MJ Clarke	186	144	1	144.0
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	M Muralitharan	BC Lara	527	286	2	143.0
545	2006	Eng	Pak	4	Danish Kaneria	KP Pietersen	172	143	1	143.0
519	2005	Ind	Pak	3	Danish Kaneria	V Sehwag	195	142	1	142.0
618	2011	Pak	Slk	3	Saeed Ajmal	KC Sangakkara	368	141	1	141.0

This table is ordered by the batting average. Mahela Jayawardene leads with an average of 183 n his confrontation against Nicky Boje. I have talked about this extensively in the single-Test analysis. Danish Kaneria is in this table quite a few times, indicating his possible lack of penetration against top batsmen. The only appearance of Shane Warne in this table is against the unassuming Paul Collingwood, who, during the historic 0-5 Ashes loss away, scored 151 runs off the master and gave his wicket away only once.

Ordered by strike rate (100 runs minimum)

SeriesNo	Year	Home	Away	#	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	S/R
464	2002	Saf	Aus	3	PR Adams	AC Gilchrist	74	104	140.5
496	2003	Saf	Win	4	A Nel	CH Gayle	85	111	130.6
448	2001	Eng	Aus	5	AR Caddick	RT Ponting	96	122	127.1
644	2013	Ind	Aus	4	NM Lyon	MS Dhoni	109	127	116.5
465	2002	Nzl	Eng	3	MJ Hoggard	NJ Astle	94	109	116.0
507	2004	Eng	Win	4	SJ Harmison	CH Gayle	93	106	114.0
448	2001	Eng	Aus	5	D Gough	AC Gilchrist	108	118	109.3
589	2009	Ind	Slk	3	M Muralitharan	V Sehwag	122	132	108.2
589	2009	Ind	Slk	3	HMRKB Herath	V Sehwag	100	108	108.0
571	2008	Slk	Ind	3	WPUJC Vaas	V Sehwag	99	104	105.1
524	2005	Win	Pak	2	Danish Kaneria	BC Lara	133	135	101.5
493	2003	Zim	Win	2	RW Price	BC Lara	100	101	101.0
567	2008	Ind	Saf	3	PL Harris	V Sehwag	111	112	100.9
490	2003	Aus	Zim	2	HH Streak	ML Hayden	119	119	100.0
581	2009	Pak	Slk	2	Yasir Arafat	TT Samaraweera	103	103	100.0
...
494	2003	Slk	Eng	3	AF Giles	DPMD Jayawardene	286	114	39.9
466	2002	Win	Ind	5	Z Khan	S Chanderpaul	309	123	39.8
483	2003	Slk	Nzl	2	M Muralitharan	SP Fleming	329	131	39.8
614	2011	Eng	Ind	4	SCJ Broad	R Dravid	265	105	39.6
466	2002	Win	Ind	5	Z Khan	CL Hooper	279	110	39.4
559	2007	Ind	Pak	3	A Kumble	Misbah-ul-Haq	320	125	39.1
516	2004	Saf	Eng	5	A Flintoff	JH Kallis	257	100	38.9
618	2011	Pak	Slk	3	Saeed Ajmal	KC Sangakkara	368	141	38.3
466	2002	Win	Ind	5	J Srinath	S Chanderpaul	300	110	36.7
516	2004	Saf	Eng	5	SM Pollock	AJ Strauss	336	121	36.0

Adam Gilchrist, during the away series against South Africa during 2002, scored 104 runs at the magnificent scoring rate of 140. The next year, Chris Gayle almost did the same against Andre Nel. Ricky Ponting scored at 127 off Andy Caddick during the away tour in 2001. MS Dhoni's clinical dismembering of Nathan Lyon, almost totally done in a single Test, was achieved this year. A very important entry in this table is that of Virender Sehwag against Murali during his magnificent tour in 2008. He had a strike rate of greater than 100. Sehwag has had three such 100-plus series, all against spinners.

At the other end of the table there are a few confrontations at around the 38-mark. Most of these batsmen are the steady type.

For the "Wickets captured" analysis, I have four wickets as the minimum requirement. If a bowler effected all four dismissals of a batsman in a two-Test series, as happened with Chris Martin v Phillip Hughes, well, this confrontation deserves to come in.

Ordered by wickets captured

SeriesNo	Year	Home	Away	#	Bowler	Batsman	Wkts	Balls	Runs	Avge	BpW
650	2013	Eng	Aus	5	JM Anderson	PM Siddle	6	57	24	4.0	9.5
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	SK Warne	AF Giles	6	118	34	5.7	19.7
496	2003	Saf	Win	4	M Ntini	D Ganga	6	171	50	8.3	28.5
539	2006	Saf	Aus	3	M Ntini	ML Hayden	6	131	74	12.3	21.8
650	2013	Eng	Aus	5	GP Swann	CJL Rogers	6	230	79	13.2	38.3
448	2001	Eng	Aus	5	GD McGrath	MA Atherton	6	210	86	14.3	35.0
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	SK Warne	AJ Strauss	6	192	124	20.7	32.0
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	SK Warne	SJ Harmison	5	32	16	3.2	6.4
586	2009	Eng	Aus	5	BW Hilfenhaus	RS Bopara	5	56	16	3.2	11.2
561	2007	Aus	Ind	4	B Lee	W Jaffer	5	93	18	3.6	18.6
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	M Muralitharan	MN Samuels	5	94	20	4.0	18.8
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	WPUJC Vaas	CH Gayle	5	49	23	4.6	9.8
613	2011	Win	Ind	3	R Rampaul	M Vijay	5	75	27	5.4	15.0
481	2003	Win	Aus	4	JN Gillespie	DS Smith	5	109	38	7.6	21.8
559	2007	Ind	Pak	3	A Kumble	Yasir Hameed	5	53	39	7.8	10.6
644	2013	Ind	Aus	4	R Ashwin	PJ Hughes	5	179	39	7.8	35.8
571	2008	Slk	Ind	3	M Muralitharan	SC Ganguly	5	90	51	10.2	18.0
494	2003	Slk	Eng	3	M Muralitharan	GP Thorpe	5	266	51	10.2	53.2
561	2007	Aus	Ind	4	B Lee	VVS Laxman	5	138	52	10.4	27.6
534	2005	Aus	Saf	3	SK Warne	AG Prince	5	225	63	12.6	45.0
644	2013	Ind	Aus	4	RA Jadeja	MJ Clarke	5	190	72	14.4	38.0
448	2001	Eng	Aus	5	D Gough	RT Ponting	5	103	75	15.0	20.6
571	2008	Slk	Ind	3	BAW Mendis	VVS Laxman	5	176	81	16.2	35.2
650	2013	Eng	Aus	5	SCJ Broad	MJ Clarke	5	161	84	16.8	32.2
560	2007	Slk	Eng	3	M Muralitharan	IR Bell	5	238	84	16.8	47.6
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	SK Warne	ME Trescothick	5	112	85	17.0	22.4

I have shown in this table the list of bowlers who dismissed the specific batsman six times and a few of the economical dismissals of the five-wicket captures. During this period no bowler has dismissed a batsman seven times in a series. Warne and Ntini are the only bowlers to have dismissed a batsman six times on two occasions. Since many of these confrontations are between bowler and bowler, let us look only at the significant combinations. Possibly the most significant one is Ntini's dismissal of Matthew Hayden six times in the 2006 home series, incidentally all six dismissals, making this a very unique one. Similarly Swann's conquering of Chris Rogers during the 2013 Ashes series and Glenn McGrath's six against Mike Atherton during 2001. Warne dismissed Steve Harmison five times in the unforgettable 2005 Ashes series. In the famous Lara series in 2001 in Sri Lanka, Chaminda Vaas dismissed Gayle five times and Murali dismissed Marlon Samuels five times. Look at the number of times Murali has dismissed top batsmen like Samuels, Sourav Ganguly, Graham Thorpe and Ian Bell five times, all occurrences in three-Test series.

Ordered by batting average (4 wkts minimum)

SeriesNo	Year	Home	Away	#	Bowler	Batsman	Balls	Runs	Wkts	Avge
554	2007	Slk	Bng	3	M Muralitharan	Shahadat Hossain	24	1	4	0.2
567	2008	Ind	Saf	3	DW Steyn	Harbhajan Singh	9	3	4	0.8
507	2004	Eng	Win	4	MJ Hoggard	RD Jacobs	22	4	4	1.0
466	2002	Win	Ind	5	Harbhajan Singh	A Sanford	24	5	4	1.2
643	2013	Saf	Pak	3	DW Steyn	Mohammad Hafeez	38	5	4	1.2
562	2007	Saf	Win	3	A Nel	FH Edwards	20	7	4	1.8
627	2012	Pak	Eng	3	GP Swann	Abdur Rehman	15	8	4	2.0
626	2011	Aus	Ind	4	BW Hilfenhaus	Z Khan	26	9	4	2.2
552	2007	Eng	Win	4	MS Panesar	CD Collymore	33	9	4	2.2
554	2007	Slk	Bng	3	M Muralitharan	Mashrafe Mortaza	25	10	4	2.5
515	2004	Aus	Pak	3	GD McGrath	Shoaib Akhtar	42	10	4	2.5
587	2009	Win	Bng	2	Mahmudullah	FL Reifer	42	10	4	2.5
614	2011	Eng	Ind	4	SCJ Broad	P Kumar	19	11	4	2.8
486	2003	Aus	Bng	2	SCG MacGill	Alok Kapali	27	11	4	2.8
623	2011	Aus	Nzl	2	CS Martin	PJ Hughes	41	11	4	2.8
456	2001	Slk	Win	3	WPUJC Vaas	M Dillon	35	12	4	3.0
626	2011	Aus	Ind	4	BW Hilfenhaus	I Sharma	56	12	4	3.0
...
516	2004	Saf	Eng	5	M Ntini	ME Trescothick	291	124	4	31.0
448	2001	Eng	Aus	5	JN Gillespie	ME Trescothick	208	157	5	31.4
592	2009	Saf	Eng	4	GP Swann	MV Boucher	193	130	4	32.5
475	2002	Aus	Eng	5	AR Caddick	ML Hayden	206	130	4	32.5
475	2002	Aus	Eng	5	GD McGrath	MP Vaughan	222	132	4	33.0
543	2006	Eng	Slk	3	M Muralitharan	KP Pietersen	157	134	4	33.5
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	B Lee	KP Pietersen	156	135	4	33.8
475	2002	Aus	Eng	5	AR Caddick	JL Langer	196	140	4	35.0
487	2003	Eng	Saf	5	M Ntini	ME Trescothick	255	179	5	35.8
499	2004	Slk	Aus	3	M Muralitharan	DS Lehmann	248	148	4	37.0
526	2005	Eng	Aus	5	SK Warne	A Flintoff	251	156	4	39.0
516	2004	Saf	Eng	5	M Ntini	AJ Strauss	328	156	4	39.0
639	2012	Ind	Eng	4	R Ashwin	AN Cook	510	221	4	55.2

These are again based on the batting average. However unlike the earlier table, this has a cut-off of four wickets. As such these are very significant entries. It is obvious that most of these entries are of bowlers v bowlers. So let us look specifically for the genuine batsmen. The most significant one is Dale Steyn destroying Mohammad Hafeez a few weeks back. He dismissed Hafeez four times conceding only five runs, an average of 1.25. Martin's four dismissals of Hughes during 2011 cost a mere 2.75 runs apiece. The only other presence of a recognised batsman is Ridley Jacobs against Matthew Hoggard: four wickets at one run each. Finally let us spare a moment for Murali against Shahadat Hossain: four wickets at 0.25 run per wicket. And for Steyn, who needed just nine balls to dismiss Harbhajan Singh four times.

At the other end, the most expensive four-wicket capture has been that of Ashwin against Cook: at 55 runs apiece.

To download/view the documents containing the seven complete tables, please CLICK HERE. My take is that many of the questions can be answered if you download this 1000-line file and view the contents. Instead of asking me obvious questions for which the answers are already there in the tables, you could download the file and view the tables.

One of Milind's first suggestions was for me to look at the ball-by-ball data from the point of view of the bowler types and batsman types. In other words, how have left-hand batsmen fared against the three types of spinners? Is it really true that legspinners trouble right-handers more? That right-arm pacemen find it easier to bowl against right-hand batsmen, and so on. That will be the next analysis using the ball-by-ball data: some time in the future.